Prince Bismarck and his Policy. 



81 



liberal or reactionary than he actually felt, hence his 

 double character in 1849. 



He favored the acceptance of the constitution which 

 was obnoxious to hira, and opposed with all his energy the 

 war for the liberation of Schleswig-Holstein. The rea- 

 sons were obvious. While the continent was out of joint 

 and belligerent, Louis Xapoleon was anxious for war, that he 

 might seize the purple ; which he accomplished by intrigue, 

 three years later. Germany was divided ; revolutions in 

 Baden and Saxony ; the Prussian army disorganized, the 

 treasury almost emptj'. Doctrines and phrases could not 

 do the work of bayonets and bullets. The German im- 

 perial crown could only be gained on the battle field. 



The offer of that crown by the Frankfort Diet showed 

 conclusively the faith of the German nation in the house 

 of Hohenzollern. When in later times it needed two 

 great historical epochs to break the individualism of 

 princes and people to unite them, can any one believe 

 that such a union could have been accomplished in 1849 ? 

 Neither the Frankfort nor Erfurt parliaments could un- 

 derstand that unity could only be thought of, when the 

 command of the army and the direction of a foreign policy 

 rested in one man's hands. 



The so-called Union Parliament opened in the spring of 

 1850. 



Since 1840 Prussia had demanded of Austria, as an act 

 of self preservation, an alternate presidium at the diet in 

 Frankfort' The aim of such a demand was, Prussia's 

 desire to exercise an equal influence in Germany's affairs. 



* The Diet at Frankfort was composed of seventeen envoys, presided 

 over hj the representatives of Austria. There were, however, thirteen 

 states, exclusive of the free cities, represented in the last period of the 

 Diet's existence. The diet was so constituted that each of the following 

 states, or combination of states, had one representative : 



Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, Saxonv, Hanover, Wiirtemberg, Baden, 

 Electorate of Hessia, Grand Duchy of Hessia ; Denmark for the Duchies of 

 Trans, ix.'] 11 



