BLEICHRÖDER AND GERMAN DIPLOMACY IN CONSTANTINOPLE--FURTHER INTERVIEWS WITH THE CHANCELLOR--RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA AND AUSTRIA--THE GABLENTZ MISSION--QUEEN VICTORIA--AN UNPLEASANT EPISTLE--A SEVERE REPRIMAND--BISMARCK COLLABORATES WITH ME--BUCHER’S JOURNEY WITH SALAZAR--A PRESS CAMPAIGN AGAINST ENGLAND--DOCUMENTS AND ARTICLES ON SOUTH AFRICAN QUESTIONS. On the morning of Monday, the 27th of November, 1882, I called upon Bucher to hand him a packet with two articles and a letter to be forwarded to the Prince at Varzin, which he promised to do. The latter ran as follows:-- “Hochverehrter Herr Reichskanzler, “Every man has his own ambition. Mine consists in studying and giving as true as possible a picture of your Serene Highness. I am accordingly about to write a new book respecting you in which the more important material scattered through my previous book will be brought together and supplemented from my own observation, and such sources as the letters in Hesekiel’s work, and the despatches published by Poschinger and in Hahn’s collection. It will not be a biography, but only a detailed character sketch, in a number of chapters, such as Bismarck and Parliamentarism, Bismarck and the German Question, Bismarck and Religion, the Legend of Junker Bismarck, Bismarck and the Diplomatists, Bismarck and the Social Problem, Bismarck as Public Speaker and Humorist, Bismarck and Austria, France, Russia and the Poles, and, finally, Bismarck in Private Life. The way in which I propose to treat the subject will appear from the two articles herewith enclosed, which I would beg you to regard as mere preliminary studies. The first of these, ‘Bismarck as a Junker,’ being a harmless sketch, has already been published in the monthly periodical, _Aus Allen Zeiten und Landen_, and the second, ‘Bismarck and Religion,’ is to appear in the _Grenzboten_. In case of new material coming into my possession both shall be re-written for the book, the object of which is to assist the future historian, and at the same time to be useful to yourself. Everything calculated to interfere with the latter purpose shall be omitted. It is highly desirable that I should receive your Serene Highness’s help in the course of the work. I therefore venture most respectfully to recall the fact that Hesekiel was greatly assisted in this way, and that your Serene Highness in 1873 held out hopes to me of similar assistance. Moreover, as many parts of the book will certainly produce the impression that the author is well informed, it is to be feared that should it at the same time contain errors, the public may also accept them as true.