_January 17th._--Wrote the following article for the _Kölnische Zeitung_, from the Chief’s instructions as transmitted to me by Bucher: “Professor Friederich, writing on the 2nd of May, 1870, in the much talked-of diary which he kept during the Vatican Council, that is to say, a considerable time before the outbreak of the war, and while not a soul here (in Berlin) thought of an approaching disturbance of the peace, says: ‘I have it from one who is in a position to know that there will be a war between Prussia and France in 1871. There are whispers of an understanding between the Curia, the Jesuits, and the Tuileries.’ Permit me to add a few observations that are taken from a trustworthy source. There was no ‘whispering’ about that understanding here, because people were perfectly certain of it. It was no secret, but a notorious fact, that Eugénie, the bigoted Spaniard, was quite in the hands of the Jesuits and in active correspondence with the Curia, and that in contradistinction to the apathetic Emperor she promoted this war (which she repeatedly described as _ma guerre_) with so much zeal because it bore the character of a crusade; and because she and her clerical advisers, who may be absolutely regarded as an agency of the governing party in Rome, hoped to promote the objects which were pursued by that party in the Vatican Council and the Syllabus that preceded it. The father confessor played the part of intermediary between the Empress, who was made Regent with full powers on the departure of the Emperor for the army, and the directors of the Papal policy. The assistance of other father confessors was also counted upon in this connection, Vienna, for example, and even Italy being influenced in the same way. If the victories of Weissenburg, Wörth, and Spicheren had not followed in such rapid succession, it is probable that the event would have borne out the calculations of the Vatican and the Tuileries in regard to a coalition of the Catholic Powers against Germany, which was equally hated in both quarters. There is, therefore, no doubt that the Empress worked hand in hand with the Roman Ultramontanes in promoting the war. On the contrary she prided herself on it. It was her heart’s desire. In judging political situations and events people frequently fall into the error of forgetting that the course of affairs is often abnormal, and that one very frequent cause of such departures from the regular order is the influence of women upon rulers. Where women have a free hand, however, there Jesuitism and its aims will speedily flourish.”