CHAEACTEEISTIC TEAITS AND PEKSONAL INCIDENTS. 49 



on behalf of the Mexican Government, soliciting his inter- 

 vention with the cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburg for 

 the negotiation of a treaty with the new independent States 

 of Central America. Humboldt's courteous refusal, dated De- 

 cember 20, 1825, is couched in the following terms: l 'The 

 more openly my opinions have been expressed in my works, 

 the less do I feel disposed to involve myself in any political 

 negotiation however noble the object which would in any 

 way be inconsistent with my present position. My estrange- 

 ment from politics has compelled me to refuse the honourable 

 proposals made to me from time to time by my own sovereign. 

 I need not remind you how greatly I was annoyed by the 

 mere idea of lending my name for the formation of mining 

 companies, or the establishment of scientific institutions. It 

 would be wholly inconsistent with my character and my innate 

 horror of the mysteries of diplomacy, were I to renounce a 

 position of independence which I have so long preserved, and 

 which appears to me to be the only one that a man of letters 

 residing in a foreign country can with dignity maintain.' 



The idea that Humboldt evinced any peculiar preference for 

 political society is as little countenanced by his mode of life in 

 Paris as by any other part of his career. When statesmen and 

 political leaders of various parties sought out his society, he 

 met their advances with a ready and cordial response, and when 

 his opinion was consulted, he frankly placed at their disposal 

 his vast stores of knowledge and experience. In a letter to 

 Count Cancrin in the year 1828, he mentions having coun- 

 selled the Mexican Government against the introduction of a 

 platinum coinage, and in reply to an enquiry from the French 

 Ambassador at Berlin as to the accuracy of the given longi- 

 tudes of the eastern coast of South America, 2 he gave a complete 

 resume of the subject, in the compilation of which he solicited 

 some particulars from Berghaus. In 1854 the Brazilian Pleni- 

 potentiary, Lisboa, sent for his inspection the boundary treaty 

 arranged between Venezuela and Brazil, laying before him at 



1 Found among his papers preserved at the Observatory at Berlin. 



2 ' Briefwechsel Alexander von Humboldt's mit Berghaus aus den Ja'hren 

 1825-28 ' (3 vols. Leipzig, 1863), vol. ii.p. 285. 



YOL. II. E 



