The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎596r] (82/239)

HOW IT STRUCK A CONTEMPORARY.
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return from Baden-Baden, and they talked in the railway carriage
on the w T ay to Berlin. “ I can perfectly well see where all this
will end,” said the King ; “ over there in front of the Opera House,
under my windows they will cut off your head, and mine a little
while afterwards.” “ Et apres, Sire,” answered Bismarck.
“ Apres? indeed we shall be dead,” replied the King. ” Yes,”
continued Bismarck, 11 we shall be dead ; but we must all die sooner
or later, and can we perish more honourably? ” Bismarck goes
on to tell us how the King recovered himself as the talk proceeded,
and ” assumed the part of an officer fighting for kingdom and
fatherland,” an officer ” who has orders to hold a certain position
to the death, no matter whether he perishes in the task or not.”
And thus, when they arrived at Berlin he received the ministers
and officials who awaited him w r ith a “joyous and combative”
disposition. 1 In the correspondence we have the frankest avowal
of the aims of these autocratic personages. “ Therefore, my noble
bear-hunter,” writes von Boon, in January, 1869, “ be coolly calm
and keep the aim—preservation from democratic anarchy—in
view; away with fretful agitation!” 2 The Crown Prince
vehemently took the other view and got himself into a sad scrape
in consequence. “ I will tell you,” he writes to Bismarck on
June 30th, 1863, “ what results of your policy I foresee : You
will tamper with the constitution until it loses its value in the
people’s eyes, and in this way you will incite anarchist endeavours
which go beyond the constitution. You will also be driven,
whether you wish it or not, from one venturesome interpretation
to another, until finally the naked, undisguised breach of the
constitution is recommended.” 3 The Prince accurately reflected
the views of German Liberals and Democrats, who regarded the
military movement as hostile to German unity, and many of whom
actively opposed the invasion of the Duchies in the belief that
Bismarck’s intention was to expel Prince Frederick of Augusten-
burg, and to hand back Schleswig to Christian IX. of Denmark.
There could scarcely be a more instructive study of opinion
than is furnished by a comparison of Lord Salisbury’s Essays with
the Bismarck letters and reminiscences of this period. The first
give us the contemporary European view ; the second show the
real design and intention as it was actually carried out. To Lord
Salisbury German politics seemed hopelessly chaotic. “ It is, of
course, not possible,” he writes, in 1863, “ to forecast the political
form into which the seething mass of German populations will
ultimately crystallise. But one of two alternatives may safely be
(1) Bismarck Reflections and Reminiscences. Vol. I., 310-13.
(2) The Correspondence of William l. and Bismarck. Vol. II., 112.
(3) Ibid., 107.
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