A memoir of Baron Bunsen

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Chapter I

Birth and Parentage of Bnnaen — Boyhood-* Confirmation — Schumacher's Recollections — University of Gottingen — ^Letters to his Family — ^Abeken's Recollections— Brandis' Recollectiona — Christiana Bunsen 1

CHAPTER IL

Correspondence with LUcke— Niebnhr — Philological Studies — Mr. Astor — Visit to Paris — ^Projected Journey to America and India^— Italy — ^Mr. Cathcart — ^Rome — ^Love and Marriage . 76

CHAPTER m,

LIFE IN BOICE.

Residenoe on the Capitol — Reformation Festival — Diplomatic Employment — Christmas Eve— Crown Prince of Bavarian- Correspondence on Grerman Nationality — ^First Child — Church Muaic — Hymns — ^Blness 123

CHAPTER IV.

Visit of the King of Prussia — Niebuhr's Departure — Death of Pius Vn. — ^Election of Leo XH. — Leopardi — Radowitz — General Domberg — Death of Cardinal Consalvi-— Capaccini— Egyptian Antiquities — Neukomm . • . . 198

CONTENTS OF

CHAPTER V.

PRUSSIAN MINISTER IN ROME. paok

Business of the Legation — Collection of Hymns — Journey to Berlin — Correspondence with his Wife — Reception by the King — Society of Berlin — The Crown Prince — Neander — Dr. Arnold 269

CHAPTER VI.

RESIDENCE IN ROME — (contimted).

Return to Rome — Prussian Liturgy — Musical Tastes— Church Affairs in Silesia — Description of Rome — ^Niebuhr's Political Opinions — ^Visit of the Crown Prince to Italy — Archaeological Institute — Egyptian Researches — Death of Leo XII. — Revolution of 1830— Death of Niebuhr— Sir Walter Scott— Corres^wndence with Arnold 321

CHAPTER VII.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PRUSSIA AND ROME.

Journey to Berlin — Mixed Marriages — ^Religious State of Germany— New Testament Studies — Quarrel of the Court of Prussia and the Court of Rome — Interview with the King — The Cholera at Rome — Bunsen leaves Rome . . . 400

CHAPTER VIII.

FIRST JOURNEY TO ENGLAND.

Reception in England — Sir Benjamin HaU — Mr. Pusey — Archdeacon Hare — Explanation of Prophecy — ^Visit to Wales — Dr. Pritchard — Sir T. Acland — Powderham Castle — Gladstone on Church and State — Oxford — Parliament — Lord Ashley — * Quarterly Review ' on Cologne Question — Mra. Fry — Law of Divorce — Highwood ........ 462

CHAPTER IX.

RESIDENCE IN SWITZERLAND.

The Hubel, near Berne — ^Reception by the Diet— Swiss Politics —Letters to Arnold — Beuggen — The Cymreigyddion . . 549

THE FIRST VOLUME.

CHAPTER X.

MISSION TO ENGULND. paor

Audience at Berlin — Bishopric of Jerusalem — ^Arrival in London — ^Queen Adelaide — Lord Palmerston — Puseyism — Death of Mrs. Denifion — Dimchurch — Letter from Sir Robert Peel — Dinner to Bishop Alexander — Visit to Windsor Castle — Appointment as Minister to the Court of St. James's . .593

ERRATA.

Page 6, line 14, /or Corach read Corbach.

F^ 377, Memorandum of May 21, dhnUd he May 28, 1832. (Heading and

bottom line.) Page 378, line A, for 1859 read 1860.

Page 437, line Zjfor Atenstein read Altenstein. Page 528, line 28, /or leUeworth read Ickleton.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

IN

THE FIRST VOLUMR

POBTRAIT OF BUMSEN, BT RICHMOND . . FrontispitCe

LITHOGRAPHS.

Palazzo Gaffarelli .... Tofacepctge 123

Villa Piooolomini .... „ 260

The Hubel, neab Berne, and its Prospect OF THE Obebland 4 • . „ 549

WOODCUTS.

Bust of Bunsen, by Wolff, 1827 . in page 321

Baptismal Font „ 373

MEMOIRS

OP

BAKON BUNSEN.

