LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

he incontinently devoured, removed the napkin from his bosom, filled out a tumbler of Moselle, and thus resumed: —

      "Hear me, young man! I always loved you; for, in the midst of a certain frivolity of disposition, I discerned the traces of a strong practical enterprising genius. Nay – I am serious. Often, in the course of the speculations which have been forced upon me, during the late headlong current of events, have I thought of you in connexion with the coming destinies of your country. For – do not mistake my meaning – the avalanche which is now sliding down the mountain, with terrific velocity, will not stay itself until it reaches the valley. The rights of the people are not the sole object of the present movement. The awakening of the great heart of Germany is the mere prelude to events that will upset monarchies, overthrow thrones, and shatter society to its deepest foundations, until, by an unerring law of nature, which provides that light shall emerge from darkness, order will uprear itself from the shattered elemental chaos, and the work of social reorganisation be commenced anew. You see my purpose?"

      "Why, to say the truth, profoundest of professors, I have not the slightest glimmering of your drift!"

      "You are dull, Herr von Dunshunner!" replied Klingemann, knitting his brows – "much duller than I could have expected from one who has attended my lectures. In Britain, you have not yet attained that point of exalted rationalismus, from which alone the true surface of society can be surveyed. You think, I presume, that your own present system of government is perfect?"

      "If you mean government by Queen, Lords, and Commons, I am clearly of opinion that it is. But if you mean to ask my impressions of the present Cabinet, I rather think I should give you a very different answer."

      "You mistake me altogether," replied the professor. "What are you, in Britain but a heterogeneous mixture of all possible races, without unity of blood, and sometimes even unity of language? Are not Celt and Saxon, Dane and Norman, jumbled together in the great social sphere? And can you expect, out of these warring elements, ever to produce harmony? No, August Reignold! One great error – the total disregard of unity of race – has hitherto been the enormous stumbling-block in the way of human perfection, and it is for the cure of that error that Germany has arisen from her sleep!"

      "And what the deuce – excuse my profanity – do you intend to do?"

      "To reunite and reconstitute the nations upon the foundation of unity of race," replied the professor.

      "It would be rather a difficult thing to accomplish in my case, professor." I replied. "Without raising a multiplepoinding; as we say in Scotland, I could hardly ascertain to which race I really belong. My father was a Saxon, my mother a Celt – I have a cross of the Norman ancestry, and a decided dash of the Dane. It would defy anatomy to rank me!"

      "In cases of admixture," said the professor, lighting his pipe – "which, be it remarked, are the exceptions, and not the rule – we are willing to admit the minor test of language. Now, observe. Western Europe – for we need not complicate ourselves with the Sclavonic question – may be considered as occupied by four different races. It is, I believe, quite possible to reduce them to three, but, in order to avoid controversy, I am willing to take the higher number. In this way we should have, instead of many separate states, merely to undertake the arrangement or federalisation of four distinct races – the Latin, the Teutonic, the Celtic, and Scandinavian. Each tree should be allowed to grow separately, but all its branches should be interwoven together, and the result will be a harmony of system which the world has never yet attained."

      "You hold France to be Celtic, I presume, professor?"

      "Decidedly. The southern portion has an infusion of Latin, and the northern of Scandinavian blood; but the preponderance lies with the Celt."

      "And who do you propose should join with France?"

      "Three-fourths of Ireland, the Highlands of Scotland, Wales, and the Basque Provinces."

      "So far well. – And England?"

      "England is confessedly Saxon; and, as such, the greater portion of her territory must be annexed to Germany."

      "While Northumberland and the Orkney islands are handed over to Scandinavia! I'll tell you what, professor – you'll excuse my freedom; but, although I have heard a good deal of nonsense in the course of my life, this idea of yours is the most preposterous that was ever started."

      "We are acting upon it, however," replied Klingemann; "for it is upon that principle we are claiming Schleswig from Denmark, and Limburg from the crown of Holland. But for that principle we should be clearly wrong, since it is admitted that, in all past time, the Eyder has been the boundary of Germany. All territorial limits, however, must yield to unity of race."

      "May I ask if there are many members of the German parliament who favour the same theory?"

      "A good many – at least of the left section."

      "They must be an enlightened set of legislators! Take my word for it, professor, you will have enough to do in settling the affairs of Germany Proper, without meddling with any of your neighbours."

      "It must be owned," said the professor, "that we still require a good deal of internal arrangement. We have our fleet to build."

      "A fleet! – what can you possibly want with a fleet? And if you had one, where are your harbours?"

      "That is a point for after consideration," replied Klingemann. "I am not much acquainted with maritime matters, because I never have seen the sea; but we consider a fleet as quite essential, and are determined to build one. Then there is the settlement of religious differences. That, I own, gives me some anxiety."

      "Why should it, in a country where three-fourths of the population, thanks to metaphysics, are rationalists?"

      "I do not know. There is a proposal to construct a pantheon, somewhat on the principle of the Valhalla, in which men of all sects may worship; but I am strongly impressed with the propriety of a unity of creed as well as a unity of race."

      "And this creed you would make compulsive?"

      "To be sure. We expect obedience to the laws – that is, to our laws, when we shall have made them; and I cannot see why a law of worship should be less imperative than a law which binds mankind to the observance of social institutions."

      Shade of Doctor Martin Luther! – this in thy native land!

      "Well, professor," said I, "you have given me enough to think on for one night at least. Perhaps to-morrow you will be kind enough to take me to the parliament, and point out some of the distinguished men who are about to regenerate the world."

      "Willingly, my dear boy," said the professor; "it is your parliament as well as mine, for you are clearly of the Saxon race."

      "Which," interrupted I, "I intend to repudiate as soon as the partition begins; for, whatever may be doing elsewhere, there are at least no symptoms of barricades in the Highlands."

      Although it exceeded the bounds of human credulity to suppose that a majority, or even a considerable section of the German parliament, entertained such preposterous ideas as those which I had just heard from Klingemann, it was obvious that the supreme authority had fallen into the hands of men utterly incapable of discharging the duty of legislators to the country. A movement, commenced by the universities, and eagerly seconded by the journalists, had resulted in the abrupt recognition of universal suffrage as the basis of popular representation. There had been no intermediate stage between total absence of political privilege and the surrender of absolute power, without check or discipline, to the many. What wonder, then, if the revolution, so rashly accomplished, so weakly acquiesced in by the majority of the princes of Germany, should already be giving token of its disastrous fruit? What wonder if the representatives of an excited and turbulent people should carry with them, to the grave deliberations of the senate, the same wild and crude ideas which were uppermost in the minds of their constituency? It needed but a glance at the parliamentary list to discover that, among the men assembled in the church of St Paul, there were hardly any fitted, from previous experience, to undertake the delicate task of reconstructing the constitutions of Germany. There were plenty of professors – men who had dreamed away the best part of their lives in abstract contemplation, but who never had

Скачать книгу