Prince Bismarck and his Policy. 



79 



in intensity, as his iron will and clear logic gained as- 

 cendency. 



The 18th of March 1848 approached. The stormflood 

 of rebellion came from Paris; the Orleans dynasty had 

 fled; Laniartine became president of the republic. Out- 

 breaks in Vienna and Munich followed. Emperor Ferdi- 

 nand of Austria abdicated in favor of his nephew^ Fran- 

 cis Joseph. King Louis of Bavaria placed his sceptre in 

 the hands of his son Maximilian. On the 18th day of 

 March, rebellion broke out in Prussia. The principle of 

 legitimacy on the continent seemed to totter. 



During this time Bismarck maintained, that the people 

 could only be free and prosperous by securing a strong 

 king, hence he was in direct antagonism with the spirit of 

 the times, while he was forced to admit, that behind all the 

 mad chimerae of those times there was a strong power of 

 the people, a desire for independent government; and he 

 hoped in his own time to build upon these germs a new 

 era, clear, great, and German within and without — in 

 short give to the German nationality that recognition 

 among the nations of the world, to which its inherent 

 merit entitled it. 



The revolution in Prussia continued; new ministries 

 succeeded each other in quick succession. 



Bismarck followed the intellectual and material course 

 of events, and worked faithfully to create in Berlin a loyal 

 party, true to the king, with the Neue Preussische Zeitung as 

 its organ. 



The socialistic tendencies of 1848 killed themselves by 

 their excesses. The national parliament divided itself. 



The refusal of taxes ; the bloody fight of the working- 

 men in Berlin against the citizens; TVrangel's entrance into 

 Berlin, and the state of siege ended the reign of the 

 sovereign people. 



In December 1848 Bismarck appeared in Berlin as re- 

 presentative of Brandenburg. 



