In order that our readers should form a just idea of the electric shock which the minds of men in Germany received from the publication of this letter, they should be aware of the high value which the Germans set upon the privileges of their universities. Those institutions have, from their foundation, proved the strongholds of free discussion, and have been the asylums for truth, amid the raging of political and religious factions. From the universities of Prague and Wittenberg, the light of reason flashed forth in the Reformation to dispel the darkness with which the civilized world was threatened; and after all the vicissitudes of centuries of excited passions, alternating with fanciful aberrations of mental energy, it is, perhaps, still in the German universities that truth shines with its purest ray-that scholastic and party prejudices have the least power to dim her brilliancy. As the ideas imbibed by the German youth, in these excellent institutions, as long as they were allowed the unshackled use of their privileges, tended to make them less tractable for the yoke of their governments, the latter have been unceasingly occupied, since 1819, with plans to remodel the universities. The system of domestic policy in Germany is so tightly strained, that it has no elasticity to allow of the occasional ebullitions of popular ferment, or youthful exaggeration; and yet, although the proposals for a total reform of the universities are said, not only to be drawn up, but to have received the formal consent of all the governments, through their extraordinary ministers assembled at Vienna, three years back ; although by the publication of the Frankfort ordinances, in 1832, these very governments showed that the rights of the people at large might be encroached on with impunity, their ministers have still abstained, with religious awe, from the formal spoliation of these venerable institutions, and the sacrilegious decrees have been suffered to moulder in their closets. At the same time, while no open steps were taken against the universities, their members were subjected to close observation; and the writings as well as the lectures of the professors have, for some years back, been controlled by the chiefs of the department of education, in the various states. It is a fortunate circumstance for Germany and for the civil to undertake the task of public persecutor of men of science, the first burst of his rage should fall upon men of such irreproachable character as the seven who signed the Göttingen remonstrance. There is not one of the number who is not equally admired for his learning as beloved for his private character; and although by the step they took they laid themselves open to the virulence of servile scribes, and courted the unsparing scrutiny of publicity, yet not the slightest reproach on their private or public lives could be adduced, to justify their proscription, or weaken the admiration of their fellow-citizens. If, however, one name shines pre-eminent amongst the number for brilliancy of genius, and almost incredible extent of learning, united with mildness and simplicity of manners, the unerring type of a pure and unsophisticated heart, it is that of JACOB GRIMM. The labours of this highly estimable man as a grammarian, and as the historian of German law and mythology, have secured him the highest place in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen in three distinct branches of science. But even his productions of a less serious cast have raised him an indelible monument in the heart of every German, as he may be said to have given a right direction to the sentiment of nationality, which broke forth with such energy in the beginning of the present century. He it was who directed the ardour of research to the relics of poetry and wisdom, preserved in the traditions and customs handed down from olden time. He entwined the naked ruin and the dried-up moat with the undying wreath of native poetry, and, by example as well as by precept, encouraged his countrymen to cultivate the flowers indigenous to their soil, in preference to hunting for exotic importations of foreign tastes and feelings. It belongs to the striking incongruities of our age, that a man, whose unwearied exertions all tended to awaken and give consistency to patriotic feeling, by showing, in the present state of his country, a natural developement from its former condition, should fall under the suspicion of harbouring revolutionary designs. His whole soul has been in the past, and in the present as a reflection of the past. It is a profanation of language to couple the name of Grimm with revolution! In the eloquent words of his col"should be treated with indignity, is disgraceful to Germany, "beyond all expression!" After the contempt of all justice and right, evinced in the Prussian monarch's mode of dealing with the Rhenish provinces and his Lutheran subjects, it will not have excited much surprise that he should treat the universities with similar harshness. But the nation can scarcely have been prepared for the open declaration made by the heir-apparent, of his participation in his father's sentiments. The crown-prince of Prussia, in an autograph letter to the university of Königsberg, of which he is the rector, avowed his concurrence in the reprehension of the honours conferred on the proscribed Albrecht, as conveyed in the letter of the Minister. What a touching contrast