¶ Meantime, the King was in truth a sort of broken reed, stirred by every blast that swept from the "White Saloon." ¶ Fr: Wm. IV was a "Hamlet-hesitating monarch," who had it not been for the burly giant Bismarck would have been swept into oblivion by the first whiff of gunpowder. A stickler for religious dogma, the pietists adored him, but the classes despised him; he was one of those men who discuss trifles with elegant ease, but who have no conception of what is behind this present widespread demand for a constitution. This King Fr.: Wm. IV lived in a mystic mediæval dreamland; he restored the cathedral of Cologne; sent a missionary band to spread his beloved Lutheran doctrines to the Chinese, and established a Protestant bishop at Jerusalem. The political literature of the time is overwhelmingly against William. He did not understand the drift of events. Without Bismarck, the King's head would soon have rolled into the basket! 26 Bellowing his defiance, though the Liberals bring the rope--The new man explains his novel position, not as a politician but as a Prussian in deadly earnest--The Jew, and time's revenge. ¶ There were three sessions of the Baby Parliament, and Bismarck was soon looked upon as the conservative leader. Perhaps conservative is not the word; reactionary would be closer. There was no Conservative party, nor a Liberal party for that matter. The obstinate fight with Bismarck was not because he wished to prevent the common people from having a share in their Prussian government, but because the change, if ever it came, would set up a peculiar type of Prussian government; a state-government, as it were, as against the old-time liege-lord master-and-servant conception of Hohenzollern "Divine-right" policy. ¶ The very word "people" threw Herr Bismarck into hysterical frenzy! He determined upon resisting the heresy with all the virile courage of his colossal bulk. It had been his duty, as Elbe dyke-captain, to protect his country against torrential waters; now he would do similar service against the rising floods of revolution. He set up the historical agreement that the edifice of Prussia, under an aristocratic form of rulership, was firmer toward foreign foes, firmer than was possible under the leader rule of the people. ¶ A conservative deputy from Pomerania, addressing the administration member for West Havelland, said: "We have conquered!" ¶ "Not so!" replied Bismarck, coolly. "We have not conquered, but we have made an attack, which is the principal thing. Victory is yet to come, but it will take years!" ¶ These words accurately convey the nature of the situation. Bismarck was master of short phrases in which complex situations are summed up. * * * * *