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22 - Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire by James Headlam-Morley · Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty two of Pismack and the Foundation of the
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  Speaker 1: German Empire by James Headlam. This Livery Books recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain recording by Esseskin, Seoul, South Korea,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirteen, The Outbreak of War with France, eighteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: seven to eighteen seventy, Part two. Benedetti also was absent
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  Speaker 1: in the Black Forest on the fourth of July. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the French charge of affair, Muschieu de Sour, called at
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  Speaker 1: a foreign office and saw Helvon Tiller visibly embarrassed. He writes,
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  Speaker 1: he told me that the Prussian government was absolutely ignorant
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  Speaker 1: of the matter and that it did not exist for them.
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  Speaker 1: This was the only answer to be got. In a
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  Speaker 1: dispatch sent on the eleventh to the Prussian agents in Germany,
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  Speaker 1: Pismack repeated the the matter has nothing to do with Prussia.
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  Speaker 1: The Prussian government has always considered and treated this affair
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  Speaker 1: as one in each Spain, and the selected candidates alone concerned.
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  Speaker 1: This was literally true, for it had never been brought
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  Speaker 1: before the Prussian ministry, and no doubt the records of
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  Speaker 1: the Office would contain no allusion to it. The majority
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  Speaker 1: of the ministers were absolutely ignorant of it. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur d'ursour did not believe her Vntille's statements, and his
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  Speaker 1: government was not satisfied with the explanation. The excitement in
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  Speaker 1: Paris was increasing. It was fomented by the agents of
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  Speaker 1: the ministry, and in answer to an interpolation in the Chamber,
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  Speaker 1: the Duc de Gramont on the sixth declared that the
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  Speaker 1: election of the prince was in administiple. He trusted to
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  Speaker 1: the wisdom of the Prussian and the of the Spanish
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  Speaker 1: people not to proceed in it. But if his hope
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  Speaker 1: were frustrated, they would know how to do their duty.
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  Speaker 1: They were not obliged to endure that of foreign power
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  Speaker 1: by setting one of its princes on the throne of
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  Speaker 1: the charge the fifth should destroy the balance of power
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  Speaker 1: and endanger the interest and honor of France. He hoped
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  Speaker 1: this would not happen. They relied on the wisdom of
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  Speaker 1: the German and the friendship of the Spanish people to
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  Speaker 1: avoid it. But if it were necessary, then, strong in
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  Speaker 1: the support of the nation and the Chamber, they knew
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  Speaker 1: how to fulfill their duty without hesitation or weakness. The
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  Speaker 1: French ministry here by public political earth that they held
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  Speaker 1: the Pressian government responsible for the election, and they persisted
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  Speaker 1: in demanding the withdrawal not from Spain but from Prussia.
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  Speaker 1: Prim had suggested that, as the Foreign Office refused to
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  Speaker 1: discuss the matter, Grammont should approach the King personally. Benedetti
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  Speaker 1: received instructions to go to the King at Ams and
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  Speaker 1: recast him to order or advise the Prince to withdraw.
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  Speaker 1: At first, Grammon wished him also to see the Prince himself.
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  Speaker 1: On second thoughts, he forbade this, for, as he said,
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  Speaker 1: it was of the first importance that the messages should
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  Speaker 1: be conveyed by the King. He was determined to use
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity for the humiliation of Germany. If it was
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  Speaker 1: the desire of the French in this way to establish
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  Speaker 1: the complicity of Prussia, it was imperative that the Prussian
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  Speaker 1: government should not allow them to do so. They were
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  Speaker 1: indeed in a disagreeable situation. They could not take up
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  Speaker 1: the French challenge and allow war to break out. Not
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  Speaker 1: only would the feeling of the neutral powers of England
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  Speaker 1: and of Russia be against them, but that of Germany
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  Speaker 1: itself would be divided. With what force would the anti
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  Speaker 1: Prussian party in Bavaria and Burdenburg be able to oppose
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  Speaker 1: a war undertaken apparently for the dynastic interests of the
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  Speaker 1: Juen Soulotan. If, however, the Prince now withdrew the French
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  Speaker 1: would be able to proclaim that he had done so
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  Speaker 1: in consequence of the open threats of France. Supposing they
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  Speaker 1: were able to connect the king in any way with him,
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  Speaker 1: then they might assert that they had checked the admission
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  Speaker 1: of Prussia. Prussian prestige would be seriously injured at home,
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  Speaker 1: and distrust of Prussian good faith would be aroused abroad.
