Change in the aspect of the country in crossing the frontier from Belgium into Prussia—Passports no real inconvenience—Anecdote of a Jamaica planter—First view of Aix-la-Chapelle—Its population and employments—Insurrection of the patriots in 1830—Its absurd termination—The Cathedral of Charlemagne—Its architecture—Donation of Mary, Queen of Scots—The tomb of Charlemagne—His singular mode of interment—The relics in the treasury—The Redoute—Gaming discountenanced in Prussia—The Hotel de Ville—Statue and fountain of Charlemagne—Environs of Aix agreeable—Political condition of the Trans-Rhenan provinces of Prussia—Excellent posting arrangements—Improvement suggested in England—Aspect of the country to Juliers—Juliers—Neuss—Trade in crushing oil might be advantageously introduced in Ireland—The church of St. Quirinus—The Rhine.
Without any material change in the general aspect of the country, a hundred little incidental matters quickly apprize the stranger who has crossed the Belgian frontier, that he has passed into Prussia. The jolting of the pavé is changed, in an instant, for the smooth roll of macadamization: instantaneously, instead of the French he has been accustomed to, he is saluted in German by the douaniers: every stake and wooden bar about the custom-house is accurately ring-streaked, like a barber’s pole, only with white and black instead of crimson—and the lumbering post boy of Belgium, with a half Hibernian license of costume, is replaced by the trim postilion, in his military uniform, and trumpet slung across his shoulder, with a profusion of worsted lace and tassels. The aspect of the country, too, is different, and the broad, French-like, sweeps of hill and valley, which extend through Limbourg, became broken up into wide inclosures, diversified with abundance of woods and luxuriant plantings.
Neither the douaniers, nor the police, gave us the slightest inconvenience; the former, and without any fee, accepted our assurance that our carriage contained nothing contraband, and did not open a single box; the latter visé’d our Belgian passports without delay, and within ten minutes from passing under the barrier, we found ourselves rolling quickly, over an excellent road, to Aix-la-Chapelle. The barrier itself, by the way, is a change from the Belgian;—a ponderous beam of wood, painted, as usual, in circular stripes of white and black, rests right across the road, and being loaded with a heavy weight at one end, is allowed to rise upon a pivot, to allow the traveller to drive under.
Throughout, not only Prussia, but Germany in general, we found the same polite facilities regarding passports, at every frontier and police station at which it was necessary to present them; and although they were, of course, required to be formal, we had neither delay nor annoyance in their investigation. In fact, I am satisfied, from my own experience, that nine-tenths of the outcry against the “tyrannous nuisance of passports,” on the continent, arises from the irregularity of those who carry them, in complying with the stated requirements, or their absurd impatience of a custom, in which, though it is applied indiscriminately to all the world, their self-importance suspects something personal to themselves. An English gentleman from the West Indies, who was travelling some years ago in Switzerland, attended by a faithful negro slave was feelingly assured by him, when fuming at some annoyance of the passport system in the successive cantons, “that it was quite evident they would find no real liberty till they returned to Jamaica.”
On gaining the summit of a long hill, we suddenly looked down upon the turrets and domes of the venerable and imperial city of Charlemagne, in the basin of a deep woody amphitheatre, which rises around it on all sides, covered with waving forests to the very top. No situation could be imagined more charming without anything very picturesque or magnificent. The suburbs extend a long way beyond the old fortifications, and after driving past innumerable villas and pleasant cottages, we passed under a massy square gate surmounted by a high slated roof, and rattled along a coarse lumpy pavement through streets of dirty and desolate houses, with little appearance of either wealth, comfort, or prosperity, on any side. The most striking edifices are the huge hotels, which seem still to enjoy a pretty fair share of patronage, though Aix, like Spa, has of late years been postponed for the baths of Bohemia and the Rhine, and the majority of the travellers whom we meet in the streets are only on the wing, hastening to or returning from a visit to its more distant rivals.
Under the German empire, Aix-la-Chapelle possessed sufficient resources within itself, to enable it to support the dignity of a free imperial city. Its woollen manufactures were long famous in Europe, and the manufacture of cloth is still one of its most lucrative employments. Coals are abundant in its vicinity, and it has likewise an extensive trade in the construction of machinery, which was introduced here by one of the ubiquitous Cockerills of Seraing. He experienced, however, in 1830, an ungenerous return for all his enterprise, his house and premises being one day sacked and plundered by a band of mutinous rioters. The population of Aix-la-Chapelle are eminently Catholic, and its working population swelled by perpetual emigrations from Verviers and Liege, were inspired with the utmost sympathy for the proceedings of the patriots of the Belgian revolution. Their character, however, was of the worst description, and a love of plunder contended with a love of country in the composition of their patriotism. The intelligence of the three days of July at Paris, had warmed this double enthusiasm to a dangerous glow, but when upon this revolution supervened the three days of September at Brussels, their generous ardour in the cause of liberty was no longer to be restrained within common bounds; and, at length, one evening, on the arrival of the diligence from Liege with tricolor cockades on the horses’ heads, the latent fires of freedom burst forth; even the strong walls of the prison could not restrain the patriotic ardour of its inmates, who being enlarged by their generous countrymen immediately shared with them the benefits of their previous observations, and leading them to the most promising spots for helping themselves, they proceeded amidst animating cries of “Vive les Belges!” and “Vive la liberté!” to divide the furniture and dispose of the stocks in trade of the wealthier inhabitants and shopkeepers.
Mr. Cockerill being most obnoxious as a manufacturer, who gave extensive employment to the poor, and had his mansion furnished with a degree of intolerable elegance and comfort, was speedily taught the incompatibility of such habits and enjoyments with the principles of genuine liberty; and in the course of a few hours, the contents of his residence, valued at 50,000 dollars, disappeared, and along with it the liberators took charge of his money, consisting of 135,000 francs in bank-notes, and 25,000 more in silver and gold. The progress of the patriots was, however, checked by the appearance of their vulgar enemies, the police; a hundred and twenty of whom, under the command of a despot, named Brendamour, prevented the torch of freedom from taking its “radiant ground,” and by a few discharges of musketry amongst the “liberators,”
Repress’d their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of their souls.
Some forty or fifty “lofty spirits” were disenthralled by this volley of the burgher guards, several others were wounded and made prisoners, but a vast number escaped across the frontiers, to unite with their kindred hearts in Belgium; and seventy, who were tried on the insulting imputation of robbery and incendiarism, were basely condemned by the Prussian authorities to undergo the inglorious punishments awarded to such offences. So ended the revolution of Aix-la-Chapelle.