olution,
following it minutely through all its phases, through the columns of the
_Moniteur_. His opinion, therefore, on this subject, is well worth
registering; and we give the following two sentences on the subject, not
from Varnhagen, but from Von Gagern's correspondence, (8th June 1825.)--

"Mounier wrote on '_Des Causes qui ont empeche les Francais d'etre
Libres_.' To me they seem very simple. Inconsiderate minsters, who
called together an assembly of 700 Frenchmen, without having arranged
the form of their deliberations, the organization of the persons who
were to deliberate, or their respective rights. Then shallow,
inexperienced, vain talkers, Lameth, Lafayette, and Barrere, &c.,
often abused for the worst purposes by persons of the most abandoned
character, formed the first Assembly--murderers and robbers were
dominant in the second."

But we must proceed in our history of Stein's outward fates. When
Napoleon, in the culminating point of his vainglorious exultation, had
assembled the monarchs of Germany around him at Dresden in the summer of
1812, Stein was still at Prague, and not without apprehensions for his
personal safety. Napoleon had laid violent hands on, and butchered many
less dangerous enemies in Germany--witness Palm the bookseller, and honest
Andrew Hofer; and a German like Stein at the ear of Alexander in the year
of 1812, was equal to an army of 60,000 men. However, by a lucky
negligence of the French spies, the baron escaped to Russia, whither he
had been invited by the emperor, and was in Petersburg during that
eventful winter; a much more dangerous enemy to the French invaders than
the cautious Kutusoff at Moscow. Here he was immediately followed by a no
less fiery French-hater--the man whom we have seen him compare with Burke,
and who was henceforward to act as his secretary--Ernest Maurice ARNDT,
the author of the well-known national song "Marshal Bluecher," and of some
admirable historical sketches. From his "Reminiscences" we extract the
following few but marked lines of portraiture:--

"I arrive at Petersburg on the 26th of August, and proceeded
immediately to the minister. On entering, I was immediately struck by
his likeness to my old philosophical friend Fichte. The same figure,
short, broad, and compact--the same forehead, only broader, and more
sloping backward--the same small sparkling eyes, the same powerful