It was not necessary to plead for the bill.  He was confident of the patriotism of the House; his duty was to curb the nervous anxiety which recent events had produced.  These proposals were not for war, but for peace; but they must indeed be prepared for war, for that was a danger that was never absent, and by a review of the last forty years he shewed that scarcely a single year had gone by in which there had not been the probability of a great European conflict, a war of coalitions in which all the great States of Europe would be ranged on one side or the other.  This danger was still present, it would never cease; Germany, now, as before, must always be prepared; for the strength of Germany was the security of Europe.

   “We must make greater exertions than other Powers on account of
  our geographical position.  We lie in the middle of Europe; we can
  be attacked on all sides.  God has put us in a situation in which
  our neighbours will not allow us to fall into indolence or
  apathy.  The pike in the European fish-pond prevent us from
  becoming carp.”

It was not their fault if the old alliance with Russia had broken down; the alliance with Austria still continued.  But, above all, Germany must depend on her army, and then they could look boldly into the future.  “It will calm our citizens if they think that if we are attacked on two sides we can put a million good soldiers on the frontier, and in a few weeks support them by another million.”  But let them not think that this terrible engine of war was a danger to the peace of Europe.  In words which represent a profound truth he said:  “It is just the strength at which we aim that makes us peaceful.  That sounds paradoxical, but it is so.  With the powerful engine into which we are forming the German army one undertakes no offensive war.”  In truth, when the army was the nation, what statesman was there who would venture on war unless he were attacked?  “If I were to say to you, ’We are threatened by France and Russia; it is better for us to fight at once; an offensive war is more advantageous for us,’ and ask for a credit of a hundred millions, I do not know whether you would grant it,—­I hope not.”  And he concluded:  “It is not fear which makes us lovers of peace, but the consciousness of our own strength.  We can be won by love and good-will, but by them alone; we Germans fear God and nothing else in the world, and it is the fear of God which makes us seek peace and ensue it.”

These are words which will not be forgotten so long as the German tongue is spoken.  Well will it be if they are remembered in their entirety.  They were the last message of the older generation to the new Germany which had arisen since the war; for already the shadow of death lay over the city; in the far South the Crown Prince was sinking to his grave, and but a few weeks were to pass before Bismarck stood at the bedside of the dying Emperor.  He died on March 9, 1888, a few days before his ninety-first birthday, and with him passed the support on which Bismarck’s power rested.