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"Such a difference of opinion, as evidently exists between the Imperial Chancellor and your Majesty's Ambassador, and which is brought to the knowledge of the French public, cannot continue to exist without detriment to the Imperial service.

"In spite of all this, I should have endeavoured, in order to clear up a misunderstanding by which no one could benefit, to put myself in direct communication with the Imperial Chancellor, had there been no necessity for believing that he would refuse me any personal explanation whatever.

"Therefore I take the liberty of humbly repeating my request that your Majesty will deign to order an inquiry so as to ascertain :

"If, in this matter, truth has been disregarded, and if so, by whom ;

"If, in any point I have not carried out my instructions; "If, in accordance with diplomatic traditions, I have laid myself open to a censure justifying the insult offered me.

"At the same time, I beg to submit to your Imperial and Royal Majesty the question whether I shall not receive your Majesty's commands to repair to Berlin for a personal interview, in case further explanations by word of mouth should seem necessary to your Majesty.

"I am aware that, under ordinary circumstances, the principles of honour would render it my duty to inform the Imperial Chancellor of my having addressed this letter to your Imperial and Royal Majesty.

80,

"But I cannot shut my eyes to the fact that, in doing

I should make the task of clearing up this matter more difficult for your Majesty (in any course you may, in your wisdom, consider more suitable for protecting the interests of the Imperial Service, and the dignity of the Prime Minister), than the inquiry solicited by me, although I cannot see what this course is to be.

"I therefore humbly leave it to your Majesty to do what you may think well with my letter; and I take the liberty of expressing the assurance that its communication to the Prince Chancellor cannot fail to be in accordance with my wishes.

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With the most profound respect,

"I remain,

"Your Imperial and Royal Majesty's,

You have styled my letter to his Majesty a complaint against yourself. You had no right to do so. I made complaints against no one, but merely asked for the proof of my having committed any fault. In styling my letter to the Emperor a complaint, you could only have been urged to speak in this fashion from the fear of seeing a ground for complaint furnished by an inquiry.

His Majesty communicated to you the contents of my letter of the 7th of April. In answer thereto, you drew up that of the 14th of April, published in the Reichsanzeiger and replied to by me in this letter.

This letter of yours is completely deficient in arguments and proofs.

Assertion on assertion is heaped up by you without any of them being confirmed. Writing ab irato, you do not trouble yourself, in

I

giving vent to your anger, with the reflection that it is possible to prove the incorrectness of your assertions.

The thought did not enter your head, that whoever expresses himself to the Emperor as your Highness had done, must be in a position to show how he has arrived at the convictions to which he gives utterance. But, instead, you appeal to a pretended emphatic and injurious protest on the part of the English Government, in order to prove that his Majesty would do well not to place credence in my statements, but in those of M. Thiers, whose communications had been reported by you in a distorted shape to his Majesty, without my knowledge, and without my having the opportunity of giving them their true meaning. It is not perceived by you that rumours, circulated by yourself, cannot establish the facts to which these rumours have reference.

Not a single word is uttered in reply to my clear, simple, moderate, and justifiable question as to whether any one can censure me on the score of my conduct. On the contrary, your letter, from which it appears that you have read my very respectful report to his Majesty, ends

with the declaration that you mean to take your stand as if it had not been read by you.

Analogous cases in military affairs are appealed to, but these do not hold good, from a fact which must be well known to you, as a general of cavalry, viz., that all generals have the right of appealing from the lieutenantgeneral to his Majesty in person, on matters connected with the service.

I have placed my report ad acta, from considerations which have more weight with me than my personal interests. My conduct would have been different had your letter of the 14th of April been known to me at that time.

But, however that may be, by my willingness to forego all future discussion, I became entitled to receive satisfaction. So far from this, the fact of my asking that the truth should be proved, became an inducement for a series of actions on your part that cannot, and will not, be fully exposed by me at present.

Whilst you were inciting your organs in the press to attack me, immediately after the Convention had been signed, my good relations with the statesmen at the head of affairs in Paris remained unaltered. They understood as little

as I did the chain of events which had interrupted the regular march of the negotiation.

I have already given above the letter which M. Thiers wrote to me on the 16th.

I answered as follows:

"Paris, 16 Mars 1873.

"Monsieur le Président,

Vous me

"Profondément touché de Votre délicieux billet de ce matin, je m'empresse de Vous dire combien je suis sensible à l'honneur que faites. Permettez-moi de répéter que j'estimerai toujours comme un privilége d'avoir pu traiter des questions d'une si grande portée avec un homme tel que Vous.

"Je puis ainsi espérer de voir, à la suite de Votre nom historique, le mien figurer avec une mention honorable.

"Les quelques services que j'ai pu rendre se réduisent à ce que je m'étais attaché à Vous laisser un champ plus libre pour Votre travail réparateur.-Le peu qu'il m'a été donné de faire, je l'ai fait de grand cœur. L'endroit où devait s'accomplir l'acte diplomatique d'hier se trouve d'autant mieux choisi que le déplacement du centre d'action, opéré au moment où il m'était

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