84

BARON STOCKMAR

1848

'A peace between Austria and Italy on the basis of Venice remaining part of the Austrian Empire will only be a protracted armistice.

"Your Royal Highness asks what impression the events of Paris have made upon us? Very different ones, I should say, at different places. In Frankfort we are too much taken up with ourselves, to have much sensibility to impressions from without. We are consequently just as mad as we were, if possible, even madder. As it is here, so in all likelihood will it be in Vienna, Berlin, and Breslau. On the other hand, these events will have made a deeper and juster impression in the North, along the coast, in the Hanse Towns, in Hanover, in places which have from the first been more cool and calm, than in the South, and which up to this time, in consequence of the burdens and losses of the war with Denmark, have become still more cool and calm.

"Your Royal Highness justly remarks, that our revolutionary fever is specifically French, something like a certain epidemic fever, which is specifically Hungarian, and only to be caught on Hungarian soil. And this French radicalism, with which we are tainted, is just what weighs so heavily upon my heart. When, some years ago, I used to discuss politics with Bunsen, he used constantly to think, that if I had my way, I would Anglicise Germany too much. His common expression was,-" But everything must be done in a true German spirit, and in accordance and harmony with the German nature." But German nature is apt to be sluggish, and not to move till it is too late. Bunsen's truly German dreams were outstripped by the course of events, and the moderate reformers woke up to find the field in possession of a revolution on the French model and themselves nowhere. A revolution, however, which is based upon the maxims of radicalism, must of necessity renounce all principles of justice, and we may, therefore, find excuses for the way we are

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ON STATE OF GERMANY.

85

going on just now, but justify it on rational grounds we never

can.

"Your Royal Highness is of opinion, that the military will ultimately be the instrument by which order and peace will be restored to Germany. That brute force and lawlessness will ultimately be in turn put under constraint by material force, there can indeed be no doubt. But how far the initial attempts to enforce this constraint will be successful, how far they may be even possible, at the present moment especially, is hard to say. Discipline, as it has hitherto existed among German troops, is no longer intact. How is it possible, that the social movement, which has affected all ranks, should have failed to infect the army as well? The South German troops are all more or less touched by the social epidemic. Even the Prussians, in certain regiments, have not escaped it. . . .

'From the first attempt to restore order and law by means of the troops, I therefore expect no decisive results; nay, I rather fear, it will only increase the anarchy and confusion, and may even lead to civil war. Generally, I foresee grave events within the next few weeks, for the parties (Governments and National Assembly) are ranged in a manner face to face, and in such a way that there is no alternative but peaceful union or hostile separation.'

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Ir was a pleasure to the Prince to be recalled for a time from the study of the great but saddening political problems which were being worked out abroad and at home to topics, always favourites with him, which dealt purely with the advancement of the arts of peace, and with what Bacon has called 'the relief of man's estate.' Such were those to be discussed at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, to be held at York upon the 13th of July, where he had agreed to pay an old debt,' as he told the meeting, by being present. He had been for upwards of six years a Governor of the Society. His appearance on this occasion called forth a display of loyalty more demonstrative than usual, and he charmed his audience by a speech at once graceful, compact, suggestive, and playful. In the few words in which he proposed the success of the Society he seemed to have spoken what other men would have taken long to say. What the Society proposed to do and what it had done was put in a way, too, which must have persuaded even those enthusiasts to whom high-farming and the improvement of stock are the great business of life, that the speaker was inspired by a knowledge and a zeal no whit inferior to their own. When he told his large audience what we agriculturists of England' had in view, this identification of himself with their pursuits sent a thrill of pleasure through the meeting, which broke out into loud acclamations. This and a naïve avowal at the close that he had himself' experienced the pleasures and the little pangs'

6

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PRINCE VISITS YORK.

87

attendant on agricultural pursuits, made all feel how thoroughly English their young Prince had grown in his tastes, and how well he knew the way to the hearts of the people, to whose welfare his best thoughts were devoted.

No man was better able than the Prince to appreciate the value of any mechanical invention or improvement.' He was unusually quick to comprehend its principle, and the eminently practical character of his mind impelled him at once to measure how far it was likely to accomplish the object aimed at. The inspection of the implements brought together at a meeting of this kind was therefore not merely a delight to him, but a matter also of close and thoughtful study. It is not, therefore, surprising to find him acknowledging in the following letter to the Queen that, having spent in the Show-yard the morning hours, when the rest of the world were either asleep or idling, he was pretty well done up' even before his public work for the day began.

1 The Prince had exhibited in 1843 and each subsequent year at the Smithfield Shows, and taken prizes there, and also at the Shows of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland, and the Royal Dublin Society. In 1848 he took the first prize, and was very proud of taking it, at the Smithfield Show for the best Hereford ox.

A remarkable instance of the Prince's accuracy of observation in matters of this kind has been brought to our notice by Mr. Jowitt, of Harehills, Leeds. During the visit of the Queen and Prince to Leeds in 1858, for the purpose of opening the Town Hall there, the Prince made a private visit to the Exhibition of Social Industry. In one of the rooms, the separate pieces of machinery, which make up Mr. Donisthorpe's wool-combing machine were laid out upon a table. The Prince,' Mr. Jowitt writes, was interested in looking at them, having seen the machine at work in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In another part of the building machinery in motion was exhibited, and Mr. Donisthorpe was there to explain his machine to the Prince. He needed, however, no explanation, at once understanding this complex and most valuable invention : but, looking closely at the machine, he remarked that there was a wheel or something of that kind wanting, pointing out where and how it should be introduced, to the great surprise of Mr. Donisthorpe, who said it was so,— (it had been accidentally left out)—but that not one man in ten thousand would have noticed the omission. Mr. Darnton Lupton and others who were present are now dead, but the incident is very fresh in my memory.' Many other facts of a similar character might be adduced in confirmation of what is said in the

text.

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PRINCE TO THE QUEEN.

1848

... I am already pretty well done up: I have still much before me. Soon after five this morning, certainly by six, we were in the "Show-yard" to inspect the farm implements, which are certainly wonderfully ingenious, and kept our attention on the stretch for a couple of hours. I then went over the Museum and the Museum Garden. In an hour I go to the Cathedral, about half-past two back to the Show-yard, which will then be open to the public. About four the grand dinner comes off, which will last several hours. In the evening I go to the Ball, which is given at the Mansion House by the City, and the Mayor has just suggested that I should be present about midnight after the Ball at his Banquet in the Guildhall, but this I have declined. To-morrow we shall be stirring betimes, so as to be in London by two.

The dinner yesterday was very tedious and very hot!! Of people I knew there were present Lord Yarborough (in the chair), Lords Fortescue, Morpeth, and Lonsdale, then Van de Weyer, Bunsen, and Bancroft (as Foreign Ministers), the Duke of Richmond, Lord Feversham, Lord Talbot, Lord Chichester, Lord George Bentinck, Sir John Johnstone, Mr. Shelley, Colonel Challoner, Captain Pelham, Mr. Hudson, Mr. Monckton Milnes, Captain Duncombe, Hon. A. Duncombe, &c. &c. After dinner there was a discussion on farming. The dinner was infamous-without method and without viands. No wine, muddy water, no potatoes, the fish without sauce. That of to-day will be cold! Heaven defend my stomach!

'York, Judges' Lodgings,

13th July, 1848: ten o'clock A.M.'

The Prince returned next day to London, where the pressure of public affairs made his absence from the Queen's side even for a day a matter of difficulty. In all their