The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-23 00:00:00

study to Mr. Carlyle, who delights to contem-
plate a sovereign man, for in Friedrich Wilhelm
he may indeed find the transparent honesty, the
practical vigour, the contempt of forms, the
taciturnity, bluntness, and fiery moral anger which
far to constitute his ideal. This accordingly
is the characteristic comment with which the
biographer dismisses him :
No Baresark of them, nor Odin'e self, I think, was a bit
al truer human stuff ;-1 confess his value to me in these
sal times is rare and great. Considering the usual His-
trionic, Papin's•Digester, Truculent-Charlatan, and other
Species of Kings alone attainable for the sunk flunkey
poplations of an Era given up to Mammon and the
worship of its own belly, what would not such a population
give for a Friedrich Wilhelm, to guide it on the road back
iron Orcas a little ? " Would give," I have written ; but,
alas! it ought to have been " shauld give." What they
would give is too mournfully plain to me, in spite or ballot-
boxes: a steady and tremendous truth front the, days of
Barsbbas downwards and upwatds.
It is also characteristic of Mr. Carlyle that in
his rapturous contemplation of this King's genuine
manhood he should scarcely pause to pity the
unfortunate victims who were monuments of his
eccentric energy. The unlucky tall men who
were kidnapped by his agents in foreign countries
and sent to gratify his love of drilling, one of
them being packed up in a box in which he died
from want of air,—these provoke Mr. Carlyle
rather to amusement than to pity or indignation.
We are requested to allow the poor King his
hobby. It is only "the dumb poet polishing his
stanza." What about the poor kidnapped men ?
So too the poor man's impracticable temper, his
vehement refusals to hear reason upon any
subject which excited him or to render any
reason except in the shape of a cup or a
dishcover, and these directed to the skull
rather than to the brain, the perpetual bran-
dishing of that rattan and application of it
to casual passengers in the street, with small
regard to rank or even to sex, these, again, are to
Mr. Carlyle scarcely even blemishes ; he consi-
ders them rather as pleasing traits, the generous
ebullitions of an inherent royalty of nature. And
he is right so far as this, that there was in Fried-
rich Wilhelm nothing of the tyrannic nature ;
that his heart was set upon the good of the
country committed to him, not upon getting good
for himself out of it. Governing was the task
given him' to do; he tried to do it well, and over-
did it. He governed too much—a fault which
in England would be grave indeed, but in Prussia
was a venial excess. What would have been
Friedrich Wilhelm's fate if he had been placed
upon the throne of these islands is a curious sub-
ject of speculation. He would, we suppose, have
died in a lunatic asylum. To be compelled to
let people alone and spend their time and money
as absurdly as they might please would have
destroyed the balance of that impatient, inde-
fatigable mind. Let our readers imagine
a pa-
ternal Government dealing with their property
in the manner described in the following pas-
sage:—

Ntissler, for example, whom we once saw at Hanover,
managing a certain contested election for Friedrich Wil-
helm; adroit Nitasler, though be has yet got no fixed ap•
pointment, nor pay except by the job, is urged to build ;
second year hence, 1733, occurs the case of Niisaler, and
is copiously dwelt upon by Biisching, his biograplit r;
"Build yourself a house is the Friedzielis Strasoe !"
.urges
Derschaa.—"But I have no pay, no capit il," pleads Nitssler.
-7" Tush, your father-in law, abstruse Hauzler von Lud•
in Halle University, monster of law learning there,
Isnot he a monster of hoarded moneys withal? He will
lend von fir his own and his daughter's sake. Or shall
his Majesty compel him ?" urges Derachan. And slowly,
continually turns the screw up:in Niissler, till he too raises
for himself a firm good house in the Friedrichs Stadt,—
ietedrichs Strasse or Street, as they now call it, which the
Tourist of these days knows. Substantial clear ashlar
st!eet.miles or half-miles long ; straight as a line :
rpdrich Wilhelm found it scrag and quagmire; and left
tt what the Tourist sees, by these hard methods. Thus
Herr Privy.Councalor Klinggriif too, Ntissler's next neig'a•
boor; he did not want to build ; far from it ; but was
obliged on worse terms than Ntissler. You have such
work, founding your house ;—for the Niisaler-Klinggraf
spot was a fishpoul, and carps were dug up in founding ;
--such piles, bound platform of solid beams ; thalers
Sous before the first stone is laid • and in fact, the house
must be built honestly, or it will' he worse for the house
and you. "Cost me 1,200 thalers (1,$001.) in all and is
nrth when the2,ooo!"Hassler, ioh is over. Still worse with Privy Councillor
tiloggrOf: its house, the next to Ntisslei's, is worth
r"re nothing to him when built ; a sospboiler off‘sro tutu
thslers (1201.) for it; and Niissler, to avoid softie,-
11
ohim 9, purcha hisslow it himself
screw•machi of Klinggy
is very formidable;!
for that sum. D with .er
and Bunching knows it for a fact, " that respectable Berlin
l'e.,.?ciOtt used to run out of the way of Burgermeister Kech
'WI bon, when either of them turned up in the streets."