An extract from M. 011ivier's fifteenth volume, quoted in Thursday's
Times, gives a piece of secret history which carries us straight back to the eighteenth century. M. 011ivier reports a statement made to him by General Ducrot,
who was in command at Strasshurg. The General paid a secret visit to the Grand Duke of Hesse at Darmstadt just before the outbreak of the war of 1870.
"This Prince had expressed his horror of Prussia and his cordial feelings towards France. Tell the Emperor,' he said, 'that I am on his side ; I will cede Mayence and the left bank of the Rhine to him, and he will give me compensation from tho territory of my hateful neighbour (the Grand Duke of Baden). Let him, so soon as the war begins, cross over to the right bank and prevent us by force from joining Prussia; if he once lets us become involved it will be too late.'"
The desire of the petty German princeling to benefit himself territorially at the expense of his "hateful neighbour" was the mainspring of foreign politics on the Rhine from the days of Louis XIV. to those of Napoleon, but it is difficult to realize that it actually lasted till 1870.
