[1] The title prince-bishop, attached in Austria to the sees of
Laibach, Seckau, Gurk, Brixen, Trent and Lavant, and in Prussia to
that of Breslau, no longer implies any secular jurisdiction, but is
merely a title of honour recognized by the state, owing either to the
importance of the sees or for reasons purely historical.
BISHOP AUCKLAND, a market town in the Bishop Auckland parliamentary
division of Durham, England, 11 m. S.S.W. of the city of Durham, the
junction of several branches of the North Eastern railway. Pop. of urban
district (1901) 11,969. It is beautifully situated on an eminence near
the confluence of the Wear and the Gaunless. The parish church is 1 m.
distant, at Auckland St Andrews, a fine cruciform structure, formerly
collegiate, in style mainly Early English, but with earlier portions.
The palace of the bishops of Durham, which stands at the north-east end
of the town, is a spacious and splendid, though irregular pile The site
of the palace was first chosen by Bishop Anthony Beck, in the time of
Edward I. The present building covers about 5 acres, and is surrounded
by a park of 800 acres. On the Wear 1-1/2 m. above Bishop Auckland there
is a small and very ancient church at Escomb, massively built and
tapering from the bottom upward. It is believed to date from the 7th
century, and some of the stones are evidently from a Roman building, one
bearing an inscription. These, no doubt, came from Binchester, a short
distance up stream, where remains of a Roman fort (_Vinovia_) are
traceable. It guarded the great Roman north road from York to Hadrian's
wall. The industrial population of Bishop Auckland is principally
employed in the neighbouring collieries and iron works.
BISHOP'S CASTLE, a market town and municipal borough in the southern
parliamentary division of Shropshire, England; the terminus of the
Bishop's Castle light railway from Craven Arms. Pop. (1901) 1378. It is
pleasantly situated in a hilly district to the east of Clun Forest,
climbing the flank and occupying the summit of an eminence. Of the
castle of the bishops of Hereford, which gave the town its name, there
are only the slightest fragments remaining. The town has some
agricultural trade. It is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12
councillors. Area, 1867 acres.
Bishop's Castle was included in the manor of Lydbury, which belonged
to the church of Hereford before the Conquest. The castle, at first
called Lydbury Castle, was built by one of the bishops of Hereford
between 1085 and 1154, to protect his manor from the Welsh, and the
town which sprang up round the castle walls acquired the name of
Bishop's Castle in the 13th century. In 1292 the bishop claimed to
have a market every Friday, a fair on the eve, day and morrow of the
Decollation of St John, and assize of bread and ale in Bishop's
Castle, which his predecessors had held from time immemorial. Ten
years later he received a grant from Richard II. of a market every
Wednesday and a fair on the 2nd of November and two days following.
Although the town was evidently a borough by the 13th century, since
the burgesses are mentioned as early as 1292, it has no charter
earlier than the incorporation charter granted by Queen Elizabeth in
1572. This was confirmed by James I. in 1617 and by James II. in 1688.
In 1584 Bishop's Castle returned two members to parliament, and was
represented until 1832, when it was disfranchised.
BISHOP STORTFORD, a market town in the Hertford parliamentary division
of Hertfordshire, England; 30-1/2 m. N.N.E. from London by the Cambridge
line of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 7143.
It lies on the river Stort, close to the county boundary with Essex, and
has water-communication with London through the Lea and Stort
Navigation. The church of St Michael, standing high above the valley, is
a fine embattled Perpendicular building with western tower and spire.
The high school, formerly the grammar school, was founded in the time of
Elizabeth. Here were educated Sir Henry Chauncy, an early historian of
Hertfordshire (d. 1719), and Cecil Rhodes, who was born at Bishop
Stortford in 1853. There are a Nonconformist grammar school, a diocesan
training college for mistresses, and other educational establishments.
The industries include brewing and malting, coach-building, lime-burning
and founding, and there are important horse and cattle markets.
Before the Conquest the manor of Bishop Stortford is said to have
belonged to Eddeva the Fair, wife of Harold, who sold it to the bishop
of London, from whom it was taken by William the Conqueror. William
restored it after a few years, and with it gave the bishop a small
castle called Waytemore, of which there are scanty remains. The
dungeon of this castle, called "Bishop's Hole" or "Bishop's Prison,"
was used as an ecclesiastical prison until the 16th century. The town
now possesses no early incorporation charters, and although both
Chauncy and Salmon in their histories of Hertfordshire state that it
was created a borough by charter of King John in 1206, the charter
cannot now be found. The first mention of Bishop Stortford as a
borough occurs in 1311, in which year the burgesses returned two
members to parliament. The town was represented from that date until
1332, and again in 1335-1336, but the privilege was then allowed to
lapse and has never been revived.
