fc J& **v^ a . ' VI J&C , 1C ** J**k ', xvo . f v -^K ; .HOIAEER10L-- THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 1L 95 HOI A Tl-n.-f V-, V* *v* , The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN APR 2 i 978 HAY 3 ' lU L161 O-1096 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES VOL. 1. NO. 4 DECEMBER. 1912 FRIEDRICH GENTZ an Opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon BY PAUL F. REIFF, Ph.D. Sometime Fellow in History University of Illinois PRICE BO CENTS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY COPYRIGHT 1912 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 9-1 1 I. THE CAUSES OF THE STRUGGLE 1. ENVRONMENTS OF "HE YOUNC GENTZ 12-21 Berlin between 1780 and 1790, 12. Prussia under Fred- erick II and Frederick William II, 13. Conditions in the "Empire", 14. German patriotism and cosmo- politanism, 16. Political and intellectual tendencies in Germany between 1780 and 1790, 18. German ration- alism, 19. Position of the German author, 21. 2. GENTZ'S CHARACTER 22-30 Influence of environments, 22. Physique, 22. Relations of intellect to sentiment, 22. Love of discussion, 23. Gift of conversation, 24. Receptivity and originality, 25. Secondary traits of character, 26. Relation to romanticism, 26. Sociability, 27. Ideals of life, 27. Qualifications as a politician, 29. Literary ability, 30. B 3. GENTZ'S POMTICAL THEORIES 30-52 Difficulty of presenting them, 30. Their general sources, 31. Natural law, 31. Political theories of Cicero, Garve, Rousseau and Montesquieu, 32. Gentz's political theories until 1790, 36. Burke's theories, 38. Gentz's views on government since 1793: Relation to ^ natural law and positive-historical law, 39. Ideal of .-; human progress, 42. State of nature and social com- pact, 43. Later view on the basis of the authority of the government, 44. Duties of the state, 44. Forms of government, 45. Liberty, equality and popular sovereignty, 46. Defects of government, right of revolution and progress, 47. "Eternal laws", 48. Gentz's views on international law since 1793 : Idea of a world state, 48. Rights and duties of the individual -^7 states toward one another, 49. International con- gresses, 49. The European balance of power, 50. War, 50. Problem of priority of Gentz's political theories to his political struggles: influence of Cicero, 50. 3 PAGE II. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE REVOLUTION 1 . BEFORE THE STRUGGLE : 1789-1792 53-6o Germany and the Revolution, 53. Gentz's state of mind on the eve of the movement, 56. His early sympa- thies with it, 57. Observation of events, 57. Change of attitude, 58. 2. 1793-1799 60-83 Gentz's official position and life in Berlin, 60. Anti-revo- lutionary publications, 61. Early relations to foreign governments, 62. Causes of activity, 64. Influence of Burke and Mallet du Pan, 64. Gentz's conception of the Revolution and the duties of Europe: Conditions in pre-revolutionary France, 67. Immediate causes of the Revolution, 67. Rousseau, 69. Beginning and end of the Revolution, 69. Its importance, 70. Its fundamental principles, 71. Its relations to Europe, 74. Europe in 1800, 76. Secret of the successes of the Revolution, 77. Proper policy of Europe, 79. Relations to England, 80. Temporary suspension of the struggle, 82. III. THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NAPOLEON 1 . BEFORE THE STRUGGLE : 1798-1802 84-88 Napoleon and the Revolution, 84. Gentz's attitude to- ward Napoleon until the Coup d fitat, 85. Beginning of opposition, 87. 2. 1803-1809 88-134 Gentz's appointment in Vienna, 88. His life and ambi- tions, 90. General features of Gentz's struggle against Napoleon : Its causes, 91. Idea of coalitions, 94. Attitude to- ward Russia and England, 95. Memorials in general, 97. Correspondence, 98. Publications, 98. Other methods of opposition, 99. Ultimate aims, 99. Judg- ment on the personality of Napoleon, 99. Spring, i8o3,-summer, 1805 : Gentz's life and frame of mind, 102. Memorials, 103. Relations to St. Pe- tersburg, Berlin, and London, 104. Organization of the Austrian cabinet, 105. Career of Cobenzl, 106. Difficulty of his task, 107. His policy until the con- clusion of the alliance with Russia, 108. Gentz's op- 4 PAGE position to Cobenzl, no. Suggestions as to Cob- enzl's successor, 112. Memorials and their effect, 112. Summer, i8o5,-fall, 1805 : Gentz's views on the Euro- pean situation and the prospects of Austria, 117. Fall, i8os,-end of 1805 : Opening of the war by Napoleon, 119. Effect of Ulm, 119. Gentz's flight from Vi- enna, 120. Effect of Austerlitz, 122. Further flight and stay in Dresden and Prague, 122. Beginning of i8o6-beginning of 1809: Gentz's life and state of mind in general, 124. His plans concern- ing Prussia, 126. The Fragmente, 127. Memori- als, 128. Social activity, 129. Meetings with Baron Stein, 130. Suspicions of Napoleon, 130. Visit at the Prussian headquarters, 131. Relations to Eng- land, 132. Return to Vienna, 133. Gentz's activity during the war of 1809, 133. 3. 1813-1815 134-153 1809-1812: Gentz's life and activity in general, 134. His attitude during the Russian campaign, 137. Spring, i8i3,-summer, 1814: Gentz's views on the best Austrian policy, 138. His stay and activity at Rati- borzitz, 142. At Prague and Freiburg, 144. Return to Vienna, 145. Growing need of comfort, 145. Opposi- tion to the continuation of the war after Leipzig, 146. Views on the reorganization of Germany and the best policy toward Napoleon, 147. Motives for distrust of the allies, 149. Relations to Metternich, 150. Gentz at the congress of Vienna, 151. During the Hun- dred Days, 152. CONCLUSION 154-156 ABBREVIATIONS Aus dein Nachlasse Aus dem Nachlasse Friedrichs von Gents, 2 vol' + 1867-1868. Brief e v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents Brief e von und an Friedrich von Gents, ed. by F. C. Wittichen, 2 vol., 1909-1910. Briefiv. zw. Fr. Gents u. A. H. Muller Briefwechsel swischen Friedrich Gents und Adam Heinrich Muller, 1857. H. J Historisches Journal, ed. by Friedrich Gentz, 6 vol., 1799-1800. Mem. et lett. ined. Memoirs et lettres inedits du Chevalier de Gents, ed. by Schlesier, 1841. Schlesier Schriften von Friedrich von Gents, ed. by Schlesier, 5 vol., 1838-1840. Weick Ausgewdhlte Schriften von Friedrich von Gents, ed. by Weick, 5 vol., 1836-1838. BIBLIOGRAPHY For bibliography it will be sufficient to refer here to that given by Friedrich M. Kircheisen and Friedrich Carl Wittichen in Mitteilungen des Instituts fiir Osterreichische Geschichtsforschung, XXVII (1906), 91-146 and 682-694. , ERRATA 1. Page 30, line II, for "at" read "the". 2. Page 39, line 3, for "Burke," read "Burke." 3. Page 53, toward end of note i, for "January 21 st, 1792" read "Janu- ary 21 st, 1793". 4. Page 54, line 27, for "couse" read "cause". 5. Page 55, line 20-21, for "Z. L. Huber" read "J. L. Huber". 6. Page 61, line 16, for "Office" read "office"; line 22, for "Ubel" read "Uber" ; line 24, for "Herra" read "Herrn"; line 25, for "Xationalerzichung" read "Xationalererziehung". 7. Page 62, line 17, for "Entstchung" read "Enstehung"; n e 33, for "Teutsche" read "teutsche". 8. Page 67, line 14, for "overpupulation" read "overpopulation". 9. Page 77, line 27, for "refernce" read "reference". 10. Page 88, note 12, for "70," read "70.". it. Page 89, note 13, for "Tagebiicher". omit quotation marks. 12. Page 97, line 31, for "the" read "The". 13. Page 125, line 3, for "entire" read "central". 14. Page 126, line 13, for "is" read "in". 15. Page 136, line 28, for "mostly" read "much". 16. Page 141, line 6, for "first" read "second". 17. Page 143, line 31, for "enrahissement" read "envahissement". 18. Page 153, line i, for "concession" read "cession". Narrow personalities are easy to understand and to classify ; rich personalities, on the other hand, seem to defy definition. That, at least, is one of the teachings that may be derived from a study of the career and character of the publicist, Frederick Gentz. Gentz's life was not an unusu- ally long one, yet it was unusually rich in activities and complex tendencies. But the causes of this lay less in the tremendous vibrations of the era in which Gentz lived than in the man himself; they lay in a versatility of mind which was truly astonishing. An official in the Prussian and Austrian civil services, a diplomatic agent of England on the Continent, the self-appointed adviser of ministers and rulers, one of the busiest and ablest writers of his time, the arch-enemy of the first French revolution and the first Napoleon, the secretary of Europe during nine highly im- portant months, one of the pillars of the Reaction, a social genius of the first order, the bohcmien par excellence, and a romanticist as well as a rationalist all this Gentz was. His youth fell in the era of enlightenment and of Frederick the Great, his manhood coincided with the first French revolution and with Napoleon, and his later life belonged to the age of Metternich. The question who Gentz was would thus seem to be difficult to answer. However, if we consider only his po- litical activity and the intellectual traits of his nature, leaving aside its sentimental and social features, the answer will be easier. We will then have the choice be- tween two chief conceptions of the man. One of these would be to see in Gentz an eighteenth century type in general, and a practical exponent of the rationalistic doc- trine of government in particular. This conception is in one way undoubtedly the deepest and truest, for Gentz was indeed rooted in the doctrines of rationalism, at least as 10 FBIEDRICH GENTZ [496 regards his political activity. It has, however, one serious drawback, the fact that in its light the life-work of Gentz his struggles against the Revolution, against Napoleon and for the Reaction appears as nothing but a mere appendix to his theories; and that, of course, would be a rather abstract Avay of looking at him. We have thus to turn to the other conception which puts actions first and theories second. Viewed from this angle, Gentz would be seen chiefly as a participant more or less a negative one, it is true in the great European movements between the first and second French revolutions. And thus, it seems, Gentz must indeed be viewed. He was essentially a theorist whom the course of events aroused, but in fact a man of action. He started out with highly idealistic jy;inciples, those of human brotherliness and human progress, of liberty, equality, justice and peace. Some of these he retained and championed for many years ; others he soon dropped or at least modified, taking up in their stead, as a new principle, the defence of that system which was threatened with overthrow by the events of 1789 and the following decades. The French Revolution, Bona- partism and Liberalism alike were hateful to him ; they all meant democracy or at least a drifting towards it, and democracy he abhorred. But his special foe, his nightmare for more than ten years, was Napoleon. On his account he suffered many a bad hour and gained immortality ; for such is the character of true greatness that mere opposition to it brings fame. He helped to arouse and to organize the opposition against whatever was revolutionary and aggres- sive; but nowhere was he more fervent than in his crusade against this hated man and gigantic child of the Revolu- tion. His whole life, indeed, centers about the ten years of his anti-Napoleonic activity. The following study will, in general, be in accordance with the second of the two conceptions. It aims, in the first place, at a careful representation of Gentz's struggle against the first Napoleon. Its second object historically the first is an account of Gentz's relations to the first 497] INTRODUCTION 11 French revolution. The introductory chapter will try to give the causes of Gentz's attitude in both cases. Gentz was born in 1764 at Breslau, the capital of the Prussian province of Silesia, and died in 1832 at Vienna. His father held until 1779 a position in the royal mint at Breslau and then became director of the mint at Berlin; through his mother he was related to the later Prussian minister of state, Ancillon. He received his first education in the public schools of his native city and in the Joach- imsthal-Gymnasium at Berlin; from 1783 to 1785 he at- tended the university at Konigsberg, where Kant was still teaching. Entering the Prussian civil service in 1785, he worked during the following years in various central boards of the monarchy. In 1802 he was taken over into the Aus- trian civil service. His official positTon there was at first a very vague one; he was attached to the ministry of for- eign affairs, the Staatskanzlei, but had little to do and nothing to say. After about 1811, however, he gradually became the right hand man of Metternich and was as such of course, important and influential. I. THE CAUSES OF THE STRUGGLE 1. ENVIRONMENTS OF THE YOUNG GENTZ. Although Gentz was not a Berliner by birth, yet he lived long enough in the Prussian capital to be counted as one. The first milieu of his youth was then the Berlin of about the years 1780-1790. Beyond it lay, as larger circles, the condition of Prussia and of the "Empire". Beyond these again extended the atmosphere of European life and thought in general. Berlin was at the time of the death of Frederick the Great a city of about one hundred and fifty thousand people, the strong garrison included. A modest-sized place then, one might say, if everything had not been smaller in those days. Scenic charms it never possessed, although the near-by Havel lakes are not without their quiet, mel- ancholy attractions. Its streets were none too clean, rather badly lighted and unsafe at night. There were perhaps a few noteworthy buildings here and there, but the general level of architecture was rather low. The present univer- sity had not yet been founded; the academies of science and of arts, however, already existed. The intellectual and artistic life of the city could not claim any special distinction. No famous philosopher or scholar, no great poet or artist lived within its precincts; there were, of course, Mcolai and Mendelssohn, but they could not be called great, and Lessing had long since left the city. Berlin was too new and young, too sober, too busy and too poor to be a centre of learning and of art ; it possessed many soldiers, plenty of sand, an invigorating climate and a great king, but no Hesperian gardens and no zephyrs, few books and hardly any history to speak of. Nevertheless, in a certain sense the city could even then boast of intellectual preeminence: it was the center of Ger- man rationalism and already endowed with that critical 12 499] EARLY ENVIRONMENTS 13 mind for which it has ever since been famous. Socially the nobility predominated; the other classes the officials and the professions, the wealthier merchants, the descend- ants of the French emigres and the Jews still counted for little. The moral standard was unsatisfactory in many regards, but probably not so bad as anti-rationalists would have it; it had already been on the decline in the later years of Frederick the Great, and under his successor mat- ters went from bad to worse. All in all, then, it must be admitted that the Berlin of those days was rather uninteresting. One great attraction it did possess, however, and that was Frederick himself. His fame still brought distinguished visitors from abroad; but they came more and more rarely, afraid of disturbing the great man in his work. To the general public the king was generally not visible. At military parades he could, perhaps, be seen, or when he occasionally rode into town; aside from these occasions, however, he never left his be- loved Sanssouci except for the annual visits to the prov- inces. He had become a stern old man ; a terribly exacting taskmaster whom few loved and all respected. Physical ailments troubled him, his friends had mostly died, and Berlin grumbled; but that mattered little. Patriae in serviendo consumor this was his kingly program, to be observed by himself no less than by his subjects; as for the rest, he was the King, and every malcontent was at liberty to grumble, provided that he obeyed. The political system of Frederick was in some respects based on rationalistic principles, in others, again, it was shaped according to practical considerations ; to call it en- lightened absolutism would, therefore, not be quite correct. Frederick maintained a big army; he waged three wars which were, at least in part, wars of conquest: and he thought remarkably little of the individual as such in all this he was not a rationalist. Likewise, his confirmation of the privileges obtained by the Prussian nobility during previous reigns exceeded that which was permissible from the rational istic standpoint. On the other hand, Frederick 14 FEIEDRICH GENTZ [500 was in harmony with the latter when he called himself the first servant of the state, when he put the common weal above all private interests, and would allow every one to seek salvation according to his own fashion. Under his successor, Frederick William II, the gen- eral organization of the state was retained, but in less im- portant points changes were made. The two notorious laws of his reign the ordinances concerning public wor- ship and the censorship of the press were of great actual importance, but did not affect the formal structure of the state ; they proceeded from the individual character of the king or of his nearest advisers and were intended as a blow against the hated rationalism. Although fundamental re- forms did not come until after the debacle of 1806, there was, even then, a good deal of discussion whether steps in this direction should not, after all, be seriously considered. Personally Frederick William did, of course, not enjoy the respect paid to his uncle, yet he was not unpopular with his people, rather the contrary, it would seem ; but his reign, as a whole, was undoubtedly pernicious to the state. Sub- sequent events showed that under him Prussian efficiency, thrift and devotion to the common interests retrograded witli sinister rapidity. Beyond Prussia lay the "Empire." It had gradually become the most complicated as well as one of the least important political bodies of Europe. The emperor at Vienna, the diet at Kegensburg, the supreme court at Wetzlar, traditions centuries old and the lack of something better kept it, in a way, together ; yet its doom was near at hand. Austria, Prussia, and the more important of the smaller German territories had become absolutistic and centralized states; in the "Empire" the old German Libertdt remained. The emperor still had to be elected, and the case of Charles VII showed that this meant more than a mere formality ; he presided over the imperial diet, the strangest element of this strange political organization. This body, in general, contained the territorial lords; but these might be neutra, as was the case with the free cities 501] EARLY ENVIRONMENTS 15 and perhaps, the free abbots. Represented or actually pres- ent were the temporal princes, high and low, the great dig- nitaries of the Catholic Church, the free abbots, the col- leges of the imperial counts, knights and cities, and finally such foreign powers as possessed German territory. The Catholic votes still preponderated numerically; however, that involved hardly any danger to the Protestants, since in strictly religious matters the old itio in paries had been retained. As a rule, the august body would proceed with no undue rashness; time-honoured traditions had to be observed, and that being accomplished, little else remained to be done. The weakness and stagnation of imperial Ger- many resulted, of course, largely from the antagonism be- tween Austria and Prussia. United, these two powers would have presented a most formidable combination, but the time was not yet ripe for that. There were the smaller German states and there was Poland; who would control the one and absorb the other? Neither power was willing to allow the other to do it, and thus the relations between them remained strained, with a tendency to become deli- cate at any moment. The internal conditions of the different German terri- tories outside of Prussia and Austria varied considerably. Bavaria stood apart. A Chinese wall was carefully drawn around it to exclude all possibility of protestant, ration- alistic or pan-German influences; for these the ruling class considered dangerous. The country was to be their own reservation; besides, it really needed no suggestions from "abroad," being a self-sufficient state and, if you were ready to admit the facts, quite a power. West and north of Bavaria began the "Empire" in the narrowest sense of the word. The common features of this whole part of Ger- many it comprised, roughly speaking, Suabia, the Black Forest district, Franconia, the Rhine country, the strip east of it as far as the Weser, and Thuringia were three- fold: the territorial incoherence of all the states, the smallness of most of them and, as regards the population, a certain intellectual liveliness and love of independence. 