Our great national literature passed unheeded before the eyes of the mechanic and peasant; this little local literature came home to his interests and feelings.

"The papers which daily started up in incredible numbers were of very different value. In one place they breathed forth a noble spirit, like the Patriotic Fancies of Justus Möser; in another, they were exceedingly vulgar. Here, they were more like political newspapers; there, amusing literary papers. Here, they used the popular style of the older Village Gazette, (Dorf-zeitung); there, more of the analyzing language of the advocate. other cases they were sentimental, pedantic, warning, intrusive; or they took delight in vulgarisms and pointless wit. The papers of enlightened countries, and of a population which was less uncultivated, were much more tolerable; but in no place were they and are they more immoral than in München, where many vie with one another in vulgarity.

"The numerous pamphlets which were written on provincial occurrences were no less influential than the local papers. Holstein alone published above thirty within two years. Hanover, Brunswick, Saxony, produced a great number of them; indeed so did every German province, in proportion as each was more or less subject to violent crises. These pamphlets, joined to the voluminous reports of the proceedings of the legislative assemblies, have increased our libraries so much that we cannot now survey them. Alexander Müller and Dr. Zöpfl attempted to give, in journals peculiarly devoted to the consideration of questions of public politics, a review of the whole; but they could give nothing but fragments; they had not room for the whole. There would be no end to the matter, were we to add the Swiss, with their newspapers and pamphlets. Here, thirty-eight-there, twenty-two states-in each of which questions are put and answered, wishes breathed and satisfied, demands made and refused: with all these we cannot wonder that there is a great noise and tumult."

Menzel goes on to remark that it is the more difficult to compress a review of the whole field of public politics, because the greatest differences everywhere meet the eye; for in one province the same man is a Liberal, who in another would be considered an Aristocrat. Then each petty state possesses an immensely learned and confused code of laws, which Ministers and Chambers vie with one another in making still more unnatural, by additions and amendments." There is a wondrous minuteness of legislation, more than sufficient to perplex every one excepting a few learned jurists. Nor has general attention been yet directed to the affairs of the Confederacy, although a few eminent writers have commented in a purely historical manner upon its constitution, decrees, and protocols;-upon its general relations, and suggested or urged the infusion of new elements. But here comes a paragraph that must not be abridged :—

"Among the many isolated and petty questions which, during the silence on great leading questions, have been thrust forward into notice, that of the emancipation of the Jews plays an important part. A multitude of pam

phlets have been written on both sides in almost every state of Germany Riesser of Altona has used the most energetic and talented language. What he, himself a Jew, has said in favour of the rights of Jews, ranks amongst the master pieces of political eloquence. Yet the children of Israel suffer even till this day from the petty regulations of Germany, and they have been granted their poor rights in but very few places. Here men attempt to educate them; and we see the oldest people in the world treated like a little child which cannot stand on its own feet. There they wish to convert them, with all possible forbearance; they do not compel them, it is true, to become Christians; but they cannot claim the right of citizens—nay, scarcely that of men-as long as they are not Christians. Here they are openly hated as a foreign people, upon whom, however, as we are ashamed to kill them, we vent our barbarian courage in another way. There men play the master, the gracious protector; but they take care not to emancipate them, lest by so doing they should lose the pleasure of playing the part of patron. There are even Liberals who are opposed to the emancipation of the Jews, merely because Christians are not yet in all respects free. We find everywhere that petty pride which ridicules the Jews, tormenting them at one time with refusals, at another with half concessions, at a third with obtrusive offers of instruction. We can scarcely be surprised that men of talent and education, such as have of late years arisen in considerable numbers among this race, should become mad at this despicable ill-treatment. But the wrath of a Borne, the sarcasm of a Heine, will not aid in furthering the Jewish cause, because they foster petty antipathies, and because, under their protecting shield, a brood of commonplace Jewish youths is formed, who load with open scorn everything which is holy in the eyes of the Christian and the German."

