THE DEATH OF FIELD-MARSHAL VON BOON. T HE death of Field-Marshal
von Boon is the first break in the circle of soldiers and statesmen who, between 1864 and 1871—a space of only seven years—built up the German Empire. He passes away comparatively unnoticed in Europe, for Prince Bismarck, though he founds no school and educates no successors, has absorbed all German reputations ; but in 1870 it was well understood that General von Boon was one of the four men who had so strenuously forged that tremend- ous weapon, the new Prussian Army. The King's clearness of view as to what he wanted and his exceptional insight in selecting agents, General Moltke's rare powers of strategy, and Count Bismarck's force, alike in diplomacy and in the Parliamentary defence of the Army, would all have been incomplete, without the aid of General von Boon's special ability for the organisation of an army, for the selection of officers, for the enforcement of discipline, especially in the upper ranks, and for the cultivation of that strenuousness of effort, that painful and persistent industry in daily work which is the separate and special mark of the Prussian Army. For twenty years he has been, under the King, at once Com- mander-in-Chief and Minister at War. General von Boon, his plans once matured and accepted by the King, carried them out with a relentless firmness, against which aristocratic cajolings and Parliamentary resistance and popular dentin- cialions alike proved powerless ; and at last placed at the disposal of his Government the most effective army in the world, an army based on a new condition, the three years' service, supported by new Departments, for the whole of the mobilisation, transport, and commissariat services were thoroughly reorganised, and with a new weapon, the needle-gun, without which Sadowa would never have been won. A great part of the brunt of the Parliamentary contest fell on him, he was detested and reviled without limit ; and although the Danish war revealed the strength of the new organisation, it was not till Austria had been defeated in seven weeks, that Germany fully believed in the ability of the steady soldier at the head of the Prussian Armies. From 1870 General von Boon, though honoured and enriched by his King and worshipped in the Army, remained in the shade, doing his work, but taking no pro- minent position in Europe, where his fame was over- shadowed both by that of the mighty diplomatist, Prince von Bismarck and by that of the strategist silent in seven lan- guages, Count von Moltke. He has died scarcely noticed, but he will be hard to replace, and his death breaks up a group, which in seven eventful years never met an enemy it did not crush,—which destroyed Denmark, drove Austria out of Germany, dictated terms to France at the gates of Paris, and welded together the strongest military empire of modern times.
It is impossible, in presence of such an event, not to specu- late how far this group may one day be found to have been essential to that Empire ; how far the success of the great work done has depended on the doers; how far they may prove to have been great founders, and how far only great adminis- trators whose work disappears with themselves. The specula- tion is the more interesting, because twice before in her history, the greatness of Prussia has seemed to fade with a group of lead- ing men. As the group of Generals who had obeyed Frederick the Great passed away to the majority, the military strength of Prussia decayed, till the kingdom almost ceased to exist, after one great and not very well-fought battle. Three months after Jena, there was in Europe no visible kingdom of Prussia, only a French outlying province, with a titular King hiding away on the coast of the Baltic, and raising revenue for his subjugators' behoof. Then a great group—Stein, Hardenberg, Scharnhorst, Blucher, and Gneisenau—saved the kingdom, made its army victorious, and solidified its system of government ; and again, as they departed, Prussia faded away until after 1848 and Olmiitz, Europe regarded the Government of Berlin as a second-rate Power. And once more the group of which Field-Marshal von Boon, the soldier just dead, was not the feeblest, took up the reins, re- welded the Army till it became a bar of steel, reformed the State as a half-constitutional, wholly military monarchy, and after six years of incessant victory, built up the Imperial State we see. Will that, too, fade away with the men who made it ? Their remaining career, as measured by the his- toric measurements of time, cannot now be long. The Emperor is a very aged man, who has worked much, and has been much shattered by an assassin's blow. Field-Marshal von Moltke was born about 1802, and is therefore, even fora General, growing old. Prince von Bismarck is sixty-six, and though not old as statesmen reckon age—hardly any but great lawyers out- live some great statesmen—he is far /mat middle-age ; he has severely tried a grand constitution, and he is liable to attacks for which the only remedy is a long period of rest. The great group must pass very soon, and to think how much or how little of its work will pass with it is of the first interest to Europe. That much will pass, we cannot doubt. No successor, however wisely chosen, will ever excite the awe, deepening sometimes to fear, with which Prince Bismarck is watched by European statesmen, for no other will have held kingdoms in his hand, and have been so visibly ready to pass sentence on them. No General will seem so formidable to soldiers as Count von Moltke, for no other can have so proved on the field his capacity for victory. And probably no Emperor will seem so formidable, for, no other will be so associated with military ideas, in their strictest and most effective sense, or be so ready to accept the counsel" Vae victis.” On all who dread Germany the effect must necessarily be very great,—an effect as of relief from atmospheric pressure ; but will the effect be as deep within Germany itself, will the Empire, in fact, grow weaker, as Prussia did twice, once after the death of Frederick the Great, and once after the departure of Stein ? We should think, on the whole, it would not, though much must depend on the degree to which the German Government pulls the strings of adminis- tration tighter. If the tension is made excessive—and there is a tendency to make it excessive—there will come a sudden relaxation, in which everything, foreign policy, the Army, the co- hesion of the State, will grow imperceptibly weaker, until some sudden shock reveals that the vital force of the organisation has departed. But apart from this danger, which exists, the German Empire should long survive in full strength the group who made it. The new Emperor will be an able man, though of a separ- ate type from his father. Germany has statesmen still, though they have not been bred by Prince Bismarck. She has many Generals trained by Von Boon and Von Moltke, one at least of whom—General Blumenthal—is believed to be of the first class. One entire generation of the people has been dis- ciplined to perfection, has seen service, and has lived through a history in which men, almost without their own consent, cease to be small. The Emperor of Germany ought, for thirty years at least, to have ample material for selection always at hand ; while the rise of a new class of statesmen, the Parliamentary class, which is inevitable, ought to bring new and effective intellects to the front. The sense of danger, which can never be quite absent from an Empire situated like Germany, with Russia on the east, separated by no frontier, and France on the west, separated by a doubtful province, and Austria on the south, separated by nothing except history, will prevent relaxation from going too far, while there is ample work in the social difficulty for the most strenuous of labourers to perform. The Empire ought to be safe until it has been solidified by time, and by the growth of that sense of common interest which keeps modern States alive under a pressure, which can hardly be heavier than that which has fallen within the century on every State in Europe, except Sweden and Great Britain. There must be changes, as men who have done so much, and filled such spaces in the eyes of the world, one by one pass away ; but the changes need not necessarily affect the solidity of the edifice, even though its chief builder, unlike most architects, is always dreaming that the winds will one day blow from all quarters at once, and then his structure will pass away. It is heavy enough to endure, though it is none the stronger for the iron clamps with which he is always strengthening its foundations.
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