BISKRA, a town of Algeria, in the arrondissement of Batna, department of
Constantine, 150 m. S.W. of the city of Constantine and connected with
it and with Philippeville by rail. It lies in the Sahara 360 ft. above
the sea, on the right bank of the Wad Biskra, a river which, often
nearly dry for many months in the year, becomes a mighty torrent after
one or two days' rain in winter. The name Biskra applies to a union of
five or six villages of the usual Saharan type, scattered through an
oasis 3 m. in length by less than 1 m. broad, and separated by huge
gardens full of palm and olive trees. The houses are built of hardened
mud, with doors and roof of palm wood. The foreign settlement is on the
north of the oasis; it consists of a broad main street, the rue Berthe
(from which a few side streets branch at right angles), lined with
European houses, the whole in the style of a typical French winter
resort, a beautiful public garden, with the church in the centre, an
arcade, a pretentious _mairie_ in pseudo-Moorish style with entrance
guarded by terra-cotta lions, some good shops, a number of excellent
hotels and cafes, a casino, clubs, and, near by, a street of dancing and
singing girls of the tribe of Walad-Nail. East of the public garden is
Fort St Germain, named after an officer killed in the insurrection of
the Zaatcha in 1849; it is capable of resisting any attack of the Arabs,
and extensive enough to shelter the whole of the civil population, who
took refuge therein during the rebellion of 1871. It contains barracks,
hospital and government offices. To the south-east lies the Villa Landon
with magnificent gardens filled with tropical plants. The population
(1906) of the chief settlement was 4218, of the whole oasis 10,413.
From November to April the climate of Biskra is delightful. Nowhere in
Algeria can be found more genial temperature or clearer skies, and while
in summer the thermometer often registers 110 deg. F. in the shade, and
90 deg. at night, the pure dryness of the air in this practically
rainless region makes the heat endurable. The only drawback to the
climat is the prevalence of high cold winds in winter. These winds cause
temperatures as low as 36 deg., but the mean reading, on an average of
ten years, is 73 deg.
In the oasis are some 200,000 fruit trees, of which about 150,000 are
date-palms, the rest being olives, pomegranates and apricots. In the
centre of the oasis is the old kasbah or citadel.
In 1844 the duc d'Aumale occupied this fort, and here, on the night of
the 12th of May of that year, the 68 men who formed the French garrison
were, with one exception, massacred by Arabs. In the fort are a few
fragments of Roman work--all that remains of the Roman post Ad Piscinam.
Biskra is the capital of the Ziban (plural of Zab), a race of mixed
Berber and Arab origin, whose villages extend from the southern slopes
of the Aures to the Shat Melrir. These villages, built in oases dotted
over the desert, nestle in groves of date-palms and fruit trees and
waving fields of barley. The most interesting village is that of Sidi
Okba, 12 m. south-east of Biskra. It is built of houses of one story
made of sun-dried bricks. The mosque is square, with a flat roof
supported on clay columns, and crowned by a minaret. In the north-west
corner of the mosque is the tomb of Sidi Okba, the leader of the Arabs
who in the 1st century of the Hegira conquered Africa for Islam from
Egypt to Tangier. Sidi Okba was killed by the Berbers near this place in
A.D. 682. On his tomb is the inscription in Cufic characters, "This is
the tomb of Okba, son of Nafi. May God have mercy upon him." No older
Arabic inscription is known to exist in Africa.
BISLEY, a village of Surrey, England, 3-1/2 m. N.W. of Woking. The
ranges of the National Rifle Association were transferred from Wimbledon
here in 1890. (See RIFLE.)
BISMARCK, OTTO EDUARD LEOPOLD VON, PRINCE, duke of Lauenburg
(1815-1898), German statesman, was born on the 1st of April 1815, at the
manor-house of Schonhausen, his father's seat in the mark of
Brandenburg. The family has, since the 14th century, belonged to the
landed gentry, and many members had held high office in the kingdom of
Prussia. His father (d. 1845), of whom he always spoke with much
affection, was a quiet, unassuming man, who retired from the army in
early life with the rank of captain of cavalry (_Rittmeister_). His
mother, a daughter of Mencken, cabinet secretary to the king, was a
woman of strong character and ability, who had been brought up at Berlin
under the "Aufklarung." Her ambition was centred in her sons, but
Bismarck in his recollections of his childhood missed the influences of
maternal tenderness. There were several children of the marriage, which
took place in 1806, but all died in childhood except Bernhard
(1810-1893), Otto, and one sister, Malvina (b. 1827), who married in
1845 Oscar von Arnim. Young Bismarck was educated in Berlin, first at a
private school, then at the gymnasium of the Graue Kloster (Grey
Friars). At the age of seventeen he went to the university of Gottingen,
where he spent a little over a year; he joined the corps of the
Hannoverana and took a leading part in the social life of the students.
