That the Burschen-life, through the greater freedom which it enjoys, may also bring great disadvantages to him who has abused it, and which may poison later life; who will attempt to deny? We have already pointed out the rocks and breakers of this ocean of transition life. The Burschenschaft agitations of a former period also plunged many into misfortune; but this danger is now in a great measure past, and for the last time gleamed up a political tendency for a few moments in the Verbindung, like glimmering ignis-fatui, in the years 1830-32.
When the student now quits the university, where he has left behind him the follies of youth, and bearing with him a greater or less amount of intellectual acquisition, he enters immediately on the service of the state. After his State's-examination it is very customary to make a tour, before the young man for ever knits himself to one abode. Besides those who in practical state's-service, or as teachers in the schools and universities, work themselves forward, step by step, with more or less speed, according to the degree of their ability and of their diligence, or in proportion as they are favoured by fortune,--others exert themselves in the wide field of daily literature, zealously labouring to win the fame of authors and of poets. But follow whichever path he may, let fortune smile on him or not--let him crown himself with laurels, or strive for the wreath of glory in vain--never will he who has been a genuine Bursch, become a Philistine; that is, in that sense in which the student understands it. The words of the celebrated Arndt express most lucidly this meaning of the word Philistine. "A Philistine is a lazy, much-speaking, more-asking, nothing-daring man; such a one who makes the small great, and the great small, because in the great he feels his littleness and his insignificance. Great passions, great enjoyments, great dangers, great virtues,--all these the Philistine styles nonsense and frenzy. He will rather have life in the pocket edition than in the folio, so that it can but be carried through with the very least possible acting, thinking, and daring. Rest, and rest again, and at any rate; a state of laziness, that he loves, that he desires, that he preaches up, and for that he cries to heaven and earth, if there is any chance of his being disturbed in it."
Into these faults he will never fall, who has once imbibed the principles of a German university; and will only in so far belong to the Philistines, as the student in a wider sense terms every one a Philistine who no longer belongs to the Burschen.
What we have now been saying may convince us how beneficial is the influence of the student-life on that which follows. Nobler principles of action awake in the breast of the academician, and are nourished; that here and there starts up amongst them something perverse, is not denied; but the kernel is good, it germinates, it grows into a tree, and bears excellent fruit, which the quondam Bursch and his cotemporaries are destined to enjoy.
If we have hitherto regarded the life and pursuits of the university in an isolated manner, and entirely on its own account, yet it can by no means have escaped the reader that this life does not stand so completely sundered from the general stream of events, but that the mind and spirit of the university life is determined by the spirit of the times, and that, on the other hand, it operates again powerfully on the developement of the institutions and condition of the times. This must have become sufficiently clear to us in noticing the earlier Burschenschaft, and to increase and complete that conviction, we have only to take a hasty review of what has been now written, and to add a few other remarks.
The universities reflect the spirit of the times: its progress, its weakness, its strength, are all imaged forth again in the science of the age; and the schools are therefore exposed to the changes and revolutions of the times, but are not unconditionally subjected to them. They have strengthened that spirit of the time and of the people in their exhaustion, by their inquiries and results; and not less through teaching and the invisible power with which they have elevated and ennobled the minds of the youth. They have enriched the sciences, and adorned public affairs with beauty and wisdom. They have in part laid the foundations of the intellectual greatness and high accomplishment of Germany; in part strengthened and guaranteed them; and are the pillars of the fairest and most unrivalled glory which our country in the most recent times, and before the eyes of all Europe, has achieved. The university is the central point and the heart of science. From all sides stream to it the spirits which are athirst for knowledge; and as they are ennobled, again from that central point disperse themselves through all the members of Germany, diffusing through them fresh nourishment and a splendid growth. The teachers and accomplishers of the people go forth out of them. The battles of the church were fought out in the university; and if, as it happened in the contest of the Reformation, the faith of the Princess was forced upon the High-school by the hand of power, yet the teachers and scholars of the university seldom bowed before it. The teachers abandoned a place, which would lay their consciences in chains, and sacrificing office and income, sought an asylum in foreign lands. They often found a refuge in another university which held the same faith as themselves; they carried with them the troop of their scholars, who, as their faithful bodyguard, attended them; and there fought anew and victoriously for the success of the good cause.
