29 OCTOBER 1870, Page 3

The pen with which Count Bismarck is to sign peace

has been already manufactured. Herr Bissinger, of Pforzheim (wherever that may be), has manufactured in gold a goose-quill design. The gold feather is intended to represent the feather of a real quill, every fibre being separate, and the back of the feather is studded with brilliants, below which a coronet and Count Bismarck's monogram are engraved. It seems to be a harmless if somewhat heavy trait of national vanity. Why imitate a goose-quill ? A gold pen is a capital thing in itself, and does not naturally re- semble it. Is it an elaborate German attempt to convey allegori- cally that as wisdom may pluck a feather from a goose and use it for wise purposes, Germany may take a province from France and use it for equally wise purposes ?