approaching conclusion. The last words | member of the great brotherhood of poets. he uttered in this world were "More He did much, and he suggested much. He light!" words most touchingly symbolical, though he meant it not. His life had been exceptionally prosperous, calm, and without anxiety. All he had wished for had fallen into his hands, and a long and mellow evening of repose had followed upon the bright and busy and lingering day.

set minds as great as his own going with a touch of his finger. And he was infinitely fortunate in catching exactly the right moment and the right subject to move the world withal. His fame and his nature were both profoundly national; and though his patriotism was dull, he had perhaps more to do than any of his conThus lived and laboured and died a man temporaries with the creation of that nawho has, perhaps, been classed at more tional sentiment without which no country widely different estimations than any can ever be great. In every way, thereother man of his time. If we cannot al- fore, the effects which he meant to produce low, with Carlyle, that he and the first were increased and magnified by effects Napoleon were the two greatest men of which he did not mean to produce their day, it must at least be conceded by flections and impulses which he threw off the least willing that his influence spread almost without knowing. There can be more widely, and we may say, has lasted no better applause given to human greatlonger, than that of any other modern ness.

re

THE progress of the struggle between the Prussion Government and the Feudal party is watched with hardly less anxiety is Southern Germany than in the North. It appears to be felt very distinctly that there are interests much higher than those of the six provinces enumerated in the Kreis Reform Act, which depend upon the issue of this new constitutional contest. The South German Liberals, who form no inconsiderable section of the great majority devoted to the cause of German unity in the Imperial Diet, have to contend at home with the unnatural combination of extreme Radicals and Ultramontanes, who are united in favour of the "Particularist" policy which the war has left at a discount. But the most powerful argument of the Liberals in pressing the absorption of their States into the Empire has hitherto been that the unity of Germany must carry her freedom with it; and, in short, that the predominance of Prussia, however selfish it may appear, is always favourable to the development of popular rights in the minor States. It would be a death-blow to this were the Junker party of the northern kingdom to triumph in their opposi

tion to the liberal measure lately before them. Such a result would inevitably serve to throw the larger part of the southern reformers, who are at heart opposed to all feudal privileges, into the hands of the Radicals. Moreover, if the Prussian Liberals were thrown overboard by the Royal Administration, and were in consequence forced to accept the defeat of the reform project, it would make a serious breach between those of their number who sit in the Diet and the southern members with whom they are accustomed to act. In fact, a victory won by the Junkers of the six provinces would be felt as a defeat not only by their local opponents, but by the Liberal party throughout the Empire. And it is, therefore, not surprising that Prince Bismarck's return from the rest which was lately pressed upon him as it were by the national voice, is now demanded loudly by the same organs of public opinion which insisted on the necessity of his stay at Varzin until some serious foreign complication for no such home difficulty was foreseen by them—should arise to recall him from his well-earned retirement.

Pall Mall Gazette.

Whether he was in the right or not I In the year 1700, and something over, do not know; but he might have been in the evening of a fine day in May, accurately informed, for he was one of the the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, huntsmen. The Grand Duke did not beAdolf Friedrich, the fourth of his name, lieve him, and, after a little reflection, he was sitting with his sister, the Princess said: "All good spirits praise the Lord! Christel, in his castle at Nigen-Strelitz. Rand, you will sleep in my cabinet toThey had been telling each other ghost night." Then he retired. stories, stupid things which nobody would believe to be true if they had not really happened, and both were in a fine state of terror, but his Serene Highness the

The chamberlain von Knüppelsdörp took the words from the lips of the valet, Rand, * Rohr dommel, species of bittern. [Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by Littell & Gay, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.]