The Professors of the High-schools have pre-eminently cooperated in working out the constitution of the German States, and many excellent men amongst them have contended for the freedom of the people, and have boldly stood forward against every usurpation of despotism. We need only give one example, and that of the most recent date; we need only call to the reader's mind the Seven Professors of Göttengen, who opposed themselves to the arbitrary violation of the constitution of the state with all their power, and on that account in the most unprincipled manner were ejected from their professorships. This scandalous, and in Germany till then, unheard-of example of despotism, notoriously threatened the destruction of the Georgia-Augusta, and for a long time annihilated its prosperity; but other states, by their reception and establishment of these professors, have shown that they approved of their proceeding, and the exiled professors were every where received by the German students with the testimonies of the deepest veneration. If the Bundestag did not condemn the King of Hanover as guilty, yet the judgments are well known, which many German universities at its desire gave in, and in which they expressed in the most strong and unqualified language their sense of the injustice of the deed. We call to mind that the tyrant called on the King of Wirtemberg to punish the audacity of the professors of Tübingen who had sent in such a judgment, according to the enormity of their crime,--an audacity which in Hanover would be expiated in chains; but the noble monarch answered that in his land the freedom of teaching was a sacred possession, which he would never infringe; but, for the rest, he observed sarcastically, he left it to the High Court of Justice at Celle to pronounce sentence on the guilt or innocence of his faithful professors.
If the universities in such a manner grapple mightily with the circumstances of the times, so are they, on the other hand, influenced by them. They receive from the times the impressions, the tendency, the frivolity as well as the earnestness, and distinguish themselves only from the other circles of society in this, that in them the good and the evil of the times more rapidly unfold themselves and take a determinate form. The moral effeminacy of the nation at the time of the French domination, operated on the ignoble natures amongst the youth, scattering and dissolving; while it spurred on the nobler to those Verbindungs out of which, at a later period, went forth hosts to do battle for the liberation of the nation from a foreign yoke. After the rising of the nation and its consequence--victory over the foe,--as all hearts felt themselves elevated, all exertions felt themselves refined, the new form of the time stood forth in the yet pure aims of the Burschenschaft, which at the time when the Tugend-bund extended itself, constituted, on its first appearance, a continuation of the brotherhood-in-arms, the Waffengenossenschaft, which with the student youth returning from the war, had this object,--to purify academical life from its dross, and to present it as an image of the union and ennobling of all the German races. Hereupon followed the period of undeceiving, of counteraction, of degeneracy, which run into so unrestrained a career, that to the wise and prudent, the beautiful time of enthusiasm, appeared as the dream and frenzy of good-natured fools. As the youth would not abandon the objects of their endeavours, whether rational or chimerical, but, on the contrary, held them equally fast as something great and noble, a portion of them fell a secure prey to the unquiet, the revolutionists and political intriguers, who abused their inexperience, and poisoned their noble endeavours by infusing a resistance to public order. The teachers of the universities were blamed by many, as though they were chargeable with being concerned in these aberrations of the youth, or, at least, were so far culpable that they had not prevented them.
So far as a direct participation of the teachers in these political disturbances is concerned, we may be well assured that, if only a single professor had at any time been an accomplice, or indeed only a concealer and protector, of the guilty, the exact, the strict, and in many places for years protracted inquiries, would to a certainty have come upon the trace of their crimes, and the guilty would have been conducted from the professorial chair to the dungeon. There remains only the question, whether they, though taking no part in the views and proceedings of the young people, were yet aware of them, and took no steps to prevent them. But were the youths who fell under the power of the law, the only ones who trod the same dangerous path? Were there not amongst the others, some, perhaps even as many, who, through the warnings and exhortations, or through the moral influence of distinguished teachers; and, in short, through the better spirit which every well conducted university developes amongst the nobler part of the youth, were preserved from that mischief? But, so far as the actually implicated students were concerned, the professors were in the same case with the Boards, expressly organized for the watching over the youth, and the matter was quite unknown to them, since the youths who were mutually pledged to that object, concealed it from the eyes of the professors just as scrupulously as from those of the university Commission of inquiry, and the Boards of police. But to the liberation of Germany from the dominion of Napoleon, the High-schools contributed no little. Joyfully their scholars gave themselves up to death, and scholars and teachers roused the nations to bravery through inspiriting songs; of which the names of Arndt, Schenkendorf, Körner, Hauff, Follen, Voss, Stolberg, Scharnhorst, and Haupt, stand as glorious testimonies.
