" THE BISMARCK DYNASTY."

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2614, 13 April 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

" THE BISMARCK DYNASTY."

An Extraordinary Article.

The m-w number of the Contemporary Review opens with a paper bearing the above \itle. Tho iirtiolo contains ample intern:il evidence thut the writer has drawn hi* information from high quarters. Appended are some extracts : — L'rinco Bismarck, though supremo in Germany, in not immortal. He in agoing, ami ageing ra*t. Ho n-ns born on the Ist of April, 181- r >, and is therefore in his 7-lth year. Liko many men of strong character, ho believes thut he has btfon privileged to know tho date of his death. He will not (Ho, ho in convinced, until 1800. Ho will not bo living beyond ISM.

Whatever ridicule may be thrown upon the notion thut even a Reiohskanzler can cast, his horoscope with such precision as to fix the approximate date of his death in thiH fashion, tho fact i-< indisputable thut. Prince Bismarck holds that belief and acts upon it. Life for him is no indefinite vista stretching out into tho distaut future. Ho will havo done with it for good and all before the end of 1895. Given these two factors—first, the possesnion of almost absolute power, and secondly, tho conviction that he must lay it down in fivo years at the utmost—it was inovitable that he should cast about for a successor, to whom ho could hand over the Imperial major-domo-ship which he has spent his life in creating. Consciously or unconsciously, Prince Bismarck followed the example of all men ■who have founded dynasties since the world began. He selected ns his heir his eldest son, and his determination to securo tho succession of Count Herbert to tbe Chancellorship is tho secret clue to the recent events which have scaudalised Europe It is a new war of auction that is boing waged under a thin veil of constitutional and legal forms, n Bisraarckian war for the foundation of a Bismarokian dynasty, in which Otto tho First will bo succeeded by his son Biamarck the Second. Beforo Conut Herbert was taken up for development he was regarded as a rather disreputable representative of his family. In his hot youth ha had got mixed up in some broil about a woman at Bonn, out of which he had to slash his way with a sword, receiving by way of memento an ugly cut across the head in the duel, which, fortunately, did not end fatally for either party. Ho was wounded in tho thigh iu that cavalry fight which tho Kolnische Zeitung suggests was duo to the nonexistent telegram that reached Bazaine in roundabout fashion from Sir Robert Morier. He was then serving as a private in the Dragoon Guards, and the wound was caused by a shot which struck him in tho upper part of tho thigh during a cavalry attack at Mars-la-Tour by the French, who wero pushing on to Verdun. Ho had displayed great bravery, and had received no fewer than three shots—one through tho broast of his coat, another on hia watch, tho third was that in his thigh ; the wound was painful, but not dangerous. After the war he did nothing to distinguish himself until ho figured in a great scandal, which serves still further to accentuate hia view of woman. Woman, iu the eyes of a barbarian, is a combination of a milch cow and a household drudge. Low though this ideal may be, it is higher than that which exists where she is regarded as tho mere vehicle of the passion of the adulterer.

After some further references to Count Bismarck, the article proceeds: —When old Kaiser died, there was for a moment a period of painful suspense and indecision in the mind of tho Mayor of the Palace. What should be done? How long would tho Emperor Frederick live? Was there any nned for there being any Emperor Frederick at all? From the point of view of the Bismarck dynasty, it certainly seems desirable that tho succession should pass direct from the grandfather to the grandson, for the Bismarckian tradition. He was a production of Blood and Iron. With him, unless he is foully belied, the omnipotent Reichskanzler had made sundry important and binding agreements, on the principle of do ill dcs. His father, on the other hand, was not a Binmarckian. That a woman, and that woman an Englishwoman, and that Englishwoman a Liberal, saturated with progressive ideas, should practically have the Eaiperor of Germany in her hand, aud should control the master of tho master of Germany, was enough to give Prince Bismarck the nightmare Yet, after all, what could he do? Ho repeatedly sent his son and heirprßsutnptive to transact business with the Emperor, only to find that Frederick 111 refused to deal with anyone but the

Chancellor himself. If the Emperor lived, therefore, the one dream of the old Chancellor's life would bo thwarted. Count Herbert could never be tho Chancellor of Frederick 111.

