take up arms in a cause
which, if it was not their own, at least gave them a chance of
somewhat approaching their aims by clearing Germany of its old
monarchical encumbrances. Thus everywhere the people and the
Governments were at daggers drawn upon this subject; the outbreak was
inevitable; the mine was charged, and it only wanted a spark to make
it explode. The dissolution of the Chambers in Saxony, the calling in
of the Landwehr (military reserve) in Prussia, the open resistance of
the Government to the Imperial Constitution, were such sparks; they
fell, and all at once the country was in a blaze. In Dresden, on the
4th of May, the people victoriously took possession of the town, and
drove out the King, while all the surrounding districts sent
re-inforcements to the insurgents. In Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia
the Landwehr refused to march, took possession of the arsenals, and
armed itself in defence of the Imperial Constitution. In the
Palatinate the people seized the Bavarian Government officials, and
the public moneys, and instituted a Committee of Defence, which placed
the province under the protection of the National Assembly. In
Wuertemberg the people forced the King to acknowledge the Imperial
Constitution, and in Baden the army, united with the people, forced
the Grand Duke to flight, and erected a Provincial Government. In
other parts of Germany the people only awaited a decisive signal from
the National Assembly to rise in arms and place themselves at its
disposal.

The position of the National Assembly was far more favorable than
could have been expected after its ignoble career. The western half of
Germany had taken up arms in its behalf; the military everywhere were
vacillating; in the lesser States they were undoubtedly favorable to
the movement. Austria was prostrated by the victorious advance of the
Hungarians, and Russia, that reserve force of the German Governments,
was straining all its powers in order to support Austria against the
Magyar armies. There was only Prussia to subdue, and with the
revolutionary sympathies existing in that country, a chance certainly
existed of attaining that end. Everything then depended upon the
conduct of the Assembly.

Now, insurrection is an art quite as much as war or any other, and
subject to certain rules of proceeding, which, when neglected, will
produce the ruin of the party neglecting them. Those rules, logical
deductions from the nature of the parties an