We still want the Centre party for the sugar and spirit taxes.” I then mentioned the League of Patriots, and afterwards turned the conversation on to Alsace-Lorraine. On my observing that it might, perhaps, be possible to annex it to Prussia, or divide it between Bavaria and Baden, he replied: “To unite it to Prussia would strengthen by thirty votes the Opposition in the Lower House of the Prussian Diet, where things are now very tolerable. The Bavarians will not hear of it either, and still less the people in Baden, who are in absolute terror of such a change. If we were only living in the time of Charlemagne we could remove the Alsacians to Posen, and place the inhabitants of the latter country between the Rhine and the Vosges, or form an uninhabited desert between ourselves and the French. As it is, however, we must try some other method.” We then spoke about the Crown Prince, who, he said, was understood to have a polypus in the throat. It would be no wonder if he did not recover, as “she” never allowed him to have more than eleven degrees (Réaumur) of warmth in his room, and obliged him at Ems to go into the cold and windy mountain districts, and to cross the Rhine in storm and rain, &c. I said: “It appears that Diest-Daber wishes to proceed with his action once more.” He: “But how can he do that?” He then gave me an account of the affair, which originated in an action against Diest for libel. This was afterwards transformed by Klotz into a prosecution against him, Bismarck, which resulted in his vindication. He concluded: “Diest is suffering from the mania of persecution, that is to say, in its active form--he must persecute somebody. It would now seem to have turned into megalomania.” On our coming to speak of his fortune, I said: “To show what superstitions prevail on this subject, a tradesman, who is otherwise a sensible man, told me recently that you possess a fortune of at least a hundred millions.” He thereupon gave me a detailed account of his circumstances, and spoke of the value of his various estates, adding that he was not thinking--“as his sons wished him to do”--of increasing his capital, but rather of rounding off and improving his property. He mentioned Chorow and Sedlitz, and the purchases of land in the Sachsenwald, and similar matters. “I cannot help it,” he said. “When a neighbour’s property wedges itself into mine, and I see a fine clump of trees on it that are going to be cut down, I must buy that piece of ground.” In making such purchases he often paid too much, and frequently the estates were not well managed by those to whom they were entrusted. Thus, although in good years, when high prices were to be had for timber, &c., his profits might amount to about 100,000 thalers, he had, on several occasions, had no surplus whatever over his expenses. “Moreover,” he continued, “it costs me more to live in the country than in Berlin; and in Varzin my horses, with their fodder, cost me more than here. If I