He found friends in all
professions, but chiefly among politicians. A typical instance is von
Roggenbach, who rose to be Premier of Baden in the years 1861 to 1865,
when the destinies of Germany were in the melting-pot. Baden was in
some ways the leading state in South Germany at that time, combining
liberal ideals with a fervent advocacy of national union, and the views
of Roggenbach on political questions attracted Morier's warmest
sympathy. Another state in which Morier felt genuinely at home was the
Duchy of Coburg, from which Prince Albert had come to wed our own Queen
Victoria. The Prince's brother, the reigning Duke, treated Morier as a
personal friend; and here, too, he found Baron Stockmar, a Nestor among
German Liberals, who had spent his political life in trying to promote
goodwill between England and Germany. He received Morier into his family
circle and adopted him as the heir to his policy. This intimacy led to
further results; and, thanks in part to Morier's subsequent friendship
with the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, generous ideals and a
liberal spirit were to be found surviving in a few places even after
1870, though Bismarck had poisoned the minds of a whole generation by
the material successes which he achieved.

In 1849 the doors of the Foreign Office were closed to Morier. The
Secretary of State, Lord Palmerston, had treated his father unfairly, as
he thought, some years before, and Morier would ask no favours of him.
He continued his education, keeping in close touch with Jowett and
Temple, and, when he saw a chance of studying politics at first hand, he
eagerly availed himself of it. The troubles of Schleswig-Holstein, too
intricate to be explained briefly, had been brewing for some time. In
1850, the dispute, to which Prussia, Denmark, and the German Diet were
all parties, came to a head. The Duchies were overrun by Prussian
troops, while the Danish Navy held the sea. Morier rushed off to see for
himself what was happening, and spent some interesting days at Kiel,
talking to those who could instruct him, and forming his own judgement.
This was adverse to the wisdom of the Copenhagen Radicals, who were
trying to assert by force their supremacy over a German population. In
the circumstances, as Prussia gave way to the wishes of other powers, no
satisfactory decision could be reached; but ten years later the issue
was in the ruthless hands of Bismarck, and was settled by 'blood and
iron'.