ength of Prussia, of course, lay generally
in the north, that of Austria in the south. Austria had the advantage
of Prussia in the matter of prestige. Prussia, on the other hand, had
the pull of Austria in the possession of the machinery of the Customs
Union. In general, however, the dual control of the Germanic
Confederation was grudgingly recognized by either party, and on
occasion they acted together. This was notably the case in the
Schleswig-Holstein question, which had been smouldering ever since
1848, and which came to a crisis in the Danish war of 1864, in which
Austria and Prussia jointly took part.

Among the most reactionary of the Junker party in the Prussian
Parliament of 1848 was one Count Otto Bismarck von Schoenhausen,
subsequently known to history as Prince Bismarck (1815-98). This man
strenuously opposed the acceptance of the Imperial dignity by the King
of Prussia at the hands of the Frankfurt Parliament in 1849, on the
ground that it was unworthy of the King of Prussia to accept any
office at the hands of the people rather than at those of his peers,
the princes of Germany. In 1851 Count von Bismarck was appointed a
Prussian representative in the revived princely and aristocratic
Federal Assembly. Here he energetically fought the hegemony hitherto
exercised by Austria. He continued some years in this capacity, and
subsequently served as Prussian Minister in St. Petersburg and again
in Paris. In the autumn of 1862 the new King of Prussia, Wilhelm I,
who had succeeded to the throne the previous year, called him back to
take over the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and the leadership of the
Cabinet. Shortly after his accession to power he arbitrarily closed
the Chambers for refusing to sanction his Army Bill. His army scheme
was then forced through by the royal fiat alone. On the reopening of
the Schleswig-Holstein question, owing to the death of the King of
Denmark, German nationalist sentiment was aroused, which Bismarck knew
how to use for the aggrandisement of Prussia. The Danish war, in which
the two leading German States collaborated and which ended in their
favour, had as its result a disagreement of a serious nature between
these rival, though mutually victorious, Powers.

In all these events the hand of Bismarck was to be seen. He it was who
dominated completely Prussian policy from 1862 onwards. Full of his
schemes for the aggrandisement of Prussia at the expense of Austria,
he stirred up and w