Pesth, the 28th.

Again I see the mountains of Ofen, this time from the Pesth side, from below. From the plains I have just left, the dim outlines of blue Carpathian ridges, distant some twelve or fifteen miles, are in some places, when the air is very clear, barely distinguishable. To the south and east the plain was fathomless; in the first direction it stretches far away into Turkey, in the second towards Siebenbürgen. The heat to-day was again scorching, and has peeled all the skin from my face. A heat-storm is now raging, driving so fiercely over the steppes that the houses tremble. I swam in the Danube, saw the magnificent suspension bridge from beneath, paid visits, heard very good gypsy music on the parade, and shall soon go to bed. The parts on the edge of the Pusta, where it is beginning to be cultivated, remind me of Pomerania, in the neighborhoods of Rommelow, Romahn, and Coseger. The gypsies have grayish-black complexions. Their costume is fabulous; the children quite naked, except a string of glass pearls about their necks. Two women had handsome, regular features, and were cleaner and more ornamented than the men. When the Hungarians want a dance over again, they shout in a surprised tone, “Hody wol? Hody?” (“What was it? What?”), and look at each other interrogatively, as if they had not understood, although they know the music by heart. It is, indeed, a singular people, but pleases me very well. It was just as well I had the escort of Uhlans. At about the same time I left Ketskemet for the south, sixty-three wagons went off in a northerly direction towards Körös. Two hours later they were stopped and plundered. A colonel, who was by accident driving before this wagon-train, had some shots sent after him, as he would not halt. One horse was shot through the neck, but not enough to bring it down, and as he returned the fire, with his two servants, flying at full gallop, they preferred to be satisfied with the other travellers. They did no other harm to any one, and only plundered some individuals, or rather ransomed them, for they do not take all a person has, but only in proportion to property, and according to their own needs; for instance, they will quietly receive forty florins out of a thousand, without touching the remainder. Thieves with whom one can talk!

Vienna, the 30th.

Here I am again at the “Roman Emperor.” While you were looking from the Castle of Coblenz on the Rhine in attendance on our King and Lord, I was looking from the Castle of Ofen upon the Danube, and had an after-dinner conversation with the young Emperor upon the Prussian military system; and, oddly enough, on the same afternoon on which you visited Ehrenbreitstein and Stolzenfels, I took a drive through the Citadel above the palace, and into the forest district of Ofen. The view from the first is admirable. It reminds one of Prague, only there is more background and distance, therefore rather resembles Ehrenbreitstein, and the Danube is grander than the Moldau. I reached here last night, per the Pesth train, about half-past six.

Blankenburg, 1st Nov., 1852.

A very unusual early rising, caused by the circumstance that my room is a passage for some Court servants still asleep, gives me time for these lines. Our Queen is also here, and is just being awakened by soft music of horns. I have not had such good sport in Letzlingen this time as three years ago; it was on Friday. Only three stags, voilà tout; one of them I hope will reach you. Eat the wild boar devoutly, and pickle some of it. His Majesty shot it with his own gracious hand. Otherwise, things went off very well; and, as I found N. N. there, I need not go to Berlin, and hope to reach you by the evening after to-morrow, of which please inform ——, as well as that his appointment for Berlin at our Court may be regarded as certain.

B.

The band is still playing very well from the Freischütz,—“Ob auch die Wolke sie verhülle” (If the cloud still doth surround her); very apt in this doubtful weather.

Ostend, 19th August, 1853.

Up to the present time, besides the one of to day, I have taken three baths, with which I have been well pleased; there is a strong sea and soft bottom. Most people bathe close under the pier forming the parade, ladies and gentlemen all together; the first in very unbecoming long gowns of dark woollen, the last in a tricot, being jacket and trowsers in one piece, so that the arms above and the legs beneath are almost free. Only the consciousness of possessing a perfectly well-proportioned form can allow one of us to produce himself in ladies’ society thus.

Brussels, 21st August, 1853.

I have left Ostend with sorrow, and really wish myself back again: I found an old sweetheart of mine there, and as unchanged and charming as on our first acquaintance. I really feel the sorrow of separation deeply at this moment, and look forward impatiently to the instant when I shall cast myself on her heaving bosom at Nordeney. I can hardly understand why people can not always live by the sea, and why I have been cajoled into passing two days in this parallelogrammatic stone heap, to see bull-fights, Waterloo, and pompous processions. If I had not to keep that most unlucky appointment with N. N., I should stay several weeks longer in Ostend, and give N. N. up. I shall only remain till noon to-morrow, and then start, or early the next morning, for Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam; thence by steamer to Harlingen, and through Friesland to Nordeney. I am afraid N. N. will soon disturb me there, and if I once get to Bremen with him, I hardly know whether I ever shall accomplish the tiresome journey to N. again, but shall make my way by Hanover, Hamm, Kassel, and Frankfurt to the place you inhabit. If you write to me, direct to Nordeney.

Amsterdam, 24th August, 1853.

