189 



on thy way, and may the guilt of all the blood that is shed rest only 

 on the heads of those who force thee to enter upon this path ! It is 

 not the momentary successes, but the failures that advance the popu- 

 lar cause here." 



"We must here mention a further visit of Humboldt to Yarnhagen. 

 The latter writes in his Diary, 12th February, 1849 : " A visit from 

 Humboldt. He looks upon it as absurd on the part of Ministers to think 

 of going before the Chambers, as they could not even find men to fill up 

 their body; even a fellow like Kiihl wetter* 4 would refuse to join them. 

 My expression, that the Constitution graciously granted by the King 

 was merely the thick husk inclosing the germ of a new Revolution, 

 which would come to maturity, frightened him a little ; but he was 

 much amused with the King's 'having been at issue with logic for 

 the last eight years.' He tells me that the King had greatly wished 

 to re-appoint Canitz Minister of Foreign Affairs ; that Eichhorn was 

 likewise allowed again to tender advice, and that, like the wife of 

 Privy Councillor * * *, he spoke of the ' Pietist party,' as if he had 

 never belonged to it himself. 



" The ' Staatsanzeiger 'f gives the Austrian note touching German 

 affairs. Austria refuses to leave the Confederation, and states at 

 once the points which she will never consent to, viz., no sovereignty 

 of the people no other head but Austria. A slap in the face for 

 Prussia, for Frankfort, and especially for Gagern.J There it is ! 

 How everything plays into the hands of the Republic !" 



* Kiihlwetter, Minister of the Interior in 1848, founder of the Berlin Con- 

 stabulary. TR. 



f The Prussian Official Gazette. TR. 



J Henry von Gagern, the President of the National Assembly at Frankfort, 

 who proposed a plan, according to which Austria was to have left the German 

 Confederation, but would have remained connected with it by a strictly 

 defensive alliance. Til. 



