fell into the hands of the insurrection.
Money, arms, soldiers, warlike stores, everything was ready for use.
The soldiers of the regular army themselves joined the insurgents;
nay, in Baden, they were amongst the foremost of them. The
insurrections in Saxony and Rhenish Prussia sacrificed themselves in
order to gain time for the organization of the South German movement.
Never was there such a favorable position for a provincial and partial
insurrection as this. A revolution was expected in Paris; the
Hungarians were at the gates of Vienna; in all the central States of
Germany, not only the people, but even the troops, were strongly in
favor of the insurrection, and only wanted an opportunity to join it
openly. And yet the movement, having once got into the hands of the
petty bourgeoisie, was ruined from its very beginning. The petty
bourgeois rulers, particularly of Baden--Herr Brentano at the head of
them--never forgot that by usurping the place and prerogatives of the
"lawful" sovereign, the Grand Duke, they were committing high treason.
They sat down in their ministerial armchairs with the consciousness of
criminality in their hearts. What can you expect of such cowards? They
not only abandoned the insurrection to its own uncentralized, and
therefore ineffective, spontaneity, they actually did everything in
their power to take the sting out of the movement, to unman, to
destroy it. And they succeeded, thanks to the zealous support of that
deep class of politicians, the "Democratic" heroes of the petty
bourgeoisie, who actually thought they were "saving the country,"
while they allowed themselves to be led by their noses by a few men of
a sharper cast, such as Brentano.

As to the fighting part of the business, never were military
operations carried on in a more slovenly, more stolid way than under
the Baden General-in-Chief Sigel, an ex-lieutenant of the regular
army. Everything was got into confusion, every good opportunity was
lost, every precious moment was loitered away with planning colossal,
but impracticable projects, until, when at last the talented Pole
Mieroslawski, took up the command, the army was disorganized, beaten,
dispirited, badly provided for, opposed to an enemy four times more
numerous, and withal, he could do nothing more than fight, at
Waghaeusel, a glorious though unsuccessful battle, carry out a clever
retreat, offer a last hopeless fight under the walls of Rastatt, and
resign. As in ever