THE GOVERNMENTS OF CONTINENTAL EUROPE.

            A certain writer hath said, “The world is governed a great deal too much.” Take, for instance, the Continent of Europe and look into how many different states it is divided, —in some instances a single nation being partitioned into a number of separate kingdoms or principalities, with different systems of government, different laws, different institutions. Thus Italy is divided into many States, and Germany into a far greater number. The result of such territorial division and subdivision and of such innumerable governmental establishments, is to dot the European firmament with a number of imperial, royal, and princely planets, each one serving as the centre of an assemblage of aristocratic stars—thus maintaining a fixity of systems and a monotonous order until some blazing comet or fiery meteor, like Napoleon, bursts on its wild and erratic path through the midst, extinguishing the planets and dispersing their satellites. But when the portentous visitation has passed and its influence is gone, the old planets light up again—the satellites fly back to their respective centres—and the firmament of Europe is once more dotted with all these false and factitious orreries. Such are the imperial, royal, and princely families of Europe: and such are the aristocracies that surround them. But do all these regal and noble families exist for the good of the millions generally, or simply for their own advantage? As a matter of course, for their own advantage wholly and solely: and it is in order that they may thus exist in their power, their wealth, their splendour, and their luxurious indolence, that the world is governed as much as it is.

            It is for the benefit of the Italians that their fine country is divided into the kingdoms of Lombardy, Sardinia, and Naples—the roman states—and the Duchies of Tuscany, Parma, Placentia, Modena, and Lucca? —or is it for the purpose of affording thrones for so many royal and ducal families, each throne having its accessory aristocracy? Again, is the best part of Germany divided into a number of petty kingdoms and beggarly duchies, for the benefit of the people generally, or for the special advantage of certain royal and ducal families who have sprung up like toadstools in the feudal morass of European corruption? The reader may now understand what is meant by the world being governed too much: and he will admit it is a maxim pregnant with truth and affording food for the gravest and most serious considerations.

            That country is the best defended which has the greatest number of citadels scattered about it: in the same way the system of Monarchy and Aristocracy has strengthened itself by dotting the European Continent with as many thrones as could be conveniently raised up. Yet with such miserable inequality have the territorial partitions been made, that we have, for instance, Russia an independent country with 63,000,000 of people, and Lichtenstein also an independent state, with 6,000 inhabitants. Take France, Austria, Prussia, Spain, and Turkey, whose aggregate population amounts to 112,000,000, and place those five powers in juxta position with the five Duchies of Anhalt Bernburg, Anhalt Cothen, Hesse-Homburgh, Hohenzollern-Hechigen, Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, and Lippe-Schaumburg, with their united population of 167,000: and then let us hear what our statesmen mean by talking of “the balance of power.” It is one of the base and despicable excuses which ambitious Sovereigns, unprincipled Ministries, and vile Aristocracies have ever had ready at their fingers’ ends, to wage sanguinary wars for purposes of rapine, coercion, and tyranny. Statesmen who talk grandiloquently about “the balance of power,” with such anomalies as I have just quoted before their eyes, are worthy defenders of that English system of representation which enables an electoral district of 200 constituents to return the same number of members as the electoral district with 36,000 voters!

            By maintaining so many independent States in Europe, thrones are provided for so many royal families, and an excuse is found for the existence of so many aristocracies. Every one of these independent States must have its set of Ministers, its institutions, its laws, its mint, its army, and perhaps its navy. All these are the materials or engines of government: and government is, in plain terms, the art of crushing and enslaving the millions for the benefit of a few. Let us see how the system works. The population of Europe is 250,000,000 of souls: the permanent armies, fleets, constabulary, police, &c., furnish employment to 3,000,000 of men; and the divers governments of all the States employ an aggregate of 2,000,000 of officials. The royal, aristocratic, and non-productive population generally, consists of 20,000,000. Now add the military, naval, and police forces of all Europe to the number of government officials; and you will find that you have 5,000,000 of men either employed in governing or in defending governments. Then comes the enquiry—for whose benefit is so much government carried on? The answer is—for the benefit of the 20,000,000 of royal persons, aristocrats, and wealthy idlers. Next comes the enquiry—who are they that have to be governed by those vast armed forces and that host of officials? The answer is simple: deduct your non-productive idlers, your armed force and your government officials—25,000,000 in all—from the whole population of Europe, consisting of 250,000,000, and you will find that 225,000,000 constitute the number thus governed—or, in plain terms, coerced, crushed, trampled upon, and enslaved!

            Just heaven! what startling anomalies transpire to the view of him who will look a little into the significancy and the meaning of those figures. But three principal and astounding facts stand especially conspicuous. The first is, that the twenty millions of royal, aristocratic, and wealthy idlers, for whose sole benefit all government exists, require five millions of men to carry out or protect their system: thus showing that every four individuals of that worthless lot of idlers need one man either to mount sentinel with the musket in defence of their idleness, or else to justify and protect that idleness by means of chicanery, diplomacy, or class legislation. The second fact that arises to startle us, is that those twenty millions are actually living luxuriously upon the labour and industry of the two hundred and twenty five millions of oppressed, half-starved, scourged, and down-trampled slaves. The third fact is, that human patience and endurance must be of the most extraordinary quality when those two hundred and twenty-five millions of labour-slaves consent to toil from morn to night at their heart-breaking work, for the positive and actual benefit of those twenty millions of thankless, heartless, merciless oppressors.

