“The newspapers will not be satisfied, the historian may very likely condemn our Conventions; he may say, ’The stupid fellow might easily have asked for more, he would have got it, they would have had to give it him; his might was his right.’  I was more anxious that these people should go away heartily satisfied.  What is the use of treaties which men are forced to sign?  I know that they went away satisfied.  I do not wish to press them or to take full advantage of the situation.  The Convention has its defects, but it is all the stronger on account of them.”

He could afford now to be generous because in 1866 he had been so stern; he had refused to take in Bavaria when it would have weakened the association of the North; now that the nucleus had been formed he could allow the Catholic South greater freedom.  He was right; the concessions granted to Bavaria have not been in any way a danger to the Empire.

As soon as he had signed the Convention he looked into the room where his secretaries were and said:  “The work is done; the unity of Germany is completed and with it Kaiser and Reich.”  Up to this time he had taken no open steps towards the proclamation of the Empire; but it was unanimously demanded by almost the whole nation and especially by the South Germans.  But here he kept himself in the background; he refused to make it appear as though he were to make the Emperor or found the Empire.  He allowed the natural wish of the people to work itself out spontaneously.  There was indeed some reluctance to assume the title at the Prussian Court; the King himself was not anxious for a new dignity which would obscure that title which he and his ancestors had made so honourable.  This feeling was shared by many of the nobility and the officers; we find it strongest in Roon, who in this represents the genuine feeling of the older Prussian nobility.  They disliked a change which must mean that the Prussia to which they were so devotedly attached was to become merged in a greater Germany.  There was also some apprehension that with the new title the old traditions of the Prussian Court, traditions of economy, almost of parsimony, might be forgotten, and that a new career might begin in which they would attempt to imitate the extravagance and pomp of less prudent sovereigns.  With this perhaps Bismarck himself had some sympathy.

The King would, of course, only assume the new title if it was offered to him by his fellow-princes; there was some danger lest the Reichstag, which had been summoned to ratify the treaties, might ask him to assume it before the princes did; had they done so, he would probably have refused.  The Crown Prince, who was very eager for the new title, and the Grand Duke of Baden used all their influence with their fellow-princes.  The initiative must come from the King of Bavaria; he was in difficulty as to the form in which the offer should be made.  Bismarck, who throughout the