I propose furnishing you with reports concerning the progress 
of the movement party on the Continent for the Star, extracts 
from the German papers, and of my correspondence with well- 
informed men in Paris and Germany. I see with pleasure, that 
your paper contains more and better information about the state 
of public opinion in France than all other English papers together; 
and I should like to place you in the same position as far as 
regards Germany. The political state of Germany is becoming 
more important every day. We shall have a revolution there very 
shortly, which cannot but end in establishment of a Federal 
Republic. At the same time, I shall not confine myself to 
Germany, but report to you everything about Switzerland, Austria, 
Italy, Russia, &c., which will be likely to prove interesting to your 
readers; and I shall leave it entirely to yourself to make what use 
you think proper of the materials furnished by me. 

[THE SITUATION IN PRUSSIA] 

When Frederick William IV ascended the throne there was not 
a more popular monarch in all Europe. Now, there is none more 
unpopular; not one, not even Nicholas of Russia, who is at least 
worshipped by the dumb beastly stupidity of his degraded serfs. 
The Prussian King, who calls himself emphatically “the Christian 
King”, and has made his court a most ludicrous assemblage of 
whining saints and piety-feigning courtiers, has done everything in 
his power to open the eyes of the nation, and not in vain. He 
commenced with a show of liberality, then passed over to feudali- 
ty; and ended in establishing the government of the police-spy. 
The press is laid down by a rigorous censorship, and by prosecu- 
tions in courts of law, before judges, paid by the king, and 
removable by the king, who conduct trials without juries, and with 
closed doors. Oppression is very rife. The students at Berlin 
commenced holding meetings and discussing political subjects; 
these meetings were stopped by the police, the speakers arrested, 
prosecuted, and several of them expelled the University. 
Dr. Nauwerck, lecturer at the University, who lectured on modern 
politics, and hesitated not to proclaim his Republican opinions, 
had his lectures visited by the minister’s spies, and at last stopped 
by the illegal interference of the minister, about a month ago. The 
University protested against such an obstruction, and some of 
their members published the protest; for this heinous crime they 
are now under prosecution. At some public demonstrations of the 
students, which happened in February, cheers were given for 
Professor Hoffman, who had been dismissed for his having 
published some satirical poetry. The consequence of this was, that 
again half-a-dozen students were expelled, and by this disabled to 

take any Government office, or to exercise the medical profession. 
At Dusseldorf, on the Rhine, the annual public masquerade 
during the Carnival was stopped by the police, on account of some 
political allusions, and the poor Dusseldorfians were even hin- 
dered from going to Cologne, and partaking in the procession 
there. These are only a few of the oppressive measures by which 
the Government has shown its mind; and they have had a 
miraculous effect on the development of public opinion. They 
have awakened the nation from a state of political lethargy, and 
thrown them into such an excitement that even the oldest and 
most loyal supporters of the “Christian King” begin to entertain 
fears for the stability of the present order of things. Dissatisfaction 
is increasing everywhere, and has become almost universal in the 
Rhenish provinces, in Eastern Prussia, Posen, Berlin, and all the 
large towns. The people are resolved to have a free press and 
constitution to begin with. But there is so much combustible 
matter heaped up in all Germany, and the shades of opinion are 
so various, that it is impossible to predict where the movement, if 
once fairly commenced, may stop. However, it will be in the 
direction towards democracy; thus much is evident. 


[NEWS FROM GERMANY] 

In the Chamber of Deputies of the Grand Duchy of Baden, 
Mr. Welcker, a liberal member and the Lord John Russell of that 
country, implored the government to do something in order to 
satisfy the discontented feelings of the people: 

“for”, said he, “I have been travelling much in all parts of Germany, and have 
been visited there by a great number of men of all ranks and from ail parts of the 
country; and I should lie, I should fail in my duty as a representative of the 
people, if I did not state that everywhere the principle of monarchical government 
is daily losing its ground more and more in the minds of all classes of the German 
nation. I therefore implore the ministers to oppose no longer the current of public 
opinion; for if something is not done soon; if the breach between the governments 
of our fatherland and the people is allowed to become wider, then nobody can 
doubt for a moment what the consequence will be.” 

And Mr. Welcker’s evidence, as to the spread of Republicanism 
in Germany, may be admitted as the most unquestionable that can 
be given, because this progress frightens him even more than it 
does the government; and because it is quite contrary to his own 
expectations. 

M. Frederic Steinmann who has for some time been under 
prosecution for a book he published, in which he assailed the 
Austrian government,? has been condemned to eight months 
imprisonment in a fortress, though he lives in Prussia, and 
published his book there. He was not prosecuted by the Austrian, 
but by the Prussian government, and in a Prussian court of law. 

Dr. Strauss, the author of the Life of Jesus,” is occupied with a 
similar work, on the Acts of the Apostles,*° which book he, of 

2 F. A. Steinmann, Caricaturen und Silhouetten des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts.—Ed. 
b D. F. Strauss, Das Leben Jesu.— Ed. 

course, will treat in the same manner as he did the gospels in his 
former work. 

The Russian Diplomacy is very active at present at the different 
courts of Germany, in order to effect some measures against the 
violence with which the German press treats the policy of the Czar. 
The anti-Russian feeling, which is now quite universal in Germany, 
has vented itself for some time past in all newspapers, and in a great 
many pamphlets, which makes the autocrat uneasy. But, fortunate- 
ly, he will not be able to stop these publications. 

Serious riots at Munich— There were riots at Munich on the 3rd 
inst., on account of a rise in the price of beer. The tumult was 
serious, and was not quelled without a somewhat sanguinary use 
of the soldiery, who by express orders of the King,’ fired on the 
unarmed people, killing several, and wounding others. The 
_ following later particulars show the people have triumphed, and 
the King succumbed; the cause being that the royal man-slayer 
feared that his own tools, the troops, would turn against him! 

“Munich, May 5,— Tranquillity has been re-established in our town,. but it 
cannot be denied that the royal authority has suffered a good deal in the 
transaction. The King, after having shown himself greatly opposed to any sort of 
conciliation or compromise, after having himself ordered the soldiery to charge the 
people, and that in his own presence, ended by requiring of the brewers that they 
should yield to the popular demands. This morning notice was stuck up at the 
corners of all the streets, that the increase in the price of beer would not take 
place, and the people appeared satisfied, but they at the same time retain a secret 
animosity against the King for having ordered them to be fired upon—an order 
which cost the lives of several of the people of this town. It appears that the King 
yielded principally on account of the small degree of devotion shown towards him 
by the troops, who did not appear at all willing to fire upon the people.”