Yet once more the youth wandered from their laudable endeavours in the years 1830-33, and one portion of them although a small one, suffered themselves to become the work-tools of political fanaticism. The revolution in Poland, and the unhappy fate of that country, had made a vivid impression on their minds. Demagogic agitators again were busy in secret; private Verbindungs were formed; the catastrophe of the French Revolution of July occurred, and flung the firebrand into the powder magazine. People thought they must follow the example of France, and began loudly, with writing and by speech, to attack the governments and to abuse the princes. But the youth who attached themselves to these agitators, were no longer the old Burschenschaft, who steadfast to their one idea,--"One Fatherland, which should declare itself the worthy antagonist of the arch-enemy France; one church, and freedom," fought out this with word and deed: no, the modern Burschenschaft, an abused work-tool of a greater party, had sworn death to the hereditary princes, and did not shrink, as a means of achieving such an object, to offer the hand even to the old enemy, to France itself. They would dare the highest extremes; and, allured by the apparent quietness of the government, the assembly at Hambach, which has become so widely celebrated, was held in 1833, where the French colours, and the tri-colour of the Burschenschaft, fluttered from the same staff. There, death to the princes was sworn, and within a short time revolutionary movements broke out in all parts of Germany. A number of the academic youth plunged themselves into misfortune through the attempt at Frankfort, since the governments now found it necessary to exercise stringent measures with all their power, and all partisans of such demagogue Verbindungs were quickly either arrested, or, having been timely warned, fled.
It may well be supposed that from this time forward, a much stricter eye was kept upon every sort of Verbindung of the students. No Landsmannschaft dare lift its head, and the academical liberty was in many particulars restricted. Another injurious effect also became apparent. Many states, more particularly Prussia and Russia, forbade their subjects to frequent any but their own universities, and no university felt the loss occasioned by this order more than Heidelberg, where the attendance of Prussian subjects has only again been recently permitted.
Yet, after all, only a small portion of the student youth, suffered themselves to be carried away by these imprudences; and what might be the reacting effect of these lamentable occurrences, the reflection of the students on themselves and on their calling, on what became them and was for their real advantage, further strengthened and quickened by the seriousness with which the governments pursued the guilty, produced in them a greater exactness, and gave thereby a higher moral firmness to the academical life, so that far from being represented as a sink of wickedness, as some people believe it, it may much more justly be regarded now as a fruitful, purified, well-drained, and well-sown, field. The channels, constructed to lay dry the boggy places, are cleared; the unsound spots are probed and made good; and if the watchful superintendence of circumspect and well-disposed Boards, and the professional faithfulness of the majority of the academical teachers continue what they are, this corn-field of our future will yet bear continually more beautiful and affluent harvests.
We have in conclusion, only to say a few words of comparison between the university of Heidelberg and the other German universities; and between these generally and those of other countries.
In the description of a German university, we have always had that of Heidelberg in our eye, touching only occasionally one or another of the other German universities. The institutions of these are essentially alike, yet each one has its own peculiarities; and this is not to be wondered at, when one reflects how many influences determine the course of the developement of a High-school. It shapes itself on the circumstances of the times, according to the will of the Princes under whose protection it stands; according to surrounding causes, in respect to nature and art; and more than all, according to the spirit and character of the teachers. To take a comparative review of these peculiarities of the other universities of Germany would be highly interesting; but when we reflect that in such a course all alleged influences must be carefully weighed; and, in fact, that not merely the present but all the past fortunes of the High-schools must be brought under the eye, it will at once be seen that so wide a scope of observation does not belong to this work. We can as little go into the narrative of the foreign universities; because personal inspection is wanting to us, and because we can give little faith to the statements of foreigners--statements which often contradict each other, and for the most part are as little worthy of credence, as those fabulous accounts of German universities which have been circulated abroad The last few years have brought us intelligence of the English universities, which represents them as the nurseries of all that is mischievous and corrupt, and which paints them in colours as repellant as, at the same time, have been daubed over the caricatures of German universities there. The false representations which foreigners, who, in fact, have lived for some years at a German High-school, have made of the diligence and moral condition of the same, warn us not to pronounce a similar opinion on academical institutions which we have not seen with our own eyes. We will only here devote a few lines to some advantages which our institutions appear to us to possess over those of England.
