municate officially to the French Government, as was enjoined in the last sentence of my Telegram, No. 9, of the 8th instant, our Draft Convention, the existence of which was still unknown to M. Thiers on the 10th instant; his Majesty the Emperor commands you to telegraph to-morrow morning, that this order has been executed.

(Signed) "VON BISMARCK."

This Telegram contains two incorrect assertions, or rather statements, at variance with previous documents.

In M. Thiers' Telegram not a word is said of his being unacquainted with the existence of our Draft Convention; he merely says that he was in ignorance of the text received by him from Nancy.

That he could not have been made acquainted with it without the negotiations intrusted to me being compromised, has already been shown.

It is equally incorrect to say that you had previously directed me, on the 8th of March, to communicate the Draft Convention to the French Government, An injunction to that

effect appears for the first time in this Telegram of the 12th of March, and even then it was not clearly expressed. For to be quite intelligible it should have contained the information, that you meant to forego the demand made with regard to the extension of the neutralisation until the 4th of March. But it is not the President's Telegram of the 11th of March, mentioning my ambiguous proposals, that throws the worst light upon the correspondence carried on between Berlin, Paris, and Nancy. A Telegram from the President to Count St. Vallier was received by you through head-quarters, in which the former says:

"Je ne comprends pas plus que vous les doubles fonds d'un certain personnage. J'espère que la conclusion y mettra fin.

"I do not understand any more than yourself the double dealings of a certain person. I hope that the settlement will put an end to them.

(Signed) "THIERS."

I myself feel convinced that M. Thiers, when despatching that Telegram, was not influenced

by the desire that it should be brought to the knowledge of your Highness. In any case, he did not expect to find this Telegram amongst the documents produced in the High Court of Justice.

On the other hand, until further proof, it is not clear to me that M. Thiers thought of me when he spoke of a certain personnage

à doubles fonds."

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It is, at least, improbable that M. Thiers should, on the 13th of March, 1873, call me a

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personnage à doubles fonds," and should then write to me on the 13th:

"MY DEAR COUNT,

"As agreed on, I expect you at Versailles, at five o'clock to-day, and I do not anticipate the possibility of any obstacle arising, according to what has reached me from Berlin."

And on the 16th:

"MY DEAR COUNT ARNIM,

"I should have liked to have written to

you yesterday evening. I had, unhappily, neither the time nor the strength to do so; but I should be ungrateful—which is not the case

and never shall be did I not hasten to thank you for the services rendered by you to me, and, what is of more value, to France, in the long negotiation just closed. You know we

had nothing to do with the occurrence which caused the transfer of the act of signature to Berlin. In this matter the place fixed upon for signing is of no consequence.

“You will, none the less, from your superior intelligence, be considered by us as one of those who will have most contributed to a result calculated to terminate effectually the horrible war of 1870.

"Yours sincerely, with as much friendship as high and profound esteem,

But whomsoever M. Thiers was thinking of, you had no doubt but that he was alluding to me.

Nevertheless, an insulting expression of the President with regard to the Emperor's Ambassador was allowed to be brought to your notice officially, yet secretly, without any censure on your part.

Not only did your Highness afford me no protection, but you made use of the Tele

gram of the President of the French Republic to rouse suspicions against me in the Emperor's mind.

You concealed from me the fact that M. Thiers had expressed himself in this manner with regard to me. Besides, I could not suspect you were making use of him in order that you might, like a man in ambush, spring on me from behind, at the very time when I was representing our master, the Emperor, in a country still comparatively hostile, and was endeavouring to be useful to my own country by obtaining a peace which should not be void of advantageous results.

For that purpose I had need of all the prestige to which I laid claim in my own person, and as the representative of his Majesty. You, the Imperial Chancellor, connived at damaging that prestige. And yet I was left by you more than a year in the same post, and in the same country, by the aid of the Government of which you were carrying on a campaign against me.

There would be nothing astonishing in M. Thiers calling me "un certain personnage whose "doubles fonds" he did not understand.