f between different parts of the country due to religious
divisions. The Reformation, which left England with a National Church, left
Germany hopelessly divided; and the division between the Protestants in the
north and east, and the Catholics in the west and south, is still, half
a century after the establishment of the United Empire, a source of
difficulty.

Yet the Confederation has one undeniable achievement to its credit. It
paved the way for German unity by facilitating the Zollverein, or Customs
Union, which was extended between 1830 and 1844 to practically all the
German States except those under Austrian rule. But the far-reaching
importance of this development was not at that time appreciated. Western
Europe was tired after the great Napoleonic struggle and was not in a mood
for big designs. To all outward appearance Germany seemed to have relapsed,
after the thrill and glamour of the Wars of Liberation, into the stuffy
atmosphere of the old eighteenth century life. Only a very patient, a very
docile, and a very philosophic and law-abiding people would have endured
such an anti-climax; and it is these qualities, together with a certain
clumsiness and helplessness due to their complete inexperience of the
responsibilities of a larger citizenship, which go far to explain the
subsequent history of Germany.

But in the evil days after the Congress of Vienna the _idea_ of German
unity lived on, and formed a constant theme of discussion and speculation,
like the idea of the unity of Poland and of the Southern Slavs in the
present generation. The stirring memories of the Great Revolution were like
a constant refrain at the back of men's minds all through that dreary time.
In 1830, when the French established a Liberal Monarchy and the Belgians
freed themselves from the unwelcome supremacy of Holland, there was much
excitement throughout Germany. But nothing serious occurred until 1848,
when the Liberal and Nationalist movement, which had been gathering force
throughout the educated classes of Western Europe for a generation, at
length came to a head. The whole of Germany was in a ferment, a strong
Republican movement manifested itself, and in almost every one of the many
capital cities there was a rising with a demand for a free constitution
and parliamentary government, and for the consolidation of German national
unity in accordance with the same democratic ideals. The princes had no
alternative but to give way, an