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28 - 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 eight of Pismarck 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 essays Chem Soul, South Korea,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen, The Triple Alliance and Economic Reform eighteen seventy
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  Speaker 1: eight to eighteen eighty seven, Part two. If we look
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  Speaker 1: at the matter purely from the economic point of view,
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  Speaker 1: it is indeed difficult to see what benefits Germany would
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  Speaker 1: gain from a policy of free trade. It was the
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  Speaker 1: poor country. If it was to maintain itself in the
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  Speaker 1: modern rivalry of nations, it must become rich. It could
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  Speaker 1: only become rich through manufacturers, and manufacturers had no opportunity
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  Speaker 1: of growing unless they had some moderate protection from foreign competition.
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  Speaker 1: The effect of peace Mark's attention to finance was not
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  Speaker 1: limited to these great reforms. He directed the whole power
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  Speaker 1: of the government to the support of all forms of
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  Speaker 1: commercial enterprise and to the removal of all hindrances to
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  Speaker 1: the prosperity of the nation. To this task he devoted
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  Speaker 1: himself with the same courage and determination which he had
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  Speaker 1: formerly shown in his diplomatic work. One essential element in
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  Speaker 1: the commercial reform was the improvement of the railways. Bismarck's
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  Speaker 1: attention had long been directed to the inconveniences which arose
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  Speaker 1: from the number of private companies, whose duty it was
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  Speaker 1: to regard the dividends of the shareholders rather than the
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  Speaker 1: interest of the public. The existence of a monopoliotis kind
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  Speaker 1: in private hands seemed to him indefensible. His attention was
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  Speaker 1: especially directed to the injury done to trade by the
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  Speaker 1: differential rate imposed on goods traffic. On many lines, it
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  Speaker 1: was the custom to charge lower rates on imported than
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  Speaker 1: on exported goods, and this naturally had a very bad
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  Speaker 1: effect on German manufacturers. He would have liked to remedy
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  Speaker 1: all these deficiencies by making all railways the property of
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  Speaker 1: the Empire. We see again his masterful mind, which his
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  Speaker 1: lags all compromise. In this, however, he was prevented by
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  Speaker 1: the opposition of the other states, who would not surrender
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  Speaker 1: the control of their own lines. In Prussia he was
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  Speaker 1: able to carry out the policy appurchase of all private
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  Speaker 1: lines by the state. By the time he laid down
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  Speaker 1: the Ministry of Commerce, hardly any private companies remained. The
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  Speaker 1: occudition of older lines enabled the government greatly to improve
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  Speaker 1: the communication to law affairs, and to introduce through communications.
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  Speaker 1: All these, of course greatly added to the commercial enterprise
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  Speaker 1: and therefore the wealth of the country. He was now
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  Speaker 1: able to give degrees his encouragement and support to those
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  Speaker 1: Germans who, for many years in countries beyond the sea,
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  Speaker 1: had been attempting to lay the foundations for German commons
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  Speaker 1: and even to acquire German coloniests. Bismarck's attitude in this
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  Speaker 1: matter deserves careful attention. As early as eighteen seventy four
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  Speaker 1: he had been approached by German travelers to ask for
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  Speaker 1: the support of the government in a plan for acquiring
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  Speaker 1: German colonists in South Africa. They pointed out that he
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  Speaker 1: was a country fitted by its climate for European occupation.
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  Speaker 1: The present inhabitants of a large portion of it, the Boers,
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  Speaker 1: were anxious to establish the independence of England and would
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  Speaker 1: welcome German support. It was only necessary to apply a
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  Speaker 1: port either at Santa Lucia or at Delaware Bay to
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  Speaker 1: receive a small subside from the government, and then private
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  Speaker 1: enterprise would divote the stream of German emigration from North
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  Speaker 1: America to South Africa. Bismarck, though he gave courtious hearing
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  Speaker 1: to this proposal, could not promise them assistance, for, as
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  Speaker 1: he said, the political situation was not favorable. He must
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  Speaker 1: foresee that an attempt to carry out these or similar
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  Speaker 1: plans would inevitably bring about very serious difficulties with England,
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  Speaker 1: and he had always been accustomed to attach much importance
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  Speaker 1: to his good understanding with the English government. During the
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  Speaker 1: following years, however, the situation was much older. First of all,
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  Speaker 1: great enterprise had been shown by the German merchants and
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  Speaker 1: adventures in different parts of the world, especially in Africa
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  Speaker 1: and in the Pacific. They, in these difficulties which will
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  Speaker 1: always occur when white traders settle in half civilized lands,
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  Speaker 1: applied for support to the German government. Bismarck, as he
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  Speaker 1: himself said, did not dare to refuse them this support.
