FRANCE. 



331 



].K, that its interests were my interests, 

 un<l that I (l.-trM, ,1 t-i|iiully with tin-in thoM- l 



. \\ i,i. h it i. iiotv fought i" inako the sole basis 

 I thank .Mm lor the senti- 



ments you bare expressed toward me. Among you 

 : .-ulv, for it is among the working tiopula- 

 t.i'wn and country that 1 find the real 



ri.n.stnii-tioii gi-norally put ii|i.in this 

 speech was, that the emperor was preparing for 



I iir. 



On May '_'4th, Franco, in common with Eng- 



land and Russia, issued a circular to the Gov- 



>i' Austria, Prussia, and Italy, invit- 



ing t licin to a peace conference, to be held iti 



: luit on June 8d, the Government de- 



: (hat in consequence of the reserve made 



by the. Austrian Government, in its reply, the 



jtsrlf had become impossible. On 



Juno llth, the emperor wrote the following 



to M. Rouher concerning the attitude to 



be observed by France in the impending Ger- 



man-Italian war: 



PALACE or THE TCILERIES, Jnno 11, 1366. 

 -IEUR I.K MIKISTRE: At a moment when all 

 I>es of peace which we were induced to enter- 

 tain from the meeting of the conference seem to have 

 vani-li.'il, it is essential to explain by a circular to 

 our diplomatic agents abroad the ideas which my 

 Government proposed to submit to the councils of 

 r.iii-"|it>, and too conduct which it proposes to adopt 

 in presence of the events in preparation. This 

 communication will show our policy in its true light. 

 If tiu- conference had taken place, your language, as 

 YOU know, was to have been expbcit j you were to 

 have declared in my name that I repudiated any idea 

 of territorial aggrandizement, so long as the Eu- 

 ropean equilibrium should not be broken. In fact, 

 we could only think of an extension of our frontiers 

 in case of the map of Europe being modified for the 

 exclusive benefit of a great power, and also in the 

 case of the frontier provinces asking by their votes, 

 freely expressed, to be annexed to France. Exclud- 

 ing such circumstances, I think it more worthy of 

 untry to prefer to acquisitions of territory the 

 us advantage of living on good terms with our 

 m-iirhbors, while respecting their independence and 

 their nationality. Animated by these sentiments, 

 and having only in view the maintenance of peace, I 

 made an appeal to Russia and England to address 

 words of conciliation to the parties interested. The 

 accord established between the neutral powers will 

 yet remain in itself a pledge for the security of Eu- 

 i "!'<;. They proved their high impartiality in taking 

 solution to confine the discussion in the con- 

 to pending questions. In order to solve these 

 questions, I believe they must be frankly met, strip- 

 ped of the diplomatic veil which covered them, and 

 taking into serious consideration the legitimate de- 

 sires of sovereigns and peoples. The present conflict 

 has three causes the geographical situation of Prus- 

 sia being ill defined ; the wishes of Germany de- 

 manding a political reconstitution more conformable 

 to its general necessities; the necessity for Italy to 

 assure its national independence. The neutral pow- 

 ers could not desire to mix themselves up in the in- 

 ternal afliiirs of other countries. Nevertheless the 

 courts which participated in the constituent acts of 

 the Germanic confederation, bad the right to examine 

 whether the changes called for were not of a nature to 

 compromise the established order of Europe. As far 

 as concerns ourselves we should have desired for the 

 secondary states of the confederation a more intimate 

 union, a more powerful organization, a more impor- 

 tant part to play ; for Prussia, more homogeneity and 

 strength to the north ; for Austria, the maintenance 



of her great position in Germany. We should 

 moreover have been glad to see Austria cede Veuice 

 to Italy for an equitable compensation ; for since, 

 in concert with Prussia, and making no account of 

 the treaty of 1852, she made war upon Denmark in 

 the name of German nationality, it appeared to me 

 just that she should recognize the same principle in 

 Italy by completing the independence of the penin- 

 sula. Such are the ideas which in the interest of the 

 repose of Europe we should have endeavored to ad- 

 \ .iin-c. To-day it is to be feared that the fate of arms 

 can alone decide the questions. In the face of these 

 eventualities, what is the attitude of France 1 Should 

 we manifest our displeasure because Germany finds 

 the treaties of 1815 impotent to satisfy her national 

 tendencies and maintain her tranquillity? In the 

 war which is on the point of breaking out we have 

 but two interests, the maintenance of tbc balance of 

 power in Europe, and the maintenance of the work 

 to which we contributed in Italy. But is not the 

 moral force of France sufficient for the protection of 

 these two interests ? Will she be obliged to draw 

 the sword to make her voice heard ? I think not. If, 

 notwithstanding our efforts, the hopes of peace be 

 not realized, we have at least the assurance, from 

 the declarations made by the courts engaged in the 

 conflict, that, whatever be the results of the war, 

 none of the questions in which we are interested will 

 be settled without the concurrence of France. Let 

 us maintain, then, a watchful neutrality, and, strong 

 in our disinterestedness, animated by the sincere de- 

 sire to see the nations of Europe forget their quar- 

 rels, and unite for the advancement of civilization, 

 liberty, and progress, let us wait, confident in our 

 right and calm in our strength. 



Hereupon, Monsieur le Ministre, I pray God to 

 have you in His holy keeping. 



After the agreement upon the preliminaries 

 of peace between Austria and Prussia, the 

 French Government opened negotiations at 

 Berlin, asking the cession of a part of the Rhine 

 provinces to France, in view of the considerable 

 aggrandizement of Prussia. No official ac- 

 count of those negotiations had been published 

 at the end of the year 1866, but the semi-offi- 

 cial NorddentscTie Allgemeine Zietung, of Au- 

 gust llth, contained an article upon the French 

 demand, " by which," it said, " hopes have been 

 raised in France which must be designated as 

 impossible of fulfilment on the part of Ger- 

 many." "It is difficult," continued the same 

 journal, "to explain the motives for this ab- 

 surd demand, except by concluding that a total 

 revolution has taken place in the policy of 

 France. Changes in Germany are not ques- 

 tions of an international but purely of a na- 

 tional character, conveying no menace to 

 France, but calculated, on the contrary, to be 

 favorable to the sphere of action of that Power, 

 as by the withdrawal of Austria from the Ger- 

 manic Confederation, the dimensions of Ger- 

 many will become considerably narrowed. 

 France cannot possibly look upon changes in 

 the territorial constitution of Germany as a 

 source of danger to her. This thought will 

 assuredly have weight with the French peo- 

 plo." A Paris dispatch of August 16th, stated 

 that on that day the emperor received in pri- 

 vate audience the Prussian ambassador at Paris, 

 \vlio delivered to the emperor the reply of the 

 Prussian Cabinet to the French note expressing 

 a wi.-h for the rectification of the French fron- 



