tended to realize, because the persons whom they regarded have laid so high a value upon the religious scruples raised respecting the evidence required of them, and which were apparently forced on their attention by means of secret promises, that they, with few exceptions, preferred going to prison, and awaiting, under a persevering refusal, the term of their release. Although it does not seem doubtful that a consistent perseverance in the measures hitherto adopted against stubborn witnesses, would have radically extirpated this evil; yet it cannot be denied that, according to the confined notions of many individuals involved in these proceedings, and who conceive themselves pro præterito, bound by the scruples of their misled consciences, the before-mentioned measures bear a character of harshness which might easily be seized by nonconformist Lutherans who aspired to be made martyrs, as a means of acquiring reputation, and of challenging their fellow believers to follow their example. Upon consideration, therefore, of the state of the matter, and of the circumstances bearing upon it, which shall be duly weighed, with a view to the future steps to be adopted against the Lutheran nonconformists, the undersigned ministers deem it fit to inform the (Provincial) government that it has to desist from the prosecution of the forcible means hitherto adopted to discover the individuals who had performed forbidden clerical functions, and consequently to set those persons at liberty who have been confined in pursuance of the circular order of 21st February last year—but under the reserve of a future prosecution of the forcible measures which shall be decreed. "Ministers of Clerical, Educational, and Medical affairs (Signed) VON ROCHOW." The newspaper in which this proclamation is published, contains a lament on the part of the Prussian authorities, that the vicar of the vacant see of Trêves has refused to censure or expel a parish priest at Coblentz, named Seidl, who had preached against the government measures, and whom they did not dare to arrest.-Was ever confusion worse confounded known than this picture of Prussian sway presents? Can any nation look to Prussia under these circumstances, as to a power fit or able to consolidate and direct the energies of an enlightened people like the Germans? But let us turn to the treatment which the institutions for education experience, the universities of which Prussia was so long and so justly proud; let us inquire what qualities are now demanded of those men to whom the education of the Prussian youth is to be confided. Of the seven professors, who, it will be remembered, signed at Göttingen a remonstrance to the king of Hanover, stating their conviction that the oath which they had sworn, to support the constitution, was binding, in spite of the dispensation published by royal authority, two, professors Albrecht and Weber, had formerly resided at Königsberg. Their remonstrance having become public, the seven were instantaneously dismissed from their employments, and retired from Göttingen, accompanied by the admiration and sympathy of their fellow-citizens, which spoke out in addresses directed to them from different parts of Germany. And surely, if ever men acted from pure and disinterested motives, and deserved the grateful benediction of a nation, they were entitled to it; as they acted in full conviction of the difficulties that would be thrown in the way of their employment elsewhere. The tone of modest firmness which prevails in the pamphlets which they have since published in justification of this step, will at a future period, be viewed by their countrymen with sentiments of admiration and pride. In these pamphlets, Grimm, Albrecht, and Dahlmann, as lawyers, and Ewald, as professor of divinity, have not only recorded the judgement of the highest authority in Germany* against the king, but have held forth an example to their countrymen as men, which has been hailed with the approval of every honest breast, and has proved the proudest refutation of those, who deem that the dispassionate exercise of the reasoning powers tends to weaken the moral energies in times of action. The university of Königsberg, proud of the connexion which had existed between it and two of the men to whom all Germany was so much indebted, spontaneously voted the degree of doctor to professors Albrecht and Weber. The diploma conferring this honour on the former, was despatched to him; but before that for professor Weber was expedited, the royal commissary at the university, who had received a hint respecting the sentiments entertained at Berlin with regard to Hanover, interfered and prevented its being sent off. A letter from the minister, Von Altenstein, conveyed soon after the direct expression of the royal displeasure at the presumption of the university, in deciding upon the fitness of an individual for academical honours without first obtaining the royal sanction to such a step. But the letter addressed, about the same time, by the minister of the home department, Von Rochow, * The decision in the last instance, in difficult questions of law, is frequently referred to the German universities by the courts. to the citizens of Elbing, who had voted an address to professor Albrecht, is the most faithful interpreter of the sentiments of the Prussian cabinet on this occasion; and we submit it entire to our readers, as both its style and its tenor are of a nature to which no description could do justice.