So rapid is modern war, that even the authorship of
the Draft Treaty is slipping out of sight. We must not, however, omit to record that while the French Government continue to affirm that the treaty was suggested by Count von Bismarck, and M. Bene- detti declares that he wrote it down at the Chancellor's dictation, the latter in a long circular to all the German representatives repeats that from 1862 to the present day, the French Govern- ment has never ceased to ask for Belgium and the Rhine, and that he kept these negotiations secret lest he should precipitate war with France, —finding, as he did, that war became more or lees likely as he seemed more or less yielding. He gives also another draft treaty, under which France pledged herself to help Prussia with 300,000 men against Austria, to give Prussia eight millions of souls at choice, and to allow a Federal reform in the Prussian sense, provided France had the German part of the Rhine bank, without Mayence and Coblenz. The Benedetti Treaty was an amplification of all this, and was written on paper of the Imperial Embassy.
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