Even we boys had heard of Johann Jacoby's "Four Questions," which
declared a constitution a necessity.

I have not forgotten the indignation called forth, even among our
acquaintances of moderate views, by Hassenpflug's promotion; and if his
name had never come to my ears at home, the comic papers, caricatures,
and the talk everywhere would have acquainted me with the feelings
awakened among the people of Berlin by the favour he enjoyed. And added
to this were a thousand little features, anecdotes, and events which all
pointed to the universal discontent.

The wars for freedom lay far behind us. How much had been promised to
the people when the foreign foe was to be driven out, and how little
had been granted! After the July revolution of 1830, many German states
had obtained a constitution, while in Prussia not only did everything
remain in the same condition, but the shameful time of the spying by the
agitators had begun, when so many young men who had deserved well of
their country, like Ernst Moriz, Arndt, and Jahn, distinguished and
honourable scholars like Welcker, suffered severely under these odious
persecutions. One must have read the biography of the honest and
laborious Germanist Wackernagel to be able to credit the fact that that
quiet searcher after knowledge was pursued far into middle life by the
most bitter persecution and rancorous injuries, because as a schoolboy--
whether in the third or fourth class I do not know--he had written a
letter in which was set forth some new division, thought out in his
childish brain, for the united German Empire of which he dreamed.

Such men as Kamptz and Dambach kept their places by casting suspicion
upon others and condemning them, but they little dreamed when they
summoned before their execrable tribunal the insignificant student Fritz