126 
Kaspar Hauser. 
of written dissertation all over Europe, and especially in Germany, 
The public press teemed with letters, essays, and pamphlets, ang 
the newspaper which did not contain some item of information of 
conjecture about Kaspar Hauser in almost every issue was con- 
demned as too unenterprising for patronage. 
Many persons, in discussing the mystery of Kaspar Hauser, 
seemed unable to consider the question of his identity as entirely 
separate from an estimate of his character. Some even went so far 
as to say that he could not be of royal origin, because he showed 
ignoble traits, told lies, said silly things, pronounced certain words 
after plebeian fashion, etc. Hickel alluded to these decisions, and 
naively remarked that under the circumstances such a judgment 
could not be accepted as final. The question is: “ Who was 
Kaspar Hauser ?” not how far was he influenced for evil by con- 
tact with his fellowmen, nor how many words and expressions 
did he pick up from uneducated persons when he was learning to 
talk. 
Stanhope, too, tried to throw doubt upon the story of early and 
long-continued imprisonment, by suggesting that if true, Kaspar 
Hauser’s condition would have been different from what it was, 
which position is entirely untenable, as the case was altogether 
unprecedented and abnormal. 
Stanhope, Meyer, and Hickel were busy, each preparing a 
defence of himself, and a crimination of Kaspar Hauser, and Pre- 
fessor Daumer in Nuremberg was equally energetic in defence of 
bis former pupil, while many persons who did not write upon the 
subject were ready to give testimony on demand. 
Ritter von Lang in Ansbach was one of the first to publish an 
attack upon Kaspar Hauser, and his article was an exceedingly bitter 
one. Immediately after its appearance, Prince Wallerstein, Bava- 
rian Minister of the Interior, wrote to President von Stichauer, a 
prominent Government official in Ansbach, that the suicide theory 
was not only false, but absurd, and must not be allowed to influ- 
ence the judges and the police, as it was evidently intended to do 
—that is, to paralyse investigation. He added that Lang's article 
contained statements in direct contradiction to legally-recorded