The old men, who advocated the greatest caution in dealing with the
impossible demands of the German Federation, and were profoundly
distrustful as to the help that might be expected from Europe, were
vituperated in the press. As _Whole-State Men_, they were regarded as
unpatriotic, and as so-called _Reactionaries_, accused of being enemies
to freedom. When I was introduced into the house of one of these
politically ill-famed leaders, in spite of my ignorance, I knew enough
of politics, as of other subjects, to draw a sharp distinction between
that which I could in a measure grasp, and that which I did not
understand; I was sufficiently educated to place Danish constitutional
questions in the latter category, and consequently I crossed, devoid of
prejudice, the threshold of a house whence proceeded, according to the
opinion of the politically orthodox, a pernicious, though fortunately
powerless, political heterodoxy.
It must not be supposed that I came into close touch with anything of
the sort. The old Minister never opened his mouth on political matters
in the bosom of his family. But the impression of superior intelligence
and knowledge of men that he conveyed was enough to place him in a
different light from that in which he was depicted in _The Fatherland_,
the paper whose opinions were swallowed blindly by the student body.
And my faith in the infallibility of the paper was shaken even more one
day, when I saw the Leader of the Reactionary Party himself, Privy
Councillor Bluhme, at the house, and sat unnoticed in a corner,
listening to his conversation. He talked a great deal, although, like
the master of the house, he did not allude to his public work. Like a
statesman of the old school, he expressed himself with exquisite
politeness and a certain ceremony. But of the affectation of which _The
Fatherland_ accused him, there was not a trace. What profoundly
impressed me was the Danish the old gentleman spoke, the most perfect
Danish. He told of his travels in India--once upon a time he had been
Governor of Trankebar--and you saw before you the banks of the Ganges
and the white troops of women, streaming down to bathe in the river, as
their religion prescribed.
I never forgot the words with which Bluhme rose to go: "May I borrow
the English blue-books for a few days? There might be something or
other that the newspapers have not thought fit to tell us." I started
at the words. It dawned upon me for the first time, though merely as a
remote possibility, that the Press might purposely and with intent to
mislead keep silence about facts that had a claim upon the attention of
the public.