¶ The patriots took Holy Communion, made impassioned speeches, built bonfires and cast into the flames hated books supporting Metternich's system of kingcraft. Also the patriots consigned to the fire an illiberal pamphlet by King Fr: Wilhelm III of Prussia. ¶ Metternich became alarmed. Kotzebue, hated as a spy of Russia in Germany, was stabbed to the heart by Karl Sand. This gave to Metternich the desired opportunity, and he proceeded forthwith to impress on Fr: Wilhelm and the Czar the absurdity of toying longer with "Democratic ideas and paper constitutions." Then and there the Biblical phrases of democrat-mongering kings, under the Holy Alliance, ceased in the high courts of Russia and Prussia. Metternich got hold of Fr: Wilhelm, also the other political tools of the Frankfort Diet, and at Carlsbad decrees were issued sounding the doom of Liberalism and the return to power of the old-line kings. By gag-law and intimidation Metternich rushed the decrees through the Diet;--and for a generation "Carlsbad" signified the suppression of Democratic sentiments throughout Germany. ¶ Metternich fought free speech, free parliaments and a free press. His iron laws were aimed to stifle democratic mutterings. Austrian spies were everywhere, searching out revolutionary societies. ¶ The hope that Prussia might be the leader in the new German spirit of nationality now vanished. William III definitely withdrew his promise of a written Constitution, made in 1813, and reiterated in 1815. Persecutions continued north and south; Prussia hounded Jahn for five long years, this Jahn whose gymnastic societies had been so helpful in hardening young men to Prussian army services; and the poet Arndt, whose impassioned verse intensified the National spirit of Germany, was shamefully treated, his papers scattered and the man driven from his university. ¶ For many a long year the gloomy spirit of "Carlsbad" decrees hung over Germany. * * * * * ¶ However, the Germans have an intensely practical side as well as a dreamy poetical side. It is not surprising, therefore, that the earliest steps in the direction of German unity (1818) came through Prussian customs house reforms under the patriot, Maassen. ¶ There had been, as we explained heretofore, no freedom of trade throughout Germany; each of the petty thirty-nine states was surrounded by Chinese walls; for example, to send goods from Hamburg to Vienna, the shipper had to pay ten separate tolls. ¶ Under the old Prussian system there were in vogue at one and the same time no less than sixty-seven conflicting tariff systems. All this tax oppression meant a harvest for smugglers. But Maassen, at a stroke, established a common tariff in Prussia; made the tax so low that smuggling became unprofitable. The other states protested vehemently at first, but one by one entered this new customs union.