Of the effect, in Germany, of the Russian intervention in Austria,
it is almost superfluous to speak. The advance of Russian armies,
simultaneously with the dissolution of more than one refractory
assembly, has raised in the minds of men, already in a state of furious
excitement, a suspicion that these events are not unconnected, and
that the Emperor of Austria is not the only German sovereign who is
in league with the Czar! The time has arrived when the question must
be determined whether order or anarchy is to prevail; and we have no
doubt that, in Germany as in France, the friends of order will speedily
gain a complete ascendency--if there be no foreign, and above all, no
Russian intervention. But to very many of the patriotic friends of
order in Germany, Russian intervention in her affairs, or an appearance
of concert between their own government and Russia for the purpose of
influencing German interests, and suppressing German feelings, would
be intolerable. There is reason to apprehend that a great body of
true-hearted Germans, especially in the middle classes--whose power
must, after all, decide the contest, and who desire social order and
security under a constitutional monarchy--may fancy they see in the
advance of Russian forces, at a moment when the sovereigns, supported
by their armies, are making a stand against popular tyranny, cause
to fear that even their constitutional freedom is in danger. We are
satisfied that there are no reasonable grounds for such fears--that
the other governments of Germany are too wise to follow the example of
Austria in her conduct towards Hungary; but that example cannot fail
to produce distrust in many minds already disposed to it; and popular
movements are more influenced by passion than by reason.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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