envoy, who has two sons in the Austrian military service, feels more
dread of Austria's resentment than of Prussia's; but the chief mistake
lies in the circumstance that Brunswick is represented by a servant of
the Duke of Nassau, who lives here in the immediate neighborhood of his
own court,--a court controlled by Austrian influences,--but maintains
with Brunswick, I imagine, connections so closely restricted to what is
absolutely necessary that they can hardly be regarded as an equivalent
for the five thousand florins which his Highness Duke William
contributes to his salary.

The Mecklenburg envoy, Herr von Oertzen, justifies in all respects the
reputation of an honorable man which I had heard attributed to him
before he assumed his present position. In the period immediately
following the reopening of the Federal Diet, he, like a large number of
his fellow-countrymen, showed an unmistakable leaning to Austria; but
it seems to me indubitable that his observation for two years of the
methods which Austrian policy employs here through the organ of the
Chair has aroused in Herr von Oertzen's loyal nature, in spite of the
fact that he too has a son in the Austrian army, a reaction which
permits me to count fully upon him as far as his personal attitude is
concerned, and upon his political support as far as his instructions--of
the character of which, on the whole, I cannot complain--in any wise
permit. In any case I can depend upon his pursuing, under all
circumstances, an open and honorable course.... His attitude in the
debates is always tranquil, and in favor of compromise....

The representative of the Fifteenth Curia is Herr von Eisendecher, a man
whose ready sociability, united with wit and vivacity in conversation,
prepossesses one in his favor. He was formerly an advanced Gothaite, and
it seems that this tendency of his has shaded over into a lively