As it is, the German National Assembly can by no means be looked upon as
a model of parliamentary order: it is still noisy, ill-regulated, and
uncertain in its movements. It cannot be denied, at the same time, that
sufficient individual talent may be found among its members. Among the
rising men of the day, the orators of Prussia and the smaller northern
states, (for Southern Germany has as yet produced but little striking
talent,)—along with those young, ardent, and energetic men who, the
conspirators and insurgents of a few months ago, have gone over to the
liberal conservative majority, and the people’s orators, who aim at
being the O’Connells of Germany, as their phraseology goes, and who, in
spite of the impracticable nature of their tenets, and the frequently
vapid nature of their declamation, have a certain, rude ready eloquence,
that strives to be poetical—there are also a few practised statesmen, a
few wary old men of action, and several well-known authors and poets,
such as old Uhland, whose democratic ardour still keeps, him upon the
benches of the left, and the Count Auersperg, well known under the name
of Anastatius Grün, whom disappointments in his position, in society are
supposed also to have driven into the ultra-democratic ranks. But there
seems to be an utter want of purpose in most of the speeches which
emanate from the lips of these men of talent. Proverbially vague in
their philosophical theories, even when they make most pretensions to
clearness, the Germans show themselves still more so in their political
views. The speeches not only of the ultra-liberals, but of the would-be
statesmen of the centre, appear mere compilations of “words, words,
words,” without any tangible argument or practical proposal: it is
rarely that it is possible to sift from the readily flowing, but
generally most muddy stream, a sand of gold, that may be used as one of
sterling worth in the crown of unity which the hands of the Assembly
would be forging. In all that emanates from the Assembly, either in
debate or in decree, there is generally a lamentable want of correctly
defined purpose: and, in fact, to return to the point from which we have
started, it is as difficult to discover from the vague, wavering,
boggling proceedings of the Assembly, as from any other quarter, or from
any other movement, precisely what revolutionising Germany would be at.
Up to the present time, like the Provisional Government of France, it
has rather attempted to rule aristocratically itself, than to prepare
the way, as was its object, for the future definitive constitution of
Germany. The only definite step it has yet taken towards that vague
_desideratum_, a “United Germany,” has been in the appointment of a
Provisional Executive Head, and of a cabinet of ministers at its
direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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