No. 54.
In addition to what I have said in the various dispatches which go by the
bag to-day, I have very little to add. The Emperor left for the army
yesterday. I send you his decree conferring on the Empress the title of
Regent, which appeared in the Journal Officiel of the 27th instant.
Paris is exceedingly quiet, and there is nothing whatever in the shape of
war news.
The English and French journals which you receive at the State Department
will advise you fully in regard to all matters connected with the
alleged project of a treaty between France and Prussia. This affair has
created a great sensation in the diplomatic and other circles of Paris.
The note from the Journal Officiel on this subject which I inclose
renders it evident that a scheme of alliance between France and Prussia
was discussed at Berlin, and that some of the ideas contained in the
published project were then suggested. This matter has gone so far now
that it must be probed to the very bottom. Nothing less than the whole
truth will satisfy the public and the nations of the earth.
[Untitled]
The Journal Officiel publishes the following important decree:
“Napoleon, by the grace of God and the national will, Emperor of the
French, to all whom these presents may concern, greeting:
“Wishing to give to our well-beloved consort, the Empress, a proof of
the confidence which we have in her, and having the intention to
place ourselves at the head of the army, we have resolved to confer,
and do hereby confer, on the Empress the title of Regent, to
exercise the functions of that charge as soon as we shall have left
our capital, in conformity with our instructions and orders as we
shall have given them in the general directions of the service which
we shall have established, and which will be transcribed on the book
of state. Our intention is to communicate to our ministers the said
orders and instructions, and that in no case the Empress can depart
from their
[Page 85]
rigor, in the
exercise of her functions of Regent. We desire that the Empress
shall preside in our name over the Council of Ministers, We do not,
however, intend that the Empress-Regent shall authorize by her
signature the promulgation of any law other than those now pending
before the senate, the legislative body, and the council of state,
referring on that subject to the orders and instructions above
mentioned. We order our keeper of the seals, minister of justice and
public worship, to communicate the present letters-patent to the
senate, which will inscribe them on its books, and publish them in
the Bulletin des Lois.
“Given at the palace of the
Tuileries
this day of 23d
July, 1870.
“NAPOLEON.
[Untitled]
(Countersigned) “Emile Ollivier, “Minister of Justice.”
The Journal Officiel publishes an imperial
decree declaring the departments of the Moselle, the Haut-Rhin, and
the Bas-Rhin to be in a state of siege. A second decree calls into
active service the 90,000 men forming the contingent of the class of
1869. A third appoints a committee presided over by the Empress, and
consisting of seventeen members, among whom are the ministers of the
interior, finance, war, and marine, for distributing the patriotic
offerings made, according to the intentions of the donors. A fourth
names General of Division Canu to be aid-de-camp to the Emperor.
The Paris journals continue to remark on the draught of the treaty
published by the Times, and all, without exception, seem to think
that it merits but little attention. The Pays and Peuple Français
declare that something of the kind was formerly proposed by Count de
Bismarck to the Emperor, but emphatically set aside by the latter.
Others of our contemporaries draw attention to the fact that in the
wording the name of Prussia comes first, as is always the case with
the designation and titles of the proposing party. The
Constitutionnel expresses itself as follows:
“The Times, with a rashness of judgment unworthy of so important an
organ, affirms that the project of partition was proposed by France
to Prussia, and, starting from that assumption, it seeks to excite
public opinion in England against the Emperor Napoleon’s government.
Well, this time, the London newspaper has been badly served by its
Prussian inspirers. The veracity of the statesmen of Berlin cannot
be depended upon. For a long time they have been accustomed to tread
under foot treaties, to deny their acts and their words, if such a
course was useful to their designs, to disregard, in a word, all
good faith and straightforwardness. The French government has not to
fear the broad daylight, and it does not recoil from any species of
disclosure. Let every one know, then, that the projected Fran
co-Prussian treaty, published by the Times and other organs of Count
de Bismarck, really exists; only—and this is the essential point—it
is the work of the federal chancellor. Does not every one remember
the famous phrase of the Prussian minister, after Sadowa, when a
question arose of compensations for France: ‘Instead of speaking of
equivalents,’ he exclaimed, ‘she ought to take Belgium!’ That
expression is the point of departure of the convention by the aid of
which M. de Bismarck hoped to purchase the acquiescence of France in
the conquest of Prussia. The Emperor’s government rejected those
offers, which prove that, to the Prussian chancellor, all means were
good to obtain a sanction for his policy of violence and iniquity.
Public opinion is therefore enlightened on this project; it has had
a fresh proof of the count’s cynicism, as, at the risk of a
categorical denial, he has gone so far as to attribute to France
schemes of spoliation conceived by himself. But what does M. de
Bismarck care about denials, and what do they cost him? Did he not
also dispute the affirmation of the Duke de Gramont that, in March
1869, Count Benedetti, by order of the imperial government,
protested against the Hohenzollern candidature, and that the
Prussian ministers then pledged their honor that the affair should
not be proceeded with? Well, MM. de Bismarck and de Thile, after
having failed in their word of honor, aggravated their fault by a
contradiction, of which we immediately pointed out the ambiguous
character. The new circular of the minister for foreign affairs
completely confounds the Berlin cabinet. Doubt is no longer possible
when one has read the dispatch of M. Benedetti, dated the 31st
March, 1869; at that period Count de Bismarck had already conceived
the project the realization of which has been prevented by the manly
energy of the Duke de Gramont. The document lately issued by the
minister of foreign affairs proves also that in the phase of
negotiations which preceded the declaration of war, frankness and
correct proceedings were on the side of the imperial government, and
that subterfuges and perfidy were on that of Prussia.”
The Journal Officiel gives the subjoined explanation:
“The Times publishes a pretended treaty between France and Prussia,
having for object to facilitate the annexation to France of
Luxembourg and Belgium, on condition that she should not oppose the
union of the states of Southern Germany with the Northern
Confederation. After the treaty of Prague some negotiations did
certainly take place at Berlin between Count de Bismarck and the
French embassy on the subject of a proposed alliance. Some of the
ideas contained in the document inserted by the Times were mooted,
but the French government never had any knowledge of a plan
[Page 86]
drawn up in writing, and as
to the proposals which may have formed the subject of conversation
in those interviews they were rejected by the Emperor Napoleon. No
one will fail to see in what interest and with what object efforts
are being made to mislead public opinion in England.”
