Saturday, January 14th.—Count Lehndorff dined with us to-day. The Chief mentions that Jules Favre has written to him. He wishes to go to the Conference in London, and asserts that he only ascertained on the 10th inst. that a safe conduct was held in readiness for him. He desires to take with him an unmarried and a married daughter, together with her husband—who has a Spanish name—and a secretary. “He would doubtless prefer a pass for M. le Ministre et suite. He has the longing of a vagabond for a passport.” But he is not to receive one at all, the soldiers being simply instructed to let him through. Bucher is to write that it will be best for him to go by way of Corbeil, as he will not then have to leave the carriage which he brings from Paris and to walk for some way on foot, afterwards taking another carriage. His best route will also be by Lagny and Metz, and not by Amiens. If he does not wish to go by way of Corbeil he is to say so, and then the military authorities will be instructed accordingly. “One would be inclined to think,” added the Chief, “from his desire to take his family with him, that he wants to get out of harm’s way.”
In the further course of conversation the Minister observed: “Versailles is really the most unsuitable place that could have been chosen from the point of view of communications. We ought to have remained at Lagny or Ferrières. But I know well why it was selected. All our princely personages would have found it too dull there. It is true they are bored here too, and doubtless everywhere else.”
The Chief then went on to talk of German Princes in general, and said: “Originally they were all Counts, that is to say, officials of the Empire. The Zehringers, it is true, are an old princely family—apart from any fresh blood that has been infused into the stock. The Austrian Princes and Counts have only become rich and powerful through grants of confiscated estates. The Schwarzenbergs, for instance, through the property of a gentleman with a very unappetising name—Schmiersicki.” The Chancellor then went into further particulars, and continued: “They (the Hapsburgs) were grateful for services rendered to them, and rewarded their people with rich grants. It was different with us. Our nobles were squeezed. Any one who had large estates was forced to give them up or to make a bad exchange.”
The Chancellor afterwards spoke about Manteuffel, and said: “He is now heaping up coals of fire on my head by taking Bill with him. We were on bad terms during the last few years. One of the reasons was his extravagance in Schleswig. He kept a regular Court there, and gave great dinners of forty to fifty covers, spending three to four thousand thalers a month. That was all very well before the war, but later on, when I had to account for it to the Treasury Committee, it could not go on, and when I had to tell him so, he was angry.”
After dinner I wrote an article for the Moniteur, under instructions from the Chief, respecting the difficulty of provisioning Paris when it surrenders. It ran thus: “We find the following paragraph on the provisioning of Paris in the Journal Officiel: ‘According to a despatch from Bordeaux, dated January 3rd, the Government of National Defence has collected a large quantity of necessaries in view of furnishing Paris with a fresh supply of provisions. In addition to the markets now in course of erection there is already collected, near the means of transport and beyond the range of the enemy’s operations, a mass of supplies that only wait the first signal to be despatched.’ When this question of reprovisioning Paris is considered from a practical point of view, it will be seen that it bristles with serious difficulties. If the statement of the Journal Officiel that the stores are beyond the range of the German sphere of action be correct, it must be taken that they are some 200 miles away from Paris. Now the condition to which the railways leading to Paris have been reduced by the French themselves is such that it would require several weeks at least to transport such a quantity of provisions to Paris. There is another consideration which must also not be overlooked, namely, that in addition to the famishing population of Paris, the German army has a right to see that its supplies are replenished by the railways, and that consequently the German officials with the best will in the world can only spare a portion of the rolling stock to be employed in reprovisioning Paris. It follows that if the Parisians put off the surrender of the city until they have eaten their last mouthful of bread, believing that large supplies are within easy reach, a fatal blunder may be committed. We trust that the Government of National Defence will very seriously consider the circumstances, and weigh well the heavy responsibility it incurs in adopting the principle of resistance to the bitter end. Every day increases instead of lessening the distance between the capital and the provincial armies, whose approach is awaited with so much impatience in Paris, which is closely invested and entirely cut off from the outer world. Paris cannot be rescued by fictitious reports. To suppose that it can wait till the last moment, for the simple reason that neither the provinces nor the enemy could allow a city of two and a half million inhabitants to starve, might prove to be a terrible miscalculation, owing to the absolute impossibility of preventing it. The capitulation of Paris at the very last hour might—which God forbid!—be the commencement of a really great calamity.”
