The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1870-07-21
LESION, THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 81, 1870.

| OF any hostile intentions in permitting the
1 Prince, his kinsman, to accept the Spanish
/ crown. The personal temper of the King was
| therefore an element of particular importance
In the conduct of the affair; for King William
] In organizing with Prim the candidacy OF
/ Prince Leopld really had been hostile to France,
\ and that he himself had for years desired
nothing so much as an opportunity Oh renew
ing his soul OF q profound hereditary hatred OF
Frenchmen in general and of the bonapartes
/ in particular Yet, at the same time, he was
1 well aware that he could not possibly afford,
4 in his capacity rs on European sovereign, to
confess that he has connived at the aggran-
\ dizement of member of his own family with
/ the express object OF insulting and circum-
venting friendly power Had Count Bis
management of the affair, even out of this
disagreeable complication peace with honor
might have been perhaps evolved. For Count
i Bismarck, with all his contempt for abstract
right and his love for brusque and peremptory
solution of diplomatic imoroglios, understands
/ and appreciates the importance OF the public
opinion oil, Europe and Of polite forms very
indeed, neither understands nor appreciates
them at all. But Count Bismarck has
/ been growing out of favor with his master
Il for some time, exactly In proportion as the
| King has become reconciled with Count Bis
j marcks bitter personal enemy, The Crown
/ Prince. SO King William insisted upon man.
aging his intercourse with Count Benedetn
| himself. A sketch of the two men will satisfy
4 tbs reader how inevitable was the result
of this royal wilfnlness. King William Of Prns-
i ala is one of the oldest Of reigning sovereigns.
i He was born in the midst OF the frst French
1 Revolution AS q. child, he witnessed the hu-
initiation of Prussia, of his father. and OF bis
family by the First Napoleon, and, as youth,
he took part in the ayenging campaigns of 1878
and 1915. These events gave decisive color
to his opinions and his character for life. A
younger son, he gave himself up to military
career, felt and professed openly the utmost
| contempt for democracy and constitutional
ism, and made himself 80 obnoxious to all
the Liberals of Prussia that, in ls4S, he was
forced to fly the Kingdom, after doing lo nas
to allow him to drown the revolution
In the blood of the Berllnese. Camp
hausen contrived to get him back after an
exile of nine months In England; and IN l849
he signalized himself by his victorious and
| merciless campaign against the people OF Ba-
den. In 1854 he was made GoVernor-Genera
at Mayence he contributed greatlyto intensity
the hatred with which Prussia h g long been
regarded In that city, doomed by the military
strength of Its position to see all Its splendid
commercial advantages reduced to naught.
He bitterly opposed the neutrality OF Prussia
in the Crimean war, longing then to lead an IN
| 1867 by the declared lunacy, and King In 1861
/ by the death, of his childless brother, Frederic
/ William Nv. With his reign began the new
military career and policy Of Prussia. In Oc-
4 tober, 1861, he had himself crowned with
great pomp, and declared that he held
his throne not from the people or ~ Ine e
brought on an open conflict between
4 the Crown and the Parliament during
4 which the King never for moment bated his
II naughty absolntism. When the Liberal party
carried the elections, in 1862, the King refused
i to open the session of Parliament, and When
| priatlon asked. for the army, the King sent for
bllIsmarck, then Ambassador at Paris, to help
him conquer these obstinate contemners Uf d.
vine right, The House of Peers backed the
King. The Commons persisted. lhe Peers
voted the money refused by the Commons.
The Commons declared this vote Illegal. The
King thereupon closed the session, and coolly
made. This was the first instance of sue
cessful royal revolution against the rights OF
| the people In the history Of Europe since the
| DAYS of 17s9. 1t was followed by prosecutions
Of the press. by an aIiance. With Russia to
suppress the Polish insurrection, by an ordi-
nance suppressing the liberty OF the press;
and when the Liberal party succeeded,
lby great majority, the King at once
nanked them by opening the war with
Austria against Denmark fer the conquest
of Schleswig- -Holstein. Foreign war thus
became, as it had so often before become, the
grave Of domestic liberty. The war Of 1856
against Austria completed what the war OF
1868 against Denmark had begun; and King
/ lfofo ~ pr1co G n0mnIpf1V
representative of armed and irresponsible
kingly power in Europe as was the Car
nicholas In 1854. He looks the character as
thoroughly as he believes init. Stalwart, deep
chested, with square, rugged face, brfst-
ling gray mustache, cold implacable eyes,
l'jaw, King william is the bean-ideal OF yete-
ran cuirassier, as ready to ride down shop
/ keepers and lawyers in Berlin as to charge
1.-the cavalry OF France at jena The heredl-
tsry malady of his family, which carried of
his father In state of religious mania and
his brother as hypochondriac, betrays itself
in King William through an inconcelya6le
worship of his place and prerogative. He be-
neyes In the infallibility of monarchs as de-
voutly as Plus TX In the iRfalllbility Of popes.
So firm is his faith In the divine nature OF his
lposition that he keeps, and has for years Kept
q minute daily diary of everything which hap
pens to him, and whenever any new emergen-
CY arises ne CtlTuS VI uidt w oCC Hhut uC
did or did not do on the corresponding day in
all the previous years Of hts life of now seven
ty-three years. His contempt for all men not
soldiers or mobiles he finds 1t so difficult to con-
/ ceal, that he did not deign to bestow the
|slightest attention last year upon the Hum.
bo(dt celebration; and all the efforts Of Count
Bismarck have been needed to make him treat
lAmericans at Berlin with even show of cour-
| tesy, since plebeian German, Mr.. kreiss-
man, whom President Lincoln sent out as
consul to Berlin, insisted, with success,
I on getting admitted to his court, from
which consuls had always been, and indeed
still are, excluded as absolutely as merchants,
bankers, lawyers and tradespeople Of all sorts.
| With this froward and fanatical old prince II.
Benedetti was left to debate the peace Of Eu-
rope NJ Benedetti, the COrsican son Of a
Greek father, was trained in early life at Cairo
and Constantinople to manage the suscepti-
bilties of Turkish Pashas not whit more OBJ
stinate and opinionated than King William.
He had acquired great experience of Euro
pean affairs as Director-General of the Foreign
| Office in Paris, and Secretary-Gene of the
Congress of Paris, as well as in the post (which
he filed for three years. of French Envoy at
| Turin. when he was sent as French Ambassa-
| dor to Berlin in 1864. With Count Bismarck
NJ. Benedetti had gradually obtained a good
| deal of influence, and had the Prus-
sian Chancellor been with him at Ems
| matters might perchance have been smooth
! ed over again at this time between
| the two States, as they were three years