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  Speaker 1: The king therefore had a difficult task. When Benedetti asked
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  Speaker 1: for an interview, he had been brought into this situation
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  Speaker 1: against his own will, and his foremost scuppers seemed fully justified.
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  Speaker 1: He complained of the violence of the French press and
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  Speaker 1: the ministry. He repeated the assertion that the Prussian government
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  Speaker 1: had been unconnected with the negotiations and had been ignorant
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  Speaker 1: of them. He had avoided associating himself with them, and
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  Speaker 1: had only given an opinion when Prince Leopold, having decided
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  Speaker 1: to accept as his consent. He had then acted not
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  Speaker 1: in his sovereign capacity as King of Prussia, but as
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  Speaker 1: head of the family, he had neither collected nor summoned
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  Speaker 1: his council ministers. Though he had informed Count Bismarck privately,
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  Speaker 1: he refused to use his authority to order the prince
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  Speaker 1: to withdraw, and said that he would leave him full freedom,
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  Speaker 1: as he had done before. These statesments were, of course
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  Speaker 1: verbally true. Probably the King did not know to what
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  Speaker 1: extent Bismarck was responsible for the acceptance by the prince.
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  Speaker 1: They did not make the confidence of the French any greater.
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  Speaker 1: It was now apparent that the King had been asked
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  Speaker 1: and had given his consent without considering the effect on France.
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  Speaker 1: They could not appears in this distinction between his acts
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  Speaker 1: as sovereign and his acts as head of the family,
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  Speaker 1: For as Benedetti pointed out, he was only head of
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  Speaker 1: the family because he was sovereign. All this time, Bismarck
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  Speaker 1: was still at Varzin, while Paris was full of excitement,
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  Speaker 1: while there were hourly conferences of the ministers, and the
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  Speaker 1: city was already talking of war, the Prussian ministers ostenxiously
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  Speaker 1: continued to enjoy their holidays. There was no danger in
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  Speaker 1: doing so. The army was so well prepared that they
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  Speaker 1: could afford quietly to await what the French would do.
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  Speaker 1: What Bismarck's plans and hopes were we do not know.
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  Speaker 1: During these days he preserved silence. The violence of the
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  Speaker 1: French gave him of further reason for refusing to enter
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  Speaker 1: into any discussion. When, however, he heard of Benedetti's visit
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  Speaker 1: to Ames, he became uneasy. He feared that the king
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  Speaker 1: would compromise himself. He feared that the French would succeed
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  Speaker 1: in their endeavor to inflict the diplomatic defeat on Prussia.
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  Speaker 1: He proposed to go to Ems to support the king,
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  Speaker 1: and on the twelfth left fasting. That night he arrived
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  Speaker 1: in Berlin. There he received the news that the Prince
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  Speaker 1: of uintulom On behalf of his son, had announced his withdrawal.
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  Speaker 1: The retirement was probably the spontaneous act of the prince
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  Speaker 1: and his father. The decisive influence was the fear lest
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  Speaker 1: the enmity of Napoleon might endanger the position of the
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  Speaker 1: Prince of Romania. Everyone was delighted the cloud of war
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  Speaker 1: was dispelled. Two men only were dissatisfied, Pismock and Grammond.
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  Speaker 1: It was the severest check, which Pismuck's policy had yet received.
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  Speaker 1: He had purchaded the Prince to accept against his will.
