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CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART
CONTENTS
TWO EVENINGS WITH BISMARCK.
IN ALL SHADES.
A WHALE-HUNT IN THE VARANGER FJORD.
A GOLDEN ARGOSY.
REVOLUTION BELOW-STAIRS.
A SUBAQUEOUS EXCURSION.
OCCASIONAL NOTES.
A DESERTED GARDEN.
No. 106.—Vol. III.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1886.
TWO EVENINGS WITH BISMARCK.
IN TWO PARTS.—PART I.
The surprises that await the deputies and representativesof the North German League, when,after a hard day’s work and a late supper, theyreturn, wearied in body and mind, to theirBerlin penates, are not, as a rule, of a verycheering description. They generally consist oflarge unwieldy packets of printed matter, whichcontain the orders for the next day’s imperialDiet, and a mass of amendments on the comingmotions, &c. Letters also, especially home ones,form no small portion of the evening’s recreation.One may judge, therefore, of the generalsurprise, when, amongst the pile of eveningcorrespondence, a short note appears from PrinceBismarck to the effect that he would be ‘greatlyobliged if Deputy or Privy-councillor So-and-sowill give him the pleasure of his company everySaturday evening at nine o’clock, commencingfrom the 24th April, as long as the session of theimperial Diet lasts.’
What more natural than that the Chancellorshould wish to assemble at his own familiarhearth, all those representatives of the nationwho for the most part gladly accompany and supporthim on the rough and stony paths of Germanpolitics that he is treading, and to want to spenda few hours with them in pleasant social intercourse,after the many weary hours of heavyparliamentary work?
This same need was equally felt by most of thedeputies and councillors and other members ofthe imperial Diet, who all equally looked forwardto the coming evening.
As everything connected with the Diet is carriedout with military precision, so here, also, thehour of nine had hardly finished striking, ere theguests began to arrive at the well-known modesttwo-storied building in the Wilhelmstrasse, whichthe Prussian government assigns to its Ministerfor Foreign Affairs as his official residence, andwhich Prince Bismarck inhabited in his threefoldcapacity of Minister for Lauenburg, PrussianPresident Minister, and Chancellor of the NorthGerman League. Here, on the ground-floor of the