In Brussels and Antwerp I have never had a quiet minute on account of feasts and sight-seeing. I have passed a detestable night on a camp-stool, in a crowded boat from Antwerp, starting at one in the morning. By an angular labyrinth of arms of the Scheldt and Maas, and the Rhine, I reached Rotterdam early, about eleven, and about four arrived here. That is a singular town: many streets are like Venice, some with water right up to the walls, others like canals with a towing path, and with narrow walks planted with limes before the houses. The latter have fantastic gables, strange and smoky, almost ghostly—the chimneys like men standing on their heads and stretching out their legs. That which does not savor of Venice is the busy life, and the massive handsome shops—one window close to the other, and more magnificently than I remember those of Paris or London. When I listen to the bells, and, with a long clay pipe in my mouth, look through the forest of masts, across the canals into the twilight towards the romantically confused gables and chimneys, all the Dutch ghost stories of my childhood come back to me, of Dolph Heylinger, and Rip van Winkle, and the Flying Dutchman. To-morrow morning I go by steamer to Harlingen on the Zuyder Zee, and to-morrow evening I hope to be in Nordeney, the farthest point from you I propose to touch; and then the time will not be far off when I hope to encounter you unexpectedly on a glacier. I have nothing from Berlin since I left Ostend, and therefore conclude that the storms are all laid, and the waters returned into the old bed—the pleasantest event that could happen for us. I am very glad I have seen Holland; from Rotterdam to this place there is one continual verdant and level meadow, upon which there are many bushes, much grazing cattle, and some old cities cut out of picture-books; no arable land anywhere.

Norderney, 27th Aug., 1853.

Last evening I arrived here on a stout Dutch sloop, amidst thunder, lightning, and rain—have, after an abstinence of a week, taken another glorious sea-bath, and sitting in a fishing hut with a feeling of great loneliness and longing for you—partly heightened by the clamor of mine host’s children, partly by the piping scream of the storm against the roof and flagstaff. It is really tiresome here, and that suits me, as I have a long piece of work to finish. I wrote to you last from Amsterdam, previously from Brussels. Since then I have seen a charming little country—West Friesland; quite flat, but so bushy green, hedgy, every farm-house surrounded by its little wood, that one seems to envy the peaceful independence reigning there. —— will probably ascribe this satisfaction to the circumstance that, as at Linz and Gmunden, all the girls are pictures of beauty, only taller and more slender, fair, colors like milk and roses, and a very becoming helmet-like golden head-dress.

I should have liked under all circumstances to have brought you my good wishes in person, particularly as I know my roving wife is with you. But unfortunately we seem too important to ourselves here, to deprive confused Europe of the light of our wisdom. Whoever speaks of holidays now is regarded as a traitor to the world-important problem of the Germanic Confederation. I long deeply for the country, the forest and laziness, with the obligato addition of affectionate wives and well-conducted clean children. If I hear one of these hopefuls crying in the street, my heart is filled with parental feelings and educational maxims. How do our descendants agree, and are mine good? I have been obliged to write these few lines at three intervals, because N. N. and N. N. East and West disturbed me during the time, and Z. is just announced: he won’t go for an hour, so I say farewell. I want to go fishing with the Englishman to-day, but it rains too much, so instead I am a victim of visitors. Farewell, and live long. Your faithful brother.

Reinfeld, in Pomerania, 11th Sept., 1856.

The Diet will, I think, in November, devote its sessions to the Holstein question with greater good-will than results. Outwardly all the governments will appear united in this matter. Austria will, however, secretly remain an adherent of the Danes; its press will teem with German phrases, and Prussia will be saddled with the error of inaction. The centre of gravity of the affair actually does not lie at Frankfurt, but in the question whether Denmark is secure from the assaults of one or more of the extra German States. If she be, then she will look upon the decision of the Diet as a sufficient settlement.

BISMARCK TO FRAU VON ARNIM.

Reinfeld, 15th October, 1856.

It looks as if I never was to reach Kröchlendorf. Harry will no doubt have told you how I intended to do so. I should already have been with you, but last week my poor little Marie was seized with some kind of chicken-pox, and so I could not well leave Johanna until the symptoms were declared. She is still as variegated as a trout, but decidedly better. I wanted to set off to-day for Passow direct, but yesterday had a letter from ——, by which he lets me know that he wants to see me by the 18th at ——. As a diplomatist I can not refuse to meet our trustiest companion, and one of the Olympian deities of our Frankfurt Pantheon. If I receive no letter from Berlin in between, I hope to rest in your sororal arms by the 19th. Should I be able to get away from —— on the evening of the 18th, I shall leave by the early train from Stettin. If I can not do this, I still hope to reach Stettin by the twelve o’clock train, if the postillions can be got to a trot. But do not wait dinner for me.

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Frankfurt, 26th Nov., 1856.

