nd doing their utmost to render him unpopular with his
subjects.

Unfortunately, the king soon gave his people a plausible excuse for
fault-finding by the unbounded favor which he bestowed upon Wagner,
whose ideas and whose music were at that time alike obnoxious to the
majority of Germans. The favorite theory of this great genius, but
arrogant and unscrupulous man, was the elevation of the German nation
through the aesthetic and moral influence of a properly developed
theatre; and the king was ready to offer every facility for the
practical realization of this visionary plan. But the Jesuits scented
heresy in the alliance between the experienced composer and the
youthful dreamer, and the liberal party were indignant that Wagner's
affairs should be made a cabinet question at a time of such great
national anxiety. The dissatisfaction rose to such a height at last
that it became necessary for Wagner to leave Munich, and for his royal
patron to break off, apparently at least, the unpopular intimacy. The
people were right, to some extent, in denouncing Wagner, whose course
in Munich, as elsewhere, had been selfish and ungrateful, and in
blaming the king for indulging his individual tastes to the neglect
of his duties as a ruler; but the youth and inexperience of the latter
were a sufficient excuse for excess of enthusiasm, and reproach may
well be forgotten in astonishment and admiration at the capacity of
this mere boy to understand and feel those wonderful musical dramas
which were then almost universally laughed at or condemned, though
their gradual but steady rise in public appreciation seems now to
warrant their claim to be considered as "the music of the future."

In December, 1865, a little more than a year after his accession,
King Ludwig acknowledged the union of Italy under Victor Emmanuel--an
important step, which at once arrayed the Catholic Church against him
as its enemy. He also endeavored to effect a reconciliation between
Vienna and Berlin, but his mediation did not avail; nor could he
hinder the alliance of Bavaria with Austria in the war of 1866. But as
soon as peace was concluded he quitted the policy of his father, which
he had hitherto, for the most part, followed, and selected as members
of his cabinet men of liberal principles and progressive ideas,
calling to, its head Prince Hohenlohe, a known friend of Prussia and a
firm opposer of the Austrian alliance.

One of the first projects of the new mi