Serenissimus Strelitziensis should be tor- a woman, and you don't know what you mented with a ghost, under his very nose. are talking about; do you think everyThe stupid chamberlain, to be sure, said thing lies to the southward of Strelitz? it was the Rodump; but what is a Ro- Feldbarg and Mirow and Förstenbarg are dump? I can believe almost anything, all in my dominions, and beyond Mirow, it but nobody can expect me, in my position stretches out in a point into Schwerin, as of reigning Sovereign, to believe such a may be plainly seen." story as that. Rand," said he to his valet, "Jochen Bahnhase shall put the horses to the golden coach, three lackeys behind, and two runners in front; the coachman and the lackeys shall wear their state uniforms with the gold lace, and the two runners, Halsband_and_Fleischfreter, shall wear their new Paris hats with flowers, à la Pompadour," he added aside, to his sister, for I am going to travel through my dominions."

"Yes, your Highness," said Rand; "but I don't know how we can manage it, for the old Wallach, that goes on the right, is so badly spavined, that he can scarcely put one foot before the other."

No, Serene Highness," said Rand, "the region is not to be seen quite so plainly, for the sand blows in one's eyes too much. I ought to know, for I was born and brought up there."

His Highness was provoked at Rand's foolish jest, and putting his head out of the golden coach he called:

"Jochen Bahnhase, home! Tomorrow, we will drive to Förstenbarg, and through the Mirow forests."

This was done exactly as his Highness commanded, for he was a very determined ruler, and when he had said a thing, he stuck to it. So the next day they drove through Förstenbarg, and the pine forests; and when Rand bent down to the carriage door, and said: "Serene Highness, here

"What difference does that make?" asked his Highness, with great contempt. "If one horse is sick, you can go to Farmer we are again!" his Highness was angry, Sachtleben, and borrow one of his horses." "Yes, your Highness, but he cannot spare one; it is his busiest time of carting manure, and he couldn't think of it."

"You are to go, Rand; we are reigning sovereign."

So Rand went, and Sachtleben let him have his old, stiff Brown, for the state equipage.

Jochen Bahnhase drove up before the door with the golden coach, the three lackeys got up behind; the two runners hovered along the street, Rand sat on the box. and his Serene Highness with his sister Christel sat in the coach.

66

"Which way?" asked Jochen Bähnhase. "Straight forward," replied Rand, beyond Stargard, as far as the boundary; but not over the boundary, for we are only travelling in our own dominions."

So Jochen Bahnbase drove through Stargard and through Friedland, to the Prussian border, and then pulled up his horses: "P-r-r, oh ha! This is the end!" Then the Grand Duke gave orders to drive beyond Woldeyk; and when they passed Woldeyk and came near Wulfshagen the coachman turned his horses at the boundary line, and said: "Rand, here it is again, we can go no farther."

and cried: "Wesenberg! as if he would console himself in that way.

But in spite of Wesenberg, he came back to Nigen-Strelitz in a very discontented mood; and Rand and the Princess Christel stood together in the corridor, and shook their heads, and said: "What is this coming to?"

And the morning and the evening were the third day, and his Highness did not reign this night, for he slept. There were no Rodumps to be heard, and the ghosts who were usually on duty at the castle of Nigen-Strelitz had for this night appointments elsewhere.

The next morning Rand came down to the Princess Christel, and said: "Thank God! this night we have slept peacefully, and to-day we are going westward, towards Nigen-Bramborg; then we shall have travelled over our whole realm."

And Princess Christel said: "God grant it! He will be satisfied then, for he is a very determined ruler."

Three hours later, they were driving past the Tannen Krug at Nigen-Bramborg; and because Sachtleben's old Brown could go no further, and they must substitute one of the inn-keeper's horses, the Grand Duke walked up and down before the door while they were waiting, and looked over at the beautiful lake and the

The Princess Christel, who had overheard him, remarked to her brother: "This is the first time I have travelled so exclu-Broda forest, and said to his sister in sively in our own dominions; I had no idea they were so limited in extent."