does the conduct of the people in Germany present, at this trying moment, to that of their rulers! While the war-note of discord and anarchy is sounded by despots and bigots from the Rhine to the Elbe and the Warta, the Germans, we may say of all classes, have preserved a dignified silence, and have neither allowed themselves to be terrified nor seduced into violent remedies. The reason of this calm bearing in the people is, that they are more enlightened than those who arrogate the task of leaders amongst them. The Germans wish neither to be priestnor despot-ridden; their endeavour is not after victory in religious or civil broils; they wish to secure the enjoyment of rational liberty. Thus all attempts have hitherto failed to entangle them in the net so cunningly woven. The exertions of a Romish faction disguised under the mask of liberalism, and of Protestant tyrants who would extend their despotic sway over the unchainable consciences of their subjects, have alike proved unable to shake the firmness of an enlightened but ill-used people. How long the Germans will continue to resist the temptations to anarchy which are unceasingly displayed by the organs of the various factions, it is difficult to conjecture. Newspapers, under the titles Protestant and Catholic, have for more than a year been established, and have met with unparalleled success. The Prussian court has, on its side, not been idle. The Russian emperor, under whose ægis invited ("Deus ex machina") to solve the complicated intrigue of this mighty farce, in which a powerful nation is made to play the part of puppets in the hands of heartless tyrants and factious hirelings. Will not the insulted feelings of the Germans break out, sooner or later, in some burst of direful vengeance, if they be much longer goaded in the manner that they now are, and all influence be taken from the enlightened classes, as it now is by the proscription of those who display moral energy whether in writing or in action? If power is to be to the strong, can the German governments be blind to the consequences of rousing the passions of the mass of the people? As friends to humanity we rejoice sincerely in the calm demeanour hitherto preserved by a nation which ranks so high in the scale of civilization, and hail the undeniable proof afforded by its conduct, that the diffusion of instruction is the firmest guarantee of social order. But we trust their patience will not be put to too severe a test. How much better would the exertions of France to quell revolutionary intrigues in the Swiss Cantons be employed in bringing the crowned disturbers of the public peace in Germany to listen to reason! Were reasonable freedom of discussion attained, and the liberty of the subject established on a sound footing in Germany, Switzerland would cease to be a hot-bed of political excitement, and those powers, which are now forced from their proper path into the by-ways of turbulence and sedition, would contribute to the advancement and consolidation of the blessings of civilization which they now menace with destruction. Even Great Britain can at length scarcely refrain from interfering to prevent the total suppression of liberty in Germany, if it be threatened by foreign powers; and under the present circumstances of that country, even Austria must be regarded as a foreign state. The power of Austria lies in that portion of her population which is not German, and which never had any sympathies with the Germans, -in her Slavonic, Hungarian and Italian subjects. As these can never expect to be acknowledged as umpires in a dispute between the German people and their rulers, all moral influence which Austria could exert in the case before us falls to the ground. The before alluded, have deprived them of the pretext to interfere in the affairs of Hanover as members of the Germanic federation. It consequently remains only for the Germans to contend with the predominant influence of Prussia, and a comparison of the resources of the constitutional states with those of that country, will show that, as soon as all hope of foreign support is cut off, Prussia is by no means so formidable as is generally supposed : Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, States. Würtemberg, Baden, Electorate of Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Nassau, Saxon Duchies, Prussia, 13,900,000 97,000,000 24,700,000 43,200,000 If we add the Hanse-towns, Prussia is clearly the weaker of the two parties. The direct taxes in Germany are a draft from the life-blood of its population. They do not rest, as in England, upon the landed proprietor and capitalist; the industry of the people, whether agricultural or manufacturing, is by the nature of the tenures of land and the financial system made to bear a heavy share of the burden. Under these circumstances, the proportion which these taxes bear to the total revenue of the state furnishes a criterion to judge of the paternal disposition of the government, as their appropriation is the best evidence of its observance of due economy. The expenditure of the military department in Prussia is here shown to be nearly double the amount of these hard-wrung taxes, whereas in nearly all the constitutional states it remains below their figure. In Bavaria, where the cost of the army approaches nearest to the sum of the direct taxes, these imposts do not exceed two-ninths of the whole revenue; in Hesse, where it |