This temperate, apparently even-handed, and enlightened account, will prepare the reader for a dispassionate view, if we except an antithetic manner of expression, of both Catholicism and Protestantism as at present manifested in Germany. We had been looking out for information regarding the religious and ecclesiastical condition of certain German states, with the design of presenting a sketch similar to what we have done of establishments nearer home, in some of our late reviews. But a few paragraphs from Menzel's pages, which we now extract, will be more satisfactory, and shall save us the contemplated trouble. First for the Catholics :

"We must make a few general remarks upon this moderate party before we leave it. It is the younger sister of the Reformation: it has not, however, like it, abandoned its aged mother, but cherishes her with childlike forbearance. It has not deserted the ranks of the regular succession of Catholic centuries, but has returned to the ninth-to the independence of the German Church, and to the purity which doctrine then possessed in the time of Rhabanus Maurus. This party wishes for a German national church, in opposition to ultramontanism, as well as an independent church in opposi tion to the secular power. It wants an intelligible German liturgy, divested of Latin formulas, a national education in place of ignorance, a cheerful VOL. I. (1841.) No. II.

R

philosophy instead of gloomy superstition, and toleration instead of persecu tion. But this party is not yet sufficiently aware of its vocation. Placed half-way between rationalism and ultramontanism, it has not yet gained a firm footing: it inclines most to the former, that is, to the Protestant side. Thence proceeds that wretched prose peculiar to it, the dry morality and the wishy-washy sentimentality, the jejuue translations of the Bible, the fear entertained for every play of the imagination, and finally that inclination to political servilism, that liberalism, which so vaunts itself in the affairs of the church, whilst, thundering out its anathemas against Rome, crouches before, and fawns upon the pettiest of the German petty princelings. These traits, which have lately occurred, disfiguring the character of one of our most respectable sects, are fortunately not the prevailing ones: on the contrary, the great majority of this party manifest a certain degree of patient unassuming modesty, a disinclination to except any advice which may happen to be offered, much good sound sense and understanding. The signs of the times shew that the abolition of the laws regarding celibacy will become the watchword of a struggle, which in no distant period will separate this party from the ultramontanists, thus bringing it a step nearer to Protestantism.'

Now for the Protestants :

"It is well known that the Protestant Church became, even from its very commencement, the tool of worldly politics, and remained dependent upon worldly power. The higher the Romish Church had raised itself above the temporal power, the deeper was the dependence into which the Lutheran

fell.

At first, when a religious enthusiasm and fanaticism still glowed, the Protestant clergymen, acting as royal chaplains, upper court preachers, and diplomatists, naturally played an important part. But this ceased with the age of Louis the Fourteenth. Black coats were supplanted by green coats : the place of the fat father confessor was supplied by jovial hunters and mistresses. The Protestant clergy sunk into the lists of inferior officers.

"It is not long since country livings were conferred by licentious and coarse country squires 'under the apron '—that is, under the condition that the poor candidatus theologiæ should marry the paid-off chambermaid or the cast-off mistress. Rabner in his Letters and Thümmel in his Wilhelmina, satirically scourged, about the middle of the last century, this disgraceful practice the most detailed and faithful account, however, of the lamentable state of the Protestant Church at that time, will be found in Nicolai's novel, Sebaldus Nothanker. If at that time a poor preacher happened in the slightest degree 'to displease the whims of a petty princeling or countling of the German Empire, or of his mistress, or of his court marshal, or to contradict a brutal court chaplain or superintendent, he was unceremoniously dismissed from office and employment, and left without support.

"These things, it is true, now no longer occur. The greater decency observed by the Courts and the Government has had a beneficial influence upon the Church. Though church livings and professorships are still given away by petticoat influences, yet only the honest daughters and cousins of the patrons are concerned; so that all goes on decently.

"But dignity is not always combined with decency: dignity consist in freedom; and our Protestant Church is now, as formerly, enslaved.

"A hundred years ago, the Jesuits in Dillingen attempted to prove the position, that the Catholic faith is more serviceable to absolute monarchy than the Protestant; but the Pfaff of Tübingen drove them from the field, by proving that no church was more servile than the Lutheran. When a court chaplain at Copenhagen (Dr. Masius) dared to say that princes ought to become Lutherans, not so much from fear of God as from motives of temporal advantage, because no creed but the Lutheran favoured the divine right of kings, maintaining that it was derived directly from God without the intervention of any higher spiritual power, and because in the Lutheran religion alone was the secular prince at once bishop, emperor, and pope,-when Masius argued this, and when the chivalrous defender of truth and right, Thomasius, who can never be sufficiently praised, Thomasius alone, of all his contemporaries, had sufficient courage to censure a publication so blasphemous. All attacked this worthy man, and called his opinion, that religion had other purposes in view than the stengthening the power of absolute monarchy, a crimen læsæ majestatis so that he was compelled to flee from Leipzig, where they had confiscated all his property, in order to escape imprisonment, or perhaps even death; and in Copenhagen his reply was solemnly burnt by the common hangman.

