public gift has to be countersigned by a
minister, and every doit must be accounted for.
For this reason, in a small country, if the ruler
happens to be benevolent and active, the
patriarchal system is, on the whole, best; but all
depends, be it observed, upon the ruler's
character.

In Gotha, for a little time, I left things as I
found them. But the difficulty of applying a
different rule to two neighbouring districts
became felt, and I earnestly wished also to bring
the ministry of Gotha into harmony with
right political principles. I met with a settled
opposition from the ministry, the host of
officials, and even a majority of the townspeople of
Gotha. The nobility at once set me down for
its worst enemy, and the saying was current
that in the duchy of Gotha there was but one
democrat—the duke. I expressed my
constitutional ideas at the opening of the Diet in 'forty-
six, and raised so general a cry that nothing
for the moment could be done. With deep
sorrow I foresaw the coming political storms in
Germany, and laboured among high and low to
explain that wholesome reforms are to be made
only in time of peace. I was only the more
bitterly opposed.

Mere physical pleasures were too exclusively
indulged in. I tried to awaken in Gotha a more
intellectual life, with only partial success. Many
took it ill that in an open meeting, where weekly
papers were volunteered on scientific questions,
I myself read rather a long paper on Psychology
and Anthropology.

I went to Berlin in January, 'forty-eight, and
family affairs carried me thence to England,
expectant of the impending troubles. When the
French government fell I was in England, and
travelling back home by day and night, came at
the right hour into Gotha, where, by proclamation
and amnesty, issued on the very night of
my arrival, I quieted a people that was claiming
of me, by way of revolution, what, during the
past four years, it had refused to let me give
them in the way of peace. We outlived the
dangers of that time; but I stood, for months,
literally alone. The official world was paralysed;
well-meaning folks were dumb. But my
personal influence being allowed to suffice, we
ended in festival the revolutionary days, and
men knew then or cared so little what they
rejoiced about, that communities afterwards came
to me for lease of the chases that had been made
wholly over to them. The cries of the day died
out of hearing, every man looked to his own
provincial interests, and in a few months I and
a few persons of like opinions were the only
men in Gotha with minds really active in a
patriotic German sense. The wide German
popularity of the war in Schleswig was not enjoyed
by it in Gotha. I, as its soldier, was received
more coldly in my own Gotha than in any other
town through which we passed. There remains
in Gotha the same indifference to German
interests, and for my own devotion to them since
eighteen 'fifty, I have not had the good will of
my people.

We have in Gotha three groups of the
population: 1. Nobles, state pensioners, &c.; 2.
The well-to-do citizens, with the whole body of
the bureaucracy; 3.The smaller mechanics, and
the people here, as elsewhere whose, condition
is not one easily to give content.

Group one sees in me the personification of the
revolutionary work of 'forty-eight, and makes me
answerable where it had only itself to thank. It
cannot forgive any abolitions of bedchamber
lords and pages; that the court, which is my
house, is open to every one whom, for his worth
or in obedience to usage, I think proper to
invite. It offends them, also, that I do not
claim divine right for my actions.

Group two includes what are called the
modern liberals, and many of these liberals
who will make no sacrifice for their cause. On
this group I should be able to place my chief
reliance, but I cannot. The old prince, whom
men could put to their private uses when they
got his ear, is gone, and they are referred to a
responsible ministry, which they must propitiate
but cannot bribe, for they must propitiate the
duke also who keeps personal watch and check
over affairs; so there is every difficulty put in
the way of family considerations and the public
following of private wishes. The duke is too
impartial to be popular, especially where, as in
all small capitals, men and women are split into
many antagonistic cliques.

Group three would like me were I hostile to
groups one and two, but it has little regard for
a liberality that gives no unjust advantage to
the poorer democrat over his richer neighbour.

In every one of the three groups I have many
isolated friends who form no phalanx of
supporters, and who are too sensible to waste much
time in noisy argument. These usually, when
they hear detraction, will, for comfort's sake, pass
it by on the other side. So the detraction and the
gossip have their way in Gotha. I am not proud
enough to be indifferent to this, common failing
as it is among our good Germans; but I think
I have so far done my duty that I may set in
my own favour the good word of a patriot
against the declamation of a tavern politician.
As to free opinion, I frankly say that while I
will be accessible to every honest word
addressed to me with a true motive, I will always
enforce the laws against unjust judgments and
false, injurious assertions. But there is much
slanderous chatter that no law can touch, among
which I reckon the too common assumption that
the Diet of Gotha is packed with officials. Study
the list of deputies and see the contrary; though
it is true that where there is no right public
interest in the elections the best public representatives
are hardly to be found.

Although I am thus isolated in my own land
I do not part myself from the people. I believe
that without the sympathies of the people no
man can do them solid service. It is detestable
to cultivate the vulgar arts of popularity; without
them, between a people and its leader there
should be mutual trust, mutual kindness of
interpretation, and the people that would make