THE AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR

In the circumstances it is scarcely possible to suppose
that the Austrian ministers were unaware of Bis-
marck's openly declared intentions. And yet, within
a very few months, Austria was actually in alliance
with Prussia, and combining with her to dismember
Denmark, to flout the Diet of the Confederation,
and to alienate Great Britain and France. Such
imbecility can be accounted for only on the assump-
tion—which seems to be confirmed by the events
of A.D. 1933-39—that if a prominent politician wishes
to deceive his enemies most completely, his best
course is to tell the truth. Bismarck was out to do
precisely what he told Disraeli at Baron Brunnow's
reception in 1862 that he intended to do.

HI
The seizure of Schleswig and Holstein by Prussia
and Austria in 1864 was rightly regarded by European
opinion as 'an act of high-handed violence and
spoliation which the judgment of history will class
as only secondary to the partition of Poland/ of
which the same two predatory Germanic powers had
been guilty.* Bismarck, however, was supremely
indifferent both to contemporary public opinion
and to the judgment of history. He despised the
proletariat, hated democracy, loathed the loquacious
* Sir A. Malet, The Overthrow of the Germanic Confederation by
Prussia, p. 29.
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