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  Speaker 1: I approached the metal with some reluctance. I asked myself,
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  Speaker 1: how could I justify it if I said, to these
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  Speaker 1: enterprising men, over whose courage, enthusiasm and vigor I have
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  Speaker 1: been hardly pleased. That is all very well, but the
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  Speaker 1: German Empire is not strong enough. It would attract the
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  Speaker 1: ill will of other states. I have not the courage
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  Speaker 1: as Chancellor to declare to their this bankruptcy of the
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  Speaker 1: German nation for transmarine enterprises. It must, however, happen that
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  Speaker 1: wherever these German settlers went, they would be in the
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  Speaker 1: neighborhood of some English colony. And, however friendly was the
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  Speaker 1: relations of the governments of the two powers, disputes must
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  Speaker 1: occur in the outlying paths of the earth. In the
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  Speaker 1: first years of the Empire, Bismack had hoped that German
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  Speaker 1: traders would find sufficient protection from the English authorities, and
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  Speaker 1: anticipated they are taking advantage of the full freedom of
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  Speaker 1: trade allowed in the British colonies, they would get all
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  Speaker 1: the advantages which would arise from establishing their own colonies,
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  Speaker 1: while the government would be spared any additional responsibility. He professed, however,
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  Speaker 1: to have learned by experience from the difficulties which came
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  Speaker 1: at the annexation of the Fiji Islands by Great Britain,
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  Speaker 1: that this hope would not be fulfilled. He acknowledged the
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  Speaker 1: great friendliness of the Foreign Office, but complained that the
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  Speaker 1: Colonial Office regarded exclusively British interests. As a complaint coming
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  Speaker 1: from his mouth, this arouses some amusement. The Colonial Office
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  Speaker 1: expressed it self satisfied to have received from so high
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  Speaker 1: on authority or testimonial to its efficiency, which it had
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  Speaker 1: rarely gained from Englishmen. The real change in the policy
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  Speaker 1: of the Empire must, however, be attributed not to any
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  Speaker 1: imaginary shortcomings of the English authorities. It was an inevitable
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  Speaker 1: result of the abandonment of the policy of free trade
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  Speaker 1: and of the active support which the government was now
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  Speaker 1: given to all forms of commercial enterprise. It was shown
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  Speaker 1: first of all in the grant of subsidies to male steamers,
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  Speaker 1: which enabled German trade and German travelers henceforward to be
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  Speaker 1: carried by German ships, before they had depended entirely on
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  Speaker 1: English and French lines. It was not till eighteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: four that the government saw its way to undertake protection
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  Speaker 1: of German colonies. They were enabled to do so by
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  Speaker 1: the great change which had taken place in the political situation.
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  Speaker 1: Up to this time. Germany was powerless to help or
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  Speaker 1: to endure England, but on the other hand required English support.
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  Speaker 1: All this was changed by the occupation of Egypt. Here
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  Speaker 1: England required or support on the continent against the indignation
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  Speaker 1: of France and the jealousy of Russia. This could only
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  Speaker 1: be found in Germany, and therefore or close approximation between
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  Speaker 1: the two countries was natural. Pismack let it be known
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  Speaker 1: that England would find no support, but rather opposition, if she,
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  Speaker 1: on her side, attempted, as she so easily could have done,
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  Speaker 1: to impede German colonial enterprise. In his colonial policy. Bismarck
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  Speaker 1: refused to take the initiative. He refused also to undertake
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  Speaker 1: the direct responsibility for the government of their new possessions.
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  Speaker 1: He imitated the older English plan and left the government
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  Speaker 1: in the hands of private companies who received the charter
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  Speaker 1: of incorporation. He avow Italy was imitating the East India
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  Speaker 1: Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. The responsibility of the
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  Speaker 1: German government were limited to protection of the companies against
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  Speaker 1: the attack or interference by any other power, and general
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  Speaker 1: control over the actions. In this way, it was password
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  Speaker 1: to avoid calling on the Rakistack for any large sum
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  Speaker 1: or undertaking the responsibility of an extensive colonial establishment for
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  Speaker 1: which at the time they had neither men nor experience.
