ambassador.—interview with the king.—lieut.-general von rochow.—anecdotes.—frankfurt.—reception of the prince of prussia.—society at frankfurt.—the king’s birthday.—position of prussia.—correspondence.

t some resting-place on a journey into pomerania which bismarck undertook in the early spring of 1851, he heard from several persons of his appointment as ambassador to the diet in frankfurt-on-the maine, where the diet was just then re-assembling. that this was not true he knew, but that he was very likely intended for the post he considered far from impossible. he thought deeply over the matter; the reflection was a novel one, but by no means unwelcome; to him a parliamentary career had become the less pleasing the longer he had followed it—he was not vain enough for that: his manly self-confidence, however, was considerable, and perhaps he thought of his mother’s predictions. on his return to berlin, after minute[218] self-examination, he determined to accept the position of ambassador to the diet, should it be offered him.

we do not know whether the idea of intrusting bismarck with this office—unquestionably the most important which prussia at that time had to fill—first occurred to frederick william iv. himself, or whether it was the thought of the minister von manteuffel; at any rate it was founded on the assumption that bismarck would be a persona grata to austria, as it was then prussia’s problem to treat of german politics with the best understanding towards austria. it was the custom of frederick william iv., who more than proved how dear every thing that concerned germany was to his heart, to select his ambassador to the diet with the utmost care; and the delicate circumstances of the time rendered the necessity for caution all the greater. yet, it will be said, on this occasion his choice fell upon a man who[219] had hitherto never served in diplomatic matters. we certainly know from the mouth of a minister of state, on very confidential terms with the king, that the latter “was much attached to bismarck, and expected great things at his hands.”

bismarck paid a visit to herr von manteuffel; the latter soon told him that his majesty the king desired to speak with him, and then, without any circumlocution, asked him in what his views concerning the ambassadorship consisted. the cautious minister was not a little surprised when bismarck, in so many words, declared himself prepared to undertake it. he was evidently not without hesitation at so rapid a decision; desiring him, however, to wait upon his majesty the king without delay.

bismarck was received by his king, at sans-souci, with that favor and grace which he ever evinced towards him; but the king was even perhaps more astonished than his prime minister, when bismarck frankly and honestly declared—“if your majesty is desirous of trying the experiment, i am ready to fulfill your wishes!”

frederick william iv. perhaps thought there was a certain degree of temerity in the rapid decision of bismarck, and drew his attention to the significance and difficulty of the position.

“your majesty can surely try me,” replied bismarck; “if it prove a failure, i can be recalled in six months, or even sooner than that!”

despite all the doubts and hesitation which arose in his mind, the king remained firm to his intention, and in may, 1851, bismarck was appointed to the post of first secretary of the embassy to the diet, with the title of privy councillor.

he immediately departed for his post. he here found himself on new, and, to him, entirely strange ground, and his duty was certainly not rendered easy for him. lieut.-general theodor rochus von rochow, who was to introduce him to his new position, kept him at a distance from actual business, with the well-known and intelligible jealousy which most men entertain towards their successors in office. herr von gruner was a liberal and an opponent of bismarck’s, but the other german representatives felt a sort of virtuous shudder at the famous reactionary junker. perhaps the presiding deputy, count von thun-hohenstein, who thought to see in bismarck the thorough partisan[220] of austria, was the only person who bid him welcome, at the same time with the intention of causing him to see what marked influence austria possessed. this was a rather strong diplomatic blunder, for bismarck knew precisely how to take and retain his proper position.

a pretty anecdote was related at the time, for which certainly we can not absolutely vouch, but if not true, it might have been. bismarck one day paid the presiding deputy a visit. count thun received him with a sort of brusque familiarity, went on coolly smoking his cigar, and did not even ask bismarck to take a chair. the latter simply took out his cigar-case, pulled out a cigar, and said, in an easy tone, “may i beg a light, excellency?” excellency, astonished to the greatest degree, supplied the desired light. bismarck got a good blaze up and then took the unoffered seat in the coolest way in the world, and led the way to a conversation.

bismarck never allowed any liberties with himself, but still less would he tolerate them when they were offered to him as the representative of his sovereign.

in the august of the same year he received the rank of ambassador. the councillors at the embassy consisted of the legations—rath otto wentzel, and as attachés, the count lynar, and count theodor of stolberg-wernigerode.

general von rochow continued his jealous behavior to the end. on the day of his departure he pretended to send bismarck the current papers in a green portfolio; but bismarck found it empty. bismarck immediately went to the station, which rochow had not expected, and was accordingly much embarrassed. in the choicest expressions, bismarck thanked him for all the delicate kindnesses he had experienced from him, and added, that he presumed to ascribe it to the friendship that rochow had entertained for his deceased father. these few moments could scarcely have been very pleasant to the poor general.

during this first visit to frankfurt, bismarck resided with his friend count lynar (who subsequently died at paris), in the house of m. krug, a merchant, in the hoch-strasse, whose wife was a native of berlin. he was unable to work much at the bills of the bund, and general von rochow, famous for his wit, jested not a little at bismarck’s late habits of rising, although he[221] was far more industrious than was generally apparent, being engaged in an active correspondence with his political friends in berlin, especially with the actual privy councillor, freiherr von manteuffel ii. before dinner he usually rode out, and, in order to feel his ground, visited the neighboring courts of darmstadt, biebrich, and karlsruhe, where his old friend von savigny was then prussian envoy. an acute, sometimes a severe, judge of character, as well as an observer of passing events; bismarck had, at the desire, or, at any rate, with the consent of rochow, undertaken an immediate part in the press. the articles contributed or suggested by him created much attention; they possessed wit and point, often destroying the arguments of his opponents; this became his peculiar province. at other times, as a new man in diplomacy, he assisted at the discussions in the society[222] of herr von rochow, in order to become familiar with the course of business and the exterior formalities of diplomacy.

on the 11th of july, 1851, the then prince of prussia (now king) visited frankfurt, and was received by the body corporate of the bund, and the general staff. the prince was graciously inclined towards bismarck, but made some observations during his passage to the terminus to herr von rochow, on the anomaly of this militia-lieutenant—for bismarck had appeared in uniform, being a deputy of the bund. general von rochow, however, who was wise enough not to undervalue bismarck’s importance, although he did not always testify the liveliest friendship towards him, replied, “the selection is worthy, novel, and vigorous; your royal highness will certainly find all your requirements fulfilled.”

the prince could reply nothing to this, and, in fact, he certainly entertained the most favorable opinion of this still somewhat youthful champion of the justice and the honor of prussia.

“i believe,” general von rochow said at the time, “he only[223] wished him to have possessed gray hair and a few additional years; but it is questionable whether the plans of the prince would be much nearer their fulfillment for those.”

this is all very characteristic, considering the relation destined at a future time to subsist between king william and bismarck. personal good-will in the highest degree he entertained for him, but want of confidence in his youth and inexperience.

the prince of prussia frequently alluded to this view, but rochow found means of quieting his fears. otherwise he was fond of having bismarck about him, conversed with him freely, drove about, and soon went to the theatre with him. the prince exhibited real friendship for bismarck, and, on the occasion of the birth of a son, in the following year (2d august, 1852), became its sponsor. bismarck’s younger son is named william after his royal godfather, although his usual name has continued to be “bill.” general von rochow also, on his return to his post at st. petersburg, freely stated his anticipation of great things from the talents and decision of character of his successor at frankfurt.

when bismarck became envoy to the bund, on the 18th august, 1851, he rented a villa of the younger rothschild of naples, distant some quarter of an hour from the city gate on the bockenheimer chaussée, close to the frontier of hesse; the same dwelling previously inhabited by the archduke john in his official capacity as imperial curator. in the garden, as upon the flight of steps, the most magnificent flowers were arranged; it is said there were more than one thousand camellias. bismarck’s house, after the arrival of madame von bismarck with her children, became the most prominently hospitable house in frankfurt.

he soon became intimate with the austrian ambassador. count thun was a noble cavalier, and his very handsome wife, born a countess lamberg, knew how to invest his house with great attractions. bismarck also managed to keep on terms with count thun’s successor, the well-known freiherr prokesch von osten, whose hatred of prussia was so little a secret that his nomination to the office was regarded as a demonstration against prussia; and this bismarck did without in the least lowering the dignity of prussia—a problem somewhat difficult, considering the[224] reputation of this entirely eastern diplomatist. of a much more friendly character were his relations to count rechberg, who replaced prokesch.

the other representatives with whom bismarck came into more intimate contact were, von scherff, who represented the king of the netherlands as grand-duke of luxemburg, von fritsch (grand-duke of saxony), von bülow (king of denmark as duke of holstein and lauenburg), von oertzen (mecklenburg), and von eisendecher (oldenburg). bismarck farmed some sporting in conjunction with the english ambassador, sir alexander malet.

besides enjoying the society of the diplomatists, bismarck liked to mingle with the prussian and foreign higher military officers; to his dinners, soirées, and balls, he also invited musicians, authors, and artists—a fact not of very frequent occurrence among the chief diplomatists in frankfurt, and one which created some notice. his intercourse with these circles was principally conducted by the highly esteemed artist professor becker, who, with his wife and handsome daughters, belonged to the[225] most intimate society of his house. the excellent portrait of bismarck which hangs in the room of the countess at berlin, is by professor becker.

still more remarkable than this intercourse with painters and sculptors were certain domestic festivals, of which the people of frankfurt had never even dreamt before, and in which he was imitated by no one. he used to give a feast to the domestics of his pomeranian and alt mark property on twelfth night, in the old pomeranian style—about which there was much curiosity.

the most brilliant festival of the year was that of the 15th october, on the birthday of the king. in the morning there was solemn service in the large reformed church in the corn-market, at which bismarck attended with the whole suite of the embassy in full gala dress. then followed a magnificent dinner, and in the evening he was accustomed to visit the prussian soldiers, who lay in garrison in frankfurt, amidst their festivities.

bismarck will never be forgotten by the prussian soldiers who were in frankfurt during his days; they all knew him, for at every solemnity he appeared in his uniform as landwehr lieutenant, with the “safety” medal, to witness the parades and exercises.

the soldiers always called him “his excellency herr lieutenant von bismarck;” they loved him sincerely, because they felt that he loved every prussian soldier.

the “safety” medal was no longer solitary upon his breast; the time had arrived when stars and grand crosses were sent to him from every side.

prussian travellers on their journey were hospitably received at his house, and many of those who were returning from the[226] rhenish baths, he not only invited to dinner, but, in the discreetest manner, aided with loans, often of the greatest necessity to them. in short, bismarck not only represented his sovereign in the most brilliant but the wisest manner.

when with considerable rapidity he had familiarized himself with the duties of his office, he began to work with assiduity and continuity. after tea, at ten o’clock, he often dictated for three or four hours, and so well, that there was seldom any necessity for altering a word, so that dispatches could be forwarded to berlin by half-past six.

after business and receptions, which latter often rendered quiet necessary, his recreations consisted of hunting and riding. he often had his horse saddled at four in the morning, and rode for miles into the country.

the more brilliant the social position of bismarck had become, the more difficult and thorny the political position remained. he was conscious—we may say, to his great sorrow—from the very beginning, that the equal rights of prussia which he had always assumed, in speaking of going hand-in-hand with austria, as to german affairs, were not recognized by austria, but, on the contrary, she endeavored, with suspicious and inimical feelings, to increase the difficulties which prussia had to fight against with all her might. bismarck, by his personal influence, had now obtained a few advantages, and worked decisively through the press, on which he not only fixed his attention, but to which he devoted his personal activity. in the matters of the zollverein, he had a severe and especial battle to fight, against the machinations of austrian politics. the hanover zeitung published angry articles against the ratification of the treaty of 7th september, 1851, just concluded with prussia. it was the personal influence of bismarck alone upon the hanoverian ambassador, von schele, that caused the opposition against the ratification of this treaty to be abandoned.

