Radicals outran
their wiser and more rational brethren, and took up arms. They would
demolish at once those sovereignties which would have died by the slow
action of time, had the central Government been fully established and
wisely administered. But this new Government rather deliberated than
acted. That which more than all else arouses the German mind--the
Schleswig-Holstein question, identified as it is with the great question
of the unity of the Teutonic race--was not taken up by the Government at
Frankfort, but by that at Berlin. In the mean time the several
Governments of Bavaria, Prussia, and Austria had gained the mastery over
their own domestic revolutions, so that they could act more freely.
Austria called home its archduke and its members in the Frankfort
Parliament, and finally the whole movement subsided into the old order
of things.
The various Governments were now in a position in which they could
punish those disturbers of their peace who had endangered their very
existence. Of these Dr. Neumann was one, and in 1852 he was notified
that his lectures were no longer needed in the university of Munich. It
was doubtless thought that he would make some slight formal concessions,
and be permitted to continue his active duties, as others had done. But
he felt too independent.
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