Nor were these the only preparations. Those who are interested in modern German history will well remember that practically every book relating to Bismarck's career emphasises time and again the use he made of all sections of the Press, independently of party and even of country. His agents, even before the war with Austria in 1866, and, of course, for long afterwards, were at all times endeavouring to bribe, cajole, or persuade newspaper editors in Germany, Russia, Italy, France, England, America and even Turkey and the Balkan States, to insert this or that article or paragraph, tending to assist in some way the achievement of the aims for the time being of the Monarch's most trusted adviser. Bismarck carried this employment of the Press to a very high degree of perfection; and readers of Busch's anecdotes in particular will recollect how often the unfortunate amanuensis was scolded for not writing what he had been told to write in the manner of the particular paper for which his article was intended. This was one of the most useful diplomatic and political legacies bequeathed by the great Chancellor to the Germany of our own generation, and it is hardly necessary to add that both before and during the present war full advantage has been taken of it. It is no exaggeration whatever to say that in every country of importance throughout the world the most strenuous endeavours were made by the German Press agents to disseminate Germany's point of view--to show at the beginning that both Germany and Austria, particularly Germany, were two innocent but ill-used countries which were reluctantly compelled to go to war with their powerful neighbours, as, if they had remained inactive a day longer, they would have risked their very existence as independent States; and to show later on that, with the help of Providence, the German armies were winning remarkable victories all along the line. Indeed, if we were to believe the German Press Bureau, the mere fact that the Fatherland had entered the lists was sufficient to cause panic among her enemies. Before the campaign had been in progress three days, the world was solemnly informed from German sources that a revolution had broken out in Paris, and that the President had fled from the city; that a similar revolution was breaking out in Russia, and that the Tsar's throne was in danger; and that the British Expeditionary Force could not be landed in France as the Channel was held by German warships and submarines. Subsequently we were told that Lord Kitchener's appeal for half a million men had utterly failed; that the British Fleet dare not venture to leave the coast on account of German warships and German mines, and that innumerable British merchantmen had been captured or sunk by German cruisers in the Atlantic, in the Pacific, and in the Mediterranean.