A LEADER OF THE CONSERVATIVES.

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liamentary weapons; his opponents were far more experienced in eloquence than himself, and he stood, as it were, almost alone before a multitude; for those of his own opinions, with the exception of the two Manteuffels, perhaps, were still less experienced speakers than he; but the bravery with which he encountered the word "liberal" deserved all praise. The bold attitude with which he entered the arena revealed to his opponents that the unknown Dyke Captain from the banks of the Elbe was not a man to be undervalued by them; this they did not do; and the fierce irony with which they, with more or less talent, overwhelmed him, betrayed the fact that in this Junker the Crown had found a mighty defender.

When the second United Diet took place, the enemy of the kingdom was no longer liberalism, but democracy, and Bismarck met this foe with the most unhesitating conviction. But the nobleman who honors in the King of Prussia his liege lord, is by no means the Aga, or Pasha, of an Oriental Sultan, blindly obedient and adoring. The manly words of Bismarck were a rebuke, not only to the low, but the high.

In 1849-51 Bismarck occupied a position in the Diet, as one of the chief leaders of the Conservative party against democracy. He entered into the strife with ardor, both at Berlin and Erfurt; wherever he saw the sovereignty of Prussia assailed, he sprang to the breach with decision. He seemed to have a fine intuition for every thing hostile to his beloved sovereignty.

When Ambassador at Frankfurt to the Federation, he at once recognized the impending ruin of Prussia to consist in the false position she there occupied, and he arrived at the conviction that the jealousy of Austria would strive to retain Prussia in this position, and not only that, but would employ itself in active measures, by which it should end in the final destruction of Germany. He therefore resolved upon opposition to Austria. This was not a very easy task; the compact between Prussia and Austria had descended to him from his fathers as a sacred tradition. He would readily have held out his hand, he would have desired earnestly to remain true to tradition; nor did he remit in attempts and offers, until he knew that there was a change coming over the policy of Austria not tending to the good of Prussia and Germany. He then changed with military precision. The

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OPPOSITION TO PARLIAMENTARIANISM.

vassal approached with full front before the throne of his liege, even against Austria. He did not do it secretly, but openly and honestly; every one might be able to tell how it fared with him everywhere. He defined his position in writing from Frankfurt, from St. Petersburg, from Paris, both by his own hand and by that of others.

And when, in 1862, he entered upon the conflict inherited by him from the new era, the result of the thorny fight, at the head of the government, it was the mightiness of the kingdom, the position of his liege lord, for which he fought for years with body

and soul against the pretensions of the parliamentary spirit, with glorious devotion and tough Brandenburg tenacity.

The interior defense of the Prussian monarchy, in its inherent integrity, the rehabilitation of the liberty of Germany, so important for its own safety, and a dignified attitude towards foreign nations, constitute the unity of the policy of Bismarck.

envy

Liberalism, democracy, the inimical jealousy of Austria, the of foreign nations, with its train of parliamentary spirit and specialisms-such are the enemies of the Prussian sovereignty; and Bismarck has, with equal courage and firmness, with as

ENEMIES OF BISMARCK'S POLICY.

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much insight as success, fought openly and honestly against these. And if all outward symptoms do not deceive us, he is now powerfully preparing against another great foe of real sovereignty—that is, bureaucracy, still lying armed to the teeth behind the Table of Green Cloth as its stronghold.

In these different contests it is quite possible that Bismarck may often have erred; he may not immediately have found the right weapons, and he may also not have employed them in the proper localities. It is certain there is much to blame, much to deplore; but accept him in all that is great and real, then most persons will voluntarily bow before the man, who, for twenty years, has fought so great a battle, with visor down, without false deceit or any kind of malice. Nor has the man earned his hard victories without having had to pay for them.

Bismarck has not destroyed the enemies of the Prussian monarchy; this is in the power of no man-nor perhaps was it within the sphere of his intentions; but he has subdued them, and in greater or lesser proportion made them serviceable to the interests of the Crown.