16 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [502 Take, for instance, the Suabian district of the "Empire" ; it contained one duchy, Wurtemberg, forty ecclesiastical ter- ritories, thirty imperial cities, many princely seigniories and the domains of the numerous free counts and free knights. Or take the electorate of Mainz ; its nucleus con- sisted of the rich estates in the Rheingau and along the lower Main, but besides these it possessed also Bischofs- heim on the Tauber, Starkenburg in the Odenwald, Fritz- lar in Hesse, Erfurt, and the whole Eichsfeld. Territories of that configuration and insignificance would, of course, not think of having any independent policy. The smallest of them trembled for their very existence. They, the free cities, knights, counts and abbots, the bishops and petty temporal princes, then the archbishops and ecclesiastical electors mostly attached themselves to Austria, while the larger political states, during this period, sought the protection of Prussia. The nobility was almost everywhere firmly en- trenched, if it was not the sovereign itself; in the imperial cities, of course, no nobility in the technical sense of the word existed, but there were the patrician families and in their hands the political power lay. The authority of the sovereign was nowhere unlimited or undisputed; the no- bles, the chapters of the cathedrals, the lower classes in the free cities and sometimes even the peasants jealously guarded whatever rights they happened to possess. Such then were the conditions in the "Empire." They resembled somewhat those of Italy, but aside from this there was not the like of them in all Europe; not even the moribund Poland could be referred to as a parallel. Obso- lete and unsound they must have appeared to many; but they had also their attractive sides: they were venerable, interesting and indicative of great regard for historic rights. One of those who felt a sentimental attach- ment to the "Empire" on account of these reasons was Gentz. The fact that Germany then was not much more than a geographical notion naturally resulted in a certain quiescence of national pride and sentiment. The poets of 503] EARLY ENVIRONMENTS 17 the Storm and Stress and of the Gottingen group the young Herder, the young Goethe, Schiller during the first years of his literary career, Lentz, Holty, the two Stolbergs and others had been fervent pan-Germans; but their patriotism referred more to the German past than to the German present, and they themselves belonged, with the exception of the young Schiller, to the preceding decade. Among the lowest classes there was if any but a local or provincial patriotism. The common theatre-going public, it is true, remained in the eighties as susceptible to the Storm and Stress spirit as it had been in the seventies ; yet the numberless knightly dramas which swept the German stage of the time pleased the spectators less by their pat- riotism than by their ponderous sensationalism. In gen- eral, it may therefore be said that the masses were rather void of pan-German sentiment; the attachment to the province, the city, or the state preponderated with them. F. K. Moser, the Suabian publicist and politician, remarked shortly after the close of the Seven Year's War : "Yes, we have a national spirit as we have wine-producing terri- tories and beer-producing territories, at every bend of the road another one." In a similar strain Wieland wrote : "There are, perhaps, Miirckian, Saxon, Bavarian, Wurtem- bergian, Hamburgian, Nurembergian, Frankfortian patri- ots and so on; but German patriots who love the whole German Empire as their country and love it above every- thing else, ready to make real sacrifices for it, where are they?" The cultured classes, as a rule, believed in cosmo- politanism : they considered themselves first of all citizens of the world. There existed, however, important sections in this group which were less cosmopolitan than particu- laristic. The nobles, for instance, thought very little of the citizenship of the world; but, perhaps, they could not be called cultured. Winckelmann, the Goethe of that time, Heinse and the Romanticists of the following decade were, in a way, cosmopolitans too; Germany, at any rate, found little favor in their eyes, being, as they thought, an alto- gether too Cimmerian part of the globe and no home for 18 FBIEDRICH GENTZ [.504 the Graces. At the same time, it is true, each of them would love some far-away land beyond the mountains, ancient Greece, Italy, Spain, India, or the Orient in general, which was to him his real, his own country. Leaving these sec- tions aside, there remained, as the bulk of the cultured classes, the out-and-out rationalists; and they were un- doubtedly thorough cosmopolitans men without a coun- try. In Prussia the attachment to the province prepon- derated: the Pomeranian was first of all a Pomeranian, and the Silesian a Silesian. There existed, however, also a national Prussian spirit and that semi-national feudal bond of loyalty which connected the army with the person of the king. The French prestige still suffered from the blow of Ross- bach, and the internal conditions of France were not such as to raise it; among the literati, Lessing's attacks on the French drama, too, were remembered. Nevertheless, the old Gallomania largely continued ; only it had now to com- pete with a rival, the budding German Anglomania. Shakespeare and Ossian, the idols of the Storm and Stress, disappeared, it is true, for the time being, from the literary horizon together with the windy heaths and foggy shores of their poetry; and likewise the great king felt, in his later years, none too kindly towards the British. But it had become somewhat the fashion to learn English, and at the side of the old French Mademoiselle there appeared now, as a governess, the new Anglo-Saxon Miss. Eng- lishmen were more frequently seen traveling through the country and they found that reverential treatment which they expected and which they obtained far into the nine- teenth century. German public opinion was not yet strongly devel- oped, and so far as it existed it was rather conservative. Nobody seriously thought of infringing upon the constitu- tion of the "Empire." The system of limited absolutism was even unanimously recommended by the rationalistic polit- ical writers of the time. There were a few republicans, some enthusiasts for liberty in general, and numerous un- 505] EARLY ENVIRONMENTS 19 willing tax-payers; on the whole, however, the spirit of opposition had been louder in the seventies than it was in the eighties. The condition of the peasants was conceded by many to be hard and indefensible; but these same per- sons were unwilling to endorse the abolition of the nobility as an institution, for that would have meant a revolution of the whole existing order of things. They favored slight changes ; at the same time they considered the existence of a nobility as necessary to the welfare of the state, appre- hending that without it the power of the sovereign might know no limits. The attitude of public opinion would thus seem to have been unduly submissive; appearances, how- ever, are often deceptive. It was universally and most strongly insisted upon by all the rationalistic writers on political science that the rulers held their offices only as a trust, to be administered solely for the common weal; they would not have government by the people, but they de- manded government for the people. Intellectually, the years 1780-1790 may, as regards Germany, best be defined as a period of transition. The great intellectual movements of this country during the eighteenth century were rationalism, pietism, Empfindsam- keit or sentimentalism, the Storm and Stress, Hellenism, philosophical idealism and romanticism. Of these ration- alism had undoubtedly been the most powerful; but its force was spent and it now abated visibly. The German pietism continued to hold its position, and the same may be said about the German Empfindsamkeit, inasmuch as the latter became one of the chief sources of the German roman- ticism; both of them were essentially German movements and thus proof against the flutter of fashion. The Storm and Stress began to decline with the end of the seventies. German Hellenism had already reached its first zenith in the sixties; now it was to experience a second classical age. The year 1781 marked the beginning of the new philosophical idealism, and between 1786 and 1795 German romanticism sprang into existence. The European movement which is commonly called 20 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [506 that of enlightenment was not a mere intellectual ten- dency; it amounted to nothing less than a new ideal of civilization. Its three main principles were the primacy of reason, utility, and humanity. Reason had now become the supreme judge in all human matters, and from the ver- dict of this judge there was no appeal; about that every- body agreed. But what was to be understood by "reason"? Only clear logical thinking, or certain innate ideas and tendencies, or both? Most of the rationalists, especially those in Germany, favored the third of these conceptions. They talked of a natural religion, of natural laws and natural rights, indicating by the epithet "natural" that disregard for these ideals was tantamount to disobedience against nature itself; and to bring humanity under the sway of this nature was to them a most sacred duty. The acceptance of the authority of the Bible and of the dogmas, the reverence for history and for tradition, the belief in miracles, religious intolerance, all and every shade of mys- ticism, every indulgence in sentiment, and the whole Mid- dle-Age were, therefore, stigmatized as so many aberrations of the human mind. The cultivation of poetry and art in general they tolerated in a way ; but only with many reser- vations. Art was then little cherished in Germany and for this reason left alone. Poetry, on the other hand, had become a matter of great interest to the Germans and could, consequently, not very well be ignored : it had to be advised, and thus the poets were gravely told that passion and sentiment were of no use and their expression, therefore, of still less; that every poem should try to give some profit- able instruction and that the best instruction was a moral one. A certain indefiniteness clouded the third of the rationalistic principles, that of humanity. It could mean the ideal of developing all the human faculties, or the doctrine of altruism, or the recommendation of milder habits and manners in general, and in fact it did mean all this ; the individual rationalistic writer might have in view only the one or the other of these meanings, but rationalism as a whole stood for all of them. Much enthusiasm was 507] EARLY ENVIRONMENTS 21 manifested for the perfection and progress of the human race, for the idea of international fraternalism and for re- ligious tolerance; likewise much interest was shown in the promotion of industry and agriculture. Few, if any, would advocate war and its cause ; war was declared to be a waste as well as a crime and unworthy of enlightened men. Everybody, on the other hand, believed in the efficacy of education; training was everything: able men were not born, they were made. Of particular interest for the student of Gentz's career is the position of the German author of the time. In coun- tries like England and France an author in those days often acquired considerable wealth and political influence. In Germany, however, he was poor and of little conse- quence in matters concerning the conduct of public affairs; for there the government lay chiefly in the hands of the rulers, and perhaps the only German writer of that age who wielded any real influence upon them was Schlozer in Gottingen. If the conditions were favorable, then an author might, by his writings, obtain some respectable po- sition at court or in the service of the government, as was the case with Goethe, Wieland and Herder ; but that could not be depended upon. Schubart, for instance, never at- tained any such recognition ; Lessing died as a librarian in the world-forsaken Wolfenbiittel ; and Schiller was at this very time a homeless man, wandering from place to place. Literary careers such as Voltaire's in France could then not be thought of in Germany ; even that of Mallet du Pan in the pre-revolutionary Paris would have been well-nigh impossible. Yet the literary career had after all, even in Germany, one very attractive side : it was the simplest and straightest way to fame and to popularity, provided that the writer knew his readers. The German of that day had little interest in politics, but he cared very much for poetry and philosophy; there, then, lay the golden opportunity for the writers, and in this way Klopstock, Gellert, Goethe, Schiller and Kant had become the favorite sons of the nation. 22 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [508 2. GENTZ'S CHARACTER. To what extent this environment helped to form Gentz's character is, as always in such cases, somewhat hard to say. His theories without a doubt were influenced by it in considerable measure; his character, however, de- veloped more independently. Its chief characteristics were probably inborn, for they remain on the whole as fixed as was possible amid the tumult of such a life and such an epoch. They were characteristics affected by misfortune only temporarily at most, but rather susceptible to sick- ness and age. Among the gifts with which fate had endowed this re- markable personality, a fine physique was not the least. Gentz was not really handsome; he possessed, however, captivating eyes and a very pleasant voice. His vitality must have been very great to start with, for despite the magnificent recklessness with which he spent himself in pleasure and in work, he reached, after all, well-nigh the threshold of three score years and ten. The weak point of his make-up was his nerves. He easily lost patience and was fearful of any uncertainty. Wind, rain, and above all storms were highly repulsive to him, and his interest in the condition of the weather is reflected in many of his letters. What he loved was to have a blue sky above him, to see the sun, and to breathe the quiet air; and when he once discovered that a place was meteorologically unsafe, then no amount of feminine charms, no gathering of illus- trious names could make him stay there. The restless and at times wild life which he led did not, however, re- main without consequences. His finances were almost from the start in hopeless confusion ; in 1814 his health, too, be- gan seriously to suffer. From 1825, perhaps, the latter be- came somewhat improved; but the old strength was after all gone, and at last death came as a consequence of general debility. Intellect and feeling were equally developed in Gentz. Personalities of this sort are able to avoid the threatening 509] CHARACTER 23 inner conflict only by allowing both sides of their natures to express themselves, and such also was Gentz's experi- ence. Until 1819, he was firm in his determination to sub- ordinate everything to the judgment of reason; nothing would, however, be farther from the truth than to attempt to term him on this account a rationalist pure and and sim- ple. Even in the sphere of statesmanship, the emotions confidence, reverence, benevolence and content were for him factors of the highest significance, and likewise did he feel sentiment to be of the greatest importance in the provinces of art and religion. How much he allowed him- self to be influenced by emotions, consciously or uncon- sciously, in his moods and in his relations with other peo- ple, will be seen later. More correctly could we call Gentz, therefore, a sentimentalist as well as a rationalist, recog- nizing in him one of those complex natures as rich as they are hard to define. In his youth, it is true, Gentz seemed to give little promise for the future, if we are to credit his oldest biographer ; a good boy, amiable and easy-going, with but little talent if not actually dull so the estimates of him run. 1 The judgment of a later biography is, however, rather different ; according to it the young Gentz was not at all dull, and well thought of by the teachers of his Gym- nasium in Berlin. 2 The two accounts seem contradictory, but in reality both are credible ; Gentz may have been easy- going at home and active at school, combining within him- self tendencies for pleasure and work in a way which still persisted in later years. From 1793 on, he certainly left no doubt as to his mental capacity, astonishing, we may well assume, not a few of those earlier skeptics. One of the prominent features of Gentz's character was his love for the discussion of problems. Orally and in writing, in treatises, letters and official notes, he gave way to this passionate pleasure; in the broader sense of the word, he argued almost all his life, with Kant and Hamann Warnhagen von Ense, Galerie von Bildnissen aus Rahels Umgang und Briefwechsel, II, 162. a Schmidt-Weissenfels, Friedrich Gents, I, 8 f. 24 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [510 in Konigsberg, with friends such as von Humboldt and Adam Muller, with the Revolution, with the hated Cobenzl and the equally detested Napoleon, in short with well-nigh every one with whom he came into positive or negative con- tact. His motives in this were sure to be various. One was his interest in the analysis of problems as such, to which we have before referred; a second was his wish to be able to enjoy his dialectic superiority ; still another was his endeavor to see his political ideas realized ; a fourth, finally, was the great sociability of his nature. With his equals he was in these discussions open and direct; with his superiors, on the other hand, Cobenzl excepted, truly deferential. In all argumentation he was concerned with truth alone. It would have been impossible for him to defend something, of the correctness of which he was not convinced; for that he was far too honest. Closely related was Gentz's eminent gift of social con- versation. It was more necessary for him to speak than to write, and he loved to express himself fully to others or to chat with them even when there was no problem at issue. Whenever he was in the proper mood he could talk very seductively and fascinatingly, and the fact may per- haps be a matter of surprise that he found entertainment among men as attractive as among women. It would be incorrect to term him a ladies' man; but he certainly was a master in social intercourse with women, particularly with those of standing. When he made use of his beauti- ful eyes, when his gentle voice softly flattered the ear, when he spoke of his boundless devotion or in his spirited fashion discoursed of serious things then he must indeed have been hard to resist. The circle of his feminine ac- quaintances was therefore large, reaching almost to the throne, and it is safe to say that without this gift of light as well as of substantial conversation Gentz would not have attained to the illustrious social position in Vienna, a position which meant so much to him politically that with its assistance he won so easily. 511] CHARACTER 25 Speech is not in and of itself, however, of equal im- portance with thinking; mere words are cheap, but clear, deep, and original thinking is by no means so. TTow was Gentz's intellect in this regard? It must be granted that he was no intellectual pioneer; he was orig- inal, perhaps, in nothing save the combination of the quali- ties which he embodied, and this he too, honest as ever, has himself granted. To Rahel, his particular confidant, he wrote in 1803 : "You are a ceaselessly producing nature, I am a ceaselessly receptive one ; you are a great man, I am the first of all women who ever lived. This I know : had I been physically a woman, I should have brought the earth to my feet. I have never discovered anything, never com- posed anything, never made anything. I am more electrical than metal and just for this reason a conductor of electric- ity without a second. My receptivity is quite boundless." 3 Gentz was, however, not at all on this account purely re- ceptive. He read much and in this way accumulated ma- terial from all sides. This material he carefully arranged and moulded into a pleasing form, the latter point receiving much of his attention. If many of his treatises are not- withstanding not easily readable, this is not due to any lack of clearness of logic, but to the abundance of material ; clear writing is often clear because superficial, whereas Gentz was, if anything, thorough. And not thorough alone, but likewise objective, even in the midst of the battle. He would have none of that extremely convenient principle that there are two sides to every question; to him a ques- tion might have many sides and ramifications, but there was only one truth and that truth was obligatory upon all. To assume that truth could be established by a majority, by the judgment of public opinion or moreover by the will of the common people was in his eyes both an absurdity and a crime. Principles of this sort he considered empty phrases; and of these he was the most irreconcilable foe. A very valuable intellectual peculiarity which Gentz pos- 'Schlesier, I, 113. 