            The whole system of government in Europe has hitherto proved ruinous to the nations. Europe may be divided into fifty-six States, great or small; and out of them only are without a national debt. Of these eight Switzerland is the only country of any consequence; and the absence of a debt may be attributed to its republican form of government. The other States deficient in a national debt, are Tuscany, Monaco, San Marino, and four of the smallest German principalities. Thus, with one brilliant exception of Switzerland, and the other peddling exceptions of beggarly States too poor to have any credit at all, —every empire, kingdom, duchy, and principality in Europe has contracted enormous debts under the old feudal system of government. Has not the world, then, been governed too much, since a comparatively few families have been enabled, by their miscreant ambition or their accursed lust for gold, to entail such ruinous consequences upon millions of people? Look at the sanguinary wars which have been waged in Continental Europe to support that miscreant ambition and minister to that lust for gold. Ah! ermine may be the favourite dress for monarchs and of aristocrats; but assuredly blood is their most familiar distinction!

            Not only has there been too much government in the world; but I have proved that government to be of the most infamous description. Let us take the Emperor of Austria, as he is now situated in relation to his subjects, and with all the circumstances that surround him, and inquire whether that man is reigning for his own benefit, or for the benefit of the 35,000,000 of his subjects? Look at any geography to ascertain what is the form of government in the Austrian empire, and we shall find it described as “a despotism.” A despotism? —but this implies something horribly unjust, —something flagrantly revolting to all our ideas of common sense and common justice—something that wounds our tenderest sensibilities and shocks all our better feelings! And so it is. Then by what right does this one man dare persist in maintaining a despotism towards millions and millions of his people? If they dare to tell him that they do not like his system of government, he calls them rebels—he sends out his armies to dragoon, cannonade, and mow them down—he empowers his generals to commit the most diabolical barbarities—to murder innocent children, immolate helpless old men, and flog inoffensive women. He sends hundreds to the scaffold—he fills his dungeons with victims—and he flings thousands down into the earthly pandemonia of the quick silver mines of Idria. His rage sweeps like a pestilence over Hungary—traverses the Alps without being cooled by the eternal snows of Carniola—and carries death, slaughter, horror, and dismay throughout the finest provinces of Italy. And yet this man affects to reign “by the grace of God,” and is held up as a legitimate governor whom it is treason to disobey: and if he came to England he would be received with all possible respect, veneration, and love at the English Court, by the English Queen—by her husband Prince Albert—and by the English Aristocracy, —while a large portion of the English press would attribute to him every ennobling, god-like, and estimable quality. Yet is not this man a fiend—a veritable fiend, —a demon in human shape—a satanic incarnation, whose presence on earth, if tolerated at all, should only inspire loathing, execration, and abhorrence? Really! when we look at the monstrous crimes of that man and think how he is honoured, worshipped, and adored, —then must we begin to fancy that there is something vilely partial and unfair indeed in human laws, which sent such kindred spirits as Greenacre, Rush, and Manning to the scaffold. Greenacre! why, he was an angel of light compared to some of your Emperors and Kings! He only cut one human being to pieces, whereas your crowned monsters of the Continent have butchered and massacred thousands. In fact, I know not a single murderer that ever made his ignominious exit from the world on the drop at the Old Bailey, who does not deserve to be canonised and regarded as a saint, if your crowned assassins are to be worshipped, revered, and adored.

            Who, then, will dare tell us that ‘tis for the good of those 35,000,000 of people, that the Emperor of Austria maintains his power and consolidates his despotism? Who will dare tell me that any Emperor, King, Queen, or Duke would be tolerated in Continental Europe, if the nations themselves were consulted? It is clear as the sun at noon that they would all be swept away; —thrones and crowns, aristocracies and feudal systems—not a vestige of them would be left, were the millions of the Continent disposed to assert their power and proclaim their opinion. Then why should the world be governed in its own despite? Government is necessary: this the world knows full well; and every community will, for its own sake, choose some system of government. No nation, when suddenly left without a government, has consented to remain without one: no nation, having the power to frame its own government, has neglected to establish one. No nation has ever preferred anarchy to order—chaos to discipline. Then certain and sure it is that if all the present systems of government in Continental Europe were annihilated tomorrow, far more suitable ones would be immediately raised up. The sooner this change takes place, the better. The world can do with less government, because it is more enlightened than it was formerly, and because there is a spirit of fraternity abroad, prompting many nations to coalesce federally under one system. Let us, then, hear no more of the necessity of propping up “legitimacy’s crutch” in Europe: but let us hear that the day is fast approaching when there will be no more royal families requiring thrones to be provided for them—no more aristocracies ready to revolve around those thrones wherever they are set up—no more privileged orders living in idleness upon the labour of the industrious many—no individuals having the power to scourge whole nations, nor venturing to assert the tremendous blasphemy that they are privileged to be miscreants “by the grace of God.”

GEORGE W. M. REYNOLDS.