588 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -VII 



then read a paper, claiming to emanate directly from the 

 chancellor himself, to the effect that he had nothing what- 

 ever to do with the bill and disapproved it. Upon Bis- 

 marck's colleagues in the ministry, who thought that his 

 silence had given consent, this came like a thunderbolt; 

 and those who had especially advocated the measure saw 

 at once that they had fallen into a trap. The general opin- 

 ion was that the illness of the chancellor had been a strata- 

 gem; that his sudden disclaimer, after his leading col- 

 leagues had thus committed themselves, was intended to 

 drive them from the ministry; and that he was deter- 

 mined to prevent the minister who had most strongly 

 supported the bill from securing popularity by it. This 

 minister, then, and the other members of the cabinet at 

 once resigned, giving place to men whom the chancellor 

 did not consider so likely to run counter to his ideas and 

 interests. 



Indeed, it must be confessed that the great statesman 

 not infrequently showed the defects of his qualities. As 

 one out of many cases may be cited his treatment of Edu- 

 ard Lasker. This statesman during several years ren- 

 dered really important services. Though an Israelite, he 

 showed none of the grasping propensities so often ascribed 

 to his race. He seemed to care nothing for wealth or 

 show, lived very simply, and devoted himself to the public 

 good as he understood it. Many capitalists, bankers, and 

 promoters involved in the financial scandals which fol- 

 lowed the Franco-Prussian War were of his race ; but this 

 made no difference with him : in his great onslaught on the 

 colossal scoundrelism of that time, he attacked Jew and 

 Gentile alike; and he deserved well of his country for 

 aiding to cleanse it of all that fraud and folly. On a mul- 

 titude of other questions, too, he had been very serviceable 

 to the nation and to Bismarck ; but, toward the end of his 

 career, he had, from time to time, opposed some of the 

 chancellor's measures, and this seemed to turn the latter 

 completely against him. 



At the opening of the Northern Pacific Eailway, Lasker 