The great wheel of the mechanism of a German university is, next to the payment for the lectures, the division of the teachers into ordinary and extraordinary professors, and private teachers. Through the income appointed by the government, the professor is not dependent on his hearers, and is not tempted to care more for his income than for science. The first duty of a professor is towards science; not towards the students. That is the principle of all genuine university professors; and in this exactly differs the university essentially from the Gymnasium. The state must secure a moderate income to the professor, independent of the number of his hearers; since a lecture which has only seven or eight attendants may be of incalculable benefit to science; as for instance, those on the higher analysis, or the higher philology. A great mathematician ought not, in order to acquire emolument merely, waste his time in teaching the inferior branches of his science. But on the other hand, the state is not bound to give to every individual a scientific education gratuitously, and to its own ruin; and it would be unjust to extract money from the pockets of all citizens for the benefit of only a very small number. A suitable and secure income, which furnishes a professor with what is necessary and with leisure; and paid lectures, which in proportion to his success shall better his condition,--these, in this respect, constitute the true means; since a professor should never forget the higher interests of science, nor in the brilliant lustre of a transcendent genius content himself with only a certain degree of success, and only a moderate number of hearers. There is also this advantage to be added, that the students frequent with more zeal and perseverance the lectures for which they pay.
What happens in these respects in France is exactly the contrary. In the French faculties of language and science, the doors are thrown open, and every man can enter without paying. This at the first view appears excellent, and worthy of a great nation. But what is really the consequence? That an audience is like the pit of a theatre; one goes in, and then goes out again, in the midst of the lecture; another comes once, and then comes no more if the professor does not tickle his ear. The attendants listen with distracted attention, and in general you see more amateurs than students. The professor who does not lose asous, let him do his work as ill as possible, either neglects it, and expends little trouble or talent on his lectures, or loving fame, anxious for his reputation, and yet despairing to win a serious audience, labours at least to assemble a numerous one. In this case there is an end to science; for in order to make it attractive, he must sink himself to the level of his hearers.
There lies in this great number of attendants an almost magnetic influence, which bows to its yoke even the strongest minds; and he who would be an earnest and admirable professor for attentive students, becomes for frivolous, airy, and superficial hearers, light and superficial himself. In fine, what remains to the multitude of that instruction to which they have given a gratuitous attendance?--a confused impression, just about as profitable as that which an interesting drama in the theatre would have left behind.
But is this to be compared for a moment with the persevering zeal of fifty or a hundred hearers even, who have paid beforehand for the lectures; who follow their progression obstinately, in order to sift them, and to give themselves an account of them, without which they have thrown away both their time and money. Thus excellent is the arrangement that the student shall pay something, and at the same time the state shall guarantee to the distinguished and learned men who are chosen as professors, a secure and fitting support.
The three degrees of teachers at the High-schools of Germany are in the happiest manner divided from each other, and yet bound together. The foundation, the root of the professorship, the inexhaustible and everspringing nursery of the German university, are the young doctors, to whom it is allowed, under certain conditions, and with the permission of the faculties, to deliver public lectures. Every able young man may thus arrive at the higher offices of teaching, but none without raising, at least good expectations. He is tried, but without entering into any actual engagement with him; without any thing being promised to him, or given him. If he does not by correspondent results, realize the hopes which have been entertained of him; if he fails to attract hearers, and to do honour to the faculty which admitted him; it is seen that a vain anticipation has been attached to him, and he is not raised to the rank of extraordinary professor. He himself, after some years, withdraws himself from the hopeless pursuit, which brings him few hearers and little profit, and betakes himself to some other career. On the contrary, if he fulfil the hopes raised by him; if he gather numerous hearers, and write works which excite attention; he is then declared Extraordinary professor, a title which is irrevocable, and which gives him a small fixed salary, which, with the income derived from his hearers, encourages him, and supports him in his career. If he maintain this happy progress, if he prove himself an able man, the state, in order to retain him, increases by degrees his income, and finally names him Ordinary professor.
