On the 12th of October the documents which the Chief had handed over to me to arrange had all been read through, put into chronological order, and numbered consecutively in red pencil from 1 to 308. These were packed in eight large envelopes, each docketed with the year and the dates and numbers of the first and last documents contained in them. Further particulars of the contents, which I offered to give, were declined by the Prince as superfluous. These papers consisted for the most part of letters, the remainder being reports, memoranda, drafts, and telegrams. The following is a survey of the contents. First Envelope. The year 1851. (Also includes a letter from Prince Charles, dated March 21st, 1848.) Nos. 1 to 29. They begin with the 5th of June and end with the 24th of December, and consist in great part of letters from the Minister and General Manteuffel, from R. Quehl, from Bismarck to Manteuffel, and from General L. von Gerlach. Contents of the latter: That of the 23rd of November, against the new Hamburg Constitution, Senator Hudtwalker’s mission, a scheme for giving the Estates a position side by side with Constitutionalism. That of the 4th of December, again on the Hamburg Constitution. That of the 20th of December, considerations on Bonapartism, after the _coup d’état_, request for an expression of opinion on the situation, with the hope that their views coincide. Second Envelope. 1852. Nos. 30 to 85. Begins with the 5th of January and ends with the 30th of December. Principally letters from General Gerlach and Minister Manteuffel, R. Quehl, King Frederick William, a rescript by that sovereign, four almost illegible notes from the Prince of Prussia, and, finally, a communication from Bismarck to Gerlach, dated the 5th of January, reporting on the change of Ministers in Nassau, the question of the fleet, the relations of Austria to France, and possible anti-Prussian schemes of Schwarzenberg, the views of the English Chargé d’Affaires, Edwardes, on Bonapartism. The first letter from the King begins with the words: “I would remind you, dearest Bismarck (theuerster Bismarck), that I reckon upon you and your assistance in the approaching debates in the Second Chamber respecting the shape to be given to the First Chamber.” Further on there is a reference to “the low intrigues of the conscious or unconscious coalition of scabby sheep on the Right and stinking goats on the Left to defeat the Royal intentions.” “A sad sight, and in any circumstances sufficient to make one tear his hair, but on the field of the dearly-purchased, lie-producing machine of French Constitutionalism! (Ein trauriger Anblick, unter allen Verhältnissen zum Haare Ausraufen, aber auf dem Felde der theuer angeschafften Lügenmaschine des französischen Constitutionalismus).” The rescript (of the 3rd of June) appoints Bismarck Chargé d’Affaires in Vienna, and summons him to Berlin to receive instructions. The second royal letter (of the 5th of