Bernhard will have told you by what unexpected chain of infantine disease and royal mandates I have been deranged in my chronological calculations, and how ——, who has claims upon my ideas of the service, also abridged my lecture, so that it happened, a few hours before we were about to set out for Kröchlendorf, all together, that I had to announce to the male as well as the female Bernhard that I could only escort them as far as Passow. At that frontier of the Uckermark I met ——, and in Angermünde we were joined by ——, so that I was gradually prepared, by ministerial conferences and three hours of smokelessness, for my Berlin strait-waistcoat. It seemed as if I was never to get to Kröchlendorf. I had plenty of time and desire to do so, after the terminations of the Berlin marriage festivities, and only after a conference with —— did I decide first to go to Reinfeld, and on my return, to you, in order to stop a week with him there; because he only got his holiday in October, and our arrangement was that I should come hither with him about the 15th, and return to Berlin about the 22d. On the 11th my child was taken ill, at first severely; then I had to attend to official parade. Then I was summoned to his Majesty at Berlin, where, on the 25th of October, I found myself early enough. And now I am here, have only seen the sun twice in the last month, and every day I say to myself that it is impossible in November to live without wife and children. From sheer ennui I give dinner parties. In the evening one rout succeeds another, and I shall soon begin to gamble if Johanna and the children do not occupy this vacuum. She thought of starting from Reinfeld on Saturday the 22d, but on the 20th wrote me a plaintive letter about cold and snow, which I received on the 23d. Since then I have no idea whether she is on the other side of the Gollenberg or this side of the Randow. I begged her generally to inform you of her confinement in Berlin beforehand, and to let you know from Cöslin by telegraph when she would actually arrive there. The last time I lived in —— very fairly, but it appeared to me this youthful undertaking must either not have taken place, or already been “over.” If Johanna should by accident be in Berlin, greet her from me. Perhaps I shall get there by Saturday. I am summoned to the Upper Chamber, but the contents do not assure me whether His Majesty wishes me to be there myself personally, or only desires to see his most humble servant en bloc. In the latter case, I should not consider myself called to leave my important business, and the stove in the red study, to sit up to the neck in snow at Halle, and next heighten the effect of the White Saloon by a flying costume under the rubric of “People, nobility, detectives, and priests.” I expect an answer from Berlin about this, as to whether I am wanted as an ornament or a coadjutor. In the latter case I should reach Berlin early on Saturday. I should be very glad on that occasion to see you, as some recompense for Kröchlendorf; otherwise, I am glad to remain away from Berlin, and receive my own folks here.

TO FRAU VON ARNIM.

Frankfurt (without date.)

While I was forced to hear an almost incredibly long speech by a highly esteemed colleague on the anarchical condition of things in Upper Lippe, I thought how I could use the time, and the most prominent want of my heart seemed to be a desire to pour forth fraternal feelings. A very highly respectable but slightly amusing company surrounds me, at a green-covered circular table, some twenty feet in diameter, in the ground floor of the Prince of Tour and Taxis’s palace, with a view of the garden. The average appearance of these folks is somewhat that of N. N. and Z. in Berlin—they have quite a Federal Diet cut!

I go out shooting pretty regularly, when a single individual shoots some six to fifteen hares and a few pheasants—very seldom a roe or a fox—and a head of red deer is sometimes seen in the far distance. Time for this I have been able to spare from being far more lazy, as my industry in Berlin led to no results.

N. N. is by no means as charming as he used to be; he listens to all kinds of lying stories, and allows himself to be persuaded that I am anxious for his heritage, although I am glad to be left where I am. I am getting accustomed, in the consciousness of yawning innocence, to submit to all symptoms of coldness, and permit a spirit of entire indolence to possess me, after having, I flatter myself, gradually brought the Diet to a knowledge of its piercing nihilism. The well-known song of Heine, “O Bund, du Hund, du bist nicht gesund” (O Diet, you dog, you are not well), will soon be unanimously adopted by resolution as the national anthem of the Germans.

Nobody troubles themselves about the East here. The Russians or the Turks may put what they like in the newspapers; nobody believes either in land or sea fights, and doubts the existence of Sinope, Kalafat, and Schefketel.

Darmstadt has at last stopped reading—and I fall, full of emotion, into your arms, and wish you a pleasant feast. Many greetings to Oscar. Your faithful brother,

B.

TO THE SAME.

From Paris, Hotel de Douvres, April, 1857.

I have five stoves, and am freezing—five clocks, and never know how late it is—eleven great looking-glasses, and my necktie is always awry. I shall probably have to remain here until Tuesday evening, although I am anxious to be at home. Since November I have not emerged from this Bohemianism—since November, and I have not had a sensation of regular and lasting domesticity since you went last summer with Johanna to Schwalbach. Now they want to summon me to Berlin about the salt tax; if I had the time, I could not take part in this debate. I can not, according to my conviction, vote for the Government; but, if I vote for the Opposition, it is hardly proper to ask for leave of absence on such an account; and, considering the rumors as to my eventual entry into the Ministry, of which Johanna, on account of your statements, writes despairingly, one could think I had some ideas of joining in the swindle. Hearty greetings to Oscar.

B.

Copenhagen, 6th August, 1857.

