Prince Bismarck has, it is said, been warned that in
betraying State secrets he is making himself amenable to the law, but he declares that the secrets he reveals are matters of history, and reveals one more, this time through the Neue Freie Presse of Vienna. He, it is affirmed, asserts that he received about 1875 a hint that the Russian Army, which had had nothing to do for twenty years, was clamour- ing for war. He also received from the Emperor Alex- ander II. an autograph letter inquiring whether, if Russia attacked Austria in Galicia, Germany would in- terfere. The Prince did not reply, but, as he informed his own Emperor, the secret reached Austria. Indirectly warned by the Prince's silence, the Emperor Alexander turneci to the Hapsburgs, granted them permission to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina as the price of neutrality—art arrangement afterwards solidified at the Conference of Berlin —and commenced the war with Turkey which ended in the Treaty of San Stefano. This astounding story, which reveals the true motive of that war to be one which might recur to- morrow and upset all calculations, and shows half the Princes of Europe intriguing to evade treaties, is vouched for as un- questionably true, and is in accord with many well-known facts. It is hinted also that Prince Bismarck's motive for not deserting Austria on this occasion was the Emperor Alex- ander's refusal a little previous to permit him to attack France.
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