Chapter L: India and France--Rhodes and Bismarck

1886-1892

I.

In the period covered by the earlier portion of the previous chapter, Sir Charles Dilke had used his freedom as an opportunity for travel.

'During a visit to Paris, in the winter of 1886, paid in order to
discuss the question of the work which ultimately appeared in France
as _L'Europe en 1887_, I saw a good deal of Castelar, who was
visiting Paris at the same time; and it was to us that he made a
speech, which has become famous, about Boulanger, who was beginning
to attract great notice, declaring in French, "I know that General
Boulanger--he is a Spanish General;" meaning that the Spanish habit
of the military insurrection under the leadership of a showy General
was extending to France. [Footnote: In 1889 Sir Charles notes: 'My
wife and I were asked to dinner to meet General Boulanger; and I
decided that I would not go, neither did she.']

'Chamberlain, during his journey abroad, had seen a good deal of Sir
William White, the Ambassador at Constantinople, who wrote to me
about him: "We became friends, and spoke naturally of you, our
mutual friend. I could not help seeing Chamberlain's immense
quickness of observation and talents. In foreign politics he
appeared to me to be beginning his ABC, but disposed to learn...."
The Ambassador went on to say that the intimacy between France and
Russia was coming to the front at Constantinople, and that
Bismarck's Ambassador did not seem to take umbrage at it.

'In September, 1887, we went to France, where our journey had
nothing of great interest, except a visit to Vaux-le-Vicomte,
Fouquet's house, [Footnote: Near Melun, in the Seine-et-Marne, where
Fouquet gave the celebrated fête referred to. See _Mémoires de
Fouquet_, by A. Chéruel, vol. ii., chap. xxxv.] which remains very
much as Fouquet left it, although the gardens in which he received
Louis XIV. in the great féte recounted by Dumas have been completed
by their present proprietor, with whom we stayed. We afterwards
visited Constantinople, and stayed for ten days at Therapia, and
then at Athens, where I had a great reception, as indeed throughout
Greece, on account of my previous services to the Greek cause; in
some cases payment was refused on this ground. [Footnote: A letter
from Lady Dilke of October 29th, 1887, written to Cardinal Manning,
a constant correspondent, deals with one of these episodes:

"We were received at the Piraeus by an order not to open our boxes,
an ignorant underling being severely rebuked, and bid to 'look at
the name on the boxes. Would you ask money from one who has done so
much for Greece?' In short, we had a royal reception. The Prime
Minister, the Metropolitan, and the other Ministers and their
families, and all dignitaries, ecclesiastical, academical,
political, military, all vied in showing Charles honour. The crowd
watched outside for a glimpse of him, and M. Ralli, when I said how
touched he was at their faithful gratitude, said: 'It is not only
our gratitude we wish to show him. You have no idea of the intense
sympathy felt for him in Athens.' We had but three days to give, and
so missed the great public banquet and the torchlight procession
which the students wished to organize. At Corinth the King and Queen
were equally kind."]

'Our journey to Turkey and Greece was full of interest. The Sultan
showed us immense courtesy. Greece after twenty-five years seemed to
me as lovely as ever. The Eastern Church were very civil to us, and
the reception at the Phanar at Constantinople by the Oecumenical
Patriarch, the Archbishop of Constantinople, Dionysius V., in Synod
was striking. I wrote from Constantinople to Chesson: "The
Bulgarians and the Greeks are both now on excellent terms with the
Turks, although, unfortunately, they still detest one another. The
Sultan does not care two straws about Bulgaria now, and will do
nothing in the matter except mark time. The Greek Patriarch gave us
an official reception, with some Archbishops present, who
represented the Churches of Asia and of the Islands, and showed us
their splendid Byzantine treasures. It is extraordinarily
interesting to see all the effects of St. Chrysostom; but I cannot
help feeling that the Church sold the Empire to the Turks, and would
have been more estimable had it _lost_ its jewels. The last
Constantine tried to reunite the Eastern and Western Churches, and
the poor man was denounced as a heretic, and surrounded only by
Latins when he was killed on the breach. The Church, however, went
through a small martyrdom later on, and was glorified by suffering
at the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, when the then
Patriarch was hanged by the Turks and dragged about for three days
by the Jews. They all seem on very good terms now, and the Patriarch
sang the praises of the present Sultan loudly. The Sultan has been
very civil. I did not want to see him, which doubtless made him the
more anxious to see me. He sent for me twice, and, besides the
audience at the Selamlik, had us to a state dinner given in our
honour at the Haremlik. I refused the Grand Cordon of the Médjidieh,
but Emilia accepted the Grand Cordon of the Chefkat for herself. He
is very anxious to make a good impression, and is having the _Shrine
of Death_ done into Turk!"

