THE REV. OTTO VON RANKE AND THE EMPEROR FREDERICK.
[TO THZ ED/TOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
trust that you may be able to find space in your columns to insert the contradiction of a calumnious charge brought against the Rev. Otto von Ranke, to the effect that he had publicly prayed in his church at Potsd.am for the release of the Emperor Frederick. This charge, originally published by a Potsdam paper, and thence copied into the Berlin journals, has gone the rounds of the English Press, under such headings as "The Emperor's Death Prayed for," and has given rise to a good many severe strictures on what, if it had been true, might well have been styled a" disgraceful reference."
Convinced that Mr. von Ranke had been misrepresented, his relatives in this country—of whom I have the honour to be one —lost no time in communicating with him, in order to test the accuracy of this report, with the result that I have now before me a letter in which he gives an unqualified and indig- nant denial to the charge of having used such disloyal or unfeeling expressions in any of the sermons preached since the late Emperor's death. Mr. von Ranke immediately wrote to the Vossische Zeitung under the date of April 30th—the very day on which the charge appeared—and as no notice has yet been taken in the English Press of this letter, you will perhaps allow me to quote the following passages from it :—" I never uttered the words imputed to me. In the sermon preached on the Sunday after the death of the Emperor William, I said, referring to the present Emperor The Royal son returns home to-day as our Emperor and King. He certainly remains the object of our deepest anxiety and most fervent prayers and intercession. But we rejoice in having him back, and ask the Lord that he may spare us further evil and preserve the Emperor Frederick to us by his infinite mercy.' In the sermon I preached on the Emperor William on March 22nd, I said God bless and sustain our gracious Emperor and King Frederick III. What seems impossible to man is always possible to God. May the Lord let him recover and be a blessing to his nation.' "—I am, Sir, &c.,
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