AN OLD BISMARCKIAN SAYING. [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
your last issue you write We come to the old Bismarckian saying, The proper way at the end of a war is not to exact a large indemnity from your enemy, but to oblige him to accept one from you.' " Is there any authority for this ? I have heard it before, but only in the form that somebody said that Bismarck had
said this.
The record of Bismarck's utterances is so extraordinarily full that we ought to have chapter and verse before we accept as authentic a statement so contrary to his practice. Tiles we get this, we may consider it as curious that this " old Bismarckian saying " was not heard of till it was Germany's turn to pay and not to receive an indemnity.—I am, Sir, &c.,
[We have merely heard the saying attributed to Bismarck. He is supposed to have made the remark ironically during the temporary financial panic occasioned in Germany by the unexpectedly rapid payment of the French war indemnity in 18/3.--ED. Spectator.] -
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