procession, lighted by torch-bearers, for these funerals the remembrance the true friendship of the departed, his always take place in the evening. Then followed the manly worth, and genuine German mind. A few stanzas funeral car, covered with black cloth and drawn by were sung from the beautiful hymn-"From high Olymblack horses. Upon the car lay the Chore-band, the pus," in which he had so often joined them. The coffin Chore-caps of the deceased, and two crossed swords, all was lowered into the grave, and every student pressed covered with mourning crape, and surrounded with forward in turn to fling a handful of earth into the mourning wreaths. We remarked also one smaller gar-grave. Lastly, the lowered swords were erossed over the land, it was formed of white roses, and was, we were told, from the sorrowing hand of some unknown fair one. Immediately before the car went two of the beadles carrying fasces wreathed with crape. On each side and behind the car, walked the companions of the Chore, all in simple black mourning with hats. Immediately behind the Chore walked two clergymen in black costume. This whole group was surrounded by torch-bearers. Then came all the other students who were acquainted with the deceased. Before them marched the leader of the procession with two attendants or marshals. The leader was clad in the buckskins and great jack bootsthe large storm or two-cocked hat, bordered with black and white crape, with sweeping feathers-the great leathern gauntlets-the sword trailing in its sheath; and his two attendants were similarly attired, but without the storm-hat. Then followed the students, two and two, in divisions according to their Chores, amounting to some six or seven hundred, each bearing a torch. In two lines they advanced slowly on each side of the street, and from time to time we observed an officer marching between these lines, distinguished by his senior's cap and ribbon, while he carried in his hand his sword, its colours all veiled in crape, and its sheath hanging from his left side. Thus moved slowly the procession through the streets to the churchyard where the body was interred. There the students assembled round the grave, the clergyman stepped forth, pronounced his address, and closed it with a benediction. Then advanced one of the young friends of the deceased, and pronounced an oration, calling to grave, and their clash was the signal for returning. Then no longer solemnly and silently trod back the throng; as in the case of soldiers, they marched briskly away to lively airs. In going they had mourned the friend and fellow mortal cut off in the early hopes of youth-now, they rejoiced only in his advent to a second and more glorious life. This rejoicing music was the recognition of the immortality of man. Arrived in one of the large squares, the train marched round it, and turning towards the centre, at a given signal, let their torches fly up into the air, and fall on a heap in the midst. They whirled up, describing many a fiery circle and convolution ere they reached the flaming pile; and now, while this one huge pyre lit up all around with a dazzling radiance, and the dark and giant clouds of smoke rolling up, mixed with the many-coloured flames, spread themselves to the heavens, the voices of the assembled students burst forth in a startling and most solemn chorus of the music-accompanied song of Gaudiamus igitur Juvenes dum sumus. Finally, the torch-pile having nearly consumed itself in its splendid light-the senior stood forth, and wielded his sword as in defiance. The rest rushed together, and with wild cries clashing their swords above their heads, there was a shout-" Quench the fire!" and the whole of the students at once dispersed. The crowd then closed in; water was thrown on the flames; the dense black column of smoke changed into a white one, and all was over. Such is the Student's Life. Full of gaiety, frolic, and prince or peasant--and they unite into what they call romance, kindling a vivid sentiment of friendship, and Du bruderschaft!" Thou-brotherhood, in which they by that strong union, preparing its actors for an exalted address each other, both then and at any future period devotion to liberty and country, which on all occasions of life with thou, and many are the instances in which is ready to shew itself. One of its most beautiful fea- these friendships between those of very dissimilar statures is, that it is a system of "LIBERTY-EQUALITY-tions in life have, in years long after, shewn themselves FRATERNITY!" Every one is held to be equal, be he most nobly unshaken. The most objectionable parts of their system are their try have ceased to exist; to have lost its only living evidrinking and duelling-yet it is but just to say, that dence of ever having existed. In the last War of Libethese features have been much exaggerated, and the ration, in the last grand rising to expel the enemy from blame laid on the wrong shoulders. The drinking