CHAPTER L

EARLY YEARS,

' I hope I sbaU be pardoned for drawing an imperfect image of him, especially when even the rudest draught that endeavours to counterfeit him will have much delightful lovelineas in it' — Introduction to ' Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson,^

Bonn : 20th December, 1860. CHAP.

Since the last breath was exhaled, and the life of life ^' to me, and to so many besides, has been transfused to a nobler existence, one month has elapsed, during which I have unceasingly meditated on the solenm charge given to me on this very day two months ago : ' Write yourself the history of our common life. You can do it: you have it in your power; — only be not mistrustful of yourself.'

The more I contemplate the richly-filled past, the more does it present itself as a series of dissolving views, and the more difficult, or rather impossible, is it to produce the distinctness called for by a subject which has a right to appear as historical truth, not mingled

VOL- I- B

CHAP, with fiction, as in the case of many well-known personal ^' records. But my best endeavours shall not be wanting : and the result shall go forth, claiming the much-required indulgence of my readers.

My husband was bom on the 25th August, 1791, at Corbach, in the Principality of Waldeck ; the child of parents advanced in life, who had married (in 1790) for the sake of companionship and mutual care in old age, and probably little anticipated such blessing upon their union. His father, Henrich Christian Bunsen (fourth son of an advocate of the same name), bom 29th May, 1743, belonged to a regiment of natives of Waldeck, engaged in the Dutch service ; which he was induced to enter by the promise and prospect of further provision after his t^rm of military service should be past ; that is, of such a post in his native country as should furnish opportunity of working; it was not the bread of idleness that he asked or desired. But after twenty-nine years of service, in a country where, although he made friends and was much respected, he was yet a foreigner, he came back home-sick to Corbach, to find the graves of most of his family ; his means of subsistence being restricted to the scanty produce of a few acres of land, and a small retiring pension from Holland, besides what his own industry in making copies of law documents might work out in addition.

He was distinguished for correctness of language, and an original terseness of expression, which caused his sayings to be. much quoted by his son and daughter, and to remain firmly implanted in their minds. A valedictory utterance, when his son departed to Marburg, was —

'In clothingy live up to your means ; In food, below your means ; In dwelling^ above your means.'

Another of his paternal precepts was —

1791 HIS PAEENTAGE. 3

Little as is kno^vn of the details of Henrich Bunsen's chap.

life, the few outward facts are yet of importance in the L.

consequences they were calculated to impress upon the mind of his son. He must have been possessed of very considerable mental powers; was unswerving in rectitude, founded on deep-seated Christian faith; remarkable, in an age of general laxity in moral and religious observances, for the steadiness and fervencv of his outward acknowledgment in word and deed of God and His Providence in the world. He gave proofs of unbiassed judgment and independence of opinion, not * calling evil good and good evil ' because high placed in human society, a quality rare eveft in our own time, in spite of the public experience of the last seventy years, in which so many of the strongholds of prejudice have been broken down. He it was who implanted in the mind of his son that strong independence of the fascination of external circumstances of rank and condition, that decided estimation of the dignity of man as man, that contempt of pretensions based on the accidents of birth and station, upon which his conduct throughout life was grounded. Henrich Bunsen must have learnt well all that he had the opportunity of learning : he delighted in his Latin lore, and in reading as much as his scanty leisure allowed. He was a man of warm aflfections, and had doatingly loved the wife of his youth ( Susanna Catherine Hofmann, married 1771), the companion of a part of his term of expatriation in Holland, the mother of his two daughters, Christiana and Helene; she died young, in 1782, in giving birth to twins, who quickly followed her to the grave. The widower, whose scanty means had just supplied the needs of himself and family while managed by a careful wife, may well have been heart- and spirit-broken on finding himself alone, the joy of his heart and eyes reft from him, with two very young daughters left in want of care, food, clothing, and education. But help was near in the person of his sister,

B 2

CHAP, married in Amsterdam, who obtained the permission ^' of her husband to receive her nieces into their famil5^ Helene Strieker is said to have resembled her brother in person and character, being of strong affections, highprincipled, and resolute in the performance of every duty.

