380 



GERMANY. 



retirement by expressing a desire to resign the 

 presidency of the Prussian ministry. This of- 

 fice he had given up for a time in 1873; but the 

 necessity of controlling the decisions of the Fed- 

 eral Council by instructing the Prussian repre- 

 sentatives obliged him to resume it. The state 

 of friction that long existed was cloaked by an 

 interchange of formal compliments, but after the 

 elections the two strong wills came into violent 

 collision, and the Chancellor, having no longer 

 an obedient majority in the Reichstag to up- 

 hold him, found the opposing force too strong 

 to resist. When he entered into negotiations 

 with Dr. Windthorst, the Clerical leader, looking 

 to parliamentary co-operation on the condition 

 of the restoration to the Duke of Cumberland of 

 the sequestered moneys of the King of Hanover, 

 known as the Guelph fund, and the surrender 

 of the remaining May laws, the Emperor showed 

 his displeasure at the Chancellor's dealing with 

 the parties without his concurrence, and through 

 his unofficial counselors, treated with the chiefs 

 of the Clerical party independently. This pro- 

 duced the final rupture, a serious difference 

 having already arisen between them on the 

 constitutional "question of the relations of the 

 individual Secretaries of State to the King. The 

 Cabinet order of Sept. 8, 1852, has always been 

 construed by Prince Bismarck as meaning that 

 the President of the Ministry shall appoint his 

 own Cabinet, choosing men having political opin- 

 ions and principles in harmony with his own, 

 and that the sovereign can only deal with the 

 ministers collectively through "the President. 

 This was not the obvious interpretation of this 

 decree, and in the spirited correspondence 'on 

 this point the King insisted that it assured the 

 responsibility of the various ministers, not to the 

 President, but to the Crown direct. When the 

 King appointed Baron Berlepsch Minister of 

 Commerce and inaugurated through him an 

 economic policy at variance with tiie views of 

 the head of the Cabinet, and when he consulted 

 and instructed the other ministers on matters 

 connected with their departments, Prince Bis- 

 marck warmly remonstrated, insisting on his 

 constitutional right to control and direct the 

 ministry. The opposition that he encountered 

 in this matter made clear to him the necessity of 

 resigning ; nor did the Emperor attempt to per- 

 suade him to remain when he asked leave on 

 March 18 to lay down his three offices of Chan- 

 cellor, President of the Prussian Ministry of 

 State, and Minister of Foreign Affairs, having 

 announced his decision on the preceding day in 

 a meeting of the Prussian Cabinet. In the let- 

 ter accepting his resignation the Emperor ex- 

 pressed deep regret and disappointment, and 

 intimated that attempts had been made to in- 

 duce him to withdraw his request, but withheld 

 from publication the document in which the 

 departing Chancellor explained his reasons for 

 resigning. Bismarck, through his press organ, 

 at once denied that any effort had been made to 

 dissuade him from his determination. The Em- 

 peror conferred on him the rank of field mar- 

 shal and the title of Duke of Lauenburg, and 

 asked him to accept the continuance of his of- 

 ficial emoluments. The military promotion he 

 accepted in deference to the principle of army 

 discipline, but he rejected the offer of a con- 



tinuance of salary and the possession of the 

 official residence at Berlin, although Count 

 Moltke accepted similar gifts on retiring from 

 the post of Chief of the General Staff, and de- 

 clined the ducal title on the plea that his fort- 

 une was not sufficient to support it. The doubts 

 and agitation occasioned in Germany and abroad 

 by the departure of the statesman who had 

 guided the policy of Prussia and of Germany for 

 twenty-eight years were not allayed by the reve- 

 lations that the ex-Chancellor made to repre- 

 sentatives of the press. He would not allow the 

 public to suppose that he had resigned his offices 

 voluntarily or that his unofficial advice would 

 continue to be sought or tendered, but made 

 public the fact of his virtual dismissal and criti- 

 cised the courses into which the Emperor was 

 determined to enter. His utterances on the 

 subject of foreign politics were so frank and 

 bold that Chancellor von Caprivi sent a confi- 

 dential circular to the representatives of Ger- 

 many abroad stating that Prince Bismarck did 

 not reflect the views of the German Government. 

 It is supposed that a threatening intimation was 

 sent to the ex-Chancellor, and secret police 

 measures are said to have been taken to pi - e- 

 vent journalists from gaining access to him at 

 Friedrichsruhe. Fears of a change in foreign poli- 

 cy were dispelled by the Emperor, who said that 

 the course of the ship of state would be the same 

 as of old. and apprehensions of hazardous experi- 

 ments were quieted by the reassuring speeches 

 of the new Chancellor* who. in introducing him- 

 self to the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, ex- 

 pressed his conviction that the edifice reared 

 under the fostering care,, genius, iron will, and 

 intense patriotism of Prince Bismarck, has a 

 firm foundation and strong joints, able to resist 

 the force of wind and weather now that his sup- 

 porting hand is withdrawn, and that the person- 

 ality of the young monarch will fill the gap 

 caused by his retirement. 



The Emperor was willing to let the anti- 

 Socialist law expire, and to allow the Socialists 

 freer breath. At a banquet of the Provincial 

 Diet of Brandenburg on March 6 he had prefaced 

 a toast with the declaration that he had adopted 

 the principles of the message of 1881 as his own, 

 and, following his grandfather's footsteps, had 

 made the welfare of the inferior classes of his 

 subjects his chief care. "Those who will aid 

 me are heartily welcome, whoever they may be ; 

 but," he added, "those who oppose me in this 

 work 1 will crush." For some time after his re- 

 tirement the newspapers that were faithful to 

 the deposed Chancellor discussed the question 

 of his entering the Reichstag (the seat for Kai- 

 serslauten being offered to him) in order to criti- 

 cise and restrain his successors, or becoming a 

 representative for one of the smaller states in 

 the Federal Council, where he still had enough 

 influence, it was believed, to prevent the lapse 

 of the anti-Socialist law. The " Hamburger 

 Nachrichten," reflecting his views, predicted a 

 sanguinary insurrection when the restraints on 

 the proletariat were removed, followed by the 

 pitiless renewal of repressive measures to prevent 

 fresh troubles and the infection of the army with 

 Socialism. 



The New Chancellor. The Emperor accept- 

 ed Prince Bismarck's resignation on March 20, 



