Bismarck

by Moritz Busch

I am instructed to telegraph that in consequence of yesterday’s negotiations the Chancellor has offered M. Thiers a truce of twenty-five days on the basis of the military status quo. Thiers returned at 12 o’clock, and negotiated with the Chief until 2.30 P.M. The demands of the French are exorbitant. At lunch we hear that in addition to a twenty-eight days’ armistice for the elections and the meeting of the National Assembly thus chosen to determine the position of the Provisional Government, they demand nothing less than the right to provision Paris and all other fortresses held by them and besieged by us, and the participation of the Eastern provinces, of which we require the cession in the elections. Ordinary logic finds it difficult to conceive how the provisioning of fortresses can be deemed consistent with the maintenance of the military status quo.

Amongst other subjects discussed at dinner were the elections in Berlin. Delbrück was of opinion that they would be more favourable than hitherto. Jacoby, at any rate, would not be re-elected. Count Bismarck-Bohlen thought otherwise. He anticipated no change. The Chancellor said: “The Berliners must always be in opposition and have their own ideas. They have their virtues—many and highly estimable ones—they fight well, but they would not consider themselves to be as clever as they ought to be unless they knew everything better than the Government.” That failing, however, was not confined to Berliners, the Chief added. All great cities were much the same in that respect, and many were even worse than Berlin. They were in general more unpractical than the rural districts, where people were in closer contact with nature, and thus not only got into a more natural and practical way of thinking. “Where great numbers of men are crowded together they easily lose their individuality and dissolve into one mass. All sorts of opinions are in the air, they arise from hearsay and repetition, and are little or not at all founded on facts, but are propagated by the newspapers, popular meetings and conversations over beer, and then remain firmly, immutably rooted. It is a sort of false second nature, a faith or superstition held collectively by the masses. They reason themselves into believing in something that does not exist, consider themselves in duty bound to hold to that belief, and wax enthusiastic over narrow-minded and grotesque ideas. That is the case in all great cities, in London for instance, where the cockneys are quite a different race to other Englishmen—in Copenhagen, in New York, and above all in Paris. The Parisians, with their political superstitions, are quite a distinct people in France,—they are caught and bound up in a circle of ideas which are a sacred tradition to them, although when closely examined they turn out to be mere empty phrases.”

So far as Thiers was concerned, the Minister only told us that shortly after the commencement of their conference to-day he suddenly asked him whether he had obtained the authority necessary for the continuance of the negotiations. “He looked at me in astonishment, on which I said that news had been received at our outposts of a revolution having broken out in Paris since his departure, and that a new Government had been proclaimed. He was visibly perturbed, from which it may be inferred that he considers a victory of the Red Republicans as possible, and the position of Favre and Trochu as insecure.”

Thiers was again with the Chief from 9 o’clock till after 10.

Friday, November 4th.—Beautiful bright morning. At the desire of the Minister I send the Daily News an account of his conversation with Napoleon at Donchery. He had principally conversed with the Emperor within the weaver’s house, upstairs—for about three-quarters of an hour—and spent but a short time with him in the open air, as the Minister himself stated in his official report to the King. Furthermore, in speaking to Napoleon, he had not pointed the forefinger of the left hand into the palm of his right, which was not at all a habit of his. He had not once made use of the German language in speaking to the Emperor—he had never done so, and also not on that occasion. “I did, however,” the Minister continued, “speak German to the people of the house, as the man understood a little and the woman spoke it very well.”

From 11 o’clock onwards Thiers conferred once more with the Chancellor. He yesterday sent his companion, a M. Cochery, back to Paris, to ascertain if the Government of the 4th of September still existed. The answer appears to have been in the affirmative.

Bamberger dined with us. The Chief said, amongst other things: “I see that some newspapers hold me responsible that Paris has not yet been bombarded. I do not want anything serious to be done, I object to a bombardment. Nonsense! They will ultimately make me responsible for our losses during the siege, which are certainly already considerable, as we have probably lost more men in these small engagements than a general attack would have cost us. I wanted the city to be stormed at once, and have all along desired that to be done—or it would have been still better to have left Paris on one side and continued our march.”

Thiers was once more with the Chief from 9 P.M. until after 11 o’clock. While they were conferring a telegram arrived announcing that Beust has abandoned his former attitude in so far as he declares that if Russia raises objections to the Prussian demands upon France, Austria will do the same, but otherwise not. This telegram was at once sent in to the Chief.

Saturday, November 5th.—About 1 o’clock there was a short conference between the Chancellor, Delbrück, and other German Ministers. We afterwards ascertained that the Chief reported the result of his negotiations with Thiers, and also announced the impending arrival of the German Sovereigns not yet represented at Versailles.

On our sitting down to dinner Delbrück was at first the only Minister present. Later on we were joined by the Chancellor, who had dined with the King. While Engel was pouring him out a glass of spirits the Chief recalled a pretty dictum. Recently a general (if I am not mistaken it was at Ferrières, and I fancy I heard the name of the great thinker, Moltke), speaking of the various beverages of mankind, laid down the following principle:—“Red wine for children, champagne for men, and brandy for generals.”