GERMAN TROOPS PASSING UNDER THE ARC DE TRIOMPHE, PARIS. (See p. [594].)
On the 19th of February the National Assembly elected a diplomatic commission of fifteen members, who were to accompany MM. Thiers and Jules Favre to Paris, and assist them in negotiating a peace. No serious intention of continuing the war was entertained by any considerable party or faction in the Assembly. On the 21st of February the French negotiators met Count Bismarck at Versailles. Thiers knew that the Germans meant to have, substantially, the terms which they demanded, and he did not waste time by idle reclamations or counter-proposals. On two points, however, his efforts achieved a certain success. Count Bismarck desired to retain Belfort, a fortress which in German hands would make France as vulnerable to attack on the upper Rhine, as the loss of Metz left her weak and vulnerable on the lower. Thiers, however, succeeded in retaining Belfort for France, purchasing the concession by consenting to the march of the German army through Paris. Again, whereas Bismarck had originally demanded six milliards (£240,000,000) as the war indemnity, Thiers with infinite exertion succeeded in reducing it to five milliards. On this second point the assistance of British diplomacy was specially invoked by the French Government. Lord Granville, at the urgent request of the Duc de Broglie, the new French Ambassador, wrote to Berlin (February 24th) the mildest, faintest, weakest representation—remonstrance it was not—that could have been made, if any was made at all, on the subject of the excessive indemnity. Before, however, the duplicate of this despatch reached Mr. Odo Russell at Versailles, Count Bismarck had already given way. The preliminaries of peace were signed on the 26th of February. By them France agreed to cede Alsace and German Lorraine, including Metz, to Germany, and to pay a war indemnity of five milliards within three years, the German army to evacuate France as the instalments were paid.
In the preliminaries of peace a convention was inserted, authorising the occupation of a definite portion of Paris by a body of German troops not exceeding 30,000 men. Accordingly, on the morning of the 1st of March, portions of the 11th, 2nd Bavarian, and 6th Army Corps, crossing the Seine by the bridge of Neuilly, defiled along the avenue of the same name, passed under the Arc de Triomphe, and marched through the Champs Elysées into the Rue de Rivoli and other parts of the district assigned to them. But this occupation, deeply painful and humiliating as it must have been to the Parisians, was not of long duration. News came on the 2nd of March that the preliminaries of peace had been ratified at Bordeaux, and then Paris, in accordance with an express stipulation to that effect, was immediately evacuated. The preliminaries were submitted by M. Thiers to the National Assembly on the 28th of February. The terms of peace were oppressive and exorbitant; they were terms which Germany, having found France ill prepared for war, had been enabled by her admirable preparation, her profound study of the art and thorough elaboration of the means of war, to impose on the vanquished; nor is it to be supposed for an instant that the Assembly assented to them except under compulsion, and from the conviction that their refusal would bring still more terrible misfortunes upon France. In the course of the discussion that ensued, the Assembly solemnly voted the deposition of Louis Napoleon and his dynasty, by a resolution that declared him responsible for the invasion, dismemberment, and ruin of France. On the 1st of March the preliminaries of peace were accepted by a majority of 546 votes against 107, and after bitter controversies, chiefly connected with the payment of the indemnity, the definitive treaty was signed at Frankfort on the 10th of May.
Thus while France emerged from the war with a reduction of territory, the struggle brought to Germany a unification of the Empire. Various minds had been occupied with this project since the earliest German victories, among others that of the Crown Prince. He received, however, but cold encouragement from Count Bismarck, who was jealous of the Prince's interference in matters of State, chiefly on account of his English connections. Nevertheless, Bismarck was also occupied in shaping a plan and it gradually assumed the form of a German Empire with its chief at Berlin. After the battle of Sedan, negotiations were opened with each of the Southern States for its entry into the Northern Confederation, when it appeared that particularism was strong in Bavaria, which kingdom was not disposed to come into the agreement without favourable terms. Count Bismarck accordingly invited the various Governments to send representatives to Versailles for the arrangement of a settlement. At first the King of Würtemberg showed a disposition to act with Bavaria, but his Ministers resigned rather than refuse to sign the treaty, and the accession of Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt to the unionist side showed the two kings the peril of their situation. Accordingly, when Bavaria had been granted larger separate rights than any other State—for instance, an independent postal system, and an independent army—King Louis gave way and the treaties were signed. It was some time before Bavaria would consent to the assumption of the Imperial title by the King of Prussia. Under pressure from Bismarck, however, the king wrote a letter to his fellow-Sovereigns, proposing that William I. as President of the newly formed Federation should assume the title of German Emperor, and this request he renewed to William himself in a letter composed by Bismarck. A deputation from the North German Reichstag expressed the concurrence of the nation, but so strong was local patriotism in Bavaria that the ceremony was delayed from the end of one year to the beginning of the next and even then the approval of Munich had not been secured. Nevertheless on the 18th of January, surrounded by German princes and German warriors, King William assumed at Versailles the title of German Emperor. Thereby a fresh chapter in the history of Europe was begun, though it was some time before the effects of the new order were manifest.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (continued).
Army Reform—Mr. Trevelyan's Agitation—The Abolition of Purchase—Mr. Cardwell's Bill—History of Purchase—Military Opposition in the Commons—Rejection of the Bill by the House of Lords—Abolition of Purchase by Royal Warrant—Indignation in Parliament—The cost of Compensation—Mr. Lowe's Budget—The Match-Tax—Its withdrawal—Mr. Goschen succeeds Mr. Childers—The Ballot Bill—The Epping Forest Bill—Rejected Measures—The Religious Tests Bill—Marriage of the Princess Louise—Sir Charles Dilke's Lecture—The real State of the Civil List—Illness of the Prince of Wales—Crises of the Disease—The Prayers of the Nation—The Thanksgiving Service—Unpopularity of the Government—The 25th Clause—Landing of the ex-Emperor of the French—Resignation of Speaker Denison—Riot in Dublin—The Home Rule Movement—Mr. Gladstone at Aberdeen—Assassination of Mr. Justice Norman—Australian Federation—Russia repudiates the Black Sea Clauses—Lord Granville's Despatch—Prince Gortschakoff's Reply—A Conference Suggested—Meeting of the Plenipotentiaries—Their Deliberations—Settlement of the Difficulty—Obituary of the Year—Sir John Burgoyne, Lord Ellenborough, Grote, Sir William Denison, and others.