He completed his studies at Berlin, and in 1835 passed the examinations
which admitted him to the public service. He was intended for the
diplomatic service, but spent some months at Aix-la-Chapelle in
administrative work, and then was transferred to Potsdam and the
judicial side. He soon retired from the public service; he conceived a
great distaste for it, and had shown himself defective in discipline and
regularity. In 1839, after his mother's death, he undertook, with his
brother, the management of the family estates in Pomerania; at this time
most of the estate attached to Schonhausen had to be sold. In 1844,
after the marriage of his sister, he went to live with his father at
Schonhausen. He and his brother took an active part in local affairs,
and in 1846 he was appointed _Deichhauptmann_, an office in which he was
responsible for the care of the dykes by which the country, in the
neighbourhood of the Elbe, was preserved from inundation. During these
years he travelled in England, France and Switzerland. The influence of
his mother, and his own wide reading and critical character, made him at
one time inclined to hold liberal opinions on government and religion,
but he was strongly affected by the religious revival of the early years
of the reign of Frederick William IV.; his opinions underwent a great
change, and under the influence of the neighbouring country gentlemen he
acquired those strong principles in favour of monarchical government as
the expression of the Christian state, of which he was to become the
most celebrated exponent. His religious convictions were strengthened by
his marriage to Johanna von Puttkamer, which took place in 1847.
Parliamentary career.
In the same year he entered public life, being chosen as substitute for
the representative of the lower nobility of his district in the
estates-general, which were in that year summoned to Berlin. He took his
seat with extreme right, and distinguished himself by the vigour and
originality with which he defended the rights of the king and the
Christian monarchy against the Liberals. When the revolution broke out
in the following year he offered to bring the peasants of Schonhausen to
Berlin in order to defend the king against the revolutionary party, and
in the last meeting of the estates voted in a minority of two against
the address thanking the king for granting a constitution. He did not
sit in any of the assemblies summoned during the revolutionary year, but
took a very active part in the formation of a union of the Conservative
party, and was one of the founders of the _Kreuzzeitung_, which has
since then been the organ of the Monarchical party in Prussia. In the
new parliament which was elected at the beginning of 1849, he sat for
Brandenburg, and was one of the most frequent and most incisive speakers
of what was called the Junker party. He took a prominent part in the
discussions on the new Prussian constitution, always defending the power
of the king. His speeches of this period show great debating skill,
combined with strong originality and imagination. His constant theme
was, that the party disputes were a struggle for power between the
forces of revolution, which derived their strength from the fighters on
the barricades, and the Christian monarchy, and that between these
opposed principles no compromise was possible. He took also a
considerable part in the debates on the foreign policy of the Prussian
government; he defended the government for not accepting the Frankfort
constitution, and opposed the policy of Radowitz, on the ground that the
Prussian king would be subjected to the control of a non-Prussian
parliament. The only thing, he said, that had come out of the
revolutionary year unharmed, and had saved Prussia from dissolution and
Germany from anarchy, was the Prussian army and the Prussian civil
service; and in the debates on foreign policy he opposed the numerous
plans for bringing about the union of Germany, by subjecting the crown
and Prussia to a common German parliament. He had a seat in the
parliament of Erfurt, but only went there in order to oppose the
constitution which the parliament had framed. He foresaw that the policy
of the government would lead it into a position when it would have to
fight against Austria on behalf of a constitution by which Prussia
itself would be dissolved, and he was, therefore, one of the few
prominent politicians who defended the complete change of front which
followed the surrender of Olmutz.
Diplomatic career.
It was probably his speeches on German policy which induced the king to
appoint him Prussian representative at the restored diet of Frankfort in
1851. The appointment was a bold one, as he was entirely without
diplomatic experience, but he justified the confidence placed in him.
During the eight years he spent at Frankfort he acquired an unrivalled
knowledge of German politics. He was often used for important missions,
as in 1852, when he was sent to Vienna. He was entrusted with the
negotiations by which the duke of Augustenburg was persuaded to assent
to the arrangements by which he resigned his claims to Schleswig and
Holstein. The period he spent at Frankfort, however, was of most
importance because of the change it brought about in his own political
opinions. When he went to Frankfort he was still under the influence of
the extreme Prussian Conservatives, men like the Gerlachs, who regarded
the maintenance of the principle of the Christian monarchy against the
revolution as the chief duty of the Prussian government. He was prepared
on this ground for a close alliance with Austria. He found, however, a
deliberate intention on the part of Austria to humble Prussia, and to
degrade her from the position of an equal power, and also great jealousy
of Prussia among the smaller German princes, many of whom owed their
thrones to the Prussian soldiers, who, as in Saxony and Baden, had
crushed the insurgents. He therefore came to the conclusion that if
Prussia was to regain the position she had lost she must be prepared for
the opposition of Austria, and must strengthen herself by alliances with
other powers. The solidarity of Conservative interests appeared to him
now a dangerous fiction. At the time of the Crimean War he advocated
alliance with Russia, and it was to a great extent owing to his advice
that Prussia did not join the western powers. Afterwards he urged a good
understanding with Napoleon, but his advice was met by the insuperable
objection of King Frederick William IV. to any alliance with a ruler of
revolutionary origin.
