442 HUMBOLDT'S i:nterest in rOLITICS. 



tlie Rhine and the Danube, the Adriatic and the NDrth 

 Sea, with branches from towns and manufacturino' dis- 

 tricts, winding into each other all over the countr}^, fur- 

 nishing facilities for travel and transportation to the sea- 

 board, such as had never been known before, the greater 

 part of which, both as a matter of feeling, and on the 

 score of interest, must in the first instance turn to the 

 United States. 



"He inquired about Mr. Wheaton, our late Minister 

 to that country, whether he had arrived in the United 

 States before my departure, and what was to be his 

 future career. He said that it was understood at Berlin 

 that he was to be appointed Minister to France, and 

 expressed his surprise that the United States should be 

 willing to lose the public ser^aces of one so long trained 

 in the school of diplomacy, and so well acquainted with 

 the political institutions of Europe. 



" Although I had heard Baron Humboldt spoken of 

 as one of the privy councillors of the king, I did not 

 expect to find him, at his advanced age, and with his 

 great work Kosmos to occupy his mind, bestowing much 

 of his attention on political relations; but the political 

 condition of Prussia, and indeed of the world, seemed to 

 be the subject which interested him most. It was in fact 

 j ust at that moment an interesting point in the history 

 of Prussia. The long-called-for Diet, which had been 

 looked to with great anxiety throughout all Germany, 

 had closed its session but two days before my arrival. 

 For the first time in the history of Prussia, delegates had 

 been permitted to appear at the capital, and, in the 

 hearing of the king, discuss the measures of his gc vern- 

 ment. Great reforms had been proposed, and boldly and 