26 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [512 sessed was, moreover, his undoubted brilliancy. The ani- mation of his mind, his many-sided interests, his wealth of ideas secondary and not original, it is true his ability to use these ideas quickly and fitly, the artistic quality of his conversation, and an undeniable humor all these combine to give him a claim to be called brilliant. In this respect he was without question an exceptional figure. As regards the other sides of Gentz's character there is not a little that could be mentioned, for Gentz was any- thing but narrow and dull. He was possessed of much nat- ural good-nature, much independence of spirit, and much restlessness; besides, he was endowed with an elasticity of temperament which kept him youthful almost to the the last. He liked sensation when not too strong. He deviated not a hair's breadth from his principles; on the other hand, he was entirely lacking in military spirit and feared noisy crowds, unknown faces, age, and death. For nature, especially for his beloved mountains, the "silent, icy" peaks of the Alps as he calls them, he always felt a warm affection, not unlike that of a boy who comes home for a few days' vacation ; but above this unadulterated na- ture he still placed that artistically beautiful nature of the kind that one meets with in architecturally planned gar- dens. In many regards he was a romanticist in the sense of the two Schlegels, although he expressed himself not in- frequently in a rather disparaging way concerning the younger of the brothers and concerning Tieck. He was a romanticist in his inner wealth of life, his warmth of feeling, his reverence for the feminine, his exalted levity, his sense of the poetical and his love for nature, in his occasional need of solitude, in his reverence for the past and in his catholic tendencies, or rather in the combination of all these qualities. If we were to name a single and comprehensive characteristic which above all he had in common with the Schlegels, it would be his antipathy to- ward whatever was commonplace and philistine. His ap- preciation of reason and understanding, his energy and 513] CHARACTER 27 cheerfulness, as well as his interest in politics were, it is true, quite unromantic features of his make-up. Gentz could apparently not until late in life dispense with social intercourse. Along with his occupation with politics, it was for him the salt of life. The equipment for playing a role in social life he possessed with the excep- tion of one thing, noble birth ; and this was unfortunately a point to which at that time especial importance was at- tached. It was therefore necessary for him to make up for the deficiency, as far as this was possible, by falling back upon other personal distinctions which were available and useful to this end. What helped Gentz here most, be- yond doubt, was the thoroughly aristocratic character of his whole nature. Intercourse with people who stood outside the sacred circles of high life was under certain circumstances very attractive to him, his intimate relations with Adam Mtiller and others testify to this; but his real atmosphere was, after all, the perfumed air of the drawing- room. His love of comfort, his absolute light-heartedness, his sense of the artistic, the gentleness of his manners, his egotism and his ambition forced him thither, or at any rate away from the common crowd ; he belonged to the elite and wanted to belong to them, intellectually, socially and polit- ically. We know how completely successful he was in this endeavor; that he was so, however, especially the man- ner in which he succeeded in gaining entree into the very exclusive circles of the high Austrian nobility and in estab- lishing there a place for himself, will always be a circum- stance for wonder to him who knows the laws and habits of this West-End of Europe. With time, it is true, when he had drunk long enough from this cup of bliss and that old age which he feared so much was gradually drawing on, his love for society life waned very considerably. In the final analysis, Gentz had, after reaching full manhood, three fundamental ideas : influence, pleasure, and justice; the first two governed his life in general, the third his political theories in particular. He wished to play a r61e in the world and felt that he had the power within 28 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [514 himself to do so; and this rdle was to be principally that of statesman. But he did not entertain such ambitions from the start. To Elizabeth Graun, one of his first loves but by no means his last, he writes in 1785 in a perfectly bucolic, Rousseau-like manner: "Life with four or five excellent people but without compulsion, without restraint in the most unconfined, happy freedom of nature, limited by no considerations of ceremony, embittered by no fear of misconstruction, furthermore in the quiet bosom of sweet, sweet nature wouldn't that be the only thing which could make such people as we are happy? But tell me, would we wish more, would we not gladly leave all the vain show of the world of fools, all the money to Jews, all the learning to the schools and look from our little happy circle into the big world ... as occupants of a good, quiet warm room looking out into the autumnal country, where the evening wind in a cold, cold rain drenches the fallen leaves?" 4 Already in 1802, however, he expresses him- self to Brinckmann, then in Berlin as envoy from Sweden and always one of his closest friends : "My hour has struck ; the course of my long, long youth is ended ; I renounce the abundance of life's pleasures and consecrate myself to the serious activity of my head, which is still young. I shall henceforth lead a cooler, more tasteless but, I strongly hope, more uniform and harmonious life; and upon the ruins of all my old inclinations and passions and pleasures there shall be erected nothing but ambition for true fame, and a certain pride, which heretofore has been but re- pressed for that which really lies hidden in the depths of my soul beneath a quite foreign exterior, shall be exalted." 5 In 1826 he likewise endorses the word of Johannes von Miiller, the Swiss historian: "Surely a single good idea, contributed at some time in life at a peace negotiation or in some other important transaction is of greater influence than the arrangement of a whole archive." 6 Next to or 'Brief e v. it. a. Fr. v. Gents, I, 67 f. 'Ibid., II, 100. Schlesier, IV, 287. 515] CHARACTER 29 perhaps parallel with this ambition stood Gentz's love of pleasure, of pleasures high and low. He was a born mas- ter of the art of living, knowing how to get out of life all there was in it. "He who expects to enjoy always, never enjoys ;" " the sum of all wisdom is: make use of the pres- ent !" ; "let us live, live and not merely exist" so he writes as early as 1785 to Elizabeth Graun; 7 and he lived in ac- cordance with this doctrine then as well as later. The third of his fundamental ideals, that of justice, was, as we have already noted, significant directly only for his political theories; since, however, his theories in turn very strongly influenced his political activity, the actual extent of this ideal was in his case much greater. From it, above all, he derived the ever-glowing fire of passion and energy which characterizes his fight against the Revolution and Napol- eon; but he had it to thank too for many hours of deep sorrow. It was a help to him, but also a burden and a ballast wich seriously handicapped his actions, as high principles are so likely to do if closely adhered to. Gentz was a born politician, as he has been called, only in part. Ambition, interest in politics, the needed social talents and a knowledge of the diplomatic language of French he possessed ; other quite as important traits of the true statesman, however, he lacked. Above all he was not what the Germans term a Rcalpolitiker, at least not until 1813. He saw everywhere only questions of right, but in politics power is the chief matter. Furthermore, he was not cool enough. The warmth and sensibility of his na- ture, in itself an attractive trait of his character, stood here in his way. He inclined to strong sympathies and antipathies and could not break off old intimacies or form new ones as quickly as the political constellation of the hour would require; likewise he easily lost his patience and felt ill at ease in the face of the unknown. Metternich was not so far wrong when he remarked that Gentz was always inclined "to view situations in the most lurid ^Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 73. 30 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [516 colors and to leap from extreme hope to extreme despair." 8 A man with nerves like these and a temperament like his was indeed not to be employed as an independent force in foreign policies. Lastly, Gentz lacked entirely the gift of dissimulation; he could of course keep his peace, but hypocrisy was entirely foreign to his nature. 9 Gentz's lack of these particulars had, however, also its good aspects; it made of him a remarkable if not a great publicist, and it is a strange thing that he should naturally have been most suited to the very activity for which there was at least place in the political system of his maturity. For the masses he never wrote ; he had in view the educated classes and for this reason did not shun thoroughness. His style is always clear and apt, and often picturesque and dramatic, as for instance in many of his letters and espe- cially in his memoir to Archduke John. And yet, in spite of these qualities Gentz cannot be called the greatest German publicist of his time, for beyond question this place was held by Joseph Gftrres. 3. GENTZ'S POLITICAL THEORIES. The most important sources of Gentz's political activ- ity were undoubtedly his political theories, and, on that account they now require an especial treatment. This treatment, it is true, will be neither entertaining nor sim- ple, for an uncommonly unfavorable situation has to be faced in this case. Although he was possessed of a clear and systematic mind, yet Gentz was not a professional teacher of law and thus never arrived at any really con- nected presentation of his political ideas; in 1792, 1794- 1795 and 1799-1800 he makes, it is true, certain attempts in this direction. On the other hand, Gentz was by no means a mere pamphleteer ; he always writes after a careful con- sideration and with no little knowledge of the subject, *Metternich-Klinkowstr6m, Osterreichs Theilnahme an den Befreiungs- kriegen, 599, note. *Varnhagen von Ense, Galerie von Bildnissen aus Rahels Uingang, und Briefwechsel, II, 182. 517] POLITICAL THEORIES 31 trying above all to convince his readers by reasons. The presentation of the political thoughts of a man of his type must, therefore, necessarily be extensive as well as compli- cated. We have no reason to assume that Gentz interested himself in questions of public law even while a student in the Gymnasium. Presumably, he came first in contact with them at Konigsberg, where he probably attended Kant's course on the law of nature and certainly familiar- ized himself with the doctrines of the school of natural law. There he likewise became acquainted with Garve's edition of Cicero's De Officiis 10 and with Rousseau; how- ever, it can not be ascertained whether the latter's political writings at that time entered into his vision. We are only slightly informed as to the years immediately following Gentz's stay at Konigsberg; we know this that he read another work of Garve's, the treatise on the connection of morals and politics. 11 From 1790 on, we are somewhat better informed; Gentz now takes up once more the study of Montesquieu and devours everything that he can get hold of as regards pamphlets and newspapers dealing with the Revolution. 12 The rationalistic doctrine of natural law, Cicero, Gar- ve, Montesquieu and perhaps, also Rousseau then formed, so far as we know, the reading material from which the young Gentz drew his political ideas. In order to under- stand the latter it will, therefore, be neccessary first to study the former. At the times when Gentz studied at Konigsberg, the German law faculties were almost completely under the sway of the school of natural law; the positive law made itself felt only later. The natural law in its turn was essentially nothing but the application of the general ra- tionalistic tendencies to the sphere of political life and thought; its standpoint coincided with that of ordinary w Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 140 f. n lbid., I, 146. "Ibid., I, 182, 179 f. 32 FRIEDKICH GENTZ [518 rationalism, that is, with the recognition of the primacy of reason. From this general basis the natural law pro- ceeded, however, to the construction of a system of indi- vidual ideas, the most important of which were the follow- ing: the placing of the natural above the positive right; the emphasizing of the cultural aims and problems of the human race ; the supposition of a state of nature ; the der- ivation of organized society from a fictitious or historic social compact; the distinguishing between the subject of sovereignty and its administrator; the assertion of the right of removing incompetent or bad rulers; the identi- fication of state duties with the protection of law and the advancement of the general welfare; the proclaiming of inalienable rights of man ; the basing of international law on reason, treaties and usage; the drawing of a parallel between the relations of citizens and states ; the supposition of a universal state comprising all nations ; finally the con- demning of war as a falling back into the state of nature or into barbarism, and a general tendency toward progress. The most important of these ideas was, perhaps, that of the world state, of a stocietas of the nations or of a civitas maxima. It is found with most of the advocates of natural law and is conceived by them in analogy with the notion of the individual state : its executive is resting with the total of the separate nations, its laws are, above all, the precepts of reason and its supreme court of justice is formed by the public opinion of the world. It would, however, be difficult to say how far this universal state was considered really to exist and to what extent it was a mere fiction; to men like Wolf it represented no reality, but others believed in it so seriously that they even demaned the abolition of the existing states. 13 The political ideas of Cicero are found especially in his work De Officiis, that is, in that with which the young Gentz familiarized himself. Since it probably, as will be seen later on, exercised a particularly strong influence up- on the latter, it may be best to quote the most characteristic M Cf. p. 20 f. 319] POLITICAL THEORIES 33 passages of this work of Cicero's; they are the following. 14 "Whatever is virtuous arises from some one of these four divisions, for it consists either in sagacity and the per- ception of truth ; or in the preservation of human society, by giving to every man his due, and by observing the faith of contracts; or in the greatness or firmness of an elevated and unsubdued mind ; or in observing order and regularity in all our words and in all our actions, in which consists moderation and temperance" (I, 5). "We ought to regard, to cultivate, and to promote the good will and the social welfare of all mankind" (1,41). "The most extensive sys- tem is that by which the mutual society of mankind, and as it were, the intercourse of life is preserved. Of this there are two parts: justice, in which virtue displays itself with the most distinguished lustre and from which men are termed good; and allied to this, beneficence, which may likewise be termed benevolence or liberality" (I, 6). "That one virtue, justice, is the mistress and queen of all virtues" (III, 6). "There are two kinds of injustice; the first is of those who offer an injury, the second of those who have it in their power to avert an injury from those to whom it is offered, and yet do it not" (1,7). "The foundation of justice is faithfulness, which is perseverance and truth in all our declarations and in all our promises" (I, 7). "Nothing is more disgraceful than insincerity" (I, 42). "The main cause why most men are led to for- getfulness of justice is their falling into violent ambition after empire, honours, and glory" (I, 8). "There is a man for you who aspired to be king of the Romans and master of all nations, and accomplished it if anyone says this desire is an honest one, he is a madman" (III, 21). "No vice is more foul . . . than avarice, especially in great men, and such administer the republic" (II, 22). "The knowledge and contemplation of nature is in a manner lame and unfinished, if it is followed by no activity ; now activity is most perspicuous when it is exerted in protecting the "From the translation by C. R. Edmonds, London, 1865. 34 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [520 rights of mankind" (I, 43). "It is, therefore, more ser- viceable to the public for a man to discourse copiously, provided it is to the purpose, than for a man to think ever so accurately without the power of expression" (I, 44). "Those acts which are done in a timid, humble, abject and broken spirit . . . are inexpedient because they are scandalous, foul and base" (111,32). "The administration of a government, like a guardianship, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, and not of those who re- ceive the trust" (I, 25). "Nor indeed is this forbidden by nature alone that is by the law of nations but is also in the same manner enacted by the municipal laws of countries . . . that it should not be lawful to injure another man for the sake of one's own advantage" (III, 5). "This is the peculiar concern of a state and city, that every person's custody of his own property be free and undis- turbed" (II, 22). "The desertion of the common interest is contrary to nature" (II, 6). "The interest of each indi- vidually and of all collectively should be the same" (III, 6). "Equality of rights has ever been the object of de- sire; nor otherwise can there be any rights at all" (II, 12) . "Equality ... is entirely subverted, if each be not permitted to possess his own" (II, 22). "As to actions resulting from the customs of civil institutions of a people, no precepts can be laid down; for those very institutions are precepts in themselves" (I, 4). "Wars . . . are to be undertaken for this end that we may live in peace without being injured" (I, 11). "Our magistrates and generals sought to derive their highest glory from this single fact that they had upon the principles of equity and honor defended their provinces and allies" (II, 8). If we compare these ideas with the corresponding ones of the natural law, their similarity will become immedi- ately apparent: here as well as there, we find the belief in the cultural ideals of the human race and in the exist- ence of a bond embracing all nations, the differentiation between state and ruler, the emphasizing of the promotion of the general welfare, the drawing of a parallel between 521] POLITICAL THEORIES 35 state and international duties and the rejection of offen- sive wars. It is true, there exists no complete harmony between the two doctrines Cicero demands equality, he respects established institutions and customs, he knows of no natural rights in the special sense of the word and favors, of course, a republican form of government, while the doctrine of natural law takes an almost opposite stand on all these points yet, these differences are in themselves of no great importance and remained almost unknown to the eighteenth century. In fact, so little was the period conscious of them that many rationalists would claim the Roman orator and statesman as one of their own; suffice it to mention here the names of Hume, Voltaire, Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Garve. The translator and editor of Cicero, Garve, must to a certain degree, be considered a rationalist ; he could, how- ever, be called an eclectic philosopher almost as well. He rejects dogmatism and declares that not the theory alone, but the theory coupled with a careful consideration of actual conditions should determine the form of govern- ment and the framing of laws. Whether politics may successfully be connected with morals, he does not dare to decide being of the opinion that a satisfactory answer to that could not be given. The smaller states, he thinks, must yield to the vital interests of the larger ones; at the same time, however, he asserts that the rulers should consider it their duty to advance the welfare of all human- ity. The most important duty of the government is, accord- ding to him, the protection of the law; he is not averse to moderate progress and a certain degree of liberty, but ob- jects to a complete abrogation of the privileges of the no- bility. He looks with admiration upon England and in the beginning sympathetically greets the Revolution. The fundamental principle of Rousseau was the idea of the sovereignty of the people, which he holds, however, in a quite unique way: he demands that this sovereignty be exercised directly and without the division of the pow- ers. Montesquieu, on the other hand, advocated the latter 36 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [522 and saw in the British constitution the model for every other constitution. We have little direct information as to what political theories the young Gentz held. From a letter to Garve of October, 1784, 15 we may infer that he had, at that time, become acquainted with the translation of the Officiis; "an excellent book", he writes, "which exercised a very im- portant influence upon my moral principles, my way of thinking and my character". Whether this influence emanated from Cicero himself or rather from the notes and treatises of Garve's edition cannot be said definitely ; it is, however, probable that it proceeded from the former, for some years later Gentz begins to raise objections to Garve and to raise them from a rationalistic and Ciceronian standpoint. At the beginning of October, 1789, he writes to Garve that the principles of morals and of philosophy are most valuable when practically applied, an idea that the year before had been declared by the latter to be open to criticism. 