[Illustration: VIEW IN BERLIN: THE PALACE BRIDGE AND PLEASURE GARDEN.] the Army. But Hungary and Venetia had still to be held down by the sword. The Queen, however much she might regret the contest between the Crown and the nation in Prussia, did not view it with the scornful levity that was fashionable at the time in England. She knew that the carrying out of the military policy of Prussia was the condition precedent to the incorporation of North Germany under Prussian leadership. She was well aware that when the Bernstorff Ministry fell, Count von Bismarck, Prussian Minister at Paris, would become President of the Council, and she knew what purpose he had in view. Von Bismarck had, in fact, visited London in July, 1862, and he had conversed freely and frankly with the leaders of both parties. At a dinner party given by Baron Brunnow in his honour, he revealed his plans to Mr. Disraeli, who on the same evening repeated the conversation to Count Vitzthum. “‘I shall soon,’ said in effect the Prussian statesman, ‘be compelled to undertake the conduct of the Prussian Government. My first care will be to reorganise the Army, with or without the help of the Landtag. The King was right in undertaking this task, but he cannot accomplish it with his present advisers. As soon as the Army shall have been brought into such a condition as to inspire respect, I shall seize the first best pretext to declare war against Austria, dissolve the German Diet, subdue the minor States, and give national unity to Germany under Prussian leadership. I have come here to say this to the Queen’s Ministers.’”[133] Count Vitzthum adds that Mr. Disraeli’s commentary was, “Take care of that man! he means what he says.” On the other hand, the late Lord Ampthill--who was present at the dinner--told Mr. Lowe, the biographer of Prince Bismarck,[134] that Mr. Disraeli described the Bismarckian policy as the “mere moonshine of a German Baron.”[135] The Landtag refused to sanction an increase in the Army, for which it saw no obvious use. The King could not publicly avow why the increase was wanted. The Cabinet confessed itself helpless in the dilemma, whereupon the King telegraphed for Count von Bismarck, who was holiday-making in the Pyrenees, to come to Berlin. He arrived there on the 19th of September. On the 23rd, after seven days’ debate, the Chamber refused to vote the Army Estimates and the Ministry resigned. The King’s retort was the appointment as Prime Minister of the man, whose policy was that of “blood and iron.” From that moment the history of Continental Europe took a fresh departure, which was watched by the Queen with anxious eyes. Like the Prince Consort, her sympathies were with the new Prussian policy. Only, she would have endeavoured to attain Von Bismarck’s ends without using his methods. That the Bismarckian methods were adopted in less than a year after the Prince Consort’s death, only serves to