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  Speaker 1: He had purchased the king reluctantly to keep the negotiations
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  Speaker 1: secret from Napoleon, however others might disguise the truth. He
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  Speaker 1: knew that they had had to retreat from an untenable position,
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  Speaker 1: and retreat before the noise inserts of the French press
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  Speaker 1: and the open menace of the French government. His anger
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  Speaker 1: was increased by the fact that neither the King nor
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  Speaker 1: the Prince had, in this crisis acted as he would
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  Speaker 1: have wished. We have no authoritative statement as to the
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  Speaker 1: course he himself would have pursued. He had, according to
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  Speaker 1: his own statement, advised the King not to receive the
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  Speaker 1: French ambassador. Probably he wished that the Prince should declare
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  Speaker 1: that as the Spaniards had offered him the crown and
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  Speaker 1: he had accepted it, he could not now withdraw unless
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  Speaker 1: he was as to do so by Spain. The attempt
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  Speaker 1: of Gramond to face no color on Prussia would have
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  Speaker 1: been deprived of any response. Were pretext. He would have
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  Speaker 1: been compelled to bring pressure to bear on the Spaniards
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  Speaker 1: with all the dangers that that course would involve. We
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  Speaker 1: may suspect that he had advised this course, and that
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  Speaker 1: his advice had been rejected. However this may be, Bismarck
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  Speaker 1: felt the reverse so keenly that it seemed to him
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  Speaker 1: impossible he could any longer remain minister unless he could
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  Speaker 1: obtain redress for the inserts and menaces of France. What
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  Speaker 1: prospect was there now of this? It was no use
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  Speaker 1: now going on to Ems. He proposed to return next
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  Speaker 1: day to Vazin, and he expected that when he did so,
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  Speaker 1: he would be once more of private men. He was
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  Speaker 1: to be saved by the folly of the French. Grammond vain,
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  Speaker 1: careless and inaccurate, carried away by his hatred of Prussia,
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  Speaker 1: had had it, and blustering did not even see how
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  Speaker 1: great an advantage he had gained. When Guizu, now a
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  Speaker 1: very old man living in retirement, heard that the Prince
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  Speaker 1: had withdrawn, he exclaimed, what could fortune these people have?
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  Speaker 1: This is the finest diplomatic victory which had been won
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  Speaker 1: in my lifetime. This indeed the truth. How easy it
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  Speaker 1: would have been to declare that Franz had spoken and
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  Speaker 1: her wishes had been fulfilled. The government need have said
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  Speaker 1: no more, but every Frenchman would have always told the
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  Speaker 1: story how Pismack had tried to put a enjol on
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  Speaker 1: the throne of Spain, had been foiled by the word
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  Speaker 1: of the Emperor, and had been driven from office. Grammont
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  Speaker 1: prepared to complete the humiliation of Prussia, and in doing
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  Speaker 1: so he lost all and more than all he had won.
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  Speaker 1: He had at first declared that the withdrawal of the
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  Speaker 1: prince was wordless when it was officially communicated to him
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  Speaker 1: by Prussia. Now he extended his demands. He suggested to
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  Speaker 1: the Prussian ambassador at Paris that the king should write
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  Speaker 1: to the Emperor a letter, in each he should express
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  Speaker 1: his regret for what had happened and his assurance that
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  Speaker 1: he had had no intention of injuring France. To Benedetti,
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  Speaker 1: he telegraphed imperative orders that he was to recast from
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  Speaker 1: the king a guarantee for the future, and the promise
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  Speaker 1: that he would never again allow the Prince to return
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  Speaker 1: to the candidature. It was to give himself over to
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  Speaker 1: an implacable war. As soon as Bismarck called from Velta
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  Speaker 1: of the first suggestion, he telegraphed to him or Stone
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  Speaker 1: reprimanded for having risen to demands so prejudicial to the
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  Speaker 1: honor of his master, and ordered him, under the pretext
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  Speaker 1: of ill health, to depart from Paris and Libor post
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  Speaker 1: for which he had shown himself so ill suited. That
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  Speaker 1: same morning he saw Lord Augustus Loftus, and he explained
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  Speaker 1: that the instant was not yet closed. Germany, he said,
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  Speaker 1: did not wish for war, but they did not fear it.
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  Speaker 1: They were not called on to injure humiliations from France.
