The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-03 00:00:00

rbk pthicipaittinA atiet-othptivii the wet ktil.
loved to deal with, and he knew the game well.
Frederick William 111. had no such taste or skill; ,
neither had his successor. They had been content
to keep what they had by the grace of their neigh-
bours. To keel. :i quarrels of Europe, to
reduce opinions at home within reasonable bounds,
and to harmonise whatever admitted of the process,
have been the utmost ambition of these Princes in
the every-day working world of politics. As fre-
quently happens, however, this external necessity
has not restrained the mind from what may be called
its own development. As the Dutch have learnt
the art of keeping out the water by inhabiting a
country under the level of the ocean, Prussia has
acquired from her scattered and hidebound dominion
a taste for speculative unities, and for new provinces
in religion and science. We believe that we do no
more than justice to the warm heart and fervid
genius of the late King when we say that there is
hardly a scheme for the progress or reconstruction
of Germany, of the Protestant Churches, and man-
kind in:general, which he has not cherished. When
he came to the throne in 1840 be found it under
pressure to give a Constitution to Prussia, and had
no hesitation in promising his own part in the work.
Kings, however, who seldom promise, are still less
frequently in a condition to perform, and when
Frederick William IV. gave his subjects at last ire

1847, a speculative Constitution on the British
model, it was only to find himself and his subjects,
all his concessions, all his designs, suddenly adrift
in the great storm which came over Europe early
in the following spring. Throughout the whole of
that year and the following the King of Prussia met
a succession of difficulties from within and from
without with a succession of measures and move-
ments which cannot be pronounced unwise or
trivial, inasmuch as Prussia survives, and is now
the same Prussia that she was before. The Sove-
reign made large concessions, then withdrew them ;
fought and conquered the citizens of Berlin by
means of his army, and then sacrificed'his army
to the citizens; acceded with zeal to the new
German Diet, and as promptly seceded ' • took part
in the profescorial crusade callsd the Schleswig-
-3.,lvlstern war ; helped the King of Denmark's
rebels, and then left them in the lurchi,./narched
and manoeuvred with the foi•ces of Austiia, but kept
?;is Generals under orders to avoid a collision ; and,
finally, seemed only too happy to retrace all his
steps, and to find his subjects sufficiently wearied.
and disgusted to sit still. In Prussia, as elsewhere,
a great and steady advance in material improvement
was the timely relief from these political troubles
and disagreeables. Prussia, however, had made the
valuable discovery how little she could do, and now
small an element she was in the politics of the world.
This persuasion had penetrated her statesmen and
even her armies, and it constituted her best excuse
for the part, the old part, played for the hundredth
time in the late Russian war, and repeated last
year, when Germany itself. seemed to be threatened.
It is true that Brussia happened to derive large
pecuniary advantages from her neutrality and the
blockade of the Russian ports in the Baltic; it is
also true that Frederick 'William was naturally un-
willing to go to war first with his brother.in-law
and then with his nephew. It is true, further, that
the Prussian people, not finding it convenient to
go to war with Russia, put a good face on it, and
lampooned the Western Powers ; but the fact at the
bottom of their non-interference, and their real
excuse, was the fear of speedy annihilation at the
hands of their colossal neighbour. It is impossible
to quarrel with the instinct of self-preservation,
however awkwardly it may show itself; but Prussia
certainly lost in the eyes of this country, and but
ill repaired the loss by taking a part, though a sub-
ordinate one, in the negotiation that closed that
war. The natural result was that in the Italian
war, and the negotiations which preceded it, Prussia
was a cipher. Could she have been depended on to
come to the assistance of Austria, that would have
changed the whole aspect of affairs; and France
and Austria might have fretted and bickered to this
day from the opposite banks of the Ticino. But
this was felt on all sides to be a question between
those two empires alone, unless something unex-
pected should rouse the blood of Germany ; and the
wisest advice that could be offered to Austria was
to withdraw the cause of offence on the best terms
she could obtain.
As the late King had for some time resigned the
administration of affairs into the hands of his brother,
Prussia had lost even that touch of romance which
his dreams and his harangues had once imparted to
her. She has been governed lately by men who
aro only too happy if they can keep things together,
by men like M. Schleintz, who protest and do
nothing, and who neglect reforms at home in order
to bully a weak neighbour. A certain interest
indeed now rises at the mention of her name in
this country from the marriage of the Princess
Royal, and the subsequent birth of an heir of
British blood to the throne of Prussia. But, even
if the history of that country had suggested any
wish to adopt her policy and share her fortunes,
the day has gone by for dynastic alliances. We
care more for international good faith than for
family feeling. We respect treaties; we suspect
aggrandisement in its most plausible forms; we
hope to see the landmarks of Europe remain undis-
turbed in our time : we entertain a just dread of
those who undertake to rearrange the Continent
and to establish thereby a claim to public gratitude.
We equally dislike Emperors who remember that
the Rhine was once their frontier, and Kings and •
Regents who forget that the Eyder has always been
the boundary of the German Empire.
Frederick William was good and almost great in
everything but as a King. Neither nature nor
circumstances allowed him to be that. Had he been
the 'man to play a great part, it would probably
have been to the sore cost of his country, and had
that country been in a condition to back up the
genius and enterprise of another Frederick the Great
it would not have found a leader in the late King.
He was .a man of heart and of head, a genius, a wit,
a savant, a sentimentalist, a theologian, an artist, a
good companion, a kind friend—everythingl but a
King ; and, as nothing was wanted but a name to
hold Prussia together, he has fulfilled his mission.
Happily ho was without political ambition, unless
it was an ambition to found a new episcopacy, to
share with Queen Victoria the See of Jerusalem, to
inaugurate the Cathedral of Cologne as a temple of
Christianity, or to reconstruct the German Empire,
and do homage and service to the Emperor. Had
he not been a King, he would have been a great
man, and no doubt in that case would have added
the name of a politician to his other eminent
qualities. Unfortunately, this was the point on
which he was called on to act as well as talk, and
the result has been fatal to his reputation, on this
point at least. He has not, however, been without
use or influence in his generation. In this country
we are scarcely able to do justice to the man, but
Frederick William IV. certainly had the respect
and affection of his subjects. There was no reason
why he should not, for he was a thorough German ;
and, bad he been a Professor in a University,
would doubtless have left noble contributions to
the science of government, a history of Germany,
the portraiture of a good King, the idea of a good
Bishop, a political Utopia, a Civttas Dei, a new
Atlantis, or at least some splendid pieces of
• rhetoric. But there are many men who can do
these things—not many who can govern so well as
to make a first-class State out of a second-rate
kingdom, an united empire out of a bundle of pro•
vinces, a grand policy out of a forced neutrantY—
something, in fact, out of nothing ; and this .w..as
what Frederick William IV. had to do, if possible,
and failed.—Times.