BISMARCK AS THE TYPICAL GERMAN.

By WILLIAM G. TAYLOR, of New York City.

The people of a century ago sought to express the impression made upon them by Louis XIV. when they attributed to that monarch the famous expression "L'état, c'est moi." If fabling were in vogue among us of to-day, we should doubtless put into Bismarck's mouth the words, "L'allemagne, c'est moi." In the popular mind Bismarck stands for Germany, and people even look over their shoulders and whisper when they talk about him, as if this Colossus had some sort of tyrannical control over their destinies. The traveller in Germany, who cannot go out of his hotel without meeting squads of soldiers and hearing flourish of trumpets; who beholds uniforms, of the same general pattern, on every side; who has been told, not always in the pleasantest tones, to take off his hat in the presence of some humble and poorly paid representative of the state; who has been to trouble and expense to obtain a passport, because he has happened to wander into a town which he learns is in a state of siege; and who finds himself hemmed in by countless regulations and requirements of which he had never before dreamed, is apt to think either that he has fallen into the most intolerable despotism on the face of the earth, or that he has been heretofore living in an unaccountably slack and easy-going community.

As to the latter supposition, he will soon perceive that in non-official matters there are no more activity and precision than at home.

This first impression of the unpleasant omnipresence of the state is hard to get rid of, unless the traveller settles

down and becomes a German himself: and it is all summed up by the word "Bismarck."

But the constraint of German life does not end with the extensive interference of the state. A closer inspection shows that it is inherent in the people themselves. The whole social fabric, without as well as within the official world, is pervaded by it. Next in importance to official restraint comes caste restraint,-the relation of inferior and superior, the constant touching of caps and hats on the one side, and the distant recognition on the other.

Circle the globe from west to east and you will pass progressively from no-caste land to all-caste land.

Germany lies mid-way.

In this respect Germany is oriental. Caste by itself, and unaccompanied by other institutions, is a mark of stagnant civilization. It is by learning and industry that the Germans hold themselves in the front rank of the nations. The Orientals are weighed down by caste, sloth, and ignorance. The Germans succeed by industry and learning, in spite of caste. In the Orient, caste is a matter of religion. In Germany, it is a relic of retarded development, not sanctioned by religion, and but slightly recognized by law.

The ever-manifest military system, and the unusually extended attributes of the state, give one an impression of force, a consciousness of the presence of despotism, dogmatism, and domination, which lapse of time and nearer acquaintance never succeed in fully effacing. Connected with this impression of force is the allied one of conservatism; and this impression of repressive, conservative force we naturally attribute to the man that stands to us as the type of the Germans.

I am first led to inquire, therefore, how far Bismarck is conservative, and what is the nature of his conservatism.

The German is nothing if not doctrinaire. Owing to the medieval constitution of state and society, it was impossible that the oriental tendencies could be effectively combated without a vigorous outflow of educational impulse from the top downwards; not, indeed, to the extent observable in

Russia, where the people seem to owe all advances to the initiative of government; and still less to the degree of the Chinese, who have perfected a civilization on the paternal plan. In other words, the German has been systematized and civilized by the universities and the government. The professors themselves are Germans, and they have naturally proceeded in ways quite suited to Germans. But what is peculiar about a civilization proceeding from the government is that it first turns its attention to the matters of most interest to the government, viz.: to the administration.

Prussia was very poor in the days of Frederick William I., two hundred years ago, and the problem was presented of creating a great military force on slender means. This problem was faced with persistency, ability, and success. A line of able and patriotic rulers addressed themselves to it. The Kingdom of Prussia was fortunate in just the point at which the Holy Roman Empire of five hundred years ago had fallen to pieces,-in having an unbroken succession of monarchs who lived long enough to carry out their high plans.

It was in the reign of Frederick William III., in the Napoleonic and the immediately succeeding period, that this system reached its highest perfection. The maturity and greatest activity of the great organizers, Stein and Hardenberg, fall in with the infancy and youth of Otto v. Bismarck, who was born April 1, 1815. The Treaty of Vienna was signed on the 9th of June, and the battle of Waterloo took place on the 18th of June of the same year.

