Page:Charles von Hügel (1903 memoir).djvu/67

 CARL FREIHERR VON HÜGEL.

N our times, the avocations of life are in general so clearly differentiated that the passage from one to another, and the combination of several, are much rarer than in earlier days. The subject of this biographical sketch was one who happily was able not only to become thoroughly at home in several branches of knowledge, but, also found time, in the course of an eventful life, filled with professional duties, to pursue a favourite science so assiduously as to further its progress in a marked degree.

Carl Alexander Anselm Baron von Hügel was born at Ratisbon on the 25th of April, 1795. Diplomacy belonged to the traditions of his family. His father, Johann Aloys Joseph, had transplanted the family to Austria. Born at Coblenz in the year 1754, Aloys von Hügel had attained to great authority under the last Prince Elector of Treves, Clemens Wenzeslaus of Saxony. Stormy times followed, in which the spiritual sovereignties along the Rhine went to pieces. Under the stress of the moment the Prince Elector, like many others, failed to give proofs of heroism: perhaps he had not the chance. When the storm was over Hügel went to Vienna, and found honourable service at the Diet of Ratisbon, as Assessor to the Chief Commissioner Prince Karl von Thurn und Taxis. The elder of his two sons, born at Coblenz in 1792, who bore