DEATH OF PRINCE BISMARCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 48

DEATH OF PRINCE BISMARCK.

(Fjrom Oun Own Cobeespondent.) LONDON, August 5. By the death of Prince Bismarck, sudden ■gk the end, the last "Grand Old Man" of the cpatury's rulers and statesmen passes away. TIaRS lie will ever be a great — perhaps the greatest — figure in the history of the period none can doubt. As the founder, nay the creator, of the new German Empire, his niche in the temple of historic fame is assured. Beside him the sovereign, who was little more than a puppet in his hands, will seem a mere pigmy. Certainty Bismarck's methods were contrary to all the established rules of diplomacy. His vital principle was the employment of v an almost brutal frankness. He told the truth so onenly and unreservedly that other diplomatists could not bring themselves to believe that he could possibly mean what he said. They racked their brains and exhausted their inventive powers in the effort to discover what deep, dark device this utter plain speaking really concealed. They failed, of course, because nothing was concealed. For instance, long before 1866, all the people accustomed to be "in the know" were well aware that Bismarck intended to declare war against Austria and crush her at the earliest possible opportunity. He said 60 himself Avherever he went. Yet Disraeli was the only man who believed him. However, 1866 came, and then Austria, after being tricked into joining Prussia in the Schleswig-Holstein expedition against Denmark, was attacked in her turn and promptly crushed, as the premier German Power, by the battle of Sadowa. So also everybody, including the French themselves, knew well that Bismarck meant to fight France. King William was well aware of it, and tried all he knew to avoid the crisis. But Bismarck brought it all on just as he pleased by simply publishing part of his king's telegram, and so leading the •French to suppose, quite wrongly,^ that the King of Prussia had insulted their ambassador, Count Benedetti. The war of 1870 followed, and the overwhelming defeat of France was the result. - Where Bismarck was foiled was in his desire to pick a second quarrel with France, in 1875, with the view of "bleeding her white," as he expressed it. He had the •Empress Frederick and her mother, Queen jVictoria, " to deal with, however, and they g>roved too many for him. So the intended coup never came off, and Bismarck ever afterward was a bitter foe to England and everything English, especially to the Englishwoman who was subsequently to become his Empress. It has often been said that Bismarck was hostile to England. It is not the case. It ;is true he opposed the adoption of the Eng,glish Constitution in Prussia, but he explained clearly that his objection consisted An the differences of the circumstances, ai»d ield that the conditions which made i;■ > 'English Constitution a success in KiiyLau't ."were absent in Germany. He was, however, «. warm admirer of much that is English and of many Englishmen. But he never forgave the two Englishwomen who thwarted mis desire to crush France thoroughly and finally. That was in his eyes the unpardonable offence. It may be remembered that when Disraeli arrived in Berlin to attend the historic conference after the Turko-Russian war, when the Russians were at the very gates of Constantinople and had wrung from Turkey the Treaty of San Stefano, Bismarck received him, and in the course of a preliminary friendly chat remarked to the English Premier : "Of course you must be prepared to yield a little on some points." " I did not come here to yield ! " said Dizzy, calmly. Bismarck never forgot that either! Nor did he even either forget or forgive his dismissal from office by the present 'Kaiser when that head-strong young man succeeded " Frederick the Noble," whom •Bismarck had done his best to keep off the throne on the ground of his mortal malady, an intrigue only defeated by the skill and courage of the Emperor's English doctor, '■Sir Morel Mackenzie. Immediately after Bisanark's death the letter to the Kaiser, which brought about his dismissal, was published t»y an arrangement made by the Prince liimself. The stroke was in many respects •a "nasty one" for William 11. But the •Kaiser behaved exceedingly well, and showed all possible good feeling. He offered a public funeral and a tomb by the side of the Emperor, and even pressed earnestly upon the Bismarck family the acceptance of the last unprecedented honour to a subject. The family had had their orders, and coldly declined both. .The Prince, they said, had wished to be buried privately on his estate, and his wishes must be respected. The Kaiser sent an artist to take a cast of the dead man's features. He was refused admittance. .Then the Gercnan Emperor expressed a wish to look once more on the features of the 'Prince as the deceased Chancellor lay on his bed of death, and bid a last silent farewell to the great *architect of his Empire. Be travelled expressly to Friedrichsruhe, only to meet with a respectful, but chillingly cool, reception at the hands of Herbert Bismarck, who did not even appear an uniform, and to find that the late Prince's coffin had already been screwed down. Still, the Kaiser took no offence, but behaved with the utmost kindness and respectful sympathy toward the bereaved family. Finally the Emperor ordered a i solemn public memorial service to be held ] 5n the Bei'lin Cathedral with every possible j accessory of military and spectacular pomp. This duly took place, and is described as laving been a most impressive function. {A. State pew was expressly reserved for the Bismarck family, but it remained utterly and conspicuously empty. Not a fiingle member of the Bismarck family put |n an appearance. The absence of the entire clan has excited much serious comment in Berlin as manifestly implying a deliberate Blap in the face for the Emperor, administered by the dead hand of his discarded Jtnd unforgiving chancellor.

— The new zoological garden in New York prill be^ tho largest in the world, comprising irithin its boundaries no less than 261 acres.