If Prince Bismarck were in full health, we should say
he was wanting to do something very big indeed, for he is resigning again, but the evidence makes it probable that he is very ill. According to the Cologne Gazette, he is over-worked and over-worried till he has resolved to resign, and according to the Daily Telegraph's Berlin Correspondent, he has fixed on his sixtieth birthday, 1st of April of this year, for the event. He intends thenceforward to live at Varzin. According to this writer, the incessant threats of assassination, which affected even Cromwelrs iron nerves, and the elaborate precautions taken by the police, who evidently believe him in danger, have destroyed his health, and induced his family and his physicians to put a pressure upon him which he can- not resist. His frame is still unbroken, and even if he did retire, he could still return at the call of his Sovereign upon any great emergency. It is difficult to believe that Prince Bismarck will throw up power, more especially as he leaves apparently no one competent to succeed him, and certainly no one who can be sure -of such support in Parliament, now almost as influential as the Court. The Emperor makes no mistakes in choosing his men, but Bismarcks do not appear in the same country twice in a century. If they did, Europe would find it easiest to declare its countries provinces of the Germanic Empire. This time, on a calculation of chances, Austria should find the strong man, but he is not in the front yet.
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