26 Humboldt's Letters. 



best authority, and which I thought would be new to 

 you, as it was to me. It was about the danger in which 

 that bold ambassador was for some time, and which, 

 according to a declaration of the King, had passed over. 

 Since then your Excellency has heard it from other 

 sources, and my information will be but stale. 



Now we Prussians are also gratified at last by a 

 general representation of the people, or, to speak more 

 correctly, we had it a long time ago, only we did not 

 know it! Bishop Eylert has lifted the veil from our 

 eyes. He is the first to speak out the great truth, like a 

 second Mirabeau, in clearness of thought and boldness 

 of words. I can vividly imagine how the " Rittersaal," 

 nay, the whole palace, was shaken to its foundation, 

 when he thundered that powerful truth to the assembly, 

 that the representation of the whole people, of all the 

 classes and interests, ought to be found in that solemn 

 lodge of the Order of Knights ! I bend my head in 

 deep reverence to such a colossal boldness, to such a 

 new unheard-of combination, by which other miserable 

 institutions, until now regarded as national representa- 

 tions, as for instance Parliaments, Assemblies, Cortes, 

 and the like, were annihilated and blown into nothing- 

 ness! I have listened to the orator from the silent 

 mouth of the official gazette only ; but your Excellency 

 was present without doubt at the solemnity and pitied 

 me, to be sure, and will say, what in ancient times was 