in the diet itself, bismarck was successful in establishing such an order of business, to some extent limiting the arbitrary action of the president, and finally led to some method in the debates of the diet. it might even be said that he soon attained a leading power in the diet, and thereby worked blessings for prussia; but even all this could not alter the unfortunate position of[227] prussian germany, founded as it was upon the principles of the diet and the zollverein. had austria given its good-will, all this might have been effected, but in the teeth of its ill-will, the whole negotiations could only terminate in ruin or in a rupture.

the position of prussia consisted in the fact, that the constitution of the diet had only become possible through the policy of prince metternich. this policy, which advocated a probable segregation of austria from germany, and at least left prussia free room to act in north germany, ever moved in the most limited grooves. as prince schwarzenberg adopted a policy diametrically opposed to this, which consciously and deliberately determined upon the humiliation of prussia, in order afterwards to destroy it, and violated every form with the uttermost carelessness, the conflict could only be a matter of time.

bismarck was therefore necessarily made an antagonist of austria by the schwarzenberg policy, continued by count buol schauenstein; and opposition against the anti-prussian policy of the vienna cabinet became the watchword for his political activity. this was soon very apparent, nor did he conceal it the less, as his vigorous patriotism impelled him to bring his opposition actually to bear; his frankness also rendered any equivocation impossible. in such a course he could hardly depend upon any co-operation from the king and the prime minister, von manteuffel, who both hoped, discouraged by the failure of the union negotiations, that austria might still revert to the earlier pro-prussian policy of prince metternich. bismarck himself, although he could scarcely hope this, ardently desired it. a position worthy of the prussian kingdom in germany was that for which he had to strive—a position it ought to occupy, if it were to worthily maintain its place in europe; and desired to secure to the german people those advantages, to be resigned by no people unless at the peril of political death. bismarck was determined to devote his life to aiding the prussian crown in the attainment of this position. he would rather have gone hand-in-hand with austria; if this were an impossibility, then without austria; but should it prove necessary, then antagonism to austria. it must not be overlooked how, in the sequel, bismarck in every political struggle attempted to accomplish it in union with austria, in which he was sometimes successful, and how, when it[228] was impossible, he continued the effort without austria, and finally in opposition to austria. it were superfluous here to pursue bismarck’s political career in the details of his german policy.

the following correspondence (rearranged by the translator in their proper chronological order) passed during these years.

frankfurt, 18th may, ’51.

frankfurt is wretchedly wearisome; i am so spoilt with having so much affection about me, and a great deal to do; and i now first perceive how unthankful i have been towards many people in berlin—for i will not take you and yours into the question. even the coolness of fellow-countrymen and party associates i had in berlin is an intimate connection compared with the relations one makes here; being, in fact, nothing more than mutual suspicious espionage. if one had any thing indeed to detect or to conceal! the people here worry themselves about the merest trifles; and these diplomatists, with their important nothings, already appear more ridiculous to me than a deputy of the second chamber in his full-blown dignity. unless outward events take place—and those we clever members of the diet can neither guide nor predetermine—i now know accurately what we shall have done in one, two, or five years, and could bring it about in twenty-four hours, if the others would for a single day be reasonable and truthful. i never doubted that they all made soup with water; but such a simple, thin water-gruel, in which you can’t see a globule of fat, astonishes me! send me justice x. or herr von sarsky hither from the toll-gate, when they are washed and combed, and i will lord it in diplomacy with them. i am making enormous progress in the art of saying nothing in a great many words. i write reports of many sheets, which read as tersely and roundly as leading articles; and if manteuffel can say what there is in them, after he has read them, he can do more than i can.

each of us pretends to believe of his neighbor that he is full of thoughts and plans, if he would only tell; and at the same time we none of us know an atom more of what is going to happen to germany than of next year’s snow. nobody, not even the most malicious skeptic of a democrat, believes what quackery[229] and self-importance there is in this diplomatizing. well, i have railed long enough, and now i will tell you that i am very well. yesterday i was in mainz: the neighborhood is lovely. the rye is in full ear, although it is infamously cold all night and in the mornings. excursions by railroad are the best here. one can reach heidelberg, baden-baden, odenwald, homburg, soden, wiesbaden, bingen, rüdesheim, and niederwald comfortably in one day, stop five or six hours, and return here in the evening. until now i have not gone much about, but shall do so, that i may take you about when you come. rochow started yesterday for warsaw—he went off at nine o’clock in the evening; the day after to-morrow he will be there, and probably back in a week. as to politics and people, i can not write much, as most of the letters are opened here. when they know your address on mine, and your handwriting on your letters, they will very likely find out they have no time to read family letters.

frankfurt, 3d july, 1851.

the day before yesterday i thankfully received your letter and the news that you were all well. but do not forget, when you write to me, that the letters are not only read by myself, but by all sorts of postal spies; and do not inveigh against certain persons in them, for that is all set down to the husband—to my account; besides, you do the people injustice. as to my appointment or non-appointment, i know no more than was told me at my departure: all other things are possibilities and conjectures. what is irregular in the matter is the silence of the government towards me, as it would be as well to let me know for certain, and indeed officially, whether i am to live here or in pomerania with wife and child next month. be prudent in all you say to people, then, without exception—not only against ——, particularly in opinions of persons, for you can not conceive what one has to endure if one once becomes an object of observation; be assured that whatever you say in the —— or the bathing-machine is served up with sauce either here or at sans-souci. forgive me for scolding you so, but after your last letter i must take up the diplomatic hedge-knife. if —— and others could sow distrust in our diplomatic camp, they would thereby attain one of the chief ends of their letter robberies. i went the day before yesterday to[230] wiesbaden to ——, and, with a mixture of sadness and wisdom, we went to see the scene of former folly. would it might please god to fill this vessel with his clear and strong wine, in which formerly the champagne of twenty-one years of youth foamed uselessly, and left nothing but loathing behind. where now are —— and miss ——? how many are buried with whom i then flirted, drank, and diced? how many transformations have taken place in my views of the world in these fourteen years, among which i have ever looked upon the actually present as the true? how little are some things to me that then appeared great? how much is venerable to me now, that i then ridiculed? how much foliage may bud, grow green, give shadow, rustle, and worthlessly fade within the next fourteen years, till 1865, if we live to see it? i can not understand how a man who considers his own nature, and yet knows nothing of god, and will know nothing, can endure his existence from contempt and wearisomeness. i know not how i could formerly support it; were i to live as then, without god, without you, without my children! i should not, indeed, know whether i had not better abandon life like a dirty shirt; and yet most of my acquaintances are in that state, and live on! if i ask of an individual, what object he has in living on, in laboring and growing angry, in intriguing and spying, i obtain no answer. do not conclude from this tirade that my mood is dark; on the contrary, i feel like a person who looks, on a fine september morning, on the yellowing foliage; i am healthy and cheerful, but i feel some melancholy, some longing for home, a desire for forests, ocean, wilderness, for you and my children, mingled with the impressions of sunset and of beethoven. instead of which i have to pay dreary visits to —— and read endless ciphers about german steam corvettes and cannon-balls, rusting and eating up money in bremerhaven. i should like to have a horse, but i could not ride alone—it is too wearisome; and the society with whom one rides is also wearisome. and now i must go to rochow, and to all sorts of-ins and-offs, who are here with the archduchess olga.

frankfurt, 8th july, 1851.

yesterday and to-day i have been anxious to write to you, but in the whirl of business could not get so far until the evening[231] late, on my return from a walk during which i blew away the dust of business with the summer night’s breeze, moonlight, and the rustle of poplar foliage. on saturday afternoon i went with rochow and lynar to rüdesheim. i there took a boat, went out on the rhine, and swam in the moonlight, eyes and nose only above the tepid water, to the rat tower, near bingen, where the bad bishop met his end. there is something strangely dreamy to lie in the water on a still night, slowly driven by the stream, seeing the heavens, with moon and stars, above, and on either hand the wood-capped mountains and city spires in the moonlight, without hearing any thing but one’s own gentle splashing. i should like to swim like that every night. i then drank some very decent wine, and sat for a long time smoking with lynar on the balcony, the rhine below us. my small testament and the starry night led to some conversation on christianity; and i shook earnestly at the rousseau-like virtue of his soul, only reducing him to silence. as a child he has been ill-treated by nurses and tutors, without really knowing his parents, and has emerged from his youth with similar ideas, founded on a similar education, to my own, but bears them with more content than ever has been my case. next day we went in the steamer to coblenz, breakfasted there for an hour, and returned in the same way to frankfurt, where we arrived in the evening. i undertook the journey with the object of visiting old metternich, at johannisberg, at his invitation; but the rhine delighted me so much, that i preferred a trip to coblenz, and postponed the visit. we saw the river, on our immediate journey to the alps, in the finest weather; on this fresh summer morning, and after the dusty weariness in frankfurt, it rises much in my esteem. i look forward with real delight to spending a couple of days with you, at rüdesheim; the place is so calm and rural, the people pleasant, and nothing dear. we would then take a small rowing-boat, and go quietly down, climb the niederwald, and this and the other castle, and return by the steamer. one can leave here in the morning early, stay eight hours at rüdesheim, bingen, rheinstein, and so forth, and return hither by the evening. my appointment here seems now to be certain.

i worked very hard to-day and yesterday about the king’s journey, and a multitude of petty details concerning the minor courts, and i am now in hourly expectation of a tiresome ambassadorial visit; so that this letter must be very short, and yet serve as a love-token. who has started this nonsense about st. petersburg? i heard the very first of it from your letters. will you not go to nicolai? i should not think one winter there at all disagreeable; but i am tired of these separations, and the climate might not suit you and the babies. i yesterday took a long and solitary walk into the mountains, deep into the wonderful night. i had been at work from eight o’clock till five, then dined, and luxuriated in the fresh evening mountain air of the taunus, after leaving this dusty hole, by half an hour’s railway to soden, some two miles behind me. the king passes through here on the 19th, and returns, by way of ischl and prague, to berlin about the 7th of september. i shall meet him at coblenz, as i have much to say to ——. if he brings my appointment, as i expect, i shall immediately hire quarters, and then we can talk of your coming.

frankfurt, 23d august, 1851.

in the midst of my business post time has arrived, and i will rather write you a hasty note than not at all. since monday i have been still going on. first, there was a great state dinner here to the emperor of austria—twenty-thousand thalers’ worth of uniforms at table; then i went to mainz to receive the king; he was very gracious to me, for the first time after a long interval harmless and merry. next came a grand supper, then work with manteuffel till two; then a cigar with dear old stolberg; at half-past six parade, and a great theatrical representation. i went on as far as darmstadt; there we dined. the king then went to baden, and after three weary hours i reached this place in the evening with ——. on wednesday i was summoned from my bed to the duke of nassau at bieberich, and there dined. late in the evening i returned, to be waked very early next morning by the president g. and i., who took possession of me and led me off to heidelberg, where i remained the night, and enjoyed some delightful hours with them at castle wolfsbrunn[233] and neckarsteinach and last night returned from this excess. g. was pleasanter than ever, did not dispute, grew enthusiastic, poetical, and generous. at the castle we saw a sunset the day before yesterday like that one at rigi. we breakfasted up there, walked to wolfsbrunn, where i drank some beer at the same table i did with you; then boated up the neckar to steinach, and parted in the evening at heidelberg. g. goes to-day to coblenz, i. to italy.

bismarck was so often summoned to berlin during his residence at frankfurt, that it would be wearisome to relate all these journeys here. in one year, we do not exactly remember which, he travelled between berlin and frankfurt no less than 2600 miles. his counsel was often required by the highest authority, and very often bismarck was very nearly becoming a minister, even then; nor was it the powerful influence of both sides which conclusively prevented his entry into the ministry, but his own aversion to become a minister so soon. he declared to an acquaintance in those days that he would prefer to be first an ambassador for ten years, and then a minister for ten years more, that he might close his days as a country nobleman thereafter in peace. king frederick william iv., who regarded it as necessary for bismarck’s political education that he should go to vienna, intrusted him in the may of 1852 with an important mission thither; but above this was his desire to restore a complete understanding between austria and prussia. we already know that in this bismarck was likely to become wrecked upon the schwarzenberg policy. in a personal sense, however, on following the imperial court into hungary, bismarck received very pleasing impressions, as to which he speaks in the following letters to his wife:—

halle, 7th january, 1852.