'I received a letter of thanks from the Secretary of the Trustees of
the National Portrait Gallery for having obtained for them from the
Sultan a copy of the portrait of Nelson which is in the Treasury at
Constantinople; but what I really tried to obtain was the original,
inasmuch as no one ever sees it where it is.'

Sir Charles Dilke, writing to Mr. Chamberlain an amused account of the Sultan's advances, says: 'Lady White told Emilia that she heard I was to be Grand Vizier.'

'My riding tour along the Baluch and Afghan frontiers was,' Sir
Charles notes, 'one of the pleasantest and most interesting
experiences of my life.' [Footnote: He adds, 'I described so fully
in the _Fortnightly Review_, in two articles of March 1st and April
1st, 1889, my riding tour ... that I shall say no more about it.'
This account of the journey is summarized from those articles, the
criticism on military questions being dealt with by Mr. Spenser
Wilkinson in the chapter on Defence (LV.).] Leaving England in
October, 1888, he landed with Lady Dilke at Karachi in November.
They were met by the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Frederick Roberts, and
went on over the broad-gauge line, then not officially open, through
the Bolan Pass to Quetta. 'When we reached the picturesque portion
of the pass, we left our carriages for an open truck placed at the
head of the train, in front of two engines, and there we sat with
the fore part of the truck occupied by the paws and head of His
Excellency's dog; next came the one lady of the party and Sir
Frederick Roberts, and then myself and all the staff. The long-
haired warriors and tribesmen, who occupied every point of vantage
on the crags, doubtless thought, and have since told their tribesmen
on their return, that the whole scene was devised to do honour to a
dog.'

They were travelling over part of 'the great strategic railroad constructed after the Penjdeh incident, on orders given by the Government of which I was a member.'

At Quetta he was among the guests of Sir Robert Sandeman, Agent for British Baluchistan, ruler in all but name of those nominally independent frontier principalities and clans. 'Quetta conversations soon brought back reminiscences of far-off days. When I had last seen Sir Robert Sandeman it had been in London, during the discussion of the occupation of the Khojak position, in which I sided with him.... We brought with us or found gathered here all the men who best understood the problem of frontier defence--a very grave problem, too.'

The party assembled under the roof of the Residency included the Commander-in-Chief, of whom Sir Charles says: 'Sir Frederick Roberts knows India as no one else knows it, and knows the Indian Army as no one else has ever known it'; the Adjutant-General; the Quartermaster- General, who was Director of Military Intelligence; the Military Member of Council, General Chesney; and Sir Charles Elliott, the Member of Council for Public Works, who had charge of the strategic railways. With them were the Inspectors-General of Artillery and of Military Works, the Secretary of the Defence Commission, and the General in Command at Quetta, as well as his predecessor, who had not yet vacated the post.

He saw manoeuvres outside Quetta in the valleys that lead from the Afghan side, and he had the experience of riding up and down those stony hill slopes beside the Commander-in-Chief. He explored the Khojak tunnel, then under process of construction, running through 'a wall-like range which reminds one of the solitude of Sainte-Baume in Provence,' surveyed all the defences of Quetta, and then, while Lady Dilke went on by rail to Simla, he set out to ride, in company with Sir Frederick Roberts and Sir Robert Sandeman, from Harnai, through the Bori and Zhob Valleys, towards the Gomul Pass. On that journey he saw great gatherings of chiefs and tribesmen come in to meet and salute the representatives of British rule. He watched Sir Robert Sandeman parleying with the borderers, and was introduced to them as the statesman who had sanctioned the new road. These were regions beyond the reach of telegraph, where outposts maintained communications by a pigeon post, of which the mountain hawk took heavy toll; and each day's journey was a hard and heavy ride.