The change of ministry which followed the establishment of a regency in
1857 made it desirable to appoint a new envoy at Frankfort, and in 1858
Bismarck was appointed ambassador at St Petersburg, where he remained
for four years. During this period he acquired some knowledge of
Russian, and gained the warm regard of the tsar, as well as of the
dowager-empress, herself a Prussian princess. During the first two years
he had little influence on the Prussian government; the Liberal
ministers distrusted his known opinions on parliamentary government, and
the monarchical feeling of the prince regent was offended by Bismarck's
avowed readiness for alliance with the Italians and his disregard of the
rights of other princes. The failure of the ministry, and the
estrangement between King William and the Liberal party, opened to him
the way to power. Roon, who was appointed minister of war in 1861, was
an old friend of his, and through him Bismarck was thenceforward kept
closely informed of the condition of affairs in Berlin. On several
occasions the prospect of entering the ministry was open to him, but
nothing came of it, apparently because he required a free hand in
foreign affairs, and this the king was not prepared to give him. When an
acute crisis arose out of the refusal of parliament, in 1862, to vote
the money required for the reorganization of the army, which the king
and Roon had carried through, he was summoned to Berlin; but the king
was still unable to make up his mind to appoint him, although he felt
that Bismarck was the only man who had the courage and capacity for
conducting the struggle with parliament. He was, therefore, in June,
made ambassador at Paris as a temporary expedient. There he had the
opportunity for renewing the good understanding with Napoleon which had
been begun in 1857. He also paid a short visit to England, but it does
not appear that this had any political results. In September the
parliament, by a large majority, threw out the budget, and the king,
having nowhere else to turn for help, at Roon's advice summoned Bismarck
to Berlin and appointed him minister president and foreign minister.
Ministry.
Bismarck's duty as minister was to carry on the government against the
wishes of the lower house, so as to enable the king to complete and
maintain the reorganized army. The opposition of the House was supported
by the country and by a large party at court, including the queen and
crown prince. The indignation which his appointment caused was intense;
he was known only by the reputation which in his early years he had won
as a violent ultra-Conservative, and the apprehensions were increased by
his first speech, in which he said that the German question could not be
settled by speeches and parliamentary decrees, but only by blood and
iron. His early fall was predicted, and it was feared that he might
bring down the monarchy with him. Standing almost alone he succeeded in
the task he had undertaken. For four years he ruled without a budget,
taking advantage of an omission in the constitution which did not
specify what was to happen in case the crown and the two Houses could
not agree on a budget. The conflict of the ministers and the House
assumed at times the form of bitter personality hostility; in 1863 the
ministers refused any longer to attend the sittings, and Bismarck
challenged Virchow, one of his strongest opponents, to a duel, which,
however, did not take place. In 1852 he had fought a duel with pistols
against Georg von Vindre, a political opponent. In June 1863, as soon as
parliament had risen, Bismarck published ordinances controlling the
liberty of the press, which, though in accordance with the letter,
seemed opposed to the intentions of the constitution, and it was on this
occasion that the crown prince, hitherto a silent opponent, publicly
dissociated himself from the policy of his father's ministers. Bismarck
depended for his position solely on the confidence of the king, and the
necessity for defending himself against the attempts to destroy this
confidence added greatly to the suspiciousness of his nature. He was,
however, really indispensable, for his resignation must be followed by a
Liberal ministry, parliamentary control over the army, and probably the
abdication of the king. Not only, therefore, was he secure in the
continuance of the king's support, but he had also the complete control
of foreign affairs. Thus he could afford to ignore the criticism of the
House, and the king was obliged to acquiesce in the policy of a minister
to whom he owed so much.
Foreign policy.
He soon gave to the policy of the monarchy a resolution which had long
been wanting. When the emperor of Austria summoned a meeting of the
German princes at Frankfort to discuss a reform of the confederation,
Bismarck insisted that the king of Prussia must not attend. He remained
away, and his absence in itself made the congress unavailing. There can
be no doubt that from the time he entered on office Bismarck was
determined to bring to an issue the long struggle for supremacy in
Germany between the house of Habsburg and the house of Hohenzollern.
Before he was able to complete his preparations for this, two unforeseen
occurrences completely altered the European situation, and caused the
conflict to be postponed for three years. The first was the outbreak of
rebellion in Poland. Bismarck, an inheritor of the older Prussian
traditions, and recollecting how much of the greatness of Prussia had
been gained at the expense of the Poles, offered his help to the tsar.
