and the elevation in life of Prince Leopold, Cadet of Saxe-Coburg Saalfeld, already creates a stir among the microscopic Highnesses of Germany. The attic stories of the palaces of half-a-dozen capitals whose dominions are too minute for the map, appear to be in a state of commo tion; and the Princesses dowager of Reuss-this and Saxe-the-other, are busily occupied in mending up the shirts and stockings of their Ernests and Gustavuses, with a view to despatching them to the probationpreliminary of Almack's, and Lady Grey's assemblies. When Lady Keith (now the wife of Count Flahault, and then Miss Mercer Elphinstone) obliged the young Saxon Captain and Serene Highness with a letter of introduction to Princess Charlotte of England, very little could she have anticipated the time when King Leopold of Belgium would extend his royal hand for her to kiss. But the lesson has not been thrown away, either upon her ladyship or those gothic Sovereignties which so closely resemble the Marquisate of Carrabas; and there has not been such a commotion among the tiny regalities which furnish twenty men per kingdom to the confederation of the Rhine, since the crusade of Walter the Penniless. Scarcely was it known on the Elbe that the young prince of Cumberland had inherited the physical visual infirmity of his grandfather, and that circumstances might render it difficult to bestow a preference upon the son of the Duke of Cambridge, then the Nassaus began to number their tribes, and all the Protestant feeders upon royal sauer kraut to calculate upon the personal attractions of their junior branches: The old women of France persuaded themselves that the Duke of Orleans, like Paolo of Rimini, was gone a-wooing for his brother ;-and the black Brunswickers asserted that Duke William would shortly return with white favours. Since the days of Portia and Belmont, never was there seen such a congress of suitors! Yet the question has its serious side. On the event of this frivolous wooing, of this preference to be accorded by a child, how much of the future destinies of England hang suspended! Is there no hope of an amendment in that relic of barbarism, our Royal Marriage Bill? a Bill which renders the interests of Great Britain tributary to those of the Kingdom of Hanover !—a Bill which legislates for England as for a feof of the Empire! For three years past, the most popular of his Majesty's brothers has been the husband of an amiable woman, the daughter of an Irish Earl, without obtaining the aid of Parliament in the legalization of a marriage lawful in the eye of Heaven; and now, in defiance of the spirit of the times, some high and mighty transparency, formed in the schools of Jena, Berlin, or Göttingen, ignorant of our very language, and insensible to the spirit of our constitution, will probably be imported, duty free, as a government bargain, to receive the hand of the daughter of the Duke of Kent, and the inheritance of our ancient monarchy! We own we never regarded with a favourable eye the cousinly alliance pointed out by the partiality of the Tories; and now it appears unaccomplishable. The security of the succession unquestionably demands an early marriage for the heiress presumptive; a marriage to be solemnized at a period when the two Princes George will, we trust, be persuing their studies at one of our national universities. A boy and girl upon the throne would, we conceive, throw a more mischievous measure of power into the hands of favourites and family connexions, than even the union of the future Queen of England with one of her distinguished subjects. THE EUROPEAN MOVEMENT. THE CABINET ANNUAL REGISTER FOR 1832. London: Washbourne. We have just been revising our thoughts on the bygone year, by help of the instructive and elegant little work, the title of which is prefixed. It was a year, not so much of active as of uneasy preparation : the two great Western nations have manifestly been pushing on; and they and the combined despots have stood right in front, hostile, avowedly hostile, but still limiting their operations to a system of countermanoeuvring. The tactics of the opposing parties were very clearly and very amus. ingly brought out by the question of Belgian arrangements; and although we are amongst those who could have desired the adoption, by the western powers, of a policy more open and manly, and less savouring, in not a few respects, of the wile and small trickery of the ancient and venerable science of Diplomacy,-a science never professed to perfection but by mistresses, lackeys, and court-barbers,—we yet rejoice to acknow ledge in the result, an advancement of the authority of liberty, and a corresponding retirement of those families of owls and reptiles who scream, and tremble, and hurry to the deep forests when the horizon reddens and promises the morn. To understand the apparently disproportionate at. tention lavished on the concerns of this trifling country, it is necessary to refer to the European situation of France, and the importance of Belgium in respect of the security of her territories. Confined as we are within our seas, and being besides sufficiently unamiable, and personally disagreeable to the subjects of foreign states-who, almost to a man, hate us with the thorough hatred bestowed of old by starving mobs upon forestallers the despotic powers apprehend little from our example; and in truth, up to a recent period, they had little to apprehend from the practical workings of our constitution. France, however, occupies a very different place; and she does not care to conceal that her attitude is intended to be menacing. Adjoining to the finest possessions of absolutism by territory, and extending far beyond her own