text: " The person so severely handled in two places of these letters where he is not named is plainly enough Prince Metternich; a statesman who whatever may be his abilities and whatever may have been his merits--and merits in the management of German affairs--from the peace of Vienna in 1809 to that of Paris in 1815 (and it were out of place to attempt discussing these points here ) was plainly in every respect the _antipodes_ of Stein; and a man whom the hot Prussian baron could no more form a just judgment of than Martin Luther could of Erasmus