"Christel," said his Highness, "you are

High-German, - for the inn-keeper's wife stood by, and he must keep up his ducal dignity, - "Most Serene Highness, what

do you think? Suppose we should build the third lackey, "we will not be left ourselves a Belvidere' over the lake?" Princess Christel was about to reply, but Rand sprang forward, and said: " Your Serene Highness is always right! We must have a Bellmandür! All the Serene Highnesses have Bellmandürs, and we have none!"

governed for him; and thirdly, in that, then there were debts upon debts, and they case, his beloved cousin, Christian Ludwig were so hard up, even at the Court, someof Mecklenburg-Schwerin would not have times, that Adolf Friedrich III. would be over-run the realm with an army; for he, entirely out of bread-corn. Then came the too, had a strong desire to govern for him. Seven Years' war, and old Fritz tapped the He did not quite succeed, however; for the Mecklenburg meal-barrel, as long as anychild's mother, a Princess of Hildburgs- thing would run out of it, and did not stop hausen, cut away in the night, with her at that either; horses and wagons were little duke, and ran off with him to Grips- taken away, and what the Bellingschen wold. Here she had him instructed by Hussars left behind was carried off by the tutors, for if he wasn't old enough to gov- Swedes; and that wasn't the worst of it. ern, he was old enough to study; but The Prussian recruiting officers were all she herself wrote a long letter to the over the country, and wherever they found "Reichshofrath," showing that her child a fine stalwart fellow, they carried him off was quite different from other children," for the music," that is to say, for the that he had always been wonderfully clever, and if he were not soon pronounced of age, he might become too mature, to the injury of his realm. The "Reichshofrath sidered the matter, and did the wisest thing possible; he declared our Grand Duke of age; and the beloved cousin, Christian Ludwig, was obliged to draw back, with a long face, and to relinquish the pearl of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, NigenBramborg, which he had occupied with an army of five companies of soldiers.

con

The Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich reigned from 1753 to 1794, without interruption to the happiness of his realm; but not to his own happiness, for he was an unfortunate man, since he was tormented with three horrors and three fears, which gave him no peace. In the first place, he had a horror of work; secondly, a yet greater horror of ghosts and witches; and thirdly, the greatest horror of all, of women-kind; then he had a great fear of thunder storms, a greater fear of death, and the greatest fear of all, lest he might lose his dukedom, for he always thought with terror of that beloved cousin of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, from whom he had run away in the dark night, to the university of Gripswold. To all these misfortunes was added another; he had visited Paris, and there he had fallen hopelessly in love. Not with a woman, for, as I have said already, he had a horror of the sex; no! but with fine clothes. He must have them, they were necessary to his happiness and to that of his realm, and his estates did not afford him revenue enough to satisfy his desires in the way of velvet coats and silk stockings.

If any one should say, at present, that a duke of Mecklenburg was in need of suitable clothing, it would sound like a joke, and nobody would believe it; but it was no joke then. Times have changed. The third part of the revenue of the corporation of Stargard is greater than the revenue of the whole country at that time, and

army.

Many stories of these kidnapping affairs were still in circulation when I was a boy; how these fellows had carried people off, either by strategy or violence; and my own grandfather and his brother, who had been entrapped in some way, had only with the greatest difficulty, and by the aid of a brave forester's wife, escaped out of their hands. Anybody who had arms and legs was liable to be taken; but it was especially the poor shepherd-boys for whom they lay in wait. Such a poor, simple fellow would be all alone in the pasture, with his knitting-work, thinking of anything in the world except soldiers, and suddenly they would seize him, bind his arms behind him, and march him off. Or he would be sleeping at night, in his little hut, dreaming so sweetly of his Fika or his Dürten, and they would nail up the hut, and carry him off helpless over the Prussian border, and put him into a red coat. Some they took by strategy, as was the case with a shepherd who was famed for his uncommon strength. He was standing among his sheep one day, when a Prussian recruiter in disguise came along, and said very pleasantly:

Krischan, they say you are so wonderfully strong; I will wager two bottles of beer, that if I put your crook through your coat sleeves, across your back, you cannot break it in two."

"The devil I cannot!" said Krischan; and the recruiter put the stick through his sleeves, and when it was ready he whistled, and a companion sprang towards him, and they took poor Krischan by his outstretched arms, and led him off, as helpless as a child. He must have cut a comical figure enough, but that didn't help the matter.

There was great distress in the country, and no help to be found anywhere; not even from his Serene Highness, Adolf Friedrich IV., for he was in the greatest distress himself. He had, unfortunately,