i have never, as well as i can recollect, ever written to you from hence, and i hope that it will not happen again. i have really been thinking whether, after all, yesterday was not friday, on which i set out; it was certainly a dies nefastus (n. n. will tell you what this means). in giessen i got a room as cold as ice, with three windows that wouldn’t shut; a bed too short and too[234] narrow; it was dirty, with bugs; infamous coffee—never knew it so bad. at guntershausen ladies came into the first class; there was an end of smoking. a high lady of commerce (n. n. will tell you what that is), with two lady’s maids; sable furs; they spoke alternately with a russian and english accent in german, french very well, a little english, but in my opinion they came from the reezen alley in berlin, and one of the lady’s maids was her mother, or elder lady of commerce (n. n., etc.). between guntershausen and gerstungen a tube in the engine burst, so gently! the water all ran away; so there we sat for an hour and a half in the open—very pretty neighborhood, and a warm sunlight. i got into the second class to smoke, and fell into the hands of a berlinese chamber and privy council colleague, who had been drinking homburg waters for a fortnight, and asked me a lot of questions before a number of jews coming from the fair, until, in despair, i took refuge with the princess from the reezen alley. by this stoppage we reached halle three hours too late; the berlin train was gone a long time. here i must sleep, and travel with the luggage-train at half-past one to arrive at two. in the station-yard there are two hotels; by accident i’m in the wrong one; a gend’arme walked up and down the saloon, and seemed very thoughtful about my beard, while i ate a tough beefsteak. i am very unhappy, but will finish my bit of goose, drink some port wine, and then to bed.

berlin, 1st may, 1852.

i have just returned from an infinitely tedious dinner at le coq’s, where i sat between l. g. and the younger m.—two persons widely different in nature. i tried in vain to settle some dispute about what is now agitating the king and the chamber. the one was dry, wise, and practical; the other delightful, enthusiastic, and theoretical; he might really have forgotten the world and its government, in his own views about them, but the air of the chambers has stimulated this impractical direction in him, and in this gymnastic exercise of soul and tongue he forgets, or holds cheap, what is necessary to be done. there is really something quite demoralizing in the atmosphere of the chambers—the best people grow vain without perceiving it, and get[235] accustomed to the tribune as to a toilet-table, by means of which they exhibit themselves to the public. forgive this political avalanche.

berlin, 3d may, 1852.

i am really tired of being here, and long for the day of departure. chamber intrigues i find terribly shallow and undignified; if one lives always amongst them, one deceives one’s self, and they seem wonders. when i come straightforwardly from frankfurt i feel like a sober man who has suddenly fallen amongst tipplers, i wish they would send me to constantinople; it would not be necessary to be returning here every minute.

vienna, 11th june, 1852.

“’s g’f?llt mer hier gar net” (i don’t like this place at all) as schrenck says, although it was so pleasant with you, anno ’47; but i not only miss you, but i find myself not wanted, and that is worse than i can make plain to your unpolitical mind. if i were here, as i was there, for amusement, i could not grumble: all those whom i have become acquainted with are remarkably charming people, and the town is rather hot with narrow streets, but still a splendid town. in business, however, there prevails great nonchalance; either the people don’t want to arrange with us, or they think we look upon it as more important than appears to them. i fear that the opportunity of coming to an understanding is gone, which will prove a bad result for us; for it was thought that a very great step towards reconciliation was taken in sending me, and they will not soon send another here so desirous of coming to an understanding, and who at the time can deal so freely. forgive me for writing polities to you, but when the heart is full, etc. i am really drying up in this mishmash, and i am afraid i shall begin to take an interest in it. i have just come from the opera with old westmoreland; don giovanni, played by a good italian opera troop, in hearing which i felt the wretchedness of the frankfurt theatre doubly. yesterday i went to sch?nbrunn, and thought of our romantic moonlight expedition, as i looked at the tall hedges and the white statues in the green thickets, peeped also at the private garden which we first[236] got into—quite forbidden ground—so, that the j?ger sentinel, who was at his post, would not allow its even being looked into.

ofen, 23d june, ’52.

i have just come from the steamboat, and do not know how to employ the interval until hildebrand follows with my luggage, better than in giving you some account of this very eastward but very beautiful world. the emperor graciously assigned me quarters in his palace, and i am seated at an open window in a spacious vaulted hall, listening to the evening bells of pesth. the view is charming. the castle stands high; beneath me flows the danube, spanned by the suspension bridge; beyond is pesth, and in the far distance is an endless plain melting away into the purple twilight. next to pesth, on the left, i see the upper course of the danube; far, very far off from me, viz., on the right bank, the river is fringed by the town of ofen; behind this are mountains, blue and bluer, and then tinged with brownish-red in the evening, heaven glowing behind them. in the midst of the two cities the broad sheet of water lies, like linz, broken only by the suspension bridge and a woody island. the passage hither, at least from gran to pesth, would have delighted you. think of the odenwald and the taunus brought close together, and the interval filled with the waters of the danube. the shady side of the voyage was the sunny side, for the sun burnt us as if tokay were to grow on the ship, and the number of travellers was very great; but only fancy, not a single englishman amongst them—they can hardly have discovered hungary as yet. otherwise these were queer folks—from every oriental and occidental nation—greasy and washed. my chief travelling companion was a very delightful general, with whom i sat for the most part on the paddle-box and smoked. i am getting somewhat impatient as to where hildebrand can be; i am lying in the window, half enthusiastic at the moonlight, half waiting for him, as for one’s beloved—for i feel a marvellous disposition for a clean shirt. if you could be here for a moment, and could see the silvery stream of the danube, the dark mountains on a pale red ground, and the lights twinkling up from pesth, vienna would sink in your estimation as compared with buda-pesth, as the hungarian calls it; you see i am also an enthusiast[237] for nature. i will now calm my excited blood with a cup of tea, as hildebrand has really arrived, and then soon go to bed.

last night i only had four hours’ sleep, and the court is very early here. the young duke rises at five; i should then be a very bad courtier if i thought of sleeping longer. therefore, with a glance at a gigantic tea-urn, and a seductive dish containing ices, amongst other things, as i see, i waft you a good-night from afar. what can that song be which has haunted me all day long?

“over the blue mountain, over the white sea foam,

come, thou beloved one, come to thy lonely home!”

i can not tell who it was who sang this to me in “old lang syne.”

the 24th june.—after a good night’s rest although upon a flinty bed, i wish you a good morning. the entire landscape before me swims in bright burning sunshine, so that i can not look out without being dazzled. until it is time to begin my visits, i am sitting here alone at breakfast and smoking in a very spacious apartment, four rooms—all vaulted massively—two about the size of our dining-room, thick walls like sch?nhausen, giant walnut-wood cabinets, furniture of blue silk, on the floor a number of yard-wide black stains, that a more excited imagination than mine would take for blood, but which i, décidément, declare to be ink. an incredibly unskillful writer must have lived here, or another luther must several times have thrown very large inkstands at the adversary. a very obliging old servant in a bright yellow livery shares the duties of the household with hildebrand; indeed they are all very obliging. in honor of the king’s representative, the steamer yesterday hoisted the great prussian standard, and, thanks to the telegraph, a royal carriage was in waiting at the landing-place. don’t tell n. n., or he will write articles about it. below, on long rafts, are floating the queerest brown broad-hatted and broad-breeched figures along the danube. i am sorry that i am not an artist; i should like to have introduced you to these wild faces, with heavy mustaches and long hair, flashing black eyes, and their picturesque draperies, as i beheld them yesterday. i must now make an end and begin my visits. i do not know when you will receive[238] these lines; perhaps i shall send a courier to-morrow or next day to berlin, who can take them with him.

evening.—i have not had any opportunity as yet of forwarding this. the lights again are twinkling up from pesth; towards the horizon, near the theiss, there is lightning; above us the heavens are full of stars. i have been in uniform the greater part of the day, in private audience; i handed my credentials to the youthful ruler of this land, and have been agreeably impressed. after dinner the whole court made an excursion into the mountains, to the “pretty shepherdess;” who is long since dead; some centuries ago king matthew corvinus loved her. thence there is a prospect of ofen, its mountains and plains, over woody neckar-like rocks. a national feast had brought thousands forth, thronging around the emperor, who mingled freely with them; with resounding eljen evviva they danced csardas, waltzed, sang, played music, climbed the trees, and crowded round the court. upon a grass slope there was a supper-table laid out for some twenty people—only on one side, the other being left free for a view of the forest, castle, city, and country; above us were tall beeches with climbing hungarians on the branches; behind us dense crowds of people thronged together and pushing each other about; in the distance wind instruments mingled with song, wild gypsy music. illuminations, moonshine, and the rosy twilight, torches flitting through the forest—the whole might have figured unchanged as a great scene of effect in a romantic opera. next to me sat the venerable archbishop of gran, the primate of hungary, in a black silk talar with a red cape; on the other a very charming and elegant cavalry general. you see that the picture was a variegated one, rich in contrasts. then we drove home in the moonshine by torchlight. tell frau von v. that her brother was a most delightful man, as i could not but expect from her two sisters whom i already knew. i had just received a telegraphic dispatch from berlin; it contained only four letters—nein (no!). a word full of significance. i was told to-day of the storm of the castle three years ago by the insurgents; at this the brave general hentzi and the whole garrison, after a wonderfully courageous resistance, were cut down. the black stains upon my floor are partly the result of fire, and where i am writing bursting grenades were then[239] dancing, and the fight went on over smoking ruins. it has only been restored a few weeks ago, before the arrival of the emperor. it is very quiet and peaceful up here now. i hear nothing but the ticking of a clock, and the sound of distant carriage-wheels below. may angels watch over thee—a bearskin-capped grenadier does so with me—i can see six inches of his bayonet at a couple of arms’ length from me above the window-sill, and the reflection of a foot. he stands on the terrace by the danube, and is probably thinking of his nanny.

