The enclosure mentioned in paragraph 1 ran as follows:—
“It appears that a secret society has been formed in Russia, by a number of determined and loyal subjects of the Tsar, which is understood to be organised on the same lines as the associations founded for the purpose of assassinating him. This new society purposes to fight the Nihilists with their own weapons. Like the latter, who seek to terrorise the sovereign by attempts upon his life, the new society which has been constituted to oppose these criminals, will endeavour to keep them in check by hunting out and killing the chiefs of the band of assassins in Switzerland and England. It is a regrettable circumstance that honourable men in Russia should be obliged to resort to a kind of mediæval Vehmgericht as a means of protecting the monarch from these miserable cut-throats.”
On the morning of the 30th I forwarded this paragraph to the Daily Telegraph, stating that it came from the “very best source,” and adding that I should be thankful for its insertion. On the 31st, however, I received the following note from Bucher: “Herbert has just telegraphed to me to hold back the paragraph on the Anti-Nihilistic society for the present. Luckily Sunday has intervened. Will you please countermand it by telegraph, and charge me with the costs?” I accordingly telegraphed to London, and the paragraph did not appear.
The second enclosure was worked up for the Grenzboten, and published in No. 32, under the title of “The Genesis of the Anglo-French Commercial Treaty.” It was completed by an extract from Chevalier’s letter, which was published by the Pall Mall Gazette.
In the meantime, on the 30th, I received the following note from Bucher: “As your articles on the Manchester School in the Grenzboten will one day form material for the historian, I would suggest that after the reference to Schlesinger and his association with the Treasury, you should insert the words: ‘since the Macdonald affair at Bonn.’ I will give you the particulars for your memoirs. They are very curious.”
Bucher left for his holidays on the 1st of August.
On the 14th of September Bucher wrote to me that he was in Berlin, and on the 21st I called upon him. He told me that the Chief had again had “difficulties with the Emperor.” The latter now reads no more newspapers. Recently, however, some courtier must have called his attention to a paragraph which he represented to come from the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, to the effect that a Papal Nunciature was to be established in Berlin. The Emperor thereupon wrote the Chief a “snappish letter” which commenced somewhat in the style of Zwückanör (one of the comic figures in the Kladderadatsch): “I am much surprised.” The Chancellor first sent a short telegram, saying that he knew nothing of any such paragraph in the newspaper in question (which had contained nothing of the kind), and afterwards forwarded a memorandum on the subject, which filled three sheets of paper. “He was greatly incensed at the action of the Most Gracious.” Tiedemann, who has now been definitively replaced by Rottenburg, goes in the first place to Bromberg, in the capacity of Regierungspräsident, and not, as he had desired, and expected, to Kassel as Oberpräsident. The mention of Keudell in the first Grenzboten article on the Manchester School, which has been described by the Progressist press as a “violent attack,” has led that gentleman to state in the Morning Post that he had requested the President of the Cobden Club to remove his name from the list of members. He at the same time endeavoured to defend himself in Progressist journals, like the Vossische Zeitung and the Berliner Tageblatt, concluding, as usual, with self-praise. Bucher remarked: “These almost identic articles are written by himself. Only his signature at foot is wanting.” These productions were forwarded to the Chancellor at Varzin, who thereupon had the following statement published in the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung:—
“The Berliner Tageblatt, the Schlesische Zeitung and the Vossische Zeitung publish articles respecting Herr von Keudell which are similar in effect, and which all conclude with the phrase that owing to his retirement from the Cobden Club the valuable services of the German Ambassador in Rome still remain secured to the State.
“It requires that complete ignorance of the customs prevailing in the service of the State, and particularly in diplomacy, and of the habits of the higher circles which distinguishes Progressist writers, for any one to imagine that an Ambassador’s position could ever be endangered by a matter of such trifling importance as the circumstance that he had been nominated an honorary member of the Cobden Club six or more years ago. We are in a position to assure our readers that the matter has never been taken into consideration either officially or confidentially at the Foreign Office, nor has it ever called for any inquiry or exchange of views. The whole story as to the position of Herr von Keudell being in the least affected by that circumstance is simply an invention of Progressist writers, suffering from a dearth of ‘copy.’
“We are not aware whether Herr von Keudell has resigned his honorary membership. If such be the case he will probably have been led to take that step by recent disclosures respecting the Cobden Club. So far as his relations to the Imperial service and the Imperial Chancellor are concerned, however, it is a matter of indifference whether this purely private step has been taken or not. That Progressist journalists believe the contrary is the consequence in part of their ignorance as to the relations existing between respectable people, and in part of their own sentiments, i.e., of the furious rancour with which these partisan writers exaggerate and garble the most insignificant incidents. They assume that an equal degree of malice and violence prevails in circles to which they have no access. In short, they are partisans who are accustomed to treat with hatred and contempt every shade of difference from the party standard. In their eyes whoever is not a free-trader is either a knave or a fool. This is natural enough in those whose sole claim to honesty and intelligence is that they are free-traders. It is not so in higher circles, where there is more toleration, and less time for matters of secondary importance.