BEFORE THE WAR.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4488, 7 August 1875, Page 2 (Supplement)

BEFORE THE WAR.

The well-known “Vie <le C&ar,” so long nnd industriously puffed before it appeared, was part of the appareil of this curious reign. Considering that it was merely “ directed” by the Emperor, and that a number of savans were employed to collect and arrange the materials, It is surprising that some valuable result was not obtained. It is now admitted to be a very poor performance. The cost was enormous, and the printer’s bill, wo believe, has not yet been paid. Among the Imperial papers is preserved a sheaf of the extravagant and fulsome panegyrics received in return for presents of these sumptuous volumes. The German professors, it must be said, deserve the palm in this ardor of adulation. Professor Zumpt, of Berlin, considers it “ a durable monument, elevated to the greatest of the Homans, by a mind as exalted as his own.” To Professor Hitachi, a well-known philologer, was allotted the translation into Gorman. He was persuaded that Mommsen’s great history “would bo at once relegated to the second

place, by the work of a man who, while directing the destinies of the world,” &o. “In future no one will quote Niebuhr s or Mommsen’s History, but Napoleon’s, whenever they wish to understand the development of the most marvellous system, supported by the most exact quotation of authorities and the most profound learning.” As for the band of French writers and critics, they grovelled in their ecstacies.

Colonel Stoffel is popularly supposed to have been the Cassandra of the catastrophe of the Empire; but it would seem that there were not wanting plenty of prophets whose forebodings were just as earnest. Foremost amongst these was the luckless Ducrot, whose warnings were full of point and impetuosity. In 1800 he was sending almost despairing letters from the frontier. “ AVhile we talk pompously,” he wrote, “ the Germans are getting ready to fall upon us. AVith our stupid vanity and ridiculous presumption, wo fancy that we have only to choose our own time. Our Government seems to have lost its senses. There are a number of Prussian agents at work on our frontier, particularly all along the district between the Moselle and the Vosges. They are sounding the Protestants, who are not nearly so French as is supposed. This fact is a test of what the Prussians have in view.” In the same year he met Madame de Fourtaliis at Strasburg, who had just arrived from Berlin. This lady was one of the stars of the Imperial Court, and one of its blindest partisans. Yet she had returned full of alarm at all she had seen and heard. There were, indeed, prophecies of peace, but she was struck by the remarks openly made on the state of the French resources, and by the cynical confidence professed iu the coming war. “ Now, do you really suppose,” they asked her, “ that things are not hurrying to a denouement 2” They laughed openly at the state of the French forces, at the “ Mobile army,” and even at the piteous helplessness of the Emperor. A. M. Schleinitz, one of the household, ventured to prophesy that before two years Alsace would belong to Prussia. Count de Moltko had said that he wondered that the Bavarians did not see that it was their interest to join Prussia, who could do them a great deal of good or a great deal of harm. “For instance, when we shall have to dispose of Alsace, an event which is not far off, we could hand it over to Bavaria, and make a superb province on the A^osges.” <( I confess,” adds General Ducrot, ie that I live in a state of exasperation at this infatuation. I feel the rage of one who wishes to save a drowning man and encounters nothing but resistance, and, indeed, finds himself dragged in by the person he wishes to save.” Persigny during the following year wrote iu the same desponding fashion. “Of what use is it,” he said, “to devise schemes when the house is in flames, when the Empire seems crumbling in all directions 2” Prince Napoleon, too, had the same gloomy foreboding. “ AH is dark here,” he wrote to the Queen of Holland. “ Believe me, it can’t go on. lam in very low spirits. Nothing is done ; no one is listened to. They are rushing on their own rain and that of the country." An agent was indeed directed to follow De Moltke as he inspected the fortifications on the Rhine, and this was, no doubt, thought a sufficient measure of precaution. Meanwhile the blinded Emperor, his Benedetti, and his Rouher, were being “bamboozled” by Bismarck. These papers threw light on the famous draft treaty which was published during the war. Ducrot wrote in November, 1868, that a Berlin banker, Mr. B , who was also Bismarck’s man of business, had just arrived from paying a week's visit to the Minister. He sounded the General as to a meeting between the Emperor and the King, with a view to putting an end to the existing uncertain state ef things. Prussia, Bismarck declared, was sure of annexing the Southern States, and his mission was merely to wait and consolidate the work of 1866. As regards the meeting, both the King and Bismarck knew perfectly that to make the Emperor agree to such a project they must give a guarantee in writing that no actual attempt should be made to bring about a union with the South. This was duly transmitted to the Tuilleries, and helped, of course, to throw the French Court off their guard. A paper found among various projects dictated by the Emperor to his Chef de Cabinet, Conti, the Corsican, seems to be the sequel of this transaction, and the prelude to the Benedetti draft treaty. “If France,” says this damning document, “ take up the ground of nationalities, it follows that there can be no such thing as a Belgian nationality, and this essential point must be clearly accepted by Prussia. That Cabinet being inclined to make such arrangements as seem to siut France, a secret treaty should be contrived to bind both. This, of course, would not be a perfect guarantee, but it would be serviceable as committing Prussia. . . . . To secure this confidence it would be well to make a merit of removivg all apprehensions of a claim on the Rhine. AA r e should, therefore, have a treaty which should dispose of Belgium, with the consent of Prussia."—Article: “Secret Papers of the Empire,” from “ Fraser’s Magazine” for April.