to limit and restrict the Church of
Christ, but to enlarge it.' "

A letter from Sir Robert Peel, too, must here be quoted in full:--

"WHITEHALL, _October_ 10, 1841.

"MY DEAR MR. BUNSEN,--My note merely conveyed a request that you
would be good enough to meet Mr. Cornelius at dinner on Friday
last.

"I assure you that I have been amply repaid for any attention I
may have shown to that distinguished artist, in the personal
satisfaction I have had in the opportunity of making his
acquaintance. He is one of a noble people distinguished in every
art of war and peace. The union and patriotism of that people,
spread over the centre of Europe, will contribute the surest
guarantee for the peace of the world, and the most powerful check
upon the spread of all pernicious doctrines injurious to the cause
of religion and order, and that liberty which respects the rights
of others.

"My earnest hope is that every member of this illustrious race,
while he may cherish the particular country of his birth as he
does his home, will extend his devotion beyond its narrow limits,
and exult in the name of a German, and recognize the claim of
Germany to the love and affection and patriotic exertions of all
her sons.

"I hope I judge the feelings of every German by those which were
excited in my own breast (in the breast of a foreigner and a
stranger) by a simple ballad, that seemed, however, to concentrate
the will of a mighty people, and said emphatically,--

"They shall not have the Rhine."

"_They_ will not have it: and the Rhine will be protected by a
song, if the sentiments which that song embodies pervade, as I
hope and trust they do, every German heart.

"You will begin to think that I am a good German myself, and so I
am, if hearty wishes for the union and welfare of the German race
can constitute one.

"Believe me, most faithfully yours,

"ROBERT PEEL."

When Bunsen was on the point of leaving London, he received the unexpected
and unsolicited appointment of Prussian Envoy in England, an appointment
which he could not bring himself to decline, and which again postponed for
twelve years his cherished plans of an _otium cum dignitate_. What the
world at large would have called the most fortunate event in Bunsen's life
proved indeed a real misfortune. It depriv