The ride continued for twelve days, through scorching sun by day and bitter cold at night; and every march brought its full portion of strange and beautiful sights. All the romance of border rule, outposts among robber tribes, order maintained through the agency of subsidized chiefs, were disclosed; and even when the conditions of travel changed, when a train took them from the Upper Indus to Nowshera and Peshawur, it brought to Sir Charles the opportunity of seeing what interested him no less than the wild tribal levies--namely, the pick of British regulars in India, both native and European.

The splendour and beauty of the pageant pleased the eye, and there was not lacking a dramatic interest. He had seen by Sir Frederick Roberts's side the mountain battle-ground where the day of Maiwand was avenged and British prestige restored; now he was present when Ayub Khan, the victor of Maiwand, voluntarily came forward to hold speech for the first time with the conqueror who so swiftly blotted out the Afghan's victory.

'On our way back (from India) we stayed at Cairo, and saw much of
Sir Evelyn Baring, Riaz, Mustapha Fehmy, the Khedive, Tigrane,
Yakoub Artin, and the other leading men. At Rome, as we passed
through Italy, I made the acquaintance of many of my wife's friends,
the most interesting of whom was, perhaps, Madame Minghetti, known
to her friends as Donna Laura, and previously Princess Camporeale;
and I obtained through Bonghi, whom we saw both at Naples and at
Rome, an order to see Spezia--an order which was refused by the War
Office, and granted by the Admiralty. The Admiral commanding the
Fleet and the Préfet Maritime were both very kind, and I thoroughly
saw the arsenal, fleet, and forts, with the two Admirals.'

In 1905 Sir Charles writes:

'On September 7th in the year 1891 I started for the French
manoeuvres, to which I had been invited by Galliffet. By sending
over my horses I was able to see the manoeuvres extremely well....

'The Marquis de Galliffet was an interesting figure, a soldier of
the time of Louis XV., who, however, had thoroughly learned his
modern work. There were 125,000 men in the field, but, looking back
to my adventures, I am now more struck by the strange future of the
friends I made than by the interest, great as it was, of the
tactics. We had on the staff almost all those who afterwards became
leading men in the Dreyfus case, on both sides of that affair.
Saussier, the Generalissimo, had with him, to look after the foreign
officers, Colonel (afterwards Sir) Reginald Talbot, Huehne' (German
Military Attaché), 'and others--Maurice Weil (the Jew friend of
Esterhazy), who was in the Rennes trial named by the defence as the
real spy, though, I am convinced, innocent. We now know, of course,
that Esterhazy should have been the villain of the play.... General
Billot, afterwards Minister of War, was present, living with
Saussier, as a spectator. Galliffet had under him nearly 120,000
men, but the skeleton enemy was commanded by General Boisdeffre,
afterwards Chief of the Staff, and the leader of the clerical party
in the Ministry of War, and friend, throughout the "affair," of
Billot. General Brault, also afterwards Chief of the Staff, was in
the manoeuvres Chief of the Staff to Galliffet. He, it will be
remembered, also played his part in the "affair," as did Huehne,
named above. On Galliffet's staff, besides General Brault, were
Colonel Bailloud, also concerned in the Dreyfus case; Captain
Picquart, afterwards the youngest Lieutenant-Colonel in the French
army, a brilliant and most thoughtful military scholar, the hero of
the Dreyfus case in its later aspects; the Comte d'Alsace,
afterwards a deputy, and, although a clerical Conservative, a
witness for Dreyfus; and Joseph Reinach, the real author of the
virtual rehabilitation of Dreyfus. It was a singularly brilliant
staff. Bailloud, it may be remembered, afterwards became
Commander-in-Chief of the China Expedition.

