The Comedy & Tragedy of the Second Empire / Paris Society in the Sixties; Including Letters of Napoleon III., M. Pietri, and Comte de la Chapelle, and Portraits of the Period

by Edward Legge

IV.

Paris,
December 27, 1867.

My dear Stoffel,

Your two letters greatly interested me. What you tell me of the state of opinion and the ideas of the Prussians does not surprise me. I have always been among those who think that we are detested on the other side of the Rhine, and it has not been necessary for me to read the journals and pamphlets published in Germany. Although the German pamphlets are ... little read in France, we hear a long, dull buzz much resembling hostile clamours.... I believe we shall not seek vain pretexts to make war; but if we are obliged to make it, we shall not have a moment’s hesitation....

I read to the Emperor the greater part of your opinions on the feelings of the Prussians towards us....