Count Bismarck has taken advantage of the final lull to
strike a terrible diplomatic blow at France. He declares, in a telegram to Count Bernstorff, published on the 28th inst., that the French Ambassador proposed to him—during the Luxemburg affair—a Draft Treaty, in his own handwriting, which has been shown to Lord A. Loftus, and will be photographed for public inspection. By this treaty the Emperor Napoleon agreed to sanction the fusion of the South-German States with the Con- federation and to guarantee the new Germany, on condition that Prussia should invite the King of Holland to sell Luxemburg, should consent to the French conquest of Belgium, and should agree to fight, by sea and land, " any Power who might on account of .such conquest declare war on France,"—that is, of course, Great Britain. Count Bismarck has, moreover, " reason to believe that had not the proposal been made public, after our armaments on both sides were complete, France would have proposed to us jointly to carry out M. Benedetti's proposal against unarmed Europe, and to conclude peace at Belgium's cost."