in your atlases you will find a map of hungary, and on this a river theiss, and, if you follow up the source towards szegedin, a place named szolnok. yesterday i went by railway from pesth to alberti-josa, where a prince w. lies in garrison. he is married to a princess m. i paid him a visit in order to inform —— of the state of his health. this place lies on the edge of the hungarian steppes between the danube and the theiss, which i desired to see by way of a joke. i was not allowed to ride without an escort, as the district is overrun by cavalry robber bands, here called betyars, and is therefore unsafe. after a comfortable breakfast under the shade of a sch?nhausen lime, i got upon a low wagon with sacks of straw and three horses; the uhlans loaded their carbines, mounted, and away they went at full gallop. hildebrand and a hungarian servant occupied the front seat, and our coachman was a dark brown peasant, with a mustache, a broad-brimmed hat, long hair shining with fat, a shirt only reaching to the stomach, leaving a broad band of dark brown skin visible, to where the white trowsers begin, each leg of which would make a woman’s gown, and reach to the knee, where boots and spurs complete the costume. only think of firm grass plat, as level as a table, on which nothing can be seen for miles towards the horizon, except the tall naked beams of the wells dug for the half-wild horses and oxen; thousands of whity-brown oxen, with long horns, as timorous as deer; rough, disreputable-looking horses, watched by half-naked shepherds on horseback, with lances; endless herds of swine, among which you see a donkey carrying the fur-cloak (bunda) of the herdsman, and sometimes himself; huge swarms of bustards, hares, rabbits, and other small deer; near a[242] salt-water pool, wild geese, ducks, and lapwings; such were the objects we flew by, and which flew by us during our three hours’ journey of seven miles to ketskemet, with a slight halt at a csarda (inn). ketskemet is a village, the streets of which, if the inhabitants are left out, reminds one of the small end of sch?nhausen. it has, however, forty-five thousand inhabitants, unpaved streets, low houses, closed on the eastern side against the sun, with huge cattle-yards. a foreign ambassador was such an unusual sight there—and my magyar servant rattled out the “excellency” to such a degree—that i immediately obtained a guard of honor, the village authorities announced themselves, and a change of horses was required. i spent the evening with a delightful set of officers, who insisted upon my taking an additional escort, and entertained me with a number of robber stories. in the very neighborhood into which i was going the worst robber-nests exist; on the theiss, the morasses and wilds render their destruction almost impossible. they are splendidly horsed and armed, these betyars; they attack travellers and farms in bands of fifteen or twenty strong, and next day are twenty miles away. they are polite to respectable people. i had left the greater part of my ready money with prince w., and only had some linen with me, and really felt a desire to make the nearer acquaintance of these mounted brigands, in their great fur dresses, with double-barrelled guns and pistols in their girdles. their captains wear black masks, and sometimes belong to the small country gentry. some days ago the gens-d’armes had a skirmish with them, and some were killed; two robbers, however, were caught, and shot, with all the honors, in ketskemet. we don’t hear of such things in our tiresome districts. about the time you woke this morning, you little thought that i was flying over the steppes of cumania, in the neighborhood of felegyhaza and csonygrad, with hildebrand at full gallop, a delightful sunburnt uhlan officer by my side, loaded pistols lying in the hay before us, and a squadron of uhlans with ready carbines in their hands wildly dashing after us. three swift horses drew us, called rosa, csillak (star), and betyar (vagabond). the driver unintermittingly called them by name, in a piteous tone, until he got his whip handle well over their heads, and with a cry of “mega! mega!” (hold on!) the gallop changed into a wild career. a delightful sensation! we saw no robbers;[243] as my light-brown lieutenant told me, they knew before daylight that i was travelling under protection; certainly some of them were among those worthy-looking and dignified peasants who gazed seriously at us at the stations, in their sleeveless sheepskin cloaks reaching to the ground, and greeted us with an honorable “istem adiamek” (praised be god!) the sun’s heat was scorching all day—i am as red as a crab in the face. we made eighteen miles in twelve hours, to which must be reckoned two or three hours, if not more, in putting-to and waiting, as the twelve horses i required had first to be caught for myself and escort. a third of the distance was shifting sands and downs, like those of stolpmünde.

at five i reached this place, the streets of which are animated by a gay crowd of hungarians, slowaks, and wallachians, who fill my chamber with a din of the wildest and maddest gypsy melodies. (szolnok is a village of some six thousand inhabitants, but there is a railway and steamboat station on the theiss.) at times they sing through the nose, with gaping mouths, in a weak minor discord, histories of black eyes, and of the brave death of some robber, in sounds that remind one of the wind howling lettish songs down a chimney. the women are generally well grown, a few remarkably handsome; they all have raven hair, bound in tresses behind with red ribbons. the married women wear either bright green and red cloths, or red velvet caps on their heads; about their shoulders and bosoms a handsome yellow silk shawl; black or pure blue short gowns, and red turkey leather shoes, reaching up under the petticoats. their faces have a yellowish brown hue, with lustrous black eyes; a group of these women present a play of colors that would please you; every color is as distinctly expressed as possible. since my arrival at five i have been swimming in the theiss, while expecting dinner. i have seen csardas danced; it vexes me that i can not draw, to bring these fairy-tale forms on paper for you. i then had paprika, stürl (fish), and tick for dinner, drank a good deal of hungarian, and now shall go to bed, if the gypsy music will let me sleep. good night. istem adiamek.

pesth, the 28th.

again i see the mountains of ofen, this time from the pesth side, from below. from the plains i have just left, the dim outlines[244] of blue carpathian ridges, distant some twelve or fifteen miles, are in some places, when the air is very clear, barely distinguishable. to the south and east the plain was fathomless; in the first direction it stretches far away into turkey, in the second towards siebenbürgen. the heat to-day was again scorching, and has peeled all the skin from my face. a heat-storm is now raging, driving so fiercely over the steppes that the houses tremble. i swam in the danube, saw the magnificent suspension bridge from beneath, paid visits, heard very good gypsy music on the parade, and shall soon go to bed. the parts on the edge of the pusta, where it is beginning to be cultivated, remind me of pomerania, in the neighborhoods of rommelow, romahn, and coseger. the gypsies have grayish-black complexions. their costume is fabulous; the children quite naked, except a string of glass pearls about their necks. two women had handsome, regular features, and were cleaner and more ornamented than the men. when the hungarians want a dance over again, they shout in a surprised tone, “hody wol? hody?” (“what was it? what?”), and look at each other interrogatively, as if they had not understood, although they know the music by heart. it is, indeed, a singular people, but pleases me very well. it was just as well i had the escort of uhlans. at about the same time i left ketskemet for the south, sixty-three wagons went off in a northerly direction towards k?r?s. two hours later they were stopped and plundered. a colonel, who was by accident driving before this wagon-train, had some shots sent after him, as he would not halt. one horse was shot through the neck, but not enough to bring it down, and as he returned the fire, with his two servants, flying at full gallop, they preferred to be satisfied with the other travellers. they did no other harm to any one, and only plundered some individuals, or rather ransomed them, for they do not take all a person has, but only in proportion to property, and according to their own needs; for instance, they will quietly receive forty florins out of a thousand, without touching the remainder. thieves with whom one can talk!

here i am again at the “roman emperor.” while you were looking from the castle of coblenz on the rhine in attendance on our king and lord, i was looking from the castle of ofen upon the danube, and had an after-dinner conversation with the young emperor upon the prussian military system; and, oddly enough, on the same afternoon on which you visited ehrenbreitstein and stolzenfels, i took a drive through the citadel above the palace, and into the forest district of ofen. the view from the first is admirable. it reminds one of prague, only there is more background and distance, therefore rather resembles ehrenbreitstein, and the danube is grander than the moldau. i reached here last night, per the pesth train, about half-past six.

bismarck, as usual, was invited to the royal hunting-party in the autumn, as we perceive by the following letter to his wife:—

blankenburg, 1st nov., 1852.

a very unusual early rising, caused by the circumstance that my room is a passage for some court servants still asleep, gives me time for these lines. our queen is also here, and is just being awakened by soft music of horns. i have not had such good sport in letzlingen this time as three years ago; it was on friday. only three stags, voilà tout; one of them i hope will reach you. eat the wild boar devoutly, and pickle some of it. his majesty shot it with his own gracious hand. otherwise, things went off very well; and, as i found n. n. there, i need not go to berlin, and hope to reach you by the evening after to-morrow, of which please inform ——, as well as that his appointment for berlin at our court may be regarded as certain.

b.

the band is still playing very well from the freischütz,—“ob auch die wolke sie verhülle” (if the cloud still doth surround her); very apt in this doubtful weather.

in the following year he received many visits from the duke of schleswig-holstein-sonderburg-augustenburg, for whom he was engaged at the time, at the instance of the king’s government, in obtaining a pecuniary settlement of the duke’s claims with denmark. bismarck was able, with great difficulty, to extract[246] from very unwilling denmark a handsome compensation. at this the duke was so rejoiced, that he devoted himself and followers, with the entire gratitude of the house of augustenburg, to the policy of bismarck, as is well known.

in the summer of 1853 bismarck first visited ostend and holland, then westphalia and nordeney. he then had a mission to hanover, of which he rendered an account at potsdam. in the autumn he spent a considerable time with his family in switzerland, at villeneuve, on the lake of geneva, and thence visited upper italy, especially aosta and genoa. in october he was summoned to potsdam by his majesty the king; was present at the hunting-parties of letzlingen, and then returned for the winter to frankfurt; some time, however, he spent in berlin.

during the summer trip, which bismarck made alone, he wrote the following letters to his wife:—

ostend, 19th august, 1853.

up to the present time, besides the one of to day, i have taken three baths, with which i have been well pleased; there is a strong sea and soft bottom. most people bathe close under the pier forming the parade, ladies and gentlemen all together; the first in very unbecoming long gowns of dark woollen, the last in a tricot, being jacket and trowsers in one piece, so that the arms above and the legs beneath are almost free. only the consciousness of possessing a perfectly well-proportioned form can allow one of us to produce himself in ladies’ society thus.

brussels, 21st august, 1853.

i have left ostend with sorrow, and really wish myself back again: i found an old sweetheart of mine there, and as unchanged and charming as on our first acquaintance. i really feel the sorrow of separation deeply at this moment, and look forward impatiently to the instant when i shall cast myself on her heaving bosom at nordeney. i can hardly understand why people can not always live by the sea, and why i have been cajoled into passing two days in this parallelogrammatic stone heap, to see bull-fights, waterloo, and pompous processions. if i had not to keep that most unlucky appointment with n. n., i should stay several weeks longer in ostend, and give n. n. up.[247] i shall only remain till noon to-morrow, and then start, or early the next morning, for antwerp, rotterdam, and amsterdam; thence by steamer to harlingen, and through friesland to nordeney. i am afraid n. n. will soon disturb me there, and if i once get to bremen with him, i hardly know whether i ever shall accomplish the tiresome journey to n. again, but shall make my way by hanover, hamm, kassel, and frankfurt to the place you inhabit. if you write to me, direct to nordeney.

amsterdam, 24th august, 1853.

in brussels and antwerp i have never had a quiet minute on account of feasts and sight-seeing. i have passed a detestable night on a camp-stool, in a crowded boat from antwerp, starting at one in the morning. by an angular labyrinth of arms of the scheldt and maas, and the rhine, i reached rotterdam early, about eleven, and about four arrived here. that is a singular town: many streets are like venice, some with water right up to the walls, others like canals with a towing path, and with narrow walks planted with limes before the houses. the latter have fantastic gables, strange and smoky, almost ghostly—the chimneys like men standing on their heads and stretching out their legs. that which does not savor of venice is the busy life, and the massive handsome shops—one window close to the other, and more magnificently than i remember those of paris or london. when i listen to the bells, and, with a long clay pipe in my mouth, look through the forest of masts, across the canals into the twilight towards the romantically confused gables and chimneys, all the dutch ghost stories of my childhood come back to me, of dolph heylinger, and rip van winkle, and the flying dutchman. to-morrow morning i go by steamer to harlingen on the zuyder zee, and to-morrow evening i hope to be in nordeney, the farthest point from you i propose to touch; and then the time will not be far off when i hope to encounter you unexpectedly on a glacier. i have nothing from berlin since i left ostend, and therefore conclude that the storms are all laid, and the waters returned into the old bed—the pleasantest event that could happen for us. i am very glad i have seen holland; from rotterdam to this place there is one continual verdant and level meadow, upon which there are many bushes, much grazing cattle,[248] and some old cities cut out of picture-books; no arable land anywhere.

norderney, 27th aug., 1853.

last evening i arrived here on a stout dutch sloop, amidst thunder, lightning, and rain—have, after an abstinence of a week, taken another glorious sea-bath, and sitting in a fishing hut with a feeling of great loneliness and longing for you—partly heightened by the clamor of mine host’s children, partly by the piping scream of the storm against the roof and flagstaff. it is really tiresome here, and that suits me, as i have a long piece of work to finish. i wrote to you last from amsterdam, previously from brussels. since then i have seen a charming little country—west friesland; quite flat, but so bushy green, hedgy, every farm-house surrounded by its little wood, that one seems to envy the peaceful independence reigning there. —— will probably ascribe this satisfaction to the circumstance that, as at linz and gmunden, all the girls are pictures of beauty, only taller and more slender, fair, colors like milk and roses, and a very becoming helmet-like golden head-dress.