It will therefore be seen that Bismarck had nothing to do with creating the great administrative organization which finally enabled the dwellers on the sand barrens of Brandenburg and Prussia to conquer Germany, Austria, and France.

On the contrary, in this respect as in many others, Bismarck has completely broken with conservative tradition. It is precisely this trait which I would signalize as un-German, and indicative of the strong and independent personality of the man. He was always averse to restraint.

He would ride wildly over the Pomeranian moors until his steed stumbled and he lay for hours stunned by the shock. With equal disregard of consequences, he plunged into debate in the provincial assemblies of Frederick William III. and in the Estates Parliament of Frederick William IV. Although he seemed to be an ultra reactionary, his methods were those of an ultra radical. The discipline of the university and the pedantry of the professors and lawyers who constituted the bulk of the various succeeding Prussian parliaments and the Frankfort National Assembly of 1848, like Dahlman and Gagern, seem to have exercised a decidedly repellent influence upon him. The nature of this repulsion may best be illustrated by Bismarck's own description of an interview between him and Gagern in 1850:

me.

"I tackled Gagern about politics, and explained my whole position in a very sober and business-like way. You should have heard Gagern. He put on his Jupiter face, lifted his eyebrows, bristled up his hair, rolled his eyes about, fixed them on the ceiling till they all but cracked, and talked at me with his big phrases, as if I had been a public meeting. Of course, that got nothing out of I answered him quite coolly, and we remained as far apart as ever. When Manteuffel came back to us, and Jupiter had had time to disappear, Manteuffel asked me, 'Well, what have you made up with each other?' 'Indeed,' said I, 'nothing is made up. He is frightfully stupid and takes me for a public meeting, the rude phrase-watering-pot of a fellow! Nothing is to be done with him!'" (Busch, "Bismarck in the Franco-Prussian War," ii., 13.)

Bismarck was intended by his mother for a diplomatic career (Hesekiel, “Life of Bismarck,” 108), and a diplomatist he has always been. Even his methods in internal affairs have been those of diplomacy (A. Leroy-Beaulieu, lectures; Dawson, "Prince Bismarck and Socialism," 27). On a nature like his, however, the formalities of diplomacy would have no charm. In this, as in all things, he goes for the essence. As a young referendar he informed his president that "Herr v. Bismarck was as good as Herr v. Anybody Else" (Hes., 135).

In later life we find the same spirit manifested in vigorous opposition to doctrinairism:

"For me there has been but one compass, one pole-star, after which I have steered: Salus publica. Since I entered public life, I have often, perhaps, acted rashly and imprudently. But when I have had time for reflection I have always been guided by the question-what is most beneficial, most expedient, and proper for my dynasty, so long as I was only in Prussia, and nowadays for the German Nation? I have never in my life been doctrinaire. All systems by which parties are divided and bound together are of secondary moment. My first thought is of the nation, its position abroad, its independence, our organization in such a way that we may breathe freely in the world." (Dawson, 25.)

Bismarck's extraordinary ability to distinguish the unessential from the essential is precisely what has constituted his strength as a conservative. The hide-bound German professor, as much attached to bureaucracy, or to free-trade, or to English self-government as to German unity, is an unwieldy element in politics. It is by being always abreast of the times, and always ready to adopt new methods, that Bismarck has made the most effective of conservatives. This is what constitutes the difference between him and Metternich. The latter covered his superficiality by skilfully put ting off the inevitable; the former frankly recognized every obstacle and every advance in opinion as he met it, and turned to use for conservative purposes those innovations which he could not abolish. The shrewd arbiter of the latter half of this century did not need to go to Johannisberg in 1851 (Lowe, "Prince Bismarck,” i., 129) in order to receive the mantle of conservatism from the gay deceiver of the first half. He had already gained it on well fought fields.

The enthusiasm which drove out the French and freed the Germans in 1813 had perpetuated itself by a movement sympathetic with French progressive ideas. This was eminently consistent, since it is honorable to acknowledge and accept superior ideas, while it is demoralizing to submit to a political subjugation. The treaty of Vienna in 1815 had contained a provision for constitutional government through the estates of the different German powers and principalities. This provision was soon complied with by all the South German states. But the liberal student movement alarmed Metternich, who propped up the weak con