X 
THE PARIS RISING. THE FRANKFORT ASSEMBLY 

[ New-York Daily Tribune, No. 3406, March 18, 1852] 

As early as the beginning of April, 1848, the revolutionary torrent 
had found itself stemmed all over the Continent of Europe by the 
league which those classes of Society that had profited by the first 
victory immediately formed with the vanquished. In France, the 
petty trading class and the republican fraction of the bourgeoisie had 
combined with the monarchist bourgeoisie against the proletarians; 
in Germany and Italy, the victorious bourgeoisie had eagerly courted 
the support of the feudal nobility, the official bureaucracy and the 
army, against the mass of the people and the petty traders. Very soon 
the united Conservative and Counter-Revolutionary parties again 
regained the ascendant. In England, an untimely and ill-prepared 
popular demonstration (April 10) turned out in a complete and 
decisive defeat of the movement party.*' In France, two similar 
movements (16th April and 15th May) were equally defeated.” In 
Italy, King Bomba? regained his authority by a single stroke on the 
15th of May.” In Germany, the different new bourgeoisie govern- 
ments and their respective constituent assemblies consolidated 

 Ferdinand I.— Ed, 
> Ferdinand Il.— Ed. 

Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany 5] 

themselves, and if the eventful 15th of May gave rise, in Vienna, toa 
popular victory, this was an event of merely secondary importance, 
and may be considered the last successful flash of popular energy. In 
Hungary, the movement appeared to turn into the quiet channel of 
perfect legality, and the Polish movement, as we have seen in our 
last, was stifled in the bud by Prussian bayonets. But as yet nothing 
was decided as to the eventual turn which things would take, and 
every inch of ground lost by the revolutionary parties in the different 
countries only tended to close their ranks more and more for the 
decisive action. 

The decisive action drew near. It could be fought in France only; 
for France, as long as England took no part in the revolutionary 
strife, or as Germany remained divided, was, by its national 
independence, civilization and centralization, the only country to 
impart the impulse of a mighty convulsion to the surrounding 
countries. Accordingly, when, on the 23d of June, 1848, the bloody 
struggle began in Paris, when every succeeding telegraph or mail 
more clearly exposed the fact to the eyes of Europe, that this struggle 
was carried on between the mass of the working people on the one 
hand, and all the other classes of the Parisian population, supported 
by the army, on the other; when the fighting went on for several days 
with an exasperation unequalled in the history of modern civil 
warfare, but without any apparent advantage for either side —then it 
became evident to every one that this was the great decisive battle 
which would, if the insurrection were victorious, deluge the whole 
continent with renewed revolutions, or, if it was suppressed, bring 
about an, at least momentary, restoration of counter-revolutionary 
rule. 

The proletarians of Paris were defeated, decimated, crushed with 
such an effect that even now they have not yet recovered from the 
blow. And immediately, all over Europe, the new and old 
conservatives and counter-revolutionists raised their heads with an 
effrontery that showed how well they understood the importance of 
the event. The press was everywhere attacked, the rights of meeting 
and association were interfered with, every little event in every small 
provincial town was taken profit of to disarm the people, to declare a 
state of siege, to dril] the troops in the new maneuvers and artifices 
that Cavaignac had taught them. Besides, for the first time since 
February, the invincibility of a popular insurrection in a large town 
had been proved to be a delusion; the honor of the armies had been 
restored; the troops, hitherto always defeated in street battles of 
importance, regained confidence in their efficiency even in this kind 
of struggle. 