in the spring of 1854 we find bismarck at potsdam, in the summer at munich and stuttgart. on the 28th of june he wrote to his sister from frankfurt, thus:

i should have liked under all circumstances to have brought you my good wishes in person, particularly as i know my roving wife is with you. but unfortunately we seem too important to ourselves here, to deprive confused europe of the light of our wisdom. whoever speaks of holidays now is regarded as a traitor to the world-important problem of the germanic confederation. i long deeply for the country, the forest and laziness, with the obligato addition of affectionate wives and well-conducted clean children. if i hear one of these hopefuls crying in the street, my heart is filled with parental feelings and educational maxims. how do our descendants agree, and are mine good? i have been obliged to write these few lines at three intervals, because n. n. and n. n. east and west disturbed me during the time, and z. is just announced: he won’t go for an hour, so i say[249] farewell. i want to go fishing with the englishman to-day, but it rains too much, so instead i am a victim of visitors. farewell, and live long. your faithful brother.

bismarck then accompanied the king, who grew continually more attached to him, to the island of rügen; by pomerania, berlin, and baden he returned to frankfurt.

during the summer of 1855 he visited the exhibition at paris, residing with the prussian ambassador, count hatzfeld, and was introduced to the emperor of the french. afterwards he went to stuttgart and munich, and then visited the king and queen at stolzenfels. the year 1856 was comparatively quiet, and he passed his summer at stolpmünde.

reinfeld, in pomerania, 11th sept., 1856.

the diet will, i think, in november, devote its sessions to the holstein question with greater good-will than results. outwardly all the governments will appear united in this matter. austria will, however, secretly remain an adherent of the danes; its press will teem with german phrases, and prussia will be saddled with the error of inaction. the centre of gravity of the affair actually does not lie at frankfurt, but in the question whether denmark is secure from the assaults of one or more of the extra german states. if she be, then she will look upon the decision of the diet as a sufficient settlement.

from courland bismarck returned to berlin and potsdam, and thence went to baden; afterwards he was at hohendorf in east prussia, and reinfeld in pomerania. these were certainly years of apprenticeship, but still more years of journey. in the following years he was frequently summoned to the prince of prussia in baden-baden; he then went to stolpmünde, and remained in berlin throughout october and november. during these years the following letters were written to frau von arnim, the two last containing some notices of the ministry of the so-called “new era”—bismarck speaking in a very intelligible way as to his own position.

it looks as if i never was to reach kr?chlendorf. harry will no doubt have told you how i intended to do so. i should already have been with you, but last week my poor little marie was seized with some kind of chicken-pox, and so i could not well leave johanna until the symptoms were declared. she is still as variegated as a trout, but decidedly better. i wanted to set off to-day for passow direct, but yesterday had a letter from ——, by which he lets me know that he wants to see me by the 18th at ——. as a diplomatist i can not refuse to meet our trustiest companion, and one of the olympian deities of our frankfurt pantheon. if i receive no letter from berlin in between, i hope to rest in your sororal arms by the 19th. should i be able to get away from —— on the evening of the 18th, i shall leave by the early train from stettin. if i can not do this, i still hope to reach stettin by the twelve o’clock train, if the postillions can be got to a trot. but do not wait dinner for me.

the same to the same.

frankfurt, 26th nov., 1856.

bernhard will have told you by what unexpected chain of infantine disease and royal mandates i have been deranged in my chronological calculations, and how ——, who has claims upon my ideas of the service, also abridged my lecture, so that it happened, a few hours before we were about to set out for kr?chlendorf, all together, that i had to announce to the male as well as the female bernhard that i could only escort them as far as passow. at that frontier of the uckermark i met ——, and in angermünde we were joined by ——, so that i was gradually prepared, by ministerial conferences and three hours of smokelessness, for my berlin strait-waistcoat. it seemed as if i was never to get to kr?chlendorf. i had plenty of time and desire to do so, after the terminations of the berlin marriage festivities, and only after a conference with —— did i decide first to go to reinfeld, and on my return, to you, in order to stop a week with him there; because he only got his holiday in october, and our arrangement[251] was that i should come hither with him about the 15th, and return to berlin about the 22d. on the 11th my child was taken ill, at first severely; then i had to attend to official parade. then i was summoned to his majesty at berlin, where, on the 25th of october, i found myself early enough. and now i am here, have only seen the sun twice in the last month, and every day i say to myself that it is impossible in november to live without wife and children. from sheer ennui i give dinner parties. in the evening one rout succeeds another, and i shall soon begin to gamble if johanna and the children do not occupy this vacuum. she thought of starting from reinfeld on saturday the 22d, but on the 20th wrote me a plaintive letter about cold and snow, which i received on the 23d. since then i have no idea whether she is on the other side of the gollenberg or this side of the randow. i begged her generally to inform you of her confinement in berlin beforehand, and to let you know from c?slin by telegraph when she would actually arrive there. the last time i lived in —— very fairly, but it appeared to me this youthful undertaking must either not have taken place, or already been “over.” if johanna should by accident be in berlin, greet her from me. perhaps i shall get there by saturday. i am summoned to the upper chamber, but the contents do not assure me whether his majesty wishes me to be there myself personally, or only desires to see his most humble servant en bloc. in the latter case, i should not consider myself called to leave my important business, and the stove in the red study, to sit up to the neck in snow at halle, and next heighten the effect of the white saloon by a flying costume under the rubric of “people, nobility, detectives, and priests.” i expect an answer from berlin about this, as to whether i am wanted as an ornament or a coadjutor. in the latter case i should reach berlin early on saturday. i should be very glad on that occasion to see you, as some recompense for kr?chlendorf; otherwise, i am glad to remain away from berlin, and receive my own folks here.

to frau von arnim.

frankfurt (without date.)

while i was forced to hear an almost incredibly long speech by a highly esteemed colleague on the anarchical condition of[252] things in upper lippe, i thought how i could use the time, and the most prominent want of my heart seemed to be a desire to pour forth fraternal feelings. a very highly respectable but slightly amusing company surrounds me, at a green-covered circular table, some twenty feet in diameter, in the ground floor of the prince of tour and taxis’s palace, with a view of the garden. the average appearance of these folks is somewhat that of n. n. and z. in berlin—they have quite a federal diet cut!

i go out shooting pretty regularly, when a single individual shoots some six to fifteen hares and a few pheasants—very seldom a roe or a fox—and a head of red deer is sometimes seen in the far distance. time for this i have been able to spare from being far more lazy, as my industry in berlin led to no results.

n. n. is by no means as charming as he used to be; he listens to all kinds of lying stories, and allows himself to be persuaded that i am anxious for his heritage, although i am glad to be left where i am. i am getting accustomed, in the consciousness of yawning innocence, to submit to all symptoms of coldness, and permit a spirit of entire indolence to possess me, after having, i flatter myself, gradually brought the diet to a knowledge of its piercing nihilism. the well-known song of heine, “o bund, du hund, du bist nicht gesund” (o diet, you dog, you are not well), will soon be unanimously adopted by resolution as the national anthem of the germans.

nobody troubles themselves about the east here. the russians or the turks may put what they like in the newspapers; nobody believes either in land or sea fights, and doubts the existence of sinope, kalafat, and schefketel.

darmstadt has at last stopped reading—and i fall, full of emotion, into your arms, and wish you a pleasant feast. many greetings to oscar. your faithful brother,

b.

to the same.

from paris, hotel de douvres, april, 1857.

i have five stoves, and am freezing—five clocks, and never know how late it is—eleven great looking-glasses, and my necktie is always awry. i shall probably have to remain here until tuesday evening, although i am anxious to be at home. since november[253] i have not emerged from this bohemianism—since november, and i have not had a sensation of regular and lasting domesticity since you went last summer with johanna to schwalbach. now they want to summon me to berlin about the salt tax; if i had the time, i could not take part in this debate. i can not, according to my conviction, vote for the government; but, if i vote for the opposition, it is hardly proper to ask for leave of absence on such an account; and, considering the rumors as to my eventual entry into the ministry, of which johanna, on account of your statements, writes despairingly, one could think i had some ideas of joining in the swindle. hearty greetings to oscar.

b.

in the spring of 1857 we again find bismarck in paris, and it was then that he had his first special political conference with the emperor napoleon. in the summer he made a journey to the north—went to denmark and sweden, ending by field-sports in courland; on his return he found his family at stolpmünde.

while on this journey he wrote the following letter to his wife:—

copenhagen, 6th august, 1857.

this morning at seven i safely arrived here, after a very pleasant passage; mild air, a red moon, the chalk cliffs lighted by tar-barrels; two storms at sea, and a little wind; what more can one want? the night prevented my sleeping, and when the rain drove me from the deck about two o’clock, it was so hot and reeking of humanity below, that about three i went on deck with cloak and cigar. i have now taken a sea-bath, eaten some lobster, and about half-past one i must attend at the court—so now i will sleep a couple of hours.

r?sbyholm, 9th august, 1857.

you will have already received the few lines i wrote directly i reached copenhagen. since then i have been occupied for two days with museums and politics, yesterday was ferried over to malm?, and driven some eight miles to the north-eastward, and am at the above-named place, in a white castle situated very high on a peninsula surrounded by a large lake. through the window and the thicket of ivy, that admit of some view of the water[254] and hills beyond, i perceive that the sun is shining and flies are buzzing. behind me sits ——; he is reading and dozing; broad swedish is spoken under the window, and from the kitchen i can hear a pestle grinding away like a saw. that is all i can tell you of the present. yesterday we stalked roebucks, one was killed, but i did not shoot; we got thoroughly drenched; then we took hot wine, and slept soundly for nine hours. roebucks are more plentiful than i have ever seen anywhere, and the neighborhood is prettier than i thought. magnificent beech forests, and walnut-trees the size of a man’s body, in the garden. we have just visited the pheasantry; after dinner we are going on the lake, and may perhaps shoot a duck, unless we fear to disturb the sunday rest of this lovely solitude by a shot; to-morrow we are to have a regular day, next day we return to copenhagen, and from there to n. n., and a stag-hunt on wednesday; thursday by copenhagen to helsingborg, some twenty miles into sweden. we shall seek woodcocks and moorfowl in the wilderness; we shall lodge in farm-houses; our provisions we take with us. this will last for about a week, and then i hardly know what i shall do; either proceed by way of j?nkeping, at the south end of lake wetter, and so to stockholm, or by g?theborg and lake wener, or to christiania, abandoning stockholm, or perhaps via memel to courland. this depends on a letter i expect from —— in copenhagen.

tomsj?nas, 16th aug., 1857.

i again employ the quiet of sunday to give you some sign of life, although i do not yet know on what day we shall find an opportunity of reaching the post from this wilderness. for some fifteen miles have i driven into the depths of the woods to reach this place, and before me lie some twenty-five miles ere we shall get to cultivated provinces. there is no town, no village, far or near—only isolated settlers and plank-huts, with a little barley and potatoes, strewn irregularly between dead trees, rocks, and thickets, over a few rods of ploughed land. think of the wildest region near viartlum,[42] for some hundred of square miles, tall heather, varied by short grass and moorland, beset with birch, juniper, pines, beech, oaks, and alders, sometimes impassably[255] thick and sometimes very sparse, the whole sown with innumerable stones to the size of houses, smelling of wild rosemary and firs; and between them strangely formed lakes, surrounded by sand and forest—and you will see smaland; where i now am. really the land of my dreams, not to be reached by dispatches, colleagues, and n. n., but unhappily also for you; i should like to have a hunting-box on one of these quiet lakes, and people it for a few months with all the dear ones i now fancy are assembled at reinfeld. it would be impossible to winter it out here, particularly amidst the dirt of the rain. yesterday we started about five, and hunted in the burning heat, up hill and down dale, through bog and bush, until eleven; but found nothing at all. it is very tiring to walk through moors and impassable thickets of juniper, over great stones and underwood. we slept in a hay barn till two, drank a great deal of milk, and continued the chase till sunset, killing twenty-five woodcocks and two snipes. we then dined at the lodge—a wonderful structure of wood—on a peninsula by the lake. my room, with its three stools, two tables, and bedstead, presents the same uniform tint of rough pine planks, as does the whole house and its walls. the bed is very hard, but after all this exertion one sleeps without rocking. from my window i see a knoll with birch-trees, whose branches rustle in the breeze; between these the mirror of the lake, and beyond it fir forests. beside the house is a tent for huntsman, driver, servants, and peasants; then the carriage-house and a little dog of a village of some eighteen or twenty huts, on both sides of a little street, and from each of these a tired beater is looking out. i propose to remain in this oasis till wednesday or thursday, then leave for another expedition on the shore, and return this day week to copenhagen, on account of miserable politics. what next, i do not know as yet.