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  Speaker 1: After what had happened. They must have some security for
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  Speaker 1: the future. The Dic de Grammond must recall or explain
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  Speaker 1: the language he had used. France had begun to prepare
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  Speaker 1: for war, and that would not be allowed. It is
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  Speaker 1: clear but the English ambassador that Count Bismarck and the
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  Speaker 1: Prussian ministry regret the attitude which the King had shown
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  Speaker 1: to Count Benedetti and feel in regard to public opinion
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  Speaker 1: the necessity of guarding the honor of the nation. To
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  Speaker 1: the Crown Prince, who had come to Berlin, Bismarck was
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  Speaker 1: more open. He declared that the war was necessary. This
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  Speaker 1: very day there were taking place at Ams events which
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  Speaker 1: were to give him the opportunity for which he loaned on.
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  Speaker 1: Benedetti had fallen the task of presenting the new demands
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  Speaker 1: to the King. It was one of the most ungrateful
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  Speaker 1: of the many unpleasant duties which had been entrusted to
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  Speaker 1: him during the last few years. In the early morning,
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  Speaker 1: he went out in the whole hope that he might
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  Speaker 1: see someone of the court. He met the King himself,
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  Speaker 1: who was taking the waters. The King at once beckoned
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  Speaker 1: to him, entered into conversation, and showed him a copy
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  Speaker 1: of the Colonne Cassette containing the statement of the Prince's withdrawal. Benedetti, then,
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  Speaker 1: as in duty bound, asked permission to inform his government
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  Speaker 1: that the King would undertake that the candidature should not
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  Speaker 1: be resumed at any time. The King, of course refused,
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  Speaker 1: and when Benedetti pressed the request, repeated the refusal with
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  Speaker 1: some emphasis, and then, beckoning to his adjutant, who had
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  Speaker 1: withdrawn a few paces, broke off conversation. When a few
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  Speaker 1: hours later the King received a letter from the Prince
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: when Suloon, confirming the public statement, he sent a message
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  Speaker 1: to Benedetti by his at come, Count Razaville, and added
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  Speaker 1: to it that there would now be nothing for the
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  Speaker 1: to say. As the incidant was closed, Benedetti twice asked
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  Speaker 1: for another interview, but it was refused. He had done
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  Speaker 1: his duty, he had paide his request as he expected
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  Speaker 1: in vain. But between him and the King there had
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  Speaker 1: been no departure by what or gesture from the ordinary
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  Speaker 1: courtesy which we should expect from this to accomplish, Gentlemen.
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  Speaker 1: All the proceedings, indeed had been unusual, for it was
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  Speaker 1: not the habit of the King, as it was of Napoleon,
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  Speaker 1: to receive foreign envoys, except on the advice of his ministers,
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  Speaker 1: and the last conversation had taken place on the public
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  Speaker 1: promenade of the fashionable watering place. But the exception had
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  Speaker 1: been explained and justified by the theory that the king's
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: interest in the affair was domestic and not political. Both
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: were anxious to avoid war, and the King to the
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: last treated Benedette with marked graciousness. He while at ems,
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  Speaker 1: invited him to the royal table, and even now the
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  Speaker 1: next morning, before leaving Ams granted him an audience at
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  Speaker 1: the station to take leave. Nevertheless, he had been seriously
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: annoyed by these fresh demands. He was pained and surprised
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  Speaker 1: by the continuance of the French menaces, he could not
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  Speaker 1: but feel that there was a deliberate intention to force
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  Speaker 1: a quarrel on him. He determined, therefore to return to Berlin,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and ordered Abakan, secreted to the Foreign Office, who was
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  Speaker 1: with him, to telegraph to Pismack on account of what
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: had taken place, with the suggestion that the facts should
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  Speaker 1: be published. It happened that Bismarck, when the telegram arrived,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: was dining with Vaughan and Moltgue, who had both been
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  Speaker 1: someononed to Berlin. The three men were gloomy and depressed.
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  Speaker 1: They felt that the country had been stimulated, and they
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: saw no prospect of revenge. This feeling was increased when
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Bismarck read aloud the telegram to his two colleagues. These
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: repeated and impatient demand, this intrusion on the King's privacy,
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: this ungenerous playing with his kindly and pacific disposition, stirred
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: their deepest indignation. To them, it seemed that Benedetti had
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: been treated with the constellation he did not deserve. The
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: men who came with these proposals should have been repulsed
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: with more marked indignation, but in the suggestion that the
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  Speaker 1: effects should be published. Bismarck so the opportunity he had wished.
