'Ten Years at tne Court or Sr. Jaxes' 1 Baron von—_Eckardstein. Translated and edited by Prof. George Young, Thornton Butterworth, London.
"He is over six foot, can drink without getting drunk and is} otherwise suitable, so we'll make a diplomat of him," said Bismarck of Baron von Eckardstein, the author of these most interesting memoirs. Like most of his caste—von Eckardstein came of an old Silesian family—he entered the army at the age of 20, in a cavalry regiment, but nature quite clearly; designed him for a diplomatist, as these pages prove again and again. and Bismarck showed his usual unerring instinct in causing him to; be seconded to the Foreign Office. Von Eckardstein entered the Diplo~ matic Service in 1888, served in Washington and Madrid and in 1891 came to London where, with: one or two short intervals, he remained til] 1905. His chief, Count von Hatzfelt, sufferd from continual ill-health and as his No. 2 von Eckardstein was really the Am. bassador for many years. He m ried the daughter of the late Sir Blundell Maple, was on the friend-hest terms with King Edward andj an intimate of Chamberlain, the Duke of Devonshire, Rothschild and indeed every interesting and important personage of the late! 19th and carly 2th centuries.
Plenty of: books of memoirs, full, of "good stories'' such as abound in this volume, are published nowadays. But the special value of Baron von Eckardstein's recolleetions is the proof they afford that the old, kindly Germany, so often} contrasted with the Deutschland riber Alles," was not a dream, bu really existed, and that the aristo-} cratic families of Germany are; not all violent Anglophobes.
Aut-Hieuest MArGrnatla. i The dividing line between old} and new could be drawn sharply at the dismissal of Bismarck. Thereafter William IT was sur. rounded by creatures who toadied to him, ministered to his vanity and played upon his windy conceit for; their own ends. The old Ambas-; sadors abroad like Count Munster, who dubbed the new i strasser ''the Central—_Caitla Market," were disgusted at. th freedom allowed to Ministers! abroad to send to Berlin long criticisms on countries to which; they were not accredited. Says; the author Equally needless to say, the line they took was generally that known to ye followed by Wilhelm IL; and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.