FKOM EEVOLUTION OF JULY TO DEATH OF THE KING. 165 



Geschickte. The conduct of State affairs lay really in the 

 hands of the ambassador, in whose absence only Humboldt was 

 called upon to act; to Humboldt was committed only the 

 modest task of being an attentive chronicler of Parisian affairs, 

 and of representing a personal relationship with the court, 

 without the assumption of any official post. For this position 

 lie was peculiarly fitted, not only from his intimate acquaintance 

 with Paris, and the reception accorded him in the most distin- 

 guished society of the capital, not only from the friendly 

 footing he had ever maintained with the Orleans branch of the 

 royal family of France, but pre-eminently from the ardent 

 desire he was known to cherish for the continuance of a good 

 understanding between France and Prussia; for, in common 

 with the most enlightened of his contemporaries, he felt that 

 through France alone could any liberal influence be exerted 

 upon the restricted policy of his native land. 



Humboldt's habitual practice of introducing, even into the 

 scientific and literary circles of Paris, discussions on the 

 political and social events of the day, is graphically described 

 in a letter from Karl Hitter to his wife, on September 17, 

 1824, the day after the death of Louis XVIII. 1 In recounting 

 a reception at Arago's, he says : ' Towards eleven o'clock Alex- 

 ander von Humboldt arrived, and everyone listened eagerly 

 to the news he brought, for no one is so well acquainted with 

 what is going on; he saw everything, for he was out by 

 eight o'clock, going his rounds ; he was one of the first in- 

 formed of the king's death, and had the particulars of the last 

 moments from the physicians; he had communicated with 

 several of the leading men, had witnessed the lying-in-state, 

 was present at the excesses that took place in the palace, and 

 assisted at the examination that ensued; he is acquainted 

 with what passed at the council of ministers, and among the 

 members of the royal family; he has to-day been to St. 

 Germain and Passy, to pay his respects to the highest in the 

 land, and returned full of news and interesting anecdotes, 

 which he recounted to us with great wit and humour.' Nor did 

 this remarkable energy diminish in later years. In order to 



1 Kramer, 'Karl Hitter/ rol. ii. p. 186. 