This morning at seven I safely arrived here, after a very pleasant passage; mild air, a red moon, the chalk cliffs lighted by tar-barrels; two storms at sea, and a little wind; what more can one want? The night prevented my sleeping, and when the rain drove me from the deck about two o’clock, it was so hot and reeking of humanity below, that about three I went on deck with cloak and cigar. I have now taken a sea-bath, eaten some lobster, and about half-past one I must attend at the Court—so now I will sleep a couple of hours.

Räsbyholm, 9th August, 1857.

You will have already received the few lines I wrote directly I reached Copenhagen. Since then I have been occupied for two days with museums and politics, yesterday was ferried over to Malmö, and driven some eight miles to the north-eastward, and am at the above-named place, in a white castle situated very high on a peninsula surrounded by a large lake. Through the window and the thicket of ivy, that admit of some view of the water and hills beyond, I perceive that the sun is shining and flies are buzzing. Behind me sits ——; he is reading and dozing; broad Swedish is spoken under the window, and from the kitchen I can hear a pestle grinding away like a saw. That is all I can tell you of the present. Yesterday we stalked roebucks, one was killed, but I did not shoot; we got thoroughly drenched; then we took hot wine, and slept soundly for nine hours. Roebucks are more plentiful than I have ever seen anywhere, and the neighborhood is prettier than I thought. Magnificent beech forests, and walnut-trees the size of a man’s body, in the garden. We have just visited the pheasantry; after dinner we are going on the lake, and may perhaps shoot a duck, unless we fear to disturb the Sunday rest of this lovely solitude by a shot; to-morrow we are to have a regular day, next day we return to Copenhagen, and from there to N. N., and a stag-hunt on Wednesday; Thursday by Copenhagen to Helsingborg, some twenty miles into Sweden. We shall seek woodcocks and moorfowl in the wilderness; we shall lodge in farm-houses; our provisions we take with us. This will last for about a week, and then I hardly know what I shall do; either proceed by way of Jönkeping, at the south end of Lake Wetter, and so to Stockholm, or by Götheborg and Lake Wener, or to Christiania, abandoning Stockholm, or perhaps viâ Memel to Courland. This depends on a letter I expect from —— in Copenhagen.

Tomsjönas, 16th Aug., 1857.

I again employ the quiet of Sunday to give you some sign of life, although I do not yet know on what day we shall find an opportunity of reaching the post from this wilderness. For some fifteen miles have I driven into the depths of the woods to reach this place, and before me lie some twenty-five miles ere we shall get to cultivated provinces. There is no town, no village, far or near—only isolated settlers and plank-huts, with a little barley and potatoes, strewn irregularly between dead trees, rocks, and thickets, over a few rods of ploughed land. Think of the wildest region near Viartlum,[42] for some hundred of square miles, tall heather, varied by short grass and moorland, beset with birch, juniper, pines, beech, oaks, and alders, sometimes impassably thick and sometimes very sparse, the whole sown with innumerable stones to the size of houses, smelling of wild rosemary and firs; and between them strangely formed lakes, surrounded by sand and forest—and you will see Smaland; where I now am. Really the land of my dreams, not to be reached by dispatches, colleagues, and N. N., but unhappily also for you; I should like to have a hunting-box on one of these quiet lakes, and people it for a few months with all the dear ones I now fancy are assembled at Reinfeld. It would be impossible to winter it out here, particularly amidst the dirt of the rain. Yesterday we started about five, and hunted in the burning heat, up hill and down dale, through bog and bush, until eleven; but found nothing at all. It is very tiring to walk through moors and impassable thickets of juniper, over great stones and underwood. We slept in a hay barn till two, drank a great deal of milk, and continued the chase till sunset, killing twenty-five woodcocks and two snipes. We then dined at the lodge—a wonderful structure of wood—on a peninsula by the lake. My room, with its three stools, two tables, and bedstead, presents the same uniform tint of rough pine planks, as does the whole house and its walls. The bed is very hard, but after all this exertion one sleeps without rocking. From my window I see a knoll with birch-trees, whose branches rustle in the breeze; between these the mirror of the lake, and beyond it fir forests. Beside the house is a tent for huntsman, driver, servants, and peasants; then the carriage-house and a little dog of a village of some eighteen or twenty huts, on both sides of a little street, and from each of these a tired beater is looking out. I propose to remain in this oasis till Wednesday or Thursday, then leave for another expedition on the shore, and return this day week to Copenhagen, on account of miserable politics. What next, I do not know as yet.

The 17th.—This morning early six wolves have been here and have torn up a poor bullock; we found their fresh traces, but personally we did not see them. From four in the morning till eight in the evening we have been in motion, have shot four woodcocks, slept for two hours on mown heather, and now, dog-tired, to bed.