16 At the end of October, 1789, Gentz makes further attacks on Garve and they contain the first direct utterances which we have from him on questions of public law. 17 It is, he asserts, a matter of doubt whether there was ever a state of nature, for the existence natural to mankind is one regulated by contracts. Through contracts rights are created, and where there are rights there are also duties. The latter may be divided into two kinds, those of compulsion and those of moral obligation ; both of these are the precepts of reason, but only the fulfillment of the former can be enforced. The capacity for fulfilling the duties of compulsion is justice, that for fulfilling the duties of moral obligation beneficence or benevolence. Gentz does not recognize any rights based solely on superior power, for this would be antagonistic to reason and reason is to him the highest judge. Likewise he will not allow the ruler to treat the state as his property ; the ruler, he declares, is "Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, i, 140 f. "Ibid., I, 144. "Ibid., I, 148 ff. 523] POLITICAL THEORIES 37 only "the first servant" of the state and subject to the ver- dict of the people. The states themselves, however, he be- lieves to be moral personages; they stand toward one an- other in relations identical to those between private citizens and are, therefore, bound by mutual obligations. Further re-- marks date back to the year 1790. In one of them Gentz speaks with considerable emphasis of the rights of the peo- ple without, however, pointing out which particular rights he is thinking of. 18 Others are found in the treatise Uber den Ur sprung dcr obersten Prinzipien des Rechts. Reason and liberty, so Gentz now assumes, form the true nature of mankind ; reason, again, is the faculty of having ideas and represents the highest and original source of rights. The ideas of reason pertaining to law are inalienable and, therefore, called the "original rights of mankind" ; of such ideas there are three: the common individual right over one's self, the right of property, and the right of main- taining contracts. In short, Gentz's political system would then, accord- ing to this, until 1790 be the following : the chief elements of the human nature are reason and liberty ; reason is pri- marily the faculty of ideas and as such the source of positive law; the precepts of reason are compulsory to all, even when dealing with foreign nations, and the most import- ant of them are those of justice and benevolence; finally, the ruler is nothing but the mandatory of the popular will and accountable to its forum. The years 1791 and 1792 were of special importance for Gentz's inner development. Unfortunately the course of this development is rather unknown, for Gentz's corre- spondence with Garve the best source of information about his earlier political theories is missing beyond April, 1791; we know, however, that during this period Gentz did considerable reading, likewise that he watched the events in France with great interest and was gradu- ally losing his sympathies with the cause of the Revolu- u lbid., I, 158. "Forschungen sur brand- und fireuss. Geschichte, XIX, 18 f. 38 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [524 tion. 20 In the beginning of 1793 Gentz appeared with the first of his many anti-revolutionary writings, the trans- lations of Burke's Reflections, to which he added notes, and five political treatises from his own pen. 21 Burke has certain points in common with rationalism ; fundamentally, however, he is little of a rationalist. He practically knows no social compact and explains the orig- in of the state from the desire to get protection for existing contracts and agreements. The first obligation of the state he sees in this protection of rights, the second in "benevo- lence" or in the advancement of the general welfare. There is, according to him, no inborn right of equality ; he would rather consider the state in the light of an association in which every member partakes of the profits in proportion to his investment. He considers freedom, in general, as a matter of small importance; the absolute freedom of the state of nature is inconceivable to him in organized so- ciety, but at the same time lie advocates as little restric- tion of liberty as possible. Any right of participating in government he denies, reserving the conduct of public affairs to wealth, noble birth and talent; likewise he re- pudiates the tendency towards constructing constitutions at will ; for these, in his opinion, must grow and cannot be fabricated. He strongly attacks the principle that every- body is naturally qualified to govern, maintaining that government is an art or, at best a trade which must be learnt like every other. Were we to ask him in what his ideal of a well -governed state consisted, he would answer : in the conception of a state in which order, prosperity, propriety, the protection of law and property, confidence in the government, and respect for the established order of things form the fundamentals of the community. Gentz began to read Burke in April, 1791. At first he liked only the latter's style, 22 but in the introduction to his translation of Burke's work on the French Revolution he "Cf. P. 57 f. "Weick, MI. *Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 203 f. 525] POLITICAL THEORIES 39 declares himself to be in harmony also with the princi- ples of the author. 23 His political theories at about the be- ginning of 1793 are then, according to him, those of Burke, After 1792, these theories develop but little; they may undergo slight changes, as for instance in 1814 and again in 1819, but on the whole, they are stationary. They form a unit; they must, therefore, be treated as such, and the following pages will try to present them in this form. The first problem which confronts us here is the very difficult question whether Gentz must be classed with the rationalistic or with the positive-historic school of law. He has been claimed by both sides, and in reality he belongs to both schools : in his fight against the Revolution he pro- ceeds more from positive-historical points of view, while he bases his opposition to Napoleon chiefly on a rational- istic line of reasoning. Those who see in him more the adherent of the law of nature refer, of course, to such passages in his works as those in which the primacy of reason is explained. There are, it is true, many utterances of this kind in Gentz ; how- ever, if we analyse them closely, they do not always actu- ally contain what, at the first glance, they seem to mean. Besides, there could be mentioned an equally large num- ber of passages expressing a positivistic point of view. If we wish to arrive at a clear understanding of Gentz's atti- tude in this regard, we have, therefore, to proceed with the greatest caution and accuracy. In the treatises of the year 1793, Gentz speaks of the "deduction of the pure notions of law", of the "precepts of the law of nature", of "original rights", of the "specific rights of mankind" and of "original natural rights"; 24 likewise, well-known teachers of the law of nature, such as Grotius and Pufendorf, are mentioned and referred to as authorities. 25 Furthermore, we hear in 1795 that the "Weick, I, 20 f. M Ibid. f II, 76 f., 39, 87, 89 ff. *Ibid., II, 77. 40 PRIEDRICH GENTZ [526 idea of the community of mankind is "a fiction of reason striving for perfection" and the notion of the human perfectibility, "an idea founded on reason as firmly as the idea of a supreme being, or of an unending existence of the substances". 26 In 1800 we find the remark that eternal peace is demanded by reason, and that order and lawful- ness are the symptoms of reason. 27 In 1793 Gentz declares that the advocates of the old order of things have to turn to reason ; similiarly he explains in 1800 and again in 1809, that it is advisable to order constitutions grown up his- torically according to the demands of logic and reason. 28 Even in 1817, he writes to Adam Miiller : "Concerning all which can be recognized by reason there must be an appeal to reason, that is, to individual reasoning. . . . Ex- plain it as you like, my first impulse will always be that of an appeal to my reason." 29 In all these passages, Gentz clearly takes the stand of a rationalist. He is, however, not less emphatic in up- holding the cause of the positive-historic law. In 1799 lie calls the question regarding the lawfulness of an action the first and most important of all; 30 lawful, on the other hand, he declares in 1800 to be equivalent to whatever the sovereign commands. 31 At the same time he demands that no laws should be created which are likely to infringe upon existing rights; 32 likewise, he sees the main purpose of the social compact in the protection of the agreements and contracts entered into during the state of nature and in organized society. 33 He recognizes, in a general way, natural rights until about 1800, and as such he considers the right of liberty, property, self-defense, and of adherence "Ibid., V, 211. "H. J., 1800, III, 713, 7i8, 771- *Ibid., I, 112 f. Aus dem Nachlasse, I, 298. ^Briefw. zw. Fr. Gents u. A. H. Miiller, 238 f. *H. J., 1799, II, 309 ff. "Ibid., 1800, I, 18. **Ibid., I, 7, 30, 1799; II, 142. " Cf. p. 43- 527] POLITICAL THEORIES 41 to contracts, while he rejects a natural right of equality and of personal safety; 34 yet he maintains as early as 1793 that states cannot be constructed on the basis of human rights and that these general rights are not inalien- able. Very emphatically he asserts in the treatise TJbcr die Deklaration der Rechte : "That the human being in entering into company with equals gives up part of its original rights only in order to enjoy the remainder in safety and to have the total of its manifold aims advanced, upon that everybody agrees". 35 At all events, the natural and the civil rights are for him fundamentally different, 36 and in 1800 he declares, therefore, that there are no rights of man any more as soon as there are state rights; 37 in 1809 he even goes a step farther calling all talk about inborn rights mere nonsense. 38 The chaos, then, seems to be complete. If we wish to clear it, we will have, first of all, to remember the particu- lar notion of reason existing and prevailing at the time when Gentz entered the years of his maturity. At present, reason, in general, simply means the understanding or the faculty of logical thinking. The rationalism of the eighteenth century, however, understood by reason not only the latter, but also, and preeminently so, an assumed faculty of having ideas. Until Kant, the linguistic usage did hardly distinguish between the words "reason" and "understanding", using both of them interchangeably. In a certain sense, this practice was continued even later on ; in general, however, Kant succeeded in introducing his differentiation between ,the two terms, and after him "reason" meant then more or less the faculty of ideas. Gentz uses the word "reason" in the old sense as well as in the new, and in this lies one of the chief causes of the seeming "Weick, II, 89 f., 86. H. J., 1800, I, 6 f. "Weick, II, 63. "/&D There are only a few of them : Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 178 ff., 203 ff. "Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 205. 58 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [544 of the sessions of the National Assembly. 17 He praises the Mercure with reference to its style, but can not yet agree with its tendencies; three years later, however, he calls the paper the best French publication since the death of Voltaire. 18 The reports received his high praise as first class sources for the study of the Kevolution. 19 He mentions also other works and newspapers : Burke's Reflections, the Moniteur and the Journal de Paris, then in a general way, Brandes and Girtanner; of the last two he has no favor- able impression, and in Burke he is at the time being pleased only with the form of presentation. 20 His review of the French political literature from August 1788 to June 1789 in the Historisches Journal of 1799 shows, how- ever, that in his study of the Kevolution he must have con- sulted many other publications besides those mentioned above; in 1796 he asks the library at Weimar for the priv- ilege of using its literature on the Revolution, and in 1798 the number of newspapers which he is reading and excerpt- ing regularly has grown to many German, five French, and three English ones. 21 The events in France had apparently got a permanent hold upon his mind, as he himself acknowl- edges in 1790 and again in 1798. 22 The sympathetic attitude of Gentz toward the Revolu- tion did, however, not last very long, for as early as the beginning of 1793, he appeared as its foe, with the trans- lation of Burke's Reflections, and five political treatises from his own pen. 23 The pro-revolutionary utterances which have been preserved of him extend, as we know, not beyond the middle of April, 1791 ; and since we may assume, on the other hand, that he began his work on Burke and "Ibid., I, 178 ff. "Ibid., ii, 40. translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xxvii. M Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 203 ff. n H. ]., 1799, II, 176 ff. Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 206 f., 220 f., 223, note, 224. a 'Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, I, 180, 207. "The two volumes of this work actually appeared at the close of 1792, but bore the date 1793. 545] CHANGE OF ATTITUDE 59 the five essays, at latest in the fall of 1792, the change in his attitude toward the Revolution must have taken place in the period determined by these two limits. Exactly when and why it took place is not easy to say, nor is it im- portant. The reading of Burke doubtless had some influ- ence. We have, however, no means of determining the exact extent of this influence as Burke's theories in many leading points in their marked tendency toward political conservatism, in their emphasis on justice in general and property rights in particular, in their conception of equal- ity, in their indifference to all theories and exaltation of wisdom and experience correspond exactly with those which Gentz could already have become acquainted with in Cicero or Garve. It is, however, probable that Gentz was not inconsiderably influenced by Burke in his estimate of the events themselves in France, and in his determina- tion to join the ranks of the fighters. The same might be said about a possible influence of Mallet du Pan. Of much greater importance in this regard was the course of the Revolution itself. Gentz soon saw more and more clearly that the movement not only meant no real- ization of his ideals, but even an increasing deterior- ation of the existing conditions; he began to doubt the value of liberty and of equality in the sense of their revolutionary interpretation, and the antipathy which thus had gradually been gathering came finally with rela- tive suddenness to a climax. When this stage was reached can not be said definitely. All indications, however, point to the events of the 10th to 13th of August, 1792, as those which brought about the climax; the bloody scenes of the 2nd to 7th of September, and the remainder of that "ever horrible year", 1792, only made Gentz's atti- tude a permanent one. 24 "The last and most terrible period of the French Revolution", he says in 1794, . . . "be- gan with the horrors of the 10th of August." This opinion was quite correct in so far as those days did mark the "Weick, II, 301, 159. Translation of Mallet du Pan, 45, note, 74, note, 97, note, 142, note. 60 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [546 beginning of what Gentz calls "the systematic overthrow of all social conditions". 25 It was also more or less the opinion of the many German observers of the events beyond the Ehine who after having sympathized with the Revolu- tion finally turned against it. There were, according to Gentz's own testimony, in Germany people professing democracy up to the 5th of October, 1789, to the opening of the Legislative Assembly, to the 10th of August, 1792, to the execution of the King and so on ; 26 for the majority of the German democrats, however, this 10th of August marked the turning point in their attitude toward the Revolution. 27 . 2. 17931801. Gentz was now an enemy of the Revolution and re- mained so during the next ten years of his life. As his nature would not permit him to be idle under such cir- cumstances, he girded his loins and went forth to battle. How far he fought the Revolution through the medium of the spoken word is hard to say ; our sources are for the most part silent about this. Opportunity for such activity certainly was not wanting to him. During the whole period of this struggle, he was living at Berlin as an official of the Prussian civil service; his position was by no means an important one, but he possessed from the beginning con- nections and these together with his own resourcefulness won him in time a place in the higher social life of Berlin. Up to 1797, we find in his letters especial references to an intercourse with families of the middle class such as the Ancillon, Spalding, Engel, Gilly, Hainchelin, Merian, Herz and others ; names of the nobility are, however, also mentioned, as for instance that of W. von Humboldt. Lit- tle by little Gentz's social environment becomes higher, and between 1800 and 1802, he moves in the upper circles of society; he is now acquainted with Prince Louis Ferdi- Translation of Mallet du Pan, 75, note. "Ibid., pref., xxi. "Lang, Von und aus Schwaben, III, 69. 547] EARLY ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 61 maud of Prussia, with the duke of Braunschweig-Ols, the ambassadors of various foreign powers, such as Lord Carisford of England, Prince Reuss and Count Stadion of Austria, Count Panin of Russia and Brinckmann of Sweden, with Lucchesini, the later Prussian representative at Paris, and with Haugwitz. 28 This undeniable suc- cess he owed to a combination of fortunate circumstances. His father was, after 1779, director general of the royal mint, and one of his uncles, an Ancillon, counsellor of the consistory in Berlin. Moreover, he had patrons and friends who boomed him socially, such as Captain von Schack, Brinckmann, the Swedish envoy, and the Marquise of Lucchesini. 29 Finally, we must here take into account his own social talents, his growing reputation and his lavish expenditure of the money extracted from the coffers of the British foreign Office and the treasuries of helpful people in general. But, whatever Gentz, in these circles, may have done against the Revolution, the centre of his anti-revolutionary activities lay certainly elsewhere : in his anti-revolutionary publications. The first of these, as noted above, were his translation of Burke's Reflections and the five essays Vbel politische Freiheit; Vber die Moralitdt in den Staats revolutionen ; Vber die Deklaration der Rechte; Versuch einer Widerlegung der Apologie des Herra Mak- intosh; and Vber die Nationalerzichung in Frankreich. In 1794 his translation of Mallet du Pan's work on the French Revolution appeared; likewise, in 1795, that of a part of Mounier's "The Causes which have hindered France from attaining Freedom," and in 1797 a translation and continuation of d'lvernois' "History of the Financial Administration of the French Republic dur- ing the year 1796." Independent works were: Vber die Grundprincipi-en der jctzigen franzosichen Verfassung, nach Robespierre's nnd St. Just's Darstellung derselben "Schlesier, V, 24 ff. "According to Gentz himself, it was she who introduced him into upper Berlin society (Festschrift zu Gustav Schmollers 70. Geburtstag, 249) ; but perhaps he here simply desires to flatter. 62 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [548 from 1794, Uber den Ursprung und Charakter des Krieges gegen die franzosische Revolution, and Von dem politi- schen Zustande von Eumopa vor und nach der franzosischen Revolution, the last two both from 1801. Finally, there are to be mentioned two periodicals which were mostly written by Gentz himself, the Neue teutsche Monats- schrift and the Historisches Journal. The Historisches Journal, the more important one, was purely political and financial in content and appeared from 1799 to 1800. The work on the history of the French Kevolution, upon which Gentz worked during the nineties, has never been printed ; it exists, however, as a manuscript ready for print, and consists of five volumes. 30 Of all publications, the series of articles in the Historisches Journal of 1799, bearing the titles Uber den Gang der offentlichen Meinung in Europa in Riicksicht auf die franzosische Revolution, and Be- trachtungen uber die Entstchung der franzosischen Rev- olution, give the clearest insight into Gentz's views about the causes and the first period of the Eevolution. In these nineties falls also the beginning of Gentz's connections with foreign governments and personages, which from then on played an ever increasing role in his life. We know already that he gradually became acquainted with various foreign representatives accredited to the court of Berlin. His relations with Austria began through his sending the translation of Burke to Emperor Francis; later he received the permission to sell copies of his His- torisches Journal in the Austrian duchies. 31 He must also have come into touch with leading men in Kussia, for in May 1800 his diaries speak of his receiving a present from the Czar. 32 The first establishment of relations with England fol- lowed in 1795; Gentz published in his Neue Teutsche Monatsschrift a translation of a portion of d'lvernois' study on republican finance which aroused Pitt's interest "Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 245, 246, note i. "Guglia, Friedrich von Gents, 137. "Tagebucher I, i. 549] EARLY ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 63 and caused him to urge the author to continue his work. 33 1799 Gentz presented to the English secretary of state, Lord Grenville, an article which had appeared in the His- torisches Journal and dealt with Pitt's financial policy; he added the request that the article be laid before the King. Grenville replied with a letter and a check. 34 No- vember, 1800, Gentz sent two memorials to London. In the first he pictures the condition of popular opinion on the Continent toward England ; in the second he offers his services to the English government as journalistic repre- sentative, and this offer seems to have been accepted. 35 In October 1802, Gentz went himself to England, where he remained some three months. His personal success was great; 36 but this was only natural, for he was peculiarly fitted for the life of the then existing English society: he had the instincts of the grand-seigneur, was a brilliant conversationalist, and could endure any amount of the gay life. He himself was in a perfect rapture, for he felt, for the first time, the delicious inspiration of satisfied am- bition; for a brief moment he mingled with the mighty as an equal. At the same time he reached an agreement with the British government; it has never become known what instructions he received, but in general he was ex- pected to act as an English agent on the continent. 