— "To Iran Riesen, merchant, Elbing. "In reply to your communication of the address which a number of the citizens of Elbing have signed and presented to professor Albrecht, I hereby inform you that it has filled me with displeasure and surprise. Were I even to admit that scruples of conscience alone induced professor Albrecht to consider the oath required of him as improper, I am still far from regarding the expression of his opinion, and that of his colleagues, as justified, or even excused, by those scruples. On the contrary, I hold that expression of his opinion to be an inconsiderate and blameworthy act of presumption, which would be punishable according to the laws of this country. The subscribers to the address lay themselves open to the same reproach, since they countenance and approve that act, and thereby identify themselves with its authors. It becomes a subject to show the obedience due to his king and sovereign, and to content himself, when following the orders given him, with the responsibility which devolves on those whom God has placed in authority over him. It does not become him to measure the actions of the sovereign of the state by the standard of his own confined views, or to presume, in overweening vanity, publicly to pronounce an opinion on their rightfulness. For this reason, I must regard it as a deplorable error, when the subscribers to this address believe the step taken by the Göttingen professors to be one in defence of legal order, and in opposition to arbitrary power. You are, however, guilty of a still more deplorable error when you imagine that your opinion is shared by all good citizens and loyal Prussians. This is, thank God, so far from being the case, that I am convinced the greater number will disapprove of the step you have taken, and deplore that, by it, the good feelings and patriotism of the city of Elbing are placed in a suspicious light. I leave it to you to communicate this reply of mine to the subscribers to the address. "The minister of the Interior and of Police, "Berlin, 15th January, 1838." This is the language which a minister of state holds to the Prussian nation, in our times. Such are the sentiments of the monarch, in whose good intentions confidence had so long been placed by an enlightened country, whose ardent hopes appear only to have been excited, that they might be the more relentlessly destroyed. If any Prussian continues to hope, under the present reign, for a progressive improvement in the institutions of his country, corresponding with the demands of the age, he must indeed be bold of heart. In order that our readers should form a just idea of the electric shock which the minds of men in Germany received from the publication of this letter, they should be aware of the high value which the Germans set upon the privileges of their universities. Those institutions have, from their foundation, proved the strongholds of free discussion, and have been the asylums for truth, amid the raging of political and religious factions. From the universities of Prague and Wittenberg, the light of reason flashed forth in the Reformation to dispel the darkness with which the civilized world was threatened; and after all the vicissitudes of centuries of excited passions, alternating with fanciful aberrations of mental energy, it is, perhaps, still in the German universities that truth shines with its purest ray-that scholastic and party prejudices have the least power to dim her brilliancy. As the ideas imbibed by the German youth, in these excellent institutions, as long as they were allowed the unshackled use of their privileges, tended to make them less tractable for the yoke of their governments, the latter have been unceasingly occupied, since 1819, with plans to remodel the universities. The system of domestic policy in Germany is so tightly strained, that it has no elasticity to allow of the occasional ebullitions of popular ferment, or youthful exaggeration; and yet, although the proposals for a total reform of the universities are said, not only to be drawn up, but to have received the formal consent of all the governments, through their extraordinary ministers assembled at Vienna, three years back; although by the publication of the Frankfort ordinances, in 1832, these very governments showed that the rights of the people at large might be encroached on with impunity, their ministers have still abstained, with religious awe, from the formal spoliation of these venerable institutions, and the sacrilegious decrees have been suffered to moulder in their closets. At the same time, while no open steps were taken against the universities, their members were subjected to close observation; and the writings as well as the lectures of the professors have, for some years back, been controlled by the chiefs of the department of education, in the various states. It is a fortunate circumstance for Germany and for the civilized world, that, as soon as a prince appeared bold enough to undertake the task of public persecutor of men of science, the first burst of his rage should fall upon men of such irreproachable character as the seven who signed the Göttingen remonstrance. There is not one of the number who is not equally admired for his learning as beloved for his private character; and although by the step they took they laid themselves open to the virulence of servile scribes, and courted the unsparing scrutiny of publicity, yet not the slightest reproach on their private or public lives could be adduced, to justify their proscription, or weaken the admiration of their fellow-citizens. If, however, one name shines pre-eminent amongst the number for brilliancy of genius, and almost incredible extent of learning, united with mildness and simplicity of manners, the unerring type of a pure and unsophisticated heart, it is that of JACOB GRIMM. The labours of this highly estimable man as a grammarian, and as the historian of German law and mythology, have secured him the highest place in the estimation of his fellow-countrymen in three distinct branches of science. But even his productions of a less serious cast have raised him an indelible monument in the heart of every German, as he may be said to have given a right direction to the sentiment of nationality, which broke forth with such energy in the beginning of the present century. He it was who directed the ardour of research to the relics of poetry and wisdom, preserved in the traditions and customs handed down from olden time. He entwined the naked ruin and the dried-up moat with the undying wreath of native poetry, and, by example as well as by precept, encouraged his countrymen to cultivate the flowers indigenous to their soil, in preference to hunting for exotic importations of foreign tastes and feelings. It belongs to the striking incongruities of our age, that a man, whose unwearied exertions all tended to awaken and give consistency to patriotic feeling, by showing, in the present state of his country, a natural developement from its former condition, should fall under the suspicion of harbouring revolutionary designs. His whole soul has been in the past, and in the present as a reflection of the past. It is a profanation of language to couple the name of Grimm with revolution! In the eloquent words of his colleague, Gervinus, "that Jacob Grimm, in a German land, |