OUR LITERARY CORNER.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15243, 3 April 1915, Page 7

OUR LITERARY CORNER.

ORIGINAL AND SELECTED MATTER.

BISMARCK: HIS CENTENARY. ♦ GERMANY'S GREATEST CHANCELLOR.

(By James Collier.)

(SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOB "tO"C PRESS.") It is fitting that the list of centenaries this year, when men arc thinking moro of the all-engrossing present f. and the dread future than of the past, should bo short and inconsiderable. Three Germans, two Americans, a Frenchman, and an Englishman comjletc tho scanty roll, and all hut one or two of these were but slightly known outside of their own countries, Meissonicr. the French paiuter of vignettes rather than of pictures, was born on February 21st; ho had a certain re- * potation in the sixties and seventies, but .is now almost forgotten. On Juno 2nd was horn '.he U.S. General Kearney, of whom General Winfield Scott generously said: "He was the bravest man 1 ever knew, and the most perfect soldier." Robert Franz, the composer of unforgettable songs of the heart, was born on" June 28th, and Johann Gottfried Kinkol, "the poet jE freedom and democracy and the inspiied singer of tho rights of men,'' glorified August 11th. On December 13th camo Arthur Stanley, tho chivalrous and high-soulcd Dean of Westminster, and the year wound itself up by. witnessing on its last day the birth of General Meade, who fought the de- ' cisive battle of Gettysburg and so -saved the Union. BISMARCK'S YOUTH. It is altogether appropriate that the centenary of Prince Bismarck should be kept to the roar of cannon, tho welter of contending hosts, and the ( crash of falling cities. On All Fools' Day ono hundred years ago was born the man who made fools of co many men, and yet was himself, perhaps, the most tragical fool of them all. The story of a career lived in tno public eye is known to all, but a few dateß and a few events are requisite to give it perspective.. By his own account. Bismarck was in his youth the very image of his greatgdaniiinthrr, who was a mighty hunter before the* Lord, and a great toper. In a single year ho shot 15-4 red deer. Volleys wero fired at every toast, when the •". old Junker dined. Bismarck came of a dynasty of soldiers. His great-grand-father and the father of that ascen.dant fought against Louis XIV.; his . - . . grandfather fought ai> Rossbach under , Frederick* and his father and three of his -uncios fought- against Napoleon. Several of his relative-: fought on the Imperial sido in the Thirty Years' War: others fought on the Swedish side, and one as a mercenary on the side of the Huguenots. The offspring of such a fighting race was clearly predestined to bo a soldier or, if he could not bo that, to be a statesman of a military typo. Some of these military gentlemen appear to have.had the same,-racy: sneech and unconventional manners as their; great descendant. His father having died, his mother 'sent young Bismarck to be educated at a school in Berlin, where the pupils were trained in the principles of Pestalozzi and Jahn. There he remained six _ -years, and received a Spartan discipliue. His education was completed at Goettingen,. the university ■town of Hanovor, a kingdom which he was afterwards to annex to the German Empire. There he was so idle that he attended classes for only one hour *in two years. Out-side of the class-room, he showed himself hooted and spurred and with his dogs. Ho fought ' twenty-eight-students' duels, but came out of them scathless. Tlie young noble went back' to his native Pomerania to build up a fearful fame as a new incarnation of the Wild Huntsman. Ho scoured the forest for days together and Jed mad hunts, as his ancestors had done before him. And he-might have lived and died as. obscurely as they. But he was horn ■ a* into a different world. ',"J. ■'--,._ THE STATESMAN. ; for the diplomatic service, ■*fr\3» represented Prussia at the Imperial at Frankfort for eight years. For -"j K '*|nVee-years ho was Prussian Ambassa-""f';'<3b>r-at;St. Petersburg, and for a few ■'- -'- months he was Ambassador at Paris. ;'.'.*He : hnd served his apprenticeship. -V- fin-1862, with the accession of William I. to the throne of Prussia, camo Bismarck's hour. Who was to be the new Sovereign's Prime Minister and -"working-king"? After much hesitation tho horse gave-itself a rider, who "* speedily mastered it. Bismarck was .appointed, and the destinies of Prussia ,„■ and Germany, indeed of all Europe, were shaped for two generations, if not for all time. F.arly in . 1870 Bismarck said that '•Germany could now fight France and* beat her too. but that war would give ■. •, rise to five or six others: and while wo can gain our ends by -peaceful means, it would be foolish,, if not criminal, to take such a course." There is the key to Bismarck—his apparent success and .. his real failure. He admitted that he had advised three wars—that with Denmark, that with Austria, and- that with France.' Not one of these wars need ever have been waged. Denmark could have been brought to sur- "-. render Schlegwig, which was inhabited "V a German population, though not Holstcin, which was largely Scandinavian and ought never to havo been annexed. Austria could have been driven out of tho German Confederation by moral suasion, diplomatic action, and the pressure of public "•pinion. The war with Franco need never have occurred. It was deliborup by Bismarck, who confess- .,■ edjthat he.falsified King 'William's telegram from Ems. and thus made war v inevitable. Of this incident ho afterwards spoke with "a cunning smilo." As he read the unmutilated despatch ■-"v J?{Moltko and Roon, his guests at Berlin, Roon Was absolutely terrified * < wthe danger of there being no war), £'. ""•hi,© Moltko-soomed suddenly to ago i.v "■•"d grow infirm, but when Bismarck ''*-'. ■ M "^ c 'pnsly recast the despatch, 3loltke ';> recovered his perennial youth. War V';' wa *\J-OW mathematically certain. Even {-?V *f*^ cr > when Bismarck rodo fiom Var- «'"' .__*•"■'the railway station on his wayH:':f'.V c*'e *' J9 Berlin, he thrust his stick (or

