VII.

MA SŒUR,—_Je t’écris pour t’annoncer_ that I shall be with you at Angermünde at the latest by the 3d March, if you do not write to me before that you will not have me. I think then, after I have enjoyed a sight of you for three or four days, to carry off your husband to attend a meeting of the Society for the Improvement of the Working Classes, on the 7th March, at Potsdam. My journey, previously intended, has been delayed by all sorts of Dyke suits, and Game cases, so that I shall leave here by the 28th at earliest. I am to be invested here with the important office of Dyke Captain, and I have also considerable chance of being elected to the Saxon (not the Dresden) Diet. The acceptance of the first office would be decisive as to the settlement of my residence—that is, here! There is no salary, but the administration of the position is of importance to Schönhausen and the other estates, inasmuch as it very much depends upon this whether we may occasionally get under water again or no. On the other hand, my friend ——, who is determined to send me to East Prussia, pushes me hard to accept the office there of H. M. Commissioner for Improvements. Bernhard urges me, contrary to my expectation, to go to Prussia. I should like to know what he thinks himself about it. He declares that by taste and education I am made for Government service, and must enter it, sooner or later. Greet Oscar, Detlev, Miss ——, and the other children heartily, from your devoted brother,

BISMARCK.

Schönhausen, 25th February, 1846.

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