55 



et je saisis 1' occasion pour me dire avec la plus haute 

 consideration, Monsieur le Baron de Humboldt, 



votre tout affectionne 

 CHRISTIAN. 



XLV. 



HUMBOLDT TO VAKNHAGEN. 



Saturday, Llth April, 1840. 



The Crown Prince is very desirous of being allowed 

 to look at your interesting letter from Prince Metter- 

 nich. Would you, my dear friend, send it to me this 

 evening by half-past seven ? 



.A.. _tLT. 



On the subject of this letter, Varnhagen remarks in his Diary of 

 the 2nd of April, 1840: "A long autograph letter from Prince 

 Metternich turned up at home. He declares my picture of. the 

 Vienna Congress to be perfectly true, with some slight exceptions 

 that could be easily set right. He himself circumstantially confirms 

 the relation of the arrival in Yienna of the news of Napoleon having 

 left Elba a letter of historical value !" 



On the 5th of April, 1840, Yarnhagen again mentions this letter 

 of Metternich in his Diary : " Humboldt called at noon. He had 

 heard of the letter yesterday from Wittgenstein ; Wittgenstein had 

 spoken about it to him, Count Orloff, and other strangers as a most re- 

 markable thing. Humboldt, too, was exceedingly astonished and de- 

 lighted ; he gave me a letter to read that Prince Metternich had 

 written to him on the position of certain Natural Historians in 

 Yienna, and on the Presidency of the ArchaBological Society in 

 Home. Humboldt tells me melancholy stories of the machinations 

 of the Ehenish-Westphalian nobles, which find favour with the Crown 

 Prince. A scheme is on foot for erecting a grand Catholic educa- 

 tional establishment for the nobility, an establishment in which the 

 Jesuits can build themselves a nest. On some one remarking that the 



