Life and times of Stein Author:John Robert Seeley Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Austria might have used his energy and commanding influence in North Germany in 1809, as the Emperor of Russia, we shall see, used them in 1813. Perhaps it was m... more »ere negligence, or perhaps — for Stadion's popular principles by no means actuated the Austrian Government as a whole — it may have been a dread of encouraging the people to act for themselves. But there is scarcely any chapter of Stein's life on which we have so little information. We learn that in February he sent to Count Sta- i dion a Report on the Position of Prussia, which was read by the Minister with much interest, but which led to nothing. We learn that Vienna society rang with his praises, and that a pamphlet which he was expected to publish in explanation of his dismissal and proscription, was so eagerly awaited that Vienna booksellers had sold beforehand several hundreds of orders at two gulden apiece; so that Stein was obliged to make a formal announcement that he contemplated no such publication. And yet Stein was not invited by the Minister to Vienna and did not receive permission to reside there until Count Stadion had left for headquarters. The only explanation ever given of this neglect is contained in a letter written by Gentz on April 17th, and runs as follows : — Though I can only give here a small part of what is required for the full explanation of this affair, yet I must at least throw upon it what light circumstances allow. The real cause of my silence was perplexity, and that was caused by the perplexity of another, who by the way is one of the most excellent men of the time. When the expectations from Prussia became fainter and at last seemed to disappear, an anxiety — exaggerated in my opinion — began to be felt lest it should be indelicate in the circumstances to give your Excellency a forma...« less