Vincke was a strong Liberal, but in the English rather than the Prussian sense; his constant theme was the rule of law; he had studied English history, for at that time all Liberals prepared themselves for their part by reading Hallam or Guizot and Dahlmann; he knew all about Pym and Hampden, and wished to imitate them.  The English Parliament had won its power by means of a Petition of Right and a Bill of Rights; he wished they should do the same in Prussia; it escaped him that the English could appeal to charters and ancient privileges, but that in Prussia the absolute power of the King was the undisputed basis on which the whole State had been built up, and that every law to which they owed their liberty or their property derived its validity from the simple proclamation of the King.

Bismarck, if he had read less, understood better the characteristics of England, probably because he knew better the conditions of his own country.  He rose to protest against these parallels with England; Prussia had its own problems which must be settled in its own way.

“Parallels with foreign countries have always something disagreeable....  At the Revolution, the English people were in a very different condition from that of Prussia to-day; after a century of revolution and civil war, it was in a position to be able to give away a crown and add conditions which William of Orange accepted.  On the other hand, we are in possession of a crown whose rights were actually unlimited, a crown held by the grace not of the people but of God, and which of its own free-will has given away to the people a portion of its rights—­an example rare in history.”

It shows how strong upon him was the influence of his friends in Pomerania that his longest and most important speech was in defence of the Christian monarchy.  The occasion was a proposal to increase the privileges of the Jews.  He said: 

“I am no enemy of the Jews; if they become my enemies I will forgive them.  Under certain circumstances I love them; I am ready to grant them all rights but that of holding the magisterial office in a Christian State.  This they now claim; they demand to become Landrath, General, Minister, yes even, under circumstances, Minister of Religion and Education.  I allow that I am full of prejudices, which, as I have said, I have sucked in with my mother’s milk; I cannot argue them away; for if I think of a Jew face to face with me as a representative of the King’s sacred Majesty, and I have to obey him, I must confess that I should feel myself deeply broken and depressed; the sincere self-respect with which I now attempt to fulfil my duties towards the State would leave me.  I share these feelings with the mass of the lower strata of the people, and I am not ashamed of their society.”

And then he spoke of the Christian State: