career was one of active service, and wherever there was a perilous campaign Havelock was certain to be at the front. He had even something to do with campaigns in which England had no share; for during the war between France and Germany, and that between Russia and Servia, he acted as occasional correspondent for English newspapers. In 1874, during a pause in his active military career, he became a candidate for a seat in the House of Commons, and was elected as representative of Sunderland as an advanced Liberal. Then came another interval of military service, after which he returned to political life, obtained once more a seat in the House of Commons, and became a Liberal-Unionist. Returning more lately to India, he met, as we have said, his deathwound in the passes of the Khaibar. He had assumed in 1880, by a royal license, the name of Allan in addition to his own patronymic, in accordance with the wish expressed in the will of a near relative. It may be added here, although it has already been told in a former volume of this History, that he was the first who bore the title. of Sir Henry Havelock. The title had been already ordered for his illustrious father, but the message from the Queen which conveyed it only reached its destination when the man for whom it was destined was lying dead. "Like father, like son," might well be set forth as a brief description of the two men.

CHAPTER XI

THE DEATH-ROLL OF 1898

THE death of Prince Bismarck was not an event belonging in the strict sense to the history of England; but it was none the less one which made a profound impression on the people of England, as well as on every other civilized people in the world. For this reason I record it first in the death-roll of this chapter. Prince Bismarck had, indeed, played so commanding, and in some instances so reconstructing, a part in the history of Europe that his death may be regarded as an event belonging to the history of every European country. When the death of the great Prussian statesman, which followed soon after Gladstone's, was known in London, a member of the House of Commons observed, somewhat irreverently but quite correctly, that the death of Bismarck was the only event to be recorded in an obituary which would not have seemed an anti-climax after the death of Gladstone. Bismarck had made greater changes in the political and national affairs of Europe, or at least of the European Continent, than any other man had done since the days of the great Napoleon. There was this difference between the changes accomplished by the two men, that while the work of Napoleon was for its time more widespread and more varied, it was for the most part not destined to endure; while, so far as ordinary human observation can judge, much or most of Bismarck's work is destined to abide. The great Chancellor raised his

native land to a commanding position among the States of Europe. He converted Prussia, which had previously been regarded only as a well-drilled military power, capable of rendering good service as an ally in time of war, into the strongest and, on the whole, the most united State on the European Continent.

Mr. Browning has written of the man who "held up his Piedmont to the light till she suddenly smiled and was Italy." Bismarck held his Prussia up to the light till she suddenly smiled and was Germany. He was in every way a remarkable figure in political life, even if we take him altogether apart from his marvellous achievements in the development of his country. His was a physical form to attract the attention of any one who saw him for the first time; no stranger could pass Bismarck in the street without turning to look after him and wondering who he might be. Bismarck was one of the tallest among the statesmen of his day; and, although he could not be considered handsome in features, his face and head carried with them suggestions of great intellectual power. He was widely and deeply read in literature and in history, and was a careful student of English authors. He knew English thoroughly, and could speak it with fluency and accuracy. Indeed, except for his strong German accent, he might be said to speak the English language to perfection, and was not a little proud of his skill in that way. His speeches in the Prussian Parliament were often illumined by the happiest and most apposite quotations from Shakespeare, and he never introduced an over-familiar citation. He often quoted from the works of great modern English writers, such as Macaulay and John Stuart Mill. He was not an orator in the higher sense of the word, but he was a most ready, impressive, and convincing Parliamentary debater.

Bismarck was capable of strong political likings, and

also of strong dislikes. It must be said, without undue depreciation of his high qualities, that when he believed some especial policy was needed at the moment for the promotion of his country's interests, he was often quite unscrupulous as to the means by which his end was to be achieved. Louis Napoleon was understood at one time to have a poor opinion of Bismarck's capacity; but we may take it for granted that before the career of the third French Emperor had reached its close, he must have come to form a very different judgment as to the political capacity of his great opponent. Bismarck had evidently set before him one grand object, to which the whole of his strength was to be devoted, and that object was the elevation of his own country to the highest position among Continental nations. In that work he unquestionably succeeded. He found Prussia in a condition of what might almost be called actual subordination to Austria in the Germanic League, over which up to his time Austria formally presided, and he succeeded before very long in making Prussia the dominant German State, in making her the controller of Germany's destinies, in absolutely excluding Austria from any share in the new Germanic Empire. So far as the observer of passing history can forecast the future, there does not seem any probability that the German Empire, as created by Bismarck, will break up again, or will offer the slightest opportunity for any successful foreign intervention. In that sense his career, taken as a whole, may be said to have brought a promise of peace to the people for whose advancement he had worked so long. It was, indeed, a peace brought about by the most venturesome war; but there were other daring constructors of empire in his own days and in other days, whose policy only led from one war to another, and gave no promise of abiding peace as its result. Bismarck accomplished almost as

much for his own country as Washington did for the American Republic; but his methods and his political morals were very different from those which governed the unselfish and thoroughly noble career of the man who created the United States. The world seemed to pause and to hold its breath while Prince Bismarck was dying. The statesmanship of Continental Europe during the reign of Queen Victoria lost its greatest figure when Bismarck, of late somewhat divided in counsels and in companionship from the Sovereign whose Empire he had founded, ceased to be a living influence, and passed away into history. He died on July 30th.

The opening days of the year were marked by the disappearance of a memorable figure from the Parliament and the public life of England. On January 16th Charles Pelham Villiers, one of the earliest and most influential leaders of that great Free - Trade movement which was supported by Cobden and Bright, and carried into legislation by Sir Robert Peel, died at his house in London. Charles Villiers had long outlived the ordinary period of man's duration on this earth. He was ninetysix years and a few days old when he died, rather suddenly. His death was believed to have been hastened by his overtasking himself in entertaining his friends and his tenants on the occasion of his latest birthday anniversary. Charles Villiers had been known for many years as the "Father of the House of Commons"-in other words, the man who had been for the longest unbroken period a member of the representative assembly. He had retained his physical activity almost to the end, and although during his latest years he was not regular in his attendance at the House, yet, when an important division was expected, he might safely be counted on by his political friends as a voter in the lobby. Until a very short time before his death, he had been welcomed