Prince Bismarck and his Policy. 



93 



and there were hopes of attaining results by opposing Napo- 

 leon. The restless, passionate character of Austrian poli- 

 tics endangers peace in both ways. What will the chamber 

 say to Teplitz — to the organization of the army ? All 

 sensible men will naturally agree with government as to 

 the latter. But the influence of foreign politics can first 

 be estimated, when it is known lohai the meaning of Teplitz 

 really is. A well-informed but somewhat Bonapartist cor- 

 respondent writes to me from Berlin, 'We were prettily 

 taken in at Teplitz by Viennese good-humor ; sold, for 

 nothing, not even a mess of pottage.' God grant that he 

 errs in this I In speaking of the Bonapartists, it occurs 

 to me that some kind of general rumors reach me, that the 

 press, ISational Verein, Magdeburger^ Ostpreussische Zeitung, 

 carry on a systematic war of calumny against me. I am 

 said to have openly supported Russo-Franco pretensions 

 respecting a cession of the Rhine province, on the condi- 

 tion of compensation nearer home ; I am a second Borries, 

 and so on. I will pay a thousand Fredericks-d'or to the 

 person who will prove to me that any such Russo-Franco 

 propositions have ever been brought to my knowledge by 

 any one. In the whole period of my German residence I 

 never advised any thing else than that we should rely on 

 our own strength, and in the case of war, upon the aid of 

 the national forces of Germany. These foolish geese of 

 the German press do not see that in attacking me they are 

 losing the better part of their own efforts. I am informed 

 that the fountain-head of these attacks wys the court of 

 Coburg, in a writer who has personal spite against me. 

 Were I an Austrian statesman, or a German prince and 

 Austrian reactionist, like the Duke of Meiningen, our 

 Kreuzzeituny would have protected me as it has him. The 

 mendacity of these assaults is unknown to some of our 

 political friends. As I am, however, an old member of 

 their party, entertaining particular ideas upon certain 



