So also is the King of Prussia's speech at the
Hamburg Bourse, where he said very peremptorily, and we must say rather arbi- trarily, "The language I have already used at Kiel should have been accepted as a most emphatic expression of my confidence in its maintenance, and it is inexplicable how an opposite interpre- tation could even for one moment have arisen." We think we can make it explicable to His Majesty. Conceive a weather-wise man,—and not only that, but a man with power to influence the weather as well as predict it,—saying to his companions, 'I quite expect fine weather,—the rather that I have both my mackintosh on and my umbrella with me, to ward off the rain if it come,'— would his friends feel so very confident of not seeing a thunder- cloud before the day was over ? Yet that is precisely analogous to what the King of Prussia said at Kiel. His language was more intelligible at Hamburg, and more comfortable to honest merchants' hearts. But he need not scold them for misunderstanding him when he laid so needless an emphasis, not on the causes which would prevent war, but on those which would turn it in his favour if it came.
Previous page