is their native land, they were amongst the most ardent really that of small beer. The duelling, again, is merely and beautiful of the deliverers. At the Battle of the fencing under another name. The youths might be bet-Nations before Leipsic, they fought like lions, and in the ter employed, that is certain, but they are so defended front. On the great march after the retreating foe, with a sort of leathern armour, that they rarely can be when the whole population seemed to pour itself out hurt, except they get a cut on the cheek as a mark of after it, there were none so fleet, so alert, so joyous, their folly. Such a thing as a death is rarely known. and so gallant, as the students. They proved then that More Englishmen, and men of mature years, and with all their songs and toasts to liberty were not the mere families too, shoot one another with pistols in any one noise and foam of idle and boasting hours. They did year than there are German students killed in their du- deeds worthy of the heroes of the most heroic ages. elling in any one century. They fought and fell as freely, and as exultingly, as they had sung the song of the Fatherland. Far a-head of millions, hanging on the closest rear of the hated enemy, was seen one brave and devoted band-it was the gymnastic troop of the dauntless, the patriotic Jahn. Long before, long ere the spirit of Germany was roused, when the proud foot of Napoleon stood on the heart of the empire, and on the very necks of the fallen princes, where he picked out with searching eye, every promi But who, in fact, are really to blame for the continuance of these customs? It is a black fact in the history of the governments of the different German states-that it is their act and work. The students have repeatedly endeavoured to clear their club-life of these practices, and the governments have in every instance prevented it. The students have desired to set up reading-rooms instead, but the governments have forbidden them, and forced them back on their drinking, singing, and duel-nent patriot for disgrace or death,-then had Jahn ling, lest they should read themselves into politics. But amid all the outward show of student life, the spirit of liberty has burned inwardly as its genuine principle. On all occasions and in all ages the German students have stood for liberty. They stood by John Huss; they stood by Luther. They stood by the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years War to the death. When the whole land was an amphitheatre of martyrdom, when the horrible bigot Ferdinand of Austria, crushed out the people's lives by his troops, the people fought, and often conquered, but in vain. Then issued forth that strange apparition-the Unknown Student! What a singular episode is his advent in the history of this war! His real name and origin were unknown, and will remain so for ever. He had all the reckless enthusiasm of the student, the zeal of the hero, or the saint; and the eloquence which tingles in the ears of wronged men, and runs through the quick veins like fire. Solemn and mysterious, he stood forth in the hour of need, like a spirit from heaven. The wondering people gathered round him, listened, and followed with shouts to victory. They stood on the field of Gmunden, in the face of the magnificent Saltzburg Alps. The Unknown Student was in the midst of them; and pointing to the lakes, the forests, the hills, and the glittering Alpine summits above and around them, he asked if they would not fight for so glorious a land, and for the simple and true hearts in those rocky fortresses? In the camp of the Austrian General, Pappenheim, could be heard the fiery words of his harangue. They heard the vows which burst forth, like the voice of the sea, in reply, and the hymn of faith which followed. From rock, ravine, and forest, rushed forth the impetuous peasant thousands, and even the victorious army of Pappenheim could not sustain the shock. The right wing scattered and fled; the peasant army, with the Unknown Student at their head, pursuing and hewing them down. There was a wild flight to the very gates of Gmunden. Then came back the fiery Unknown with his flushed thousands. He threw himself on the left wing of Pappenheim with the fury of a lion. There was a desperate struggle; the troops of Pappenheim wavered; victory hung on the uplifted sword of the Unknown Student, when a ball struck him and his role was played out. His head, hoisted on a spear, was the sign of shivering dismay to his followers. They fled, leaving on the field four thousand of their fellows dead; Pappenheim and extermination in their rear. True to their ancient spirit, the students stood by their country in the expulsion of Napoleon and the French. Were it not for the youthful effervescence of their spirit of freedom, freedom itself would long ago in that coun preached from his school-chair resistance to the tyrant, and freedom or death to the empire. He had gathered into his school