NOTES ON BOOKS AND AUTHORS.

sword) upwards by way of salute to his pastor standing at his own gate, and the pastor perfectb" understood tho signal. Would that Bismarck could have remembered his own wiser counsel? The five or six wars that he foretold as the offspring of tho one war are now running their disastrous course TWO BISMARCKS? It has been contended by a thoughtful French publicist, M. Charles Benoist, that in reality there were two Bismarcks —Otto yon Bismarck aud Princo Bismarck, the family man and the statesman, tbe Bismarck of the first incarnation and of the second, whoso inner and private life differed as widely as possible from their outward and public life. It is "the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde" over again, or the double life of Deacon Brodie, the most respectable of Edinburgh citizens by day and a thief, a burglar, and an assassin by night. This bilateral theory has been applied to our own Sir George Grey and sure enough the writer once heard the old Governor expound on the midnight streets a scheme of. rebellion at the headquarters of the British Empire, while by day I havo heard him elaborate*the plan of an English-speaking confederacy that was founded oh love for his fellow-men. Nevertheless, I believe that the theory (which was at one time my own, and was stated to the late Walter Mantell) is radically false. Changes of character are known to take place. Interchanges of personality, like those of the U.S. clergyman, Piper, are unhesitatingly accepted by the psychical researchers. But these were abnormal cases, meet subjects for the patholo gist. Where a normal individual is bilaterally explained, the analysis has not gone deep enough. Push your probe to the bone, and you will find that the flesh and nerves of your inscrutable individual are woven of tho samo tissue. THE MISANTHROPE. First and chiefly, it is believed, Bismarck was a thorough-going pessimist. All that was in him could bo resolved into that and explained by that. This I take to be a lundamcntal error. A misanthrope, if you please/ but no pessimist. On the contrary, let him be given unbounded scope to carry his purposes into execution, and he - will speedily turn this world, or the portion of it that he rules, not into a paradise certainly, but yet into a tolerable habitation for human beings. His contempt for men, when left to themselves, was profound. His hatred of them, when they resisted his will, was diabolic and destructive. But let them do as he wanted, and he had nothing against them. Ho had all the attributes of the misanthrope. No one could esteem less both the individual man and mankind in a mass, could see it suffer with as dry an eye, or make it die with less compunction. His suspicions were ever on tho alert. ''How does ho treat you (his ambassadors)?" yon Keudell was asked. "As if we had stolen the spoons." His rancours were tenacious. When his will was disobeyed, he was relentless. Count Harry Arnim, uerman Ambassador at Paris, foolishly imagined that he could play, a game of rivalry with the great Chancellor. Bismarck, once his' subordinate, drove him from his high station, humiliated him before all the world, for appropriating State documents ; (as all Ambassadors could once do—there aro sheaves of Lord Burleigh's despatches at _ Hatfield), hounded him into exile, whitened his hair, and sent him prematurely to .his grave, while his son was expelled from his country's service. Just co did '■tho/J3ismarck dynasty" fare at the hands of the Kaiser a dozen years Jlater. ;:;» Years before he took a leading part in;public affairs, ho came to misanthropic, conclusions about his fellowmen.. In 1859, when he was Ambassador at St. Petersburg, he wrote to his wife:_ "To* sum-up, everything* is but a question df-jtime; peoples and individuals, madness;and wisdom, war and peace, all 'come and go like the waves, while the sea remams; On this earth there is nothing but hypocrisy and jugglery.'-' Mon being such as they are, he treated them as they deserve. ?ou had to he ten times in the right to come by your own with him, said one-of his intimates. Ho brutally trampled down all asserted rights that threatened to clash with his own. Ho did hot believe 1n friendship any more than Timon. "There are no won-*© inquisitors than are to he found in one'n own camp," he said searchingiy ono day during the Franco-German War, "and those who havo eaten with you of the same soup, are yonr worst enemies:" "I perceive that we cannot count upon men," he added. : THE CHANCELLOR. Dr. Busch painted the despotism of the German Chancellery under "Bismarck in dark colours. The officer (under-sec-retary, "inspired" - leader-writer, or I whoever it might be) who was sum- ! moncd to the august presence hurried r upstairs, stood before "the Chief" at i attention, like a soldier, and was all ear. He dared not misunderstand; he might not even ask questions or desire explanations; and if he ventured to hint that,- a thing could not be done, he provoked: an angry retort. Others of higher' rank fared ho better: and even the Foreign Secretary, yon Thile, confessed that he was always-.frightened when, he interviewed Bismarck. . His countenance inspired fear, and if his voice was ordinarily, soft and highpitched, like Sir George Grey's, ho could roar you like Bottom on occasion, as Grey also could. It will bo remembered that the Crown Prince of Austria betrayed fear whenever he met with Bismarck. "There- was a certain hardness in his nature." miidly remarks Busch; it was the hardness of wrought iron. The strictest order prevailed and unconditional obedience was the rule. There was but one will.. Counsellors were mere instruments" of that. Even the ambassadors, iv Bismarck's own phrase (he called them "my ambassadors") "must wheel round like noncommissioned officers at the word of command without knowing why"; and Arhim resented the declaration, but he afterwards bitterly expiated his disobedience. Anjnexorable discipline was maintained. IN MUFTI. Bismarck seldom laid aside his white cuirassier's uniform; he even addressed Parliament in it; but he did not play the Chancellor in private. At tho dinher-table. or seated on a chair or a bench at a French chateau, the great man would converse familiarly with his staff on any tonic that was raised. He doubtless oftenest led the conversation, but he was- Johnson or Carlyle, and did not nlay the dictator, nor was' he impatient or correction. When asked to tell old story of his, he would readily comply. He related anecdotes about bis ancestors He narrated incidents about himself. He recalled reminiscences of his youth. He lived over again the pleasures of the table. He had evidently drunk hard in his time. He confessed ; his trials, his worries, and even his tears! He discussed music and novels. He described his lelations with great persorages. And i, e ' would frankly discuss the political situation of the moment. HIS FRANKNESS. He upset all conventional ideas of the. diplomatist or Minister of State. Ho said, or pretended to say, right out '

