No. 147.
Mr. Taylor
to Mr. Evarts.
Berlin, June 5, 1878. (Received June 20.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that your telegram of the 3d instant reached here about midnight, but was not delivered to me until early yesterday morning.
I lost no time in forwarding the congratulations of the President and the American people to his Majesty the Emperor, through his excellency Mr. von Bülow, minister of foreign affairs, and shall send the official acknowledgment by ocean cable as soon as received.
I regret to be obliged to report that the Emperor’s condition, although the bulletins issued by his physicians are meant to be reassuring to the people, is such as to inspire considerable solicitude. The government policy of preserving silence tends, in this instance, to increase the feeling of apprehension, because such fragments of the truth as inevitably percolate through the official stratum surrounding the imperial court are likely to be magnified and misinterpreted. It is generally understood to-day that the temporary regency of the Crown Prince was determined upon at a late hour last night.
This circumstance, of itself, would not be disquieting; but the fact that it has not yet been proclaimed, lead the public to conjecture other than the clear and obvious reasons for such a step.
The connection of the criminal with the social-democratic movement, now fully established, gives rise to rumors of a widespread conspiracy; [Page 215] and thus even the more intelligent classes of the people are not free from grave fears of coming political struggles.
I called at the ministry of foreign affairs to-day in the hope of obtaining a definite answer to the invitation of the United States in regard to an international monetary convention, but Mr. von Büllow begged to be excused from receiving me on the ground that he was unable to see any one at the time. Prince Bismarck arrived yesterday, and his presence gives weight to the report of the regency of the Crown Prince. The congress of the powers, for the discussion of the treaty of San Stefano, which meets here on the 13th instant, adds further probability to the report.
From all I can learn up to the present moment, the Emperor is in no immediate danger, yet his great age, and the nervous and moral shock he has undergone, invest his condition with some uncertainty. The physiognomy of the city to-day is both gloomy and restless.
I have, &c.,