any occasion or pretext for the institution of an Emperor: nor have I heard any (good or bad) even suggested. And we may apply to this the well-known rule of the classic drama, "Nec Deus intersit nisi dignus vindice nodus.” LXXXI. The second question, that of German Nationality, apart from Empire, is more practical, and therefore more rational and practicable. This would imply a federal union of the different States, such as is proposed for Switzerland (and does exist in a clumsy way there at present), and probably such as is designed for Italy. This must, it would seem, be rather fiscal than political, and relate to roads and canals, and all facilities of communication, currency, weights and measures, literary property, uniformity of laws for international purposes, national establishments for things exclusively German, as museums for German antiquities, and societies for German works of learning, &c., of which the Germans alone can obviously be the best judges: in short, very similar in its nature and objects to the "Iber-Gall-Italian " League proposed by M. Lamartine himself. This view of a federal union of the German states (whether they be preserved as at present existing, or modified, as seems more likely) is free from the anachronismal irrationality and ridicule attaching to the creation of a German empire, and promises to be both practicable and advantageous. LXXXII. The question of Empire in the abstract (what is the proper idea of it, its nature and limits), and how far it may be realized with regard to some countries (as Russia, Turkey, Great Britain, Spain, Denmark, &c.), is a very interesting and beautiful one, but foreign to the present purpose. It is sufficient here to observe that one of its distinguishing characteristics seems to be that it cannot be K created by a national wish, like republics and even monarchies, but must grow out of circumstances, like national features, languages, &c.; and therefore it seems impossible that it can take root and grow naturally in such a country as Germany. And, after all, has not the Imperial Idea become antiquated; even obsolete? What M. Lamartine calls the vast and profound conception of Germanic Union, already dreamed of by men of genius, faintly anticipated by the masses, and prepared by the Zollverein, is one thing—that of a Germanic Empire another. Napoleon has taught Europe a lesson which will disincline mankind for submission to imperial dominion. If M. Lamartine's notion be correct, that a Republic is the ultimate and most perfect form of government; then, though for a while it may co-exist with monarchical institutions, it must at last absorb them all. There must come a time when, from Pekin to Peru, neither Empire nor Monarchy will be known; when the human race, having realized the ideas of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, calling no man master, shall own allegiance to none but Deity. To such a restoration of a lost paradise all religions have ever pointed. In this believe even they who are the foremost to insist that, under regular governments, "The social state of man Hath music in its soul, and is compact Of harmony." To complete the idea, I continue the citation : "Good government and law Are a most holy diapason, where Right blends with Might, and Strength its octave hath In weakness, and all discords are deft aids, By contrast, to enhance the dulcet strain; As peace is most delightful after war, And the sun's brightest beams the storm creates. Yet, in the State of Innocence, I wot, And union and obedience needed not The sphere of duty and of love prescribed: |