From Fraser's Magazine.

THE KING OF BAVARIA, MUNICH, AND LOLA MONTEZ.

BAVARIA, it would seem, is regarded as | land itself. Still, our supercilious politician

the Boeotia of modern Europe. Both the has some reason on his side. Circumstancountry and the inhabitants have certainly ces-of which more, perhaps, hereafter— acquired a bad reputation. They are either have hitherto constrained Bavaria to play spoken of with a sneer, or are passed over an insignificant part in the great drama of altogether as utterly unworthy of considera- Europe; and as the causes which bid fair tion. "What do I care about Bavaria ?" to place her in a position of counterpoise to says the politician. "It is a country sunk Prussia are, at present, slow and hidden in in moral apathy; in diplomacy, it is a non- their working, it is natural that the counentity; the people are mere slaves of the try should be supposed to be still in that caprices of a king, who, in his turn, is ruled political night which has enwrapt it almost by the whims or the passions of a woman, since, some forty years ago, it was erected whose oddities have made her the subject into a kingdom. It is not our intention, of European scandal. What are Bavarian however, to enlarge on these topics here. affairs to me?" Yet if this declaimer were Suffice it to say, that the majority of thinkasked what interest he took in the politics ers too hastily condemn the Bavarian peoof Prussia, he would be instantly on the ple. But advocates may be found for them qui vive, would talk about the marvellous in artists and lovers of the arts. The precocity with which that juvenile kingdom painter, the sculptor, will point to the has developed into a first-rate power, treasures of art which are stored up in would expatiate on the political value of the capital,-to the new developments of the Rhine provinces, on the richness and genius which have been stimulated by royal growing activity of the manufactures of Old patronage; and will protest, with earnestPrussia, and, probably, he would wind up ness, against the general and sweeping conwith a glowing account of the chivalrous demnation. The English traveller, too, efforts made by Frederic William to edu- who, with a small library of hand-books, cate his people in freedom, and a highly- starts off to scour the world in search of colored anticipation of the effects to be" sights," and who, perhaps, in his chart produced on the awakening mind of Germany by the example set in Prussia of an absolute monarch voluntarily abandoning his absolutism, and transmuting it into that bugbear of the autocrat-a constitu-ders that while the dilettanti have raved tion. He would, perhaps be startled if he were reminded, that this much-despised Bavaria possesses, in a more developed form, and in a more compact and governable shape, those elements of prosperity on which the future hopes of Prussia are built; that not merely in the Palatinate, and in those parts of the kingdom bordering on the Rhine, but also in other provinces of the kingdom, the Bavarian peasantry are, phy- The present King of Bavaria, strange to sically and morally, superior to any in Eu- say, has shared with his country and his rope; that they are more independent, and, people this general misapprehension or obin that sense, richer than the peasantry of livion. One is not, on reflection, so much most other countries; and that, as well by surprised that an out-of-the-way kingdom the ancient laws of the kingdom as by more like Bavaria, which is generally supposed to recent concessions from the crown, the Ba- produce only broom-girls and beer, should varian people, in general, are in the enjoy-be undervalued or forgotten. It had been ment of more substantial political rights than are possessed by the people of any European country, not excepting, improbable as it may seem, France, and even Eng

of movements, has calculated to "do Munich in a week," pauses amidst the many monuments of princely taste and munificence by which he is surrounded, and won

so about other capitals, they should have thought and said so little about this newly created capital of the arts. But even such chance witnesses as these, assuming them to be bold enough to speak their minds, have not been able to produce any palpable effect upon the world's opinion, that a Bavarian is the incarnation of dulness, slowness, stupidity, and political and social abjectness.

so long under the shadow of the Austrian eagle, that diplomatists and politicians had accustomed themselves to look upon it as a sort of political appanage of the quasi Ger

