"If it were not so, I could not, nor could my successor, bear the responsibility ('Bravo!' on the Right and National Liberals). "For the fault which occurred in dealing with the manuscript I accept, as I have caused to be said in the _Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung_, entire responsibility. It also goes against my personal feelings that officials who have done their duty all their lives should be stamped as transgressors because, in a single case, they relied too much on the fact that I usually read and finally decide everything myself. "With Herr von Heydebrand I regret that in the mechanism of the Foreign Office, which for eleven years has worked smoothly under me, a defect should on one occasion occur. I will answer for it that such a thing does not happen again, and that with this object, without respect to persons, though also without injustice, what is needful will be done ('Bravo!'). "When the article in the _Daily Telegraph_ appeared, its fateful effect could not for a moment be doubtful to me, and I handed in my resignation. This decision was unavoidable, and was not difficult to come to. The most serious and most difficult decision which I ever took in my political life was, in obedience to the Kaiser's wish, to remain in office. I brought myself to this decision only because I saw in it a command of my political duty, precisely in the time of trouble, to continue to serve his Majesty the Kaiser and the country (repeated 'Bravo!'). How long that will be possible for me, I cannot say. "Let me say one thing more: at a moment when the fact that in the world much is once again changing requires serious attention to be given to the entire situation, wherever it is matter of concern to maintain our position abroad, and without pushing ourselves forward with quiet constancy to make good our interests--at such a moment we ought not to show ourselves small-spirited in foreign eyes, nor make out of a misfortune a catastrophe. I will refrain from all criticism of the exaggerations we have lived through during these last days. The harm is--as calm reflection will show--not so great that it cannot with circumspection be made good. Certainly no one should forget the warning which the events of these days has given us ('Bravo!')--but there is no reason to lose our heads and awake in our opponents the hope that the Empire, inwardly or outwardly, is maimed. "It is for the chosen representatives of the nation to exhibit the prudence which the time demands. I do not say it for myself, I say it for the country: the support required for this is no favour, it is a duty which this honourable House will not evade (loud applause on the Right, hisses from the Socialists)."