Cologne, Dec. 18th; 1849 

“Order reigns in Germany.” Such is the present great motto of 
our rulers, be they princes, aristocrats, bourgeois, or any other 
fraction of that recently formed party which you might call in 
English the party of Ordermongers.° “Order reigns in Germany”; and 
yet never was there, not even under the “Holy Roman Empire” of 
yore, such a confusion in Germany as there is at present under the 
reign of “Order”. 

Under the old system, before the revolution of 1848, we knew at 
least who governed us. The old Federal Diet of Frankfort’? made 
itself felt by laws against the liberty of the press, by exceptional courts 
of law, by checks imposed even upon the mock constitutions with 
which certain German populations were allowed to delude them- 
selves. But now! We hardly know, ourselves, how many Central 
Governments we have got in this country. There is, firstly, the Vicar 
of the Empire, instituted by the dispersed National Assembly, and 
who, although without any power, sticks to his post with the greatest 
obstinacy.” There is secondly the “Interim’’,’ a sort of thing——nobody 
knows exactly what—but something like a revival of the old Diet, 
got up under the old prevalent influence of Prussia, and which 
“Interim” is poking at the old Vicar (who more or less represents the 
Austrian interest), to resign his place into their hands.’° In the 
meantime neither has the slightest power. Thirdly, there is the 
“Regency of the Empire”,"’ elected in Stuttgart by the National 
Assembly during the latter days of its existence, and the remains of 
that Assembly, the “Decided Left” and the “Extreme Left”, which 
two Lefts, along with the “Regency”, represent the “moderate and 

philosophical” Democrats and Shopocrats of Germany. This “Impe- 
rial” government holds its sittings in a public house in Berne in 
Switzerland,* and has about as much power as the two preceding. 
Fourthly, there is what is called the Three-Kings’-League,’? or the 
“Confined (or Refined, I don’t know which) Federal State”, got up 
for the purpose of making the King of Prussia? Emperor over all the 
lesser states of Germany. It is called the “Three-Kings’-League”’,, 
because al] kings, with the exception of the King of Prussia, are 
opposed to it! and it calls itself the “Confined Federal State’, 
because, although travailing in birth ever since the 28th of May last,” 
there is no hope of its ever producing anything likely to live!! There 
are, fifthly, the Four Kings, of Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, and 
Wurtemberg, who are determined to do as they like themselves, and 
not to submit to any of the above “Central Impotencies”’; and lastly, 
there is Austria, trying every means to keep up her supremacy in 
Germany, and supporting, therefore, the Four Kings in their efforts 
for independence from Prussian ascendancy. The real governments, 
in the meantime, those who hold the power, are Austria and Prussia. 
They rule Germany by military despotism, and make and unmake 
laws at their liking. Between their dominions and dependencies lie, 
as quasi neutral ground, the four kingdoms, and it will be upon this 
ground, and particularly in Saxony, that the pretensions of the two 
great powers will meet each other. There is, however, no chance of a 
serious conflict between them. Austria and Prussia, both, know too 
well that their forces must remain united if they want to keep down 
the revolutionary spirit spread all over Germany, Hungary, and 
those parts of Poland belonging to the powers in question. In case of 
need, besides, “our beloved brother-in-law” ,? the orthodox Czar of 
all the Russias, would step in and forbid his lords-lieutenant of 
Austria and Prussia to quarrel any more amongst themselves. 
This never equalled confusion of governments, of pretensions, of 
claims, of German Federal Law, has, however, one enormous 
advantage. The German Republicans were, up to this time, divided 
into Federalists and Unitarians; the first having their principal force 
in the south. The confusion ensuing upon every attempt to 
re-organise Germany into a Federative State, must make it evident 
that any such plan will prove abortive, impracticable, and foolish, 
and that Germany is too advanced in civilisation to be governable 

under any form but the German Republic, One and Indivisible, 
Democratic and Social. 

I should have liked to have said a few words on the acquittal of 
Waldeck and Jacoby,'* but want of room prevents me doing so. 
Suffice it to say, that for at least some months to come it will be quite 
impossible for the government in Prussia to obtain in political trials a 
verdict of guilty, excepting, perhaps, in some remote corners where 
the jury-class are as fanaticised as the Orangemen of Ulster. 

II 

CURIOUS REVELATIONS CONCERNING