Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1870-04-08

As a parliamentary speaker, Coant Bis
marck commands attention by the weight
of his thoughts and the Importance which
his position gives to everything that falls
from his lips. His voice, though clear and
audible, is dry, hard, and unsympathetic;
and his manner, lolling and Negligent,
seems to express the thorough contempt he
is known to entertain for parliamentary
forms. When addressing the Chambers ho
usually stands in leaning attitude, twirl-
ing pen in one hand, and occasionally
gancing at the papers on his desk, and
speaks without gestures in a halting mo-
notonous tone, often repeating himself, as
if forgetting what he had just uttered, ana
frequently stammering in painful man
ner. One who has often listened to him
saws: ''IIe appears to struggle with his
thoughts, and the words Chamber over his
lips in a half-reluctant way. After two or
three words he continually pauses, and one
seems to hear an inarticulate Sob But
when reused, he sometimes closes with
well-delivered and vigorous pororaton.
Upon occasions he can be terribly bitter
and scornful, but he never warns into elo-
quence.
In private life he is one of the most pleas
ant of men, genial, witty, and inclined to
social familiarity. His conversation is
sparkling, and few men tell an anecdote
with better effect. His fondness for female
society has given rise to several piquant
stories at his expense; and so much scan
| dal was occasioned recently by photo
| graph in which he and noted female sing
err were represented together, that he felt
compelled to explain the circumstance in
letter which was published in the German
newspapers. But since the days of his
| youthful follies when he was known as
"Nad Bismarck" his private life has been
without reproach. AS statesman his ca
reer is open to the severest criticism Ar
bitrary, self-willed, imperious, impatient
of opposition, and unscrupulous in the use
of means 10 attain his ends, he governs
with the strong hand of absolute power
and crushes out every attempt to assert the
political freedom of the individual or the
masses. His political ideas are those of 6
born feudalist. Connected by family, by
tradition, by education, and by early pre-
posses sions, with the aristocracy of Prus
sia, he has never sympathiZed with mod
ern ideas of popular rights. To him they
appear monstrous and subversive of Law
and order. He believes firmly in the alb
solute right OF the king to rule alone, AM
regards every check upon the royal will a
an infringement of divine prerogatives an
q step toward social anarchy. This ex
plains his coftemptuous and arbitrar
II oatment of the representatives of the peo
ple in the Prussian Chambers, and his ar
rogant assumption of the right TO carry hi
royal masters policy without their consen
and in face of their opposition. 1t serve
also to explain his attitude toward othe
German states. He saw that everywher
in Germany except Prussia liberal idea
were making headway, and that the mill
tary organization of that state alone Offered
an effectual barrier to their progress ant
ultimate triumph. He regards the thron
and the army the only true foundations o
state. He will make use of public opinion
when it agrees with his own, to further hi
own designs, but will neither follow ii no
allow it to govern him. From the Empe
ror of France he learned how to cheat tn
people with the semblance Of liberty ant
self-government and to make universe
suffrage the ignorant and servile agent @
absolutism.-S. s. CoNANT, in Harper
Magazine for ApriL.