This distinguished title is never given on account of hopes: which may be found false by experience, but on account of tried effects, of distinguished talents, and established reputation. It is very rare that this title is received before a certain age; and there is not a professor in Germany, who is not a man of a reputation more or less distinguished, since this position is entirely the reward of his talents. Great and successful results, be they in writing or lecturing, these in Germany nominate the Ordinary professor, and an unlimited choice is afforded in the multitude of young teachers. Talent, with the aid of time and perseverance, wins the prize, and that is the genuine and proper contest. As age and time dull the zeal and diminish ability, and the professor now grown old, neglects or does not advance with the advances of science; an innovator in his youth, does he now become a loiterer, what is to be done? His hearers, ever attracted by the spirit of the time, desert his lectures; and seek those of an Extraordinary professor, or perhaps those of a private teacher--young and zealous, and often to excess, fond of innovation and bold inquiry; and the university suffers not through the retreat of those, who formerly served it faithfully and well. This happy mechanism rests on the distinction into extraordinary and ordinary professors, and private teachers; which in France correspond with the titulaires, adjoints, and agregés.
Let us now only reflect how different altogether is the practice in France. A man is put in the list of competitors for a few weeks, amongst such young people as frequently have not written two lines; have taught scarcely a single year; and now, after giving in some stated proof, are often in their twenty-fifth year endowed with an irrevocable title, which may be held till their seventieth year without doing any thing; which, from the first day of their nomination to the end of their life, draws the same salary, whether they have many hearers or few; whether they distinguish themselves or not; whether they thenceforward live in ignorance, or become celebrated men!
Another great disadvantage in France is, that in this country the different faculties of which a German university is composed, are separated from each other, scattered about, and in this isolation are as it were, lost. Here are faculties of science, in which lectures upon chemistry, physics, and natural history, are held, without a medicinal faculty at their side, which might thence derive benefit; there--faculties of law, and of theology, without history, literature, and philosophy. So are there perhaps twenty miserable faculties scattered over the whole surface of France, and nowhere a genuine home for science. Thence comes it, that in France study is for the most part so unphilosophically pursued; although able professional men are accomplished in jurisprudence and medicine, the studies which are there the most in esteem.
We leave it to the English reader, who is better acquainted with the universities of his native land, than we are--to decide, how far the deficiencies here attributed to the French universities also affect those of Britain. Oxford and Cambridge, the two most ancient universities of England, have remained true to the old institutions, to the old mode of living altogether in colleges, which the German public has long abandoned as not answering the purpose. They have a greater self-dependence and independence than the German ones, which are submitted to the superintendence of the state. Yet the German institutions in this respect reap many advantages, so long as the government is no despotism. Through such high-standing Boards, boards which respect the interests and claims of all parties, and administer to them all justice with strict impartiality, the chairs of science are preserved from incapacity; the meritorious are made known and elevated; obstructions are removed; help is duly administered, morals are protected, defects are remedied, better and more effectually than can be done by a corporation alone, and without such a well-disposed and wise superintendence of their interests; and which places the university in a condition to exercise a fresher and more unimpaired strength in the great pursuit of science and of accomplishment, and with more decisive effect; and to remain mistress of the great movement of inquiry and of knowledge.
That the advantages of the German High-schools are, however, acknowledged in England, is proved by the foundation of the liberal University in London in the year 1825, wherein they have sought to combine many of the German plans, whose value was recognised, with the old English ones. But yet more than by this fact, is paid the tribute of recognition of the excellence of the German High-schools, by the great number of young men who, not alone from the European countries, but from distant regions of the earth, hasten to place themselves at the feet of their teachers.
