He was only (as so often) contending for that independence and self-reliance which he so admired in the English.

For two hundred years English traditions had absolutely forbidden the sovereign to allow his personal and family sympathies to interfere with the interests of the country.

If the House of Hohenzollern were to aspire to the position of a national monarch it must act in the same way.

At this very time the Emperor Napoleon was discussing the Prussian marriage with Lord Clarendon.

"It will much influence the policy of the Queen in favour of Prussia," he said.