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  Speaker 1: Another reason against the direct annexation of foreign countries lay
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  Speaker 1: in the constitution of the Empire. It would have been
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  Speaker 1: easier to annex fresh Land to Prussia. This could have
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  Speaker 1: been done by the authority of the king. There was, however,
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  Speaker 1: no provision by which the Bundeskrat would undertake this responsibility,
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  Speaker 1: and it probably could not be done even with the
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  Speaker 1: ascent of the Rakis Stack, unless some changes were made
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  Speaker 1: in the constitution. It was, however, essential that the new
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  Speaker 1: exhibition should be German and not Prussian. These changes were
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  Speaker 1: not introduced without much opposition. The Progressives especially distinguished themselves
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  Speaker 1: by the prolonged refusal to assent even to the subsidies
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  Speaker 1: for German lines of steamers. In the Parliament of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty four, they were enabled often to throw out government proposals.
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  Speaker 1: It was at this time that the conflict between Pismack
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  Speaker 1: and Richt reached its height. He complained, and justly complained,
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  Speaker 1: that the policy of the Progressives was then as always negative.
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  Speaker 1: It is indeed strange to notice how we find reproduced
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  Speaker 1: in the Germany that same feeling which a few years
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  Speaker 1: before had in England nearly led to the loss of
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  Speaker 1: the colonies and the destruction of the Empire. It is
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  Speaker 1: too soon even now to consider fully the result of
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  Speaker 1: this new policy introduction of protection had. Indeed, if we
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  Speaker 1: are to judge by appearances, brought about a great increase
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  Speaker 1: in the prosperity of the country, whether the scheme for
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  Speaker 1: all the age pensions will appease the discontent of the
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  Speaker 1: workingmen seems very doubtful. One thing, however, we must notice,
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  Speaker 1: the influence of the new policy is far greater than
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  Speaker 1: the immediate results of the actual law's past. It has
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  Speaker 1: taught the Germans to look to the government not only
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  Speaker 1: as a means of protecting them against the attacks of
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  Speaker 1: other states, but to see in it or thubtful and
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  Speaker 1: I think we may say, kindly guardian of their interests.
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  Speaker 1: They know that every attempt of each individual to gain
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  Speaker 1: wealth or power for its country will be supported and
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  Speaker 1: protected by the government. They know that there is constant
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  Speaker 1: watchfulness as the dangers to life and health which arise
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  Speaker 1: from the conditions of modern civilization. In these laws, in fact, Pismack,
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  Speaker 1: who deeply offended and irretrievably alienated the survivors of his
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  Speaker 1: own generation one over and secured for himself and also
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  Speaker 1: for the government, the complete loyalty of the rising generation.
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  Speaker 1: It might be supposed that this powerful action on the
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  Speaker 1: part of the state would interfere with private enterprise. The
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  Speaker 1: result shows that this is not the case. A watchful
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  Speaker 1: and provident government really acts as an incentive to each indivision.
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  Speaker 1: Let us also recognize that Pismack was acting exactly as
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  Speaker 1: in the old days every English government acted, when the
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  Speaker 1: foreign policy was dictated by the interests of British trade,
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  Speaker 1: and the home policy aimed at preserving, protecting, and assisting
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  Speaker 1: the different classes in the community. Bismack has often been
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  Speaker 1: called reactionary, and yet we find that by the social
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  Speaker 1: legislation he was the first statesman deliberately to apply himself
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  Speaker 1: to the problem which had been created by the alteration
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  Speaker 1: in the structure of society. Even if the solutions which
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  Speaker 1: he proposed do not prove in every case to have
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  Speaker 1: been the best, he undoubtedly also what would be the
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  Speaker 1: chief occupation for the statesmen of the future In these reforms.
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  Speaker 1: He had, however, little help from the reichistag. The Liberals
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  Speaker 1: were bitterly opposed, the Socialists skeptical and suspicious, the Catholic's
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  Speaker 1: cool and unstable allies. During these years, the chronic correl
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  Speaker 1: between himself and Parliament broke out with renewed vigor. How
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  Speaker 1: bitterly did he deplore parties be the bane of German life,
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  Speaker 1: which seemed each year to gain ground. It has, he said,
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  Speaker 1: transferred itself to our modern public life and parliament. The
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  Speaker 1: governments indeed stand together, but in the German rakistyle I
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  Speaker 1: do not find the guardian of liberty for which I
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  Speaker 1: had holed. Party spirit has over on us. This is
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  Speaker 1: which I accuse before God and history. If the great
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  Speaker 1: work about people achieved between eighteen sixty six and eighteen
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  Speaker 1: seventy fall into decay, and in this house we destroyed
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  Speaker 1: by the pan what has been created by the sword.
