nscription was turned into a
proscription.' The lot was made to fall on all political suspects, who
were to be condemned for life to follow the hated Russian flag. The
result was not merely armed resistance, but civil war. Poland, in her
struggle for liberty, was joined by Lithuania; but Prussia came to the
help of the Czar, and the protests of England, France, and Austria were
of no avail. Before the year ended the dreams of self-government in
Poland, after months of bloodshed and cruelty, were again ruthlessly
dispelled.

[Sidenote: BISMARCK SHOWS HIS HAND]

One diplomatic difficulty followed another in quick succession. Bismarck
was beginning to move the pawns on the chess-board of Europe. He had
conciliated Russia by taking sides with her against the Poles in spite
of the attitude of London, Paris, and Vienna. He feared the spirit of
insurrection would spread to the Poles in Prussia, and had no sympathy
with the aspirations of oppressed nationalities. His policy was to make
Prussia strong--if need be by 'blood and iron'--so that she might become
mistress of Germany. The death of Frederick VII. of Denmark provoked a
fresh crisis and revived in an acute form the question of succession to
the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. The Treaty of London in 1852 was
supposed to have settled the question, and its terms had been accepted
by Austria and Prussia. The integrity of Denmark was recognised, and
Prince Christian of Glucksburg was accepted as heir-presumptive of the
reigning king. The German Diet did not regard this arrangement as
binding, and the feeling in the duchies themselves, especially in
Holstein, was against the claims of Denmark. But the Hereditary Prince
Frederick of Augustenburg disputed the right of Christian IX. to the
Duchies, and Bismarck induced Austria to join Prussia in the occupation
of the disputed territory.

It is impossible to enter here into the merits of the quarrel, much less
to describe the course of the struggle or the complicated diplomatic
negotiations which grew out of it. Denmark undoubtedly imagined that the
energetic protest of the English Government against her dismemberment
would not end in mere words. The language used by both Lord Palmerston
and Lord John Russell was of a kind to encourage the idea of the
adoption, in the last extremity, of another policy than that of
non-intervention. Bismarck, on the other hand, it has been said with
truth, had taken up the cause of Schleswig-H