autumn, when the King's Government could not obtain the consent of the lower house to the new military organization, he was recalled to take the portfolio of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and the Presidency of the Cabinet. Not being able to pass the re-organization bill, and the budget, he closed the Chambers, October, 1862, announcing to the deputies that the King's Government would be obliged to do without their sanction. Accordingly, the army reorganization went on; and the next four sessions of Parliament were closed or dissolved in the same way, without the Government obtaining, or even caring to obtain, the sanction of the House. The people were now looking for a coup d'etat, and the Government for a revolution. At this crisis, the death of the King of Denmark opened up again the Slesvig-Holstein question, and excited a fever of national German feeling, which Bismarck was adroit enough to work, so as to aggrandize Prussia by the acquisition of the Duchies, and reconcile his opponents to his high-handed policy, by being able to point to the success of the newly-modeled army. Throughout the events which ended in the humiliation of Austria, and the re-organization of Germany under the leadership of Prussia, Bismarck was the guiding spirit; and such is the magic of success, that from being universally disliked, he has become the most popular man in Germany. What is perhaps still stranger, the man who, of all others living, has been the most strenuous upholder of absolutism, and has all along manifested the strongest contempt for public opinion, in May, 1867, received the thanks and congratulations of the extreme Democrats of Great Britain, for giving to North Germany a constitution based on universal suffrage. The war with Austria, for which Bismarck had prepared for several years, was fought against the King's inclination, yet its speedy triumph made his Minister more indispensable than ever to the Sovereign. In 1867 he was made Chancellor of the North German Confederation by the King of Prussia. From 1866 to 1870, Bismarck was preparing for the next war, which he foresaw must be with France, as a prelude to the absorption of Germany under the haughty crown of the Brandenburgs. Having succeeded in humbling France, and uniting Germany under Emperor William, he was made Chancellor of the German Empire in 1870, the title of Prince conferred upon him, and a million of thalers ($750,000) voted him by the Parliament. His recent administration of the German policy has been signalized by a contest with the Roman Catholic Church, in which the expulsion of the Jesuits (July, 1872) and the carrying out of the new ecclesiastical laws have been the most prominent events. Bismarck's personal appearance is that of a man of energy; in social life, he is genial and witty; in the discharge of his public duty, earnest and stern; he possesses a great deal of personal courage, and has shown himself cool and fearless in battle. ROBERT EMMETT. Robert Emmett, an Irish revolutionist, born in Dublin in 1780, was hanged in the same city, Sept. 20, 1803. He gained his honors at Trinity College, from which he was ultimately expelled for avowing himself a Republican. He joined the association of United Irishmen, whose object was to separate Ireland from Great Britain, and to establish an independent republic, and he was implicated in the rebellion of 1798. After the failure of this attempt, he escaped to France, returned secretly to Dublin in 1802, re-organized the malcontents, established various depots of powder and fire arms in different parts of the city, and fixed upon July 23, 1803, as the time to seize the castle and arsenals of Dublin. On the evening of that day, he directed the distribution of pikes among the assembled conspirators, to whom he delivered an animated harangue. The insurgent band, marching with cheers into the principal streets, and swelling into an immense and fur ous mob, assassinated Chief Justice Kilwarden, who was passing by in his carriage; but they hesitated to follow their enthusiastic leader to the castle, and dispersed at the first volley from a small party of soldiers. Emmett escaped to the Wicklow mountains. After the failure of the first blow he checked the other movements which had been projected, husbanding his resources in the hope of soon renewing the revolt. He might have evaded the pursuit of the government, but an attachment for Miss Curran, the daughter of the celebrated barrister, induced him to return to Dublin to bid her farewell before leaving the country. He was tracked, apprehended, tried, and convicted of high treason. He defended his own cause, delivering an address to the judge and jury of remarkable eloquence and pathos, met his fate with courage, and won general admiration for the purity and loftiness of his motives. SELF-MADE MEN "In the nation's proudest annals example is more powerful than precept, and sketches of self-made men are sure to leave their impress upon the thought of the reader, we propose in this chapter to furnish a few facts concerning some of the great and self-made men whose names adorn the historic tablets of this and other countries. In America, Franklin, Rittenhouse, Patrick Henry, Clay, Webster, Jackson, Douglas, were all the sons of poor parents. Senator Wilson, who was for a long time a shoemaker, said in one of his addresses to the people of Great Falls, N. H.: "I was born here in your county. I know what it is to ask a mother for bread when she had none to give. I left my home at ten years of age, and served an apprenticeship of eleven years, receiving a month's schooling each year, and, at the end of eleven years' hard work, a yoke of oxen and six sheep, which brought me eighty-four dollars. A dollar would cover every penny I spent from the time I was born until I was twenty-one years of age. I know what it is to travel weary miles, and ask my fellow-men to give me leave to toil. I remember that in September, 1833, I walked into your village from my native town, and went through your mills seeking employment. If anybody had offered me eight or nine dollars a month, I should have accepted it gladly. I went down to Salmon Falls, I went to Dover, I went to Newmarket, and tried to get work, without success, and I returned home weary, but not discouraged, and put my pack on my back, and walked to the town. where I now live, and learned a mechanic's trade. The first month I worked after I was twenty-one years of age, I went into the woods, drove team, cut mill-logs, and chopped wood; and though I rose in the morning before daylight, and worked hard until after dark at night, I received for it the magnificent sum of two dollars. And when I got the money, those dollars looked to me as large as the moon looks to-night." Thurlow Weed, for a long time, one of the most influential editors and politicians of the country, published recently a sketch of his early life, in which he thus speaks of his efforts at self-culture: "Many a farmer's son has found the best opportunities for mental improvement in his intervals of leisure while tending 'sap bush.' Such, at any rate, was my own experience. At night you had only to feed the kettles and keep up the fires, the sap having been gathered, and the wood cut 'before dark.' During the day we would always lay in a good stock of 'fat pine' by the light of which, blazing bright before the sugar-house, in the posture the serpent was con |