BEUST, COUNT VON. 



BISMARCK, PRINCE VON. 



which was demanded by the Slavic crown- 

 lands, the Emperor established, by Yon 

 Beust's advice, a reform of the political ad- 

 ministration, and began a series of measures 

 for organizing the independence of the com- 

 munes and the separation of justice from the 

 administration. Austria, so far as freedom 

 and parliamentary authority are concerned, 

 forthwith rose to the head of the Continental 

 great states. From that time Yon Beust em- 

 ployed himself busily in giving life to the po- 

 litical reforms, and in regulating the finances. 

 In the movement for the repeal of the Cor- 

 cordat he kept himself as passive as possible. 

 Being a Protestant, he thought he should 

 have but little to do with it, and that the 

 initiative belonged to the Reichsrath ; if 

 this body should destroy the Concordat by 

 its own enactment, the end would be reached 

 in the easiest manner. On the 23d of June, 

 Yon Beust was appointed Chancellor, and on 

 the oth of December, 1868, the Emperor con- 

 ferred upon him, in acknowledgment of his 

 services, the hereditary title of count. In 

 March, 1869, it was chiefly the influence of 

 Beust which induced the Lower House of the 

 Reichsrath to adopt a military law which re- 

 organized the Austrian army. When in July, 

 1870, the war between Germany and France 

 broke out, Count Beust at first gave no 

 public intimation of the policy he would 

 pursue; but he soon declared that Austria 

 would observe the strictest neutrality. It 

 was subsequently asserted that, in August, the 

 court party at Vienna had disposed the Em- 

 peror in favor of an intervention in behalf of 

 France, and that this policy was only aban- 

 doned because Count Andrassy declared that 

 it was not in the interest of Hungary, and that, 

 if it were persisted in, he would resign. Count 

 Beust, it is further asserted, did not offer his 

 resignation, and the neutral attitude of Austria 

 during the war was, therefore, altogether as- 

 cribed to Andrassy. At the close of the year 

 1870 Count Beust exchanged important dip- 

 lomatic notes with Count Bismarck concerning 

 the restoration of the German Empire. He 

 gave a ready and unreserved consent to the 

 consolidation of Germany, and cordially re- 

 ciprocated the friendly sentiments expressed 

 with regard to Austria by Count Bismarck. 

 When in 1871 the Hohenwart ministry yielded 

 to the demands of the Czechs, and was willing 

 to extend the autonomy of the provincial Diets 

 at the expense of the unity of the empire, Count 

 Beust, in union with the Prime Minister of 

 Hungary, Count Andrassy, prevailed upon 

 the vacillating Emperor to reject the pro- 

 gramme of Hohenwart, to accept the resigna- 

 tion of the Hohenwart ministry, and to form 

 a new Cabinet under Prince Auersperg, which 

 will, in the main, carry out the principles of 

 the German Constitutional party, and endeav- 

 or to strengthen the authority of the Cen- 

 trait Reichsrath. The new triumphs made 

 Count Beust more popular among the Ger- 



mans than he had ever been before ; but, 

 to the great surprise of all, a few days later 

 his resignation was offered and accepted, and 

 he was appointed ambassador to London. 



BISMARCK, OTTO EDWAED LEOPOLD, Prince 

 von Bismarck-Schonhausen, was born on April 

 1, 1815, at the Schonhausen family mansion, 

 in the Prussian circle of Jerichon, province of 

 Saxony. He received the education of a Berlin 

 gymnasium, studied jurisprudence at Gottin- 

 gen, Berlin, and Greifswald, and entered the 

 legal profession at Berlin in 1835. After the 

 death of his father, he gave up the law and de- 

 voted himself to his estates of Schonhausen and 

 Kniephof. In 1847 he was chosen representa- 

 tive of his district in the United German Diet, 

 where he soon made himself noted as one of 

 the most radical, as well as one of the ablest, 

 champions of the feudal party. In the follow- 

 ing session of the Diet he was more restrained, 

 but on occasion pronounced distinctly against 

 the revolution. He criticised the King's figur- 

 ing in processions with the national banners, 

 and thought there would be no peace till all 

 the great cities were destroyed from the face 

 of the earth. During the short triumph of 

 the revolution he had no part in the move- 

 ments of national politics. He came forward 

 again when the reaction arose, and distin- 

 guished himself as a member of the Second 

 Chamber by the vigor of his opposition to the 

 new Constitution and the Frankfort Parlia- 

 ment. This decided partisan attitude, which 

 would recognize only the "actual undimin- 

 ished power of the Prussian monarchy by the 

 grace of God," prepared his way to the favor 

 of King Frederick William IY. In May, 1851, 

 he was appointed secretary of legation in 

 Frankfort, and three months later, on the de- 

 parture of Yon Rochow, he was made deputy. 

 At first, he accepted with warmth the idea of 

 an Austro-Prussian alliance; but experience 

 in practical politics in time changed his views 

 to such an extent that he saw only the alter- 

 natives of the degradation of Prussia under 

 the preponderance of Austria, or the assump- 

 tion of preponderance over Germany by Prus- 

 sia herself. In 1859 he said in a letter that 

 the Confederation "was an evil to Prussia, which 

 would sooner or later have to be abolished by 

 fire and the sword. " German," he thought, 

 might be restored to the banners instead of 

 "Prussian," when a close and adequate league 

 should be formed with the rest of Germany. 

 On the approach of the Austro-Italian War, 

 Bismarck spoke decidedly in favor of the most 

 strict neutrality on the part of Prussia, and 

 expressed himself so strongly at Frankfort 

 against Austria, that the old liberal Hohenzol- 

 lern ministry recalled him in 1859, and sent 

 him as envoy to St. Petersburg. Here he con- 

 tinued to plan and suggest, though the Cabinet 

 paid no attention to his views. He indignant- 

 ly denied the accusations of the Liberal press 

 that he had thought of ceding German terri- 

 tory to Russia and France, in return for an- 



