THE " MAN OF BLOOD AND IRON."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 110, 5 June 1875, Page 8

THE " MAN OF BLOOD AND IRON."

++ * Bhownsou's Quarterly Review ' contains a sketch o£ llie German Chancellor extracted from a book entitled " The Last of the Napoleons," recently published in. Paris, and which Dr. Brownson reviews. The portrait ii vivid and powerfully drawn : — Count von Bismarck Schonhausen is a type slightly terrifying outside the frontiers of this country, but much less remarkable on the banks of the Spree. This comes from a psychological law; for civilised people and politicians restrained by the dictates of conscience and Christian law, Bismarck is sometimes isolated, abnormal, monstrous, and unexpected resurrection of one of those bearded casuists of the fourteenth century issuing from the German forests, and carrying fire and sword across Europe with this simple code : " Our property is wherever there ia anything to pillage." But in Prussia such doctrine* and such proceedings astonish nobody, since they form the very foundation of the Prussian genius and character. They will explain how the Chancellor had so many and such prolonged struggles to reach the supreme authority and direction of the Government. It was not until the thundering success of Sadowa that he really became a prophet at Berlin. Count von Bismarck is a massive and solid Brandenburg trooperj ex-major of cuirasiiers, on whom the emotions of a boundless ambition; and excesses of all kinds have stamped their marks, yet they have not been able to injure his iron constitution. His large and prominent eye, sensual and shameless, has a leering and sly expression, but cold and pitiless as steel. A lively penetration, an incredible fertility of re•ources, astute to divine the most subtle threads of a situation, a marvellous suppleness in managing men and events, a manner vulgar, but of false good nature, veiling the finest and the steadiest observation ; a prolixity of language, a crudity of expression, an air of frankness that appears to reach imprudence, which throws the most cautious off their guard, which hides under its folds the most dangerous ambiguities and the most formidable snares. Here you have the politician. Profoundly despising men, disdaining opinion and popularity, he respects nothing ; he does not even respecfc himself. Passionate to excess, morally revengeful, he knows how to receive without flinching, and to dissemble the most cruel blows ; patient as a hunter, he knows how to wait years for the propitious hour, but the instant it comes he •cizes his prey with indomitable audacity and violence. All those noble impulses, all those grand principles which inspire great souls, juitice, humanity, have never disturbed Biemarck ; he has a superb name for qualifying the apostles of this verbiage, " dealers in words." Here you have the man. Bismarck has a bare metrical conscience always in harmony with the pressure of his interest-and of his ambition. Those who await him at the point of morality and sincerity arc lost in advance. "With him the political idea is perfection in the art of deception. His ambition is coarse, immoderate, insatiable, and ferocious. Outside of this ambition, which he calls his mission — for it is observable that all the great agitators of the present time, as Cavour, Garibaldi, Bonaparte, Baobes, Bismarck, Raoult, Bjgault, King William, all have their mission, which is not very encouraging — to hear them, some are the managers of nations, the initiators of the f uture ; others are confident, of God, in consideration of which they serenely make protocols, pillage, massacre, and burn with petroleum — outside of his mission, then, Count Bismarck has but one passion, which is his delicate admiration for the fair sex, and his fondness for the pleasure of the table and coarse jokes- IE one has the good fortune to find himself with the Chancellor at a familiar and choice repast among men, His Excellency will appear in an entirely new light. Then his great, sanguine eye flashes gaily ; and if one is not easily shocked at indecent expressions iiud at a Eabelasian vocabulary, he may promise, himself a jolly time and lively mirth. But we will spare our fastidious readers this side of Bismarck's character ; his jokes have all the plainness of the Latin. But we cannot refrain from inserting here some of Ms sallies : "The Bavarian is something midway between an Austrian and a man." "If Austria has astonished the world by her ingratitude, England will astonish ifc by her cowardice." " God has made man in his own likeness, and the Italian in the likeness of Judas." " You ■will recognise the French Ambassador by this, that he never speaks the language of the country to which he is accredited." " Pools pretend that one learns only at his own expense ; I have always striven to learn at the expense of others."

The Chancellor forms the most complete contrast with Ms sovereign. While King "William is biblical and inspired, his Chancellor is sceptical, sneering and Voltairian. His spirit is not abashed even in the presence of hia Royal Majesty. One day the King finished one of his prophetic homilies with these words, " G-od has dictated our task." "We must admit," said Bismarck" to a person near, " that God has chosen a rude secretary." At another time the King, vigorously pressing him in a very "weighty matter, said : " Providence will assist us." " Very well," replied the Chancellor, " but let us give him time to reflect." We know very well that Bismarck will not trouble us for the liberty we take in cutting his silhouette as we go along. Hfigvr many times his Bly smile and superb disdain have defied the criticism and the accusations which rain upon his head from the four corners of the heavens ! He repeats, with slight variation, with Mazarin : " They sing me and they shall pay me." We have ieen Cavour turn himself towards the cabinets of Europe, and solemnly swear to them, with his hand upon his conscience, that he was plotting nothing, absolutely nothing against Naples, and that, if they wished the Piedmont Government would put its hand on the collar of the filibuster Garibaldi ; and on the same day telegraphing to the same Garibaldi to invade the Kingdom o£ Naples with the money and the filibusters furnished by him, M. Cavour. Bismarck is of the same school, without the finesse and elegance of Cavour. The Italian frequents the beau monde, and with lace rufiles and a poignard, chiselled by Cellini, neatly assassinates his victim. The Prussian conceals himself in the wood, and draws his adversary, little by little, into the ambush, and beats him to death with a big club. Each has his temperament, but the result is the same. Woe to him who holds commerce with such companions. We notice one more trait, not the least original of this cold calculator. Whenever Bismarck meditates a misdeed, or plots a diplomatic intrigue destined to throw fire-brands among neighbours, he suddenly falls sick ; and his officials, the press, and the court, and the city, announce to th« world one of those mortal relapses of the Chancellor, which suddenly compels the transfer of the poor invalid to the absolute solitude of bis country seat. Every morning the 'Staats Anziger' will religiously give medical bulletins of the condition of the dying man. All at once the bomb thrown in the retreat explodes, and wounds or kills his adversary : and Bismarck finds himself miraculously on his feet, and is the same as ever, that is to say, like an oak. Thus tlie number of Bismarck's stormy enterprises can be counted by the nnmber of his relapses. Alas ! Bismarck's maladies shatter the health of his adversaries only, and up to this time Europe has dearly paid the physician of the Chancellor.