With regard to Abeken’s business capacity and the limitations of his usefulness I would first recall the circumstance that our Chief, at the time when he described Bucher to me as a “real pearl,” is understood to have spoken of Abeken as a “true strawchopper”--a comparison which is less flattering than appropriate. Unquestionably Abeken was a very meritorious worker in the routine of the Foreign Office, but he was by no means such a prominent one as many outsiders thought. Owing to his long service thoroughly acquainted with all the ins and outs of official business, he had become a _virtuoso_ in red tape. Provided with an ample store of phrases which, when he received his instructions, ran from his fingers’ ends without much thinking, and with a knowledge of several languages just about sufficient for his task, it was as if he had been specially created for the purpose of putting into shape the ideas given to him by the Chief with the readiness of a sewing machine. In addition to this he was an indefatigable worker, and would deliver in the course of the day astonishing quantities of well-written documents for the messengers and despatch bags. But when he had to deal with questions of importance, he was scarcely in a position to draw for the material upon his own resources. It was not, however, at all necessary that he should do so. The ready writer with a good knowledge of traditional forms was sufficient. It was the Minister’s genius and knowledge of men and things that provided the substance for his work, and sometimes also improved the form. He is understood to have worked with more independence under Bismarck’s predecessor, and among other things to have drafted the treaty of Olmütz. I have heard it asserted that he drew up on his own initiative documents of great political importance under the First Imperial Chancellor, and prepared speeches from the throne--but this is a baseless legend. On many occasions, however, when the Minister was out of temper with the King, Abeken acted for weeks at a time, entrusted as the mouthpiece of his Chief, and, of course, under instructions from the latter, reported to his Majesty on current affairs. He also on various occasions accompanied the monarch, in an official capacity, to bathing resorts, as for instance to Ems in the early summer of 1870, where he made himself useful during the last days of his stay and earned the thanks of the Chancellor. In the adjoining salon his Excellency the Secretary of State, von Thile, receives the diplomatists whom the Chancellor himself is unable to see. He suddenly resigned, if I remember rightly, on the 2nd of October, 1872, and retired into private life. I will, later on, give some particulars of the motives for this step. He was opposed to the _Kulturkampf_, and longed for the return of the peace of former times. He was exceptionally amiable as a superior. For a short time after his retirement his position was filled by von Balan, the German Minister