We had remained in the first room to the left of the dusky antechamber already described, which I took the liberty of comparing to the Forecourt of the Gentiles. Under the windows are the writing-tables and desks of the Secretaries of the Central Bureau, who, if I am rightly informed, occupy the first rank among the minor officials of the Empire. _Geheimer Hofrath_ Roland, the Chief of the Bureau, has his place under the furthest window, in the region of the Councillors of Embassy. He is an elderly gentleman, who entered at a time when these positions were mainly or exclusively occupied by members of the French colony, and when the principal business of the Central Bureau, namely, the registration of all documents despatched and received, was conducted in the French language. He is a paragon of registrars, although just a little brusque, and he might perhaps also be described as a good calculator, in a certain sense. Nine orders and medals decorate his meritorious breast, when on festive occasions he dons his uniform of a lieutenant of the Reserve. Thoroughly well versed in the etiquette of official intercourse, he would, in writing to the Minister, never subscribe himself other than “most obedient humble servant”; to the Secretary of State, “obedient”; to an Ambassador, “most dutiful”; or to an Envoy, “most respectful.” In writing to Bülow and Keudell, he signs himself “your most obedient,” possibly because they are Kassenraethe, or perhaps because of their titles of nobility. To Bucher and the other Privy Councillors he is only “your obedient,” to officials of equal rank “most humble,” and to inferiors “humble.” The next in place and rank is “Hofrath” Hesse, formerly a theologian, and also advanced in years. Then come Herr Boelsing, also for some time past a “_Hofrath_,” and the “_Geheim Sekretär_,” Wollmann, who has not yet been awarded the higher predicate. I wish again to call attention to the fact that these descriptions and names refer to the period of 1873. As already cursorily noted, the Central Bureau is the despatching and registering department of the Foreign Office. It is the centre from which all the ideas and orders of the Chancellor, as worked up by the Councillors in the form of notes, despatches, telegrams, instructions, &c., radiate out into the world, and it is the point at which all those coming in from outside, such as documents, reports, and letters addressed to the Minister personally, or to the Ministry, are opened, registered according to their contents, communicated to the Chief, and, after use--so far as it is desirable to retain them--arranged in bundles and pigeon-holed in the presses which line the walls, until they ultimately find their way into the State archives.