tes. Again and again he wondered how
society could be kept in tolerable order where the powers of the
government were so narrowly restricted and where there was so little
reverence for the constituted or "ordained" authorities. With a hearty
laugh, in which there seemed to be a suggestion of assent, he received
my remark that the American people would hardly have become the
self-reliant, energetic, progressive people they were, had there been
a privy-counsellor or a police captain standing at every mud-puddle in
America to keep people from stepping into it. And he seemed to be much
struck when I brought out the apparent paradox that in a democracy
with little government things might go badly in detail but well on the
whole, while in a monarchy with much and omni-present government
things might go very pleasingly in detail but poorly on the whole. He
saw that with such views I was an incurable democrat; but would not,
he asked, the real test of our democratic institutions come when,
after the disappearance of the exceptional opportunities springing
from our wonderful natural resources which were in a certain sense
common property, our political struggles became, as they surely would
become, struggles between the poor and the rich, between the few who
have, and the many who want? Here we entered upon a wide field of
conjecture.

The conversation then turned to international relations, and
especially public opinion in America concerning Germany. Did the
Americans sympathize with German endeavors towards national unity?--I
thought that so far as any feeling with regard to German unity existed
in America, it was sympathetic; among the German-Americans it was
warmly so.--Did Louis Napoleon, the emperor of the French, enjoy any
popularity in America?--He did not enjoy the respect of the people at
large and was rather unpopular except with a comparatively small
number of snobs who would feel themselves exalted by an introduction
at his court.--There would, then, in case of a war between Germany and
France, be no likelihood of American sympathy running in favor of
Louis Napoleon?--There would not, unless Germany forced war on France
for decidedly unjust cause.

Throughout our conversation Bismarck repeatedly expressed his pleasure
at the friendly relations existing between him and the German
Liberals, some of whom had been prominent in the revolutionary
troubles of 1848. He mentioned several of my old friends, Bucher,
Kapp, a