mnd.

-throw Bismarck's Policy.-Its Gradual Growth and Political Character.-Contrast with Lucchesini.-Bismarck's Open Honesty.-Vassal and Liege.-Liberalism a Danger.— Democracy a Danger.-The Relative Positions of Prussia and Austria in the Federation.-Gerlach's Ideal Conservatism.

ISMARCK has now to be politically tested, and amidst all the strange eventualities in the remarkable history of Prus sia, we perceive, first as a counsellor, then as an actor, and finally as a guide, that the one man emerges, a man ever the same, yet ever appearing to change. Otto von Bismarck is best to be compared to a tree, which continues the same, although gaining in height and strength by growth; whose lofty top, with its wide-spreading leaves, alters its appearance at each new spring, to a greater or lesser degree; it remains the same, even if the wind

bends the trunk, despite its toughest power of resistance, slightly

158

"I HAVE LEARNT SOMETHING!"

aside; an imperfect twig may be broken off by the storm, or a heavy rain-fall may bare one of the deep roots, and abandon the growing power a prize to the effects of the breeze and the sun.

The altered appearance which Bismarck at different times has presented, has blinded many eyes; many thought he had grown. into another man, as he presented himself ever stronger, mightier, and of greater stature! Of course, he has long since become too great, too strong, and too mighty for his opponents, and some have found, in a manner not so entirely agreeable, the influence of the wide-spreading tree with its potent shadow.

There have certainly been alterations in the man, but none of them inconsistent with the growth of the tree. The simile may not be accurate, but it indicates the truth. Bismarck has himself pointed out the changes which he has undergone very much bet ter by the modest sentence, "I have learnt something!" Perhaps he did not always learn the best, but he has learnt more than many who now turn maliciously from him, because they could not keep step with him; some others, also, because they would not.

We owe to Guizot the expression of the same thought, so moderately phrased by Bismarck, in the pointed French remark, "L'homme absurde seul ne change pas !" The word, however, is somewhat suspicious in the mouth of the French statesman, for its utterance is pro domo, as an excuse for various political apostasies.

Now, in Bismarck there is no trace of apostasy throughout his political life, and perhaps in no statesman can an enduring political principle be more easily discovered, and followed into detail -if we only adhere to facts, and do not allow ourselves to be diverted by absurd misinterpretations of his words, the diatribes of political opposition, or the hollow declamation of foolish party babblers.

This is the more easy, as Bismarck is precisely the opposite of one of his predecessors in the Foreign Office of Prussia. The cunning of the Marquis of Lucchesini,* a predecessor of Bis

Lucchesini, Girolamo, Marchese, was born at Lucca in 1752 of a patrician family, and presented by the Abbé Fontana to King Frederick II., by whom he was appointed librarian and reader with the title of Chamberlain. He was sent to Rome in 1787 to obtain certain ratifications from the Pope, and thence to Warsaw, where he succeeded in 1790 in bringing Poland and Prussia into a treaty of amity. He attended the congress of Reichenbach as Minister Plenipotentiary in 1791. In 1792 he went to War