The whole business, moreover, while very honorable, is scarcely pleasurable.  Is any one obliged to submit to such public, sharp and impolite criticisms as a German minister?  Is it true of anyone but him that the behavior customary among people of culture does not prevail when he addressed?  Without the least scruple one says things to him publicly which one would be ashamed to say to him privately, if one were to meet him in a drawing-room, for instance.  I should not say this here if the Reichstag did not hold an exceptional position in Germany in these matters as well as in everything else.  Here I have never had to hear, so far as I remember, as sharp remarks as in other assemblies.  At any rate I have a conciliatory memory.  But on the whole you will agree with me that the tone of our public debates is less elevated than that of our social gatherings, especially when our ministers are addressed, but at times even among fellow members, although of this I am no competent critic.  I do not even criticize the behavior toward the ministers, for I am hardened by an experience of many years and can stand it.  I am merely describing the reasons why no minister clings to his post, and why you do me an injustice if you believe that it takes an artful effort to make a minister yield his place.  Not many of them have been accustomed to see a totally ignorant correspondent tear an experienced minister to pieces in the press as if he were a stupid schoolboy.  We see this in every newspaper every day, but we can stand it.  We do not complain.  But can anyone say that the members of the government—­the bureau chiefs frequently fare even worse—­meet in the parliamentary debates with that urbaneness of demeanor which characterizes our best society?  I do not say “no,” leaving it to you to answer this question.  I only say that the business of being a minister is very arduous and cheerless, subject to vexations and decidedly exhausting.  This brings it about that the ministers are habitually in a mood which makes them readily give up their places as soon as they have found another excuse than the simple:  I have had enough, I do not care for more, I am tired of it.

The changes of ministers, however, have not been so many nor so quick with us as they are in other countries, and this I may mention to Mr. Richter as a proof of my amiability as a colleague.  Count, if you will, the number of ministers who have crossed the public stage since I entered office in 1862, and sum up the resignations due to other than parliamentary reasons, and you will find a result exceedingly favorable to the accommodating spirit of the German minister when it is compared with that of any other country.  I consider, therefore, the insinuating references to my quarrelsome disposition and fickleness distinctly wide of the mark.