No country has so many and such excellent universities as Germany,--and the proofs of their advantages exist in the great number of illustrious learned men and authors, which quench their thirst of knowledge at these immortal wells of science; men, whose creations daily more and more receive abroad their just recognition, and in no country more than in England.
Many a one is a more true Diogenes, not when he is inthe tub, but when the tub is in him.
§ 1. All Students are divided into Crass Foxes (or Fat Foxes), Brand Foxes, and Beer-Burschen.
2. Every student, during the first course of his academical career, is a Fat Fox.
3. He becomes a Brand-Fox when he is burnt at one of the regular kneips of the respective Chores, with the proper solemnities; yet this shall not occur before the Farewell Commers of his first, nor later than four weeks after the entrance Commers of his second, semester.
4. The Brand-Fox becomes a Beer-Bursch, if he bepawkedin (initiated), at the end of his second course, but after the Farewell Commers, or at the commencement of his third course; this, however, shall only be done in beer.
5. Comes one here who has already studied two semesters at another known university, he must at the commencement of his third semester be herepawkedin, or otherwise, till he be pawked in, he can only, as it regards the Beer-companies, be considered as a Brander.
6. Every one who has studied three semesters at another known university, has on that account the rights of a Beer-bursch.
7. A Fox who is the Chore-bursch of an existing verbindung or union, has the rights of a Beer-bursch, yet must he suffer himself to bepawkedin as a Beer-bursch.
8. The following is the mode of pawking in. At one of the appointed kneips of the respective Chore, the in-pawking Beer-bursch drinks to the in-to-be-pawked at least half a choppin of beer, after the singing of every strophe of a song then sung, and the in-to-be-pawked musta tempodrink as much. Moreover, it is well understood that the in-to-be-pawked pays for the beer of the in-pawker which is thus drunk.
§ 9. From the Foxes, whether Crass or Brand Foxes, the Beer-bursch is not bound to take a beer challenge; yet can the Brand-foxnachstürzen(that is, command the person who is going to drink before him, to drink twice the quantity that he proposes). Amongst themselves the Foxes have equal rights.
10. No one must accept a challenge of less than half a choppin, or more than four choppins at once. The graduated quantities of the Comment, are a half, a whole, two, three, and four choppins.
11. The interval between the fore and after drinking of each agreed-upon quantity must be no more than five minutes (that is, the accepter must drink his quantity within five minutes after the challenger). And every earlier challenge must be drunk before the latter one.
12. If four choppins are agreed upon, so must the foreswearer or challenger, drink each choppin separately within five minutes of each other; and not till he has drunk these four choppins, must he take a challenge from another person. Also, the challenger must have first drunk his whole contracted quantity before his antagonist is bound to drink his.
13. He who has a challenge of four choppins on his hands, is not bound to take another challenge till that is drunk out.
14. If a challenge is made, and the challenged excuses himself on the plea that he has already four choppins to drink, the challenger is justified in obliging the challenged to show him each of those four allege choppins as he drinks them.
15. If a challenge is given, and the challengednachstürz, the quantity, (that is, insists that it shall be doubled,) the challenger is obliged to drink the doubled quantity.
16. The challenged may not more than double the quantity proposed by the challenger.
17. Thenachstürzbecome invalid the moment the prescribed quantity exceeds two choppins, except in a challengeà faire.
18. If one pauses during the drinking, leaves a Philistine in the glass, (that is, if he leaves the bottom of the glass still covered with beer,) it is to be considered that he has not drunken his quantity, and he must instantly drink another in the proper manner.
19. The case is the same when an umpire declares that so much beer has been spilt in the drinking as would cover the bottom of the glass.
20. In every quantity which is drunk in successive portions, the §§ 18 and 19 shall apply to the party whom the umpire shall have declared to have drunken informally.
21. As well in the fore as the after drinking, the antagonist can select an umpire, who, if he judges that the fore or after quantity is deficient, must see that it is made complete, and that it is properly drunken.
22. No one is bound to accept a challenge of more than one choppin at a time out of a vessel which will hold more; unless the two drinkers agree differently between themselves.
