THE CANOSSA SPEECH[1]
(1872)
Born in 1815, died in 1898; entered Prussian Landtag in 1847; Ambassador to the Frankfurt Diet in 1851; Ambassador to Russia in 1859, and to France in 1862; Prussian Prime Minister in 1862; a leader in the Schleswig-Holstein War of 1864 and the Austrian War of 1866; Chancellor of the North German Confederation in 1867, and after the war with France, of the German Empire in 1871; presided at the Berlin Congress in 1878; resigned as Chancellor in 1890.
I am glad that no motion has been introduced to cancel this item. Notwithstanding all that has come and gone, it would be inexpedient to suspend diplomatic relations with the pope. In the first place, the diplomatic representative whose salary I recommend you to grant is a public servant whose intercession may every now and then be indispensable to protect the interest of German subjects; and, secondly, which is a much more important consideration, there is no foreign sovereign except the pope—at any rate, as
- ↑ Reprinted from the report telegraphed to the London Times on the day it was delivered, the translation having been revised for this collection. This version is believed to be more interesting than the one printed subsequently, after Bismarck had revised it. The occasion of the speech was an item in the Budget, setting apart 19,350 thalers for the German embassy to the Vatican. A suggestion had been made that the embassy be abolished, because the pope had declined to receive Cardinal Prince Hohenlohe after his nomination to the embassy.
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