Tho death of the Emperor is the tex for the following trenchant comments :—

The end came at last to tho sufferings of the Emperor Frederick. After a reign of 90 days, the great obstacle, so long and so koenly rlreadeil by the Chancellor, to tho realisation of his projects was removed. Death secured him the victory, and when the grave closed over the coffin of Frederick TIL the way seemed clear for the attainment of the Bismarckian dream. No more talk now of a Prince " frankly Constitutional." No more petticoat influence in German politics—save of Iho illpgitiinatc kind. The masculine Teuton was henceforth to have an exclusively masculine ruler. The Fates and Death had fought against the milder influences of the Liberal reign. The brief experiment ceased almost before it had well begun, and Prince Bisninruk was left free to establish his dynasty in peace. Meanwhile, at Berlin, the position of the Empress wa3 so unpleasant that at one time it began to be rumoured that she was actually under arrest. The envenomed attacks of the reactionary press never ceased. She, whose position ought to have commanded universal sympathy, found herself isolated, denounced and slighted. Seldom has the doctrine of T'ui victis been more ruthlessly enforced. The Empress has removed curtain MSS. belonging to her husband to the security of a land where domiciliary visits for the seizure of papers are not ordinary incidents of existence. She was compelled, under threats of pecuniary pressure, to hand them over to the German Government. Why not? To the victors belong the spoils. The new Emperor, William the Second—a headstrong and energetic man, roared under the mugic of tho Bismarekian triumph—showed himself no inapt pupil of his master. In his early youth, while still living under the parental roof, he was a docile an , .! affectionate boy. It Mas not until ho went Tri stii'ly at Bonn, wlicd IG years old, that tl,o estrangement began which has yieldc' 1 -c. bitter fruit. Tho officers of tbegf'" - t at Bonn lettered the lad, filled ■■• • julish young 1 ad > ith dreams of pla; .ng tho role of a second Frederick the G eat, and inculcated a spirit of selfregan'.ug ambition, the end of which has no." et beei seen. When his parents emi. .voured to check the working of this moral poison, his comrades encouraged him to defy their warnings. He drew his allowance from hia grandfat 'T, not from his father; aud the approval of Hismaruk was more to him than the love ami esteem of his mother. The result was that before he left Bonn ho began to regard himself as a personage in the State. He hud hia friends, his p.<>ty and — iu tli , ; army —his set, whose promotion lie [juslied, and who in turn were devoted to In.- interns:.- i h■.• f. up ■> ... Frederii;!; never, in the ;i«ys who-' h -■α-j Crmu Prince, rnado an attympt tu push his own personal ambitions, cither in tiie Army or in tho State, lie was no self stoker A double measure or'his evil spirit seemed to have d«sot-iulcd upon liis sou. Eager for his own advancement, grudging the recognition of other's services, the young V'ino , , an apt pupil of a cynical mister, j. ;1 j,,.| i.,. .■■IK ■•'•■ ', >ur s-Mii.u.HMiCal, ..»m,i i-t... Uciu-.li, x).oiu«it.i. o Urtii ueait. 00 Ultlu

(lid he care for the feelinps of others that hi! treated the Prince of Wales with such discourtesy as to render it difficult for his Royal Highness again to meet his nephfiw—a fact of which the public wus made aware when thp Prince and the Kaiser both \isiteil the Emperor of Austria, but carefully avoided meeting each other in tho capital of their host. Count Herbert, out-Heroding Herod in the brusque brutality of his manner forced the I'rincc to take, the extreme step of breaking off all relations with those who received the Count as a friend. The boycott is said to be complete. After several pages devoted to the Geffckea affair, tho writer refers to the Morier incident, and concludes as follows :— What will come of the Bismarck dynasty remains in doubt. It is difficult to found * new dynasty in modern times : to found a Ministerial dynasty is almost impossible. There is no proof that the turbulent young Count whom the Chancellor has striven so hard to make his successor has either the prescience or the courage of his sire. To borrow a Johnsonian phrase, he has all the nodosity of the oak without the strength, and all the contortions of the eybil'wiMiout her inspiration. Nor can it be said that Count Horbert has been trained in a good school. Adversity is tho best school for genius, and it was m long years of storm and stress that his father discovered and exercised thoso marvellous gifts of forethought and sagacity which have made him the foremoat Minister of tho century. But the very "magnitude of his success has deprived his son of all possibility of profiting, by the advantages which stood his fithnr in such good stead. Count Herbert Bismarck to-day is powerful, for when he vpeako everyone hears the echo of his father's voice. But when 6ft. 2in. of Gorman soil cover all that is mortal of the Reichckiinzler, will those who now bow silently before tho insolence of his son tolerate tho unsupported arrogance of Bismarck 11. ?