One of the chief difficulties in his political action is, on the one hand to discipline these elements which so very unwillingly serve the Prussian monarchy, and on the other to spare the perfectly intelligible sensitiveness of ancient fidelity, and to conquer the readily understood want of confidence of his own old coadjutors in the gay ranks of his new allies. He is thus met with the idealistic conservatism of Gerlach, whose organ was the "Neue Preussische Zeitung" for so many years. Gerlach's principal service consisted in the actual formation of a political conservative party in Prussia-an idealism long revered by Bismarck; but certainly not to be contained within its own bounds. when opposed to those demands which are made on a guiding statesman by the hard necessities of daily life. The old conservative party of Prussia has made great sacrifices, and is making them daily; but she makes them to the glorious kingdom of Prussia, and it is a high honor to be the regnant party when a Bismarck is the King's first councillor. And, indeed, is it possible for the conservative party to be otherwise than the reigning party in Prussia?

The tried Prussian patriotism of the conservatives will not al

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"MIT GOTT FÜR KÖNIG UND VATERLAND!"

low itself to be disconnected by details from the great statesman who has emerged from their ranks; they know that Bismarck not only is frequently compelled to pour his new wine into old bottles, but also to pour his old wine into new bottles. The good is not always the enemy of the better, but sometimes the bridge to the best and highest. The lightning does not pursue the course where it finds the best conductor, but that in which the sum of conduction is the most powerful. Bismarck's real policy consists in forcing parties unwilling to do so, to work and strive for the monarchy. In royal Prussia no party can any longer exist with the object of weakening the royal power. There will always continue to be a number of those whose efforts are more or less openly directed to such an end; but no party dare, as such, to acknowledge such an aim.

If we, then, see the unity of Bismarck's policy to consist in the defense of the sovereignty, it might almost seem as if this policy were of a negative character; but this is only apparent, for such a defense leads to positive creations, although at first sight they may appear as mighty beginnings-such as the North German Confederation-and are not all so evident to the eye, as may be seen on the map of the kingdom of Prussia since 1866.

We shall now accompany Bismarck to the Assembly of the Three Estates of the first United Diet, then from battle-field to battle-field at Berlin, at Erfurt, and at Frankfurt, until those of Königgrätz and Nicolsburg, and still farther, for the great contest is not yet fought out-the last victory is not won. The statesman whom God will yet awaken to enter upon the inheritance of Bismarck, and continue his work, will find new and mighty armor, the creation of King William and Bismarck, in which to encounter the enemy with the ancient Prussian war-cry, "Mit Gott für König und Vaterland !"-" With God for King and Country !"

CHAPTER II.

THE ASSEMBLY OF THE THREE ESTATES.

[1847.]

The February Constitution.-Merseberg.-First Appearance of Bismarck in the White Saloon.-Von Saucken.-Bismarck's First Speech.-Conservatives and Liberals.—The First of June.-Jewish Emancipation.-Illusions Destroyed.

WHEN King Frederick William IV. issued the February manifesto, in 1847,* and summoned the United Diet with the Chambers, he thought in his royal great-heartedness to have accorded to his people a free gift of his affection and his confidence, and to have anticipated many wishes; but close behind the rejoicings which welcomed the patent of February, there lay the bitterest disenchantment for the noble King.

The honorable old royalists of Prussia, who had been educated and had grown up in the honest Prussian absolutism of Frederick William III., first looked with suspicion at this new royal gift; they could not at all understand why their own King of Prussia should have thought it necessary to summon a Parliament somewhat on the model of England, and they foresaw all sorts of evils in the future, as they thoughtfully shook their gray and honored heads. To these men, who at that time were still very numerous, and whose influence was considerable, succeeded those who certainly felt that the abuses of bureaucracy were no longer curable by patriarchal absolutism, but who still thought that the King, by this measure, had conceded the very utmost possible in that direction. They saw in the patent the last fortress of the monarchy which must be held against liberalism at any cost. In opposi

* This Constitution is given in the Appendix, being an important state document.— K. R. H. M.