By this he placed himself in opposition to the universal feeling of
western Europe; no act of his life added so much to the repulsion with
which at this time he was regarded as an enemy of liberty and right. He
won, however, the gratitude of the tsar and the support of Russia, which
in the next years was to be of vital service to him. Even more serious
were the difficulties arising in Denmark. On the death of King Frederick
VII. in 1863, Prince Frederick of Augustenburg came forward as claimant
to the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, which had hitherto been joined
to the crown of Denmark. He was strongly supported by the whole German
nation and by many of its princes. Bismarck, however, once more was
obliged to oppose the current of national feeling, which imperiously
demanded that the German duchies should be rescued from a foreign yoke.
Prussia was bound by the treaty of London of 1852, which guaranteed the
integrity of the Danish monarchy; to have disregarded this would have
been to bring about a coalition against Germany similar to that of 1851.
Moreover, he held that it would be of no advantage to Prussia to create
a new German state; if Denmark were to lose the duchies, he desired that
Prussia should acquire them, and to recognize the Augustenburg claims
would make this impossible. His resistance to the national desire made
him appear a traitor to his country. To check the agitation he turned
for help to Austria; and an alliance of the two powers, so lately at
variance, was formed. He then falsified all the predictions of the
opposition by going to war with Denmark, not, as they had required, in
support of Augustenburg, but on the ground that the king of Denmark had
violated his promise not to oppress his German subjects. Austria
continued to act with Prussia, and, after the defeat of the Danes, at
the peace of Vienna the sovereignty of the duchies was surrendered to
the two allies--the first step towards annexation by Prussia. There is
no part of Bismarck's diplomatic work which deserves such careful study
as these events. Watched as he was by countless enemies at home and
abroad, a single false step would have brought ruin and disgrace on
himself; the growing national excitement would have burst through all
restraint, and again, as fifteen years before, Germany divided and
unorganized would have had to capitulate to the orders of foreign powers
(see SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION).
War with Austria.
The peace of Vienna left him once more free to return to his older
policy. For the next eighteen months he was occupied in preparing for
war with Austria. For this war the was alone responsible; he undertook
it deliberately as the only means of securing Prussian ascendancy in
Germany. The actual cause of dispute was the disposition of the
conquered duchies, for Austria now wished to put Augustenburg in as
duke, a plan to which Bismarck would not assent. In 1865 a provisional
arrangement was made by the treaty of Gastein, for Bismarck was not yet
ready. He would not risk a war unless he was certain of success, and for
this he required the alliance of Italy and French support; both he
secured during the next year. In October 1865 he visited Napoleon at
Biarritz and Paris. No formal treaty was made, but Napoleon promised to
regard favourably an extension of Prussian power in Germany; while
Bismarck led the emperor to believe that Prussia would help him in
extending the frontier of France. A treaty of alliance with Italy was
arranged in the spring of 1866; and Bismarck then with much difficulty
overcame the reluctance of the king to embark in a war with his old
ally. The results of the war entirely justified his calculations.
Prussia, though opposed by all the German states except a few
principalities in the north, completely defeated all her enemies, and at
the end of a few weeks the whole of Germany lay at her feet.
Settlement of 1866.
The war of 1866 is more than that of 1870 the crisis of modern German
history. It finally settled the controversy which had begun more than a
hundred years before, and left Prussia the dominant power in Germany. It
determined that the unity of Germany should be brought about not by
revolutionary means as in 1848, not as in 1849 had been attempted by
voluntary agreement of the princes, not by Austria, but by the sword of
Prussia. This was the great work of Bismarck's life; he had completed
the programme foreshadowed in his early speeches, and finished the work
of Frederick the Great. It is also the turning-point in Bismarck's own
life. Having secured the dominance of the crown in Prussia and of
Prussia in Germany, he could afford to make a reconciliation with the
parties which had been his chief opponents, and turn to them for help in
building up a new Germany. The settlement of 1866 was peculiarly his
work. We must notice, first, how in arranging the terms of peace he
opposed the king and the military party who wished to advance on Vienna
and annex part of Austrian Silesia; with greater foresight he looked to
renewing the old friendship with Austria, and insisted (even with the
threat of resignation) that no territory should be demanded. The
southern states he treated with equal moderation, and thereby was able
to arrange an offensive and defensive alliance with them. On the other
hand, in order to secure the complete control of North Germany, which
was his immediate object, he required that the whole of Hanover,
Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Nassau and the city of Frankfort, as well as the
Elbe duchies, should be absorbed in Prussia. He then formed a separate
confederation of the North German states, but did not attempt to unite
the whole of Germany, partly because of the internal difficulties which
this would have produced, partly because it would have brought about a
war with France. In the new confederation he became sole responsible
minister, with the title _Bundes-Kanzler_; this position he held till
1890, in addition to his former post of premier minister. In 1871 the
title was altered to _Reichs-Kanzler_.
The reconciliation with the Prussian parliament he effected by bringing
in a bill of indemnity for the money which had been spent without leave
of parliament. The Radicals still continued their opposition, but he
thereby made possible the formation of a large party of moderate
Liberals, who thenceforward supported him in his new Nationalist policy.