37 If this step later brought him under suspicion, it must be said that he by no means intended bartering his convic- tions; this he never did, not even under the most trying pressure. English policy was, after all, in its main fea- tures, only the one advocated by himself, for it aimed at France, and he really believed that in serving England he was serving Europe. That he accepted remuneration for his services was not only quite proper but even neces- sary; for without sufficient funds he could never hope to "Schmidt- Weissenfels, Friedrich Gents, I, 84. "Preuss. Jahrb., CX, 466. "Ibid., CX, 467. "Schlesier, V, 28. "Preuss. Jahrb., CX, 468. 64 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [550 gain entrance into those circles by which the course of foreign policies was shaped. A number of causes contributed to make of Gentz thus, by degrees, a rather many-sided personality. Gentz had, as we know, an inborn and increasing interest in politics, and that he could, as a Prussian subaltern, not practically indulge; he seized, therefore, the only way which offered an outlet for his feelings: the pen. Furthermore, he was ambitious and of very luxurious inclinations; how was he to satify these tendencies in the service of the Prussian state where, as he explains to Adam Mtiller, he could only hope to reach the position of privy counsellor of finances, carrying a salary of two thousand thaler? 38 And was writ- ing not a positive pleasure to him which he could never long forego? If he industriously wove at the net in which his fortune was to become entangled, he did in this certainly not think of himself alone, nor even principally: all the various lines of his activity were, after all, converging toward the one aim of opposing the Revo- lution, and this opposition he regarded as a sacred duty which had to be fulfilled whatever one's own inclinations might be. 39 Not that he expected certain results of his efforts, for these, he thought, were, in the flood of pro- revolutionary writings, somewhat doubtful and uncer- tain. 40 But he wished to do his part to further the good cause; it might, perhaps, be of some use and bear unex- pected fruit. In how far Gentz here allowed himself to be influ- enced by Burke it is hard to say, but the latter's example can hardly have been entirely without effect. Gentz him- self seems to point to the existence of such an influence, for in the introduction to his translation of Burke we find the passage: "In most of the important proceedings of his time, Burke was an opponent of the ministry, because the influence of the court extended beyond the proper point i *Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, II, 369. "Weick, I, 2, 14, 18. Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xiv ff. xix. "Weick, I, 7-14. 551] EARLY ANTI-REVOLUTIONARY ACTIVITY 65 of equilibrium, because it threatened to annihilate or to weaken the power of the representatives of the people. Burke took up the cause of the Americans with a warmth which he may well thank for much of his great name; be- cause they were, although they were Britons, denied the British constitution, because he found according to the maxims of true British polity that their demands were just; because he divined the strength of their opposition and the probable outcome of the unfortunate war which was forced upon them, with more accuracy than a blinded ministry did." 41 That which Gentz praises in Burke applied equally well to himself: one has only to recall his stern standpoint of justice, his initial sympathy with constitu- tions, and his later opposition to Cobenzl, against whom he also hurls the word "blinded;" he fights, it is true, not against but for the preponderance of court influence. It is, therefore, quite possible that Gentz took up the fight against the Revolution which from his point of view was preeminently a struggle for the right inspired, among others, by Burke, especially since he had learned from the hitter's career, what a name could be won by championing the right. Not much more certain is the influence which Mallet du Pan may have had on Gentz. Gentz and Mallet stood, since 1793, closely enough together in their political views. Both rejected the principle of popular sovereignty and fought for a stronger government ; on the other hand, they were indifferent as to the particular form of the latter. Both corresponded with ministers and kings, both pub- lished periodicals and had close relations with England. These parallels could even be followed into the personal characters of the two men, for each was possessed of a marked preference for order and moderation in every thing, of a strong feeling of independence and a pronounced antipathy against all that was loud and violent. If one adds to this that Gentz repeatedly mentions Mallet in his "Ibid., I, 22. 66 FBIEDKICH GEXTZ [552 letters, 42 that he translated or reviewed certain of his works, 43 that his Historisches Journal, according to his own testimony, was suggested and inspired by Mallet's Mercure Brittanmquef* finally that in 1799 he correspond- ed with the then exiled pulicist, 45 the existence of an in- fluence upon Gentz may seem to be rather probable. The exact extent of this influence, it is true, cannot be deter- mined with certainty; only in the following point do we find ourselves, perhaps, upon firm ground. Mallet was from about 1793 on, for a number of years, the confidential adviser of various governments at war with the Eevolution and sent, up to 1798, political reports to the courts of Vienna and Berlin; in 1800 he died. In this same year 1800, Gentz definitely offered the English government his services as publicist, and reported about the political situ- ation on the Continent. It is, therefore, not altogether improbable that the latter cherished the hope that the man- tle of the dead Mallet might fall upon him. How, we may ask, does Gentz picture the Revolution to himself and what has he against it? If we begin with the origin of the Revolution, we en- counter first his distinction between its remote and its im- mediate causes; the former, Gentz terms the "conditions of possibility," the latter, "the conditions of reality." 46 The distinction is historically well-founded, and forms the basis of Gentz's general attitude toward the Revolution. He is convinced that France stood in absolute need of re- forms, but that on the other hand, the Revolution, as it actually took place, could and should have been avoided. 47 The proper way to solve the difficulties as it then seemed to him was, as he once expresses it afterwards, by means of a "gentle revolution." 48 "Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 179 f., 255. **//. /., 1799 and 1800. "Briefe v. u. a. Fr. -v. Gents, I, 327. "Ibid., 326 ff. -H. J., 1799, I, 38, 196. "Ibid., I, 198 ff., 229 ff. "Translation of Mallet du Pan, 33, note. 553] CONCEPTION OF THE REVOLUTION 67 Gentz describes the conditions of pre-revolutionary France with the instinct of the objective historian who is concerned above all with the establishment of the truth. On civilized Europe as a whole, he passes the judgment that before the Revolution it had reached an astonishing degree of perfection and was justified in still hoping for far more. 49 As its centre he considers France, 50 which, therefore, necessarily had its share in this high attainment of European civilization. That everything there was not what it should have been, he does not fail to recognize. He points out especially the bad system of taxation of the country; aside from this he mentions the subordination of agriculture to the interests of industry and the already decidedly appreciable overpupulation, as it seemed to him. 51 To the lettres de cachet he attaches, however, but small importance. 52 His judgment of Louis XVI is all in all a favorable one; he cannot, however, forbear to blame the weakness of the king, who did not rise to meet the situa- tion. 53 He points out with special emphasis that monarch and government were sincerely ready for vital reforms; Turgot, he explains, proposed reforms "such as had never been conceived upon a throne." 54 When, in spite of all, the Revolution came, the blame lay, according to Gentz, on what he terms the "conditions of its reality." He assumes that grave mistakes were made on all sides, by the king, by the government, by the repre- sentatives of the people, and finally by the people them- selves. The greatest blame he lays, to be sure, to the score of the people and their representatives. The government fell short in that it neglected to suppress the general spirit of discontent, and to direct it by wise counsels into proper channels, 55 but above all, in that it showed lack //. /., 1-99, I, 18. "Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xvii. *H. /., 1799, I, 208 ff. "Ibid., I, 215 f. "Ibid., I, 272 ff. "Ibid., I, 229, 235 ff., 293, 304 f. "Ibid., I, 31 ff. 68 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [554 of foresight and weakness. 5 " When the government, as was the case, encountered perpetual opposition, it was its prop- er duty to break this opposition; but this it never attempted, much less accomplished. 57 The calling in of the estates of the realm was a good idea, for it was necessary, financially and otherwise; unfortunately, however, the government failed to regulate in advance the form of the deliberations, and thus made possible the chaos which al- most immediately arose. 58 If we turn to the other side, we find Gentz pointing particularly to the influence of the revolutionary literature, to the attitude of the National Assembly, and the activity of the revolutionary leaders. 59 He is inclined to attribute to the leaders a large part of the blame. But the people too he finds blameworthy. "When the Kevolution of 1789 approached," he writes in 1799, "the amiability of this nation [the French] had to a large degree disappeared .... A deeply rooted discon- tent, a restless longing for destructive novelty had taken the place of the old peaceful good nature .... The frame of mind of the entire nation had grown more hostile, gloomy, brooding, and tragic. The Revolution bore in its approach, in its outbreak, and in its whole course, the stamp of this mood, [a mood] "which superficial observers considered a result of that tremendous event, but which held priority over that event and was rather one of its causes." 60 It is true, Gentz does not overlook the fact that one of the causes of the Revolution lay, in a certain sense, within the revolt itself, insofar as every one of its events advanced its development just one step farther. The object of Gentz's special antipathy were the revo- lutionary leaders, for they, of course, were the rebels par excellence. Sieyes was to him the chief figure of the early Revolution ; 61 Marat, on the other hand, probably the most "Ibid., I, 298, 321 ; II, 30, 55 ff., 245. "Ibid., I, 301. "Ibid., II, 15 ff. ( 25 ff., 56 ff. "Ibid., II, 138 ff., 172 ff. Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xxiv. m H. ]., 1709, II, 160 ff. "Ibid., II, 297, 306 ff. Translation of Mallet du Pan, 66 ff. note. 555] CONCEPTION OF THE REVOLUTION 69 horrible product of the whole revolutionary era. 02 Gentz's judgment of Rousseau was not always exactly the same. We know that he was, at one time, deeply interested in this personality and had found refreshment in the depths of its sentiment ; it was in those early years when his emotional heart was still able to give itself up unreservedly to friend- ship and to the quiet enjoyment of nature. This reverence for Rousseau lingered down to 1792; Rousseau, Gentz still thinks, portrays the simplicity, the purity and the bliss of the true man of nature, and in that consists the real tendency of all his ideas. 63 Quite different from this, how- ever, is his judgment in 1794. Now he regards Rousseau from a purely political viewpoint, and thus the man whom he had previously so highly respected has now become an object of antipathy, almost of the most bitter hatred. But how could it have been otherwise? Rousseau's name was in the mouths of all enemies of the old system, he was the father of the doctrine of the unconditional popular sov- ereignty and was himself a man of the people, of large ideas and an excess of feeling, but, in a general sense, vulgar as well. Small wonder, then, that Gentz now hated this man and hurled at him the charge that out of his school all the French revolutionists from Sieyes to Marat had issued, and that to his fingers the innocently shed blood of the victims of the Revolution was sticking. 64 The distinction between momentary and permanent causes of the Revolution made it hard for Gentz to find a definite beginning for that period. He considered the great turning point of events to be the second half of the year 1792; what happened in those bloody autumn days made him forever a foe of the new era. But where was the beginning? It was hard to name an entirely certain point in time, consequently Gentz lays the emphasis now on one and now on another of the eventful days of the summer of 1789 : on the 17th of June, the 14th of July, the time from "Translation of Mallet du Pan, 92, note. "Weick, I, 138 ff., note. "Translation of Mallet du Pan, 20 ff., note. 70 FEIEDRICH GENTZ [556 July to October, and on the 5tk-6tU of October. In 1793 he declares that the originator of the system of double rep- resentation for the third estate was the real cause of the Revolution, and names in this connection Necker; 05 since Necker proposed this idea to the royal council on the 17th of December, 1788, the real beginning of the Revolu- tion would then be this day. Somewhat different is the dating which Gentz presents in the same year in reviewing the statement of the Scotch writer Makintosh. Here he mentions especially the 5th of May, the 17th of June according to him it had been the 15th of June and the 14th of July, and assumes that the Revolution was per- fected through the sanction, by the National Assembly, of the storming of the Bastille. 66 In 1794 he sees the source of all the excesses of the Revolution in the activity of the National Assembly from July 1789 to the meeting of the Convention. 67 In 1799 he returns, in a certain sense, to the 17th of June no longer the 15th and declares that this day marked "one of the greatest and most fearful epochs in the history of mankind." 68 Gentz never really attempted to fix the date of the end of the Revolution. In 1794 he still believed it to be com- ing ; 69 but soon he drops such speculations. In 1798 he even fears that the Revolution may extend into eastern Europe. 70 With the Coup d'fitat he again indulges in hope, only soon after to let it fall again : 71 he could, after all, not eternally close his eyes to the fact that Bonaparte was not only the conqueror of the Revolution, but also the heir. As to the significance of the Revolution as an historical event of the first magnitude, Gentz was never for a moment in doubt. As evidence of this we may cite a word to be "Weick, I, 84, note. "Ibid., II, 116-128. "Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xxiv ff. "//. /., 1799, II, 308. "Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xxxiii f. "Brief e v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, I, 210. "Cf. p. 86 f. 557] CONCEPTION OF THE REVOLUTION 71 found in the introduction to his translation of Mallet du Pan, which throws, at the same time, a highly character- istic light upon his entire attitude toward this event. 72 He writes there: "The French Revolution is one of the facts which belong to the whole human race. It is an event of such magnitude that it is hardly permissible to be occu- pied with any petty interest in its fearful presence, of such magnitude that posterity will be curious to know how people of all countries who lived at the close of the 18th century thought, felt, reasoned and acted about it. Even if it had exercised no direct influence upon other nations, it would still deserve the entire, lasting and eager attention of the world because it hit the most notable of all civilized countries, the true centre of Europe, from which proceeded the entire external culture, and most of the inner culture, of our hemisphere, because it promised a constitution the most desirable thing which thinking beings can wish for for a society of 25 millions of the most active, cul- tured, enlightened, talented, clever and good-natured peo- ple, and because, although from its inception to the present time it has been nothing but one great departure from its glorious aim, it had at least to furnish the largest mass of experiences out of which the theory of statesmanship has ever been developed, corrected, and confirmed." 73 Gentz emphasizes at times how infinitely complicated the developments of the events in France had been. But the chaos there does not seem to him to be completely hope- less; he distinguishes between the essential and the neces- sary phenomena, and sifts from the mass of material that which he terms "the leading principles" of the Revolu- tion. 74 Against these he directs his chief attacks. What, then, are the fundamental principles of the Revolution, as seen by Gentz? In 1793 he gives not yet any really comprehensive statement of his views ; the list of his gravamina against the "Of 1794- "Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xvi ff. "Ibid., pref. xxiii f. H. /., 1799, II, 335 ff- Tl' FRIEDRICH GENTZ [558 Revolution is, however, long enough. He emphasizes the great danger with which Europe is being threatened from the West. 76 Furthermore, he accuses the Revolution of fanatical intolerance, of disregard for propert3 r , of vanity and hypocrisy, love of destruction, general lawlessness, irreligion and a deeply rooted hatred of everything lofty, even of the aristocracy of spirit. 76 The object of his special antipathy is, of course, the principle of the sovereignty of the people. In his treatises of 1793, there is scarcely a page on which the words "liberty" and "equality" are not made the object of bitter criticism. Gentz thinks that he is laying his finger at the very root of all the evil, when he says: "There can be no absolutely incurably sick per- son, save he who takes pleasure in his pains. This is, how- ever, the real condition of the French people. Every suffer- ing is sweet to them, if they only can dream of their self- government. Their happiness is the happiness of a mad- man who does not feel the whip of his jailor because he considers himself the King of Kings. If one goes to the bottom of this political dreaming, then the garment of a few high-sounding phrases disappears; and what remains is the fanaticism of vanity." 77 On the declaration of human rights, Gentz expresses himself in 1793, and then again in 1800, both times in the same tone. 78 His judgment is exceptionally unfavorable. The very idea of such a declaration displeases him exceed- ingly ; for the enumeration and classification of the simple human rights, he thinks not only hardly possible, but, if actually attempted, dangerous. He considers it an abso- lute error to term these fundamental rights, the "rights of men and citizens." A combination of this kind is, according to him, nothing but an absurdity. Of the separate articles of the declaration, scarcely a single one is left unattacked, and special emphasis is laid upon the fact that the so- "Weick, I, 20. "Ibid., I, 15 ff., 186 ff., note, 257 f., note, 312, note, 281, note; II, 34, "Ibid., I, 257 f., note. n lbid., II, 61 ff., H. /., 1800, I, 58, ff. 559] CONCEPTION OP THE REVOLUTION 73 called "natural rights" are, in this case, only the result of a great number of compromises. Gentz does not fail to admit that the declaration, as a whole, had been of great historical importance, but it can be imagined of what kind he conceived this importance to be; as a matter of fact, lie unhesitatingly attributes to this declaration a great part of the general anarchy which followed it. Extremely severe is the judgment passed upon the Revolution by Gentz in 1794. The list of sins which he attributes to it in the introduction and the notes to his translation of Mallet du Pan has now become a formidable one, and one cannot help being struck with Gentz's intense hatred of the revolutionary leaders. He refers to the daily executions, to the murder of the royal famity, the atheistic temples, the cult of Marat, the revolutionary tendency to worldiness, the destruction of the Vendee and the city of Lyons, to the superficial speculations and the self-compla- cency of the tribunes of the people, to the increasing plun- dering of the rich, the disregard of all morality and the tearing down of everything lofty, adding not without a certain bitter satisfaction that there it could at last be seen to what the "madness and perversity of an unre- strained people" would lead. 79 References to the cruelty and phrase-mongering, to the vanity, the lawlessness and general vulgarity of the revolutionary movement and its leaders are in fact to be found almost everywhere. 80 Inci- dentally, Gentz now and then sums up these characteristics of the Revolution in a single word, and speaks of "mob- tyranny," or of "the systematic reversal of all social con- ditions/' 81 In his Historisches Journal of 1799, Gentz exhibits, to a certain degree, the assurance of one who has had the satisfaction of seeing his warnings justified by the course of events. Here, too, he speaks of the injustice and tyranny ''Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., vi f., x. "Ibid., 25 f., note, 56, note, 94 ff., note, 150 f., note. "Ibid., pref., xii, 74 f., note. 74 FRIEDBICH GENTZ [560 of the Revolution, of its harshness against the upper classes of the earlier era, of its hostility towards the prop- erty-holders and, above all, of its fundamental prin- ciple of the sovereignty of the people. 