also found himself, as
assistant to his uncle, Lord Salisbury, Foreign Secretary of the
United Kingdom, unexpectedly chosen to play the identical part of an
international peacemaker. And now, after a lapse of thirty-eight
years, the two erstwhile Secretaries of the Congress of Berlin, to-day
the only surviving statesmen of that momentous crisis, Prince von
Buelow and Mr. Arthur James Balfour, are about to meet in another
European Congress, and be called upon once more to recast the map of
the world. But this time the Scotsman and the German will meet no more
as Allies working out a common policy. They will meet as the leading
champions of hostile and irreconcilable world policies, united only in
a joint endeavour to undo the evil work of Bismarck and Beaconsfield
which claimed to bring to Europe "peace with honour," and which
ultimately brought Europe nothing but war with dishonour.

II.

Prince von Buelow's whole career has been one steady and rapid ascent
to high office and exalted honour. Before his fall he had earned the
well-deserved nickname of "Bernhard the Lucky." He seemed to have
found in his cradle all the gifts of the fairies. His most striking
characteristic is an amazing and totally un-German versatility and
resourcefulness. As a soldier he volunteered in the Franco-German War,
and retired from service as a Prussian Lieutenant. As a diplomat he
has occupied responsible positions in every capital of Europe except
London, and the exception, by the way, is probably the reason why he
has always been less familiar with the English mind than with the
Continental mind. An unrivalled Parliamentary tactician as well as a
persuasive Parliamentary orator, he managed with even more than the
skill of Mr. Asquith or Mr. Balfour the most unmanageable
representative assembly of the Continent, and for twelve years he
played off one against the other the ten or more parties of the
Reichstag. As Fourth Chancellor of the New German Empire he has been
associated with all the leading measures of the "new course," and he
succeeded for ten years in retaining the confidence and affectionate
regard of the most fickle and most despotic of masters. A man of the
world and a patron of learning and art, he has enlisted all the graces
and amenities of social life in the service of his ambition.

III.

Like most of the men who have built up the Prussian power; like Stein,
who came from Nassau; like Moltke, who came from Denmark;