[Footnote 19: Many of whom were in fact wilfully blind. Hardenberg, by whom the noble-spirited Stein was so ill replaced, and who, with all possible decency, ever succeeded in losing in the cabinet the advantages gained by Blücher in the field, the diplomatic bird of ill omen by whom the peace of Basel had formerly been concluded, was thus addressed by Blücher: "I should like you gentlemen of the quill to be for once in a way exposed to a smart platoon fire, just to teach you what perils we soldiers have to run in order to repair the blunders you so thoughtlessly commit." An instructive commentary upon these events is to be met with in Stein's letters to Gagern. The light in which Stein viewed the Saxons may be gathered from the following passages in his letters: "My desire for the aggrandizement of Prussia proceeded not from a blind partiality to that state, but from the conviction that Germany is weakened by a system of partition ruinous alike to her national learning and national feelings."—"It is not for Prussia but for Germany that I desire a closer, a firmer internal combination, a wish that will accompany me to the grave: the division of our national strength may be gratifying to others, it never can be so to me." This truly German policy mainly distinguished Stein from Hardenberg, who, thoroughly Prussian in his ideas, was incapable of perceiving that Prussia's best-understood policy ever will be to identify herself with Germany.]
[Footnote 20: Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 285.]
[Footnote 21: It was proposed that Lorraine and Alsace should be bestowed upon the Archduke Charles, who at that period wedded the Princess Henrietta of Nassau. The proposition, however, quickly fell to the ground.]
[Footnote 22: Even in July, their organ, Görres's Rhenish Mercury, was placed beneath the censor. In August, it was said that the men, desirous of giving a constitution to Prussia, had fallen into disgrace.—Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 249. In September, Schmalz, in Berlin, unveiled the presumed revolutionary intrigues of the Tugendbund and declared "the unity of Germany is something to which the spirit of every nation in Germany has ever been antipathetic." He received a Prussian and a Wurtemberg order, besides an extremely gracious autograph letter from the king of Prussia, although his base calumnies against the friends of his country were thrown back upon him by the historians Niebuhr and Runs, who were then in a high position, by Schleiermacher, the theologian, and by others. The nobility also began to stir, attempted to regain their ancient privileges in Prussia, and intrigued against the men who, during the time of need, had made concessions to the citizens.—Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 276.]
[Footnote 23: The Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 349, laughs at the report of their having withdrawn from the discussion, and says that they were no longer invited to take part in it.]
[Footnote 24: On the loud complaints of the Rhenish Mercury, of the gazettes of Bremen and Hanau, and even of the Allgemeine Zeitung, the Austrian Observer, edited by Gentz, declared that "to demand a better peace would be to demand the ruin of France."—Allgemeine Zeitung, Nos. 345, 365. On Görres's repeated demand for the reannexation of Alsace and Lorraine, of which Germany had been so unwarrantably deprived, the Austrian Observer declared in the beginning of 1816, "who would believe that Görres would lend his pen to such miserable arguments. Alsace and Lorraine are guaranteed to France. To demand their restoration would be contrary to every notion of honor and justice." In this manner was Germany a second time robbed of these provinces. Washington Paine denominated Strasburg, "a melancholy sentry, of which unwary Germany has allowed herself to be deprived, and which now, accoutred in an incongruous uniform, does duty against his own country.">[
[Footnote 25: The Invalids had in the same spirit cast the triumphal monument of the field of Rossbach into the Seine, in order to prevent its restoration. The alarum formerly belonging to Frederick the Great was also missing. Napoleon had it on his person during his flight and made use of it at St. Helena, where it struck his death-hour.]
[Footnote 26: He was descended from a noble race, which at a very early period enjoyed high repute in Mecklenburg and Pomerania. In 1271, an Ulric von Blücher was bishop of Batzeburg. A legend relates that, during a time of dearth, an empty barn was, on his petitioning Heaven, instantly filled with corn. In 1356, Wipertus von Blücher also became bishop of Ratzeburg, and, on the pope's refusal to confirm him in his diocese on account of his youth, his hair turned gray in one night. Vide Klüwer's Description of Mecklenburg, 1728.]
[Footnote 27: His wife, Catherine of Würtemberg, was in 1814, attacked during her flight, on her way through France and robbed of her jewels.—Allgemeine Zettung, No. 130.]
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