Some years ago, when he applied for an Embassy and his request was refused, he got himself elected to Parliament, and since then he has had one leave of absence after another. His mother-in-law has also said, ‘What good is it for them to make permanent arrangements now? He will soon be an Ambassador.’ He has no political ideas, and, I fancy, not the necessary knowledge or adroitness to carry out the more brilliant ideas of others. He has now secured Radowitz to supply him with the ideas for his Oriental reports. But, in spite of that, I am afraid they will not amount to much.” On Thursday, the 21st of November, I wrote as follows in my diary: This morning Wollmann came to me and read a passage from a letter which he had received from Count von der Goltz, Attaché to the Embassy at Constantinople, to whom he had formerly given lessons. The Count informed him that his chief, Keudell, had instructed him to prepare a memorandum on Turkish finances, and in particular on the tobacco monopoly, within two months. He, Goltz, however, had not the slightest information on the subject. Could Wollmann not send him something of the kind? That doubtless means that our Ambassador at Stamboul wishes to send a report to the Chief in Berlin, probably as his own work. He then orders it from a young inexperienced attaché, who again requests a subordinate official in the office of the Imperial Chancellor to help him out of his difficulty, and to give information on the matters in question; which will then--as the production of the Ambassador--be returned to its place of origin, Wilhelmstrasse, Berlin, ten weeks after the newspapers here had already published all that was wanted on the subject. On the 21st of December, I wrote as follows: This evening about 8 o’clock Bucher communicated to me ... the welcome news that the Chief has at length had his eyes opened to the manner in which Keudell managed the press. When Bülow, who has now taken over the administration of the secret service fund in succession to Keudell, reported to the Minister on the condition in which he found it, the latter’s “hair almost stood on end with fright.” “No detailed accounts whatever,” he continued. “Everything jotted down in the loosest way. People with whom the Chief had expressly desired to break off all relations continued to receive their money, five or six hundred thalers a year, indeed often more than that, or they got a lump sum, up to three thousand thalers, in settlement. The deficit which arose in this way amounts to about eighteen thousand thalers.[11] Several of these fellows are not known to any one. Aegidi was questioned, but he declares he does not know them either. They must have been Keudell’s own secret and semi-official mouthpieces, whose sole and only business was to promote his private interests by dirty press intrigues.”