Yet it is but just to say that the _Times_ was not entirely to blame. The conduct of the Prussian Government in a matter of painful dispute between the administrations of the two countries was far from satisfactory. In September a certain Captain Macdonald quarrelled with the railway authorities at Bonn about a seat in a railway carriage. He was violently dragged from his place and cast into prison with arbitrary brutality. The Public Prosecutor, in dealing with his case, had publicly accused English residents and travellers in Germany of being notorious for “rudeness, impudence, and boorish arrogance;” and as the Queen and her husband were, a few days after that speech was delivered, themselves tourists in Germany, the Public Prosecutor’s insolence was felt to be peculiarly obnoxious. The Queen herself, in an entry in her Journal made during her German tour, says, “Saw Lord John on the subject of a vexatious circumstance which took place about three weeks ago--namely, a dispute on the railway at Bonn, and the ejection and imprisonment (unfairly, it seems) of a Captain Macdonald, and the subsequent offensive behaviour of the authorities. It has led to ill blood and much correspondence; but Lord John is very reasonable about it, and not inclined to do anything rash. These foreign Governments are very arbitrary and violent, and people are apt to give offence and to pay no regard to the laws of the country.”[73] Baron Schlenitz, says the Prince Consort in a letter to Stockmar, “took it [the dispute] very lightly;” whereas, on the other hand, Lord Palmerston demanded that the judge who sentenced Captain Macdonald to imprisonment should be dismissed, and reparation made to the Captain, otherwise diplomatic relations would be broken off with Prussia. But the Prussian Government kept this irritating business open for several [Illustration: VOLUNTEER REVIEW IN THE QUEEN’S PARK, EDINBURGH. (_From the Print published by Messrs. McFarlane and Erskine, Edinburgh._)] months; in fact, they did not settle the affair till May, 1861, and thus the English Press could not be altogether blamed if its criticisms of Prussian diplomacy were somewhat caustic.