every brave beating heart of the youth around him. He had told them that if ever they meant to achieve the freedom of Germany, and retrieve its lost honour, they must arouse themselves from sloth and effeminacy. They must practice temperance, moral purity, and physical exercises, to endow them with vigour and activity. He had erected his gymnastic school; and while he gave to their freaks pliancy and hardihood, he breathed into their spirits the most imperishable love of liberty, of honour, and of native land. By his "Teutsches Volksthum," he sounded abroad, from end to end of Germany, the same great and indomitable spirit. The flame caught and spread—it kindled in every German University; and morals, religion, patriotism, and gymnastics, became everywhere the sacred practice of the youth, founded on their ardent hope of working out the salvation of their country. The great day of opportunity came. The battle of Leipsic was fought. There was a loud call from the Princes to arms. Gloriously did the students answer to the cry. They were promised by all the Princes, as the price of victory over their foe-a liberty-a constitutional liberty worthy of Germany and Christianity. From every university poured forth the youth in glowing enthusiasm-far a-head of them went Jahn and his band. The armies returned to Germany with shouts and the pealing music of trumpets. The band of Jahn had shrunk into a mere shadow-into a little, very little troop-it had been cut to pieces in its daring onslaughts on the foe. The greater portion of the young heroes, of the inspired boys of Jahn, had fallen in the field; and yet happy indeed were they, compared with those who returned. These returned to the bitterest fate. They came back with hearts burning with the victories achieved, and the reward of liberty to come. But it never did come! The traitor Princes who promised, never performed. They had got rid of one tyrant, and now resolved to erect themselves into a legion. They refused all demands for constitutional rights. They even trampled on the very hearts of their rescuers. They flung cold water on the flames of patriotism, which had consumed their oppressors. Everywhere the noblest spirits were treated as the worst of men. Instead of freedom, they were provided with chains and dungeons as their reward. Never, in the history of mankind, did a more beautiful and Christian spirit animate the whole student youth of a nation. They maintained everywhere their gymnastic schools; they practised the strictest morality; they formed associations to put down all duelling and ! drinking; they breathed the most religious spirit. But their grand institution was that of the Burschenschaft, a union of the youths of all the Universities of Germany to restore the unity and freedom of the German empire; and they adopted as their colours those of the old empire-black, red, and gold. This union, which was founded at Jena in 1815, was persecuted with the utmost bitterness by the Princes. It was made a capital offence to wear these colours. The very words printed in their Commers, or Student Song Books, caused them to be seized-blanks were left, and may yet be seen in plenty of these books. Yet these are the colours which the King of Prussia the other day paraded in the bloody streets of Berlin. If he had a conscience how it must have smitten him at the thought of all the persecutions which these colours had brought on the patriotic youth of Germany. Did the memory of the Wartburg, of Tübingen, Frankfort, and the Castle of Hambach never for a moment flit across his soul? The songs sung by the Burschenschaft are not more distinguished for their great poetical power, and their ardent spirit of patriotism, than for their fine religious faith. In their "Great Song"-Das Grosse Lied-they exclaim Yes! liberty in love In glorious deeds: As the free cloud from ocean rises Free Translation by Mrs. Follen. When these glad hopes were crushed by the perjured Princes, they dissolved their Burschenschaft with the same Christian spirit. They say, alluding to this union -and singing this song on the occasion We builded ourselves a house stately and fair, And there in God confided, spite tempest, storm, and care. What God laid upon us was misunderstood; Our unity excited mistrust e'en in the good. Our ribbon is severed of black, red, and gold, Yet God has it permitted, who can his will unfold? Then let the house perish! what matters its fall? The soul yet lives within us, and God's the strength of all! The spirit which animated the forsworn Princes was as despicable as that of the youth was noble. They put down the schools of gymnastics, seized the very machinery, even that of Jahn himself, who had played so conspicuous a part in the drama of their liberation, and never allowed him a penny for it. They imprisoned and persecuted him. They have done it to this very day, when the old man, ruined by the government, is, if living, maintained by a subscription