When, on the 26th of March, the news of Kotzebue’s assassination came from Mannheim to Jena, the academic senate caused Sand’s room to be opened, and found two letters—­one addressed to his friends of the Burschenschaft, in which he declared that he no longer belonged to their society, since he did not wish that their brotherhood should include a man about to die an the scaffold.  The other letter, which bore this superscription, “To my nearest and dearest,” was an exact account of what he meant to do, and the motives which had made him determine upon this act.  Though the letter is a little long, it is so solemn and so antique in spirit, that we do not hesitate to present it in its entirety to our readers:—­

“To all my own “Loyal and eternally cherished souls

“Why add still further to your sadness?  I asked myself, and I hesitated to write to you; but my silence would have wounded the religion of the heart; and the deeper a grief the more it needs, before it can be blotted out, to drain to the dregs its cup of bitterness.  Forth from my agonised breast, then; forth, long and cruel torment of a last conversation, which alone, however, when sincere, can alleviate the pain of parting.

“This letter brings you the last farewell of your son and your brother.

“The greatest misfortune of life far any generous heart is to see the cause of God stopped short in its developments by our fault; and the most dishonouring infamy would be to suffer that the fine things acquired bravely by thousands of men, and far which thousands of men have joyfully sacrificed themselves, should be no more than a transient dream, without real and positive consequences.  The resurrection of our German life was begun in these last twenty years, and particularly in the sacred year 1813, with a courage inspired by God.  But now the house of our fathers is shaken from the summit to the base.  Forward! let us raise it, new and fair, and such as the true temple of the true God should be.

“Small is the number of those who resist, and who wish to oppose themselves as a dyke against the torrent of the progress of higher humanity among the German people.  Why should vast whole masses bow beneath the yoke of a perverse minority?  And why, scarcely healed, should we fall back into a worse disease than that which we are leaving behind?

“Many of these seducers, and those are the most infamous, are playing the game of corruption with us; among them is Kotzebue, the most cunning and the worst of all, a real talking machine emitting all sorts of detestable speech and pernicious advice.  His voice is skillful in removing from us all anger and bitterness against the most unjust measures, and is just such as kings require to put us to sleep again in that old hazy slumber which is the death of nations.  Every day he odiously betrays his country, and nevertheless, despite his treason, remains an idol for half Germany,