'Of those who have not been named, in addition to the remarkable men
who figured in the Dreyfus case, and among the few on this staff who
were not concerned in it, were other interesting persons: the Prince
d'Hénin, M. de la Guiche, and a man who was interesting, and figures
largely in memoirs, Galliffet's bosom friend, the Marquis du Lau
d'Allemans. "Old Du Lau," as he is generally called, was a rich _bon
vivant_, with a big house in Paris, who throughout life has been a
sort of perpetual "providence" to Galliffet, going with him
everywhere, even to the Courts where Galliffet was a favourite
guest. Reinach and Du Lau were not soldiers in the strict sense of
the term, although members of Galliffet's staff. Maurice Weil,
though a great military writer, was himself not a soldier, although
on Saussier's headquarters staff in Paris and in the field. Weil and
Reinach were both officers of the territorial army: Weil a Colonel
of artillery, Reinach a Lieutenant of Chasseurs à Cheval. Du Lau was
a dragoon Lieutenant of stupendous age--possibly an ex-Lieutenant,
with the right to wear his uniform when out as a volunteer on
service. I was walking with him one day in a village, when a small
boy passing said to a companion "What a jolly old chap for a
Lieutenant!" And it was strange indeed to see the long white hair of
the old Marquis streaming from beneath his helmet. He was older, I
think, than Galliffet, who was retiring, and who received during
these manoeuvres the plain military medal, which is the joy of
French hall-porters, but the highest distinction which can be
conferred by the Republic on a General who is a member of the
Supreme Council of War and at the top of the tree in the Legion of
Honour. Joseph Reinach was, of course, young enough to be the son of
old Du Lau, but since leaving the regular regiment of Chasseurs--in
which he had done his service at Nancy, while Gyp (his future enemy
and that of his race) was the reigning Nancy beauty--he had expanded
in figure so that his sky-blue-and-silver and fine horse did not
save him from comments by the children who had noted Du Lau's age.
The Duc d'Aumale was also present on horseback as a spectator, but
his official friends, and their friends, were forced to ignore him,
as he had not yet made his peace with the Republic.

'As soon as I had joined Galliffet, I wrote to my wife: "Conduct of
troops most orderly. It is now, of course, here, as it was already
in 1870 with the Germans, that, the soldier being Guy Boys
[Footnote: Guy Boys was Lady Dilke's nephew; Jim Haslett the
ferryman at Dockett. Sir Charles was illustrating the fact that all
classes serve together both in the ranks and as officers.] and Jim
Haslett and all of us, and not a class apart, there is no 'military
tone.' Discipline, nevertheless, seems perfect, but are the officers
as good as the non-commissioned officers and the men? I doubt.
Promotion from the ranks combined with special promotion to the
highest ranks for birth of all nobles who have any brains at all is
a combination which gives results inferior to either the Swiss
democratic plan or the Prussian aristocratic. Perhaps a fifth of the
officers are noble, but more than half the powerful officers are
noble; and here we are with the sides commanded by the Prince
d'Eckmühl and the Prince de Sartigues." (During the first days of
the manoeuvres the four army corps and the two cavalry divisions
were combined under Galliffet; half the army was commanded by
General Davoust, who, of course, is the first of these two Princes;
and Galliffet had for "second title" the name of his Provençal
principality near Marseilles.) "You may say, 'The Generalissimo,
sausage-maker, restores the balance.' But the real Generalissimo is
Miribel, Aristo of the Aristos--for he is a poor noble of the South.
Another of the army corps is commanded by a Breton, Kerhuel, and the
other by a man of army descent for ever and ever, Négrier, son and
nephew of Napoleonic Generals."'

'An amusing billet adventure was named in another letter to my wife:

'"I am in a Legitimist chàteau: one side of the room, Callots; the
other, Comte de Chambord. Over the bed a large crucifix. The room
belongs to 'Mathilde.' But as I live with the staff I do not see the
family. The butler is charming, and the fat coachman turned out two
of _his_ horses to make room for 'Madame' and 'W'f'd'r.' I had to
write a letter to a French newspaper, which had charged me with
turning my back on the standard of a regiment instead of bowing to
it, and dated from this place: 'Château de Boussencourt.'"'

His observations were summed up in an article for the _Fortnightly_, which was later translated into French by an officer on the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, and, after appearing in a review, was published separately by the military library. His strictures on the handling of the cavalry led to a controversy in France into which he was obliged later to enter.

'As I passed through Paris on my return, Galliffet wrote: "You are
as a writer full of kindness, but very dangerous as an observer, and
next time I shall certainly put you on the treatment of the military
attachés--plenty of dinners, plenty of close carriages, plenty of
gendarmes, no information, and a total privation of field-glasses.
This will be a change for you, especially in the matter of dinners.
Lady Dilke cannot have forgiven me for sending you back in such
wretched condition."'