The course of military service was at length embittered to him beyond endurance by the successful opposition made to his promotion by officers of family connections: and he gave up at length, after twenty-nine years of ' hope deferred,' and returned to Corbach in 1789.

The family to which Bunsen belonged would seem to have dwelt at Corbach for centuries, and the three ears of corn in their escutcheon indicate the condition of agriculturists. Bunsen always expressed himself as proud to belong to ' that kernel of the nation, the cultivated and cultivating class of society.' His grandfather, Henrich Christian, an advocate in Corbach, bom 1708, was the first of whom any record is preserved, as the family abode, with all the family memorials it contained, perished in a conflagration, which took place during the retreat of the French army in the Seven Years' War. No individual of the branch of the family to which the subject of these memoirs belonged became known beyond the narrow circle of the Principality. Another branch, resident at Arolsen, spread into other parts of Germany, and from its ramifications have proceeded several persons justly held in honour, at Berlin, Gottingen, Frankfort, Marburg, Cassel, — fi-ora one of whom descends the present celebrated professor of chemistry, a man of genius equal to his moral and mental worth, Eobert Bunsen of Heidelberg.

Henrich Christian took to his wife, in 1790, Johannette Eleonore Brocken, then aged 41, who had lived fifteen years in the Palace of Bergheim, highly valued for her intelligent and devoted care of the young family

1791 HIS BIRTH AND BAPTISM. O

of the Countess of Waldeck, Christine Wilhelmine, chap bom Countess of Ysenburg-Budingen, who continued ' to her for life the small salary she had before received of 19 florins, then considered ample, supplied her with the marriage portion of house-linen and furniture which a bride in German)' is expected to bring of her own, and honoured the wedding, which took place in the church at Bergheim, by giving a dinner and ball, in the Palace, to the married pair and their guests. These instances of favour indicate unusual merits in the object of them : and they must the less remain unnoticed, as Johannette Eleonore has left little other trace of her existence, besides the material one of being the mother of her son. But although she took the best care of the infant years of her only child, she made upon his mind no such impression of devoted love as to excite a warm return on his part, and his first consciousness of feminine tenderness and of the maternal qualities which attach a child was awakened by his eldest sister Christiana. The portraits of the parents testify to the resemblance of the son to his father; of his mother's features none could be traced in him but her short and curling upper lip.

The birth of this son is marked by the father in his note-book, on the 25th August, 17yi, and his baptism on the 28th (the next following Sunday), in St. Kilian's at Corbach. The Countess Christine of Waldeck beforementioned and her daughter the Countess Caroline (married to a Count of Limburg-Gaildorf ) were godmothers, and Count Josiah of Waldeck godfather, as well as the child's uncle Johannes Bunsen of Arolsen ; and the names of Christian (after the first-named lady), Carl (after the second), and Josias after the young Count, were given him by desire of the sponsors. After notification of the birth and baptism, the father has added the ejaculation, ' 0 God, guide him by Thy grace, and let him grow up in Thy love and fear and in

6 MEMOIRS OF BARON BCNSEN. 1798

CHAP, all virtue, to the joy of his parents. Amen. Henrich ^' Christian Bunsen/

This prayer was indeed heard and answered to the full.

The same fatherly hand kept note of the date, 4th September, 1797, when his son, six years of age, began to have private lessons from a student named Merle, reading and writing having been previously taught him by the parents, whose handwriting was remarkably good. The date is also given, on the 1st January, 1798, of his reading the morning prayer out of the collection of Benjamin Schmolck * at the family devotions. When at Easter of the same year he was admitted to the Gymnasium or Latin School of Corach, under the master named Curtze, he at once took a higher class than was usual with beginners. Every date has been preserved of his progress up to the highest form, which he reached at Michaelmas, 1808, at sixteen years of age. All accounts testify to his having seized upon the information offered as a property to which he had a natural claim, achieving tasks with a power and certainty as though he already possessed by intuition the knowledge he was acquiring. Thus he became the delight of his teachers, and the pride of his father, while with his schoolfellows in general he was popular, as he had always time and power to spare to execute the tasks which others had not accomplished ; in return for which help he required those who possessed voices to sing to him, or when rambling in the woods to pick wild strawberries for him, which his shortsightedness prevented him from seeing on the ground.