the 17th.—this morning early six wolves have been here and have torn up a poor bullock; we found their fresh traces, but personally we did not see them. from four in the morning till eight in the evening we have been in motion, have shot four woodcocks, slept for two hours on mown heather, and now, dog-tired, to bed.

the 19th.—it is impossible to send a letter to the post from here, without sending a messenger twelve miles; i shall therefore[256] take this to the coast myself to-morrow. yesterday, when the dog pointed, and i was looking more at him than at the ground i was treading on, i fell and hurt my left shin. yesterday we had a very tired day’s sport, long and rocky; it produced me a woodcock; but has tamed me so completely, that to-day i am sitting at home with bandages, so that i should be ready to travel to-morrow and shoot the next day. i really am astonished at myself for stopping at home alone in such charming weather, and can scarcely refrain from the abominable wish that the others will shoot nothing. it is a little too late in the year, the birds are shy, or sport would be more plentiful. we shot through a charming place yesterday; great lakes, with islands and shores, mountain torrents, over rocks, plains for miles without houses or plough-land; every thing just as god created it, forest, field, heath, morass, and lake. i shall certainly return hither some day.

two gentlemen of the danish chambers are already back; it was too hot for them, and they have gone to sleep. it is about half-past five; the others will only arrive about eight. i have been amusing myself all day in learning danish from the doctor who applied the bandages. we brought him with us from copenhagen, for there are no doctors here. since a report has been spread of the presence of a physician in the woods, every day some twenty or thirty inhabitants of the huts come streaming in to take his advice. on sunday evening we gave a very amusing dance to the inhabitants of the five square miles of forest; the music was played and sung by turns. then they heard of the “wise man,” and now cripples of twenty years’ standing come and hope to be cured by him.

k?nigsberg, 12th sept., 1857.

i found to my great joy your four letters at polangen (which, by-the-by, is not in prussia but russia), and find from them that you and the children are well. i got on very well; the courlanders were all touchingly kind to me, in a way seldom found by a foreigner. besides several roebucks and stags, i shot five elks, one a very fine stag, measuring roughly six feet eight, without his colossal head. he fell like a hare, but as he was still alive, i mercifully gave him my second barrel; scarcely had i[257] done so ere a second came up, still taller, so close to me that engel, my loader, had to jump behind a tree to avoid being run over. i was obliged to look at him in a friendly way, as i had no other shot. i can not get rid of this disappointment, and must complain to you about it. i shot at another—no doubt he will be found—but one i missed entirely. i might, therefore, have killed three more. the night before last we left dondangen, and in twenty-nine hours made forty miles without a road, through the forest and desert to memel, in an open carriage, over stock and stone; we were obliged to hold on, so that we should not be thrown out. after three hours’ sleep at memel, we started this morning in the steamboat for this place, whence we leave for berlin to-night and arrive to-morrow. “we” means behr and myself. i can not stop in hohendorf; i ought to have been in berlin to-morrow, my furlough being up. i should, however, have been obliged to give up my best sport at dondangen, with the enormous stags, or, as they call them there, bolls; nor should i have seen how the axle of a great wagon broke under the enormous creature. on monday the emperor arrives at berlin, therefore i am obliged to be there “some days” before. i hope to return from berlin to hohendorf and reinfeld; but if the king goes to frankfurt, this is unlikely.

frankfurt, 19th december, 1857.

your true sisterly heart has offered in so friendly a manner to look after christmas exigencies, that i will not apologize if i now allow you to carry out the seductions of gerson and other rascals once more, and ask you sans phrase to make the following purchases for johanna:—

1. jewelry: she wishes to have an opal heart, like yours, and “the mind of man his kingdom is.” i am willing to pay some two hundred thalers for it. if for that price it is possible to obtain a pair of earrings, each consisting of one clear brilliant, i should think it more tasteful. you have some like it, but they are much dearer, and should you think the opal heart preferable, i will try later to find a pair of fitting earrings founded upon pearls.

2. one dress, at about one hundred thalers—not more. she wants to see herself “very light and bright,” à deux passes, moirée[258] antique, or something of that kind: she requires ten rods—about twenty ells.

3. should you discover a valuable and pretty gilt fan, rustling a great deal, buy it also. ten thalers are quite enough. i can’t bear the things.

4. a large warm rug to lay over the feet in the carriage, with designs of tigers, glass eyes in their heads; might be a fox or a hippopotamus—any ferocious animal. i have seen one at ——’s, of very soft wool; won’t cost ten thalers. if you want to remain a charming sister, buy me all this, and send at once by express luggage train; address, hofrath ——, prussian embassy.

i have so much to write about holstein, mainz, the bridge of kehl, and all sorts of things in berlin, that i have been obliged to decline two capital days of sport, to-day and to-morrow, after red deer. johanna and the children are well, and the former would send love if she knew i wrote; but do not let her know any thing about it, my heart, and so farewell. greetings to oscar. the money i will send through fritz, the receiver, by the new year.

frankfurt o. t. m., 2d april, 1858.

i quite agree with you that our position in the zollverein is blundered. i go further than this, being firmly convinced that we must give notice to the whole of the zollverein, as soon as the term has arrived. the reasons for this conviction are far too stratified to be developed here, and they are too closely connected to be named one by one. we must terminate the treaty in view of the danger of remaining alone with dessau and sondershausen. it is, however, not to be desired that this last should be the case, or that such a state of things should long subsist; therefore we must render it agreeable—if possible, an unavoidable necessity—to the other states of the zollverein, during the period yet to run, that after proper notice has been given they should seek adherence to our conditions. one portion of this system would be to allow them to draw higher nett revenues than they could obtain by frontier customs without prussia. another thing is, that they must not be allowed to think that the continuance of a zollverein with prussia is impossible in fact; this[259] would, however, be the case if, besides the twenty-eight governments, some fifty class corporations, guided by particular interests, should be able to exercise a liberum veto. if the prussian chambers begin with this, the equality vertigo of the german governments will not allow the rest to remain behind; they will desire to make themselves also of importance.

in order to avoid these rocks in a zollverein to be reconstituted by prussia, after 1865, for the exercise of corporation electoral rights, i think we shall have to adopt one feature of the union project of 1849, and erect a sort of customs parliament, with conditions for itio in partes, if the others demand it. the governments will object gravely to such a course; but if we are daring and consequent we could effect much. the idea expressed in your letter, to make the prussian chambers a means, by their representation of all german taxpayers, to found a hegemony, is from the same point of view. the most powerful aids of our foreign policy might consist in the chambers and the press. in the present state of things, which may be confirmed by the vote, the zollverein policy, the evil of the verein for prussia, would render the necessity for the termination a matter for the most circumstantial and closest debate, that a recognition of it should take place; your letter ought to appear as an article in the kreuzzeitung, instead of lying upon my table here. the german custom policy should be broadly and unreservedly discussed from the prussian stand-point by the chambers and the press—then the flagging attention of germany would be drawn to it, and our chambers would become a power for prussia in germany. i should like to see the zollverein and the bund, with prussia’s relations to both, subjected to the scalpel of the acutest criticism in our chambers. this would only be an advantage to the king, his ministers, and their policy, presuming them to know their business. at the same time, i could wish, as the result of such a discussion, that the proposition should be adopted by a small majority. for the zollverein desires at the present moment rather to fetter the german governments to their flesh-pots, than for them to win the sympathies of their subjects. the latter are powerless, as, so far as they are concerned, a powerful, business-like, and honorable debate would do the same as the chance of the results of a vote.

your letter was an unexpected pleasure: the address looked just like one of johanna’s, and i wondered how she could have got to the uckermark. i have not been able to answer before: business, a cold, hunting, has partly taken up all my time, nor did i quite know what to write to you about the new phenomenon in the political heaven, that i could not have written as well about the comet—an interesting phenomenon wholly unexpected by me, the object and nature of which is yet unknown to me. the orbit of the comet our astronomers are pretty well able to calculate, but it would be difficult for them to do the same by this new political septasterism. johanna reached here safely with the children this morning; god be praised, they are well, but not in good spirits. she is upset by all the political terrors they have filled her with in pomerania and berlin, and i try in vain to render her more light-hearted. the natural distress of the lady of a house also influences her, when it becomes doubtful whether one remains in a new house set up with care and expense. she came hither with the idea that i was about to take my leave. i do not know whether my resignation will be forced on me without my own will, or whether i must seek it for decency’s sake. before i do it voluntarily, i shall wait to see what the ministerial colors are.

if the upper chamber retain their feelings for the conservative party, and sincerely strive for a good understanding and peace at home, they may rely upon a healthy state in our foreign affairs, and that is of great importance to me, for “we had fallen, and did not know how.” that is what i especially felt. i think that the prince has been especially placed at the head to secure a guarantee against party government, and against any concessions to the left. if i am mistaken in this, or if they wish to dispose of me as an office-seeker, i shall retire behind the cannon of sch?nhausen, and observe how prussia can be governed by majorities of the left, and also endeavor to do my duty to the upper chamber. change is the soul of life, and i shall feel myself ten years younger if i find myself in the same attitude as in 1848-’9. should i not find the parts of gentleman and diplomatist consistent, the pleasure or the burden of fulfilling a prominent position will not cause me to err for a moment in my choice. i have[261] enough to live upon according to my wants, and if god keeps my wife and children healthy, as they have been, i say, “vogue la galère,” no matter what water we swim in. it will be very unimportant to me, after thirty years, whether i play the diplomatist or the country junker; and hitherto the prospect of an honest contest, without being confined by any official trammels—particularly in political swimming-baths—has almost as much charm for me as the prospect of a régime of truffles, dispatches, and grand crosses. “after nine, all is over,” says the player. i can not tell you more than these personal opinions—the enigma stands before me unsolved. i have one great satisfaction here at the diet. all those gentlemen who six months ago demanded my recall as a necessity for german unity, now tremble at the thought of losing me. to —— the phantom of 1848 is a terror; and they are all like pigeons who see the hawk—afraid of democracy, barricades, parliament, and ... —— sinks into my arms touchingly, and says, with a cramped shake of the hand, “we are again forced into one field.” the french naturally, but the english also, look upon us as firebrands, and the russians fear that the emperor will be led astray by our plans of reform. i say to every one naturally, “only be calm, and all will come right;” and they answer, “yes, if you were going to stay, then we should have a guarantee, but ...” if he doesn’t feel frankfurt singing in his ears, he has no ear-drums. in a week he has been degraded from a worthy liberal conservative in the imaginations of his eventual colleagues, to a scarlet tiger—helper’s helper of kinkel and d’ester. the bamberg diplomatist talks of a continental assurance against prussian firebrandism, growls of a tri-imperial alliance against us—a new olmütz with effectual operations. in short, the political world is getting less tiresome. my children cry, “pietsch comes!” in the joy at my having a servant of that name at sch?nhausen; and it would seem that the arrival of this pietsch and the comet are not without significance. heartily farewell, my very dear one, and greet oscar. he must not hang down his head—it’s all gammon.

you had rightly guessed in your letter to johanna, that your kindness would be asked for a christmas commission. i should like to give johanna a bracelet. the kind of thing flitting before me is broad, smooth, mailed, bending, made of chessboard-patterned little four-cornered gold pieces—without jewels—pure gold, as far as two hundred thalers will go. if you find something that pleases you better, i have every confidence in your taste. the exact thing in the fashion is not, therefore, pleasing to me—such things last longer than the fashion. be so good, and have it directed to “privy councillor ——, prussian embassy,” with an inclosed letter for me, or the old gentleman may think it a delicate attention for himself.

