umberless contending interests, and from the
mountains of acts, controversial writings, replications, and projects
of treaty, a generation of politicians was, after the peace, spread
over the country, hard men, with stubborn will and indomitable
perseverance, with gigantic power of work and acute judgment, learned
jurists and versatile men of the world, with great knowledge of human
nature, but at the same time sceptical despisers of all ideal feelings,
unscrupulous in the choice of means, dextrous in making use of the weak
point of an opponent, experienced in demanding and giving honour, and
well inclined not to forget their own advantage. They became the
leaders of politics at the courts and in the Imperial cities, quiet
leaders or dextrous tools of their lords--in fact, the real rulers of
Germany. They were the creators of the diplomacy and bureaucracy of
Germany. Their method of negotiating may appear to us very prolix and
pettifogging, but it is just in our time, when a superficial
dilettanteism is to be complained of in diplomacy and State government,
that the legal culture and sagacious dexterity of the old school should
be looked back upon with respect. It was not the fault of these men
that they were obliged to spend their lives in a hundred little
quarrels, and that only few of them found themselves in the happy
position of promoting a great and wise policy. But it will always be to
their honour, that under unfavourable circumstances they more than once
preserved the esteem and respect of the external enemies of Germany,
for German diplomacy, where they no longer felt it for the power of
German armies.

They regulated also the internal concerns of the devastated provinces
of the new "State." According to their model was formed the official
class, also the colleges of judges and administrators; often, it is
true, more awkward and pedantic, but just as tenacious of rank, and not
unfrequently as corruptible, as the chancellors and privy councillors
on whom they depended. The new politicians carried on also important
negotiations with the provincial Diets, and had no easy task to render
them pliant or harmless. Ever since the end of the fifteenth century
there existed, in almost all the larger territories of Germany, State
representatives of the country, who voted the taxes, attaching
conditions to such votes, and also giving their opinion on the
application of the taxes; in the sixteenth century they had attained