xiv INTRODUCTION 



names in German history, with whom I came in 

 contact. But one circumstance, wholly unintimate, 

 leads up to what I wish to tell. Bismarck was a 

 familiar of the last house in which I stayed, and there 

 was a good deal of talk about a Parliamentary 

 measure for which he was at the moment pre- 

 paring. The idea was to give Government subsidies 

 to certain shipping companies to enable them to run 

 lines of steamers to Africa, and there was difference 

 of opinion as to how far this would divert money from 

 the army, if it meant building a great fleet, how the 

 step would be viewed in England, and kindred prob- 

 lems now familiar to all the world. To me at least 

 they were quite new and very interesting. I asked 

 if I might be told when Bismarck was going to intro- 

 duce the Bill in the Reichstag, and I was promised 

 not only that information but a card of admission. 



Not long after I returned to Berlin, a dated 

 ticket was sent me, and I went to the Reichstag at 

 the appointed hour. Almost at once, as it now seems 

 to me, Bismarck came through the private entrance 

 of a little raised box, facing the semi-circle of mem- 

 bers. From my seat I looked straight across at the 

 stiff figure in some kind of uniform, and the grey, 

 impassive face, very remote and formidable. He 

 spoke in a husky monotone, difficult to follow, and 

 almost without inflection or gesture. He was listened 

 to in complete silence, and I had the impression of a 

 stern and rather bored professor giving instructions 

 to a docile class. He stopped abruptly, and at 

 once a wild clamour of jubilant and angry shouts 

 arose, almost as suddenly resolving itself into a 

 single, thin, and screaming voice. The voice came 



