not
Suabia or Prussia, not Austria or Bavaria, it was the whole of Germany
wherever the German tongue was spoken. From this Bismarck deliberately
dissociated himself. "I have never heard," he said, "a Prussian soldier
singing, 'Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?'" The new flag of Germany was
to be the German tricolour, black and white and gold.

"The Prussian soldiers," cried Bismarck, "have no tricoloured
enthusiasm; among them you will find, as little as in the rest of
the Prussian people, the desire for a national regeneration; they
are contented with the name of Prussia, and proud of the name of
Prussia. These troops follow the black and white flag, not the
tricolour; under the black and white they die with joy for their
country. The tricolour they have learnt since the 18th of March
to look on as the colours of their foes."

These words aroused intense indignation. One of the speakers who
followed referred to him as the Prodigal Son of the German Fatherland,
who had deserted his father's house. Bismarck repudiated the epithet. "I
am not a prodigal son," he said; "my father's house is Prussia and I
have never left it." He could not more clearly repudiate the title
German. The others were moved by enthusiasm for an idea, he by loyalty
to an existing State.

Nothing was sound, he said, in Germany, except the old Prussian
institutions.

"What has preserved us is that which is specifically Prussian. It
was the remnant of the _Stock-Preussenthum_ which has survived
the Revolution, the Prussian army, the Prussian treasure, the
fruits of many years of intelligent Prussian administration, and
the living co-operation between King and people. It was the
attachment of the Prussian people to their hereditary dynasty,
the old Prussian virtues of honour, loyalty, obedience, and the
courage which, emanating from the officers who form its bone and
marrow, permeates the army down to the youngest recruit."

He reminded the House how the Assembly at Frankfort had only been saved
from the insurgent mob by a Prussian regiment, and now it was proposed
to weaken and destroy all these Prussian institutions in order to change
them into a democratic Germany. He was asked to assent to a Constitution
in which the Prussian Government would sink to the level of a provincial
council, under the guidance of an Imperial Ministry which itself would
be dependent on a Parliament in which the Prussian interests wou