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  Speaker 1: In future years, it will perhaps be regarded as one
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  Speaker 1: of his chief claims that he refused to become a
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  Speaker 1: party leader. He saved Germany from osilious danger to each
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  Speaker 1: Almost every other country in Europe which has attempted to
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  Speaker 1: adopt the English institution has fallen a victim the sacrifice
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  Speaker 1: of national welfare to the integrity and power of parliamentary refraction.
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  Speaker 1: His desire was a strong and determined government, jealously working
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  Speaker 1: for the benefit of all classes, kicked to see and
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  Speaker 1: foresee present and future evil. He regarded not the personal
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  Speaker 1: wishes of individual, but looked only in each matter he
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  Speaker 1: undertook to its effect on the nation as a whole.
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  Speaker 1: I will accept help, he said, wherever I may get it.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot do what party any man belongs. I have
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  Speaker 1: no intention of following a party policy. I used to
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  Speaker 1: do so when I was a young and angry member
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  Speaker 1: of a party. But it is impossible for a Prussian
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  Speaker 1: or German minister. Though the constitution had been granted, he
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  Speaker 1: did not wish to surrender the oldest and best traditions
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  Speaker 1: of the Prussian monarchy. And even if the power of
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  Speaker 1: the king and Emperor was limited and checked by two parliaments,
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  Speaker 1: it was still his duty, standing above all parties, to
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  Speaker 1: watch over the country as one hundred years before his
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  Speaker 1: ancestors had done. His power, however, was checked by the parliament.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: Bismarck often sighed for a free hand. He longed to
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  Speaker 1: be able to carry out his reforms, complete and rounded,
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  Speaker 1: as they lay clear before him in his own brain.
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  Speaker 1: How often did he grown on the older delay, the compromise,
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  Speaker 1: the surrender which was imposed upon him, When conscious as
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  Speaker 1: he was that he was only striving for the welfare
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  Speaker 1: of his country. He had to win over not only
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  Speaker 1: the king, not only his colleagues in the Prussian ministry,
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  Speaker 1: his subordinates, who had much power to check and impede
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  Speaker 1: his actions, but above all the parliaments. It was inevitable
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: that his relation to them should often be one of conflict.
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  Speaker 1: It was their duty to submit to searching criticism the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: proposals of the government, and to amend or reject them,
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  Speaker 1: and let us confess that it was better. And they
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: were there. The modifications they introduced in the bills he
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: proposed were often improvements. Those they rejected were not always wise.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: The drafting of government bills was often badly done. The
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: first proposals for the Socialistic Law, the original draft of
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: many of its economic reforms, were all the better when
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: they had been once rejected and were again brought forward
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: in a modified form. More than this, we must confess
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: that Pismack did not possess that temperament which would make
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: it wise to interest him with absolute detectorial power in
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: internal matters. He attempted to apply to legislation habits he
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: had learned in diplomacy, and it is curious to notice
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Bismarck's extreme caution in diplomacy, where he was a recognized
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  Speaker 1: master and his rashness in legislation, where the ground was
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  Speaker 1: often new to him. In foreign affairs, a false move
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: may easily be withdrawn, a change of alliance quickly made.
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  Speaker 1: It often happens that speed is more important than wisdom.
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  Speaker 1: In internal affairs, it is different. Their delay is in
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  Speaker 1: a self of value. Moreover, force legislation cannot be imposed
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: with impunity. Laws cannot be imposed and repealed. Bismarck often
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: complained of the conduct of the Like his tak there
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: were in it two parties, the Socialists and Center, closely organized,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: admirably disciplined, obedient to leaders who were in opposition. By principle,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: they looked on the parliamentary campaign as a struggle for power,
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  Speaker 1: and they maintained the struggle with the persistency and success
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  Speaker 1: which had not been surpassed by any parliamentary opposition in
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: any other country. Apart from them, the attitude of all
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: parties was normally that of moderate criticism, directed to the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: matter of the government proposal. There were, of course, often
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: angry scenes. Bismarck himself did not spare his enemies. But
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: we find no events which show violence beyond what is,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: if not legitimate, at least inevitable. In all parliamentary assemblies,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: the main objects of the government were always attained. The
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: military budgets were always passed, though once not until after
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: the dissolution in the contest with the Clerical Party and
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the Socialists. The government had the full support of a
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: large majority, even in the hostile largest type of eighteen
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  Speaker 1: eighty four in each the Socialists, Clericals and Progressives together
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  Speaker 1: commanded the majority. Series of important laws were passed once. Indeed,
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the majority in opposition to the government went beyond the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: limits of reason and honor when they refused a vote
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of one thousand pounds for an additional director in the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Foreign Office. It was the expression of jealousy which had
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: no justification. In fact, at the time the German Foreign
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Office was the best managed department in Europe. The labor
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: imposed on the secretaries was excessive, and the nation could
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: not help contrasting this vote with the fact that shortly before,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: a large number of the members had vought it that
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: payment should be made to themselves. The nation could not
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: help asking whether it would not care more benefit from
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: another thousand pounds a year expanded on the Foreign Office
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: than from fifty thousand pounds a year for payment of members.
