1830-48] The Revolution of July and Young Germany 411

accord they threw Romanticism to the winds as effete and out of date. A new trend was given to their intellectual life, and the possibility was opened up to them of a mission and a career in accordance with their tastes. Romanticism was not so much killed by the writers of " Young Germany," as neglected, pushed into the background, left to retiring, old-fashioned poets who laid no weight on being modern or "in the movement." And with Romanticism Goethe went also; indeed, the only elements of the rich literature of the earlier generation which were retained as something better than useless ballast, were those which could be brought into harmony with social and political problems. Jean Paul, for instance, stood high in favour as a kindly and sympathetic delineator of simple folk and a champion of the oppressed proletariat; Friedrich Schlegel was recognised as a pioneer in a kind of fiction dealing specially with the relations of the sexes and the emancipation of women — questions which, partly owing to the influence of French writers like George Sand, were of great interest to " Young Germany." Lastly, Schiller, rather than Goethe, the aristocratic hater of the mob, rose rapidly in favour ; he appealed especially to the new generation as the poet of freedom and German patriotism, and as the classical justification of their own radical strivings.

The abandonment of the Romantic faith implied far-reaching changes in the kind of literature which Germany henceforth produced. The Young German School did not, like their predecessors, write for themselves alone ; the enunciation of a subjective opinion or a personal experience was in their eyes of minor importance; the essential thing was that their opinions and sentiments should be acceptable to a wide circle of readers. For the first time in its history German literature took general and constant cognisance of the public; it not only wrote for the public, but it also wrote about the public. The German man of letters was forced into the role of journalist; and the best literature of the period, such as Borne's vivacious Briefe aus Paris (1830-3) and the incisive, witty criticism of Heine's prose writings, was journalism. The German novel, which twenty or thirty reare before had been a mirror of unworldly idealism, a personal ,'confession," became branded with a purpose, and—for the Romanti:ists had also written with ulterior aims — with a markedly practical, jtilitarian, and missionary purpose ; the new novel was a Tendenzroman. [n the same way, the German drama, abandoning the medievalism and lairylore of Romanticism, became a channel for practical political ideas, )r—like Gutzkow's Uriel Acosta — for the philosophic or pseudo-philosophic tendencies of the day.

From the point of view of the literary historian, the era in German etters which followed Goethe's death is a period of depression. Except Eor Heine, little that Young Germany wrote is readable to-day; and n Heine's case it is the wonderful lyrics of his still predominantly

412 Heine. — Journalism [1830-48

Romantic vein that appeal to us, or his literary feuilletons, not the satire and cynicism which he employed so freely in the service of the Young German School. Heine, no less than Immermann and Platen, suffered under the transitional character of the age into which he was born ; his essentially unromantic intellectual outlook was mated with an imagination no less intensely Romantic than that of Novalis himself, and his whole life long he oscillated between these extremes. He wrote lyrics that hold a place with the very finest of Eichendorff's, and there are pages in his prose works which belong to the most brilliant that Young Germany produced; but it was not given to him to reconcile the extremes, and the constant clashing of opposites resulted in a negative and scathing cynicism from which neither Romantic dreams nor Young German principles were safe.

But there is also a valuable side to the Young German epoch. It may not be the mission of the highest literature to descend, as these writers did, to the level and methods of daily journalism; but it must at least be said of the Young German period that it marked a very important stage in the evolution of German journalism. For the first time the Press in Germany learned to assert itself beside that of France and England ; from this period dates the birth of the modern German newspaper as a serious social and political factor. The new point of view, that is to say, the endeavour to write always with an eye to the public, meant a change for the better in German prose style ; the German writer was forced to express himself attractively, he had not merely to satisfy himself as to clearness and lucidity; he had to be clear and lucid to all men. Then again, great as was the loss to German poetry, when the Middle Ages were forgotten, or left to the universities to explore and expound, it was an enormous gain to the breadth and scope of German literature when the leading writers were at last prepared to treat problems and subjects from the every-day life of the German people. Lastly, the social aspects of the change must not be overlooked. Young Germany did more than the whole Romantic movement for the national education of the German people ; did more to make the Germans a politically thinking people ; and it took the first step towards preparing them for the responsibilities that fell to them when the German Empire was reconstructed after 1870.

CHAPTER XIII

RUSSIA

In 1815 Russia reached the zenith of the rising orbit, in which as a European Power she had been moving during the century that had elapsed since Peter the Great. She had shown in the struggle with Napoleon immense endurance and tenacity, and, at the same time, she had acquired a moral ascendancy as the champion of liberty among the European nations. She had definitely established her western frontier, and had considerably extended her limits towards the east and south. Alexander I, in the course of his fifteen years' reign prior to 1815, had carried on more wars than any Russian monarch in the same space of time. Besides his struggle with the French under Napoleon, he had waged war with all his neighbours around him — China alone excepted: with Sweden, Poland, Prussia, Austria, Turkey, the tribes of the Caucasus, and Persia. Everywhere he was successful; he took Finland from Sweden, the grand duchy of Warsaw from Poland, the district of Bialystok from Prussia; from Austria the province of Tarnopol, from Turkey Bessarabia, from Persia Georgia, Dagestan, Imeretia, and Goria. Catharine II had left to her successor 18 million square kilometres of territory and 33 million inhabitants; in 1815 Russia occupied 20 million square kilometres of territory and had 45 million inhabitants. Such a sudden and remarkable expansion, however, brought in its train considerable burdens, the effects of which were apparent in all aspects of the internal life of Russia.