bounds that powerful influence derived from the prevalence of her language, the popularity of her literature, and the frankness of her manners, she can not do otherwise than exercise a potent moral sway over neighbouring states; and her actual power, her immense statistical resources, give her an unquestionable right to speak with authority in regard of every subject connected with the general policy of the Continent. In times of old,-when our lively neighbours gloried in their Grand Monarque, and before the trumpet of liberty had awakened the dull echoes of the Seine,France was merely one of the kingdoms of Europe; her wars and alliances were dictated by the ordinary principles, and she contended for no purpose unrecognised by consecrated legitimacy. It was not, accordingly, until the Bastile fell, and from its dust arose that hollow and ominous note of preparation, that her opposition to despotic interests obtained reality, or that reasons existed for placing her in hostility to the powers of the East. But to these powers she now is, and must remain, a bitter and much dreaded foe. Do we remember the tale of the first sixteen years of this century, and yet ask with what hatred they hate France, and at what sacrifices they would root her from among nations? Indeed, they had a success too fatal to mankind; for, by the ever-accursed aid of our VOL III.NO. XVII. 2 T own oligarchy, they so broke her strength and bowed down her people, that she submitted to be governed for full three lustrums by the feeblest of all imbeciles,—by a few knaves and bigots, literally unfit for managing the proceedings of a huckster's shop! The invasion of Spain is no brand on France; it merely demonstrates the terrification of the old woman, who then shivered on her throne at the lifting of the little finger of the Cossack of St. Petersburg; and, in truth, so weak and cowardly and cowering was she, that she durst not adventure the chastisement of an insolent petty pirate in Algiers, without pledges and promises, and much solicitation of permission and pardon, at the footstool of our own allcommanding Duke! Times changed again. Our neighbours shook off their incubus, and alas, then, for the "Constructions" of the Congress of Vienna ! The "Construction" of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was the most favourite part of that elaborate iniquity. It was a great out-work of despotism-a huge menacing tête de pont, pushing into the dreaded and hated country, on its only indefensible frontier, and guarded on the south by a line of fortresses, which, on the very first occurrence of quarrel, would have been surrendered en masse into the hands of the Holy Allies. Is it, then, a wonderful thing that the Belgian affair was a protracted one? Is it astonishing that, by trick, by obstinacy, by every artifice discoverable by bad faith, the three powers should have endeavoured to retard its only possible completion; or that, in failure of other means, the poor puppet Dutch King should have betaken himself, in his forlornness, to impious prayers to God? God heard him not; for God is now awakening the nations, and stirring up man with that inspiration which tells him, that he who bears the Divine Image must be FREE! The events of this singular contest are at length part of solid history. The kingdom of the Netherlands is destroyed; Belgium is a neutral state, and virtually dependent upon France; liberty claims the Meuse, and has stretched her territory from Mons and Tournay to Maestricht; and those fortresses on which despotism reckoned so securely, and which we, by aid of the dear Duke, paid so much to rear, are rased: finally, a new free country is constituted, with powers and prospects of advancement, such as the inhabitants of its territories never previously possessed. While repeating our conviction, that the cabinets of St. James's and the Tuileries would have nothing lowered their dignity or abated their power, by acting more directly, more sincerely, and more manfully, we heartily subscribe to the opinion of a French statesman, that the realization of such results without war, is one of the greatest novelties in diplomacy; but M. Thiers will excuse us, if for that part of his theory of causation in which a vast deal is ascribed to the "noble moderation" of the three powers, we make bold to substitute the trifling circumstance of Earl Grey's supremacy at St. James's, and the consequent success of our Reform Bill. The powers did not deem it prudent to make war for Belgium :-that is a good indication, and speaks fair for the future. If Britain's moral influence be uniformly exerted on behalf of the right cause, liberty on the Continent must progress with extraordinary rapidity. Upheld by our moral influence, France will be quite able to do for other countries what she has just effected for Belgium. Piedmont is to her south-eastern frontier what Belgium is to her northern ; and there are betokenings of a speedy and similar result. Germany is a sort of middle ground; and we think we descry in it the only existing cause of that final war which we dread will yet devastate Europe. Hitherto the old powers have en veloped these fine countries within the black suffocating mantle of des potism; but Germany is growing impatient of the dismal shroud. There is no use in anticipating too fast. Nations as well as persons creep and stoop ere they can walk with the demeanour of manhood; but we may gladly recognise and encourage progress. To the ambition of a direct Transrhenane influence, France will never be insensible; and we may remember that the construction of the Confederation was one of Napoleon's most popular as well as most favourite achievements. However moderate