FROM ACCESSION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 269 



noble to give birth to an unworthy action ' is unfortunately 

 not applicable to Alexander von Humboldt ; he proved himself 

 capable, as numberless instances testify, of uniting grand 

 thoughts with despicable actions. The ' unpleasant ferment 

 over Eaumer ' did not wholly subside until the offending aca- 

 demician sent in his resignation. Humboldt expressed his 

 satisfaction that Bockh had at last ' allowed reason to triumph 

 in the affair,' and actually had the naivete to propose to Eaumer 

 in confidence that he should make his peace with the Academy 

 by means of a Pater peccavi. The Princess of Prussia was 

 the first to convince him that to Eaumer this would be a moral 

 impossibility. 1 



Scarcely was this ' storm ' over, when Humboldt perceived 

 another rising with threatening aspect, on the occasion of a 

 ' gushing speech ' 2 from Frederick William at the opening of 

 the 'general diet' on April 11, 1847. Humboldt, who 'was 

 much concerned for the fame of his highly gifted and benevo- 

 lent sovereign, and was ever anxious that his virtues should 

 receive public acknowledgment,' was deeply grieved to notice 

 that in this important address ' everything that was of a nature 

 to wound was heaped together.' He had never ventured to 

 cherish any confidence in a political confederation ' in which 

 the delegates from the Polish provinces would be brought to 

 confront those from the Ehine or Pomerania, while the ministers 

 would vainly imagine they could rule these opposing elements 

 by a series of negations and conciliatory acts.' 3 To his mind 

 ' a general assembly of the people should consist of representa- 

 tives of the nation, and not of an isolated province or a par- 

 ticular order.' Although the soundness of these views would 

 place him in the category of modern liberals, he was by no 

 means a blind adherent to the scheme of constitutionalism ; he 

 had little sympathy with the principles of parliamentary repre- 

 sentation as exhibited in Dahlmann's ' Politik,' the text-book 

 of that party. On April 10, 1847, he writes to Dirichlet : ' I 

 have the misfortune to be reading just now the new edition of 

 Dahlmann's " Science of Grovernment." A savour of English 



1 Letter to Bockh and verbal communications from Kaumer. 



2 ' Briefe an Bunsen/ No. 51. 



3 Ibid. No. 48. 



