ch troops in
one or two fortresses of Hanover, he could utter the words so often on
the lips of Bismarck--_Beati possidentes_. Hanover belonged of right to
George III; but Napoleon could will it away to Prussia.

Thus the fortunes of Europe depended largely on Frederick William.
Unfortunately he was incapable of rising to the height of the situation;
for he utterly lacked the virile qualities which raised the House of
Hohenzollern above petty compeers in Swabia to fame and prosperity.
Essentially mediocre, and conscious of his slender endowments, he, like
Louis XVI, nearly always hesitated, and therefore generally lost. His
character was a dull compound of negations. Prone neither to vice nor to
passion, he was equally devoid of charm and graciousness. Freezing men
by his coldness, he failed to overawe them by superiority; and, with a
weak man's dislike of genius and strength, he avoided great men,
preferring trimmers like Haugwitz and Lombard, who played upon his
foibles, and saved him from disagreeable decisions. The commanding
personality of Stein inspired in him nervous dislike which deepened into
peevish dread. Only in the depths of disaster, into which his own
weakness was to plunge him, did he have recourse to that saviour of
Prussia.

By the side of Frederick William was that radiant figure, Queen Louisa,
who recalls the contrast between Marie Antoinette and her uninteresting,
hapless spouse. For Louisa, too, had ambition and the power of inspiring
devotion, though etiquette and jealousy forbade her intervention in
affairs of State;[735] otherwise the Prussian Government would have
shaken off that paralysing indecision which left its people friendless
and spiritless on the bursting of the storm a year later. For the
present, the King's chief adviser, Hardenberg, sought to impart to
Prussian policy a trend more favourable to England and Russia. Conscious
of the need of a better frontier on the west and of the longing of his
master for the greater part of Hanover, he sought to attain this end by
means not wholly opposed to the feelings of George III and the policy of
Pitt. Above all, he strove to end the humiliating subservience of his
Court to France, which galled the spirit of all patriotic Prussians.
Their great desire was to join the new Coalition even though such a step
entailed war with Napoleon. They rejoiced at the news of Admiral
Calder's victory off Finisterre, and hailed every sign of war at St.
Peter