The

man empire. But that the king should | Munich are not obnoxious to this condemnahave been confounded with his people- tion. There are enlightend men in all should have been set down as only a vain ranks of life, who will do justice to the chapoetaster half-tyrant, half-dilettante-racter of their king, and regret that in Muwho divided, between writing bad verses nich itself there should be so much indifand cobbling his subjects' manacles, the ference. From men in exalted rank we time he could spare from setting an exam- have often heard his praises; but we were ple of persevering and ostentatious immo- much more struck one day with the remarks rality to those who, in theory at least, were of one in a humble sphere, who said,-" Ah, bound to look up to him as a father, is in- sir, I am ashamed of my townsmen. deed surprising to any man who may have king is too good for them, and has done too taken the trouble to investigate his public much. They are ungrateful. If he had conduct since he came to the throne. The been a soldier, and had caused the destrucbest excuse, perhaps, that can be made for tion of a million of his people, they would those who thus undervalue a man who is admire him very much; but because he has really a unique and remarkable character, made Munich a place that all the world is, that in Munich itself, the scene of many will come to see, and has spent his reveof his most praiseworthy acts, are to be nues in promoting the greatness of his found the greatest number of his detractors. kingdom and the welfare of his people, If any man can hope to be a "prophet in they think nothing of him at all, or they his own country," surely a king, unless he think poorly of him because he has some be the most arrant of tyrants, sots, or fools, odd ways which make them laugh." ought to be that man. He is the fountain These "odd ways that make them laugh," of grace, and the incarnate terror of the are at the bottom of the misapprehension to law. Whatever be his character, one would which we refer. The King of Bavaria has, suppose that he must inspire either love or from the first, committed an unpardonable fear-that, at all events, towards a person offence against society. Had he been the so situated, the feelings of his subjects most arrant tyrant en règle, that would could never be those of apathy, still less a have been accepted as a matter of course; more decided sentiment in the same direc- but he has dared to be a rebel against that tion. Yet, a pretty extensive observation greatest tyrant of all, Custom; and much of the state of opinion in the Bavarian capi- as kings, may dare, they must be cautious tal has convinced us that is to say, of how they revolt from that leaden despotism. course, the writer of this article-that King The King of Bavaria has always acted on Louis I., who has done more to secure the his own impulses, rejecting the aid of etipolitical and social well-being of his people quette-the mute, machine-like body-guard than any ruler they ever had from the of monarchs. He has been a Haroun Altwelfth century downwards; who may al- raschid and a Charles H.-or say, rather, a most be said to have called into existence Henry IV.-combined. Oblivious, from Munich as a metropolis, and imparted to it time to time, that his royalty fixed all eyes characteristics which will secure it imperish-upon even his most trifling and secret proable renown; is not only not understood ceedings, he has acted as if he had been a (that, perhaps, would be too much to ex- simple private gentleman. Ostrich-like, if pect), but not even misunderstood, in his he could hide his crown, he thought, perown capital, and by those of his subjects haps, to be concealed from the observation who are necessarily acquiring, daily, the of the inquisitive. Not that he cared for most substantial advantages, to say nothing their thoughts or their remarks; he is too of their prospective expectations, from his single-minded a person for that; but that enormous personal exertions, the unusual he positively never troubled himself with bent of his taste, and his unparalleled pe- their constructions, and believed that he cuniary sacrifices. This, we say, is some could at all times relapse into his kingly excuse for the foreigner, who, overloading state and dignity without any taint of scanwith praise, perhaps, other European sove- dal on account of his escapades. Such a reigns, altogether passes by one whom, tak- habit of mind as this may survive intact, ing him as a whole, and admitting the ex- while supported by the vigor and elasticity tent and number of his faults, we may fairly of youth; but, as age creeps on, it transdeclare to be the most remarkable and meri- mutes bold and varying violations of estatorious of them all. At the same time, let blished forms into confirmed eccentricities, us in justice say, that all the inhabitants of which appear ridiculous to weak-minded

"But when were you

landlord?"

I was a long time, your majesty." "And so, I suppose, you hope you will

be?"

"Yes, thank your majesty's goodness, I

persons, who have not the power of seeing| the true character under this motley garment of oddities. The King of Bavaria, therefore, is not a hero, with a whole city for his valet-de-chambre. The besotted people, who owe to him everything that has hope I was. tended to elevate them in the European The king could bear it no longer. He scale, think not either upon the great im- had been often baffled in his questions by pulses he has given, from time to time, to this stupid habit of some of his subjects. rational freedom among them, and well- With one of his peculiar and forcible gestimed reform, or upon the enormous sacri- tures, which made the astonished landlord fices he has made to anticipate for Bavaria fear he was about to receive a royal coup, the gradual development of ages; but the king replied, in his laconic style, dwell, with a sinister tenacity on the one" Then, Herr Gastwirth, I can tell you, you hand, upon acts of power which he has re- were an ass, you are an ass, and you always sorted to in troubled times to sustain his will be an ass!"

authority; on the other, upon the stories, And with that the irate grammarian hursometimes silly, sometimes indescribably ried away, leaving the poor publican utterpiquant, which have floated about in their ly ignorant in what he had offended his coteries till they have become, as against a usually good-natured king. benevolent and large-minded ruler, a species of concrete scandal.

