Count von Bismarck has admitted that war was very near
at hand in the autumn. He was proposing a Bill to sequester the property of the ex-Elector of Hesse Cassel, who, he said, grew more hostile as war seemed nearer. "I must here say there was a time in the autumn when peace appeared anything but secure. The misgivings of the public were not without foundation." Those apprehensions were removed "by an event,"—the revolution in Spain,—which, "being unexpected, has exercised considerable influ- ence on the course of European affairs." In the course of another speech, the Count, alluding ton fierce attack which had been made upon the Austrian Premier, declared that Austrian Liberalism consisted of 800,000 bayonets and some manicipalliberties granted in Prussia fifty years before. "As to Liberal Governments, they are like reigning beauties, the last out generally carries the day." The joke carried his point,—the vote of a salary to the Minister at Dresden,—but it was entirely untrue. Could the Prussian Par- liament have carried the Bill abolishing the Concordat in the teeth of the King, as the Reichsrath carried it in the teeth of the Kaiser, or have controlled the military budget as the Hungarian Diet has done?
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