He aslo, in the constitution for the new confederation, introduced a
parliament (_Bundestag_) elected by universal suffrage. This was the
chief demand of the revolutionists in 1848; it was one to which in his
early life he had been strongly opposed. His experience at Frankfort had
diminished his dislike of popular representation, and it was probably to
the advice of Lassalle that his adoption of universal suffrage was due.
He first publicly proposed it just before the war; by carrying it out,
notwithstanding the apprehensions of many Liberal politicians, he placed
the new constitution on a firmer base than would otherwise have been
possible.
Up to 1866 he had always appeared to be an opponent of the National
party in Germany, now he became their leader. His next task was to
complete the work which was half-finished, and it was this which brought
about the second of the great wars which he undertook.
Bismarck and France.
The relations with Napoleon III. form one of the most interesting but
obscurest episodes in Bismarck's career. We have seen that he did not
share the common prejudice against co-operation with France. He found
Napoleon willing to aid Prussia as he had aided Piedmont, and was ready
to accept his assistance. There was this difference, that he asked only
for neutrality, not armed assistance, and it is improbable that he ever
intended to alienate any German territory; he showed himself, however,
on more than one occasion, ready to discuss plans for extending French
territory, on the side of Belgium and Switzerland. Napoleon, who had not
anticipated the rapid success of Prussia, after the battle of Koniggratz
at the request of Austria came forward as mediator, and there were a few
days during which it was probable that Prussia would have to meet a
French attempt to dictate terms of peace. Bismarck in this crisis by
deferring to the emperor in appearance avoided the danger, but he knew
that he had been deceived, and the cordial understanding was never
renewed. Immediately after an armistice had been arranged, Benedetti, at
the orders of the French government, demanded as recompense a large
tract of German territory on the left bank of the Rhine. This Bismarck
peremptorily refused, declaring that he would rather have war. Benedetti
then made another proposal, submitting a draft treaty by which France
was to support Prussia in adding the South German states to the new
confederation, and Germany was to support France in the annexation of
Luxemburg and Belgium. Bismarck discussed, but did not conclude the
treaty; he kept, however, a copy of the draft in Benedetti's
handwriting, and published it in _The Times_ in the summer of 1870 so as
to injure the credit of Napoleon in England. The failure of the scheme
made a contest with France inevitable, at least unless the Germans were
willing to forgo the purpose of completing the work of German unity, and
during the next four years the two nations were each preparing for the
struggle, and each watching to take the other at a disadvantage.
The Ems telegram.
It is necessary, then, to keep in mind the general situation in
considering Bismarck's conduct in the months immediately preceding the
war of 1870. In 1867 there was a dispute regarding the right to garrison
Luxemburg. Bismarck then produced the secret treaties with the southern
states, an act which was, as it were, a challenge to France by the whole
of Germany. During the next three years the Ultramontane party hoped to
bring about an anti-Prussian revolution, and Napoleon was working for an
alliance with Austria, where Beust, an old opponent of Bismarck's, was
chancellor. Bismarck was doubtless well informed as to the progress of
the negotiations, for he had established intimate relations with the
Hungarians. The pressure at home for completing the work of German unity
was so strong that he could with difficulty resist it, and in 1870 he
was much embarrassed by a request from Baden to be admitted to the
confederation, which he had to refuse. It is therefore not surprising
that he eagerly welcomed the opportunity of gaining the goodwill of
Spain, and supported by all the means in his power the offer made by
Marshal Prim that Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern should be chosen king
of that country. It was only by his urgent and repeated representations
that the prince was persuaded against his will to accept. The
negotiations were carried out with the greatest secrecy, but as soon as
the acceptance was made known the French government intervened and
declared that the project was inadmissable. Bismarck was away at Varzin,
but on his instructions the Prussian foreign office in answer to
inquiries denied all knowledge or responsibility. This was necessary,
because it would have caused a bad impression in Germany had he gone to
war with France in support of the prince's candidature. The king, by
receiving Benedetti at Ems, departed from the policy of reserve Bismarck
himself adopted, and Bismarck (who had now gone to Berlin) found himself
in a position of such difficulty that he contemplated resignation. The
French however, by changing and extending their demands enabled him to
find a cause of war of such nature that the whole of Germany would be
united against French agression. France asked for a letter of apology,
and Benedetti personally requested from the king a promise that he would
never allow the candidature to be resumed. Bismarck published the
telegram in which this information and the refusal of the king were
conveyed, but by omitting part of the telegram made it appear that the
request and refusal had both been conveyed in a more abrupt form than
had really been the case.[1] But even apart from this, the publication
of the French demand, which could not be complied with, must have
brought about a war.