He had two favourites (of whom more hereafter) among his schoolfellows, who attached themselves to

* The helps to devotion both in prone and poetry of this pious and venerable writer were widely spread in private families in Germany during the former part of the eighteenth century ; and selections from them are found in Bunsen's Hy^rm Collection, published in 1832, where the catalogue of hymn-poets contains a short notice of his life.

Mt. 7 HIS BOYHOOD. 7

him with a tenderness and devotedness generally belong- chap. ing to a riper age. But the person whose influence, after — '. — that of his father, told most upon the years of his childhood was his sister Christiana, eighteen years older than himself, the greater part of whose early life was spent in the Netherlands. She paid a visit to her father at Corbaeh (probably in 1798 or 1799) and had the power of interesting and attaching her young brother more than any other person, impressing upon his mind the conclusions of her powerful and independent understanding, and her principles of unflinching rectitude and sound Christianity. Her recollections have furnished the few anecdotes that remain of his boyhood : she described him as a beautiful child, fair-complexioned and curly-haired, with the bright eye and fine chiselling of features which those, who have seen him to the last, still hold in remembrance: self-willed and unmanageable except by his father, to whose authoritative commands he never failed to yield, as with herself he readily gave way to reason, or promised submission when she threatened never again to sing to him. An incident of earliest days might seem too insignificant to mention , were it not ever worth while to evoke a pleasing vision before the mind's eye. He had been taken out to walk at some distance from his native town, where the com and grass fields alternated without intermediate fences, at the time of year when both were grown high. His parents walked along the path, and he vanished from their sight. After a time they searched and called in all directions, and at length found him sitting, overshadowed by the tall grass standing for hay, and so perfectly happy in seeking flowers that he was neither frightened at being alone, nor roused fronj his infant reverie and contemplation by the frequent sound of his own name.

Throughout life he had intense delight in air and sunshine, and the sight of God's creation ; but more in its combined eflect, than in its individualities ; and

CHAP, though very capable of bodily exertion, he had no taste

for exercise for its own sake, but preferred to imbibe

pleasure in perfect ease and repose, as in infancy.

Between the ages of thirteen and fourteen, Bunsen was in the habit of saving all the small coin he became master of, to purchase books, or to subscribe to the circulating library of Corbach, the catalogue of which was scanty in proportion to the rate of subscription, and consisted mainly of works of a class, upon which in the whole remainder of his life he bestowed the very smallest fraction of time and attention: namely, novels, chiefly translations from Richardson and Mrs. Radclifife : but he found there, and eagerly devoured, a translation of Shakespeare's works, which, however indifferent, was the best in existence previous to the incomparable work of Schlegel. Besides these he had read all the books in his father's small collection, and those belonging to neighbours. In this period is to be placed the acquisition of English, from the pastor of a distant village. Glover's ^Leonidas' is mentioned as one of the books they read together, a copy of which had strayed into the possession of the pastor, whose small store forihed the whole amount of English literature thereabouts attainable. The pastor's communications to Bunsen were not confined to the English language, and he profited in various ways by this first opportunity of contact with a mind enlarged by much cultivation.

The French language was a portion of the instruction given at the school, and it is noted in one of his father's letters that Bunsen was the best French scholar. An attempt to teach him to sing, as all others were taught in the earliest school-years, was given up as fruitless. He had, however, great pleasure in hearing music,* and an extremely keen perception of correct tune ; but he could not accomplish the notes of the scale, and would himself relate that he could go up, but always failed in coming down again. His father had made a point of

^T, 14 HIS CONFIRMATION. 9

his attending a dancing class for a short time, but chap. all endeavours proved vain to drill and discipline the ^' movements of his limbs.

