10 OCTOBER 1914, Page 16

LIKE GRANDFATHER, LIKE GRANDSON. [To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. " ]

Sin,—The late Sir Robert Morier, in a memorandum written to Earl Russell, and dated November 14th, 1863, speaking of the Schleswig-Holstein difficulty and the attitude of King William of Prussia, uses these remarkable words :— "He [the King] has become the mere tool of a wicked and unscrupulous faction whose passions he has lashed himself up, contrary to all Hohenzollern precedent, to share, whilst he religiously believes that he is God's vice-regent, and that he is fulfilling the Almighty's commands."—Memoirs of Stir Robert Morier, Vol. I., p. 36 (E. Arnold, 1911).