I have had the pleasure of receiving your esteemed favor of the nineteenth. Highly as I esteem the work to which you are devoting yourself with such self-sacrificing assiduity, I regret that I cannot be of assistance to it by acceding to the wish that you express. The great number of demands made upon me in behalf of humanitarian objects forbid my considering them all. You will, therefore, my dear Baroness, understand and will not feel offended with me, if I give the preference to such associations as not merely have in view an ideal purpose but pursue practical ends connected with real life.
Regretting that I am not in a position to give you an affirmative answer, I beg you to accept the expression of my distinguished consideration.
Bn. N. Rothschild
[16]. Secret guaranty with Russia.
[17]. Also, as I have learned from other sources, by the King himself.—B. S.
[18]. I observe that the division of the prize corresponds neither to the letter of the will nor to the testator’s intentions, which I knew well.
[19]. The union, Entente cordiale, for the bettering of Franco-English relations, due to the initiative of Representative Thomson and the Honorable Philip Stanhope, under the chairmanship of Lord Dufferin.—B. S.
[20]. Prisoners charged with being anarchists were tortured in the fortress of Montjuich. A letter, dated March 11, and signed Sebastian Sunjé, addressed to “all good men of the earth,” came to light: “Oh, by all that is sacred to you, rescue us from the hands of our torturers.” But alas! the “good men of the earth” are not organized, are not ready to be mobilized. They can only shudder.
[21]. Schach der Qual. I had cherished the wish to bring to the Tsar’s attention the chapter entitled Frohbotschaft (“Good Tidings”) containing the invitation to a conference of the powers.—B. S.
[22]. Psalm cxlix, 6–8.—Translator.