At the age of fourteen his Confirmation took place, after six months' attendance upon the regular teaching of the Pastor of St. Kilian's Church. From his recollections of the tone and tendency of this course of instruction, it must have been that of the latter half of the eighteenth century, in which a system of half- virtues and half-truths was inculcated under the name of Christianity; and it presented itself to his reflecting mind in strong contrast to the faith, which had been the support of his father through all the severe trials of his life, and to those manly Christian principles, which Bunsen had listened to with reverence from his infancy. Christian convictions, reference to Providential guidance, * vindication of the ways of God to man,' uncomplaining endurance of an uninterrupted course of labour and struggle under narrow circumstances, were by precept and example habitually inculcated in that paternal dwelling ; and these impressions were so strong at that period of his life that the plan of devoting himself to divinity as a profession was the first he formed ; and it was long adhered to, as extracts from his early letters testify.

The years 1806, 1807, and 1808 were brilhantly passed in the uppermost form of the Gymnasium, under the Rector Strube and Conrector Winterberg. To Bunsen was assigned the customary speech at the breaking-up at Easter and Michaelmas in each year, the subjects of his choice being, in the autumn of 1806, ^Reflections at the Grave of Schiller;' in the spring of 1807, ^Leonidas at Thermopylae;' Michaelmas, 1807, 'Hope;' at Easter, 1808, 'Blessings of Peace;' and finally, at Michaelmas in 1808, as a farewell on departing to the University, ' Human Life, a Series of Partings.' From this period of his life some letters have been preserved.

PITAP

I. ' From a Letter to his eldest Sister, Christiana,

Corbach : 30th September, 1807.

The time is drawing near for my proceeding to the University, and my masters considered me to be fit at Easter last ; but on account of my youth, I am to wait till next Easter. When at the XJniversily, I shall make a principal point of the study of languages. As to my future provision, I am not afraid ; for the men of most influence here in our country have assured me of their good inclinations, and although I should of course, in the first instance, offer my services at home, yet when one has learnt what is requisite, other countries also may be open.

To the Sa/me.

Corbacb : 14th February, 1808.

According to your desire, I send my discourse on Hope, which, as containing the thoughts of a brother, may not displease you. It is very short, because the regulation is absolute, not to occupy more than ten or twelve minutes, which is a very narrow space for a subject so abundant. A copy was sent to the Countess at Bergheim, by her desire, and she thought well enough of it to send it for my better recommendation to Gottingen, from whence as yet no answer has been received ; and I doubt much whether any can soon be expected, for the Professors are in a state of extreme oppression, the contribution of 174,000 francs being laid upon forty of their number, to be divided among them as best they can, which may well fall heavily upon many*

The oppressive and demoralising rule of Jerome Bonaparte weighed heavily upon Westphalia.

To the Sa/me.

Corbach : 16th May, 1808.

You will be surprised again to receive a letter from my hand with this date, for you will have supposed me long since at the University. But soon after my last came one from the Countess, enclosing the reply of lSx)fessor Heyne, who announces the utter impossibility at present of securing

Mt. 17. Schumacher's eecollectioxs. 11

for me free commons, as all the funds intended for sneh pur- CHAP poses have been appropriated by Grovemment. The Countess '

advised, therefore, that I should wait half a year longer, as in that time the fate of Gottingen must be decided. What could I do but remain here 9

This is the place most fitted for the introduction of portions of a valuable contribution connected with Bunsen's boyhood, from a beloved schoolfellow, who survived him but a year. It seemed advisable not to suppress the latter part of this paper, written at the especial request of the editor of these pages, even though it extends beyond the period as yet under contemplation. The writer, Wolrad Schumacher, was often mentioned by Bunsen as one of the two schoolfellows between whom and himself the strongest attachment subsisted; the other being Wilhelm Scipio. The ' finely touched spirit ' of the former sufliciently discloses itself in the pages that follow. He was of distinguished literary attainments, devoted to the study of public interests, and selected in 1848 to be, for a short time, the ruling Minister in the Principality of Waldeck, to which he belonged. The only record of Wilhelm Scipio, who was early withdrawn from a life with which he was not fitted to contend, is in the following words of Schumacher, in reply to enquiry: — 'Wilhelm Scipio was an amiable youth, who, owing to his gentleness and an impediment in his speech, was much teased by schoolfellows; therefore peculiarly adapted to seek and find refuge and kindness with Bunsen, who loved what was refined, and protected what was oppressed.'

recollections of BUNSExV.

