nce before, in
1866, just before the outbreak of war, his life had been attempted by a
young man called Cohen, a native of Wurttemberg, who wished to save
Germany from a fratricidal war. In 1872 he retired from the presidency
of the Prussian ministry, but returned after a few months. On several
occasions he offered to retire, but the emperor always refused his
consent, on the last time with the word "Never." In 1877 he took a long
leave of absence for ten months. His health at this time was very bad.
In 1878 he presided over the congress of Berlin. The following years
were chiefly occupied, besides foreign affairs, which were always his
first care, with important commercial reforms, and he held at this time
also the office of Prussian minister of trade in addition to his other
posts. During this period his relations with the Reichstag were often
very unsatisfactory, and at no time did he resort so freely to
prosecutions in the law-courts in order to injure his opponents, so that
the expression _Bismarck-Beleidigung_ was invented. He was engaged at
this time in a great struggle with the Social-Democrats, whom he tried
to crush by exceptional penal laws. The death of the emperor William in
1888 made a serious difference in his position. He had been bound to him
by a long term of loyal service, which had been rewarded with equal
loyalty. For his relations to the emperors Frederick and William II.,
and for the events connected with his dismissal from office in March
1890, we must refer to the articles under those names.

After his retirement he resided at Friedrichsruh, near Hamburg, a house
on his Leuenburg estates. His criticisms of the government, given
sometimes in conversation, sometimes in the columns of the _Hamburger
Nachrichten_, caused an open breach between him and the emperor; and the
new chancellor, Count Caprivi, in a circular despatch which was
afterwards published, warned all German envoys that no real importance
must be attached to what he said. When he visited Vienna for his son's
wedding the German ambassador, Prince Reuss, was forbidden to take any
notice of him. A reconciliation was effected in 1893. In 1895 his
eightieth birthday was celebrated with great enthusiasm: the Reichstag
alone, owing to the opposition of the Clericals and the Socialists,
refused to vote an address. In 1891 he had been elected a member of the
Reichstag, but he never took his seat. He died at Friedrichsruh on the
31st of July 1