We must always remember how much he owed to representative assemblies.

Had the Estates General never been summoned, had the Revolution never taken place, he would probably have passed his life as a country gentleman, often discontented with the Government of the country but entirely without influence.

He owed to Parliament his personal reputation, but he owed to it something more than that.

Up to 1847 the only public career open to a Prussian subject was the Civil Service; it was from them that not only the subordinate officials but the Ministers of the State were selected.

Now we have seen that Bismarck had tried the Civil Service and deliberately retired from it.