*The question asked is. What was the boy Bunsen? I can only reply by giving to understand what he was to me — ^what was the efiect of his life and being upon

CHAP, me ; and lor that purpose I am compelled in the first

place to speak of myself.

' I lived at Arolsen happily in the years of childhood, well off in everything that could rejoice or animate the heart of a boy. I had a father to whom I looked up as the model of what a man ought to be : tall and powerful in appearance, cheerful in spirit, manly in everything, whether active or passive, kind and encouraging when I had been industrious, but much to be feared in his anger. I had a mother, as gentle, affectionate, readyto help and console in all conditions and contingencies, as good a support and refuge, as ever boy had. Also an elder and devoted sister, whose bright eyes were ever lovingly directed towards m^e ; who led me to my earliest school, and with whom my relation was one of unrufiled peace. Opposite to me dwelt the friend early won and long preserved,* and his father the Town-Councillor Bunsen. The latter was a personage peculiar to those days. He was born in Frankfort, and gave himself up first of all to theological studies. Although much admired there for pulpit eloquence, he after a time abandoned that occupation on account of weakness of the chest, and travelled as companion and guide with sons of wealthy families, thereby becoming acquainted with the world. He was looked up to, not only as an active and highly competent man of business, but as a centre of intellectual movement in our whole Principality ; as a friend of art and science and correspondent of men of learning in foreign countries, but more peculiarly striking, to us boys as a man of wit, a poet and epigrammatist ; as a mighty hunter and rider, and as understanding all our games and being the most competent counsellor in them ; in short, a man quite after all our hearts. With

* This was Beinhard Bunseiii who entered the public service in Prussia early in life^ and died a judge at Berlin in 1863; a friend through life to Bunsen, as his father had been among the first kind promoters of his outward interests.

&i. 14. Schumacher's becollections. 13

him, as ray father's neighbour and colleague, I had a chap. kind of daily intercourse, at least of observation. ^'

' If my personal circumstances were favourable, local circumstances were not less so. The open, cheerful, wellkept town, the many avenues of oak and chestnut trees, the abundant fruit-gardens in which the town seemed imbedded, the neighbouring woods, the wide spaces for kite-flying — ^nothing was wanting to our enjoyment. So far all was well ; but I was now called to experience the first changes of fate, and what it is in life to suflfer privations. My beloved teacher, in consequence of domestic trials, fell into deep melancholy. I beheld sadly from afar the building which I had so gladly frequented, and wandered about, downcast and unoccupied ; and on a sudden it was decided that I was to be sent*to school at Corbach,* where I had an uncle. I had scarcely comprehended or fancied what was to betide me, when one Sunday in November, 1805, an opportunity oflfered of a conveyance to Corbach by which I was to go at once. I left Arolsen with extreme sorrow, which was not diminished by the gloomy aspect of my new abode and my new teacher. But my heart did not break nor harden ; all at once I found myself sitting beside Christian Bunsen, in the dwelling of his parents, kindly received by them as well as by their son. How this happened I have no remembrance, so suddenly and rapidly did all the late occurrences drag me along with them; but all at once I found myself spending whole winter evenings in that house. The father read the newspaper or a book, the mother sat by him knitting, a female servant was spinning in the comer behind the stove, Christian and I sat on a bench under the window towards the street^ somewhat in the shade. Little do I recall of what was spoken, when suddenly we start up at the sound of a bell which summons me home ; the leave-taking at the house-door extended to some length ;

* The distance under eight EngliBh miles from Arolsen.

CHAP, then he accompanies me to my home ; I follow him back

1_ to his own; till at last parting becomes unavoidable.

Thus passed the winter of 1805, when in every free hour of the day I sought refuge in Bunsen's abode ; and this was the course of things for three years. He was fourteen years of age, and had in the previous summer been confirmed. I was more than two years his junior, which difference is considerable at that time of life, and he was almost two classes higher than myself ; wherefore, even at that period, the question must have arisen in my mind, what made him receive me into such intimacy? The motive, I found, was that he had divined the state of my mind and desired to comfort me : and I enquired no further, for I was in fact helped entirely out of my disconsolate condition.