Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 64, No. 397, November 1848
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Although insurrectionary symptoms had been shown at Cologne and
Dusseldorf--both of them especially black-guard places--Prussia
remained tolerably quiet for a week after constitutions were
circulating like currency on the Rhine. But on the 13th the storm
burst both at Berlin and Vienna. Austria did little more than shrug
her shoulders and submit. Prince Metternich, the oldest statesman
of Europe, and the man most personally identified with the ancient
system, was the main object of popular obloquy; and the master
whom he had served so long and so well was physically incapable of
defending him. The Archduke John espoused the popular side, and
the result was the self-exile of the Prince. The King of Prussia
remained true to his original character of charlatan. First of all,
his troops fired upon the mob; then came a temporising period and a
public funeral, spinning out time, until the result of the Vienna
insurrection was known; and at last Frederick-William appeared
to astonished Europe in the character of the great regenerator
of Germany, and as candidate for the throne of the Empire. The
impudence of the address which he issued upon the memorable 18th of
March, absolutely transcends belief; and that document, doubtless,
will remain to posterity, to be marked as one of the most singular
instances on record of royal confidence in public sottishness and
credulity. Here is a short bit of it; and we are sure the reader will
agree with us in our estimate of the character and sincerity of the
august author:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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