From this defeat of the ouvriers of Paris may be dated the first 
positive steps and definite plans of the old feudal-bureaucratic party 
in Germany, to get rid even of their momentary allies, the middle 
classes, and to restore Germany to the state she was in before the 
events of March. The army again was the decisive power in the State, 
and the army belonged not to the middle classes, but to themselves. 
Even in Prussia, where before 1848 a considerable leaning of part of 
the lower grades of officers towards a constitutional government had 
been observed, the disorder introduced into the army by the 
revolution had brought back those reasoning young men to their 
allegiance; as soon as the private soldier took a few liberties with 
regard to the officers, the necessity of discipline and _ passive 
obedience became at once strikingly evident to them. The van- 
quished nobles and bureaucrats now began to see their way before 
them; the army, more united than ever, flushed with victory in 
minor insurrections and in foreign warfare, jealous of the great 
success the French soldiers had just attained —this army had only to 
be kept in constant petty conflicts with the people, and, the decisive 
moment once at hand, it could with one great blow crush the 
revolutionists and set aside the presumptions of the middle-class 
parliamentarians. And the proper moment for such a decisive blow 
arrived soon enough. 

We pass over the sometimes curious, but mostly tedious, 
parliamentary proceedings and local struggles that occupied, in 
Germany, the different parties during the summer. Suffice it to 
say that the supporters of the middle-class interest, in spite of 
numerous parliamentary triumphs, not one of which led to any 
practical result, very generally felt that their position between the 
extreme parties became daily more untenable, and that, therefore, 
they were obliged now to seek the alliance of the reactionists, 
and the next day, to court the favor of the more popular 
fractions. This constant vacillation gave the finishing stroke 
to their character in public opinion, and according to the turn 
events were taking, the contempt, into which they had sunk, 
profited for the moment principally the bureaucrats and 
feudalists. 

By the beginning of autumn the relative position of the 
different parties had become exasperated and critical enough to 
make a decisive battle inevitable. The first engagements in this war 
between the democratic and revolutionary masses and the army 
took place at Frankfort. Though a mere secondary engagement, it 
was the first advantage of any note the troops acquired over 
insurrection, and had a great moral effect. The fancy government 

Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany 53 

established by the Frankfort National Assembly had been allowed 
by Prussia, for very obvious reasons, to conclude an armistice with 
Denmark which not only surrendered to Danish vengeance the 
Germans of Schleswig, but which also entirely disclaimed the more 
or less revolutionary principles which were generally supposed in 
the Danish war.** This armistice was, by a majority of two or 
three, rejected in the Frankfort Assembly. A sham Ministerial 
crisis followed this vote, but three days later the Assembly 
reconsidered their vote, and were actually induced to cancel it and 
acknowledge the armistice. This disgraceful proceeding roused the 
indignation of the people. Barricades were erected, but already 
sufficient troops had been drawn to Frankfort, and, after six 
hours fighting, the insurrection was suppressed. Similar but less 
important movements connected with this event took place in 
other parts of Germany (Baden, Cologne), but were equally 
defeated. 

This preliminary engagement gave to the counter-revolutionary 
party the one great advantage, that now the only Government 
which had entirely—at least in semblance—originated with 
popular election, the Imperial Government of Frankfort, as well as 
the National Assembly, was ruined in the eyes of the people. This 
Government and this Assembly had been obliged to appeal to the 
bayonets of the troops against the manifestation of the popular 
will. They were compromised, and what little regard they might 
have been hitherto enabled to claim, this repudiation of their 
origin, the dependency upon the anti-popular Governments and 
their troops, made both the Lieutenant of the Empire, his 
Ministers and his Deputies, to be henceforth complete nullities. 
We shall soon see how first Austria, then Prussia, and later on the 
smaller States too, treated with contempt every order, every 
request, every deputation they received from this body of 
impotent dreamers. 

We now come to the great counter-stroke, in Germany, of the 
French battle of June, to that event which was as decisive for 
Germany as the proletarian struggle of Paris had been for France; 
we mean the revolution and subsequent storming of Vienna, in 
October, 1848. But the importance of this battle is such, and the 
explanation of the different circumstances that more immediately 
contributed to its issue will take up such a portion of The Tribune’s 
columns, as to necessitate its being treated in a separate letter. 

London, February, 1852