johanna will have written you as to the child complaints we have had, and how i have suffered from colds and coughs. i do not know whether much or little sleep, diet or excess, housekeeping or hunting, improves or hurts, but i turn from one to the other, from ideas of health. as to my transfer or recall, all is still again; for a time, petersburg seemed very certain, and i had grown so accustomed to the idea, that i felt quite disappointed when the rumor went forth that i was to remain here. there will be some bad political weather here, which i should be very glad to weather out in bear-furs, with caviar and elk-shooting. our new cabinet is still looked upon abroad with suspicion; austria alone, with cunning calculation, gives it a meed of praise; while ——, behind his hand, warns us; and so do his colleagues, at all the courts. the cat won’t let the mice alone. but, in the end, the ministers must show a policy; merely cursing the kreuzzeitung will not last forever. i shall hardly come to berlin in the winter; it would be very agreeable if you would visit us here before i am “put out in the cold” on the neva.

st. petersburg, 12th may, 1859.

i have become convinced, by the experience of the eight years of my official life in frankfurt, that the settlement by the diet, made in those days, forms a pressing, and, in critical times, a vitally dangerous fetter for prussia, without giving, in return, such equivalents, enjoyed by austria, under an unequally large mass[263] of free self-action. the two greater powers do not attain an equal measurement from the princes and governments of the smaller states; the construction of the object and the law of the diet is modified according to the requirements of austrian policy. i need not, considering your knowledge, enter upon more circumstantial arguments respecting the history of the policy of the diet since 1850, and hence confine myself by naming the paragraphs concerning the restoration of the diet, the question of the german navy, customs disputes, the laws respecting commerce, the press, and the constitution, the diet fortresses of rastatt and mainz, and the questions of neuenburg and the east. we have always found ourselves face to face with the same compact majority, with the same demand for concessions from prussia. in the eastern question, the power of austria has ever proved so superior to ours, that even the identity of the wishes and aspirations of the diet governments, with the efforts of prussia, have presented for her an ever-receding obstacle. with scarcely any exception, our associates in the diet have given us to understand, or have even openly declared, that they were unable to maintain the diet with us, should austria pursue her own course; although it is unquestionable that federal law and real german interests were side by side with our peace policy; this, at least, was then the opinion of almost all the princes. would the latter have ever brought their own interests and wishes as a sacrifice to the wants, or even the safety, of prussia? certainly not: for their attachment to austria is founded on outbalancing false interests, which prescribe to both a coalition against prussia, a repression of all further development of the influence and power of prussia, as a foundation for their common policy. a development of federal relations, under austrian leadership, is the natural end of the policy of the german princes and their ministers; according to their opinions, this can only be accomplished at the expense of prussia, and is necessarily directed against prussia, so long as prussia will not confine herself to the useful problem of providing for her equally entitled associates in the diet an assurance against the preponderance of austria, and is willing to bear the disproportion of her duties towards her rights in the diet, being resigned to the wishes of the majority with untiring complacency. this tendency of the policy of the central states[264] will reappear with the constancy of the magnetic needle after every evanescent variation, because it represents no arbitrary product of individual events or persons, but is, in fact, a natural and necessary result of federal relations for the smaller states. there are no existing means by which we can maintain the actual federal treaties in an intimate manner.

since our associates in the diet, some years ago, began, under the guidance of austria, to bring to light, from the hitherto neglected arsenal of the constitution of the diet, the principles that would give prominence to their system—since it has been endeavored, in a partial way, to stifle the policy of prussia by propositions which could only possess one signification in the sense of their proposers, in so far as they apply to the unanimity of prussia and austria—we have been obliged to endure the stress of the situation that the diet and its whole historical development has forced upon us. we could say to ourselves, that in peaceful and orderly times we could weaken the evil in its results by skillful treatment, but we should be powerless to effect a cure; it is only too natural that in dangerous times, such as the present, the other side, in possession of all the advantages of the diet settlement, should willingly confess that much has taken place of an improper nature, but should at the same time declare, in the “general interests,” that the present juncture is highly inapplicable for the discussion of past matters and “internal” disputes. but such an opportunity, if we do not make use of it at once, may not so speedily recur; and in the future we shall be forced to our normal resignation, which allows of no changes in the condition of things in orderly times.

his royal highness the prince regent has taken up a position commanding the unqualified approval of all those who are entitled to form any judgment of prussian politics, and who thence have not allowed themselves to be disturbed by party feeling. some of our associates in the diet seek to blind us, by thoughtless and fanatical efforts, as to this attitude. if the statesmen of bamberg are so frivolously ready to follow the first war outcry of an uncritical and mutable public opinion, if it does not take place probably quite without a comforting after-thought of the easiness with which a small state can change its colors in case of need; but if, in order to send a power like prussia under[265] fire, they desire to make use of the treaties of the diet; if it be supposed that we shall substitute property and blood for political wisdom, and the thirst for action on the part of governments, to whom our defense is absolutely necessary for their existence; if these states think they are to dictate the guiding impulse, and regard theories concerning the rights of the diet as means to such an end, then with such recognition all prussian political autonomy would be over; then, in my opinion, it would be time for us to remember that the guides, who imagine we should follow them, serve other interests than those of prussia, and that they understand the interests of germany they talk so much about as non-identical with the interests of prussia, if we decline to accede to their desires.

perhaps i am going too far when i express it as my opinion, that we should seize every justifiable opportunity, presented by our associates in the diet, to arrive at the revision of our mutual relations, necessary to prussia, by which she can exist in defined relations to the smaller german states. i think we should willingly take up the gauntlet, and regard it as no misfortune, but as real progress, a crisis leading to improvement, if a majority at frankfurt should decide upon such a vote, which we could look upon as a transgression of competency, an arbitrary change in the object of the confederation, a violation of its treaties. the more unmistakable this violation the better. we shall not easily find conditions of such a favorable nature in austria, france, and russia, by which we can alter our own position towards germany for the better. our allies are on the high road towards giving us perfectly justifiable motives for such a course, without our stimulating their insolence. even the kreuzzeitung, as i see by the number of last sunday, is becoming somewhat startled at the thought that a frankfurt majority could immediately dispose of the prussian army. not in this newspaper alone have i hitherto perceived with sorrow how austria has established an autocracy over the german press by the skillfully laid net of her influence, and how well she knows to use the weapon. without this, so-called public opinion could scarcely have risen to this height; i designate it so-called, for the real mass of the population is never inclined for war, unless the demonstrable suffering of real oppression has aroused it. to such a pitch has it risen, that even[266] under the cloak of general german opinion, any prussian newspaper can hardly declare itself in favor of prussian patriotism. general twiddle-twaddle plays a great part in this, nor must we omit the zwanzigers (cash) that never fail austria for this aim. most newspaper correspondents write for their bread and cheese, most newspapers look to their incomes, and an experienced reader may easily see, by our newspapers and others, whether they have received, or speedily anticipate, or wish by threatening pantomime to force, a subsidy from austria.

i think we should produce an admirable revulsion in public opinion if we were to sound the chords of independent prussian policy in the press, in opposition to the exaggerations of our german allies. perhaps things may happen at frankfurt which may give us full reason to do so.

under these circumstances the wisdom of our military precautions might be extended in other directions, and impart significance to our attitude; then prussian self-respect would speak[267] perhaps with a more conclusive tone than the diet. i should only then care to see the word “german” in place of “prussian” inscribed upon our standard, when we should have become more intimately and effectually bound up with our german fellow-countrymen than we have hitherto been; the word loses its charm in proximity to the ideas of the diet.

i fear that your excellency will interrupt me in this epistolary digression into the field of my former activity, with the cry, “ne sutor ultra crepidam;” nor was it my intention to hold an official oration; i desired only to present the testimony of an experienced person against the diet. i see in our position in the diet, a defect of prussia, which we shall have sooner or later to heal, ferro et igni, unless we adopt in time, and at a proper season of the year, measures for a cure. were the confederation abolished this very day, without substituting something in its place, i believe that this negative acquisition would soon form better and more natural relations between prussia and her german neighbors, than have hitherto existed.

i thank you for your letter, and hope you will not allow the first to be the last. among the matters which interest me, the frankfurt negotiations, next to immediate necessities, occupy the first place with me, and i am very much obliged for any news from thence. i regard our policy, up till now, as correct; but i look mournfully into the future. we have armed ourselves too soon and too strongly, and the heavy load which we have assumed is dragging us down an inclined plane. there will be intervention in order to occupy the landwehr, as people do not like simply to send them back home. we then shall not even be austria’s reserve, but shall sacrifice ourselves directly for austria, and relieve her of the stress of war. the first shot on the rhine brings with it a german war as the chief circumstance, from its threatening paris. austria will get breathing time; and will she make use of her freedom to aid us in playing a brilliant part? will her efforts not rather be directed so to shape the measure and form of our success as it may serve specific austrian interests? if we are worsted, the federal states will all desert us, like faded plums in the wind; and each state, the capital of which receives a french garrison, will save itself in a patriotic way on the raft of a new rhenish confederation. perhaps it will be possible to attain a combination of measures on the part of the three great neutral powers. we are too expensively armed to be able to wait the result as patiently as england and russia, and our intervention will scarcely bring to light that quadrature of the circle—a peace basis agreeable to france and austria. the public voice in vienna is said to be very bitter against their own government, and is stated to have reached the pitch of hissing their national hymn. our enthusiasm for war seems also to be only of a moderate character, and it will be difficult to convince the nation that war and its evils are an unavoidable necessity. the proof of this is too artificial for the comprehension of a landwehr man.

in a business point of view, my position here is very pleasant; but there is a great deal to do to manage forty thousand prussians, for whom one has to be police, advocate, judge, assistant,[270] and councillor—every day there are twenty to fifty signatures, without passports. i am still, as it were, in camp, with a few beds, towels, and caps, bought in a hurry; without cook and kitchen, as all utensils are wanting—and, in all this heat, without summer clothing! my house is large enough, and handsomely situated on the newa; three great saloons, two of them larger than those at seufferheld’s; i have had the chancery placed in one, with a good flooring, looking-glass doors, and silver chandeliers. all that i have as yet received from frankfurt are my weapons, unfortunately packed under some crown chandeliers in such a way that three guns were quite broken to pieces, and the barrels ruined. i wonder what wiseacre packed them! if the rest of the things have been packed so, i may perhaps congratulate myself if they have been lost. the insurance is small, if the plate is with it; the premium high, because the fool has insured against “war risk!”

hohendorf, 3d february, 1860.

i still hear with pleasure, and with a sort of longing for home, all intelligence concerning the state of things and persons at frankfurt; and when i read the papers, i often feel a desire to hurry into the midst of battles at the sessions. the campaign over the war constitution was capital. let them proceed openly and daringly to urge our demands; they are too just not finally to be, although slowly, recognized. the sovereign states, by grace of the rhenish confederation and the diet, can not rely upon their particularity for any duration against the stream of events. as in my recovery, there may occur a time of standing-still and relapse occasionally; but it still will go forward, when we courageously dare and are not ashamed of our daring any more, but openly proclaim in the diet, in the press, and, above all, in our chambers, that which we desire to represent in germany, and what the federation has hitherto been for prussia—an alp and a noose about our necks, with the end of it in the hands of the enemy, that only waits the proper moment to run it tight. but enough of politics.

i hope soon to be in trim for my journey—am perhaps already so. my wife and the physicians conjure me to go south—to[271] heidelberg or switzerland. i long for petersburg, that i may at last live quietly in my own house.

petersburg, 16th june, 1860.

we are pretty well at present, and i am much better than if i were in germany without being wanted. rest and the comforts of domestic life are doing their best. it is 24° in the shade,[43] but always cool nights. business proceeds, thanks to so delightful a minister as gortschakoff, without annoyance—in short, cela va bien, pourvu que cela dure. our relations here are excellent, no matter what the newspapers may fable about it.

the augsburger people and company are still afraid lest i should become minister, and think they can prevent it by abusing me and my franco-russian ideas. it is a great honor to be dreaded by the enemies of prussia. my political flirtations in the spring, at the court, and with the ministry, have, furthermore, been so accurately sifted that they are well aware of what the state of the case is, and how i am believed to find precisely in the national aspirations powers of resistance and strength. if i am written down a devil, it is a teutonic one, and no gallic fiend. ——’s lie factory might attack me much more to the purpose on other grounds than on bonapartism, if they wish to make an impression at our court, as among the augsburgers.

