¶ Yes, Bismarck, any day the mob may bring the rope; but you still bellow your defiance, your face of brass unabashed. Man among men—wrong though you be, Bismarck, you will have your say though the Heavens fall.
¶ “I am proud to be a Prussian Junker, and feel honored by the appellation. Whigs and Tories were terms which once also had a very mean signification; and be assured, gentlemen, that we shall on our part bring Junkerdom to be regarded with honor and respect.”
¶ Aristocrats were delighted; von Thadden exclaimed: “I am enthusiastic over this man Bismarck!” Geo. v. Wincke, the Westphalian high official, short, fat, red-headed, never admired the burly giant Bismarck, smelling of the cow-sheds.
¶ For twenty years, off and on, the testy v. Wincke indulged in invective, his theme ever being “The rule of law.” This George v. Wincke in spite of his medals and his family tree was on the liberal side, bag and baggage.
¶ There was a strain of bitter eloquence about this red-headed champion of the people’s rights. He had read Guizot and talked much of Hampden, the Long Parliament, and all that. George had the legal side of the argument, especially since the French revolution had set liberty bells a-ringing everywhere, even in solemn old Prussia; but the doughty Bismarck would come thundering back with his “unlimited crown” and rulership over the people “by the grace of God,” royal prerogative and general disdain for the masses;—as in the régime of Louis the Magnificent at Versailles, when the convicts worked to build the $200,000,000 palace to shelter art, wit and pretty women, while the people starved. How out of tune, Bismarck; how hopelessly reactionary!
¶ Bismarck voted against every new privilege. His speeches read like reports of personal rows! He was frank, fearless and frenzied, and in turn his volleys excited groans and hisses.
¶ Was ever mortal so utterly out of touch with the prevailing French conception of liberty, equality and fraternity? Here is the way he summed up political equality:
¶ “The goosequill arguments of newspaper writers!” “Relics of pot-houses!” “The emancipation of the people does not mean progress!” “A royal word is more than volumes of law!” “The Prussian sovereigns are in possession of a crown by God’s grace!” “The king has said he did not wish to be coerced or driven!” “Let there be a period of four years, at least, before another such stupid meeting as this is held.”