amongst the better spirits of his country. But they persecuted not him alone, but the whole host of patriots who had aided them to drive out the French. These were pursued from city to city wherever they took refuge, by the orders of Prussia, Austria, and Russia. They fled to Switzerland, to France-nowhere were they safe. Some escaped to America, some to England, and other countries. What a constellation of noble spirits was thus dispersed by the breath of despotism into a scattered remnant of unhappy fugitives; Arndt, the Follens, Börne, Forster, etc., etc. Many were crushed into indigent indifference-many were swallowed up by secret dungeons, such as those of Austria, which Silvio Pellico has described. When the oaks and flowers wither Then no little bird can sing His heartsome freedom-song. When the streams are changed to marshes, And the merry fishes die, And the toads and vermin fatten,- And behold! the day is come. All that the Burschenschaft planned, all that the patriotic students of Germany longed for, prayed for, lived and suffered for-is come! The traitor Princes are fallen-the representatives of the great German people are met in Frankfort,-met on the very spot where the Burschenschaft met in 1831-to carry into effect the sacred object of their most sacred desires-THE UNION AND LIBERTY OF THE FATHERLAND! So heaven concedes in its own time the long deferred, work on in certain faith! Arndt, long an exile for his yet righteous purpose! So it teaches us to trust, and participation in the Burschenschaft has lived to see the day of the desired freedom. He stood, the octogenarian veteran of liberty, the other day at Cologne, beneath the great Germanic Banner of black, red, and gold-so long proscribed, yet now flaunted abroad by the very princes who proscribed it as the symbol of popular union and power. The author of the celebrated national song, "What is the German Fatherland?" and of many another stirring lyric written in days of despotism to quicken the blood of his nation-there he stood and saw not only his own hopes fulfilled, but those of thousands of his cotemporaries who are passed away. When the German students, then, in Berlin led the bloody fight, when in every part of the country they were at the head of the people, proclaiming the revolution accomplished-we may comprehend, after what is here written, what was passing in their hearts. Those hearts have been fed and strengthened on the memory of past glories, aspirations, and martyrdoms, and by their perpetual songs, the compositions of the first poets of their nation, Luther, Schiller, Goethe, Bürger, Lessing, Voss, Chamisso, Herder, Körner, Arndt, Uhland, and of younger and not less illustrious names. Never, on any former occasion have they been more entitled, than on this last, to sing their noble lyric. WO MUTH UND CRAFT Are German hearts with strength and courage beating? Red, red as true love be the brother-token, And pure like gold the soul within imprest, And that in death our spirits be not broken, Black be the ribbon bound about the breast. Though rocks etc. And now, since fate may tear us from each other, Strong like the tempest, see the youths go by However differing in other respects, the students of nearly the whole continent, and especially France and Italy are equally animated with the spirit of freedom and true patriotism, and they have accordingly won the highest distinction in the late glorious victories of the people, as in Paris, Berlin, Milan, while they fell bravely the other day, resisting the Danish invader of Holstein, and are equally active at this moment in Poland. It is with a feeling of melancholy mortification, that, turning home, we ask where are the patriotic laurels of our students? On what occasion did Oxford or Cambridge, Westminster or Eton youths stand forth for the common liberties against the oppressor? Alas! they are part and parcel of the old obstructive system. They live only to gather the golden fruits of the great aristocratic tree. They are moulded from the cradle into props of old abuse, conservators of the profitable church and state machinery. From them the nation hopes for no regeneration, no bursts of noble patriotism, no trophies of achieved progress. They are born, merely to eat up the corn, and to be swept away with the rest of the antiquated lumber of feudality in the appointed hour when God shall behold their measure full, and their places-empty. That fullness and that emptiness are of deep significance to this nation. It is of the highest import that the enormous wealth of its academic endowments, shall cease to be expended in the production of moral death and despotism, and be converted into the sources of national life, onward and upward zeal-zeal for the land, for the people, and for liberty-a teeming fountain of all those great Christian and social truths which are becoming the governmental laws, and the constitutional life's blood of the nations around us. WHO says this