BISMARCK’S OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 11776, 5 January 1903, Page 5

BISMARCK’S OPINIONS

Mr Sidney Whitman in his recently-pub- ; lished ‘ Personal Reminiscences of Prince | Bismarck’ says;—“lt is well known that | Bismarck’s opinion of Gladstone was noi ; a high one. Ho regarded the surrender to , Pamell as ‘ baksheesh for the Irish and in i return a generation of Liberal victories at j the polls; therefore a crowning instance of I pamdo-Libetal trickery. He pleaded guilty i to bavin" in his day cajoled—bribed, if you 1 will—parliamentary parties in order to gain ■ their support, but he had not stumped his 1 country and tried to make it believe that in 1 to doing ho was carrying nut a righteous i mandate of Heaven.” Mr Whitman, how- ' ever, expresses the view that Bismarck’s an- i tip athy towards Mr Gladstone never went so j far as is generally believed. Bismarck was too much of a humorist to go the whole I length with anybody an uncompromising as 1 Bucher was on the subject of Gladstone. 1 His sense of humor would assort itself, an, 1 i instead of feeling animosity, he would enri ! by being amused. I never know Prince. ' Bismarck express—nor do I believe In I felt—personal dislike for Mr Gladstone, ci i go beyond a humorous assertion that ho ! quibbled with words, and had ended by be- | coming their victim. Whereas it is gene ! rally understood that Mr Gladstone’s seoii i merits towards Prince Bismarck were not i quite free from a suspicion of ‘ furor mona- i chorum.’ If Mr Gladstone, when last in Germany (1895?), had called at Friedrichsrub. I am perfectly certain that Bismarck would have been pleased to see ; him, and would have received him 1 with that marked courtesy and dis | tinefcion which he always extended to i eminent political compeers. But Mr Glad- i stone remained in Hamburg and sent h;s ! boo Herbert and Lord Ronde'l instead, with- j *• out first inquiring whether their visit would i be agreeable. Under the circumstances this j was a distinct breach of Gennan etiquette, j allbough, of course, unintended. In ever) 1 case when Mr Gladstone’s son and Loro ' Rendel called at FrieJrichsrufc 'hey found i tho lord of the manor "not at home,” , His estimate of Carlyle and Max TTul'er ! is also worth recording. It is not surpn.-. ing that tho former should have excited hh admiration, for Carlyle's famous letter t‘He Times’ during the Franco-Gciu: - - - : War was sufficient to secure it:—“ Rir-mai I: was a great admirer of Thomas Carlyle, who reciprocated the sentiment, and had estoil..-; Bismarck as that ‘monster of industry When Carlyle was elected a knight oi tincivil section of the Order Pour !e Merit e, Bismarck wrote him an autograph letter, which is now among the relic:: in Carlyle’:old bouse in Chelsea. Bismarck did "net, however, associate himself with the bestowal of the Order upon a German resident in England—Professor May Muller. Bismarck had a poor opinion of him as one ol those professors who dabbled in politic--, and were to be -met with in the antechambers of embassies. He told me he i - garded his learned countryman as an ov;-’-rated person—what the Germans call ‘ein Strebcr.’ But the tone in which he said it gave me the impression that Muller interested him very little one way or li e other. Ho added that be understood Mulk? had been one of the proteges of the Prince Consort, v.ho, ho said, had been peciniarl. open to the influence of the • Etrebei ’ type.”