§ 23. Foxes, whether Crass or Brand Foxes, may neithertouchean honourable Beer-bursch in beer, that is, challenge him to a beer contest; nor, if he be challenged by an honourable Beer-bursch, may henachstürz, or double the quantity. If one of them does this, then must he beverdonnert,[50]or condemned in thunder, to pay for aviertel, that is, sixteen choppins. The Foxes have also here equal rights amongst themselves.
24. The degrees of the beer challenges are the following:--A Learned Manstands for a half-choppin; a choppin is aDoctor; two choppins, aProfessor; three choppins, anAmtmann; four choppins, aPope.
25. If any one has given his cerevis, that is, made an assertion on his beer-word against another, and it cannot be proved who has given his cerevis wrong, so must the two drink out a Learned Man--such cases, however, excepted as are before the Beer-court.
26. No one is bound to acceptex abruptomore than aLearned Man; yet must the Foxes accept,ex abruptoevery challengedDoctor, from an honourable Beer-bursch.
27. The provoker to a beer-challenge must be challenged within five minutes. If he will double on the challenge, he must do it immediately, and according to the fixed gradations of §24.
The settling of the challenge must be completed within five minutes after the challenge is given; and the drink-duel must be immediately contested, if the challenged has not yet an older scandal[51]to defend.
28. Every earlier scandal must take precedence of a later. If any one asserts that he has yet an earlier scandal, he must name the person with whom it depends. The antagonist has a right to name an umpire, who must take care that the scandal is effaced in its regular order, or otherwise the umpire must write the name of the first on the beer-table with the penalty belonging to the offence.
29. The proceeding in fighting out a scandal is as follows:--Each pawkant or combatant appoints a second, of whom the seconder of the challenger, on his cerevis, makes the weapons equal. If the weapons, however, appear unequal to the other second, he can call an umpire, who decides whether they are equal or not. If the umpire declares that the weapons are not equal, he who calls the umpire, has, after the scandal is fought out, to propose the proper penalty for the second who failed to make the weapons equal, according to § 131, No. 11 (a).
30. At the place of the challenged the weapons are made equal, and the beer-scandal is there fought out.
31. If the weapons are equal, the second of the challenged gives the following commando, "Seize it! put to! loose!"
32. Before this commando, the drinking must not begin; and should it begin, either of the seconds must cry halt, and the weapons must be again made equal. But halt cannot be cried after the word "loose" is given.
33. Both parties must drink instantly on the command being given, whereupon the commanding second, after both have drunk, first declares his judgment, and then the other second either admits this judgment or not. If the latter be the case, so the seconds themselves must drink off a Learned Man, be the quantity what it may for which they stood seconds, except in the cases stated in §§ 34 and 35.
34. Drinks not one of the two combatants on the given commando, the prescribed quantity, or bleeds he, or pauses during the drinking, or leaves a Philistine in the glass; so is he a defaulter, and must, within five minutes, drink once more the prescribed quantity. If he do this not, he is put under the beer-bann, and the quantity which he has failed to drink is written on the beer-tablet against him.
35. He is equally a defaulter if he breaks his glass in setting it down, or overturns it, except, in the last case, he can set it up again before his antagonist is ready.
36. Every one must second the moment he is called upon to do so; yet if one second be a Beer-bursch, he is not obliged to accept a Fox as his opposite second. If any one refuses, without a sufficient ground of excuse, to become a second, he is to pay the penalty of a viertel.
37. The parties concerned in a beer-scandal, must, neither with one another, nor with others, engage in a fresh scandal, neither can others engage them in such. But should this happen, the provoker must immediately revoke, or be condemned to a viertel.
38. The beer-scandal arising between seconds, as in § 33, is to be fought out in manner following: The second who declared himself first, names his umpire, before whom the scandal is to be fought out, and through whose declaration it is to be concluded.
§ 39. The engagementà faireis the contract between two to measure themselves in beer drinking.
40. Those who will make an engagementà faire, must let this be proclaimed clearly three times by a beer-honourable Beer-bursch; whereupon all who are already concerned with these parties in a beer-scandal, may state their claims, so that they may fight out their scandals with them before this new engagement comes on.
41. Both combatants must, at least, empty one choppin in every five minutes, or be the quantity greater they must still do the same.
