Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
March 6, 1883.
Jules Ferry appears to have hinted to Waddington that he would be offered the Embassy in London, if he voted with the Government on the interpellation in the Senate on the Decree putting the Orleans Princes en non-activité. The Embassy at Vienna has, I understand, been actually offered to and refused by him. He would not, under any circumstances, take any Embassy but London, and moreover he would in no case serve a Government of which Thibaudin was a member.
Waddington asked Rivers Wilson if he could not suggest some offer which might be made to France in order to place her once more in cordial union with England in Egypt. There is, moreover, a notice in the Havas, purporting to come from London, but very likely put in more or less on authority here, to the effect that France cannot, and England ought to, take the initiative of proposing something. I entirely agree with you that the matter had better lie still for the moment. I suppose you don't want to make any such concession to France as would satisfy her, and certainly matters would not be mended by our making another unsuccessful proposal. I hope Waddington spoke entirely on his own hook and not in concert with Challemel Lacour. It would be intolerable if Challemel Lacour tried the system of indirect irresponsible communications, the delight of Duclerc, which produced so much annoyance and inconvenience, and in fact rendered any real understanding impossible.
Jules Ferry is believed to be contemplating a conversion of the 5 per cents. If he makes the attempt, it will bind him over to keep things quiet abroad and at home, in order to secure the success of the operation.
It is very provoking that the French should have put down the New Hebrides among the places to which to transport their relapsed criminals.
Lord Granville, who owned that he had nothing to propose about Egypt, even if he wished to do so, was not at all enthusiastic at the prospect of Waddington coming to London, 'I am not particularly anxious to have Waddington instead of Tissot, he would be burning to distinguish himself, and very agissant.' Lord Granville's fears of Waddington's activity were founded upon the fact that he had been selected as the French Representative at the Coronation at Moscow, and that, therefore, he would find it impossible to settle down quietly at the London Embassy without burning to distinguish himself, after 'flourishing about Europe.'
Lord Lyons to Lord Granville.
Paris, March 23, 1883.
It is whispered, at least by Waddington's friends, that it is intended that his special Embassy to Russia shall be a prelude to his becoming regular Ambassador in London: that the idea is that he shall offer a Commercial Treaty to us; that he shall by this means enlist the support of some members of Parliament and influential manufacturers in England, and that then he shall obtain concessions for us about Egypt, on the plea that, without such concessions, the Chambers could not be brought to ratify a Commercial Treaty favourable to us. The statements in the newspapers about the assumption of Commercial negotiations between England and France are stated to be ballons d'essai to see how the wind sets with regard to such a policy.
I just give you all this for what it may be worth. I doubt very much whether formal negotiations or a stirring French Ambassador in London would be likely to lead just now to cordiality between France and England. The French could hardly do anything that would satisfy us about trade, and we should find it very difficult to do anything that would satisfy them about Egypt. My hope would rather be that we might glide back into cordiality by avoiding critical questions.
In talking to me about his Embassy to Russia, Waddington mentioned, amongst its advantages, that it would bring him into contact with important personages of various countries, and he said he should probably visit Berlin and Vienna on his way home.
With Challemel Lacour at the Foreign Office there did not appear to be much prospect of 'gliding back into cordiality,' judging by the following account of an interview between him and some members of the Rothschild family who were frequently employed as intermediaries between the two Governments.