good man's life is leased in time, THE FAVOURITES. OUR Illustration this week is from Mr. Marshall Claxton's picture of "The Favourites;" exhibited some time since, and is one of those Sir Joshua Reynolds-like studies of portraits for which this artist is so justly celebrated at a glance we see that both the beautiful child, whose portrait we have here, and her spaniel, are favourites, favourites of one another, favourites moreover of certain loving hearts, whose relationship we are left to conjecture:-while the rich back-ground of foliage, and the distant sylvan landscape, constitute, with its effect and general arrangement, a picture of interest and merit. We like much stories of the affections told in a picture, they are interesting in themselves, and suggestive of so many happy associations of domestic life. Literary Notices. The Black Book of the Aristocracy. London, Strange; Leeds, Mann. THIS is a most useful little manual for all those who would know and have by heart, as every Englishman ought, what we suffer at the hands of our aristocracy. It should occupy the waistcoat pocket, and the leisure moments of every lover of his country, and, in fact, of every man of common sense, who revolts at the idea of his hard-earned gains being swept away from his children to feed a most disgraceful horde of idlers, debauchees, lewd women, and cormorants and harpies of a most voracious and multitudinous brood. The Philosophy of a Future State. By T. DICK, LL.D. A New Edition. Collins, Glasgow, and Paternosterrow, London. This is one of the excellent series of valuable works which Mr. Collins is bringing out at an amazingly low price. Who would not possess such a work as this for eighteen pence. We have read it again with undiminished pleasure, and know not a book that we would more zealously recommend to readers of all classes. To those of the working classes whose minds have been imbued by half-informed teachers with doubts of Christianity, we would particularly recommend it. THE WEEKLY RECORD. man may have work if he will. Can there really be ignorance so profound and so pitiable? Why, there is not a foreigner who visits London who is not horrified at the mass of squalid destitution and crime which results from it, which here stares upon him. The prostitution which now covers almost every yard of our pavements-the haggard wretches who present themselves on every hand, are such as are not to be found in the world be ALARMING CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY-PROGRESS OF sides. But plunge into the narrow alleys, amid the denser por DESPOTISM. Lamartine, in his "Vision of the Future," prognosticates the social and political progress of every other part of the European continent, except Russia and England, which are enslaved by aristocracy, and retrograde into misery and insignificance. The circumstances of the present moment seem to warrant the probability of the fulfilment of the prophecy. Except these two countries, all Europe is breaking its fetters; we are suffering new ones to be forged. France, Germany, and Italy, have achieved freedom of speech and of the press-we have lost ours. At the time that we behold other governments rising in renewed youth from the ashes of revolution, our government is pursuing the same fatal course of coercion and terrorism which have brought things to a crisis abroad. Distress increases every day amongst the working class; the government attempts to crush their complaints instead of relieving their sufferings. They ery for freedom, and the government presents them with the muzzles of cannon. They complain of their treatment in public meetings, and they are treated with a gagging bill! We are as much convinced of the fact as Carlyle himself that "where there is smoke there is fire." Where there is discontent there is distress, and to attempt to stifle the expression of misery, instead of removing the misery itself, is the old act of the tyrant, which is sure to recoil. And who is the tyrant of the present moment? The old Tory clique? No, the Whig soi-disant Reformers. The odious feature of the thing is, that it is done by pretenders to liberty. Were it done by Tories, no one ought to wonder-but when it is done by pretenders to reform-it stinks. And yet?what are and ever have been-the Whigs? They were the Whigs who violated the constitution, and destroying the old triennial parliaments extended them by an act of most treasonable usurpation to seven years. O'Connell denounced them as "the base, bloody, and brutal Whigs;" and most industriously do they labour to justify that now stereotyped character. What is so base as political renegadism, what so bloody as to march out against unarmed petitioners with cannon and troops and legions of police armed with bludgeon and pistol; what so brutal as to destroy the last vestige of public freedom, by rendering the expression of opinion felony and transportation for life? tions of the population, hidden from the