In sending defiance to Prussia on this question, the French
Cabinet selected their own ground. Evidently a war had been
meditated, and the candidature of Prince Leopold from beginning to
end supplied a pretext. In this conclusion, which is too obvious,
we are hardly left to inference. The secret was disclosed by
Rouher, President of the Senate, lately the eloquent and
unscrupulous Minister, when, in an official address to the
Emperor, immediately after the War Manifesto read by the Prime-
Minister, he declared that France quivered with indignation at the
flights of an ambition over-excited by the one day's good-fortune
at Sadowa, and then proceeded:---
"Animated by that calm perseverance which is true force, your
Majesty has known how to wait; but in the last four years you have
carried to its highest perfection the arming of our soldiers, and
raised to its full power the organization of our military forces.
_Thanks to your care, Sire, France is ready,_" [Footnote:
Address at the Palais de Saint-Cloud, July 50, 1870: Journal
Officiel du Soir, 18 Juillet 1870.]
Thus, according to the President of the Senate, France, after
waiting, commenced war because she was ready,--- while, according
to the Cabinet, it was on the point of honor. Both were right. The
war was declared because the Emperor thought himself ready, and a
pretext was found in the affair of the telegram.
Considering the age, and the present demands of civilization, such
a war stands forth terrific in wrong, making the soul rise
indignant against it. One reason avowed is brutal; the other is
frivolous; both are criminal. If we look into the text of the
Manifesto and the speeches of the Cabinet, it is a war founded on
a trifle, on a straw, on an egg-shell. Obviously these were
pretexts only. Therefore it is a war of pretexts, the real object
being the humiliation and dismemberment of Germany, in the vain
hope of exalting the French Empire and perpetuating a bawble crown
on the head of a boy. By military success and a peace dictated at
Berlin, the Emperor trusted to find himself in such condition,
that, on return to Paris, he could overthrow parliamentary
government so far as it existed there, and reestablish personal
government, where all depended upon himself,--thus making triumph
over Germany the means of another triumph over the French people.
In other times there have been wars as criminal in origin, where
trifle, straw, or egg-shell played its part; but they contrasted
less with the surrounding civilization. To this list belong the
frequent Dynastic Wars, prompted by the interest, the passion, or
the whim of some one in the Family of Kings. Others have begun in
recklessness kindred to that we now witness,---as when England
entered into war with Holland, and for reason did not hesitate to
allege "abusive pictures."[Footnote: Humo, History of England, Ch.
LXV., March 17, 1672.----The terras of the Declaration on this
point were,----"Scarce a town within their territories that is not
filled with abusive pictures." (Hansard's Parliamentary History,
Vol. IV. col. 514.) Upon which Hume remarks: "The Dutch were long
at a loss what to make of this article, till it was discovered
that a portrait of Cornelius de Witt, brother to the Pensionary,
painted by order of certain magistrates of Dort, and hung up in a
chamber of the Town-House, had given occasion to the complaint. In
the perspective of this portrait the painter had drawn some ships
on fire in a harbor. This was construed to be Chatham, where De
Witt had really distinguished himself," during the previous war,
in the way here indicated,----"the disgrace" of which, says
Lingard, "sunk deep into the heart of the King and the hearts of
his subjects." History of England, Vol. IX. Ch. III., June 13,
1667.]. The England of Charles the Second was hardly less
sensitive than the France of Louis Napoleon, while in each was
similar indifference to consequences. But France has precedents of
her own. From the remarkable correspondence of the Princess
Palatine, Duchess of Orleans, we learn that the first war with
Holland under Louis the Fourteenth was brought on by the Minister,
De Lionne, to injure a petty German prince who had made him
jealous of his wife.[Footnote: Briefe der Prinzessin Elisabeth
Charlotte von Orleans an die Gaugraefin Louise, 1676-1722, herausg.
von W. Menzel, (Stuttgart, 1843,)---Paris, 3) Mertz, 1718, s.
288.] The communicative and exuberant Saint-Simon tells us twice
over how Louvois, another Minister of Louis the Fourteenth, being
overruled by his master with regard to the dimensions of a window
at Versailles, was filled with the idea that "on account of a few
inches in a window," as he expressed it, all his services would be
forgotten, and therefore, to save his place, excited a foreign war
that would make him necessary to the King. The flames in the
Palatinate, devouring the works of man, attested his continuing
power. The war became general, but, according to the chronicler,
it ruined France at home, and did not extend her domain abroad.
[Footnote: Memoires, (Paris, 1829,) Tom. VII. pp. 49-51; XIII pp.
9-10.] The French Emperor confidently expected to occupy the same
historic region so often burnt and ravaged by French armies, with
that castle of Heidelberg which repeats the tale of blood,--and,
let me say, expected it for no better reason than that of his
royal predecessor, stimulated by an unprincipled Minister anxious
for personal position. The parallel is continued in the curse
which the Imperial arms have brought on France.