84 



Prince Bismarck and his Policy. 



The danger of bis country had made him a politician, the 

 day of Olmiitz a diplomatist. 



Diplomacy, up to this time, had been a kind of a 

 mystery, something like the Holy Inquisition or the Coun- 

 cil of Ten at Venice. 



European diplomacy originated in the old Italian mer- 

 chant wisdom of the Medici, and was carried on with all 

 the serpent-like distrust of those times. To play jugglery 

 with God's great gift of speech, to lie with the greatest 

 appearance of truth, was diplomacy. 



The general condition of things at the beginning of this 

 century found in the Diet a fertile soil for this kind of di- 

 plomacy. The policy of the European cabinets, since 1815, 

 was merely a defensive system against restless France, which 

 since the fall of the first !N"apoleon up to 1851 had changed 

 its rulers and form of government four times. This de- 

 fensive system found expression in the Holy Alliance, the 

 policy of which was defense against France, protection 

 from rebellion at home, and the preservation of an abso- 

 lute monarchy. 



Faulty as this system was, it gave security to the states, 

 although it was antagonistic to the growing culture of the 

 people. Metternich's unchangeable states-maxim was, 

 full accord with Prussia in all German questions at home 

 and abroad. 



This system, changed in 1848, was a mere shadow in 

 1850, and was buried on the 31st of March with Metter- 

 nich's resignation. The then emperor of Germany had 

 become emperor of Austria. Francis Joseph was sur- 

 rounded by different influences; a Schwarzeuberg, the 

 bearer of Ultra-Catholicism, formed a cabinet. The expe- 

 riences gained during the Hungarian revolution, which 

 had proved the utter unreliability of the non-German 

 races, dictated a new policy, w^hich found its point of 

 gravity in the German policy at the expense of Prussia. 



The Camarilla at the court of Vienna was against the 



