Year: 1870

The ssAIan Of Iron and Blood. In tho North
Germnn Parilament-Iiis austic severity on


the Alleged Causes of the War.


The meeting of the German Federal Parlia-
ment in Berlin has given occasion to many
scenes of profound interest In the session of
the second day Count Bismarck presented
summary view OF the situation, commenting
with caustic severity the alleged causes of
the war, and exposing the deceitful pretensons
of the Imperial Government. A spectator of
the proceedings of the occasion gives dra-
matte sketch of Bismarck in a letter to Vienna
journal


"The President had already closed the session,
and the members were about leaving the hall,
when he rose, and requested them to again take
their seats, as the Chancellor of the Confedera-
tion had communication to make to the House.
A general murmur was heard, and the crowd
pressed into the galleries, in order to gain bet
ter sight. Bismarck then made his appearance,
his cheeks pale and deep burrows under his eyes.
A broad-shouldered strengthened figure, in the
uniform of a cavalry colonel, dark blue with
yellow. The yellow of his uniform collar con-
trasted strangely with the deadly paleness of his
face. took his place to the left of the President
Near him lay black leather portfolio. In this
was concealed the fate of two nations. He
searched for the key, and opened the little brass
lock- Then he drew out a few sheets of paper
sheets in which lay the dreadful war that was
to destroy so many thousand lives, and bring so
many families to ruin. He gave q hasty glance
at the first, and then began to speak. There





no orator, in the usual sense of the term. He
speaks without fuency, and with little pathos.
He has nothing less at heart than this. His words
come out in q broken form. He expresses what
he has to say only in short sentences He often
hesitates. lie makes pauses, and then hesitates
again. His language never flows in living
stream. His speeches, which read as if they
came from single gush, are always fragment
airy when they fall from his lips. You see that
he labors as he speaks. One who heard him
to-day for the first time might believe that the
burden OF the feelings which weighed upon his
heart almost took away his BREATH that every
word was wrung out from the depths of his
inner man. Yet he always speaks in this way.
While he expresses himself with the utmost
facility In private conversation, his language
becomes slow and difficult as soon as he
addresses q public assembly. What he
said to the excited and eager members of
the House is already known to every one that
reads the newspapers. 1t was the keenest and
most subtle criticism of the pretenses on which
the French Government had gone to war. A
slight vein of irony ran through his whole dis
course, the effect of which on the hearer was
! heightened by the subdued tone of its delivery.
Not line in the countenance of the Chancellor
was altered as he took up one sheet after another
and declared its contents. No mocking con-
| traction of the mouth accompanied the
| points which he made against the cabi-
net OF Napoleon. No, trace of approval
sonal interest in the subject. In the same quiet,
| business-like manner he called the declaration
! of war the only official communication which
! he had received from the Imperial Government
in the whole affair."" analyzed the private nego-
! tiations which had been entertained between
| the Ministry and the French Ambassadors cha
Tacterized the interview at Ems; and, finally,
referred TO the unsuccessful attempt at media
tion by England. The last sheet was the French
original OF the declaration of war-a piece
of paper like all the rest-distnguished by no
special mark-as Bismarck there took it in his
hand-not even by the slightest change in his
features, or the least wavering of his tone; he
coldly remarked that the text of the declaration
! of war was already known in the German trans
lation and asked the Parliament to excuse him
for the unfinished sketch of a circular to the
foreign minister's this was the last word of Bis
marck in the session, at which no one could have
been present, without being penetrated with the
power and wide bearing of acts which it took
but twenty or thirty minutes, and six OIL
seven pieces OF paper, to make Interchangeable
| We who have hitherto become acquainted with
| historical documents only after they have grown
mouldy ia the archives, here had them before


us in their fresh odor and their modern aspect.
There is nothing there to be seen of sentiment


or enthusiasts; all this comes afterward-afteI


the flow of tears and blood. And of these, we
shall this time QaYe no Lack"