xvi INTRODUCTION 



lucky chance, a record dated Berlin, June 22nd, 

 of a conversation with one Mr. F. Who precisely 

 Mr, F. was, or how I came to know him, I cannot 

 recollect, but I have a clear impression of him as an 

 intelligent middle-class man of no particular education 

 who had been much in London, probably in trade, 

 and who took pleasure in instructing me, whom he 

 knew to be Scotch, about England and Germany. 

 It seems to me now a record of much interest as to the 

 envisagement of the political situation in 1884 by 

 a quite ordinary Berliner, 



" The Enghsh," he said, " have much more of a 

 family hfe. It is rather difficult for a foreigner to 

 feel quite at home with them. They are probably 

 quite as hospitable as the Germans, but they do not 

 show it so much. There are about 100,000 Germans in 

 London, and with business people they are far from 

 popular. The English do not educate the common 

 people enough so that these would rather have better 

 food than better education for their families, and 

 the upper classes don't combat this idea enough. 

 The Germans are therefore more pushing and get the 

 best places when they have got into a business," 



" North and South Germany have to be better 

 amalgamated before the Empire can fulfil her 

 destiny, and it takes more than a dozen years to 

 unite people so different in habits and in mode of 

 life. Round about Berlin the land is poor; industry 

 and manufactures take the place of natural wealth, 

 and, as in your Scotland, the people are more fitted 

 to battle with life. When they go to the rich 

 Rhenish provinces or to Bavaria, their northern 

 habits enable them quickly to outstrip their easy- 



