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The Polish Revolt Bismarck's bid for power The Schleswig-Holstein difficulty Death of Lord Palmerston The Queen summons Lord John The second Russell Administration Lord John's tribute to Palmerston Mr. Gladstone introduces Reform The 'Cave of Adullam' Defeat of the Russell Government The people accept Lowe's challenge The feeling in the country.
Her heart beat fast, she flew away on wings of elation, imagining a future. He would be a Napoleon of peace, or a Bismarck and she the woman behind him. She had read Bismarck's letters, and had been deeply moved by them. And Gerald would be freer, more dauntless than Bismarck.
The memoranda supplied to Busch make regrettably few references to the subject, beyond giving the terms of the official resignation and some scanty addenda thereto; but enough is said generally by Busch concerning Bismarck's conversations to show that the Chancellor was deeply mortified by his dismissal.
Here we have the moral background of Bismarck's internal policy. His monarchism rested not only on his personal allegiance to the hereditary dynasty, although no medieval knight could have been more steadfast in his loyalty to his liege lord than Bismarck was in his unswerving devotion to the Hohenzollern house.
It was Bismarck's ambition, as was previously said, to make Prussia the leading military nation of Europe, and he knew that this meant a struggle with Napoleon. You will remember also that he planned a united Germany, led by Prussia, and he felt that the French war would bring this about.
There had already been a collision between the Emperor and the Chancellor and the latter might have to go. What then? Probably the Emperor thought of conducting foreign policy himself but that, added the Grand Duke, would be very dangerous. The feeling at Court regarding Bismarck's fall is shown by a passage in the Memoirs about this time.
Bismarck's misunderstanding of the French national character and political needs was well betrayed when he favored a Republic rather than a Legitimist monarchy in France, because a French Republic would, in his opinion, necessarily keep France a weak and divided neighbor. The Republic has kept France divided, but it has been less divided than it would have been under any monarchical government.
At the instance of one of his most consistent opponents Bismarck's name was included in the list on account of his great services to his country; a protest was raised by Virchow on the ground that no Minister while in office should receive a present, and that of all men Bismarck least deserved one, but scarcely fifty members could be found to oppose the vote.
The text of Bismarck's official resignation, after describing the origin of the Order, continues: "If each individual Minister can receive commands from his Sovereign without previous arrangement with his colleagues, a coherent policy, for which some one is to be responsible, is an impossibility.
General Prim had no course left him but to send to the French Ambassador, to give him official information as to what had been done and try to calm his uneasiness. What were Bismarck's motives in this affair? It is improbable that he intended to use it as a means of bringing about a war with France.
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