388 Appendix I 



Government William withdrew his consent, not as King, but as head of the 

 Hohenzollerns, saying at the same time that if Spain still chose to elect 

 the Prince he would not as King of Prussia interfere. Nevertheless 

 France insisted on a formal disavowal of the plan by the Prussian Govern- 

 ment. Things being in this position, to the astonishment of all, Prince 

 Anthony, Leopold's father, writes to the Spanish Government withdrawing 

 his son's candidature, Leopold himself remaining silent, and the Prussian 

 Government professing not to know even where he is. In France Leopold 

 is thought to have gone incognito to Madrid, as his brother Charles in like 

 circumstances went incognito to Roumania. I have no doubt in my mind 

 that some such stroke was contemplated by Bismarck, as Usedom has often 

 told me that Prince Charles' expedition was sanctioned by the Prussian 

 Government, and that it was Bismarck's policy to raise up anti-French 

 influences in every corner of Europe, in Greece, in Italy, and in the Turkish 

 Provinces. In England it was very generally believed that Prince Anthony 

 had settled the matter, and the ' Times ' sang a Te Deum of peace, the 

 stocks rose prodigiously in London, and two days after, Sunday the 16th 

 of July, as I was sitting in the balcony after dinner in Belgrave Square 

 (number 44, my cousin Percy Wyndham's house), I heard the news 

 hawkers bawling out, ' Declaration of War.' A story had appeared in the 

 ' Times ' that morning, relating that M. Benedetti the French Ambassador 

 at Berlin had accosted King William contrary to etiquette in the Public 

 Garden at Ems, and had there again urged the claims of France, and that 

 the King turning on his heel had told his aide-de-camp to inform the 

 Ambassador that he had no more to say to him. This story has since been 

 denied, but it has been made use of both in France and Germany to inflame 

 popular passions. On Monday morning the ' Times ' announced the war, 

 and declared that the French Emperor had committed the greatest crime 

 Europe had witnessed for thirty years. The ' Times ' has since persisted 

 that the war is one of aggression on the part of France with the Rhine 

 Provinces for object, but I have never met for years past a Frenchman 

 who has not laughed at the idea of taking possession of the Rhine, or who 

 would have given a fig to annex. People expected a battle would be 

 fought at once, but ten days have passed, and no blow has been struck. 



" This morning the ' Times ' gives us a new surprise, the draft of a 

 treaty between France and Prussia (undated) in which the annexation of 

 Belgium and Luxemburg by France is agreed on if necessary by force of 

 arms. The draft has no appearance of authenticity, its style being unlike 

 that usual in treaties, and the French used is poor. Some such scheme 

 may have been talked over between the French Emperor and Bismarck, 

 soon after the late war (the war of Sadowa), but I cannot conceive its 

 having been thus put on paper. I expect the French Government to deny 

 the authenticity of the document, and perhaps ultimately they make make 

 a counter-charge against Prussia of designs on Holland. Feeling in 

 England is pretty well balanced between France and Prussia, but people 

 fail to see that France is in reality fighting for her existence. This is no 

 war of Government against Government, but of race against race, of 

 France the last of the great Latin nations against Germany. If Germany 



