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malizia, fa piuttosto per una certa naturalezza." Wie ich die Veröffentlichungdes Kaiserbriefs an Franz Josef I. während meiner Amtszeit verhinderte,so habe ich auch den Brief des Kaisers an seine Mutter seinerzeit nicht ver-breitet, lasse ihn aber nachstehend folgen, da er nur noch historisches Inter-esse hat, für die geschichtliche Wahrheit aber ein wertvolles Dokument ist:
*„Most beloved Mama,
Your kind letter respecting the publishing of Prince Bismarck's ,Remi-niscenses' reached me yesterday on my arrival in this lonely and lovelyspot on the frontier! I fully agree with your judgement of the worth, thetenor and of the intentions which moved this man Busch to issue them. Tous they bring nothing new. To the B.'s ,Clique ä tout prix' they seem aviolation of the saintety of their mostcherishedidol, andtherefore — thoughthey know perfectly well, that it is all piain truth — they kick up a row andtry to disown them! But to the more sober part ot the Germans, even ofPrince Bismarcks friends and admirers — these revelations will be an,eyopener' and they will be deeply mortified, though they will not show it,and understand many things which tili now perhaps remained more or lessa riddle to them; and they will quietly recant! Busch himself has been bestcharacterized by his namesake Wilhelm Busch , who once published a littlepoetical pasquill about the once famous book. ,B und seine Leute', wherehe recites:
,Manchmal liest der Mensch bisweilenIn den Büchern ein'ge ZeilenUnd spricht ohne SchmeicheleiFür den Autor schon: Ei! Ei!Aber was will das bedeutenGegen ,B's seine Leuten',Wo uns wie mit Fäusten packtGleich ihr angeborener Takt!'
Moritz Busch in this affair shows once more the truth of Mephisto's angrydisclaimour: ,Ich bin ein Teil von jener Kraft, die stets das Böse will undstets das Gute schafft—.' His object is the same, the late B.'s was to beglorified and admired and worshipped by the People at the expense of ourDynasty and House, which he made the good People of Germany believehe was ever ready to die for and which he had raised to the GermanImperial throne! But that is all without avail, the People will little by littlefind out all about him, and such manner of publications will only help tofurther the process of enlighting the masses. His ultimate ends are correctlystated by you, and the ways and means he adopted. But against one