Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . d to do so when I was ayoung and angry member of a party, but it is impos-sible for a Prussian or German Minister. Thoughthe Constitution had been granted, he did not wishto surrender the oldest and best traditions of thePrussian Monarchy; and even if the power of theKing and Emperor was limited and checked by twoParliaments it was still his duty, standing above allparties, to watch over the country as a hundredyears before his ancestors had done. His power, however, was checked by the Parlia-ments. Bismarck often sighed for a free hand ; helo
Bismarck and the foundation of the German empire . d to do so when I was ayoung and angry member of a party, but it is impos-sible for a Prussian or German Minister. Thoughthe Constitution had been granted, he did not wishto surrender the oldest and best traditions of thePrussian Monarchy; and even if the power of theKing and Emperor was limited and checked by twoParliaments it was still his duty, standing above allparties, to watch over the country as a hundredyears before his ancestors had done. His power, however, was checked by the Parlia-ments. Bismarck often sighed for a free hand ; helonged to be able to carry out his reforms completeand rounded as they lay clear before him in his ownbrain ; how often did he groan under all the delay,the compromise, the surrender, which was imposedupon him when, conscious as he was that he wasonly striving for the welfare of his country, he hadto win over not only the King, not only his colleaguesin the Prussian Ministry, his subordinates, who hadmuch power to check and impede his actions, 1887] Economic Reform. 431 above all, the Parliaments. It was inevitable thathis relation to them should often be one of conflict;it was their duty to submit to a searching criticismthe proposals of the Government and to amend orreject them, and let us confess that it was betterthey were there. The modifications they introducedin the bills he proposed were often improvements;those they rejected were not always wise. Thedrafting of Government bills was often badly done;the first proposals for the Socialistic law, the originaldrafts of many of his economic reforms, were all thebetter when they had been once rejected and wereagain brought forward in a modified form. Morethan this, we must confess that Bismarck did notpossess that temperament which would make it wiseto entrust him with absolute dictatorial power in in-ternal matters. He attempted to apply to legislationhabits he had learnt in diplomacy. And it is curiousto notice Bismarck
Size: 1373px × 1820px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbismarckottofrstvon1