ordinary eye. There you We have seen in the newspapers the representations which have been made by an assembly of 10,000 of the working classes, or rather who should be, and wish to be the working classes, but are the workless and starving classes, to the Mayor and authorities of Manchester on their fearful condition. In a pamphlet published in that great manufacturing town, called "Happiness,the Land restored to the People," we find this startling picture of the STATE OF THE PEOPLE. "The present condition of the greater mass of the people of Great Britain and Ireland, commands the most serious attention of every reflecting mind, that the causes which have produced such dire calamities, may be remedied. During the past year thousands of sentient intelligences were hurried out of existence by famine and pestilence, and millions have been rendered susceptible of every disease, through want of nutritious diet; so that pestilence again spreads o'er the land. Thousands are forced into compulsory idleness, who would gladly produce wealth if allowed; and hundreds of distributors are sunk in irredeemable bankruptcy. Workhouses, prisons, policemen, and soldiers increase, with poverty, wretchedness, and crime. The governors of the land who should have stored a year or two provisions beforehand in case of any failure, treat the people with scornful cruelty amidst their sufferings, as if it was a necessary periodical occurrence. But I feel confident that I can prove that our present awful condition, has its origin in our very social and political structure of society. There are 500,000 thieves, and 250,000 prostitutes waging war on society. The cost of prosecution of criminals, amounts to £2,500,000 yearly, and £8,000,000 of poor rates, absorbed without reproduction. £100,000,000 in nine years will thus be worse than The whole career of the Whigs in our time has been characterised by the spirit of coercion. Lord Grey was driven from office by coercion of the Irish: Lord John Russell and his colleagues had contrived to render themselves so thoroughly detested when in office before, that we hoped and believed that the English public would never tolerate them again. It has been weak enough, and what is the consequence? The destruction of the constitution. The annihilation of the freedom of speech and the press in one single act of parliament. Ireland, after the most unheard of horrors, such as there is no parallel to in any country, ancient or modern; after half a million of her people have perished by famine-after numbers of her people gnawing their own flesh in the fury of hunger, and dying on the highway-now driven to the verge of rebellion by the denial of justice. And England-what a condition is that of Eng-wasted, which, if properly applied, would entirely remove poland, which these political tinkers are endeavouring to amend by coercion, gagging, and the bloody weapons of destruction! We see placards on the walls of London, and we hear of deputations, thanking the government for preserving order, and breathing the most volcanic loyalty. Do these placarders and deputations believe that the dispersion of a body of unarmed petitioners, that the opposing of gags to complaint, and the giving of stones instead of bread, is the way to preserve order and promote loyalty? If there be truth in history, or faith in the ordinary principles of human nature, we believe that these very measures will be found to be the aggravation of disorder, and the worst compromise of the spirit of loyalty that could be hit upon. To make people orderly you must listen to their just complaints to make them loyal you must make them easy. You might just as well endeavour to compress the globe into a nutshell as to extinguish distress by rigour. But we are surprised to hear people who are well off themselves still asserting that there is no real distress-that every verty, vice, crime, and heavy taxation, and remove those obstacles which hinder the production of millions of the most valuable wealth; secure permanent profitable employment, for the people, and give education to all that require it." In the Potteries a meeting has been held, and a deputation sent to the Board of Guardians, praying for more out-door relief, in consequence of the immense extent of destitution. But volumes would not contain the details of the actual condition of English misery at this moment. We hear manufacturers of the highest standing, and the most moderate political views, declaring that they see nothing but a tendency to revolution. That they employ their hands as much as possible, but do not sell their goods. This we find a very general condition, and it is a condition that palpably cannot last. Numbers of working people apply to us to aid them in getting accepted by the Board of Emigration, but the extent of relief of this kind, is not a twentieth part what it ought to be, and is tied up by absurd restrictions to mere agricultural labourers. A young, ac |