"My chief news to-day is that the condition of Elisabeth's health renders a journey to the South an absolute necessity; she has never quite recovered from the violent attacks of fever of last summer, and in spite of all precautions has recently been ill again; this might lead to serious consequences if often repeated. Since change of air is the only really effective remedy, she will go to Italy, and meet her Nassau relatives and Therese of Oldenburg in Rome before Easter. Should the climate there not suit her, she will go on to Naples. The two months' separation, which lies before us, is indeed very hard, the harder for Elisabeth, since she must part with both husband and child! It is satisfactory for me to know that she will meet relations in Rome, whom she will be very glad to see again. I must submit to the inevitable; but I shall feel my solitude very much.
"We shall then spend the whole summer in Sinaja, where we shall be more comfortable this time than we were last year. Abegg is at present negotiating the purchase of some meadow and wood lands so that we can build a country house on our own estate, and have a refuge in the healthy mountain air from the fevers of the marshes....
"The following incident will show you the anti-German feeling here: The Court of Appeal has acquitted the rioters of the 10th-22nd March for want of evidence. Costa-Foru in consequence demanded the removal of the judges, but I refused my consent, to avoid further unpleasantness. He then laid a decree before me, which made the President of the Court responsible for the acquittal and transferred him as a punishment; this I signed. The result of this measure was the resignation of a large number of the best judges both of the first and second instance, a demonstration which has caused great excitement and has been received with satisfaction. The gentry in question are considered as victimes de la Prusse, and only a few have the courage to agree with Costa-Foru. This is, of course, water to the opposition mill, and the affair is exploited in every kind of way...."
In a long letter, received March 8, 1872, Prince Charles Anthony minutely discussed the Prussian and Roumanian views about the recently settled railway dispute, and devoted particular attention to the attitude of Bismarck and the Imperial Government.
"I do not believe that the writer of the reports you forwarded to me can take an active share in politics, since he gives so free a rein to his dislike towards Bismarck and Radowitz.
"The German Empire to-day is a given factor, which the practical politician is forced to take into consideration. If you look back upon the scenes which took place nearly a year ago in Bucharest on the occasion of the Emperor's birthday, you cannot expect that Germany should meet the Roumanian population with much sympathy. Such incidents have a lasting and estranging influence. Moreover, the continual demonstration of the Roumanians in favour of France cannot but displease Germany, who has lost many thousands of her best sons in a war which was forced upon her against her will.
"I am no blind eulogist of Bismarck, but he is indispensable to Germany and Prussia, and aims solely at great ends and means.
"He steps courageously over every bound; just as he passed over us in the Spanish question, he has now proved the correctness of his views and his courage in the retirement of Mühler, and in insisting on the School Inspections Bill, which were both fundamentally opposed to the King's wish and opinion. It is easy to understand that he must neglect you in striving for great political aims.
"It is not because you are a Hohenzollern, but in spite of your being one, that no consideration could be paid to your name and race in the recent solution of the railway question.
"I am convinced that, now that Roumania has regained her international position with glory, the relations with the German Empire will take a more peaceful form. At all events, the advances lie on the shoulders of the smaller and weaker State: that is the ordinary course of events in politics.
"For that reason I dislike the following sentence in the report you sent me: 'Because certain capitalists are pleased to put their money into an industrial speculation, is it necessary that it should become a matter for the two Governments? If this principle is admitted, where will it lead?'
"The participation, therefore, in a loan guaranteed by the State is called an 'industrial speculation'! Germany, accordingly, is peaceably to allow her subjects to suffer loss through the Roumanian State, and if she complains about such treatment, where should the complaint be addressed if not to the State, that is the Government, which does not act in accordance with its pledges? On the other hand, one might well ask: 'If this principle is admitted, where will it lead?...'
"The importance of the names connected with the Strousberg Syndicate was by no means the reason for the decided steps that were taken in Berlin. The action was rather due to consideration for the many thousands of smaller men, who had confidently invested in the Roumanian bonds; the high rate of interest, it is true, was the chief inducement, but nobody imagined that his money was invested in a dishonest business.
"I now come to the end of this long letter, in which I have spoken my mind so freely, but in which I hope you will only recognise a proof of my affectionate sincerity. I make no claim to be infallible, but I should like to impress upon you that the Teuton element to-day possesses the greatest vitality and the richest future, and that Roumania can only remain the master of her own future by a sensible union with it. Let society, the Press, and the general instinct of the nation be anti-German if they will—they must not, if they intend to put their feelings into practice, throw down the gage to the Teuton spirit."
Princess Elisabeth was forced to tear herself away from her husband and daughter on March 12, to seek health under the cloudless sky of Italy.
At Trieste the Princess of Hohenzollern was awaiting her arrival in order to accompany her to Rome, and, later on, to Naples, where the King and Queen of Denmark, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, with other Royal personages, were spending the Spring. The Prince of Wales discussed politics earnestly with Princess Elisabeth, and asked with which side Roumania would be ranged in the event of a war. The Princess quickly replied: "With the strongest, of course!"
A very plain and straightforward letter was received from Prince Bismarck on April 25, 1872, in reply to an explanation which Prince Charles had sent him on the railway question.
"Your Highness can have no cause to doubt my devotion to your person. I am sincerely pleased that your Highness has reason to look towards the future with greater confidence and a more joyful assurance. My former respectful letters will have shown your Highness how highly I rate the difficulties of your position, and I hope that your present hopes will not be disappointed.
"In the railway crisis, which is now, we hope, so fortunately ended, the Government of his Majesty could adopt no other attitude than that of guarding the rights and interests of German subjects. The appeal to the suzerain power of the Porte, which your Highness complains of, was necessary on account of the position of these German interests and the principles of international law; and only the blindness of the parties in Roumania could see in it any damage to the autonomy of the country as established by the conventions."