The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born 1795. Still living.] A king whose good intentions and fair-sounding promises seem invariably to overbalance his powers of performance. Anxious for popularity, yet always vacillating on the path that leads to it. Manifestly ambitious, but kept aloof from the great prizes of ambition by want of moral courage, of earnestness, and vigorous action. He commenced his reign with many advantages, and might have rendered himself the most powerful sovereign of Germany, and the most popular of its rulers. He has missed the power, and parted with the popularity. He promised his people a constitution: they have never received it. In the Revolution of 1848 he sided with the extreme liberals, but only to bound back again--further than ever--into the arms of absolutism. In his conduct towards Russia and England in the momentous dispute of 1854, Frederic William IV. is faithful to his character and his antecedents. [By Rauch. Marble. 1845. In the Royal Palace at Berlin.]