185 



book printed away from Berlin, and, if possible, not to 

 have it advertised until it is ready for publication. 



I hope my letters for Carriere have duly come to 

 hand. 



Varnhagen wrote in his Diary, 30th March, 1847: "Just as I 

 got home, comes Humboldt, and brings me a heap of manuscript 

 the letters of his brother to Madame Diede. Humboldt takes as 

 desponding a view of matters here as myself; but he consoles him- 

 self with the reflection that the (octroyee] Constitutions that have 

 been granted are radically good-for-nothing, and that in the long 

 run some good will come out of it all. He is prepared for violence 

 of every kind police savagery, popular fury, armed interference. 

 The King, he thinks, has not the least inkling of it ; he is intensely 

 happy, has got up his Opening Speech, and bestows no further 

 thought on the llth of April and its consequences. To Humboldt 

 he never said one word about the Parliament. In Michelet' s* 



* Professor Extraordinary of Philosophy at the University of Berlin, and 

 one of the editors of Hegel's works. From the death of Altenstein in 1840, 

 Eichhorn, in the interests of the Pietist party, had been constantly intriguing, 

 but without success, to obtain the removal of Michelet from this post. At 

 length, in 1846, the latter, in an Address to the Students of Berlin, upon the 

 occasion of their presenting him with a silver cup, made use of an expression 

 which Eichhorn endeavoured to represent as amounting to the advocacy of 

 Revolutionary principles. This also failed of its effect. In 1847 the attempt 

 was renewed. In June of that year Michelet published an Essay, which was 

 construed into an instrument of disaffection, and legal steps were taken by 

 the " Pietists " to obtain his removal. The University, feeling this to be an 

 infringement of their privileges, made a move against these attempts of the 

 Pietists, which party the King had so greatly favoured. The Kector of 

 the University, Bockh, under the circumstances, addressed himself to Hum- 

 boldt, who spoke to the King upon the subject ; the result was, that, although 

 Eichhorn obtained the dismissal of Michelet on the 15th April, 1847, the 

 King made the proposition at the same time to suspend the matter upon 

 condition that Michelet abstained from making any further speeches of thia 

 tenor, if not, the Decree was immediately to take effect. The Minister had, 

 however, in this way, been enabled to cut off any appeal. The Senate of the 

 University, impressed with the illegality of this proceeding, petitioned the 

 King to cancel the Minister's Decree, as contrary to law. The King replied, 



