46 
THE SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. 
State. With several other influential citizens of that town, he 
formed a committee of resistance, and issued proclamations 
calling on the people to collect money and arms in order to 
oppose the government In November, 1848, when General 
Drigalski proclaimed a state of siege in Dusseldorf, he was 
arrested along with Cantador, head of the citizen guard, and 
tried for having instigated civil war. It was not until the 3rd 
of May, 1849, that he appeared before the Court of Assizes, 
when he defended himself with a boldness and an eloquence 
that made a deep impression upon the jury. He fearlessly 
invoked the principle of the French Revolution, the sovereignty 
of the people. “ I have neither the desire nor the right to be 
acquitted,” he exclaimed, “ unless you admit a resort to arms 
as the right and duty of the people.” Like Robespierre, he 
scorched with his burning irony the partisans of “passive 
resistance.” “ That is the act of men who feel clearly the duty 
of resistance, but at the same time are too cowardly to imperil 
their lives in the matter. The crown conflscates the liberties 
of the entire nation, and what does the National Assembly of 
Prussia decree? Its displeasure I It is impossible to under 
stand how an assembly composed of the people’s representa 
tives can descend to such puerilities.” 
He was acquitted at the Assizes, but was prosecuted in the 
police court for resistance to the police, and condemned to six 
months’ imprisonment. He employed the time in going 
deeply into social questions. Almost every evening a work 
man named Kichniawy used to come, after his day’s work, and 
talk with him on these subjects till far into the night. 
When liberated, he threw himself eagerly into the study of 
the epoch of the Reformation in Germany. He wished to un 
derstand how it was that the religious wars had weakened his 
country by dividing it, and thus to discover the best means 
of reconstituting its unity. There resulted from these studies 
a drama entitled Franz von Sickingen, mediocre as far as 
literary merit goes, but curious as a political essay. He there 
unfolds the idea, afterwards reproduced by Prince Bismarck, 
that great historical changes are always accomplished by “ fire 
and sword.” He was a fanatic on the subject of German unity.