d; though Karl Philip prefers
Heidelberg hitherto.

To Friedrich Wilhelm the scarcity of progeny is a thrice-interesting
fact. For if this actual Neuburg should leave no male heir, as is now
humanly probable,--the Line of Neuburg too is out; and then great things
ought to follow for our Prussian House. Then, by the last Bargain, made
in 1666, with all solemnity, between the Great Elector, our Grandfather
of famous memory, and your serene Father the then Pfalz-Neuburg,
subsequently Kur-Pfalz, likewise of famous memory, son of the
Beslapped,--the whole Heritage falls to Prussia, no other Pfalz Branch
having thenceforth the least claim to it. Bargain was express; signed,
sealed, sanctioned, drawn out on the due extent of sheepskin, which can
still be read. Bargain clear enough: but will this Karl Philip incline
to keep it?

That may one day be the interesting question. But that is not the
question of controversy at present: not that, but another; for Karl
Philip, it would seem, is to be a frequent stone-of-stumbling to the
Prussian House. The present question is of a Protestant-Papist matter;
into which Friedrich Wilhelm has been drawn by his public spirit alone.

KARL PHILIP AND HIS HEIDELBERG PROTESTANTS.

The Pfalz population was, from of old, Protestant-Calvinist; the
Electors-Palatine used to be distinguished for their forwardness in that
matter. So it still is with the Pfalz population; but with the Electors,
now that the House of Simmern is out, and that of Neuburg in, it is
not so. The Neuburgs, ever since that slap, on the face, have continued
Popish; a sore fact for this Protestant population, when it got them
for Sovereigns. Karl Philip's Father, an old soldier at Vienna, and the
elder Brother, a collector of Pictures at Dusseldorf, did not outwardly
much molest the creed of their subjects. Protestants, and the remnant of
Catholics (remnant naturally rather expanding now that the Court shone
on it), were allowed to live in peace, according to the Treaty of
Westphalia, or nearly so; dividing the churches and church-revenues
equitably between them, as directed there. But now that Karl Philip
is come in, there is no mistaking his procedures. He has come home to
Heidelberg with a retinue of Jesuits about him; to whom the poor old
gentleman, looking before and after on this troublous world, finds it
salutary to give ear.

His nibblings at Protestant rights, his contrivances to slide Catholics
into churche