Confederation.  The Prussian Conservative party was purely Prussian, it was Particularist; had he continued to depend upon it, then all the members sent to the new Reichstag, not only from Saxony, but also from the annexed States, would have been thrown into opposition; the Liberal party had always been not Prussian but German; now that he had to govern so large a portion of Germany, that which had in the past been the great cause of difference would be the strongest bond of union.  The National Liberal party was alone able to join him in the work of creating enthusiasm for the new institutions and new loyalty.  How often had he in the old days complained of the Liberals that they thought not as Prussians, that they were ashamed of Prussia, that they were not really loyal to Prussia.  Now he knew that just for this reason they would be most loyal to the North German Confederation.

Bismarck’s moderation in the hour of victory must not obscure the importance of his triumph.  The question had been tried which should rule—­the Crown or the Parliament; the Crown had won not only a physical but a moral victory.  Bismarck had maintained that the House of Representatives could not govern Prussia; the foreign affairs of the State, he had always said, must be carried on by a Minister who was responsible, not to the House, but to the King.  No one could doubt that had the House been able to control him he would not have won these great successes.  From that time the confidence of the German people in Parliamentary government was broken.  Moreover, it was the first time in the history of Europe in which one of these struggles had conclusively ended in the defeat of Parliament.  The result of it was to be shewn in the history of every country in Europe during the next thirty years.  It is the most serious blow which the principle of representative government has yet received.

By the end of August most of the labour was completed; there remained only the arrangement of peace with Saxony; this he left to his subordinates and retired to Pomerania for the long period of rest which he so much required.

During his absence a motion was brought before Parliament for conferring a donation on the victorious generals.  At the instance of one of his most consistent opponents Bismarck’s name was included in the list on account of his great services to his country; a protest was raised by Virchow on the ground that no Minister while in office should receive a present, and that of all men Bismarck least deserved one, but scarcely fifty members could be found to oppose the vote.  The donation of 40,000 thalers he used in purchasing the estate of Varzin, in Pomerania which was to be his home for the next twenty years.

CHAPTER XII.

THE FORMATION OF THE NORTH GERMAN CONFEDERATION.

1866-1867.

We have hitherto seen Bismarck in the character of party leader, Parliamentary debater, a keen and accomplished diplomatist; now he comes before us in a new role, that of creative statesman; he adopts it with the same ease and complete mastery with which he had borne himself in the earlier stages of his career.  The Constitution of the North German Confederation was his work, and it shews the same intellectual resource, the originality, and practical sense which mark all he did.