Especially interesting to me was the news on page 61 about the resolution of the organized English workingmen; for you see on the very evening before I got the book I had quite a long discussion with the professor who lectures for us on history here at the Academy. He asserts that, in consequence of the English election law, the predominant power in parliament will more and more pass over to the side of the masses, i.e. the workingmen; and herein, he says, lies the chief danger for peace, for the instinct of the masses is always directed to war, especially in England, where the people’s heads are turned by their imperialistic notions, joined with an ever more and more pronounced national conceit. A more striking answer to this assertion than the so-called resolution I can scarcely imagine. Have I already told you, Baroness, that I presented “Marmaduke” (in English text) to a French officer, with the dedication _Un souvenir [de] nos idées qui se rencontraient_,—and that, too, after a speech on the _Alliance franco-allemande_, which was made in the presence of French army and navy officers, officials, and merchants, at four o’clock in the morning, if you please, in our wardroom, on the _Seeadler_, and not long before Fashoda, when the Russian friendship was still very warm. The affair is noteworthy, for the reason that the Frenchman is usually, in a large company, quite extraordinarily careful and reserved. Moreover, the speech was made by a French physician who was on the expedition with Marchand when lack of support from his reserve stations compelled him to return. It was known quite accurately in Madagascar at that time, April, 1898, that a French expedition must have arrived at the Nile or would soon arrive there, and every day the news of it was expected. Remember me kindly to your husband, and I kiss your hand as Your very devoted Moritz von Egidy LVII BEFORE THE HAGUE Emperor Nicholas regarding the reception of his rescript · Discouragement in St. Petersburg · Stead’s project for a peace crusade · Count Muravieff’s second circular · The wedge driven into the peace question · The general conception and our conception · Journey to Berlin · Osten-Sacken · Formation of an information committee · Letter from Bebel · Service in honor of Egidy · Trip to Nice · Meeting with Madame Adam · Monsieur Catusse · A noteworthy Dreyfus reminiscence · My lecture · Madame Bashkirtseff · Trip to Cannes for a lecture · Lucien Murat’s visit · Return to Harmannsdorf · Correspondence with Bloch, Scipione Borghese, and D’Estournelles de Constant · Letters from Hodgson Pratt and Élie Ducommun · A plan of action suggested by Henri Dunant