The Portland daily press., 1883-07-17
Political Attitude of the German


George Won Bunsen. in Harper's Magazine for
August.l
Enough has become known for us 10 sur
mise that the first impr essions on his youth
full mind, as received from his parents, and
afterward from Prince Albert, were of an
honestly constitutional nature His father,
as we know from the infallible testimony of
Queen Victoria in her journal of April 20,
1851, was firm in his constitutional views,
and "highly indignant at what has taken
place and is taking place at Berlin And
Humboldt writes of him to Bunsen in 1S49:
His demeanor is dignified and mild, and
opposed to the threatening reaction His
mother, likewise, with the instinct of her
Weimar race, was convinced that. with
er she saw the cultivated minds of the ma
tion gravitating, viz. Parliamentary control
and a rule of reason, there must lie security
for the crown which she prayed on her
knees to see strengthened and preserved for
her darling son. And the Prince Consort
counselled the young man who was to be-
come his son-in-law, in memorable letter
of November 6, 1856, that in his place he
would srecord solemn protest against such
proceedings, not by way of opposition to the
government, but in defense of the rights of
those whose rights are inseparable from my
own-those of my country and my people
and in order to absolve my conscience from
any suspicion of participation in the unholy
work" (of reaction), warning him at the
same time to see that such a step be ''divest-
ed of every semblance of being inspired by
spirit of opposition or desire for popularity"
His son-in-law may have had occasion for
acting upon this advice later in life. At
present this win suffice for explaining how
1t came that Frederick William and his
young wife applauded with enthusiasm the
new turn public affairs took on their faith
er's accession to power as Regent, in the
place of his hopelessly incapacitated BROTH
er, in 1858. The old ministers were dis
missed, all but two, and the "new era'' in
augurated by men who bad gained esteem
and confidence through their stanchness in
defending constitutional rights. This is not
a place for unfolding the various causes
which led to the utter failure of those very
same men about year after the Regent had
become King William. But what interests
us to know is that the princely couple saw
with bitter modification this first hope of
their young lives dashed to the ground.
Faithfully did they adhere to the principles
of moderate Parliamentary rule, which had
seemed like bright vision descending upon
this pow wer-ridden realm. And when a con-
fict arose between the Parliament and the
crown In 1862, fear came stealing upon
them that the precious hopes of the son, by
whose birth they had been blessed In 1850,
might be marred. Instead of strengthening
the foundations of the Prussian thn0ne. in
stead of preparing the way for united Ger
many, which had been a well-defined day
dream of the Crown Princes earlier years.
the policy of King William from 1862 to 1866
seemed to them to endanger the future of
the dynasty. They had to begin thus early
to know the bitterness of a position in which
the right of even the lowest citizen-that of
expressing ones opinion on public matters
is denied to him who has to bear the conse-
quences of mistakes more pointedy than any
other individual in the country. What they
did to stem the tide of REF ction has not be-
come known. AS a mater of fact the
Crown Prince, though steadfast in his liber-
al views, has abstained all these years from
every public disapproval of ministerial acts.
That Italian adage which Sir Henry Wotton
impressed upon John Milton in 1887 on his
young friends departure for Italy, ''Pensie-
ri stretti ed II viso sciolto'' An open counte-
nance and thoughts well engaged), has been
his rule of deneanor throughout.