ere asked to
allow a loan for a railway in East Prussia, they refused on the ground
that they were not a properly qualified assembly.

This was too much for Bismarck: the action of the King might have been
inconclusive; much that he said was indiscreet; but it remained true
that he had taken the decisive step; no one really doubted that Prussia
would never again be without a Parliament. It would be much wiser, as it
would be more chivalrous, to adopt a friendly tone and not to attempt to
force concessions from him. He was especially indignant at the statement
made that the Prussian people had earned constitutional government by
the part they took in the war of liberation; against this he protested:

"In my opinion it is a bad service to the national honour to
assume that the ill-treatment and degradation that the Prussians
suffered from a foreign ruler were not enough to make our blood
boil, and to deaden all other feelings but that of hatred for the
foreigners."

When told that he was not alive at the time, he answered:

"I cannot dispute that I was not living then, and I have been
genuinely sorry that I was not born in time to take part in that
movement; a regret which is diminished by what I have just heard.
I had always believed that the slavery against which we fought
lay abroad; I have just learned that it lay at home, and I am
not grateful for the explanation."

The ablest of the Liberal leaders was George v. Vincke; a member of an
old Westphalian family, the son of a high official, he was a man of
honesty and independence, but both virtues were carried to excess; a
born leader of opposition, domineering, quarrelsome, ill to please, his
short, sturdy figure, his red face and red hair were rather those of a
peasant than a nobleman, but his eloquence, his bitter invective, earned
the respect and even fear of his opponents. Among these Bismarck was to
be ranged; in these days began a rivalry which was not to cease till
nearly twenty years later, when Vincke retired from the field and
Bismarck stood triumphant, the recognised ruler of the State. At this
time it required courage in the younger man to cross swords with the
experienced and powerful leader.

Vincke was a strong Liberal, but in the English rather than the Prussian
sense; his constant theme was the rule of law; he had studied English
history, for at that time all Liberals prepared themselves for their
part by reading Hallam or