The New York herald., 1871-01-19
Tho Reported Daneerons nIaess Of Count
Bismarck.

Inis morning We publien, IN our special
dispatches, the exact text OF statement
which, should it be confirmed In every particu-
lar, and followed by news Of the death Of the
great Prussian statesman, whose serious ILL
ness 1t announces, Is, in view Of Its probable
consequences, the most important intelligence
that has been received for many day.
We have not been hasty In magnifying the
certainty of this news, because the guns Of
the Paris bombardment are most likely at this
time to scare up whole Hocks Of canGrds, Of
every kind Of plumage, from the banks Of the
Seine. Moreover, we can all recollect how
the Prusslan Crown Prince has been mortally
wounded (by French pens) more than once |,
how Prince Frederick Charles was spirited
away (by the same agency In splendid
leadea coffin, secretly by night, into Germany
for interment, lest his army should be demo-
rallied by knowledge Of his death, and how
Won Moltke, the strategist, has been 'ssettled"
in various similar ways upon various occasions.
AS for King William himself and bis Primo
Councillor, they have been shot at, and
missed since they entered Versailles, but
with pellets Of inky paper only, an the truth
were known.
But 10 the present case our despatch is
from first hands and by direct channels, and
has the authority Of the British diplomatic
agent, Mr.. Odo Russell, to lend it confrmatory
color Nothing is more probable than that
Mr.. Russell should seek and obtain an inter-
view with the great Prussian Premier on the
eve of the London Conference. This he
appears to have accomplished on Saturday
night last, and he speaks of Count Bismarck
as then exhibiting "death In his face" The
despatch adds that great pains had been taken
by the German authorities to suppress all
mention OF this (for them) most untoward
tidings, but that it may, nevertheless, be
credited. Now, Mr.. Oio Russell may have
mistaken the effects of fatigue and incessant
anxiety, combined with some temporary attack
Of disease, for symptoms of dissolution; but we
can hardly think, on the other hand, that he
would use so strong an expression as the one
ascribed to HIM unless there were some most
portentous fact to justify It,
Accepting tess statement thus given in Its
full force, the cause Of German unity and the
newly strengthened pride and power Of Prussia
are gravely menaced by the dangerous condi-
ton Of their chief. architect and champion.
Carl Otto Count Won Bismarck ck-Sch6nhausen,
among the statesmen, councillors and political
orfginators Of Fatherland, ..,c.- ,-c \ =, .-,-
II = ~-A~.s
In shape ana gesture proudly eminent
Stood nke tower. 'F'7r' r.?-e'r,.r>s-s-,.
His record SINCE bis appearance In The convoS-
cation Of the Three Estates, In the first United
Diet assembled at Berlin In ls47 by King
Frederick William w., has been the history Of
Prussian renovation and progress to the dignity
of first class Power, in the highest sense,
and of the elevation of the German alliance to
imperial dignity as the arbiter of Europe. For
twenty-three years, and in spite of the confu-
sion of lS4Si9 aud the desperate opposition OF
his jealous rivals aud spiteful enemies, from
1860 to 1864, his star has steadily ascended,
not by the sudden dashes which rarely ma rk
enduring fame, but by those regular, and
yet not slow, gradations that accompany
tho ripening Of a great intellect and
exalted character. The comet which
flashes athwart the heavens, visible to us
with baleful splcndor, illuminates them for a
period only as brief as it is startling but the
new luminary that endures and serves to
guide the calculations of science for ages
rises upon the ken of the observer, phase
after phase, and with growing degrees Of light,
until it poises there, fnll-orbed as the centre
Of another celestial system or the harbinger
Of an approaching constellation yet to be re-
vealed.
The remarkable abilities and influence OF
Count Bismarck-for who knows him or cares
for him with the tangled title of ''Duke
Of Strasbourg ?"-have shone out step by step
as he marched on from the rostrum of the
Diet in lS47 to the embassies at Frankfort in
1851 at Vienna in 1852, when he diplomati-
cally bearded the famous Count Rechberg at
St. Petersburg in 1859, where the Gar so
favored him that he conferred upon him the
Order Of st. Alexander Newsky, and at Paris
in 1862, when Napoleon III. pinned the Cross
of the Legion of Honor to his breast. Next
beheld as the Minister of the Household OF
his King and of the Foreign Affairs
of Prussia, he begins to shape the
destinies of Europe, rising above all op-
position, however virulent, at home and
abroad, until, after having inspired the
faith that won Sadowa, he dictates the sub
mission of Austria in the treaty of Nikolsburg,
dated 1865, and prepares an answer, whose
thunders trembling Paris now hears at her
threshold, in response to Napoleons boast that
his imperial mandate had arrested the victori-
ous Prussians under the walls of Vienna.
And now survey the work of this master
mind at the moment when the workman Is
summoned from labor to rest. Austria and
Scandinavia humbled; Russia securely allied !;
England checked; France crushed; Fatherland