t had acquired in the days of Stein. There were
marked tendencies towards Liberalism and towards unification in
different parts of Germany; and, if the Liberal party could have
produced one man of firmness and decision, these forces might have
triumphed over the reactionary Prussian clique. In this conflict Morier
was bound to be a passionate sympathiser with the parties which included
so many of his personal friends and which advocated principles so dear
to his heart. With the triumph of his friends, too, were associated the
prospects of a good understanding between England and Germany, for which
Morier himself was labouring; and he was accused of having meddled
indiscreetly with local politics. When King William broke with the
Liberals over the Army Bill, caution was doubly necessary. Bismarck
became Minister in 1862, and, great man though he was, he was capable of
any pettiness when he had once declared war on an opponent. From that
time the policy of working for an Anglo-Prussian _entente_ was a losing
game, not only because Bismarck detested the parliamentarism which he
associated with England, but also because, on our side too, extremists
were stirring up ill-feeling. In his letters Morier makes frequent
reference to the 'John Bullishness' of _The Times_. When this journal,
to which European importance attached during the editorship of Delane,
was not openly flouting Prussia, it was displaying reckless ignorance of
a people who were making the most solid contributions to learning and
raising themselves by steady industry from the losses due to centuries
of Continental warfare.

From time to time he paid visits to friends at Dresden, at Baden, and
elsewhere. One year he was sent to Naples on a special mission, another
year he was summoned to attend on Queen Victoria, who was visiting
Coburg. In 1859 he is lamenting the monotony of existence at Berlin,
which he calls 'a Dutch mud canal of a life, without even the tulip beds
on the banks'. But when later in that year Lord John Russell, who knew
and appreciated his talents, became Foreign Secretary and called on him
for frequent reports on important subjects, Morier found solace in work.
He was only too willing to put his wide knowledge of the country in
which he was serving at the disposal of his superiors at home. He wrote
with equal ability on political, agrarian, and financial subjects. That
he could take into account the personal factor is shown by the long
lette