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  Speaker 1: He went into the next room and drafted the statement.
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  Speaker 1: He kept the valley wards of the original telegram, but
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: he left out much and oranged it so that it
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: should convey to the reader the impression not of what
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: had really occurred, but of what he would have wished
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  Speaker 1: should happen. With this he returned, and as he read
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: it to them, on and Mortcauier brightened. Here at last
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: was an answer to the French inserts. Before it sounded
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: like a chamad or retreat. Now it is a vanfaire,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: said Mortcuer. That's better, said Juan. Bismarck asked a few
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: questions about the army. One assured him that all was prepared.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Mortquire that though no one could ever foretell with certainty
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  Speaker 1: the result of a great war, he looked to it
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  Speaker 1: with confidence. They all knew that with the publication of
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: this statement, the last prospect of peace would be gone.
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  Speaker 1: It was published late that night in a special edition
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  Speaker 1: of the North German Gazette, and at the same time
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  Speaker 1: a copy was sent from the Foreign Office to all
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: German embassies and legations. It is not altogether correct to
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: call this, as has often been done, a fortification of
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: the telegram. Under no circumstances could Pismarked have published in
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: its original form the confidential message to him from his sovereign.
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  Speaker 1: All he had to do was to communicate to the
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: newspapers the facts of which he had been informed. Were
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: so much of the facts as it seemed to him
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: desirable that the public should know. He of course made
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: the selection in such a form as to produce upon
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: public opinion the particular effect which, for the purpose of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: his policy he wished. What to some extent justifies the charge,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: is that the older version was published under the heading MS.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: The official statement was supplemented by another notice in the
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: North German Gadget, which was printed in large type, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: stated that Benedetti had so far forgotten all diplomatic etiquette
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: that he had allowed himself to disturb the King in
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: its holidays, to intercept him on the promenade, and to
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: attempt to force demands upon him. This was untrue, but
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: on this point the telegram to Bismarck had been itself incorrect.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Besides this, Bismarck doubtless saw to it that the right
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: instructions should be given to the writers for the press,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: But indeed this was hardly necessary. The statement itself was
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: a call to arms. During all these days, the German
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: people had been left almost without instruction or guidance from
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the government. They had heard with astonishment the sudden outbreak
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of Gallic wrath. They were told, and were inclined to
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: believe it, that the Prussian government was innocent of the
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: hostile designs attributed to it, and the come of the
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: government had communicated itself to them. They remained quiet, but
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: they were still uneasy. They knew not what to think.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Now all doubts was removed. It was then true that
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: with unexampled eagerness, the French had faced an alien quarrel
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: upon them, had, without excuse or justification, advanced from insert
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to insert, and menace to menace. Now to crown the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: unparalleled acts they had sent this foreigner to intrude on
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: the reserve of the aged king and to insert him
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: publicly in his own country. Then the first reports came
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: from MS. It was said that the King had publicly
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: turned his back on Benedetti on the promenade, that the
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: ambassador had followed the King to his house and had
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: at last been shown to the door. But then even
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: then he had not scrupled again to intrude the King
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: at the railway station from one end of Germany to another,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: or storm of indignation roles. They had had enough of
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: this French annoyance. If the French wished for war, then
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: war should they have. Now there could be no longer
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: be talk of Prussian ambition. All differences of north and
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: South were swept away. Whatever the German tom was spoken,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: men felt that they had been inserted in the person
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: of the king, that it was there to protect his honor,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and from that day he reigned in their hearts as
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: uncrowned emperor. The telegram was as successful in France as
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: in Germany. There the question of peace and war was
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: still in debate. There was a majority for peace, and
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: indeed there was no longer an excuse for war which
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: would satisfy even of Frenchmen. Then there came, in quick succession,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: the recall and dis evolvement of the Prussian ambassador, news
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: of the serious language Pismack had used the Lord a Loftos,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and then dispatches from other courts that on official message
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: had been sent from Berlin carrying the record of the
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: insert offered to the King by the French ambassador. To
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: this the changed tone of the German press, the enthusiasm
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: with which the French challenge had been taken up, they
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: could have no doubt that they had gone too far.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: They would now be not the accuser, but accused, had
