Prince Bismarck and Jus Policy. 



105 



acceptance King William had taken from Napoleon all 

 pretence for war; but the French ruler, lulled into se- 

 curity by General Leboef's readiness, ordered a throne for 

 a triumphal entry into Paris, including all requisite deco- 

 rations, laid dut the programme for the march to Notre 

 Dame to listen to the TeDeum, and — declared war against 

 Prussia. 



" The reasons assigned for this war were so flippant, 

 the insults at Ems so coarse, that Germany, from the Alps 

 to the Baltic, rushed to arms. King Ludwig of Bavaria, 

 in his despatch to King William, July 15th, gave the 

 parole to Southern Germany : " We shall go with you 

 against the common enemy." 



Three days after the adjournment of the North German 

 parliament, which had accepted France's challenge, the 

 dogma of infallibility was proclaimed at Rome. Its voice 

 was drowned amidst the military march of the German 

 hosts towards the Ehine. 



After the battles of Weissenburg, Woerth and Saar-- 

 briicken, Bismarck published the confidential communica- 

 tion of Beneditti's, of Aug. 5th, 1866. 



The results of the Franco-Prussian war are too fresh in 

 our minds to engage our further attention. 



After the battle of Sedan, Bismarck, in a circular des- 

 patch, dated Sept. 16th, says : 



" It will be necessary for Germany, in order to secure 

 peace for the future, to make France less able to attack 

 us ; the open borders of South Germany must be protected 

 and those fortresses which have been the starting point of 

 all French invasions, must be brought into our possession." 



On December 3, 1870, King Ludwig of Bavaria an- 

 nounced in Versailles " that the time had come, when all 

 Germany was ready to confer the old imperial crown upon 

 him, at whose side they were fighting for Germany's honor, 

 and on the 18th of the same month King William received 

 the imperial delegation of the North German parliament. 



Trams, ix.'} 14 



