n a heartfelt participation in the free life of
our science and arts, in the great discoveries of our natural
philosophers, and in the powerful development of German industry and
agriculture, must remember, that with the peace of Munster and Osnaburg
began the period in which the political foundation of the development
of a higher life was in a great measure secured.

The war had nevertheless consequences which we must still deeply
deplore; it has long severed the third of Germany from intellectual
communion of spirit with their kindred races. The German hereditary
possessions of the Imperial family have ever since been united in a
special state. Powerfully and incessantly has the foreign principle
worked which there prevails. For a long time the depressed nation
scarcely felt the loss. In Germany the opposition between Romanism and
Protestantism had been weakened, and in the following century it was in
a great measure overcome. Even those territories which were compelled
by their rulers to maintain their old faith, had participated in the
slow and laborious progress which had been made since the peace. It is
not to be denied that the Protestant countries long remained the
leaders, but in spite of much opposition, those of the old faith
followed the new stream, and the results of increasing civilization
flowed in brotherly union from one soul to another; joy and suffering
were in general mutual, and as the political requirements and wishes of
the Protestant and Roman Catholics were the same, the feeling of
intellectual unity became gradually more active. It was otherwise in
the distant countries which Ferdinand II. and his successors had
bequeathed as conquered property. The losses which the German races had
experienced were great, but the injury to the Austrian nationalities
was incomparably greater. To them had happened what must now appear, to
any one who examines accurately, most terrible. Almost the whole
national civilization, which in spite of all hindrances had been
developed for more than a century, was expelled with an iron rod. The
mass of the people remained; their leaders--opulent landed proprietors
of the old indigenous race, manly patriots, men of distinguished
character and learning, and intelligent pastors, were driven into
exile. The exiles have never been counted, who perished of hunger, and
the horrors of war; those also who settled in foreign countries can
scarcely be reckoned. Undoubtedly their col