I gave him some details as to the condition and progress of the movement. Much of what I told him he already knew. The names of the prominent representatives whom I mentioned were familiar to him. He spoke first of Egidy. I handed him Houzeau-Descamps’s pamphlet, with a few appeals and articles. He asked me to keep him informed as to the course of events.
When at the end I expressed my delight at being able to press the hand that had written that epoch-making manifesto, he replied, “Je n’y suis pour rien; its only author is my august sovereign.”
The Spanish-American treaty of peace was signed in Paris. Our colleague, Émile Arnaud, addressed to the commission that was intrusted with this transaction a memorial, in which, among other things, it was suggested that a way should be made for establishing a Spanish-American arbitration treaty. The following reply was received from the chairman of the Spanish Commission:
My dear Sir:
I am in receipt of your valued letter of the fourth instant, in which you do me the honor of communicating to me the resolutions of the Turin Meeting of Delegates. The desires of the commission of which I am chairman, as well as my own personal feelings, are in full agreement with the ends so nobly pursued by the Peace League. All right-thinking men, whose souls are elevated above the conflicts arising from the passions and interests of colonial politics, are to-day at one in recognizing the necessity of settling controversies between nations by the only means worthy of reasonable and free beings. Our commission has been, and will continue to be, inspired by these ideas, and if these noble endeavors fail, it will not be our fault. I thank you infinitely for the amiable offers which you make in the name of the Peace League, and remain
Yours most respectfully,
Montero Rios
The Dreyfus affair is settling down more and more to a forlorn hope; the military system is fighting for its threatened authority. With it all one thing that is good has taken place, namely, the union of the intellectual class with the laboring men.
General Türr had an audience with King Humbert. Apropos of the conference called by the Tsar, he spoke of the necessity of combining the Zweibund with the Dreibund, and forming a European confederation. I wrote in my diary, together with this bit of information, “This fact deserves to be noted.”
I find a very sad entry under date of December 30: Egidy dead!