<68 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT. 



society, that on one occasion, while enjoying a morning walk 

 with him at the Jardin des Plantes, he declined to interrupt 

 the conversation when informed that General York requested 

 an audience. 1 By an order in council of May 16, 1816, the 

 sum of 1,500 thalers was granted to Humboldt in acknowledg- 

 ment of the demands that had been made upon his time 

 while in attendance upon the king in Paris. Upon the entrance 

 of the allied army into Paris, William von Humboldt arrived 

 as Minister Plenipotentiary an appointment he had received 

 in acknowledgment of the services he had rendered, when 

 Ambassador at Vienna, in bringing to a successful issue a diffi- 

 cult complication of affairs. 



In June of the same year, the Emperor of Russia and the 

 King of Prussia paid a visit to London. Both the brothers 

 Humboldt accompanied their sovereign on this occasion ; and 

 Alexander availed himself of the opportunity to make the 

 acquaintance of the most eminent men of science in England, 

 for he had not visited this country since 1790. While travel- 

 ling on that occasion with George Forster, Humboldt obtained 

 permission to make use of the library of the eminent chemist and 

 philosopher Henry Cavendish, second son of the Duke of Devon- 

 shire; on condition, however, that he was on no account to 

 presume so far as to speak to, or even to greet, the proud and 

 aristocratic owner should he happen to encounter him. Hum- 

 boldt relates this in a letter to Bunsen, adding sarcastically : 

 * Cavendish little suspected at that time that it was I who in 

 1810 was to be his successor at the Academy of Sciences.' 2 



On the conclusion of the second peace of Paris, William von 

 Humboldt, who had been associated with Hardenberg in the 

 negotiation, was selected by him for the post of Ambassador 

 to Paris, but, upon the representation of the French Minister 

 Kichelieu that such an appointment was not likely to prove 

 acceptable, Hardenberg offered it to Alexander. This honour 



1 Droysen, 'Das Leben des Grafen York/ &c. (Berlin, 1854), vol. iii. p. 394. 



[ 2 Henry Cavendish was grandson to the Duke of Devonshire, being the 

 younger son of Lord Charles Cavendish, second son of William, second 

 Duke of Devonshire. The apparent incivility of which Humboldt com- 

 plains arose doubtless from the extremely eccentric habits of this noted 

 philosopher.] 