Another anecdote is told of this king, which will sound rather oddly to English We could fill pages with stories of the ears; but, as we are about to give the kind we refer to, some which ought not to bright side of his character, it is only fair be told, others which would require the to add some of his foibles. Among these powers of a Dickens or a Thackeray to do is conspicuous an excessive jealousy of his justice to them. One we may relate, not authority. It is true that he very seldom because it is the best, but because it illus- has occasion to manifest it. His subjects, trates the familiar manner in which the whatever may be their indifference to his king mixes with his people. Among the royal virtues, always shew him great peruneducated of Munich, a habit prevails of sonal respect. As has been said, he is using the third person singular of the past very fond of rambling alone, on foot, about tense of the verb to be, to answer for all the city and neighborhood. Even late persons, first, second, and third; and for at night he never uses a carriage, which is all tenses, past, present, and future. We only resorted to on state occasions. It is have no parallel in England for this habit; impossible not to be conscious of his apbut there is some approach to it in those proach, even at a considerable distance, as persons who, wishing to be super-correct, you see a long line of pedestrians suddenly always say I were." Now it happened arrested in their progress to or fro, and that there was a Gastwirth, or innkeeper, standing with their hats off, ready to greet who was landlord of an establishment him as he passes. This is not always the much frequented in the outskirts of Mu- easiest thing to the by-stander, for the nich, an original, and who was notorious royal eccentricities extend even to the for his perseverance in this habit. One walk. A stranger, not knowing the rank morning the king, in his usual daily ram- of the remarkable-looking person who apble, found himself in this place, when, of proaches, is considerably puzzled. He course, Herr Gastwirth came out to salute him, with that mixture of familiar bonhomie and respect for his station which characterizes the Bavarian people.

"Well, Herr Gastwirth," said the king, "and so you are the landlord of the Garten?"

"Yes I was, your majesty!" This, of course, was what the king wanted to hear.

But are you not still the landlord ?" "Yes I was, your majesty," answered again the unconscious Gastwirth.

sees advancing, with short and irregular, but very firm steps, a tall, well-proportioned personage, who is evidently utterly indifferent to what is passing around; who walks, not in a straight line, but in a sort of zig-zag, like forked lightning, and yet with a confidence as though, were he to go against a wall, it would crumble at his approach; with a strongly marked, angular countenance, still bearing traces of manly beauty; and whose fixed but powerful eye bespeaks an utter abstraction and intellectual absorption: The strange effect is

somewhat enhanced by the costume worn | here, and it would be admitted that he had by this erratic, phantom-like pedestrian. a perfect right to avenge what all would Generally, a hat of no accepted shape, an agree to have been a personal insult. The English cut-away coat, buttoned closely customs and manners of the people are to a figure somewhat spare, and close-fit- much more primitive than among us. ting trousers, with gaiters, give his majesty The reader will see, from the foregoing the air of one of the fine old breed of fox- anecdotes, that in announcing the intention hunting country gentlemen, who, being of doing justice to the character of the nervous, hale, and strong, show "signs of King of Bavaria, we are not about to make blood" in every line of their hardy, cast-a hero of him, or to present any highly coiron frames. Absorbed in thought, he lored ideal; but, in truth, this monarch bows, mechanically, to all appearance, yet deserves to hold a higher place in the good courteously, and even affectionately, to the opinion of his contemporaries than we are hatless spectators who happen to stand in inclined to believe he possesses at present. the way of the accidental tortuosities of his Without him, Bavaria would have been, course. His march might be likened to in every respect, a nonentity. He is usuthat of a whirlwind, so many uncovered ally thought of as a man of weak character, heads does it leave in its track. with a strong propensity for forming pic

Yet it is not always easy to anticipate ture-galleries and writing verses. Finding which way the royal steps will bend, and such a discrepancy, even in Munich, bethe story that is told of him might, per- tween his deeds and his reputation, we were haps, have arisen out of this difficulty. tempted to inquire what else the king One day-it was at a time of some political might have done which might entitle him to excitement the king was in the Ludwig- the character of a wise, beneficent, and strasse, followed and preceded, as usual, by patriotic monarch; and, if the reader be a line of bowing subjects. But there was not wearied with the subject, he may, perone among them who, whatever may have haps, be inclined, on a perusal of the catabeen his reason, stood erect and covered logue, to think with us that there have among the rest. Perhaps he might be a been many contemporary monarchs who, stranger, but it was not so; perhaps he having received much more praise than was a malecontent, but if he were, political King Louis, have done much less to deserve passions should not exeuse breaches of po- it. Apropos to the general subject, it may liteness, or a neglect of that etiquette be mentioned, that to this monarch is owing which prescribes an obeisance to crowned the merit of having first conceived the idea heads; perhaps he calculated that the king of the Zollverein, which is usually attributwas too abstracted to notice him. If he ed to the King of Prussia. did this, he reckoned without his host. The King of Bavaria acts mainly on the The quick eye of the king detected his impulses of his own thought and observarudeness. Probably he knew both the man tion. He takes a very active, personal and his motive. At all events, it seems share in the government of his kingdom. that, without stopping in his course, or One of his early acts may be recorded as an more than glancing at his disrespectful sub- instance of the benefit to be derived from ject, he simply raised his hand as he pass-acting on the instincts of humanity and ed and knocked his hat off. The story is common sense, as opposed to the dry logic rather popular in Munich than otherwise. of political economy. To make the matIt is told with a sort of affectionate appro- ter more clear, let us put a case. The land val, much, as the Ironsides might have is held in Bavaria on the feudal principle. chuckled over some of the coarse buffoone- Every proprietor, however small may be ries of Oliver, or the French or Prussian his holding, holds directly, or at not more soldiers over the practical jokes of Old than one or two removes, from the crown. Fritz or the little Corporal. The affair He cannot be deprived of his possession so could only have happened in a country go- long as he pays the very fair and moderate verned on the German principle. Here, dues which are demanded from him, and were a royal person to do such a thing, it which, in most cases, stand in the lieu of would be regarded either as a piece of out- rent, while, at the same time, they give rageous insolence or tyranny, or as a gra-him a vote in the election of members to tuitous absurdity; but in Bavaria there is the Chambers. Thus, the Bavarian peanot that broad line of social demarcation sant, living under what is called a despotism, between king and people which we find might compare his position advantageously