M. Joseph Beinach wrote in 1911:

'Nous recommandions tous deux le rajeunissement des cadres. II s'est
trouvé enfin un ministre de la guerre, M. le général Brun, pour
aborder résolument le problème. Comme nos souvenirs revenaient
fréquemment aux belles journées de ces manoeuvres de l'Est! Je
revois encore Dilke chevauchant avec nous dans l'état-major de
Gallififet. II y avait la le général Brault, le général Darras, le
général Zurlinden, le "commandant" Picquart, Thierry d'Alsace, le
marquis Du Lau.... Ah! la "bataille" de Margerie-Haucourt, sous le
grand soleil qui, dissipant les nuages de la matinée, fit scintiller
tout à coup comme une moisson d'acier les milliers de fusils des
armées réunies! Comme c'est loin! Que de tombeaux!... Mais nous
sommes bien encore quelques-uns à avoir gardé intactes nos âmes
d'alors!' [Footnote: An article in the _Figaro_ written after Sir
Charles Dilke's death.]

II.

It was in 1889 that Sir Charles Dilke came into touch with Cecil Rhodes during a visit paid by the latter to England.

'In July, 1889, I saw a good deal of Cecil Rhodes, who was brought
to my house by Sir Charles Mills, [Footnote: Then Agent-General for
the Cape and a great personal friend.] and afterwards came back
several times. He was at this moment interesting, full of life and
vigour, but when he returned to England after the British South
Africa Company had been started he seemed to have become half torpid
and at the same time dogmatic. The simplicity which had
distinguished him up to the end of his visit of 1889 seemed to have
disappeared when he came back in 1891; and his avowed intention of
ultimately coming to England to take part in English politics seemed
also a strange mistake, as he was essentially a man fitted for
colonial life, and had none of the knowledge, or the mode of
concealing want of knowledge, one or other of which is required for
English public work.'

'In August, 1889, I received a note from Rhodes from Lisbon which
constitutes, I believe, a valuable autograph, for his friends all
say he "never writes." I had asked him to clear up an extraordinary
passage in one of Kruger's speeches (on which I afterwards commented
in _Problems of Greater Britain_), and Rhodes wrote:

'"The fates were unpropitious to my day on the river, as matters
required me in South Africa, from which place I propose to send you
the famous speech you want. I quite see the importance, if true, of
his utterance, but I can hardly think Kruger would have said it. I
hope you will still hold to your intention of visiting the Cape, and
I can only say I will do all I can to assist you in seeing those
parts with which I am connected. I am afraid Matabeleland will be in
too chaotic a state to share in your visit, but between the diamonds
and the gold there is a good extent to travel over. I am doubtful
about your getting Kruger's speech before you publish, but it will
be the first thing I will attend to on my arrival at the Cape.
Kindly remember me to Lady Dilke.

'"Yours truly,

'"C. J. Rhodes."

'At the beginning of November, 1889, I heard again from Rhodes, who
wrote from Kimberley:

'"Dear Sir Charles Dilke,

'"I have come to the conclusion that Kruger never made use of the
expression attributed to him, as I can find no trace of it in the
reports of his speech on the Second Chamber. I send you a copy of
the draft law....

'"Thanks for your news of Bismarck's map. Their true boundary is the
20th degree of longitude, and it will take them all their time to
retain even that, as the Damaras are entirely opposed to them, and
the German company which nominally holds that territory will soon
have to liquidate for lack of funds. It is one thing to paint a map,
and it is quite another to really occupy and govern a new territory.
I am still waiting for the news of the signature of the charter,
which I hope will not be much longer delayed. I think Kruger will
find his hands quite full enough without interfering with me. He is
still trying to get them to give him Swaziland in return for
non-interference in Matabeleland. The Matabele King (Lobengula)
still continues to slaughter his subjects, and makes the minds of
our representatives at times very uncomfortable. It is undoubtedly a
difficult problem to solve; but the plain fact remains that a savage
chief with about 8,000 warriors is not going to keep out the huge
wave of white men now moving north, and so I feel it will come all
right.

'"Yours,
'"C. J. Rhodes."

