Later, in 1847, although his affection for the Prince had grown
greatly, and his confidence in his character still more, he calls
him sharply to task for regarding the movement in German politics
from a too exclusively dynastic standpoint, and also, with imperfect
information, for expressing an opinion at all; he tells the Prince
that he fails, from lack of knowledge and dynastic prejudice, rightly
to grasp and appreciate the actual present condition and wants of the
German people; that the current of opinion among thinking people in
all classes in Germany was running strongly towards the conviction
that the chief impediments to German national life were the dynastic
sentiments, the pride and self-seeking of the numerous German princes;
he declares that no men are so ignorant as the German princes of what
was going on around them, and that their ignorance, arising from class
prejudice, blinds them to their own true interests, which really lay
in the direction of the development of political liberty among their
people. He implores the Prince not to come out with a ready-made plan
for the regeneration of the Fatherland, which would only betray his
ignorance of the vital facts of the situation, and show him to be out
of harmony with the spirit and tendency of the age. Nothing could be
more outspoken than the whole of the letter, which covers more than
seven pages of the biography of the Prince Consort. It shows Stockmar
at his best as political preceptor to the Prince, and the Prince at his
best as pupil, accepting the lecture with frankness and humility, and
without a trace of resentment.