The 19th.—It is impossible to send a letter to the post from here, without sending a messenger twelve miles; I shall therefore take this to the coast myself to-morrow. Yesterday, when the dog pointed, and I was looking more at him than at the ground I was treading on, I fell and hurt my left shin. Yesterday we had a very tired day’s sport, long and rocky; it produced me a woodcock; but has tamed me so completely, that to-day I am sitting at home with bandages, so that I should be ready to travel to-morrow and shoot the next day. I really am astonished at myself for stopping at home alone in such charming weather, and can scarcely refrain from the abominable wish that the others will shoot nothing. It is a little too late in the year, the birds are shy, or sport would be more plentiful. We shot through a charming place yesterday; great lakes, with islands and shores, mountain torrents, over rocks, plains for miles without houses or plough-land; every thing just as God created it, forest, field, heath, morass, and lake. I shall certainly return hither some day.

Two gentlemen of the Danish Chambers are already back; it was too hot for them, and they have gone to sleep. It is about half-past five; the others will only arrive about eight. I have been amusing myself all day in learning Danish from the doctor who applied the bandages. We brought him with us from Copenhagen, for there are no doctors here. Since a report has been spread of the presence of a physician in the woods, every day some twenty or thirty inhabitants of the huts come streaming in to take his advice. On Sunday evening we gave a very amusing dance to the inhabitants of the five square miles of forest; the music was played and sung by turns. Then they heard of the “wise man,” and now cripples of twenty years’ standing come and hope to be cured by him.

Königsberg, 12th Sept., 1857.

I found to my great joy your four letters at Polangen (which, by-the-by, is not in Prussia but Russia), and find from them that you and the children are well. I got on very well; the Courlanders were all touchingly kind to me, in a way seldom found by a foreigner. Besides several roebucks and stags, I shot five elks, one a very fine stag, measuring roughly six feet eight, without his colossal head. He fell like a hare, but as he was still alive, I mercifully gave him my second barrel; scarcely had I done so ere a second came up, still taller, so close to me that Engel, my loader, had to jump behind a tree to avoid being run over. I was obliged to look at him in a friendly way, as I had no other shot. I can not get rid of this disappointment, and must complain to you about it. I shot at another—no doubt he will be found—but one I missed entirely. I might, therefore, have killed three more. The night before last we left Dondangen, and in twenty-nine hours made forty miles without a road, through the forest and desert to Memel, in an open carriage, over stock and stone; we were obliged to hold on, so that we should not be thrown out. After three hours’ sleep at Memel, we started this morning in the steamboat for this place, whence we leave for Berlin to-night and arrive to-morrow. “We” means Behr and myself. I can not stop in Hohendorf; I ought to have been in Berlin to-morrow, my furlough being up. I should, however, have been obliged to give up my best sport at Dondangen, with the enormous stags, or, as they call them there, bolls; nor should I have seen how the axle of a great wagon broke under the enormous creature. On Monday the Emperor arrives at Berlin, therefore I am obliged to be there “some days” before. I hope to return from Berlin to Hohendorf and Reinfeld; but if the King goes to Frankfurt, this is unlikely.

Frankfurt, 19th December, 1857.

Your true sisterly heart has offered in so friendly a manner to look after Christmas exigencies, that I will not apologize if I now allow you to carry out the seductions of Gerson and other rascals once more, and ask you sans phrase to make the following purchases for Johanna:—

1. Jewelry: she wishes to have an opal heart, like yours, and “the mind of man his kingdom is.” I am willing to pay some two hundred thalers for it. If for that price it is possible to obtain a pair of earrings, each consisting of one clear brilliant, I should think it more tasteful. You have some like it, but they are much dearer, and should you think the opal heart preferable, I will try later to find a pair of fitting earrings founded upon pearls.

2. One dress, at about one hundred thalers—not more. She wants to see herself “very light and bright,” à deux passes, moirée antique, or something of that kind: she requires ten rods—about twenty ells.

3. Should you discover a valuable and pretty gilt fan, rustling a great deal, buy it also. Ten thalers are quite enough. I can’t bear the things.

4. A large warm rug to lay over the feet in the carriage, with designs of tigers, glass eyes in their heads; might be a fox or a hippopotamus—any ferocious animal. I have seen one at ——’s, of very soft wool; won’t cost ten thalers. If you want to remain a charming sister, buy me all this, and send at once by express luggage train; address, Hofrath ——, Prussian Embassy.

I have so much to write about Holstein, Mainz, the bridge of Kehl, and all sorts of things in Berlin, that I have been obliged to decline two capital days of sport, to-day and to-morrow, after red deer. Johanna and the children are well, and the former would send love if she knew I wrote; but do not let her know any thing about it, my heart, and so farewell. Greetings to Oscar. The money I will send through Fritz, the receiver, by the new year.

Frankfurt o. t. M., 2d April, 1858.