what he thought. Have you done so- , and-so? he might Lo asked. No. he replied, but if I had done so, I should ! say" just the same- thing. He was outspoken about others as -few in his position have been. He evidently thought little of some of his great or famous contemporaries. He said or implied that the Crown Princo (the future Frederick III.) knevy little about war. He disparaged even Moltke. Tbe Commander-in-Chief was, no doubt, a very able man, and did well "whatever he undertook, but he had got to be it mere soldier and thought of everything in terms of war. He had nick-namts for the greatest. The King of Prussia was "our Most Gracious." Sometimes he was Seronissimis. The Crown Prince was Serenior. The other princes (whom Bismarck disliked or detested) were Sereni. The King "nowr had that strength of character which many credited him with." Bismarck's own family was a.s good as his, and both came*from Suabia. All his most abusive remarks about the Kins-Kaiser were repeated to that exalted personage, who had to appear unruffled when he met his recalcitrant Chancellor, but he took his levenge by listening to intrigues behind Bi-*marck\s back. About other great men Bismarck was equally frank. Mommsen was a greenhorn in politics. SUB JOVE. In the park or the garden behind the Foreign Office in Berlin, Bismarck sometime; strolled oi an evening alona. when he was excited, when he awaited communications from his sovereign, or when momentous decisions were to bo taken. There, one evening in June, 1866, ho formed the resolution of inducing Moltke, without tho knowledge of the King, to cross tho Prussian frontier, and thu s precipitate war with Austria. There.ho paced up and down tho avenue, swinging a big stick, and from time to timo summoning officials who wero given instructions for the writing of despatches or newspaper articles, or sending away of telegrams. Not there, but in the fields and parks of his beloved Varzin, he resolved on war with, France., To Varzin, in after years, ho fled when ho was being worried by the Empress, the Crown Princess, or high court officials. THE MAX. His habits were simple. Ho despised orders and titles. Angrily he threw away tho Royal order appointing him a. lieutenant-general. "Wliat is the good of such things to mc?" he said. So, also, when ho was given the Iron Cross, ho contemptuously called it a gewgaw. He was anti-Byzantine, and deprecated high-sounding forms of address. Ho wanted to see thorn all done away with. Whether King William should be dubbed Emperor of Germany or German Emperor he did not caro a rush. As with our own Sir Julius Vogel, it was the reality of power that he cared for. To it s trappings ho was dead as a stone.. His ambitions, like those of Richelieu, his true peei, wero noble, high, and rare; his besetting sin was. that by which the angels fell. Ho had nothing les s than a passion of worship for Germany, and so closely did" ho identify himself with his native land that his Joy© for it was almost a ferocious egoism. His religion was as sincere a s Cromwell's. Ho knew Cromwell's moods—his outbreaks of anger, his crises of tears, his humility (before God, not before man), hi s tendency to world-sorrow, his despairs, his mad thoughts of flight and suicide. But ho had a more than Papal belief in his own infallibility, and ho was sustained by an unyielding faith in his Divine call. Ho moulded all Germany in his own image. He. was tlie typical, the ideal German, with all the high attributes of his race, but also with its savagery and brutality, its unscrupulousness, and vindictivenoss.