FKOM ACCESSION OF FKEDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 289 



list to circulate among his friends. ' Do not mention it as a 

 wish of mine,' he once wrote as a caution to Bockh. From the 

 unrivalled position he occupied in the scientific world, enabling 

 him, as Schadow justly remarked in the words above quoted, 

 to survey every branch of science, he thought he was justified in 

 regarding himself as chiefly responsible for the selection of 

 candidates. It is difficult otherwise to interpret his remark to 

 Bockh, when urging the election of Hammer-Purgstall : ' He 

 lies heavily upon my conscience ; and I seek a means of recon- 

 ciliation before meeting him beyond the clouds.' He frequently 

 felt obliged to apologise to some Berlin physicist in the words : 

 ' Some day you will become a recipient of my particular decora- 

 tion/ When led by political sympathy to complain of the 

 rejection of Kaumer in favour of Ranke, he appears to have 

 been actuated by party feeling, in forgetfulness of the princi- 

 ple for which he had so warmly commended his sovereign when 

 excluding every political and religious bias in drawing up the 

 first list. In the case of Uhland he was severely punished for 

 making the gift of this purely intellectual distinction a demon- 

 stration of political feeling. 



It was not merely by Englishmen that difficulties were felt in 

 the acceptance of the Order of Merit; in 1844, soon after its 

 institution, it was declined by Manzoni, on the ground that 

 his principles prohibited him from wearing an order. Hum- 

 boldt, who never omitted the self-imposed task of informing the 

 new member of his election in a flattering letter, immediately 

 proceeded to supplement his first communication by a pressing 

 request ' not to reject a mark of royal favour which the king, 

 in admiration of your poems and as a graceful tribute to your 

 country, has felt it to be a pleasure to bestow.' Upon condi- 

 tion of being released from any obligation to wear the order, 

 Manzoni consented to accept it, and thus spared both the king 

 and Humboldt the unpleasantness of cancelling the nomination 

 and election. His name was enrolled upon the list, and the 

 affair created but little disturbance. 1 Much greater attention 

 was aroused by Uhland's persistent refusal to accept the order, 



1 For Manzoni's acceptance of the order, see ' Briefe an Varnhagen/ No. 

 114; the rest of the correspondence is unpublished. See also 'Briefe an 

 Bunsen/ pp. 158-9. 



TOL. II. U 



