when the bourgeoisie of Prussia assumed the lead of the middle
class movement of Germany. We shall hereafter revert to this Liberal
Opposition movement of 1840-1847.

The great mass of the nation, which neither belonged to the nobility
nor to the bourgeoisie, consisted in the towns of the small trading
and shopkeeping class and the working people, and in the country of
the peasantry.

The small trading and shopkeeping class is exceedingly numerous in
Germany, in consequence of the stinted development which the large
capitalists and manufacturers as a class have had in that country. In
the larger towns it forms almost the majority of the inhabitants; in
the smaller ones it entirely predominates, from the absence of
wealthier competitors or influence. This class, a most important one
in every modern body politic, and in all modern revolutions, is still
more important in Germany, where, during the recent struggles, it
generally played the decisive part. Its intermediate position between
the class of larger capitalists, traders, and manufacturers, the
bourgeoisie properly so-called, and the proletarian or industrial
class, determines its character. Aspiring to the position of the
first, the least adverse turn of fortune hurls the individuals of this
class down into the ranks of the second. In monarchical and feudal
countries the custom of the court and aristocracy becomes necessary to
its existence; the loss of this custom might ruin a great part of it.
In the smaller towns a military garrison, a county government, a court
of law with its followers, form very often the base of its prosperity;
withdraw these, and down go the shopkeepers, the tailors, the
shoemakers, the joiners. Thus eternally tossed about between the hope
of entering the ranks of the wealthier class, and the fear of being
reduced to the state of proletarians or even paupers; between the hope
of promoting their interests by conquering a share in the direction of
public affairs, and the dread of rousing, by ill-timed opposition, the
ire of a Government which disposes of their very existence, because
it has the power of removing their best customers; possessed of small
means, the insecurity of the possession of which is in the inverse
ratio of the amount,--this class is extremely vacillating in its
views. Humble and crouchingly submissive under a powerful feudal or
monarchical Government, it turns to the side of Liberalism when the
middle class is in the asc