It is not time, O William, to go to church but to go to war; yet you and your son keep on reading your Gothic Bible. ¶ Now comes the year 1840; William III goes to the tomb of his ancestors, and is succeeded by Fr: William IV, with whom began anew the long battle between the principle of Divine-right of kings and political democracy exercised by the masses. William IV, intensely addicted to Divine-right theories of government, was in the course of a turbulent reign forced to face great political agitators. However, the King had behind his throne, always, that conservative class (found in every country) that clings tenaciously to the past and dreads the future. The watchword of all William's enemies was "Liberty!" The cry, visionary as it was, served as a rallying point for those who favored some form of French constitutionalism; and while, as a whole, the so-called friends of Liberty were very impracticable, had no definite plan for relief, we find among the political agitators foremost in their discontent many of the brightest minds in Germany, college graduates, professional men, the clergy, and solid middle class merchants. All were zealous for immediate political reforms. * * * * * ¶ Consider the position of our Fr: William IV. He was a peculiar man, to begin with--and an irresolute man, to end with. He was not built for times of war. Yet he had to face cannon! Early in life, in impressionable years, through a court blunder, young William had had a tutor, Delbrueck, who poisoned his charge's mind against the Prussian military and bureaucratic system. The attitude of Delbrueck was certainly heresy as vile as though your own child's nurse should bring your boy up to fear and despise his own father. Surely, you would not like that? ¶ Delbrueck was quickly given the sack; and it was well that he got off without a broken head! He was succeeded by a preacher, Ancillon, of renown in church affairs. This Ancillon started young William off on another track; antiques, church history, Bible study, architecture, the brotherhood of man, and the fatherhood of God. ¶ Then William studied art under Rausen, and under Schinkel; and also the future king became absorbed in landscape gardening and in architecture. ¶ William was presumed to be "liberal" in his views, that is to say, he was, in a sense, supposed to be a "democrat." ¶ Of course, the Radicals at this hour knew nothing of Bismarck, who was to be the power behind the throne. They saw instead only a weak king; and history tells over and over again, down through time, what becomes of weak kings when the people are throwing up barricades in the streets and are tossing up their caps and crying "Liberty!" * * * * *