“Although my father cannot act as collaborator but must confine himself to a more negative part, suggesting to you the suppression of incorrect or unsuitable passages, he nevertheless requests you to replace the portion within brackets on page 6, by the enclosed, as the latter is more in harmony with the facts. “With much esteem, “Count W. Bismarck.” The enclosure here referred to was dictated to Count Bill, and appears in the book _Unser Reichskanzler_, Vol. I., pp. 54 and 55. On the 20th of July further proofs, up to the end of the first chapter, arrived from Friedrichsruh. These again included alterations that had been dictated to Count Bill by his father. When the Prince shortly afterwards proceeded to Kissingen, Grunow continued to send him the proofs, as he had received no orders to the contrary. They were not returned, and the printers had therefore to stop work. I, however, received the following long letter from the Chancellor, which was written by an amanuensis on official foolscap, like a State document, the two sheets being tied together with silk thread in the Imperial colours. “Kissingen, _August 3rd, 1883_. “Dear Sir, “You probably have no adequate conception of the state of my health and of my need of rest or you would doubtless not be the only person who begrudges me the latter, while the Emperor and the Empire and all their officials respect it. Possibly you have also no notion of the difficulties of the work which you expect me to do. On former occasions of a similar kind I have corrected all errors of fact which had arisen through mistakes on your part or on that of others. Now, however, you wish to submit to the public with regard to my way of thinking and my inner man inferences drawn from observations made by yourself and others, which in great part are actually incorrect. (He had then in his hands Chapters II. and III., and a considerable portion of Chapter IV.) It is, therefore, not surprising that your conclusions do not correspond with the facts, so that if you were to publish them I should be forced to controvert and refute them. There are a number of gross errors of fact, and confusions of jest and earnest, in the expressions and incidents upon which you base your view of my supposed way of thinking. You assume that in everything that I have ever said in your presence for the entertainment of my guests at table, or in my own home, or in what you have gathered from the unreliable accounts of third persons, I have invariably given serious expression to my inmost feelings with the conscientiousness of a witness giving evidence on oath before a Court.