BISMARCK.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 3441, 24 May 1898, Page 2

BISMARCK.

Hjled upon the news of Mr Gladstone’s universally-regretted death comes a report that the state of Prince Bismarck’s health, which has been disquieting for soma time, is now causing renewed anxiety. In the last half of the century there have been two men who have ex-ercised-more potent influences on European a flairs than any other two, or any other four, or eight, Gladstone and Bismarck. Working each according to his environment, they necessarily planned and travelled dissimilar courses. Gladstone was essentially a great democratic leader, adding to high natural'ability the faculty, invaluable to statesmen who aspire to permanent office and renown, of ganging iefinitely-erpressed public opinion, which ia then usually deferred to.. Bismarck’s jolioy was—we say ■" was ’’ because as a 'actor iu sffaivs he is clearly a man of the last —quite different. He aimed at leadin g tud forming, not following or watching, mblio opinion. He stood faithfully q the doctrine of the divine right

ot Kings, especially Prussian Kings, and late in his career asserted that the concession of rights of representation from the sovereign to the people was an act of unparalleled gracionsness. In many other things he has been so vividly the opposite of Gladstone as to picturesquely prove that

sfen are the sport of circumstances when I he circumstances seem the sport of men,

For the circumstances that made a nighty man of Bismarck were quite different from those on 'which Gladstone mounted to a place among the immortals; and no one Can Conceive what the career of either would have been if their circumstances could have been exchanged or had been different.

This peculiarity is noticeable in the case of both men, however, that each seemed to be providentially sent to a mission. Carlyle’s theory that there never was an emergency but a man was found able to meet it receives convincing substantiation in these cases, especially in Bismarck’s. Trained to politics in an Empire still reeling from the effects of the blows it had received; but indomitably bent on regaining a firm foothold. Bismarck was the Ulan for the emergency, and having absorbed the theories of government that were proper for the o'ccAsioU, proceeded to put them into effect with steely inflexibleihess. He made mistakes, no doubt. His Vvar of laws against the Roman Catholic Church, when the freedom of that institution was interfered with and Jesuits were expelled or incarcerated, was one of these; and in good time probably no one was more clearly convinced than the Chancellor of the truth of the Pope’s prophetic declaration that a stone would presently roll down to bruise the foot of this Colossus. The anti-Sooialistio laws represent another cf his blunders, for the Socialists increased in numbers and in representation during his tenure of office. That he made mistakes should not be charged to his discredit, however Ha made them because he Was human and liable to error. But his successful achievements far outweigh all his failures. A man who; in his earlier political career, was known as " the destroyer of towns ” for his Contention then was that cities should bo swept away because they were centres of “ democracy and constitutionalism/’ and advocated many other theories hateful to the modern mind—he has lived to achieve his purpose. Ho said on one memorable occasion (in 1859) that there was a vice in the German federal system which must sooner or later he expiated “b yferro et igne." It seemed a brutal statement then, but events have Justified it since, and proved firsts in the war with Austria ; second, in that with Prance—that iron and fire and blood must bo expended in the process of building up a mighty central European nation. Bismarck principally brought about this expenditure and its results. He enticed Baden, Wurtemburg and Bavaria into the great North German Confederation; and his lifelong policy of indomitable patriotism achieved its long-, sought end when he saw King William of Prussia crowned Emperor of Germany in the palace of the French Kings at Versailles.

If as British people wo estimated Bismarck’s record from the most selfish point of view we should have to applaud its glorious apes. Her geographical position compelled Germany to seek England as an ally, and if Bismarck had had his way such an alliance would have been completed long ago. Indeed, at one time he gave the British Government an unmistakable hint of his willingness to support it in permanently annexing Egypt if the alliance could be arranged. Rightly or wrongly, however, Britain adhered to her policy of “ splendid isolation." But these are really foreign considerations. In viewing the career cf A statesman we should take account of what he has done for his own country, which is his prime and only consideration in these times of national conflict and competition. Estimated from that standpoint Bismarck cannot be denied admiration. He is one of the giants of the age. By years of masterful, but persistent and able rule, he led Germany into the forefront of the nations, and as a German that Was about tho greatest thing he could have done.