But even when the prince has done all this, there is still a study, the most comprehensive and most important of all, in which he should be learned—­the study of humanity, and in especial that part of it with the care of whose interests and happiness he is to be charged.  A few people seem to have this knowledge instinctively, others acquire something of it in the school of sad experience.  It is not the fault of the Emperor, if, in his youth, his knowledge of humanity was not profound.  There was always a strong vein of idealism and romance among Hohenzollerns, the vein of a Lohengrin, a Tancred, or some mediaeval knight.  The Emperor, of course, never lived among the common people; never had to work for a living in competition with a thousand others more fortunate than he, or better endowed by nature with the qualities and gifts that make for worldly success; never, so far as is known to a watchful and exceptionally curious public, endured domestic sorrow of a deep or lasting kind; never suffered materially or in his proper person from ingratitude, carelessness, or neglect; never knew the “penalty of Adam, the seasons’ difference”; never, in short, felt those pains one or more of which almost all the rest of mankind have at one time or other to bear as best they may.

The Emperor has always been happy in his family, happy in seeing his country prosperous, happy in the admiration and respect of the people of all nations; and if he has passed through some dark hours, he must feel happy in having nobly borne them.  Want of knowledge of the trials of ordinary humanity is, of course, no matter of reproach to him; on the contrary, it is matter of congratulation; and, as several of his frankest deliverances show, he has, both as man and monarch, felt many a pang, many a regret, many a disappointment, the intensity of which cannot be gauged by those who have not felt the weight of his responsibilities.

A discharge of 101 guns in the gardens of Crown Prince Frederick’s palace in Berlin on the morning of January 27, 1859, announced the birth of the future Emperor.  There were no portents in that hour.  Nature proceeded calmly with her ordinary tasks.  Heaven gave no special sign that a new member of the Hohenzollern family had appeared on the planet Earth.  Nothing, in short, occurred to strengthen the faith of those who believe in the doctrine of kingship by divine appointment.

It was a time of political and social turmoil in many countries, the groundswell, doubtless, of the revolutionary wave of 1848.  The Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, and the war with China had kept England in a continual state of martial fever, and the agitation for electoral reform was beginning.  Lord Palmerston was Prime Minister, with Lord Odo Russell as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Mr. Gladstone as Minister of Finance.  Napoleon III was at war with Austria as the ally of Italy, where King Emmanuel II and Cavour were laying the foundations of their country’s unity.  Russia, after defeating Schamyl, the hero of the Caucasus, was pursuing her policy of penetration in Central Asia.