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: they wished. They did not retreat with the fear of
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: the parismal before them, and so they decided on war,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and on the fifteenth the official statement was made and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: approved in the chamber. It was on this same day
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: that the King traveled from Ems to Berlin. When he
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: left Ems, he still refused to believe in the serious
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: danger of war. But as he traveled north and saw
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the excited crowd they had thrown to meet him at
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: every station, his own belief was almost overthrown. To his surprise,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: when he reached Brandenburg, he found the Business and the
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Crown Prince awaiting him. The news that they had come
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: to meet the King was itself looked on almost as
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: a declaration of war. All through the return journey, Pismack
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: unsuccessfully tried to preciate his master to give the order
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: for mobilization. When they reached Berlin, they found the station
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: again surrounded by a tumultous drone. Through it pressed one
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: of the secretaries of the Foreign Office. He brought the
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: news that the order for mobilization had been given in France. Then,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: at last the reluctance of the king was broken down.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: He gave the order, and at once the Crown Prince,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: who was standing near, proclaimed the news to all within earshot.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: The North German Parliament was summoned, and five days later
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Bismarck was able to announce to them that he had
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: received the declaration of war from France, adding as he
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: did so, that this was the first official communication which,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: throughout the whole affair he had received from the French government,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: or circumstance for which there was no president in history.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: What a contrast is there between the two countries. On
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: the one hand, a king and the minister, who, by
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: seven years of loyal cooperation, have learned to trust and
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: depend upon one another, who together have faced danger, who
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: have not shrunk from extreme unpopularity, and who just for
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: this reason can now depend on the absolute loyalty of
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: the people. On the other side, the emperor, broken in health,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: his will shattered by prolonged pain and sickness, trying by
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: the introduction of liberal institutions, to free himself from the
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: bottom of government and weight of responsibility which he had
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: voluntarily taken upon his shoulders at Berlin. Bismarck's severity and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: love or power had brought it about that the divergent
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: policy and uncertainty of all years had ceased. There was
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: one mind and one will directing this state. The unauthorized
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: interference and amateur criticism of Courtius were no longer permitted.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: In France. All the evils from which Prussia had been
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: freed by Pismarck were increasing. Here there was no single will.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: The ministry was divided, there was no authority over them.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: No one could foresee by whom the decision of the
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: Emperor would be determined. The deliberate results of long and
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: painful negotiations might be overthrown in ten minutes by the
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: interference of the Empress or the advice of Prince Napoleon.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: The Emperor would pursue half a dozen inconsistent policies in
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: as many hours, and then below all there was this
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: fatal fact that Napoleon could not venture to be unpopular.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: He knew the folly of the course into which he
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: was being driven, but he did not dare to face
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: the mob of Paris or to defy the Chamber of Deputies.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: He owed his throne to universal suffrage, and he knew
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: that the people who had set him up could quickly
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: overthrow him. No man can ever govern who fears on popularity.
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: Pismack did not Napoleon did. Before the campaign began, two
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: events took place which we must record. The first was
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: the publication in the Times of the text of the
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: treaty with France regarding Belgium. We did not add anything
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: further to what you have said regarding it. Published at
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: this moment, it had a great effect on English public opinion.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: The other arose out of the opposition which they exiled.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: The King of Hanover had continued to maintain. He had
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: used the very largest sums of money which he possessed
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: to keep together a Hanoverian legion recruited from former officers
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and soldiers of the Hanoverian army. He had hoped that
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: war would break out before this and would be accompanied
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: by a rising in Hanover. His means had now come
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: to an end, and the unfortunate men were living in
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Paris almost without support. They were now exposed to a
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: terrible alternative. They could not return to Germany. They did
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: not wish to take part in the war on the
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: French side. Their only hope was emigration to America. Bismarck
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: heard of their position, he offered to pardon them all
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and to pay to them from the Prussian funds the
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: full pension which they would have received had they continued
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: to serve in the Hanoverian army. It was the time
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the act of generosity, and it had the effect that
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: the last elements of hostility in Germany was stilled, and
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: the whole nation could unite as one man in this
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: foreign war. End of Section twenty two.