The Marquis de 'Villeneuve publishes in the Figaro some notes
of a statement made to him by Prince Napoleon as to a conversation held by the Prince with Count Bismarck in 1866. The Prince declares that the Prussian Foreign Minister, as he was then, offered Napoleon an alliance on the following terms : Germany to be united, Austria to have the Balkans and Constantinople, and Russia to be driven back to her deserts. England was also to be stripped of her Colonies. The Prince naturally asked what France was to have, and demanded the Rhine; but Bismarck refused, and after offering Geneva and Luxemburg, proposed Belgium, saying England, if she resisted, could be driven into the sea. The Prince accepted the offer, saying that Prince Bismarck was a robber, and as he could not be arrested, it was beet to join in the burglary, and advised his cousin in that sense. Louis Napoleon, however, who understood better what war with England meant, rejected the advice, pleading public faith, and Prince Bismarck adopted another policy. It is quite possible that be made the offer, and quite possible also that he was "jockeying" his less experienced interlocutor. The allusion to the English Colonies, which can only be attacked by sea, looks very much like that. Their possession is a magnificent bribe which cannot be paid. Louis Napoleon had probably no more principle than Prince Jerome, but he was a wiser man.