In the campaign of 1870-71 Bismarck accompanied the headquarters of the
army, as he had done in 1866. He was present at the battle of Gravelotte
and at the surrender of Sedan, and it was on the morning of the 2nd of
September that he had his famous meeting with Napoleon after the
surrender of the emperor. He accompanied the king to Paris, and spent
many months at Versailles. Here he was occupied chiefly with the
arrangments for admitting the southern states to the confederation, and
the establishment of the empire. He also underwent much anxiety lest the
efforts of Thiers to bring about an interference by the neutral powers
might be successful. He had to carry on the negotiations with the French
preliminary to the surrender of Paris, and to enforce upon them the
German terms of peace.
After 1870.
For Bismarck's political career after 1870 we must refer to the article
GERMANY, for he was thenceforward entirely absorbed in the affairs of
his country. The foreign policy he controlled absolutely. As chancellor
he was responsible for the whole internal policy of the empire, and his
influence is to be seen in every department of state, especially,
however, in the great change of policy after 1878. During the earlier
period the estrangement from the Conservatives, which had begun in 1866,
became very marked, and brought about a violent quarrel with many of his
old friends, which culminated in the celebrated Arnim trial. He incurred
much criticism during the struggle with the Roman Catholic Church, and
in 1873 he was shot at and slightly wounded by a youth called Rullmann,
who professed to be an adherent of the Clerical party. Once before, in
1866, just before the outbreak of war, his life had been attempted by a
young man called Cohen, a native of Wurttemberg, who wished to save
Germany from a fratricidal war. In 1872 he retired from the presidency
of the Prussian ministry, but returned after a few months. On several
occasions he offered to retire, but the emperor always refused his
consent, on the last time with the word "Never." In 1877 he took a long
leave of absence for ten months. His health at this time was very bad.
In 1878 he presided over the congress of Berlin. The following years
were chiefly occupied, besides foreign affairs, which were always his
first care, with important commercial reforms, and he held at this time
also the office of Prussian minister of trade in addition to his other
posts. During this period his relations with the Reichstag were often
very unsatisfactory, and at no time did he resort so freely to
prosecutions in the law-courts in order to injure his opponents, so that
the expression _Bismarck-Beleidigung_ was invented. He was engaged at
this time in a great struggle with the Social-Democrats, whom he tried
to crush by exceptional penal laws. The death of the emperor William in
1888 made a serious difference in his position. He had been bound to him
by a long term of loyal service, which had been rewarded with equal
loyalty. For his relations to the emperors Frederick and William II.,
and for the events connected with his dismissal from office in March
1890, we must refer to the articles under those names.
After his retirement he resided at Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg, a house
on his Leuenburg estates. His criticisms of the government, given
sometimes in conversation, sometimes in the columns of the _Hamburger
Nachrichten_, caused an open breach between him and the emperor; and the
new chancellor, Count Caprivi, in a circular despatch which was
afterwards published, warned all German envoys that no real importance
must be attached to what he said. When he visited Vienna for his son's
wedding the German ambassador, Prince Reuss, was forbidden to take any
notice of him. A reconciliation was effected in 1893. In 1895 his
eightieth birthday was celebrated with great enthusiasm: the Reichstag
alone, owing to the opposition of the Clericals and the Socialists,
refused to vote an address. In 1891 he had been elected a member of the
Reichstag, but he never took his seat. He died at Friedrichsruh on the
31st of July 1898.
Bismarck was made a count in 1865; in 1871 he received the rank of Furst
(prince). On his retirement the emperor created him duke of Lauenburg,
but he never used the title, which was not inherited by his son. In 1866
he received L60,000 as his share of the donation voted by the Reichstag
for the victorious generals. With this he purchased the estate of Varzin
in Pomerania, which henceforth he used as a country residence in
preference to Schonhausen. In 1871 the emperor presented him with a
large part of the domains of the duchy of Lauenburg. On his seventieth
birthday a large sum of money (L270,000) was raised by public
subscription, of which half was devoted to repurchasing the estate of
Schonhausen for him, and the rest was used by him to establish a fund
for the assistance of schoolmasters. As a young man he was an officer in
the Landwehr and militia, and in addition to his civil honours he was
eventually raised to the rank of general. Among the numerous orders he
received we may mention that he was the first Protestant on whom the
pope bestowed the order of Christ; this was done after the cessation of
the Kulturkampf and the reference of the dispute with Spain concerning
the Caroline Islands to the arbitration of the pope.
Bismarck's wife died in 1894. He left one daughter and two sons. Herbert
(1840-1904), the elder, was wounded at Mars-le-Tour, afterwards entered
the foreign office, and acted as private secretary to his father
(1871-1881). In 1882 he became councillor to the embassy at London, in
1884 was transferred to St Petersburg, and in 1885 became
under-secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1884 he had been
elected to the Reichstag, but had to resign his seat when, in 1886, he
was made secretary of state for foreign affairs and Prussian minister.