the principles and system of the present French cabinets, Germany will unquestionably receive good aid, when she effectively asks it; and if appearances are to be trusted, she will ask it soon. The infamous protocol of Frankfort is already producing its only possible fruit; and there seems little doubt that it must be followed up by the attempted abolition of representative assemblies. In Wirtemberg, for instance, a Charles-theTenth game is on the eve of being played. The late assembly proved refractory and was dissolved; and the electors are being bribed to return a subservient one. Bribery sometimes does prevail for the moment; but Tories forget one slight fact-the bribee infallibly hates, despises, and will ultimately overturn the briber. It is necessary to observe, that in Wirtemberg, about one in every seven citizens, or one in every thirtyfive inhabitants is an elector; so that the opposition is not aristocratical but popular, it is an undeniable and unequivocal manifestation of the spirit prevalent in that country. In Hesse Cassel we hear of similar doings, as also in several other states; and it has thus become one of our firmest convictions, that although there may yet be, for a few seasons, the field-days of Hambach, such as our own Bonnymuir and Peterloo, and a short period of hollow rejoicing for the truculent slaves of truculent Bashaws, the day of Germany's subjection is fast closing in, and that, amongst the countrymen of Luther and of the hero Arminius, there will speedily be none who cannot look daringly to heaven, and give free vent to his free thoughts! We know not, if the utterly and uncompromisingly hostile positions of France and the Eastern powers, in regard to their progressing movements, will soon lead to actual collision; but it is clear there is, and must be, a constant and inveterate struggle of influences; and it cannot be out of place to speculate somewhat on the probabilities of the issue of that struggle. Abstractly speaking, there is no hope for the despots. They are worn out, wrinkled, and tottering. The blood circulates coldly and sluggishly around their hearts; and they have to meet all the youth of Europe the stems of our future world. The antiquated fools in this country who occupy certain benches in the House of Lords, look with delight apparently on the chance of an actual struggle, and fain would they hasten it on! Be patient, my Lords! The time is sure though slow, and it may be there is a period also for you! Austria, Prussia, Russia, are imposing names; but in such a contest we will back France, single-handed, against them all. It is ridiculous to adduce the factions in France in evidence of external weakness. The Carlists, indeed, would distract and destroy; but no man who knows France, is ignorant of the utter insignificance of that noisy, empty-pated party: and the Republicans, in so far at least as history exhibits them, are not in any way loath to descry a means of disseminating their principles, upholding their country's authority, and extending its power. The despotisms, on the other hand, are unhinged, and altogether insecure. Russia excepted, they are all in danger of crumbling to pieces, even without foreign aid. We have just spoken of the insecurity of Germany; and the German provinees compose the strength alike of Austria and Prussia. Hungary is more than half-disaffected; and she looks with a sorrowful and wistful eye towards her north. The extraordinary number of Austrian Legions in Lombardy is tolerably emphatic with regard to this portion of Metternich's trusteeship; and in Gallicia and the east districts of Prussia, we preserve entire the name and nation of unhappy and immortal Poland. Russia is apparently the strongest of these despotisms; but she, too, contains a remarkable element of weakness, and one not often thought of, although far more dangerous than her factious and greedy aristocracy, -we mean her discontented serfs. Let the word REVOLUTION but be spoken and explained to these masses, and farewell to the throne of the CZARS! Convulsion is proceeding: let us fancy a renewed Europe. The Rhine should limit France; and, than the people bounded by its broad stream, a finer never has existed. Between the Rhine and the Oder are the natural territories of the great German race, which might at length be an united and potent NATION. Were the Germans ONE, and their fine thoughts and heroic wishes moulded and concentrated by a powerful and profound national spirit, what might not be accomplished for man! Again, there is Poland,- -over whose recent history we can only shed an unavailing tear,-Poland, not extinct, but mysteriously preserved, and one day assuredly to spring from her grave in glory and immortal power-Poland confederate with cognate Hungary. These two closely allied but independent states might be the foreguard of civilization-the true rampart of Europe against Gog and Magog. Italy, on the other hand, is a fine theatre for a union of separate republics; and Greece or Egypt might become once more the thriving region of the Levant. We had yet many points to discuss, but the mists of the future thicken around us. Mehemet Ali is engaged in lifting one corner of the prophetic veil :-Let us wait and TRUST :-the World is in GOOD HANDS. CORN-LAW HYMN.-No. IV. BY THE AUTHOR OF "" CORN..LAW RHYMES." If he who kills the body, A murderer's death shall die; If he who slays the human soul, Would hurl God from on high; Then, they who make our hopes, our lives, Unforgiv'n, loath'd of heav'n, In life and death are they; Behold the flag of England, In tyrants' battles rent! We fought for Britain's locustry, And, self-o'ercome, lament. They summ'd their debt at Mont Saint Jean, |