In the first year of the reign of Alexander I, according to the budget for 1802, confirmed in December, 1801, the estimated imperial revenues amounted to 77 millions, the expenditure to 79 million roubles (the rouble being then worth about three shillings sterling). In 1810, according to the computation of the Secretary of State, Michael Speranski, the revenues reached 127 millions and the expenditure 193 millions, showing a deficit of 66 millions; the internal State debt reached 577 millions, and the external debt 100 millions, making a total of 677 millions of roubles. The recent wars with Napoleon had thus brought about an enormous increase in the budget. The budget

414 Russian revenue and currency [1810-22

estimates for 1814, drawn up by the Privy Council of Finance in November, 1813, contemplated a revenue of 312] millions, and an expenditure of 405 millions, showing a nominal deficit of over 92 millions of roubles; the actual deficit, however, proved to be considerably larger, owing to the fictitious nature of many items in the estimated receipts. The estimates for 1815 balanced revenue and expenditure at the sum of 316 millions respectively. Of the estimated revenue the following were the principal items : the poll-tax and land-dues (oJro/c) collected from the Crown peasants, 74.] millions; the poll-tax from the peasants of private proprietors, 311 millions; taxes levied on merchants, 11 millions; the poll-tax on the burgher-class and guilds, 6 millions; taxes paid by landed proprietors, not more than 2 millions; duties on vodka and other spirituous liquors, altogether 104] millions; and customs on imports, 20 millions. Of the expenditure the principal items were: the Court, 13.] millions; the Army, 120 millions; the Fleet, 15 millions; the Ministry of Finance, 102] millions; the Police, 7^ millions; and Education barely two millions. For the last year of the reign of Alexander I (1825), the budget estimates, confirmed by the Emperor in December, 1824, reached the total of 393 millions. In this total spirituous liquors figured for 121 millions, of which the 29 provinces of Great Russia contributed no less than 108 millions, and customs duties had increased to 48 millions. The chief items of expenditure were: the Court, 17J millions; interest on the State Debt, 54 millions; the Army, 145 millions; the Fleet, 21^ millions (out of which 12]- went to the Baltic Fleet and 8 to the Black Sea Fleet); the Ministry of Finance, 88* millions; the Ministry of the Interior, 15 millions (of which 8]- millions were for the Executive Department, i.e. the Police); and Education, 3^ millions.

The currency was in a deplorable state. In 1810 there had been in circulation gold to the amount of nearly 25 million roubles, silver 195, copper 98, and notes 577 millions — in all, paper and coined money amounting to 895 million roubles. In the following years of war the gold and silver were almost entirely withdrawn abroad; copper underwent an enormous appreciation in value — a poodoi copper, which in Catharine's time was worth eight roubles, in 1815 cost 40 paper roubles; on the other hand, the amount of paper money issued reached, in 1815, 700 millions, and, towards the end of 1816, 836 millions of roubles. During the last war there had been a decline of three-fourths in the value of paper money, which practically meant the bankruptcy of the State; the paper rouble was reckoned from that time to be worth 25 kopecks in silver. In order to check its further depreciation, the issue of fresh paper money was stopped from 1817, and steps were taken to call in the notes to the extent of 30 millions annually; in the space of five years (1817-22) 240 millions of notes were, in fact, called in; but this operation had soon to be stopped, since, with the constant

1805-27] The Russian army and system of recruiting 415

deficit in the budget, it was affecting prejudicially the new State loans, inasmuch as the notes, bearing no interest, were being extinguished by the issue of bonds bearing interest at the rate of over 7 per cent. The rate of exchange of the paper rouble remained unaltered, at about 25 per cent.; and only long afterwards, in 1843, an adjustment of the paper currency took place by the issue of new notes exchangeable for silver, on the basis of the exchange of one new paper rouble for 3.] old.

The land army, the principal instrument of the country's supremacy, and the main object of the solicitude of the Government, swallowed up about a third part of the revenue and was a great drain on the strength of the nation. Military service lasted for 25 years, under conditions with respect to clothing, quarters, and, above all, food, that were almost intolerable ; while an iron discipline was maintained, especially for the common soldier. During the period of incessant wars, 1805-15, it has been estimated that the Russian army had lost about 1,200,000 men, of whom, undoubtedly, only a small proportion fell on the field of battle, while the majority perished from sickness and other hardships of the campaigns. During those years 1| millions of fresh recruits, not counting the Cossacks, were levied. In the year 1812 alone there were three levies of recruits: the first of two men out of every 500 men, women and children, the second of ten, and the third of eight, so that, in that single year, there were taken in all 20 recruits from every 500 — which, in many localities that were already exhausted, amounted to the half, or more, of the whole male population between 18 and 35 years of age. Altogether, from 1812 to 1815, there were enrolled for the forces of the line over 900,000 recruits, not including the general war levy. Recruiting was carried on in time of peace just as in time of war, and in the most unsparing manner. If there was not a recruit fit for service in a village, a boy of twelve years of age would be taken in his place for one of the military orphanages. Criminals and vagrants were also enlisted for service, to the number of about 2500 annually. In some provinces as, for example, in the province of Astrakhan, there were districts where only women, children, old men, and cripples remained in the villages, since all the able-bodied males, who had not been impressed, had run away before the levy to the steppes or into Persia. Here and there, the country people offered an active resistance to the conscription, particularly in the Baltic provinces; in many cases, men mutilated themselves in order to avoid service. Of such " damaged " recruits there were over 15 per cent, at a levy made in one district of the province of Novgorod. Jews were originally exempted from military service, upon the payment of a large sum of money; but from 1827 they were included in the conscription. Desertions, in spite of very severe punishments, were frequent; it is computed that there were about 5000 deserters annually.

The military colonies were a terrible feature of the system. They were devised by the Emperor Alexander himself and introduced in 1810.