Guizot and Dahlmann; he knew all about Pym and
Hampden, and wished to imitate them. The English Parliament had won its
power by means of a Petition of Right and a Bill of Rights; he wished
they should do the same in Prussia; it escaped him that the English
could appeal to charters and ancient privileges, but that in Prussia the
absolute power of the King was the undisputed basis on which the whole
State had been built up, and that every law to which they owed their
liberty or their property derived its validity from the simple
proclamation of the King.

Bismarck, if he had read less, understood better the characteristics of
England, probably because he knew better the conditions of his own
country. He rose to protest against these parallels with England;
Prussia had its own problems which must be settled in its own way.

"Parallels with foreign countries have always something
disagreeable.... At the Revolution, the English people were in a
very different condition from that of Prussia to-day; after a
century of revolution and civil war, it was in a position to be
able to give away a crown and add conditions which William of
Orange accepted. On the other hand, we are in possession of a
crown whose rights were actually unlimited, a crown held by the
grace not of the people but of God, and which of its own
free-will has given away to the people a portion of its
rights--an example rare in history."

It shows how strong upon him was the influence of his friends in
Pomerania that his longest and most important speech was in defence of
the Christian monarchy. The occasion was a proposal to increase the
privileges of the Jews. He said:

"I am no enemy of the Jews; if they become my enemies I will
forgive them. Under certain circumstances I love them; I am ready
to grant them all rights but that of holding the magisterial
office in a Christian State. This they now claim; they demand to
become Landrath, General, Minister, yes even, under
circumstances, Minister of Religion and Education. I allow that
I am full of prejudices, which, as I have said, I have sucked in
with my mother's milk; I cannot argue them away; for if I think
of a Jew face to face with me as a representative of the King's
sacred Majesty, and I have to obey him, I must confess that I
should feel myself deeply broken and depressed; the sincere
self-respect with which I now attempt to fulfil my duties towards
the