82 As to the revolutionary literature, he criticizes its entire lack of con- sideration of individual rights, its tendency to go to ex- tremes and the desire for novelty, its discrediting of the value of moderation and experience, its lack of historical sense and, as is to be expected, again, its doctrine of popu- lar sovereignty. 83 He repeats the idea expressed already in the manifesto of the allies of the year 1792, and later on by Mallet, that the Revolution was equivalent to a re- lapse toward barbarism. 84 With especial satisfaction, how- ever, he mentions the report of the commissioner Franois of June 21, 1798, in which the Directory is charged with having suppressed all and every form of freedom in France, the political, civil and personal liberty, the freedom of thought and the safety of property. 85 Likewise, he refers to the report of commissioner Trouve of August 30, 1798, for in this he finds a description of the conditions in the Cisalpine Republic, such as from his standpoint he could not wish any better. According to Trouve, there existed in this state "a government without means and strength, equally powerless to accomplish the good and to prevent the evil, an ignorant, wholly pernicious administration, a military equipment which despite its immense costliness is of no value at all, a complete disorganization of finances, no republican institutions, no public education, no con- nection existing between civil laws, on all hands disobedi- ence, indifference, unpunished waste of public money, in a word, the most complete and most horrible anarchy." 86 These then were the alleged blessings of the Revolution ! To the relations of the Revolution to other powers, **//. /., 1799, I, 57 ff., 343, note, II, 145 ff., 464 * "Ibid., II, 138 ff. "Ibid., I, 29 f., note. "Ibid., II, 431 ff. "Ibid., I, 338 ff. 561] CONCEPTION OF THE REVOLUTION 75 Gentz did not give, for a long time, any mentionable atten- tion, other than to fear an invasion of Europe by revolu- tionary principles. The war which had been dragging on since 1792, he still regards even in 1794 as, on the whole, of little importance. It has not yet brought any success to the allies, and cannot be carried on with much more energy ; therefore, Gentz concludes, it would probably be best to let France alone. 87 The volcano in the West, however, did not burn out ; on the contrary, the danger to Europe became more and more serious. The year 1796 brought the inva- sion of Jourdan and Moreau into central and southern Germany and Bonaparte's brilliant campaign in Italy; 1797, the peace of Campo Formio and the opening of the Congress of Kastadt ; 1798, the French occupation of Rome, the intervention in Switzerland, extensive French prepara- tions for a landing in England, and Bonaparte's expedi- tion to Egypt ; finally 1800, after French reverses in 1798 two victories that, according to Gentz, were the most brilliant which the revolutionary armies ever had gained. 88 By the end of 1800, France had thus reconquered its great European position of former times. It now stood at the head of a confederation which embraced almost the whole of southern Europe; the landmarks of the Republic had been advanced to the Rhine and at its head stood Bona- parte, in Gentz's opinion the first really significant man of the Revolution. 89 Besides, the great problem of the new territorial arrangements to be made in Germany, the re- sult of the peace of Lun&ville, demanded a settlement, and that France would have a hand in this could not be doubt- ed for one moment. Apprehensive watchfulness had now apparently become imperative, since the Revolution had ceased to be a mere intellectual danger. The first indications that Gentz was aware of this are to be found in two letters to Garve of March and April, 1798. 90 French politics, he writes to this still highly re- "Translation of Mallet du Pan, pref., xxxiii ff. "Weick, II, 333- "Ibid., II, 372, note. "Brief e v. it. a. Fr. v. Gents, I, 206, 210. TO FRIEDRICH GENTZ [562 spected friend, have now risen to "such tremendous import- ance" that one cannot avoid devoting to them doubled at- tention. The year 1798 is even now the most significant of all the years of the revolutionary era, and still greater things are yet to be expected : the outcome of the expedition against England will decide the fate of Europe; if it suc- ceeds, and if within the next six months no new conti- nental war breaks out, then the tricolor will be waving at the Vistula even before the close of the century. Europe seems destined to encounter in this present year fresh storms and further destruction, and the end of the Revolu- tion is not yet in sight. The mention which Gentz makes here of a doubled attentiveness to the events in the West was not merely a passing idea; he indeed does become ab- sorbed more and more in the increasingly complicated in- ternational affairs of Europe. Already the Historisches Journal of 1799 contained several articles on the matter, and in the following years Gentz is well-nigh given up to the study of these new problems. He feels that the first act of the great drama is ended ; if he previously has hoped that the Revolution would consume itself, he now realizes definitely that this can no longer be thought of. The picture that he draws of the European situation in the second half of 1800 must, therefore, unavoidably be a gloomy one. 91 The war had now lasted eight years, for eight years he himself had fought for the good cause, and yet what had been achieved! The Revolution was not yet ended; on the contrary, it had established itself in the European family and was more dangerous than ever. For a moment, it is true, Gentz believed that the Coup d'fitat meant its formal conclusion. 92 But he soon abandons this hope, and even while entertaining it, he expected far more for the internal conditions of France than for the relations of that country to the other powers; for these he regards, even after 1799, only with suspicion and concern. What "//. /., 1800, II, 394 ft., Ill, 788 ff. K Cf. p. 86f. 563] CONCEPTION OF THE REVOLUTION 77 would the future bring? France, he thinks, has been, to the present, the centre of Europe and will continue to be so for some time to come ; as long as it retains its spirit of restlessness and of military agression, Europe will have to tremble. The era of blood is then not yet at an end; the French sword but rests in the scabbard, and this scabbard may be thrown aside at any moment. A warrior state has established itself in the western part of the Continent whose finances are, it is true, irreparably ruined, whose expans- ive powers, however, remain unweakened ; its trade is war, and without war it cannot exist. And the present? It is bad enough. The Revolution, Gentz states at the end of 1800, has destroyed the old political system of Europe, it has altered the beautiful balance of power among the na- tions, has set might above right, has made war universal, and has" accustomed the world to usurpation and violence. The path to peace leads through numerous further strug- gles, and that, he concludes, "is the sad legacy with which the closing eighteenth century endows the present genera- tion, and perhaps many a one to come." As to the secret of the republican successes, it is evi- dent that a problem so eminently practical necessarily made a strong appeal to a man such as Gentz. He touches upon it more than once, most extensively in his work, Uber den Urspmng mid Chamktcr des Kriegc? grgcn oute." 95 Again he had to flee, and this time the route to be taken was hardly less difficult and dangerous than it had been a few weeks before; he w r ent northeast, passed the still somewhat unsafe Sudetes and made his first stop at Breslau, from where he journeyed on the Dresden. His state of mind varied: he is in despair, rouses himself again, collapses once more and ends in reso- lution as well as apathy. On December 10 he declares proudly : "Everything remains as it was : I, who am also a power, make no peace, nor any truce, and the worse things go, the more sacred do I feel my duty to be, not to yield." 96 But then hopelessness and relaxation gain the upper hand. On December 14 he writes: "The play is coming to its close, my dear friend, and soon it will be said : Et nunc, spectatores, plandite! .... Nothing matters to these dirty rascals. . . . Oh, if they only could have per- ished, what a pleasure the overthrow of our monarchy would be! But to lose the provinces, honor, Germany, Europe and the Zichys, the Uquarts, the Cobenzls, the Collenbachs, the Lamberties, the Dietrichsteins and all the rest, to have to keep these, no satisfaction, no revenge, not one of these dogs hanged or quartered that is beyond en- "Schlesier, IV, 166. "Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 290. 609] ULM AND AUSTERLITZ 123 durance No one can tell whether Bonaparte has not decided to take revenge [on Prussia] for the last two months Some evil or other is impending upon northern Germany." 97 Somewhat more quietly does Gentz express himself about his plans on December 16. 98 He thinks it to be unlikely that he will ever return to Vienna, where he would hardly be tolerated any more; as to St. Petersburg, he does not care to go there, partly on account of its climate, partly because next to cold, death and the French he hates nothing so heartily as the Russians. He shows contempt for the Austrians, but has a feeling of sympathy for them as well, and to see them scorned by these Russian "barbarians" is more than he can endure. If everything should go to ruin, he might settle somewhere in the Tyrol or Carinthia, and there live in communion with the plants and the stars; what proconsul or tyrant may rule, shall then not matter to him. At present he is ready to continue the fight along the old lines and meets, early in 1806, Stadion's suggestion that he use more caution with the remark that he can and will not be silent." Pitt's death does not seem to have moved him very greatly; lie only casually refers to it and states that the British states- man had, years before the end, passed the zenith of his fame and usefulness. 100 Gentz stayed in Dresden to the end of June, 1806, and then again from the middle of July to the end of September ; the last days of June and the opening days of July he spent in Teplitz, which from then on he loved so much. In the first two weeks of October, we find him at the Prussian army headquarters in Thuringia, whither he went on an invitation from Haugwitz. After a further brief stay in Dresden and Teplitz, he went to Prague and this was to remain his headquarters from then on until February, 1809. On the 18th of this month he received a communication "Schlesier, IV, 153 ff. "Ibid., IV, 166 ff. "Deutsche Rundschau, CLII, 273. "Ibid., CLII, 273 f. 124 FRIEDRICH GBNTZ [610 from Count Stadion which summoned him to Vienna, and from this time dates his second residence in the capital city of the Austrian monarchy ; this residence lasted, with some interruptions, until his death. The time from the beginning of 1806 to the beginning of 1809 stands out, therefore, as a distinct period, and we must, consequently, treat it as such. On the whole, Gentz remained, during these three years, his old self with all his virtues and weaknesses : he is ever active and pleasure-seeking, ever hating and loving, scolding and flattering, now ready to fight and full of animal spirits, now again depressed and blase, but yet always interested in everything that is happening in the world, and in animated contact with a great number of per- sons distinguished by rank, talent, or beauty. His life was not exactly very well regulated, but pleasant and interest- ing. At times he experienced lack of money, as for instance in 1806 ; 101 but in general he seems not to have suffered in this regard, thanks to English assistance which was again afforded him in 1807, and to occasional remittances from St. Petersburg. 102 When he did suffer from lack of money, it did not trouble him very greatly, 103 for he was used to debts and to hand-to-mouth existence. His mode of life was, with the exception of short periods of financial de- pression, almost as luxurious as it had been at Vienna ; at the close of 1808, he even fixed up a house in Prague such as he had "hardly had in his best days in Vienna," and made his trip from Breslau to Dresden in 1806 accompanied by two couriers, a valet, two horses owned by himself and three carriages. 104 The summer months he spent in Tep- litz; in the years 1807 and 1808, his stay in this favoured place lasted more than sixteen weeks. He found there everything his many-sided nature desired and needed: the creme of Viennese society, a galaxy of charming women of 1 the throne; also others concerning the English control of the seas and the probable attitude of Austria. Finally, Gentz undertook the translation of the manifesto into Ger- man, without, however, being in full agreement with either its form or its contents. From certain indications he con- cluded that the impression which his presence at the Prus- sian headquarters was bound to make upon the outside world had been the real basis of his invitation. In connection with this journey there are still other instances to be mentioned in which Gentz came into touch, in a more or less official way, with Prussian men of prom- inence. On his own testimony, he formed, in September, 1806 that is to say immediately before this journey a connecting link between Berlin and Vienna 125 and urged in July, 1806, the king of Sweden to desist from war with Prussia. 126 In January, 1807, he negotiated with Count Gotzen on his own responsibility concerning the temporary occupation of the Prussian fortresses in Silesia by Austrian troops. 127 Gentz's relations with London remained active, al- "Schlesier, IV, 262. "'Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, II, 455. **Tagebilcher, I, 51. 619] WAR OF 1809 133 though we have but little information as to the reports and suggestions that lie sent there. The most important of what we do know is a letter to Canning, written in June, 1808. 128 Gentz offers in this two suggestions: England is either to leave the Continent to itself, to bring Spanish America into its own power and in this way to weaken Spain directly and Napoleon indirectly or, in case she should contemplate holding to the Continent, to work in conjunction with Austria. Incidentally we also hear that he sends expositions of his views to the English press. 129 Thus three years of a restless, but on the whole not un- pleasant exile had passed by, when the long awaited hour of Gentz's official recognition struck at last. In February, 1809, Stadion, CobenzPs successor, called him to Vienna, and from this dates a new period in his life : he now entered the inner circle of the Staatskanzlei, which he was never to leave again. Austria once more rose against Napoleon early in 1809, and when war was already as good as certain, Gentz received the commission of writing the war-manifesto. As Napoleon drew nearer Vienna for a second time, Gentz fled to Dotis, where the court and the high dignitaries were staying; at the end of October, he went on to Prague. In February, 1810, we find him, however, again at Vienna. He had a share in the protracted peace negotiations of the summer of 1809, or better, in the struggles and intrigues among the various parties at court and within the govern- ment pertaining to these negotiations. If we should at- tempt to form an exact estimate of his activity during this time, from his own accounts 130 and from other materials, 131 we should find that Gentz considered a really dishonorable peace as unacceptable, but urged the conclusion of a peace under conditions which could be endured; when Napoleon had modified his original demands, Gentz insisted upon accepting them. l *Mitteil. d. Instituts f. Osterr. Geschichtsf., XXI, 148 ff. w Deutsche Rundschau, CLII, 274. "*Tagebiicher, I, 70-208. ^Deutsche Rundschau, CXXXXIV, 223-251. 134 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [620 But what was now to become of himself? As early as 1806 and again in 1808, he had attracted Napoleon's atten- tion, and in July, 1809, even one of his letters to Count Stadion fell into the hands of the French. 132 Something unpleasant was surely to be expected, and hence Gentz asked his English friends to find him a suitable place of refuge in England. 133 3. 1813-1815. The years 1810-1812 form a period of rest in Gentz's life. The insatiable apostle of war and one-time conspirator is now living most of the time in comparative quiet at Vienna, where at last he begins to receive official recogni- tion ; occasionally we find him in Teplitz. He has suspended the struggle against Napoleon for the time being and is silent. Even toward his friends he is now rather uncom- municative, although this apparent fact may be due to the loss of the greater part of the letters that he wrote to them during this time. The political situation of Europe and especially that of Austria had, in the meantime, changed essentially. The disastrous outcome of the war of 1809 imposed upon Austria the necessity of a complete break, at least for the present, with her previous policy, and of seeking a union with France. Stadion was, therefore, released and Metter- nich, the Austrian ambassador at Paris, took his place. In the spring of 1810 the marriage of Napoleon with a daugh- ter of Emperor Francis took place and by this marriage there was added to the political bonds between the two countries a dynastic one as well. For the time being the cabinet of Vienna felt, therefore, assured and even flattered, and in a certain sense rightly so, for the French marriage was indeed an Austrian success. Whether this was good politics for the future, was, however, less certain. A clear- ing up of the European atmosphere on a large scale had not "'Ibid., CXXXXIV, 234. ""Guglia, Friedrich v. Gents, 230. 621] AT VIENNA 1810-1812 135 yet been attained ; on the contrary, the huge conflict which for years had divided Europe into two camps, had now in reality become even more tremendous. After having at- tached Italy and the petty German states to himself, after having thrice conquered Austria and rendered Prussia almost defenseless, Napoleon found England still in arms, Spain in open rebellion, and Russia on the point of slip- ping from his grasp. It was rather probable that he would not give up his fight with England and the Spanish insur- gents. With Russia he might get along for some time yet ; but it was also possible that matters there might come to an open break, and in such an event Austria was in danger of being drawn into the vortex. The immediate effect of these conditions on Gentz's situation was that he had to wait and remain silent; such conduct was perhaps even imposed upon him officially. 134 He had for a long time been personally acquainted with Metternich, and from all appearances did not now find it hard to work under him. During the years 1810 and 1811, he was employed by him only from time to time, and then for the most part on financial treatises; 135 after 1812, how- ever, Metternich entrusted to him strictly political work as well, and Gentz himself later designates the end of this year as the beginning of his real political activity. 136 In 1812 he writes, upon his own initiative, two treatises on maritime law in which he defends the English standpoint; their method of argumentation is essentially historical, 137 and the fact that Gentz could thus still champion the in- terests of England shows that the injunction to silence laid upon him could not have been absolute. On the whole his life is, during these three years, somewhat uneventful. He repeatedly asserts that he still stands where he did, so far as principles and inclinations are concerned, but con- v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, I, 341. ""Tagebiicher, I, 214, 255, 234. On pp. 229 ff. Gentz mentions, however, such an order. "Schlesier, V, 320 f. M6m. et lett. in6d., 347-452. 136 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [022 f esses that he has learned to be more quiet, more just, more tolerant and more cool-headed. 138 Gentz raises no objections to Napoleon's marriage with Marie Louise after it has been decided upon; he favors it, however, only for political and not for any human rea- sons. 139 The death of Queen Louise touches him deeply and he remarks not unjustly that by it Prussia has lost the only great decoration which it still possessed. 140 The fate of the Prussian state itself concerns him rather little ; he, a Prus- sian by birth, goes even so far as to call, without any show of emotion, his native state a "dying machine". 141 As to England, his views now have changed ; his attitude toward this power is, for the time being, markedly less favorable than formerly, and he defends this turn by referring to the change of conditions. 142 According to him, England should fall in with the other powers and come to terms with France; her present relations to the Continent must end, for they afo, to a degre-\ pitiable as well as antagonistic to ihe common interests. 143 The fact that by this time English newspapers and magazines had become well-nigh inaccessi- ble to Continental readers seriously inconvenienced him. 144 To his still greater discomfort, however, the Eng- lish remittances ceased to come during 1809 ; 140 by favoring a speedy conclusion of peace in 1809 Gentz had become persona non grata to the powers at London and was now to be punished for his independent attitude. 146 In 1811, it is true, remittances from England seem to have arrived once more. 147 Personally Gentz is mostly on the move; in October, 1810, for instance, he informs Brinckmann where letters will reach him: "on the route from Dresden to M Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 306 f. "*Fournier, Gentz und Wessenberg, 35 f. Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 309. M Ibid., I, 309. 142 Fournier, Gentz und Wessenberg, 37. 10 Ibid., 37, 45. Brief 'e v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, I, 305. M Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gentz, II, 314, 317. Tagebucher, I, 214. M Preuss. Jahrb., CX, 495. w Tagebilcher, I, 255 f. 623] AT VIENNA 1810-1812 137 Vienna, either in Vienna itself or in Prague, or in Teplitz, or in the country somewhere near this route." 148 The charming Teplitz attracted him above everything else, and should we care to look in upon him there, we might enjoy the spectacle of this ever young gallant and man of society in devoted and boundless adoration of the many bright lights in the heaven of feminine grace. 140 Almost three years had passed, in this fashion, after the conclusion of peace, when the great turn of affairs which Gentz was hoping for finally came, although he was not divining its coming and did not hail it with joy. Napoleon at last definitely broke with the Czar, and in the summer of 1812, actual hostilities began. Gentz deplored this renewal of the conflict between the leading powers on the Continent as a pernicious disturbance of the European peace, and was especially aroused over the Russian procla- mation urging the formation of a German legion; to take a step such as this, he declared in full harmony with his political theories, was tantamount to inviting foreign sub- jects to render a verdict on their own governments. 150 He hoped for French reverses, 151 but heard, during the next months, only this much, that the armies of the emperor were irresistably moving toward Moscow. After the mid- dle of November, reports of Napoleon's embarrassment came in, and by the middle of December Vienna heard of his flight from Russia and the dispatch of an Austrian nego- tiator to Paris. The moment was, as Gentz rightly ob- served, "immensely critical." The question was : what was Austria to do now? For the time being, everybody was in darkness as to that; Metternich might, perhaps, have given some light, but preferred to remain silent, partially even toward Gentz. While Napoleon was making energetic preparations for a new campaign, Gentz began once more to wield his ut Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, II, 313. "'Ibid., II, 288 ff., 313, 422. ""Deutsche Rundschau, CLII, 443 f. Tagebiicher, I, 260 ff. 138 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [624 pen with the old vigor. What was he striving for? If we survey his activity from the spring of 1813 to the summer of 1814, we may, as regards his policies, divide it into four periods: 1. spring, 1813, until the battle of Bautzen, May 20-21 ; 2. from Bautzen to the Austrian declaration of war against France, middle of August ; 3. from the declara- tion of war to the battle of Leipzig, October 18; 4. from Leipzig to the conclusion of peace in 1814. The lines of division between these periods are marked, as will be seen, by events of a more or less military char- acter, and this fact is not without significance as to the con- ception of the Gentz of this period. Gentz is, by this time, no more the old rash idealist ; he has rather become a man open to the realities of life, a Realpolitiker who cares first of all for success. Caution now guides his actions. He carefully weighs the chances of each side from case to case before deciding in favour of any line of policy and is ready to change political tactics as soon as conditions change ; he has learned that to avoid risking the loss of everything a statesman may, at times, have to leave his tracks and take up another road. Gentz retained, during this period, his general political aims, especially that of the European balance of power ; yet he pursued them less vigorously, for he directed his atten- tion now no less to the particular interests of Austria than to those of Europe in general. His immediate aim was, at first, to make the Habsburg monarchy independent of France, to reduce the French power to its proper limits and have some of the territories ceded by Austria and Prussia during the last years restored to them; this being accom- plished, the European balance of power would, of course, re-establish itself automatically. Soon, however, as early as in the summer of 1813, Gentz began to become markedly distrustful of Russia and Prussia and to emphasize more and more, in like gradation, the special interests of Austria. He has, on account of this, been harshly criticised, and his political attitude during the campaign of 1814 does indeed deserve some criticism ; however, if we try to do him 625] ACTIVITY IN 1813-1814 139 justice, we can not seriously accuse him of having left his colors. He was ready, then as ever, to fight for his prin- ciples, provided that the fight was not hopeless and others acted with him ; but it was just this provision which, as he thought to discover, remained unfulfilled. If he now, in the spring and summer of 1813, counselled avoiding war, if he later opposed its continuance and emphasized the spe- cifically Austrian interests, he did so from fear of Napoleon and of Austria's allies. Until about the end of May, 1813, Gentz's utterances breathe a rather decided, though not a warlike, spirit. He urges Nesselrode at St. Petersburg, in case of war breaking out once more, to put before Austria the alternative of either declaring its neutrality or of binding itself secretly to co-operation with Russia. 152 Similar in their purport, but clearer and more detailed are his remarks to Wessen- berg, then Austrian envoy at Munich, dating from March and May of the same year. 153 Gentz's paramount idea there is that of the necessity of common action between the three eastern powers; Austria, he states without any sign of disapproval, made declarations to Russia and Prussia which are such as to bind her to both. Of almost equal im- portance is the thought of inducing Napoleon to make con- cessions without recurring to war ; Gentz seems to assume that this plan might be realized, though he does not ex- pressly say so. The concessions referred to would consist, in the main, in the ceding of Germany, Italy and Spain; should Napoleon refuse to agree to them, then Austria would, after its declarations, have to join Russia and Prus- sia. Austria must, at any rate, avoid all dilatory measures and prepare for war. As to England, Gentz declares it was to be hoped that this power would not make peace im- possible by taking up an obstinate attitude. Even on Maj 2, the day of the battle of Gross-Gorschen, he writes that Austria was to join the allies irrespective of a possible early reverse. m Lettres et papiers du chancelier comte de Nesselrode, V, 27 ff. "*Fournier, Gentz und Wessenberg, 62-66, 74. 140 FRIEDEICH GENTZ [620 In the meantime, Napoleon had again appeared in Ger- many and opened the campaign in Saxony at the head of a somewhat composite but strong army. On May 2 there followed the battle of Gross-Gorschen, and on May 20-21 that of Bautzen, both of which were victories for the French ; on June 4, an armistice of several weeks was con- cluded between the belligerents, and during it both sides tried to get support from the rear and to win over Austria. Cobenzl's aims before 1805 had, then, at last become more than a dream : Austria was now the mediator between the rival powers, holding the balance of decision in her hands. Which of the contesting parties was the better to side with was not clear yet ; Napoleon might be the stronger at pres- ent, but every passing hour must reduce his superiority. Austria's interests demanded, therefore, that the pros and cons be weighed in the most careful manner, and this task Metternich now took in hand with the objectivity of the cool calculator. That the two Napoleonic victories did not fail to im- press Gentz may be seen from his letters written to Metter- nich and Wessenberg during May, June and July, 1813. They re-established to him, for the present, the military reputation and general prestige of the emperor; and from this he drew forthwith conclusions. In the beginning of June he frankly acknowledges Napoleon's "immense mil- itary superiority" and "art", declaring that the prospects of the allies were far from splendid ; even if Austria should join the latter, the issue of the war would, to him, remain "very doubtful", and this the statesmen at Vienna might well take into account before coming to any decision. 154 Shpuld Austria decide upon war against Napoleon, so he explains, in the beginning of July, to Wessenberg, it would have to concentrate its main army on the Elbe, while at the same time an army of some 60,000 men might be formed in Bavaria to be pushed forth toward the Austrian left flank. 155 Gentz considered, nevertheless, this superiority as but M Ibid., 74 ff. Deutsche Rundschau, CLII, 446. '"Fournier, Gents und Wessenberg, 82. 627] ACTIVITY IN 1813-1814 141 a temporary one. Napoleon, he writes to Metternich in June, 150 long ago passed the zenith of his career and is now on the road to "certain ruin" ; Austria has, therefore, but to find out whether his ruin will be hastened more by war or by keeping peace, and Gentz believes that this question must be answered in favour of the first side of the alterna- tive. Should Austria, he states, join the allies and the war be continued, Napoleon would only be given an opportunity of inflicting a deadly blow on the Habsburg Empire while he still possesses the power to do so ; that, however, would mean the postponement of the liberation of Europe. On the other hand, could the present crisis be passed without bloodshed, then Austria and the Continent might save their forces for a later and decisive struggle. To pass the crisis peacefully does to Gentz, it is true, not mean to allow present conditions to continue. These conditions must be changed, on that point, he thinks, everybody in Austria is agreed ; and they must be changed by means of diplomatic negotiations with France tending toward a settlement of the crisis through French concessions. But of what kind should these be? Gentz answers the question extensively in a letter to Metternich of the middle of June. He there distinguishes it is true, not very clearly between the concessions to be granted by France in return for a "truce", that is a temporary peace, and those of the per- manent peace. The first would comprise the dissolution of the duchy of Warsaw, a "restitution" of Prussia by the cession of Magdeburg and the evacuation of Hamburg, finally the cession to Austria of at least the Illyrian prov- inces; Gentz would, perhaps, be satisfied even with the granting of the first of these three points. A permanent peace, on the other hand, would have to be preceeded by France's renunciation of every direct and indirect influence over Germany, eastern and central Italy. Whether Gentz seriously expected that Napoleon would consent to such concessions is hard to say. In general, he seems to ignore ""Deutsche Rundschau, CLII, 446 f. 142 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [628 the possibility of a refusal on the part of Napoleon; at times, however, as for instance in the middle of June, lie shows that he takes this possibility into account. 157 Gentz nowhere suggests, at this time, that Austria should negotiate with Napoleon separately ; he undoubtedly thinks of a joint action of the three eastern powers. Some- what varying, however, are his views on the particular man- ner and the intensity of this action. In a letter to Metter- nich of June 5, for instance, he appears to be rather uneasy lest Austria might have become too intimate with Russia and Prussia, and again, five days later he emphasizes the great importance of Austria's co-operation with these powers; 158 possibly this wavering resulted from his having received, in the interval between the two letters, certain information from Metternich that is unknown to us. On the whole, it may be said that Gentz at that time, did not wish Austria seriously to bind itself in any way, and on this account he gravely criticises Metternich for concluding the treaty of Reichenbach. 159 Austria, he states, is en- tirely free to act as she sees fit; she is now the "center of protest" against the Napoleonic hegemony, and when the time shall have come for Europe to order her affairs definitively, this settlement will be arrived at under Aus- trian leadership. 160 At the beginning of June, Gentz went to Ratiborzitz in Bohemia in order to watch, at short range, the course of events ; for there or near by had gathered the sovereigns and prime ministers of the three eastern powers. Soon, he boasts to Rahel: "I have chosen this place as my head- quarters because I am situated here in the midst of all the great transactions, and am yet enjoying all the comforts and pleasures of life. ... I know everything ; no one on earth knows what I know of contemporary history, for Ibid., CLII, 453- "'Ibid., CLII, 447, 450. "'Ibid., CLII, 460. M Ibid., CLII, 446. Fournier, Gents und Wessenberg, 77, note. 629] ACTIVITY IN 1813-1814 143 nobody ever was or can be in such deep intimacy with so many leading parties and individuals". 161 In this, of course, he exaggerates. Much, no doubt, but certainly not everything reached his ear; what he did learn often came to him indirectly. Metternich does not seem to have taken him into his innermost confidence; at any rate, he failed to inform Gentz properly about Austria's negotiations with Russia and Prussia in the spring of 1813 as well as of the later conclusion of the truce and the treaty of Reichen- bach. 162 On the other hand, it is perfectly probable that Gentz met, at Ratiborzitz, many persons of the first rank and importance, and some of these he must have met in a semi-official way; among them were W. von Humboldt and Nesselrode with whom he conferred concerning the agree- ment of Reichenbach. In the middle of June Gentz was received by the Czar, and one of his letters to Metternich contains a report of the conversation carried on by the two men. 163 Gentz found the Czar ready to make advances to Austria and spoke, in his turn, frankly about the gen- eral situation as he saw it. It was important, he explained, not to forget that the attitude of the three eastern powers to the war-question were rather different: to Prussia the war was one of necessity, almost of despair; to Russia half a matter of honour, and half one of political calcu- lations; to Austria, finally, a pure problem of business. Metternich had, at any rate, to act simply and purely "as an Austrian minister", and this the Czar, Gentz added, would probably agree to. The main point was that the three powers should stand together, to make effective their attitude of protest against the present conditions and against "tout systdme d' enrahissement et de pr6ponder- ancc"; this protest should form "the fundamental law of every anti-Napoleonic policy and an almost certain basis for the gradual restoration of the balance of power and order in Europe." Finally, Gentz remarked that the ques- "Schlesier, I, 126 ff. l Deutsche Rundschau, CLII, 447, 451 f., 460. Ibid., CLII, 455 ff. 144 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [G30 tion as to the continuation of the war should be decided upon only by Russia, Prussia and Austria in common. In the middle of July Gentz went with Metternich to the congress held at Prague; he was not allowed admittance to its sessions, but otherwise, Metternich treated him not without confidence and gave him, at the end of July, the commission to prepare a war-manifesto. 104 As the trans- actions in Prague did not result in anything, Austria in the second week of August declared war against France. A few days later, Metternich left Prague, and returned to the army. Gentz remained there for the time being, and not until December did he go to the headquarters of the allies. The three months which he thus spent in the Bohemian capital made up, perhaps, the period of his life in which for the first time he felt completely happy; another like period came with the Congress of Vienna. According to his own testimony he was at this time "the intermedi- ary in all important political relations between Vienna and the headquarters, the channel of all authentic news, the centre of all diplomatic circles and of all diplomacy ;" he was "highly honored" at Prague, his name had become "great", his health left nothing to be desired, he had money in plenty and the Emperor deigned to nominate him as court counsellor. 165 If these statements are correct, Gentz was then the actual civil head of the government in Prague ; at any rate, he was one of its heads, especially since the censorship of the press in that city lay in his hands. At one time he gives Bahel a pretty description of his various duties and activities: "Today," he writes, "I have already the following behind me the correction of the papers a trip to the general in command and an hour's conversation with him the dispatch of a courier to Linz and Teplitz and an hour ago, receiving a special courier from Teplitz, whom Metternich sent me this morning, and the re-dis- patching of this courier to Vienna. It is now three M Tagebiicher, I, 264 f. M Ibid., I, 266 f. 631] ACTIVITY IN 1813-1814 145 o'clock." 106 In tthe beginning of October, Stein came through Prague and offered Gentz, according to his state- ment, a place in the commission, formed for the administra- tion of the territories about to be conquered. 167 Up to Metternich's departure from Prague, Gentz had "many important conversations" with him, "particularly about German affairs;" it is not without interest to hear him assert that the main content of these conversations was the new spirit of Prussia, as well as the fear that the fall of Napoleon might bring, instead of a restoration, a second revolution. 168 As Gentz himself says, it was he who first expressed these fears, and from this we may con- clude that they were at that time no longer new with him ; apparently, they had formed one of his chief reasons for opposing war in June of this year. In the beginning of December, Gentz left Prague to go to the headquarters of the allies at Freiburg i. B. and took there part in the discussions concerning a march of the allies through Switzerland. 169 In January, 1814, he returned to Vienna, where up to the convening of the congress a series of duties occupied him: he kept up a lively correspondence with Metternich and drafted several memorials to him, of which however only a single one is known; he exercised the censorship of the political news- papers supplying them, at the same time, with articles, translated manifestos, held the position of informant to the Hospodar of Wallachia, Caradja, for which he had been recommended by Metternich in 1812, and fulfilled, finally, his old duties of social intercourse. In passing, we may call attention to a remark that Gentz makes, in his diaries, on his journey from Prague to Freiburg. 170 As he tells us, he ascended the "high moun- tain" over which the road leads near Schwabisch-Hall on ""Schlesier, I, 150. in Tagebticher, I, 268. M Ibid., I, 269. tfl lbid., I, 272. "'Ibid., I, 271 i. 146 FBIEDRICH GENTZ [632 foot and without any discomfort, and concludes from this that his strength and health must be good. As a matter of fact, we may gather from this report only this much, that Gentz must, by this time, have arrived at a rather high degree of physical inactivity and feebleness, for there are no "high mountains" whatever in Swabian Franconia. In- deed, he was so used to a comfortable, luxurious life that in 1813 he could write concerning his stay in Prague, quite after the fashion of a beatus possidens : "One of the best French cooks . . . accompanied me everywhere. My do- mestic life was entirely as I wished it, it was all that an unmarried aristocrat could desire in the way of comfort and elegance." 171 From the declaration of war by Austria to the battle of Leipzig, Gentz's sympathies are on the side of the allies. This not only his official position demanded, but the gen- eral situation as well; Napoleon had not shown himself reasonable at Prague and it was, therefore, necessary to bring him to his senses by further blows. The victory of Leipzig, he greets with enthusiasm. 172 After it, however, he wishes peace to be concluded, and the proposals of the allies to France in November, 1813, containing the offer of the Rhine and Alpine boundaries were quite in harmony with his views. As they were not seriously considered by Napoleon, nothing was left to do but to renew the war; the question was, however, with what intensity war should be waged, and what was to be its ultimate purpose. Gentz held the opinion that it was necessary to keep always in view a speedy conclusion of peace, and accordingly he fairly overwhelms Metternich with urgent requests to seize every opportunity in this direction; above all, he wishes him to paralyse the evil influence of Blticher and other "madmen." 173 Anything but "war of annihilation," he m lbid., I, 271. m Metternich-Klinkowstrom, Osterreichs Theilnahme an den Befreiungs- kriegen, 89 f., 92. in lbid., 220, 233 ff., 238 ff., 247, 267 f., 274, 283, 316, 325 ff. 633] ACTIVITY IN 1813-1814 147 exclaims, anything but an overthrow of Napoleon and a restoration of the Bourbons, for all that would only tend to strengthen the position of the non-Austrian members of the Coalition! 174 Metternich would do best to establish direct relations with Napoleon and discuss with him alone the foundations of future peace. 175 The best insight into Gentz's views and feelings at this time may be gained from a memorial of February, 1814, and two letters of November, 1813, resp. March, 1814, all of which were directed to Metternich. 