Your very charming letter has made me more than happy, and I should have willingly answered it immediately to tell you how ready I am to fulfill your wish; but only to-day do I get to it. I have considered the matter from every side; it can be managed only in case the Empress should be here. It is expected here that she will take up her residence this summer at Castle Seeheim, near Darmstadt. If that should happen, my husband thinks that he might smuggle the book[21] in through a chamberlain with whom he is personally acquainted. But I myself have no confidence in this scheme, for the gentleman in question seems to me not at all equal to the responsibility. I think the book should be sent directly to the Empress here in Germany, where watchfulness and exclusiveness are not so absolutely punctilious. Then the name of a Baroness Suttner would assuredly help it to make its own way. That would not work in Russia, even through the mediation of the court here,—that is to say, of any person connected with it. Our sovereigns here are still young and take little interest in anything in particular, and consequently play no great rôle. Oh, if a Grand Duchess Alice were still alive who made it her special purpose to support noble efforts, to look out for the general good, and to establish truly benevolent institutions! That wise woman had sympathy with the burgher class, and from it she selected her most efficient forces; and a Luise Büchner was her right hand in her useful undertakings. How easy such a matter would have been then! And yet even at that time my father-in-law did not get on with her sister, the Empress Frederick; she was very much interested in his works, and caused this to be intimated to him, and so he sent her the book of the two crowned Liberals, but she never again let him hear from her. And she was a comparatively liberally educated English princess! Even here little is known about the character and opinions of the young Empress of Russia. From all that is heard it seems that the dowager Empress there wields the scepter, and it is said she has not become reconciled to the fact that her daughter-in-law is a German princess. So the young woman will have little to say in her country. Nevertheless, I will let no opportunity pass of executing your commission; perhaps it will be more successful than I can now count upon. Perhaps, also, the Empress has inherited something of her mother’s energy and capacity and will be able in time to win a position and to maintain it. In that case I am firmly convinced that her influence will be good, since nothing but good has ever been heard regarding her character.