usually apportioned to kings; and certainly, as his tutor had said of
him in his youth, he was dangerously "disposed towards discursive
philosophies." He was likewise accredited with a conscience, which many
diplomats consider to be a wholly undesirable ingredient in the moral
composition of a reigning monarch. Therefore, those who move a king, as
in the game of chess, one square at a time and no more,--were
particularly cautious as to the 'way' in which they moved him. He had
shown himself difficult to manage once or twice; and interested persons
could not pursue their usual course of self-aggrandisement with him, as
he was not susceptible to flattery. He had a way of asking straight
questions, and what was still worse, expecting straight answers, such
as politicians never give.

Nevertheless he had, up to the present, ruled his conduct very much on
the lines laid down by his predecessors, and during his brief reign had
been more or less content to passively act in all things as his
ministers advised. He had bestowed honours on fools because his
ministers considered it politic,--he had given his formal consent to
the imposition of certain taxes on his people, because his ministers
had judged such taxes necessary,--in fact he had done everything he
was expected to do, and nothing that he was not expected to do. He had
not taken any close personal thought as to whether such and such a
political movement was, or was not, welcome to the spirit of the
nation, nor had he weighed intimately in his own mind the various
private interests of the members of his Government, in passing, or
moving the rejection of, any important measure affecting the well-being
of the community at large. And he had lately,--perhaps through the
objectionable 'discursive philosophies' before mentioned,--come to
consider himself somewhat of a stuffed Dummy or figure-head; and to
wonder what would be the result, if with caution and prudence, he were