AND TUTOR TO FREDERICK THE NOBLE. 



219 



might have l^een harassed, being known for tlie trueness of their 

 attachment to the king. 



We need not dwell here upon the negotiations which ensued. 

 Prussia very rightly intervened on behalf of those who had 

 risked their lives on her behalf, though it was without her 

 assent. The rebels were liberated. But Prussia's formal and 

 final renunciation of her rights to Neuchatel ensued as her con- 

 tribution to peace. It is strange to have to note that the loss 

 of Neuchatel to a neutral, but military powder, is the only check 

 whicli Prussia experienced in a century marked by her trium- 

 phant career in every other field. 



In 1857 Godet wrote to the prince, attributing this solution 

 to a higher Power than resided either at London, Paris or 

 Berlin, and frankly professing his henceforth undivided 

 allegiance to Switzerland, thanks to the magnanimous generosity 

 of the Prussian House. 



Here again, Godet, though still the open and w^ell-known 

 friend of the House of Prussia, not only was not molested in 

 any way by the victorious party, but was even asked to direct 

 the solemn church service which inaugurated the new consti- 

 tuent parliament of the small Kepublic in 1858. 



He preached on the spiritual sovereignty of God wdiich 

 subsists in the changes of temporal sovereignties, reproaching 

 the Eoyalists with having wished to resume possession of the City 

 ivithoiit God, that is by returning to what had existed for no 

 other reason tlian because it did exist. They made no earnest 

 examination. Tliey clung to tradition, habit, prejudice, pride, 

 self-interest, for want of putting themselves in the place of 

 those who urged a change. 



He then turned to the Eepublican part of the audience and 

 warned them that impatience w^as just as un-Christian as 

 obstinacy, that a change must be a change with God, if it was 

 to be an improvement, that progress in liberty spelt anarchy 

 unless a man's conscience bound him the more closely as his 

 exterior bonds were loosened. And he instanced Christ, the 

 most radical of reformers, and the most scrupulous caretaker of 

 the inheritance of Israel : the law and the prophets. 



This speech shows Godet in his usual character : a vigorous 

 optimist. It suited the mood of the people, and was printed 

 and circulated at public expense. 



We should not dwell at such length upon these local occur- 

 rences but for the strange paradox : a Chaplain of the House of 

 Prussia acting with perfect ease and much approval as Chaplain 

 to the Ptepublic. It shows how much goodwill was put forth 