I quite agree with you that our position in the Zollverein is blundered. I go further than this, being firmly convinced that we must give notice to the whole of the Zollverein, as soon as the term has arrived. The reasons for this conviction are far too stratified to be developed here, and they are too closely connected to be named one by one. We must terminate the treaty in view of the danger of remaining alone with Dessau and Sondershausen. It is, however, not to be desired that this last should be the case, or that such a state of things should long subsist; therefore we must render it agreeable—if possible, an unavoidable necessity—to the other states of the Zollverein, during the period yet to run, that after proper notice has been given they should seek adherence to our conditions. One portion of this system would be to allow them to draw higher nett revenues than they could obtain by frontier customs without Prussia. Another thing is, that they must not be allowed to think that the continuance of a Zollverein with Prussia is impossible in fact; this would, however, be the case if, besides the twenty-eight governments, some fifty class corporations, guided by particular interests, should be able to exercise a liberum veto. If the Prussian Chambers begin with this, the equality vertigo of the German governments will not allow the rest to remain behind; they will desire to make themselves also of importance.

In order to avoid these rocks in a Zollverein to be reconstituted by Prussia, after 1865, for the exercise of corporation electoral rights, I think we shall have to adopt one feature of the Union project of 1849, and erect a sort of Customs Parliament, with conditions for itio in partes, if the others demand it. The Governments will object gravely to such a course; but if we are daring and consequent we could effect much. The idea expressed in your letter, to make the Prussian Chambers a means, by their representation of all German taxpayers, to found a hegemony, is from the same point of view. The most powerful aids of our foreign policy might consist in the Chambers and the Press. In the present state of things, which may be confirmed by the vote, the Zollverein policy, the evil of the Verein for Prussia, would render the necessity for the termination a matter for the most circumstantial and closest debate, that a recognition of it should take place; your letter ought to appear as an article in the Kreuzzeitung, instead of lying upon my table here. The German Custom policy should be broadly and unreservedly discussed from the Prussian stand-point by the Chambers and the Press—then the flagging attention of Germany would be drawn to it, and our Chambers would become a power for Prussia in Germany. I should like to see the Zollverein and the Bund, with Prussia’s relations to both, subjected to the scalpel of the acutest criticism in our Chambers. This would only be an advantage to the King, his Ministers, and their policy, presuming them to know their business. At the same time, I could wish, as the result of such a discussion, that the proposition should be adopted by a small majority. For the Zollverein desires at the present moment rather to fetter the German governments to their flesh-pots, than for them to win the sympathies of their subjects. The latter are powerless, as, so far as they are concerned, a powerful, business-like, and honorable debate would do the same as the chance of the results of a vote.

Frankfurt, 12th Nov., 1858.

Your letter was an unexpected pleasure: the address looked just like one of Johanna’s, and I wondered how she could have got to the Uckermark. I have not been able to answer before: business, a cold, hunting, has partly taken up all my time, nor did I quite know what to write to you about the new phenomenon in the political heaven, that I could not have written as well about the comet—an interesting phenomenon wholly unexpected by me, the object and nature of which is yet unknown to me. The orbit of the comet our astronomers are pretty well able to calculate, but it would be difficult for them to do the same by this new political septasterism. Johanna reached here safely with the children this morning; God be praised, they are well, but not in good spirits. She is upset by all the political terrors they have filled her with in Pomerania and Berlin, and I try in vain to render her more light-hearted. The natural distress of the lady of a house also influences her, when it becomes doubtful whether one remains in a new house set up with care and expense. She came hither with the idea that I was about to take my leave. I do not know whether my resignation will be forced on me without my own will, or whether I must seek it for decency’s sake. Before I do it voluntarily, I shall wait to see what the ministerial colors are.

If the Upper Chamber retain their feelings for the conservative party, and sincerely strive for a good understanding and peace at home, they may rely upon a healthy state in our foreign affairs, and that is of great importance to me, for “we had fallen, and did not know how.” That is what I especially felt. I think that the Prince has been especially placed at the head to secure a guarantee against party government, and against any concessions to the Left. If I am mistaken in this, or if they wish to dispose of me as an office-seeker, I shall retire behind the cannon of Schönhausen, and observe how Prussia can be governed by majorities of the Left, and also endeavor to do my duty to the Upper Chamber. Change is the soul of life, and I shall feel myself ten years younger if I find myself in the same attitude as in 1848-’9. Should I not find the parts of gentleman and diplomatist consistent, the pleasure or the burden of fulfilling a prominent position will not cause me to err for a moment in my choice. I have enough to live upon according to my wants, and if God keeps my wife and children healthy, as they have been, I say, “vogue la galère,” no matter what water we swim in. It will be very unimportant to me, after thirty years, whether I play the diplomatist or the country Junker; and hitherto the prospect of an honest contest, without being confined by any official trammels—particularly in political swimming-baths—has almost as much charm for me as the prospect of a régime of truffles, dispatches, and grand crosses. “After nine, all is over,” says the player. I can not tell you more than these personal opinions—the enigma stands before me unsolved. I have one great satisfaction here at the Diet. All those gentlemen who six months ago demanded my recall as a necessity for German unity, now tremble at the thought of losing me. To —— the phantom of 1848 is a terror; and they are all like pigeons who see the hawk—afraid of democracy, barricades, Parliament, and ... —— sinks into my arms touchingly, and says, with a cramped shake of the hand, “We are again forced into one field.” The French naturally, but the English also, look upon us as firebrands, and the Russians fear that the Emperor will be led astray by our plans of reform. I say to every one naturally, “Only be calm, and all will come right;” and they answer, “Yes, if you were going to stay, then we should have a guarantee, but ...” If he doesn’t feel Frankfurt singing in his ears, he has no ear-drums. In a week he has been degraded from a worthy liberal conservative in the imaginations of his eventual colleagues, to a scarlet tiger—helper’s helper of Kinkel and D’Ester. The Bamberg diplomatist talks of a continental assurance against Prussian firebrandism, growls of a tri-Imperial alliance against us—a new Olmütz with effectual operations. In short, the political world is getting less tiresome. My children cry, “Pietsch comes!” in the joy at my having a servant of that name at Schönhausen; and it would seem that the arrival of this Pietsch and the comet are not without significance. Heartily farewell, my very dear one, and greet Oscar. He must not hang down his head—it’s all gammon.