"Such was the state of affairs then; and in all that is essential no change has since taken place. The episcopal dignity is still possessed by the temporal monarch, and the Church is ruled by Cabinet orders. The consistories, it is true, appear to possess some aristocratical power, but this is in appearance only; they are, in reality, the mere organs of the Ministry. From the Cabinet they receive instructions respecting their liturgy, their clerical vestments, their texts, and directions how they shall apply the Word of God in accordance with the circumstances of the times. The subaltern clergy are trained like the other public functionaries. In a word, there are no longer any priests, but merely servants of the state in black uniform,

"The feeble attempts to introduce a Presbyterian form of government into the Protestant Church have always been received with displeasure, and put aside with a degree of ease which proves that it is impossible to form a middle party between the totally servile clergyman and Dissenters, who follow their own path. The Court will never permit the introduction of a democratical element into the government of the Church; and that portion of the people which takes a serious interest in religion will never trust the priests. Thus, our well-meaning Presbyterians always fall between two stools.

"The State will long exercise this power over the Church, for the num ber of Independent Dissenters is still small. The majority of the people have, as it were, had their fill of religious controversies in former centuries; they no longer take any interest in such affairs; they are engaged in other occupations: the servilism, therefore, of their clergymen, and that vulgar routine which is hostile to every innovation, to every advance in mental power, is quite suited to their condition. People are no longer harangued to, or irritated by their clergymen; and that is what they like. They may believe what they choose; they may go to church or not without being blamed or teased by the clergymen: a state of things quite suited to their present degree of culture. From this proceeds the characteristic mark of the Protes tant world-religious indifferentism."

228

ART. X.-A Letter to the Right Hon. Viscount Melbourne on Medical Reform. By MARTIN SINCLAIR, M.D. London: Highley. 1841. THE public as well as the professional mind of the country has for some years been directed to the subject of Medical Reform; and frequent have been the strictures in speech, lecture, and pamphlet, exposing the extremely anomalous condition of the healing art and of its practitioners. Every one too is aware that bills have been recently brought into parliament, one by Mr. Warburton, and another by Mr. Hawes, for effecting the necessary amendments and alterations, and for regulating the entire system. Others have propounded schemes; so that however imperfect may be any of the reforms proposed, or however tardy may be any enlarged legislative decision and measure towards this end, we may be assured that the subject will not be allowed to rest, or the abuses and inconsistencies mentioned to continue very much longer, without some stringent laws and remodelling measures being applied.

The grand objects contemplated by medical reformers are these: Uniformity of the Education of Practitioners,- Uniformity of their Privileges,-A General Registration of Practitioners.-A Licence to carry on the business of Chemist and Druggist,-A Summary mode of Suppressing Unqualified Practitioners,—and a Representative system of Medical Government.

The pressing necessity for these reforms will appear in a striking light to the general reader, as soon as it is understood that the following are some of the anomalies and abuses of the present sys

tem :

Physicians are regarded as holding the highest rank in the profession, and yet, so far as their prescribed studies and proper functions are to be considered, they are inferiorly educated, and their practice limited to a narrow range of functions, as compared with what distinguish the business of surgeons. And yet the latter are forbidden to send medicine to their patients, neither can they legally make pecuniary charges for attendance or for advice unless they have on each visit done something of purely a surgical character. But to render the anomaly still more ridiculous, surgeons are not only not protected against others, be they who they may, from encroaching upon their surgical dominion, but chemists, druggists, quacks, and impostors of all sorts, persons without education, character, and diploma, are constantly visiting patients, giving advice, and supplying medicines, with almost entire impunity; for, even should they kill through ignorance, conviction is comparatively rare. Thus the sphere also of the Apothecaries' Company, which is an incorporated body, is invaded. Then think of midwifery being practised by any one, male or female; neither statute nor corporate privileges forbid