The Christian Teacher. [Continued As] the National Review (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: tentedly resign the portraiture of Moulders, Kantwises, and Kennebys, to artists whose knowledge of life is more varied than his own, or whose conceptive ability enables them, as in some rare instances is the case, to dispense with the experience from which all but the very highest sort of artists are obliged to draw. Art. III.?THE CRISIS IN PRUSSIA. The politics no less than the scenery of north-eastern Germany are by no means attractive. The interminable marshes of the Havel, the dreary sand-waste which surrounds the capital, the rich but unlovely plain of Magdeburg, have all their antitypes in the history of Prussia. From time to time some enterprising English newspaper sends a correspondent to Berlin; but the editor soon discovers that not one reader in a thousand pays any attention to his letters, and the veil once more descends upon those confused struggles, of which, even more truly than of the pictures of Wouvermans, it may be said, that it is difficult to make out " which is plaintiff and which defendant." But Prussian politics have a meaning after all, and sometimes, as at this moment, very grave issues are depending on the decisions of Prussian rulers and the good sense of the Prussian people. Our object in this article will be to point out, as clearly as we can, the present state of parties at Berlin, sketching the antecedents of rival politicians, and attempting to form an estimate of the chances of the future. In order to do this, it will be necessary to review at some length the recent history of Prussia, in which it is easy to distinguish four well-marked periods. The first of these extends from the accession of Frederick William IV., in June 1840, to the opening of the United Landtag, in April 1847. The second commences with that event, and terminat...