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  Speaker 1: Even this unfortunate action was remedied of a few months
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: later when the vote was passed in the same parliament
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  Speaker 1: by a majority of twenty. Notwithstanding all their internal differences
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: and the extreme party spirit which often prevailed, the rocky
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: staff always showed determination in defending its own privileges. More
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: than once Bismarck attacked them in the most tender points.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: At one time it was on the privileges of members
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and the freedom from arrest. Both during the struggle with
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: the clericals and with the socialists. The claim was made
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: through arrest members through the session for political utterances. When
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Beryl was subject to a state of siege, the present
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: of the police claimed the right of expelling from the
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: capital of noxious Socialist members. On these occasions, the government
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: found itself confronted by the unanimous opposition of the whole house.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty four, Bismarck proposed that the meetings of
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: the Kistaff should be bi annual and the budget voted
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  Speaker 1: for two years. The proposals were supported on the reasonable
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: grounds that thereby inconvenience and press of work would be avoted,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: which arose from meeting of the Prussian and German parliaments
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: every winter. Few votes, however, could be obtained for a
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: suggestion which seemed to cut away the most important privileges
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: of parliament. Another of the great causes of friction between
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: Bismarck and the Parliament arose from the question as to
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: freedom of debate. Both before eighteen sixty six and since that.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Here he made several attempts to introduce laws that members
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: should be, to some extent held responsible and under certain circumstances,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: be brought before a court of law in consequence of
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: what they had said from their places in Parliament. This
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: was represented as an interference with freedom speech and was
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: bitterly resented. Bismark, however, always professed, and I think truly,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: that he did not wish to control the members in
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: their opposition to the government, but place some check on
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: their personal attacks on individuals. A letter to one of
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: his colleagues, written in eighteen eighty three is interesting I
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: have he says, long learned the difficulties which educated people
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: who had been well brought up have to overcome in
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: order to meet the cooseness of our parliamentary cloth factor pugilist,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: with the necess the amount of indifference and to refuse
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: them in one's own consciousness. The undeserved honor of moral equality.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: The repeated and bitter sugars in each you have had
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: to fight alone, will have strengthened you in your feeling
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: of contempt for opponents who are neither honor enough nor
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: deserve sufficient respect to be able to enjoy you. There
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: was indeed a serious evil arising from the want of
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the feeling of responsibility in a parliamentary assembly which had
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: no great and honorable traditions. He attempted to meet it
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: by strengthening the authority of the House over its own members.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: The chairman did not possess any power of punishing breaches
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: of decorum. Prismark often contrasted this with the very great
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: powers over their own members possessed by the British houses
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: of Parliament. He drew attention to the precision by which,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: for instance, mister Primsel could be compelled to apologize for
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: hasty word spoken in a moment of passion. It is
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: strange that neither the Prussian nor the German Parliament consented
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: to adopt rules which are really the necessary complement for
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the privilege of parliament. The Germans were much disappointed by
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: the constant quarrels and disputes which was so frequent in
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: public life. They had hoped that with the unity of
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: their country or new period would begin. They found that,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: as before, the management of public affairs was disfigured by
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: constant personal enmities and the struggles of parties. We must, not, however,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: look on this as a bad sign. It is rather
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: more profitable to observe that the new institutions were not
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: affected or weakened by this friction. It was a good
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: sign for the future that the new state held together
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: as firmly as any old established monarchy, and that the
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: most important question of policy could be discussed and decided
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: without even raising any point which might be a danger
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: to the prominence of the empire. Bismarck himself did much
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: to put his relations with the Parliament on a new
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: and better footing, acting according to his general principle. He
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: felt that the first thing to be done was to
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: induce mutual confidence by unrestrained personal intercourse. The fact that
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: he himself was not a member of the Parliament deprived
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: him of those opportunities which an English minister enjoys. He
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: therefore instituted in eighteen sixty eight or parliamentary reception. During
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: the session, generally one day each week, his house was
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: opened to all members of the House. The invitations were
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: largely accepted, especially by the members of the National, Liberal