st. petersburg, 22d august, 1860.

i am quite excluded from home politics, for with the exception of newspapers, i only receive official statements, which do not give me the groundwork of things. according to these, we have promised nothing definite at teplitz, but have made our support of austria dependent upon that practical demonstration of her good-will towards us in german politics; when this has been done, she may reckon on our gratitude. i should be very content with this; and if we only see the vienna soap in a lather, we should be glad to return the service. certainly the indirect accounts we receive from other courts sound otherwise. according to these, if true, though we have not concluded any guarantee treaty, we have, at any rate, bound ourselves verbally to assist austria, under all circumstances, should she be attacked by france[272] in italy. should austria find it necessary to act on the offensive, our consent would be requisite, if our co-operation is to be anticipated. this version appears more unprejudiced than it would, in fact, be. austria having security that we should fight for venice, she will know how to provoke the attack of france—it has been asserted that since teplitz, austria has come out boldly and defiantly in italy. viennese politics, since the garibaldian expedition, desire to make things in italy as bad as they can be, in order that if napoleon himself should find it necessary to declare against the italian revolution, movements should commence on all sides and former conditions be assimilatively restored. this reckoning with and upon napoleon may be very deceptive, and it would seem as if, since teplitz, it has been given up, and there were hopes of attaining results by opposing napoleon. the restless, passionate character of austrian politics endangers peace in both ways. what will the chamber say to teplitz—to the organization of the army? all sensible men will naturally agree with government as to the latter. but the influence of foreign politics can first be estimated, when it is known what the meaning of teplitz really is. a well-informed but somewhat bonapartist correspondent writes to me from berlin, “we were prettily taken in at teplitz by viennese good-humor; sold, for nothing, not even a mess of pottage.” god grant that he errs in this! in speaking of the bonapartists, it occurs to me that some kind of general rumors reach me, that the press, national verein, magdeburger, ostpreussische zeitung, carry on a systematic war of calumny against me. i am said to have openly supported russo-french pretensions respecting a cession of the rhine province, on the condition of compensation nearer home; i am a second borries, and so on. i will pay a thousand fredericks-d’or to the person who will prove to me that any such russo-french propositions have ever been brought to my knowledge by any one. in the whole period of my german residence i never advised any thing else than that we should rely on our own strength, and in the case of war, upon the aid of the national forces of germany. these foolish geese of the german press do not see that in attacking me they are losing the better part of their own efforts. i am informed that the fountain-head of these attacks was the court of coburg, in a writer who has[273] personal spite against me. were i an austrian statesman, or a german prince and austrian reactionist, like the duke of meiningen, our kreuzzeitung would have protected me as it has him; the mendacity of these assaults is unknown to some of our political friends. as i am, however, an old member of their party, entertaining particular ideas upon certain points, well known to him to his misfortune, i may be slandered to their hearts’ content. i hear of the whole affair principally from the officious advocacy of the elberfeld zeitung, which is sent to me. there is nothing like inquisitors among themselves, and friends, who long have partaken of the same cup, are more unjust than foes. i am satisfied. one ought not to rely on men, and i am thankful for every breath which draws me inward.

stolpmünde, 18th sept., 1861.

in reference to the conservative programme, i fully subscribe to your observations. the negative construction prevailing throughout of the propositions should have been avoided from the first. a political party can never stand, much less conquer position and adherents, by a mere languid defensive policy. every party professes to abhor the dirt of the german republic, and the opposition now forming give themselves honest trouble not to have it—that is, the dirt. a figure of speech so much wider than the requirements of the time, either means nothing, or conceals what people do not desire to say. i myself am in doubt whether the authors of the programme do not really stand at the pure würzburg point of view. among our best friends, we have so many doctrinaires who ask from prussia an identical duty of protecting foreign princes and countries as she protects her own subjects. the system of the solidarity of the conservative interests of all countries, is a dangerous fiction as long as the fullest and most honest reciprocity does not exist between the rulers of all countries. were prussia to carry it out in isolation, it would become quixotism, which would only weaken our king and his government in the solution of the most important question, viz., that defense of prussia confided to the crown of prussia by the almighty, against injustice coming from within or without. we are gradually making the whole unhistorical, ungodly, and illegal sovereignty swindle of those german princes[274] who use the confederation as a pedestal whence to play at being european powers, into the nurse-child of the conservative party of prussia. internally our prussian government is liberal; abroad it is legitimist. we respect foreign crown rights with greater constancy than we do our own, and become enthusiastic about those lesser sovereignties created by napoleon and sanctioned by metternich, to blindness against all the perils with which the independence of prussia and germany is threatened in the future, as long as the nonsense of the present confederation endures, which is nothing more than a hothouse of dangerous and revolutionary efforts. i could have wished that, instead of vague expressions against the german republic, it had been openly stated in the programme what we desire to see changed and restored in germany, whether by justly directed efforts towards alterations in the constitution of the confederation, such as definite associations like the customs union, and the military treaty of coburg. we have the double task of giving evidence that the existing confederation is not our ideal, but that we purpose to attempt the necessary alterations openly in a legal way, and that we do not intend to go beyond these in confirming security and prosperity. to us the necessity of a firmer consolidation of our defensive powers is as patent as that of daily bread; we require a new and plastic system of customs, and a number of institutions in common, to defend material interests against the evils resulting from the unnatural interior configuration of german frontiers. there should be no doubt as to the sincerity and earnestness with which we ask for these objects. nor do i see, moreover, why we should recoil so prudishly from the idea of popular representation, whether in the diet, or in any customs, or associative parliament. surely we can not combat an institution as revolutionary which is legally established in every german state, and which we conservatives even would not wish to see abolished, even in prussia. in national matters we have hitherto regarded very moderate concessions as valuable. a thoroughly conservative national representation might be created, and yet receive the gratitude of the liberals.

i am interrupted by the sounds of packing. in case you still have an opportunity of conferring with our friends on the subject, i enclose you the sketch i read to you with the request, however,[275] that it shall not become public, as i am unaware whether the king would like that this hasty memorandum of the conversation i had with his majesty, and which i committed to writing at his command, should become known, as i hear several discussions have taken place about it.

berlin, the 2d oct., 1861.

in koblenz and here i have been active for german politics, and in the present state of things not quite without results. i wrote about the 19th of last month from stolpmünde to your residence here, and enclosed in my letter the draught of the short sketch i had presented to the king. i am to carry this matter into greater detail. if, therefore, the letter and enclosure, as i hope, has reached your hands, i beg of you to send it me to reinfeld, that i may work it up more completely there. i am really home-sick for my household on the english quay, with the tranquil view of the neva ice. on the 13th, it will be necessary to meet at k?nigsberg.

berlin, the 16th may, 1864.

i can understand your hesitation against the address, which, however, in my opinion, at the present time seizes the diplomatic position with useful pressure. i may certainly be mistaken in this, for the longer i act in political affairs the less is my confidence in human calculation; and if you feel an inward opposition to it, i speak the less of it, as i would rather be able to declare with a good conscience that the government has not inspired the idea mirrored in it. the actual state of things, however, is such, that it appears very necessary to let loose all the dogs willing to give tongue (forgive this sporting simile) against denmark at the conference; the general cry of the pack will effect a conviction on the part of alien powers that the subjection of the duchies to denmark is an impossibility, and the latter will be obliged to consider projects which the prussian government can not present to them. among alien powers in this last category i class the holsteiners themselves, together with the augustenburg, and all the eternally ignoble down to k?nigsau. the duchies have hitherto played the part of the birthday child in the german family, and have accustomed themselves to think that we are willing to bring[276] every sacrifice to the altar of their particular interests, and are willing to risk the existence of prussia for every individual german in the north of schleswig. the address will especially counteract this frenzy; i do not fear that it will have so strong an effect as to bring us into any difficulty. if prussian ambition were to rise to such a height among the nation, so that the government, instead of stimulating, would have to moderate the feeling, i should not at all regret such a condition.

you will perceive from this how i comprehend the matter from a human point of view. as to the rest, my impression of gratitude for god’s assistance till now rises into a conviction that the lord knows how to turn even our errors to our benefit. i daily observe this with salutary humility.

to clear up the situation i will conclude by saying that to me prussian annexation is not the chief and necessary end, but probably the most agreeable result.

with hearty salutation to your honored household, i am yours,

bismarck.

that bismarck not only followed the german policy of austria, but also her whole political action, with the lynx eyes of an opponent, is a matter of course, and he soon perceived on what a dangerous error this was based. relying upon the apparent power which prince schwarzenberg’s daring moves, and radetzky’s victories over sardinia had obtained, austria desired to attain to a european hegemony for herself by diplomatic trickery. by amity with france she wished to keep italy down; by amity with england to overawe turkey: by the alliance of both, as well as by the pressure she thought to exert over prussia and the other german states, to humble and lame russia, in whom she saw the sole antagonist of her visionary hegemony. this plan, however, which explains the attitude of austria during the eastern war, was condemned to failure, as the massive power of russia, under the most favorable circumstances, could only be transitorily shaken by the temporary alliance of england and france; was condemned, as france certainly did not remain quiet in the west, out of pure friendship for austria, after measuring swords with russia in the east; was condemned because england scarcely would do any thing for austria after attaining[277] her ends in the east; finally it was most certainly condemned, as austria undervalued the power of prussia to an almost incomprehensible degree. bismarck foresaw this failure, and, in his opinion, prussia ought to make use of the crisis which had arrived to save herself and germany from austria. hence at berlin he continually urged the uttermost possible increase in the strength of the army. nor were his warnings neglected, but, to his deep sorrow, circumstances took such a form that when the crisis actually came prussia made no use of the situation. when the italian war broke out, when prussia did not declare against austria, the ministry thought the presence of bismarck in frankfurt had become an impossibility, and he was recalled. it was reserved for bismarck himself, eight years afterwards, to carry through his german policy, by which prussia was alone to accomplish her proper position, although at that time it was in alliance with france. bismarck, in 1858, left the scene of his activity in frankfurt with a heavy heart. he was convinced it was only there, where he was so accurately acquainted with the ground, that he could render his king and country important services. he departed with patriotic indignation at the contempt which austria openly showed towards prussia, but he also knew that a time of retribution would arrive.

his position at frankfurt gave bismarck an advantage not lightly esteemed by the statesman. frankfurt lies like a great hotel on the road into which the great european travelling guild especially loves to call in the summer time. not only did the representative of prussia entertain princely guests, related or friendly to the royal house of prussia, but gradually became acquainted with a great number of the ministers and diplomatists of all european states. among the princely personages whom he received in frankfurt, and to whom he afterwards paid his respects in the watering-places close at hand, we should especially name the grand-duchess helena of russia, a born princess of würtemberg and widow of the grand-duke michael paulowitsch, a lady of extraordinary abilities, and well informed in political matters, whose influence is said to be very great, and that not alone in russia.

among the statesmen whose acquaintance bismarck made upon the rhine, we must first name the venerable prince metternich,[278] to whom he paid a visit, shortly after his arrival in frankfurt in the summer of 1851, at the castle of johannisberg. he had many conversations with the man who had so long conducted the policy of austria, in more than one respect, in so masterly a manner, and, in contradistinction to schwarzenberg, had ever evinced a statesmanlike amenity towards prussia, and continued to do this in a very distinct manner.

metternich and bismarck seated together at the johannisberg! the one venerable with age, who had been every thing; the other a man who was to become every thing. the representative[279] of the past, and the representative of the future; the past had been allotted to austria, the future was to be the heritage of prussia. the present and the johannisberg constituted the neutral ground where the last remains of austrian good-will towards prussia, and the last fragments of traditional reverence for austria in bismarck’s patriotic heart, were to meet. the two statesmen parted from each other with mutual respect.