with that of the Irish peasant, living under living relation with the State, to which he what the English, delude themselves into looks as to his steady friend; and the more believing are free institutions, tortured by he advances his own interest, the more he rack-rents, and deprived of the protection is adding to the sum of that of the whole of a tenant right. In one respect, however, community. What disconnects this plan the two countries, at the time King Louis the more from the supposed jealousy of began to interfere in such affairs, were alike. despotic power is, that the State, by adIn each, the cultivators of the soil had, from vancing these moneys, is really supplying various causes, become destitute of the neces- the peasant with the means of rendering sary means wherewith to carry on their labors. himself absolutely independent. Although It took the English government years this annual rent or tax is paid to the crown, and years of goading, before they hit on it is competent to the tenant to purchase the expedient of advancing money from the the absolute fee-simple of his holding, by State on the security of the land in Ireland, the payment of a certain number of years' in order to enable the proprietors to put it impost in advance. We forget the exact in cultivation. And, even then, true to number; but the amount is absurdly small those instincts of unfair preference for clas- compared with the annual rent. The conses, which are the disgrace of Englishmen, sequence is, that a few years' labor and they advance this money to the quasi rich; application will enable the tenant to effect that is to say, to the owners of the soil, the purchase. It seems, then, that the without obtaining effectual guarantees that establishment of these land-rathe, and prothe poor tiller, to whom prescription and vincial treasuries, indicates a beneficial long labor ought to have given a right, spirit on the part of the king. One of the even superior to that of the Bavarian pea- early acts of his reign, too, was to procure sant, should be protected in the enjoy- the passing of a law, renewing the national ment, on equitable terms, of his holding. guard of the kingdom-another proof that Now let us see what the King of Bavaria he was not afraid to trust his subjects. Nor did-did, too, of his own impulse, while should we omit to mention, although the still not more than five-and-thirty years of measure had no material effect, that the age. Finding certain districts of his king- king very early restored the old limits of dom impoverished, and all, more or less, the provinces of Bavaria, which, under shackled by the want of funds, he organ- French influence, had been divided differized a system, the very opposite to that of ently, and differently named. The object our centralization, by which every part of of this restoration appears to have been to the country, in divisions, is subject to the aid in reviving and consolidating Bavarian investigation of a provincial councillor of nationality. state, who is held responsible for certain du- The canal, which unites the Maine with ties, and who is to report from time to time to the Danube, and thus creates an uninterthe government the condition and wants of rupted line of water communication from the cultivators in those districts. There- Rotterdam to the Black Sea, owes its origin upon, his Majesty erects a most valuable and its execution to the King of Bavaria. institution; that is to say, a provincial It may be said to be the grand achievement state treasury, from which the cultivator of of his reign, for its ultimate effects are the soil, be he high or low, rich or poor, likely to be of immense importance. The can, from time to time, obtain on fair and circumstances under which the king conmoderate terms money from the State. The ceived the idea are singular. When a young time, mode, and amount of repayment, are man, history was an absorbing study with regulated by the means of the borrower. him, more particularly those historical The land is, of course, the security; and works which furnish the materials for mothe right of tenure would become forfeited dern authors. Among the rest was Eginwere the money not repaid. But we are hard's Life of Charlemagne, in which it is informed that the system works extremely stated that the emperor, for the purposes of well; that forfeitures have rarely, if ever, a war which he was then carrying on, conoccurred; and that, as a general rule, the ceived the idea of cutting a communication prosperity of the country has been enhanc- between the two rivers, which, indeed, he ed by this measure. The actual cultivator commenced. The termination of the war, of the soil, thus protected in his independ- or some other cause, led Charlemagne to ence, is not the trembling slave for sale in abandon the plan; and, in the course of a rising or falling labor-market. He has a centuries, it was utterly forgotten, until the