176 The first of these letters has reference to the impend- ing territorial rearrangement of Europe but throws, at the same time, a strange light on the state of mind into which Gentz gradually had come. Austria and Russia, he now proposes, are first to arrive at an understanding as to the future territorial extension of the European powers in general, and of Germany in particular, and secretly to obtain England's approval of these arrangements. Then Prussia, Bavaria, Sweden, the petty states of Europe and England as well are formally to be "invited" to join the two afore mentioned powers, which they can hardly refuse to do. When this is attained, Russia will withdraw from further negotiations. Austria and Prussia, however, will conclude alliances with one another, and also each with the remaining German states, which will form the back-bone of the new German federation; these alliances are later to be confirmed by all the non-German powers. The number of states in the new German union is not to be more than sixteen. "In this way, therefore," Gentz concludes, "the great question, as a matter of fact, would be settled by Austria alone with the assistance of Russia and Eng- land, . . . but in the eyes of the world everything would be so handled and ordered as though Austria and Prussia had completed the task in common. This outward appearance is as necessary to present and future peace and quiet as m lbid., 270 f., 210. m lbid., 293. m lbid., 98-103, 248-262, 280. 148 FRIEDEICH GENTZ [634 is the actual exclusion of Prussia, Sweden, Bavaria, and all the other powers of secondary rank from every decision of importance." To this Gentz adds the remark that Austria's position in the future German federation would have to be that of the primus inter pares. The memorial deals with the question of Napoleon's removal. Gentz does not deny a general right of inter- vention of the powers in France, but he denies most de- cidedly that this right should extend to the dethroning of a legitimate sovereign, and as such he now regards Napol- eon. Whether the latter, he declares, attained his power in an unjust manner cannot be so quickly determined, at any rate he has long ago ceased to be, so far as the French people are concerned, an usurper; besides, he has been recognized as sovereign by all European powers save Eng- land, and a recognition of this kind cannot simply be annulled. If it were planned to leave it to the French people to decide whether Napoleon should continue to be their sovereign, this would be, after all, nothing but a rec- ognition of popular sovereignty. The Bourbons have no further claim to the French throne; their restoration is to the advantage of Russia and England alone, and is, there- fore, urged by these two powers. There may perhaps be some doubt as to whether Austria would be able to prevent the return of the Bourbons; but if the allied armies shall once have reached Paris, this will certainly no longer be possible. From the second letter referred to above, the following passage may be quoted: "My policy becomes daily more egotistic and downright Austrian. The word Europe has become a horror to me. A common revenge is no longer to be thought of. The greatest desire I have is to see the Coalition buried at once. Then I should wish that we were grown so great and so strong that everyone would have to tremble before us and to court our favor; I would not hasten into new alliances; only Bavaria, Wurtemberg and those who are to rule in Lombardy and Piedmont, and if possible Switzerland, would I unite with us; what is to 635] ACTIVITY IN 1813-1814 149 become of Russia, Prussia, France and England, so far as we are concerned, the next years will have to decide. I put no trust in any of these powers, and give none of them credit for good intentions toward us. Furthermore, I would not yield to Russia a single farm in Galicia, and would do my utmost to take Warsaw from her." Gentz's attitude has, then, by this time become de- cidedly distrustful of the allies and almost friendly to Na- poleon. If we wish to understand it, we shall have to trace it back to its motives. One of these motives and perhaps the strongest one, was Gentz's old anxiety about the balance of power. He strove, as we know, in the last analysis, for a European federal system, and considered such a system without this balance of power as absolutely inconceivable; the latter, however, he believed to be threatened or even eliminated since the beginning of the century by France and Russia. France was now weakened, and in the future it might be further weakened; Russia, therefore, was left, and Russia alone, as the European peril, the same Russia that had been and would be Austria's particular rival in Poland and the Balkan peninsula. Was France, then, to be so completely conquered that Russian supremacy must be- come unavoidable? Would that not but mean giving up one master for another? And even in case Russia were not able to get for herself the leadership of Europe, her posi- tion would, nevertheless, be extremely dangerous to certain other powers; for who could guarantee that Russia might not all at once extend her hand to France? Everything must, therefore, be avoided which might strengthen this colossus, and the restoration of the Bourbons be prohib- ited; for if accomplished this restoration would essentially help toward a Russian-French rapprochement* 77 Prussia he thinks, has the same dangers to fear from a return of the Bourbons; unfortunately, however, the Prussian cab- inet is well-nigh powerless against the radical demands of m Metternich-Klinkowstr6m, Osterreichs Theilnahine an den Befreinngs- kriegen, 257 f., 287 f. 150 FRIEDRICH GENTZ [63G \ certain elements, first of all against those of the army. 178 As to England, he is afraid that in the new Europe the old leaning of the British cabinet toward Russia might be- come a source of great inconvenience to the balance of power and, therefore, especially to Austria; besides, Eng- land too is interested in the return of the Bourbons. 170 Taking into account all these considerations, it must be granted that Gentz was right, from his standpoint, in changing his political tactics after the victory of Leipzig. Other circumstances demanded other means. The powers, as he was convinced, were pursuing a policy of self-inter- est; Austria was, therefore, compelled to do the same, for only in this w r ay could she still hope to get her rights. So far, then, Gentz maintained his old position. He soon leaves it, however, in so far as he looses all sense of moderation in championing these new diplomatic tactics. His desire to spare France and not allow Russia to gain in strength was logical and comprehensible; his plans looking toward new conditions in Germany, on the other hand, are entirely incompatible with a system whose funda- mental idea was the equality of the powers and a common regulation of all European questions. They must be ex- plained differently, and their proper explanation is to be found in a somewhat new element in Gentz's nature: his new Austrian patriotism. In this, therefore, we are to see the second cause of his attitude in 1814. Originally a cosmopolitan with certain pan-German tendencies, Gentz had gradually yielded to the influence of his Viennese en- vironments and his hatred of Russia, to arrive finally at a solid Ostreichertum, with which was doubtless mingled what Bismarck once termed "Rcssortpatriotismus" '; it be- gan to manifest itself in him even before 1813, and after Leipzig it reached its full vigor. 180 In comparison with these motives, others are hard- ly worthy of consideration, as for instance Gentz's personal "'Ibid., 257. m /rf., 238, 258, 287 f . **Ibid., 248, 271, 280. 637] CONGRESS OF VIENNA 151 relations to Metternich. As far as the material which is available permits of conclusions, it must be acknowledged that Gentz always speaks .of his chiefs policy only in the most respectful terms; he does not, however, hesitate to offer substantial criticism. The relations between the two men were, at least until 1815, far less those of dependence of one upon the other than those of two sovereign powers, except for the fact that every decision naturally rested with Metternich. Gentz has been termed, at times, Metter- nich's clerk, and again his prompter ; but in reality he was neither the one nor the other. Metternich until then never seems to have taken him into his innermost confidence, and Gentz himself often mildly complains about this atti- tude. 181 While Gentz was thus protesting against the continua- tion of the war, the allies gradually pressed on toward Paris and there forced Napoleon to abdicate. With this the war against the latter was temporarily ended. The tremendous task of European reorganization which was now to be undertaken fell to the Congress of Vienna. As its secretary, and as Metternich's assistant, Gentz was initiated into many of the secrets as well as frivolities of these nine months and he felt, there, quite in his element. To attempt to describe his activity in detail, however, would take us too far; he himself says but little about it, for the hundred pages of his diary dealing with the time from July, 1814, to May, 1815, give scarcely more than some insight into the social life of the congress. Suffice it to say, therefore, that in general he adhered to his ideas of 1814. In the beginning of 1815 he worked out a Projct de Declaration, which has great similarity to the treaty of the Holy Alliance of September 16, 1815, if this be stripped of its specific religious character. 182 According to Gentz's own statement, this project was read to the Czar by Castlereagh toward the end of the congress, and the latter was moved to tears by it; it is, therefore, not M Ibid., 119 f., 127 f., 350. M Tagebucher, I, 443 ff. 152 FRIEDRICH GEXTK [G3S impossible that the declaration had a certain influence upon the conclusion of the Holy Alliance itself. When Napoleon had returned from Elba, Gentz \v;is entrusted with the drafting of a proscription against him. 183 Then war broke out anew; but before Europe had recovered its breath, the news of Waterloo and of the com- plete destruction of the imperial army arrived. Gentz seems to have taken a relatively small interest in the war, except that he was fearful of a further shifting of the balance of power in favor of Russia and Prussia. The news of Napoleon's escape from Elba came to him on March 7 through W. von Humboldt. 184 His sympathies were plainly divided, even inclining perhaps to Napoleon; he would have preferred to see the threatened renewal of the European conflict nipped in the bud and this with the least possible sensation. After Waterloo his fears got the upper hand ; he praises Napoleon's attitude in the battle, of which Adam Mtiller had given him an inspiring descrip- tion, 185 he criticises Blucher's and Wellington's march to Paris and protests against the restoration of the Bour- bons. 186 He would gladly have seen a regency under Marie Louise, but finally does not oppose the recognition of Louis XVIII. 187 Called to Paris, he took part in the con- clusion of peace, again guided by the desire to preserve as far as possible the integrity of France. A half year later Gentz made public the motives which had actuated him during the peace negotiations and de- fended them against the angry Gorres. 188 He is of the opinion that the principle of the European balance of power no longer demanded any additional weakening of France's position, as would result, for instance, from a m lbid., I, 364. "Ibid., I, 363- M Briefw. zw. Fr. Gentz u. A. H. Mutter, 180 ff. ""Metternich-Klinkowstrom, Osterrelchs Theilnahme an den Befreiungs- kriegen, 664 f. Ibid., 666 f. Briefw. zw. Fr. Gentz u. A. H. Muller, 203. "'Schlesier, II, 403. 639] THE HUNDRED DAYS 153 forced concession of Alsace and Lorraine. The interests of an enduring European peace seem to him even to forbid such a step ; for, he declares, if this step were to be taken, every king of France would, under the pressure of public opinion, seize the first opportunity of winning back what had been lost. This argument had, no doubt, much in its favor, for after 1870 France indeed followed the very policy that Gentz here foretells. On the other hand, there were important considerations against it, and these Gentz seems entirely to have overlooked : if France were allowed to keep Alsace and Lorraine, there would be no guarantee that the very possession of these provinces might not in- vite the French to make an attempt at winning the entire left bank of the Rhine. The whole question was, at that time, in a certain sense still an academic one, and not until the latter part of the nineteenth century was it made evident that here both men, Gentz as well as Gorres, were equally in the right and equally in the wrong. It is, how- ever, not impossible that in Gentz's case still other unex- pressed motives may have been at work, as for instance those which aimed at bringing Austria in time into the good graces of the Bourbons. Europe's struggle against its foremost man was now definitely ended. Napoleon himself sailed to St. Helena accompanied by a small suite, and there six years later he ended his unique life. The white banner of the Bourbons was floating once more from the Tuileries, for the king had again taken up his residence in the midst of his good people. Finally, the armies of the allies marched back to their garrisons and their homes. There was peace, at last, in all the lands, that sweet peace which so long had been hoped for. At spinning-parties, over their glasses, or at home by the warm fireside, however, people were telling for more than a generation of the strange hosts which, dur- ing the long years of war, had passed through the country ; most of all, it is true, they told of him whose iron hand had been lying on Europe during these fifteen terrible and ever memorable years. For Gentz too the struggle against his great enemy was now over, a struggle that, in its final stage, had hardly deserved this term. It never occurred to him to mourn his fate, and he passes over with indifference or scorn lamenta- tions such as those of Las Cases, Montholon and Gour- gaud. The era of Bonaparte, at last, belonged to the past and might so continue; now more important things were to be considered than the fate of the "ex-hero of the age." "You must know," Gentz writes in 1824, "that Bonaparte is as good as forgotten among us, and in Germany only a few curse or praise him, .... and they too not from conviction but from sheer malignity." 189 The end of all struggle, however, had not yet come to Gentz. Although the great storm had subsided and a second Napoleon was not likely to appear in the immediate future, the revolutionary spirit had not been extinguished *"Briefe v. u. a. Fr. v. Gents, II, 340 f. 154 641] CONCLUSION 155 entirely and soon Gentz thought that he heard the roll of thunder once more. Again he rushed into battle, but this time the struggle was to end differently. Europe had, after all, progressed during the last thirty years, and Gentz him- self realized in time that "neither art nor force can stop the turn of the world- wheel" ; so he became more and more depressed, especially after 1825, without, however, losing interest in life entirely. In 1831 he sums up the result of this second struggle against the revolutionary tendencies in the words: "I find myself .... suffering from an actual mentally diseased condition which is making notice- able progress in me. The chief features of this condition are continually recurring unrest and deep sorrow at the shaping of conditions which are driving us more and more to the wall, the bitter consciousness that I can do nothing against it, that I am daily becoming more estranged from the new order of things, that my role is played and the fruit of forty years of labor as good as lost, multiplied troubles, irreparable losses in my income brought on by political catastrophes, my place in society which for some years J have too greatly cultivated and from which, now that I am tired of it since it disturbes me in the only pleasure I still have, I do not know how to free myself, discontent with myself and with the world, the feeling of increasing age and the fear of death which you, of course, know; are these not enough to make one sick?" 190 Soon after this confession Gentz died, a weary and embittered man. For some time he seemed forgotten ; then, however, he slowly rose once more out of this night of oblivion, and it is safe to say that his name will continue to be remembered. A historic figure of the first rank, it is true, he never was ; one may even hesitate to give him sec- ond rank, since the influence which he exercised on the course of events has, after all, been but a small one. Judged by the whole make-up of his nature, however, he undoubt- edly deserves to be called a very remarkable personage. ""Schlesier, I, 216 f. 156 FRIEDBICH GENTZ [642 His life extended over three distinct historic periods : those of the Revolution, of Napoleon and of the Eeaction, and in all of them he had, fundamentally, one and the same aim : to fight against whatever was revolutionary and aggres- sive; but if we should attempt to find for him a place in history which would be his own more than any other, it could only be that of an opponent of the first Napoleon. Comparable to a brilliant comet the name of this extra- ordinary man stands on the firmament of historical fame, sending forth its lustre from age to age. There is the sparkling head: that is he himself, the little Caporal, the tamer of the Revolution, the Emperor ; behind it, however, there follows an immense tail of duller light: the com- panions and enemies of the great conqueror, and with these, with the group of anti-Napoleonic ideologues Gentz must, more than with any other group or period, historically be classed. INDEX Addington, 97, 104- Alexander, czar of Russia, 62, 96, 98, 108, 109, in, 121, 129, 137, 143, 151. Ancillon, n, 60, 61. Armfeldt, 91, 98, 102, 106. Austerlitz, 96, 122. Bautzen, 138, 140. Bliicher, 146, 152. Bourbons, i4/ff., 152. Brandes, 55, 56, 58. Brinckmann, 28, 61, 98, 103, 104, 1 12, 136. Budberg, 129. Burke, 38f., 51, s8f, 62, 64f. Canning, 129. Caradja, 145. Charles, archduke of Austria, 106, no, 112. Cicero, 31, 32ff., 36, soff., 57, 59. Cobenzl, 24, 65, Sgt., 91, 97, 99, 102 losff., 112, 115, 117, 121, 122, 126, 140. Collenbach 106, in, 122, 126. Colloredo, 106, 121. Czartorisky, ill. Dresden, 122, 123, 124, 130, 136. Duka, 106, no. Fassbender, 89, 102, 106, in. Francis, emperor of Austria, 62, 98, 106, no, 117. Francois. 74 Frederick the Great, 9, 13, 14, 94. Frederick William II, king of Prussia, 14, Frederick William III, king of Prussia, 120, 126. Freiburg i.B., 145. Garve, 31, 35, 36, 37, 5L 57, 59, 75- Gentz character, 22ff. ; correspondence, 62f., 75f., 98, 103, 104, 1256% 132!.; life, sketch of, n. ; memorials, 63, 97f., iO3f., 105, Ii2ff., 118, I28f., 135, 148.; place in history, gi., issf. ; political theories, 3off. ; publications, 37, 6if., 77, 98, I27f., 135. 157 158 PBIBDRICH GENTZ [044 Girtanner, 56, 58. Gorres, 30, i52f. Goethe, i/, 18, 21, 98. Gotzen, 131, 132. Gourgaud, 154- Graun, 28, 29. Grenville, 63. Gross-Gorschen, 139, 140. Gustavus IV, king of Sweden, 98, 104, 116, 132. Hardenberg, 98. Harrowby, 105. Haugwitz, 61, 98, 118, 121, 123, 126, 131 f. Herz, 57. Holy Alliance, I5if. Humboldt, W. von., 24, 60, 143, 152. Ivernois, 62. John, archduke of Austria, 30, 97, 98, m, "2, 113, H7- Kant, ii, 21, 23, 31, 41. Kollowrat 106. Las Cases, 154. Leipzig, 92, 96, 138, 146. Lombard, 126, I3if. Louis XVI, 67. Louis XVIII, 98, 116, 132, 152. Louis Ferdinand, prince of Prussia, 6of., 98, 104, 129. Louise, queen of Prussia, 98, 136. Lucchesini, 61, 126, 131. Mack, 102, no, 119. Makintosh, 61, 70. Mallet du Pan, 21, 57f., 59, 6r. 6sf., 73, 74. Marat, 68, 69. Marie Louise, empress of the French, 134, 136, 152. Meerveldt, 118. Meiternich, 9, II, 29, 89, 97, 99, 100, 102, 108, 109, 112, 130, 134, 135, 137, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, I46ff., 151. Mirabeau, 35, 57. Montesquieu, 31, 35, 51. Montholon, 154. Mounier, 61. Miiller, Adam Heinrich, 24 27, 40, 64, 87, 89, 121, 125. Muller, Johannes von, 28, 92, 98, 99, 101, 103, 104, 105, ii7ff. Murawief, 108. 645] INDEX 159 Nesselrode, 98, 139, 143. Paget, 91, 102, 104, 105, 106, in. Panin, 61, 98, 102, 104, 106. Peace of Luneville, 75; Schonbrunn, 133, 136; Paris (1815), 152. Pitt, 62, 63, 105, in, 112, 123. Posselt, 56. Pozzo di Borgo, 98, 102, 106. Prague, 123, 130, 133, 137, 144!., 146. Rahel, 25, 93, 08, 142, 144- Rasumowsky, 91, 102, 106. Ratiborzitz, I42ff. Reichenbach, 142. Robespierre, 35. Rousseau, 31, 35, 51, 69. Schiller, 17, 21, 98. Schlegel, A. W., 26, 130. Schlegel, Fr., 26, 98. Schloezer, 21, 56. Sieyes, 68, 69. Stadion, 61, 89, gof., 102, 109, 123, 124, 126, 134. Stael, 98, 130. Stein, 98, 130, 145. Teplitz, 93, 123, 1241., 134, 137, 144, Trauttmannsdorf, 112. Trouve, 74. Ulm, 119. War of 1805 H9ff.; 1809 I33J 1812 137; 1813-1814 I37ff-; 1815 152. Waterloo, 101, 102, 152. Wessenberg, 139, 140. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN No. 14 id-class matter under Act 16, 1894] UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES VOL. I. NO. l DECEMBER, 1912 FRIEDRICH GENTZ an Opponent of the French Revolution and Napoleon BY PAUL F. REIFF, Ph.D. Sometime Fellow in History University of Illinois 90 CENTS N'OIS VERSITY STUDIES IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES rKllXKST L. lioCAKT. Tin: r.oAKD OF EDITOKS J JOHN A. FAIKUK. [LAURENCE .M. LAKSOX. The ''University of Illinois Studies in Hie Social Sciences" are designed to afford a means of publishing nionograplis prepared by nienibers of Hie faculty or grad- siudents in the departments of history, economics, political science, and sociology of the University of Illinois. Numbers will be published at irregular intervals, usually quarterly, so as to constitute an annual volume of about 600 pages. 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