DEATH OF COUNT YON CAPRIVI.

Evening Post, Volume LVII, Issue 31, 7 February 1899, Page 5

DEATH OF COUNT YON CAPRIVI.

» BISMARCK'S SUCCESSOR IN GERMANY. [PBESS ASSOCIATION.] Rome, 6th February. Count yon Caprivi, formerly Chancellor of the German Empire, has just died in this city. Count Georg Leo yon Caprivi de Caprera de Montecucculi, was the eldest of the four sons of Julius Edward yon Caprivi, who was a high legal functionary in the service of the Prussian State. General yon Caprrva was born at Charlottenburg on 24th February, 1831. Entering a general regiment in his eighteenth year, he won rapid promotion and served with distinction in the campaigns of 1864 and 1866. In 1870 he acted as Chief of the Staff to the 10th Corps, of which he afterwards became the Commander, and reaped fresh laurels in all the battles on the Loire. Swiftly ascending the other steps on the military ladder, he was appointed in 1883 to the command of the 30th Division at Metz; and next year, passing from the army to the navy, he succeeded to Herr yon Stosch on the latter's retirement from the head of the Admiralty. In a short time naval men were' amazed at the mastery of their art and the perception of their interests which were displayed by a mere landsman and soldier. Soon after the present Emperor's accession, on the death of Count Monte, he reorganised the navy; the command of th"c Imperial fleet being vested in Admiral yon der Goltz, while something like a ministry of marine was created under Rear-Admiral yon Heusner; and it was on this occasion that General yon Caprivi, sharing in the redistribution of military commands, was rewarded for his loyalty to the army, no less than for his naval services, with the 10th or Hanoverian Army Corps, which is one of the rinest in the whole army. During the manoeuvres of the autumn of 1889, when the Hanovarians and Westphalians met in mimic warfare, with smokeless powder and other innovations on .their trial, the Emperor had (says Men" of the Time, from which we ore quoting) opportunity enough to study anew the character of General yon Caprivi, and this general's character and ability to serve him in a political capacity must have fairly convinced his majesty, otherwise he would never have asked him to assume the enormous burden of responsibility which Prince Bismarck had laid down. It was not without grave scruples and self-distrust that General yon Caprivi listened to the proposals of the Emperor; but his Majesty, it is said, had finally decided to have a soldier for his new Chancellor, thinking, as he does, with Frederick the Great, that a General must be the surest conductor of a foreign policy, as knowing best how far he can go with the army behind him. On' 19th March, 1890, the appointment of General Caprivi as successor to Prince Bismarck was made public. The General received the title oj Count from the Emperor in December, 1891. He gave up his post as • Prussian Prime Minister to Count yon Eulenberg in March, 1892, but remained Chancellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs. In 1892 and 1893, despite of pro-r longed opposition, he conducted the German Army Bills successfully through Parliament. He unexpectedly resigned in October, 1894, owing to friction with Count Eulenberg in the matter of the agrarian League malcontents.