'In March, 1890, I received a letter from Rhodes from the Kimberley
Club, in which, after giving some facts with regard to the state of
South Africa, he went on: "I see that Home Rule is gaining ground.
[Footnote: Rhodes had given Mr. Parnell a subscription of £10,000.]
It really means the American Constitution. It is rather a big
change, and the doubt is whether the conservative nature of the
English people will face it when they understand what Home Rule
means. Schnadhorst is here, but is still suffering very acutely from
rheumatism."'

The reference to 'Bismarck's map' in the second of these communications shows that Sir Charles had reported to Rhodes some of the observations made by the Chancellor in the course of the visit of which an account here follows.

'In September, 1889, having settled to take my son to Germany to a
gymnasium, and having told Herbert Bismarck my intention when he was
in London, I was asked by him in his father's name to stay at
Friedrichsruh with the Prince. I started for Germany with my son at
the same moment at which my wife started for the Trades Congress at
Dundee.'

He wrote to M. Joseph Reinach in August, 1889: 'I'm going to Friedrichsruh the week after next to stay with Prince Bismarck, who seems very anxious to see me--about colonial matters, I think. I will tell you what he says, for your private information, if he talks of anything else, which is not, however, likely, as he knows my views about that Alsace question which lies at the root of all others. But I had sooner my going there was not mentioned in advance, and I shall not be there until September 7th-9th.'

'Herbert Bismarck wrote: "I hope you will accept my father's
invitation, because he is anxious to make your personal
acquaintance. I am greatly disappointed that I shall be deprived of
the pleasure of introducing you myself to my father, owing to my
absence, but, then, I am sure that you will find yourself at your
ease in Friedrichsruh, whether I am there or not. Hoping to see you
before long in England, believe me,

'"Very truly yours,
'"H. Bismarck."

'The son was still called Count von Bismarck by himself, and
popularly Herbert Bismarck, but shortly afterwards his father gave
him the family castle of Schoenhausen, and from that time forward he
used on his cards the name of Graf Bismarck-Schoenhausen. When I got
to Ratzeburg, where I left my son, I found a telegram from
Friedrichsruh: "Prince Bismarck looks forward to your visit
to-morrow with great pleasure"; and then it went on to tell me about
trains.

'I was met at the station by Prince Bismarck's official
secretary--Rottenburg of the Foreign Office--with an open carriage,
although the house was formerly the railway hotel (Frascati) and
adjoins the station. I wrote to my wife on Saturday, September 7th:
"The great man has been very sweet to me, though he is in pain from
his sinews. We had an hour's walk before lunch together. Then
Hatzfeldt, the Ambassador in London, came, and all the afternoon we
have been driving, and went to the harvest-home, where the Bismarck
grandchildren danced with the peasants on the grass. The daughter,
and mother of these children, does the honours, and is the only
lady; and at dinner we shall be the Prince, Hatzfeldt, self,
Countess von Rantzau, Count von Rantzau, Rottenburg the secretary, a
tutor and another secretary, the two last 'dumb persons.' The forest
is a Pyrford of 25,000 acres, but the house is in the situation of a
Dockett, and must be damp in winter till the great January frost
sets in, when the Baltic is hard frozen."'

Sir Charles notes upon this: 'Hatzfeldt was the Chancellor's right-hand man--of action. But Bismarck did not consult him: he said, "Do," and Hatzfeldt did.'

The letter continues:

'"When Bismarck's Reichshund died, a successor was appointed, but
the Emperor, who had heard of the death and not of the appointment
to fill the vacancy, gave another, and the Prince says: 'Courtier as
I am, I sent away my dog to my head-forester's and kept the gift
one, but as I do not like him I leave him at Berlin.' Here the
favourite reigns, and her name is Rebekkah, and she answers very
prettily to the name of Bex. The old gentleman is dear in his polite
ways.... The daughter is equally pleasant, and the son-in-law as
well. We were loudly cheered at the harvest festival, of course....
You can write to our friend J. R. [Reinach] of the R.F. [_République
Française_] that I found the Chancellor very determined on peace as
long as he lives, which he fears will not be long, and afraid of
Prussian action after his death."