42. Neither of these combatants may accept any thing from a third, nor fore-drink to him; neither may they provoke to a fresh scandal or be provoked to it. Those who do, fall under the penalty of a viertel.
43. They may not officiate in beer-affairs; nor be seconds, witness, nor umpires; nor sit in the Beer-comments, nor convoke, or cause such to be convoked; they may not aid in removing the beer-bann, or drink with him from whom it is to be removed, otherwise they are condemned to a viertel.
44. This Beer-strife is ended by one or the other declaring that he can drink no more, but not by agreement to drink no more. He that yields must quit the kneip within five minutes, or will be condemned to two viertel. Besides this, he is regarded as under the bann for the rest of the day; but during the five minutes that he stays, he is not obliged to accept any fresh challenge.
45. The conclusion of the Beer-strife shall in the same manner as its commencement, be loudly proclaimed by a beer-honourable Beer-bursch.
§ 46. If any one has no desire to either fore or after drink, or to concern himself in beer-suits, he must cause this to be declared by a beer-honourable Beer-bursch. If from the beginning he drinks no beer at the kneip, he need not declare himself.
47. He who receives this declaration is bound to proclaim it aloud.
48. The declared may not be challenged in beer. Should this happen, the challenger must instantly revoke, or he will be condemned in a viertel. If the declarer challenges, he falls under the same penalty.
49. If any one has already drunken beer in the kneip, and then says, without having declared himself, that he goes away, he must not accept a challenge. But if he remains in the kneip five minutes after this declaration of going away, then every one can fore-drink him; and in so far as he does not after-drink according to the regulations, he may be mulct.
50. Each declaration can then only be accepted, when the declarer has drunk out all his contracted quantities, and all scandals in which he has been engaged have been fought out.
51. He who in the commencement of a kneip declares that he is unwell, is for the evening declared, but he cannot during that evening take back his declaration.
52. If a declarer appears before the Beer-convention as a complainant, he must bring two witnesses.
53. The declaration is removed:--
(1) Through fore or after drinking of any quantity, even should the declarer use the proviso, "without prejudice to my declaration."(2) By making a counter declaration.(3) By the declarer mixing himself in beer-suits.
(1) Through fore or after drinking of any quantity, even should the declarer use the proviso, "without prejudice to my declaration."
(2) By making a counter declaration.
(3) By the declarer mixing himself in beer-suits.
54. They mix themselves in beer-suits, who--
(1) Demand or give the cerevis.(2) Sit in a Beer-convention; witness, call a Beer-convention, or cause it to be called.(3) Is an umpire, a second in a Beer-scandal, or drinks with him who is to be released from the bann.(4) Who challenges in beer.(5) Who engages himself with anotherà faire.
(1) Demand or give the cerevis.
(2) Sit in a Beer-convention; witness, call a Beer-convention, or cause it to be called.
(3) Is an umpire, a second in a Beer-scandal, or drinks with him who is to be released from the bann.
(4) Who challenges in beer.
(5) Who engages himself with anotherà faire.
§ 55. A beer-honourable Beer-bursch only can be an umpire.
56. Every one must obey the call to be an umpire, unless he can advance some available excuse. If, without being able to do this, he declares, he must be mulct in a viertel.
57. If a Fox accepts the office of an umpire, he falls under the penalty of a viertel.
58. The umpire may stand with none of the parties in a beer-scandal; but should this be the fact, the case cannot stand over, but another umpire must be called.
59. When an umpire is called forth, he cannot be challenged of any one: the offender in this case is punishable with a viertel.
60. If any one holds the judgment of an umpire to be unjust, he is at liberty to summon him before a Beer-convention; but this must be done before the quantity which has been made equal by the umpire, is drunken.
61. The umpire can always be called before the Beer-convention, on account of his decisions, except when he pronounces the penalty incurred in the act of releasing one from the bann, or upon him who drinks with him; in which case the condemned person cannot appeal to a General Beer-convention.
62. If the decision of the umpire is declared unjust by the Beer-convention, he goes into Beer-banishment; but if that be not the case his accuser is without further procedure condemned to Beer-banishment.