220 POLITICAL EVENTS. 



meant praise of German science, German music, and 

 German song, as well as compassionate utterances on 

 the good-natured, dreamy and unpractical Germans. 

 Now there were furious articles on the conquest- 

 seeking, the war-loving, nay, the blood-thirsty Germans ! 

 I must confess that all this gave me no annoyance, 

 but considerable pleasure. My self-respect as a German 

 rose higher with each of these expressions. The 

 Germans had for so long been only passive material 

 for the world's history. Now one might read for the 

 first time in black and white in the Times, that they 

 had of their own accord entered into its course, and 

 thereby excited the wrath of those who hitherto had 

 considered themselves alone entitled to the honour. In 

 my intercourse with Englishmen and Frenchmen during 

 the cable -layings I had often had painful occasion to be 

 convinced in what slight esteem the Germans were held 

 as a nation by other peoples. I had long political de- 

 bates, which always came to this, that the Germans had 

 neither the right nor the ability to form an independent 

 and united state of their own. "Well, what then do 

 the Germans exactly want?'' asked the highly respected 

 director- general of the French telegraphs, and former 

 companion in exile of the Emperor Napoleon, M. de 

 Vougie, after a long conversation on the reviving na- 

 tional aspirations in Germany at the close of the Franco- 

 Austrian war. - - "A united German Empire"', was my 

 answer. "And do you think," he replied, "that France 

 would suffer a state united and superior in numbers 

 to itself as next-door neighbour?'' - "No."' was my 



