Later on it was stated that the Government of National Defence was thinking of contracting a new loan. Turning to me, the Minister said: “It may be useful to call attention in the press to the danger investors run in lending money to this Government. It would be well to say that the loans made to the present Government might possibly not be recognised by that with which we concluded peace, and that we might even make that one of the conditions of the peace. That should be sent to the English and Belgian press in particular.” Löwinsohn mentioned to me in the evening that a Conservative of high position, from whom he sometimes obtained information, had said to him that his friends were anxious to know what the King was going to say to the deputation from the Reichstag. It was understood that he was not pleased at their coming, as only the first Reichstag which would represent all Germany, and not the North German Reichstag, could tender him the imperial crown. (Doubtless the King is thinking less of the Reichstag, which cannot proffer him the imperial dignity independently, but only in concert with the Princes in the name of the whole people, than of the Princes themselves, all of whom will not as yet have replied to the proposal of the King of Bavaria.) Furthermore, this Conservative of high position would prefer to see the King become Emperor of Prussia. (A matter of taste.) Under the other arrangement Prussia will be lost in Germany, and that arouses scruples in his mind. Löwinsohn also reported that the Crown Prince is very indignant at certain correspondents who compared Châteaudun to Pompeii, and drew lively pictures of the devastation of the country owing to the war. I suggested to Löwinsohn that he should deal with the subject of the new French loan and that of “Chaudordy and Garibaldi’s ear-clippers” in the _Indépendance Belge_, with which he is connected. He promised to do this to-morrow. An article for the _Kölnische Zeitung_ on the new French loan was accordingly despatched in the following form:--