FROM ACCESSION OF FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. TO 1848. 293 



clined the Bavarian order, all that I am doing will be futile. 

 We must, at all events, keep this ridiculous comedy from 

 coming before the world. . . . Let me have the letter back 

 again. I have seldom met with anything more provoking. 

 Had we only done as much for Fr. von Eaumer, our labour 

 would not have been in vain.' 



The following day he wrote again to Bockh in a still bitterer 

 tone ' The reactionary effect upon the king's mind is the more 

 to be deplored, as on account of the anti-union disturbances 

 of the robes noires, the liberal party were coming into favour. 

 . . . Should Cato Tubingensis persist in his folly, how shall 

 we be able to bring a new election before the king and the 

 members of the order ? ' Uhland remained inflexible ; by an 

 official notification he had declined the Maximilian order, and 

 had thus intentionally placed himself in a position which ren- 

 dered it impossible for him to accept the honour bestowed 

 upon him at Berlin. His letter of December 10, informing 

 Humboldt of his determination, in which, while thanking him 

 for ' his indefatigable kindness,' he assures him that it was 

 through no fault of his that the affair got into the papers, con- 

 cludes with these manly words : ' I am painfully conscious that 

 it is less difficult to face injustice and disgrace than to decline 

 a great and unexpected favour ; but I am most oppressed by 

 the thought that the most sincere thanks and the most re- 

 spectful homage I can render to you, my honoured and revered 

 friend, are powerless to indemnify you for the annoyance and 

 perplexity you have endured through this most kind and self- 

 sacrificing action.' The conduct of Uhland was designated by 

 Humboldt as ' illogical,' as the order was perfectly free from 

 all party spirit. He viewed the step he had taken with regard to 

 the Bavarian order, however, as conclusive, and sought to place 

 the affair before the king in this light : ' I have been obliged 

 to inform the king,' he writes, ' of this virtuous decision, and 

 have told him that friends of light are afraid of the Bavarian 

 night owl, which, when I wear it of an evening, with the wake- 

 ful falcon, I find conducive to labour.' He endeavoured also 

 to set the affair in this light before the world. < The Cato- 

 like infatuation of my light-loving friend Uhland,' he wrote 

 soon afterwards to Dove, ' has caused me great inconvenience. 