Sunday, January 15th.—Rather bright, cold weather. The firing is less vigorous than during the last few days. The Chief slept badly last night, and had Wollmann called up at 4 A.M. in order to telegraph to London respecting Favre. In the morning read despatches. Andrassy, the Hungarian Premier, declared to our Ambassador in Vienna that he not only approved of Beust’s despatch of December 26th and shared the views therein expressed respecting the new Germany, but had desired and recommended such a policy all along. He had “always said we should reach out our hand to Germany and shake our fist at Russia.” The reservation at the commencement of the document in question might have been omitted, as the reorganisation of Germany does not affect the Treaty of Prague.
The letters in which the German Princes declare their approval of the King of Bavaria’s proposal for the restoration of the imperial dignity all express practically the same views. Only the elder line of the Reuss family was moved to base its consent upon different grounds. It regards the imperial title as “an ornamental badge of the dignity of the Federal Commander-in-Chief, and of the right of Presidency.” The letter then continues, literally: “I do this” (that is approve), “fully confident that the bestowal of this dignity upon his Majesty the King of Prussia will not affect the newly-established relations of the Confederation.” Oberregierungsrath Wagner drafted the answers to these letters of approval, as also the proclamation to the German people concerning the Emperor and the Empire, which is to be published shortly. I hear that he sometimes draws up the speech from the throne, as he has a certain loftiness of style which the Chief likes. Read a letter from King William to the Chancellor written in his own hand. Contents: On the 10th of January Prince Luitpold requested an audience of our Majesty. This was granted to him before dinner. The Prince then delivered a message from the King of Bavaria, suggesting that the Bavarian army should be relieved from taking the military oath of obedience to the Federal Commander-in-Chief, and that the stipulation to that effect should be struck out of the treaty with Bavaria. The Prince urged, as an argument in support of this proposal, that such a stipulation as that in question limited the sovereignty of the King of Bavaria. No such obligation had been imposed upon the South German States during the present war, and the obedience and loyalty of the Bavarian army might be taken as a matter of course in the united Germany of the future. He also observed incidentally that the reason why the dissatisfaction in Bavaria was so great was because it had been hoped that the imperial dignity would be held alternately by Bavaria and Prussia. The King replied that he could not give an immediate answer to this unforeseen demand; he must first look through the treaties. For the moment he could only say that by yielding in the matter of the military oath he would offend the other Princes, and that they might put forward a similar demand, which would loosen the ties that were to bind the new Germany together. That would necessarily damage the King of Bavaria’s position in particular, as the concessions made to Bavaria were already regarded with great disfavour by public opinion. King William writes that he said nothing whatever about the alternation of the imperial dignity. The Chief telegraphed to Werther (Minister at Munich) that the proposal respecting the military oath could not be entertained.
The Chief dined with the King to-day. Nothing worthy of note was said at our table. After dinner I again read drafts and despatches. Amongst the latter was a letter from King Lewis to the Chancellor, in which he thanks the Minister for his good wishes for the new year, and reciprocates them. He then claims an extension of territory on the ground of the importance of Bavaria and the gallant co-operation of her troops. From the construction of the sentence it is not quite clear whether this extension of territory is intended for Bavaria herself, but very probably it is.
Called to the Chief at 9 P.M. I am to write an article, based upon official documents, on our position towards American ships conveying contraband of war. In doing so I am to be guided by the 13th article of the Treaty of 1799. We cannot seize such vessels, but only detain them, or seize the contraband goods, for which a receipt must be given, and in both cases we must make fair compensation.
Monday, January 16th.—Thawing. A dull sky, with a strong south-west wind. It is again impossible to see far, but no further shots are heard since yesterday afternoon. Has the bombardment stopped? Or does the wind prevent the sound from reaching us?