This situation convinced Bismarck that the first duty of a Prussian statesman is to strengthen the army, "that the King's opinions can be upheld at home; likewise backed by the mailed fist, Prussian authority will be respected abroad." ¶ "My idea," he says in his Memoirs, "was that we ought to prepare for war, but at the same time to send an ultimatum to Austria, either to accept our conditions in the German question, or to look out for our attack." * * * * * ¶ Thus out of the Revolution of 1848, Prussia emerged with a written Constitution, establishing a legislative assembly and giving the people a share in their government. ¶ Bismarck's inconsistencies? Yes, by the score, but he was playing a deep game of politics, for his King, and for his beloved German Unity. Always, you must understand that Bismarck scorned the political Millennium alleged to have been brought in by the French Revolution; with the political ideas from over the Vosges Bismarck would have nothing to do. That old war-cry "the people" made him sick! He believed in discipline and not in mob-rule. But he would not rush unprepared into the war. ¶ It is a fact that, in 1850, Prussia had cause for war far more just than that on which she seized in 1866. But Bismarck made his famous anti-war speech! ¶ "Woe to the statesman who does not look about for a reason for the war that will be valid, when the war is over!" were his astonishing sentiments. ¶ What he really meant was that Prussia was not just then ready to fight; hence, he painted war as detestable; later on, however, we shall see how he looks upon war, when Prussia is ready! ¶ Prussia, through her political endorsement of the people (1850) did not suddenly become a Parliamentary state, despite William's new Constitution. Broad privileges were granted, but Prussia remained an absolute monarchy. While there was henceforth to be a certain restricted cooperation between Crown and Crowd, the Divine-right theory that had come down through the ages was not weakened or its authority compromised; in short, by conciliating certain hostile popular elements, led by fire-breathing first-cousins of the French Revolutionists, a large part of the hated Liberal programme was done away with, in turn consolidating the power of the Prussian kings. ¶ This situation also defines the political evolution essential before Germany could become a Nation. Despite various historians, Germany could not at this hour have proclaimed herself a Republic.