'In another letter the next day, Sunday, September 8th 1889, I
wrote: "I expected the extreme simplicity of life. The coachman
alone wears livery, and that only a plain blue with ordinary black
trousers and ordinary black hat--no cockades and no stripes. There
are only two indoor men-servants: a groom of the chambers, and one
other not in livery--the one shown in the photograph of Bismarck
receiving the Emperor, but there, for this occasion only, dressed in
a state livery. [Footnote: Photographs which Bismarck gave Sir
Charles, showing the Chancellor with his hound receiving the young
Kaiser, and Bismarck alone with his dog, always hung on the wall at
Dockett.] The family all drink beer at lunch, and offer the thinnest
of thin Mosel. Bismarck has never put on a swallow-tail coat but
once, which he says was in 1835, and which is of peculiar shape. A
tall hat he does not possess, and he proscribes tall hats and
evening dress among his guests. His view is that a Court and an army
should be in uniform, but that when people are not on duty at Court
or in war, or preparation for war, they should wear a comfortable
dress, and each man that form of dress that he finds most agreeable
to himself, provided that it be not that which he calls evening
dress and tall hats--a sort of 'sham uniform.' Countess von Rantzau,
however, dresses in a high, short evening gown like other people.
The Prince eats nothing at all except young partridges and
salt-herring, and the result is that the cookery is feeble, though
for game-eaters there is no hardship. The table groans with red-deer
venison, ham, grouse, woodcock, and the inevitable partridges--
roast, boiled, with white sauce, cold, pickled in vinegar. A French
cook would hang himself. There is no sweet at dinner except fruit,
stewed German fashion with the game. Trout, which the family
themselves replace by raw salt-herring, and game, form the whole
dinner. Of wines and beer they drink at dinner a most extraordinary
mixture, but as the wine is all the gift of Emperors and merchant
princes it is good. The cellar card was handed to the Prince with
the fish, and, after consultation with me, and with Hatzfeldt, we
started on sweet champagne, not suggested by me, followed by
Bordeaux, followed by still Mosel, followed by Johannesberg (which I
did suggest), followed by black beer, followed by corn brandy. When
I reached the Johannesberg I stopped, and went on with that only, so
that I got a second bottle drawn for dessert. When the Chancellor
got to his row of great pipes, standing against the wall ready
stuffed for him, we went back to black beer. The railway-station is
in the garden, and the expresses shake the house."

'Other points which struck me in the manners and customs of
Friedrichsruh were that the Chancellor invariably took a barrel of
beer out driving, and stopped halfway in the afternoon and insisted
on his guests consuming it out of a two-handled mug which appeared
from under the coachman's seat. I had some talk with him about the
wisdom of his going unprotected for great distances through the
woods, and he answered, "But I am not unprotected," and showed me a
pistol which he carried, but, of course, a man with a blunderbuss
behind a tree might easily have killed him. He never takes a servant
on the box by the side of the coachman, and generally drives
entirely alone. He rides alone without a groom, and walks alone with
only his dog, or rather the forester's dog, the daughter of the
Reichshund, who walks six or seven miles every morning to go out
with him, and six or seven miles every night to come to dinner.

'The Prince was evidently discontented with the Emperor, but wholly
unable to believe that he himself could be done without. He told me
that he must work each day and could never take a holiday, but that
even a few minutes' work was sufficient, as all that was necessary
was that he should keep an eye on what was going on. All was now so
well arranged that the only thing which gave him trouble was the
internal condition of Alsace, which as a Reichsland had him alone as
a Minister. In the evening he chatted much about the past; told me
of his visit to London in 1842, of how a cabman tried to cheat him,
and how at last he held out all his money in his hand and said to
the man, "Pay yourself"; how then the man took less than that which
he had refused, his right fare, and then with every sign of scorn
ejaculated, "What I say is, God damn all Frenchmen!" Bismarck speaks
admirable English, with hardly any trace of accent, but spoken very
slowly. French he speaks more rapidly but less well; and of Russian
he has a fair knowledge. He told me how (also in 1842) he had
visited Barclay and Perkins's, and had been offered an enormous
tankard of their strongest ale. "Thinking of my country, I drank it
slowly to the last drop, and then left them, courteously I hope; I
got as far as London Bridge, and there I sat down in a recess, and
for hours the bridge went round." He told me how he had striven to
keep the peace through the time of Napoleon III., but finding it
useless had prepared for war; and he made no secret of the fact that
he had brought the war about. He told me himself, in so many words,
that at the last moment he had made war by cutting down a telegram
from the King of Prussia, as I have said above; [Footnote: See