“Rarely has a book excited my interest to such a degree as your _Unser Reichskanzler_, which I have perused whilst taking the waters here. As it will have produced a like impression upon others a new edition will soon be required. I therefore consider it my duty to call your attention to an error which I have also noticed in the French and English newspapers. The letter of the Minister President of the 26th of December, 1865, which was made public entirely against my will and in consequence of a gross indiscretion which has not yet been quite cleared up, was not addressed to the clergyman, Roman von André, but to the _Rittergutsbesitzer_, Andrae-Roman. In addition to this you will allow me to correct a few of the following observations, as, for instance, that on page 158. I have always spoken and written to Prince Bismarck not from a clergyman’s standpoint, but with the consciousness that in matters of faith our views were identical, and with a feeling of hearty affection for his powerful individuality, having fully recognised his greatness long before he became a public character. “Allow me to add one further remark. The somewhat cool attitude adopted by Bismarck towards the clergy as such did not originate in the conflict with the _Kreuzzeitung_. It existed long before that date, and was closely connected with a similar attitude towards the Church, and arises from entirely different causes, which I need not enter into here. That clergymen, or, indeed, laymen, in signing ‘the Declaration’ made themselves sponsors for any of the vile and malicious calumnies, which--I regret to say--were at that time heaped upon the great man, I must dispute until that charge has been proved in some specific case. I speak only of those Conservatives who hold the same religious belief as Bismarck. I was pained and surprised to find for the first time in a letter addressed by the Prince to my friend von Holtz during the General Synod, that he entertained this view. I immediately put myself in communication with a considerable number of my co-signatories to the declaration who were present in Berlin at that time, and _all_ those with whom I spoke on the subject agreed with me that the public declaration by Bismarck (I have neither this nor the text of the declaration itself with me at the present moment)--his declaration, namely, that ‘after the unfortunate articles in question no _respectable_ person _could_ continue to read the _Kreuzzeitung_,’ was the sole cause of the counter-declaration, that we considered ourselves to be respectable persons, although we continued to read the _Kreuzzeitung_. It does not contain a word of approval of any ‘vile and malicious calumnies.’ I have never read nor approved of the _Reichsglocke_. The statements respecting the death of my relative, Herr von Wedemeyer, are also very hazardous, and would be difficult to prove. It was at that time decided to send to the Prince a joint statement, which was to be drawn up by me. At