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: and Conservative parties. Those who were opponents on principle the center,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: the progressives and the socialists generally stayed away. These receptions
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: became the most marked feature in the political life of
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: the capital, and they enabled many members to come under
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: the personal charm of the Chancellor. What an event was
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: it in the life of the young and unknown deputy
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: from some obscure provincial town when he found himself sitting
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: in perhaps at the same table as the Chancellor, drinking
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the pier which Bismarck had brought into honor at Berlium,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: and for which his house was celebrated, and listening, while
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: with complete freedom from all ravans orpen posty, his host
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: talked as all he could. The weakest side of his
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: administration lay in the readiness with which he had recalls
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: to the criminal law to defend himself against political adversaries.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: He was indeed constantly subjected to attacks in the press,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: which were often unjust and sometimes unmeasured, but no man
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: who takes part in public life is exempt from calumny.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: He was himself never slow to attack his opponents, both
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: personally in the Parliament and still more by the hired
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: writers of the press. Nonetheless, to defend himself from attacks,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: he too often brought his opponents into the police court,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: and Bismarck Belidingen became a common offense. Even the editor
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: of Cladara Dachi was once imprisoned. He must be held
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: personally responsible for no action could be instituted without his
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: own signature to the charge. We see the same want
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: of generosity in the use which he made of attempts
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: were reputed attempts at assassination. In eighteen seventy five, while
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: he was at Kissingen, a young man shot at him.
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: He stated that he had been led to do so
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: owing to the attacks made on the Chancellor by the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Catholic Party. No attempt, however, was made to prove that
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: he had any accomplices. It was not even suggested that
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: he was carrying out the wishes of the party. It
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: was one of those cases which will always occur in
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: political struggles, when a young and inexperienced man will be
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: excited by political speeches to actions which no one would
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: foresee and which would not be the natural result of
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: the wars to which he had listened. Nevertheless, Pimuth was
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: not ashamed publicly in the Rakista to taunt his opponents
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: with the action and to declare that, whether they would
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: or not, the party was Kulman's party. He claims to
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: your courttails, he said, a similar event had happened a
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: few years before, when a young man had been arrested
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: on the charge that he intended to assessinate the Chancellor.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: No evidence in support of the charge was forthcoming, but
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: the excuse was taken by the police for searching the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: house of one of the Catholic leaders with whom the
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: accused had lived. No incriminating documents of any kind were found,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: but among the private papers was the correspondence between the
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: leaders in the Party of the Center, dealing with questions
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: of party organization and political tactics. The government used these
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: private papers for political purposes and published one of them.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: The constant use of the police in political warfare belonged,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: of course to the system he had edited. But nonetheless,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: it was to have been hoped that he would have
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: been strong enough to put it aside. The government was
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: now formally established, he could afford to be generous. Had
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: he definitely cut himself off from these bad traditions, he
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: would have comfort on his country, a blessing scarcely less
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: than all the others. The opposition of the parties in
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: the Rghy staff to his policy and person did not
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: represent the feelings of the country. As the years passed
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: by and the new generation grew, the admiration for his
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: past achievements and for his character only increased. His seventieth birthday,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: which he celebrated in eighteen eighty five, was made the
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: occasion for a great demonstration of regard, in which the
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: whole nation join. A national subscription was opened and the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: present of two million miles was made to him. More
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: than half of this was devoted to reprocessing that part
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of the estate at Schenhausen, which had been sold when
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: he was a young man. The rest he devoted to
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: forming an institution for the help of teachers in higher schools.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: A few years before, the Emperor had present to him
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: the Zaxenwagt, a large portion of the royal domains in
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: the Duchy of Lauenburg. He now prochessed the neighboring estate
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: of Frederic's rule, so that he had the third country
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: residence to which he could retire. It had a double
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: advantage its proximity to the Great Forest, in which he
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: loved to wander, and also to a railway, making it
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: little more than on our distance from Berlin. Was able, therefore,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: at Fredrick's Wull to continue his management affairs more easily
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: than he could at Varzin end of Section twenty eight.