LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often snore read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the apace.]
"SCRAPS OF PAPER."
(To THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."1
Sus,—At the present moment, when Mr. Wilson's answer to the Papal Note denies all value to the Hohenzollern signature, it may be worth while to reprint the following letter, written by Hngues Bernard Mares, Due de Bassein, Napoleon Bonaparte's Secretary of State, which entirely supports the President's contention. The letter, which will be found in Garden's Histolre des Trait& de Paix (Paris, Amyot, Tom. XIV.), is one of the most caustic and stringent in the whole range of diplomatic correspondence. It WHO sent to Baron von Hrusemark, Frederick William's Envoy, on April 1st, 1813, in reply to a declaration of war by Prussia on Frazee, and covered Kt usemark's passports. After stating that
be has submitted Krusemark's Note of March 27th to the Emperor, the Duo de Barman° continues :—
"That part of the Note which is most worthy of serious con- sideration reduces itself to this: Prussia solicited and concluded an Alliance with France in 1812 because the French armies were nearer then the Russian armies to the Prussian States. Prussia declares in 1813 that she breaks her treaties because the Russian armies are nearer than the French armies to the Prussian States. Posterity will judge if such conduct is loyal and worthy of a great Prince and conforms to equity and sound polities. However that may be, posterity will do justice to the consistency of your Cabinet in following its principles. In 1782 France, agitated from within by a revolution and attacked from without by a formidable enemy, seemed ready to succumb. Prussia made war ou her. Three years afterwards, at the moment when France was triumphing over the Coalition, Prussia abandoned her Allies. She passed to the Kids of the [French] Convention at the moment when fortune visited it, and the King of Prussia was the first of the Sovereigns opposed to France to recognise the Republic. When four years had scarcely elapsed, in 1799, France experienced the vicissitudes of war. Battles had been last in Swieserland and Italy; the Duke of York had landed in Holland; and the Republic was menaced north and south. Fortune had changed; Prussia changed also. Bat the English were driven from Holland. The Russians were beaten at Zurich. Victory again visited our standards in Italy— and Prussia again became the friend of France. In 1805 Austria armed. She marshalled her armies on the Danube; she invaded Bavaria while the Russian troops passed the Niemen and advanced on the Vistula. The reunion of the three Great Powers and their enormous preparations seemed to forecast nothing but dangers for France. Prussia did not hesitate for en instant. She armed; she signed the Treaty of Berlin, and the shade of Frederick II. was called upon to witness the eternal hate which she vowed against France. When her Minister, sent to the Emperor to draw up the treaty, arrived in Moravia, the Russians had just lost the battle of Austerlits; they owed to the generosity of the French their ability to return to their own'country. Prussia tore up as soon as possible the Treaty of Berlin, concluded six weeks pre- viously, forswore the solemn oath of Potsdam, betrayed Russia as she had betrayed France, and entered into new engagements with us. But from them eternal changes of policy there was born in the public opinion of Prussia a veritable anarchy. Agitation as took possession of the minds of men that the Prussian Government was unable to control it. . . . Prussia speaks of her desire to reach an established peace on a solid basis. But how is it possible to reckon upon a solid and lasting peace with a Power that believes itself justified when it breaks its engagements according to the promptings of the moment P To-day, M. is Baron, what remains for Prussia P She bee done nothing for her old Ally; she will do nothing for Pe'ace. A Power whose treaties are only conditional cannot be a useful intermediary; she guarantees nothing whatever."
—I ant, Sir, &c., barrio Throws. [Mr. Brown sent us the quotation in the original French, and we are entirely responsible for the translation. We agree that few more caustic diplomatist documents exist.—En. Spectator.]
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