After alluding to the anti-German demonstrations in 1871 and the acquittal of the rioters of March 22, Bismarck continued:
"It is therefore a surprise to us to learn that, as your Highness remarks, the hope is cherished in Roumania that the autonomy may be extended by the mediation of Germany, and new rights acquired, and that by this means friendly relations may be re-established. I am afraid that public opinion in Germany will scarcely appreciate the reconquest of the favour of the Roumanian nation, since we may say to ourselves that we have neither desired nor brought about its loss. Your Highness knows how unconditionally you may reckon on the good will of H. M. the Emperor and King and of his Government, and that we all entertain the best wishes for the prosperity and welfare of your country; but at the same time your Highness has too clear an insight into the wants of your country not to recognise that the conditions of that prosperity and that welfare must be sought in the development of its internal politics, and in the faithful fulfilment of the obligations it has undertaken, and that the influence exerted in Europe by the German Empire may be of great use to the Roumanian nation, if the latter in any way responds to, or even acknowledges, the friendly feeling for Roumania which still exists here."
From the German Crown Prince.
"My best thanks for the photographs; your child must have charming and interesting features: she reminds one of both the families to which her parents belong! The surroundings amused us, and we greatly admired Elisabeth in the national costume. In spite of photographs, however, I can hardly imagine my old friend Charles as a married man and father with a child on his arm! It is an indescribable happiness to be a father, and I can only too readily imagine how you spend every free hour in the society of your child, and that you found the little mite the only consolation for her mother's absence during your first separation....
"When I reflect on the course of events in Germany, since the Düppel assault first attracted the attention of the world to us Prussians, it always seems to me as though I had listened with rapt attention to a long history lesson—that I was called to witness the reality appears a marvel. May our people in future preserve the same becoming earnestness and humility which up to now they have not laid aside in spite of all their successes! So long as that feeling is not abandoned we show ourselves worthy of the deeds we have witnessed.
"You will remember that the thought of a reconstitution of the Empire as the finishing touch in the work of German unity has always occupied me, and been among my sincerest wishes; truly, my aim was directed at a peaceable and bloodless achievement of this fact, and perhaps the same object might have been reached without a war. But these are idle questions which can no longer be considered: we have rather to look to a systematic and thorough completion of the Empire, the external form of which is perhaps attained, but many a year must pass before its southern component parts have quite found their place in the new building. The peoples, especially that portion which took active part in the war, are far more favourable to the new situation than the Cabinets; I shall therefore not be at all surprised if the next few years bring us some most disagreeable conflicts of aim. The peculiarities of each separate country forming the Empire will always be respected and interference with their internal affairs must be avoided; I therefore do not at all like the expression 'a uniform State.' But it is for that very reason that earnest pains must be taken that perfect unity may be shown in military, legal, and foreign-political fields, and that these elements may become more and more firmly welded together.
"To my joy our neighbour States do not appear to view our union with unfavourable eyes, and that is in itself a great deal—we shall certainly not be loved by any of them. The revengeful feeling of France is only natural and explicable, though much water will flow between the banks of the Rhine before that feeling will issue in act....
"You would hardly recognise my children again. William[16] is growing and is hard at work. Henry has become stronger than he was. Charlotte does not seem to grow at all, yet she is pretty, like her fair-haired sister. The youngest you do not know at all—they are already very well-developed little atoms mentally."