Frankfurt, 10th Dec., 1858.

You had rightly guessed in your letter to Johanna, that your kindness would be asked for a Christmas commission. I should like to give Johanna a bracelet. The kind of thing flitting before me is broad, smooth, mailed, bending, made of chessboard-patterned little four-cornered gold pieces—without jewels—pure gold, as far as two hundred thalers will go. If you find something that pleases you better, I have every confidence in your taste. The exact thing in the fashion is not, therefore, pleasing to me—such things last longer than the fashion. Be so good, and have it directed to “Privy Councillor ——, Prussian Embassy,” with an inclosed letter for me, or the old gentleman may think it a delicate attention for himself.

Johanna will have written you as to the child complaints we have had, and how I have suffered from colds and coughs. I do not know whether much or little sleep, diet or excess, housekeeping or hunting, improves or hurts, but I turn from one to the other, from ideas of health. As to my transfer or recall, all is still again; for a time, Petersburg seemed very certain, and I had grown so accustomed to the idea, that I felt quite disappointed when the rumor went forth that I was to remain here. There will be some bad political weather here, which I should be very glad to weather out in bear-furs, with caviar and elk-shooting. Our new Cabinet is still looked upon abroad with suspicion; Austria alone, with cunning calculation, gives it a meed of praise; while ——, behind his hand, warns us; and so do his colleagues, at all the courts. The cat won’t let the mice alone. But, in the end, the ministers must show a policy; merely cursing the Kreuzzeitung will not last forever. I shall hardly come to Berlin in the winter; it would be very agreeable if you would visit us here before I am “put out in the cold” on the Neva.

St. Petersburg, 12th May, 1859.

I have become convinced, by the experience of the eight years of my official life in Frankfurt, that the settlement by the Diet, made in those days, forms a pressing, and, in critical times, a vitally dangerous fetter for Prussia, without giving, in return, such equivalents, enjoyed by Austria, under an unequally large mass of free self-action. The two greater Powers do not attain an equal measurement from the Princes and Governments of the smaller States; the construction of the object and the law of the Diet is modified according to the requirements of Austrian policy. I need not, considering your knowledge, enter upon more circumstantial arguments respecting the history of the policy of the Diet since 1850, and hence confine myself by naming the paragraphs concerning the restoration of the Diet, the question of the German Navy, Customs disputes, the laws respecting commerce, the press, and the Constitution, the Diet fortresses of Rastatt and Mainz, and the questions of Neuenburg and the East. We have always found ourselves face to face with the same compact majority, with the same demand for concessions from Prussia. In the Eastern question, the power of Austria has ever proved so superior to ours, that even the identity of the wishes and aspirations of the Diet governments, with the efforts of Prussia, have presented for her an ever-receding obstacle. With scarcely any exception, our associates in the Diet have given us to understand, or have even openly declared, that they were unable to maintain the Diet with us, should Austria pursue her own course; although it is unquestionable that federal law and real German interests were side by side with our peace policy; this, at least, was then the opinion of almost all the Princes. Would the latter have ever brought their own interests and wishes as a sacrifice to the wants, or even the safety, of Prussia? Certainly not: for their attachment to Austria is founded on outbalancing false interests, which prescribe to both a coalition against Prussia, a repression of all further development of the influence and power of Prussia, as a foundation for their common policy. A development of federal relations, under Austrian leadership, is the natural end of the policy of the German Princes and their Ministers; according to their opinions, this can only be accomplished at the expense of Prussia, and is necessarily directed against Prussia, so long as Prussia will not confine herself to the useful problem of providing for her equally entitled associates in the Diet an assurance against the preponderance of Austria, and is willing to bear the disproportion of her duties towards her rights in the Diet, being resigned to the wishes of the majority with untiring complacency. This tendency of the policy of the Central States will reappear with the constancy of the magnetic needle after every evanescent variation, because it represents no arbitrary product of individual events or persons, but is, in fact, a natural and necessary result of federal relations for the smaller States. There are no existing means by which we can maintain the actual federal treaties in an intimate manner.