He conducted many of the negotiations with Great Britain on colonial
affairs. He retired in 1890 at the same time as his father, and in 1893
was again elected to the Reichstag. He married Countess Margarete Hoyos
in 1892, and died on the 18th of September 1904. He left two daughters
and three sons, of whom the eldest, Otto Christian Archibald (b. 1897),
succeeded to the princely title. The second son, Wilhelm, who was
president of the province of Prussia, died in 1901. By his wife, Sybilla
von Arnim-Krochlendorff, he left three daughters and a son, Count
Nikolaus (b. 1896).
AUTHORITIES.--The literature on Bismarck's life is very extensive, and
it is only possible to enumerate a few of the most important books.
The first place belongs to his own works. These include his own
memoirs, published after his death, under the title _Gedanken und
Erinnerungen_; there is an English translation, _Bismarck: his
Reflections and Reminiscences_ (London, 1898). They are incomplete,
but contain very valuable discussions on particular points. The
speeches are of the greatest importance both for his character and for
political history; of the numerous editions that by Horst Kehl, in 12
vols. (Stuttgart, 1892-1894), is the best; there is a cheap edition in
Reclam's _Universalbibliothek._ Bismarck was an admirable
letter-writer, and numbers of his private letters have been published;
a collected edition has been brought out by Horst Kohl. His letters to
his wife were published by Prince Herbert Bismarck (Stuttgart, 1900).
A translation of a small selection of the private letters was
published in 1876 by F. Maxse. Of great value for the years 1851-1858
is the corrspondence with General L. v. Gerlach, which has been edited
by Horst Kohl (3rd ed., Berlin, 1893). A selection of the political
letters was also published under the title _Politische Briefe aus den
Jahren 1849-1899_ (2nd ed., Berlin, 1890). Of far greater importance
are the collections of despatches and state papers edited by Herr v.
Poschinger. These include four volumes entitled _Preussen im
Bundestag, 1851-1859_ (4 vols., Leipzig, 1882-1885), which contain his
despatches during the time he was at Frankfort. Next in importance are
two works, _Bismarck als Volkswirth_ and _Aktenstucke zur
Wirthschaftspolitik des Fursten Bismarck_, which are part of the
collection of state papers, _Akenstucke zur Geschichte der
Wirthschaftspolitik in Preussen._ They contain full information on
Bismarck's commercial policy, including a number of important state
papers. A useful general collection is that by Ludwig Hahn, _Bismarck,
sein politisches Leben_, &c. (5 vols., Berlin, 1878-1891), which
includes a selection from letters, speeches and newspaper articles.
These collections have only been possible owing to the extreme
generosity which Bismarck showed in permitting the publication of
documents; he always professed to have no secrets. A full account of
the diplomatic history from 1863 to 1866 is given by Sybel in _Die
Begrundung des deutschen Reichs_ (Munich, 1889-1894), written with the
help of the Prussian archives. The last two volumes, covering
1866-1870, are of less value, as he was not able to use the archives
for this period. Poschinger has also edited a series of works in which
anecdotes, minutes of interviews and conversations are recorded; they
are, however, of very unequal value. They are _Bismarck und die
Parlamentarier, Furst Bismarck und der Bundesrath, Die Ansprache des
Fursten Bismarck, Neue Tischgesprache_, and _Bismarck und die
Diplomaten_. Selections from these have been published in English by
Charles Lowe, _The Tabletalk of Prince Bismarck_, and by Sidney
Whitman, _Conversations with Bismarck_. By far the fullest guide to
Bismarck's life is Horst Kohl's _Furst Bismarck, Regesten zu einer
wissenschaftlichen Biographie_ (Leipzig, 1891-1892), which contains a
record of Bismarck's actions on each day, with references to and
extracts from his letters and speeches. For the works of Moritz Busch,
which contain graphic pictures of his daily life, see the article
BUSCH. Further materials were published periodically in the
_Bismarck-Jahrbuch_, edited by Horst Kohl (Berlin, 1894-1896;
Stuttgart, 1897-1899). Herr v. Poschinger also brought out a _Bismarck
Portfeuille_. Of German biographies may be mentioned Hans Blum,
_Bismarck und seine Zeit_ (6 vols., Munich, 1894-1895), with a volume
of appendices, &c. (1898); Heyck, _Bismarck_ (Bielefeld, 1898);
Kreutzer, _Otto von Bismarck_ (2 vols., Leipzig, 1900);
Klein-Hattingen, _Bismarck und seine Welt, 1815-1871_, Bd. i. (Berlin,
1902); Lenz, _Geschichte Bismarcks_ (Leipzig, 1902); Penzler, _Furst
Bismarck nach seiner Entlassung_ (7 vols., ib. 1897-1898); Liman, one
volume under the same title (ib. 1901). There are English biographies
by Charles Lowe, _Bismarck, a Political Biography_ (revised edition in
1 vol., 1895), by James Headlam (1899), and by F. Stearns
(Philadelphia, 1900). A useful bibliography of all works on Bismarck
up to 1895 is Paul Schulze and Otto Koller's _Bismarck-Literatur_
(Leipzig, 1896). (J. W. He.)