¶ Some say that Bismarck was influenced by the socialist Lasalle to make concessions to the people, of a piece with the concessions which in '48 Bismarck had fought because they sprang from revolutionists; but the liberal aspects of the new Constitution served to place the great dream of German Unity on a firmer basis than would otherwise have been possible. Bismarck was learning this: To try to choke the current of public opinion is folly; the wise man, instead, aims to direct the waters to his own advantage. ¶ The North German Confederation comprised 22 states and Bismarck was made Chancellor. The Constitution was adopted February 24th, 1867. For all practical purposes, the German Empire was now a fact. ¶ But more work was still to be done, by way of bloody Gravelotte, Metz, Mar-la-Tour, St. Privat, Woerth, Spichern Heights, Sedan, and the Siege of Paris. ¶ Corpses, corpses everywhere, lying in windrows miles long! 55 The master uses the masses as the gardener utilizes manure--fertilizing the soil with blood and bones! ¶ Bismarck knows that to demand in an emphatic way is the surest way of receiving. He is always studying men, looking ahead to the time of the inevitable French war. He is asking himself, concerning various monarchs of adjacent nations, opposed to Prussia: "On which side will he be?" "Is he weak?" "Can he be relied on to stand on my side?" "Is he dangerous?" "Will he take a bribe?" "At any rate, give him what he wants--but let me do it in such a way that he thinks he is forcing us to do what he wants, whereas we know how to make him actually demand our own terms!" ¶ Thus Bismarck without histronic talent, with his piping voice and his prohibitory bulk for heroic theater-roles, is at heart the great actor-manager of his time. Instead of creating parts, he deals them out. ¶ He goes through this world during these trying times finding the best men to do his own bidding in the coming war. And when he is hissed down by those who will not acknowledge his right he breaks their power by defying them--as the hurricane scatters the clouds, nor asks permission. ¶ They say that had he lost the Austrian war, he would have gone to the gallows. Can a Man of Destiny lose? ¶ A new era is dawning. The old worn-out system for a disunited Germany of 39 jealous states is to be swept away. ¶ For thirty years he dreamed of the inevitable German Union, had his visions of that glory. He was greater than himself in those black hours before the Parliament, for four long years thundering for his side;--with public opinion flat against him, and with mutterings on part of angry mobs that would bring the rope and hang Bismarck to the highest tree. * * * * * ¶ Throughout Germany, distressed as her people had been for years past by political and social miseries, a growing consciousness of brotherhood, blood and language was at last about to be politically realized.