Since our associates in the Diet, some years ago, began, under the guidance of Austria, to bring to light, from the hitherto neglected arsenal of the constitution of the Diet, the principles that would give prominence to their system—since it has been endeavored, in a partial way, to stifle the policy of Prussia by propositions which could only possess one signification in the sense of their proposers, in so far as they apply to the unanimity of Prussia and Austria—we have been obliged to endure the stress of the situation that the Diet and its whole historical development has forced upon us. We could say to ourselves, that in peaceful and orderly times we could weaken the evil in its results by skillful treatment, but we should be powerless to effect a cure; it is only too natural that in dangerous times, such as the present, the other side, in possession of all the advantages of the Diet settlement, should willingly confess that much has taken place of an improper nature, but should at the same time declare, in the “general interests,” that the present juncture is highly inapplicable for the discussion of past matters and “internal” disputes. But such an opportunity, if we do not make use of it at once, may not so speedily recur; and in the future we shall be forced to our normal resignation, which allows of no changes in the condition of things in orderly times.

His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has taken up a position commanding the unqualified approval of all those who are entitled to form any judgment of Prussian politics, and who thence have not allowed themselves to be disturbed by party feeling. Some of our associates in the Diet seek to blind us, by thoughtless and fanatical efforts, as to this attitude. If the statesmen of Bamberg are so frivolously ready to follow the first war outcry of an uncritical and mutable public opinion, if it does not take place probably quite without a comforting after-thought of the easiness with which a small state can change its colors in case of need; but if, in order to send a power like Prussia under fire, they desire to make use of the treaties of the Diet; if it be supposed that we shall substitute property and blood for political wisdom, and the thirst for action on the part of governments, to whom our defense is absolutely necessary for their existence; if these States think they are to dictate the guiding impulse, and regard theories concerning the rights of the Diet as means to such an end, then with such recognition all Prussian political autonomy would be over; then, in my opinion, it would be time for us to remember that the guides, who imagine we should follow them, serve other interests than those of Prussia, and that they understand the interests of Germany they talk so much about as non-identical with the interests of Prussia, if we decline to accede to their desires.

Perhaps I am going too far when I express it as my opinion, that we should seize every justifiable opportunity, presented by our associates in the Diet, to arrive at the revision of our mutual relations, necessary to Prussia, by which she can exist in defined relations to the smaller German States. I think we should willingly take up the gauntlet, and regard it as no misfortune, but as real progress, a crisis leading to improvement, if a majority at Frankfurt should decide upon such a vote, which we could look upon as a transgression of competency, an arbitrary change in the object of the confederation, a violation of its treaties. The more unmistakable this violation the better. We shall not easily find conditions of such a favorable nature in Austria, France, and Russia, by which we can alter our own position towards Germany for the better. Our allies are on the high road towards giving us perfectly justifiable motives for such a course, without our stimulating their insolence. Even the Kreuzzeitung, as I see by the number of last Sunday, is becoming somewhat startled at the thought that a Frankfurt majority could immediately dispose of the Prussian army. Not in this newspaper alone have I hitherto perceived with sorrow how Austria has established an autocracy over the German press by the skillfully laid net of her influence, and how well she knows to use the weapon. Without this, so-called public opinion could scarcely have risen to this height; I designate it so-called, for the real mass of the population is never inclined for war, unless the demonstrable suffering of real oppression has aroused it. To such a pitch has it risen, that even under the cloak of general German opinion, any Prussian newspaper can hardly declare itself in favor of Prussian patriotism. General Twiddle-twaddle plays a great part in this, nor must we omit the Zwanzigers (cash) that never fail Austria for this aim. Most newspaper correspondents write for their bread and cheese, most newspapers look to their incomes, and an experienced reader may easily see, by our newspapers and others, whether they have received, or speedily anticipate, or wish by threatening pantomime to force, a subsidy from Austria.

I think we should produce an admirable revulsion in public opinion if we were to sound the chords of independent Prussian policy in the press, in opposition to the exaggerations of our German allies. Perhaps things may happen at Frankfurt which may give us full reason to do so.

Under these circumstances the wisdom of our military precautions might be extended in other directions, and impart significance to our attitude; then Prussian self-respect would speak perhaps with a more conclusive tone than the Diet. I should only then care to see the word “German” in place of “Prussian” inscribed upon our standard, when we should have become more intimately and effectually bound up with our German fellow-countrymen than we have hitherto been; the word loses its charm in proximity to the ideas of the Diet.

I fear that your Excellency will interrupt me in this epistolary digression into the field of my former activity, with the cry, “Ne sutor ultra crepidam;” nor was it my intention to hold an official oration; I desired only to present the testimony of an experienced person against the Diet. I see in our position in the Diet, a defect of Prussia, which we shall have sooner or later to heal, ferro et igni, unless we adopt in time, and at a proper season of the year, measures for a cure. Were the Confederation abolished this very day, without substituting something in its place, I believe that this negative acquisition would soon form better and more natural relations between Prussia and her German neighbors, than have hitherto existed.

Bismarck.