depends on the working of so many different factors, that even the boldest will scarcely venture to calculate the issue."

Those passages italicized above form a specimen of the kind of attacks, by no means honorably or reasonably made, upon Count Bismarck, and it is somewhat lamentable to read, in the pages of so important a Review, views quite incompatible with truth, and so calculated to sway the minds of many who have little leisure to analyze historical phenomena.

Time has triumphantly cleared up much that seemed vaguely ominous in Bismarck's policy, and the progress of events will doubtless throw clear light on that which still remains dark and unintelligible to those who care little for light.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

4 ST. MARTIN'S PLACE, TRAFAlgar Square,

6th December, 1869.

Book the First.

THE BISMARCKS OF OLDEN TIME.

CHAPTER I.

NAME AND ORIGIN.

Bismarck on the Biese.-The Bismarck Louse.-Derivation of the Name Bismarck.Wendic Origin Untenable.-The Bismarcks in Priegnitz and Ruppin.-Riedel's Erroneous Theory.-The Bismarcks of Stendal.-Members of City Guilds.-Claus von Bismarck of Stendal.-Rise of the Family into the Highest Rank in the Fourteenth Century.

IN the Alt Mark, belonging to the circle of Stendal, lies the small town of Bismarck on the Biese. It is an old and famous place, for south of the town stands an ancient tower, known as the Bismarck Louse. Tradition states that the tower received its name from a gigantic louse which inhabited it, and that the peasants

of the district had every day to provide huge quantities of meat for the monster's food. In this legend we can trace the popular spirit of the sober Alt Mark-it laughs at the pilgrimages which were made in the thirteenth century to Bismarck in honor of a holy cross, said to have fallen from heaven. These pilgrimages, at first greatly encouraged by the lords of the soil, as they found in them a rich source of income, soon came to a sanguinary end, from the severe strife occasioned by these very revenues.

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BISMARCK ON THE BIESE.

Bismarck does not, as some assert, derive its name from the Biese, because in the year 1203, when it is first mentioned in the records, it is called Biscopesmarck, or Bishopsmark, afterwards corrupted into Bismarck. It belonged to the Bishops of Havelberg, who erected a fort here as a defense of their Mark, on the frontiers of the Sprengels of Halberstadt. From the little town the noble family of Bismarck has its name.

It is a tradition of later times, by no means historically confirmed, that the Bismarcks were a noble family of Bohemia, settled by Charlemagne in the Alt Mark, and the founders of the town of Bismarck, which received its name from them. It is further erroneously asserted, that the Bismarcks, after the decease of the very powerful Count von Osterburg, had shared the county with the family of Alvensleben; and thus the town of Bismarck passed into the possession of the Alvenslebens.* This last is only stated to account for the circumstance of the holding of Bismarck in the fourteenth century as a fief by the Alvenslebens; it being forgotten that in those days the title went with the office, and that a county could not therefore be in the possession of two families.

As groundless is the tradition of the Wendic descent of the

*Alvensleben. This family was of noble origin in the Alt Mark, and has been partly elevated to the rank of Count. Its annals extend to 1163. The original seat of the family was Alvensleben on the Bever; the lines consisted of three-red, black, and white. Of these the red line died out in 1534 and 1553, at Erxleben and Kalvörden. The white line, divided into three, through Joachim Valentine, at Isernschnippe, Eirnersleben, and Erxleben-the first expired in 1680, the second in 1734the third, founded by Gebhard Christoph, still flourishes. The black line was always the most extensive. It divided into two branches, that of Ludolf and that of Joachim. Only a portion of this family exists at the present day. Of the branch of Ludolf, there existed Philip Karl (born 1745, 16th Dec.), who became a Prussian diplomatist and was a favorite of Friedrich II. and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He died a Count, 21st Oct., 1802, at Berlin, unmarried. Johann Aug. Ernst was born at Erxleben, 6th Aug., 1758; he was Minister for Brandenburg and Privy Councillor of Prussia; died 27th Sept., 1827, a Prussian Count. The black line died out with his son, the Prussian Minister Albrecht v. A. The white, or Gardelegen line, was elevated to the rank of Count in the persons of Fried. Will. Aug. (born 31st May, 1798; died 2d Dec., 1853), and Ferd. Friedr. Ludolf (born 23d Jan., 1803), at the ascension of Fried. Wilh. IV., 15th Oct., 1840. Albrecht, the representative of the black line, was distinguished for his devotion to his king, much as Bismarck has been. He died 2d May, 1858; his large property went to his sister and her children.K. R. H. M.