OUR CHANCELLOR. CHAPTER I. BISMARCK AND THE FRENCH. ON June 16, 1860, Bismarck wrote from Petersburg to a Prussian diplomatist :-" Augsburger & Co." (the diplomatists of the Central German States) "are still afraid that I shall become a Minister, and think they can hinder me in that direction by abusing me and railing at my FrancoRussian tendencies. I feel honoured in being feared by Prussia's foes. As a matter of [fact, my political predilections were so carefully sifted this spring by the Court and the Ministry, that both know exactly what I think, and how entirely I look to our national feeling for strength and ability to defend ourselves. If I have sold myself to the Foul Fiend, it is to a Teutonic, not to a Gallic devil." Shortly afterwards (August 22) he complains in another letter from Petersburg of systematic calumnies in the press accusing him of having supported Russo-French proposals that Prussia should give up her Rhenish provinces in exchange for territory in the interior of Germany, and replies thereto :-"I will pay a thousand golden Fredericks down on the nail to any man who can prove that these Russo-French proposals have been brought to my knowledge by any human being. During the whole of my stay in VOL. II. B |