218 PEOF. F. F. liOGET, ON FKEDEKIC GODET, SWISS DIVINE, 



In 1851, after having done pastoral work in the town for six 

 years, he was formally appointed a minister of Neuchatel on liis 

 election by the citizens of the parish. On reporting to Berlin 

 his acceptance of the post, not only did his devotion to his 

 pastoral obligations meet with approval, bnt he was allowed to 

 keep his title of Koyal Chaplain. Godet then insisted on 

 abandoning the remuneration attached by the Court to a title 

 now without possible application. His request was granted, the 

 money being transferred to a fellow-minister whom the 

 lievolution had injured in his pecuniary interests. 



It would be difficult to imaoine suzerains more careful not to 

 involve their followers in political trouble than those Prussian 

 princes of JN'euchatel. They seemed to share Godet's doctrine 

 that, when once an authority is set over a community, individuals 

 owe to it the obedience to superior powers demanded of them by 

 St. Paul. " Obey," Godet said, " though the government to which 

 you are subjected should be the outcome of violence and sedition. 

 Eefrain from trusting your own judgment as to the legitimacy 

 of that power." 



Chronological sequence demands that we should interpose here 

 (1856) the engagement of the Prince Koyal of Prussia to the 

 Princess Eoyal of England, Victoria, but only in so far as it is a 

 topic of correspondence with Godet. 



Prederick William had first met Princess Victoria in 1851 and 

 a I'egular friendship had arisen between them. What a full- 

 hearted and simple-minded love match that was, the letters make 

 it clearer now than was ever suspected before. In fact the whole 

 correspondence between Godet and the Prince, from 1844 to 

 1888, ought to be translated and published in London, in a book 

 that would describe the tie of religious friendship that, acting 

 upon a pre-existent affinity, bound together these two men 

 throughout their lives. 



This friendship was so close that the next and most severe 

 commotion in JSTeuchatel left it unshaken. We have said it 

 before : this time it was the Koyalists who took up arms, in 

 September, 1856, and endeavoured to upset the Kepublican 

 government which Godet and so many after him had come to 

 serve on the principle recommended by Paul. 



The insurgents did capture the seat of government, but it was 

 too late to hope to complete such a retrograde step. Federal 

 commissioners entered the Principality, with the Pederal troops 

 of Switzerland at their beck and call. Eoyalistic insurgents 

 were captured to the number of 530. Many others fied from 

 the country with their families ; many of those remained who 



