I need not say that I did not lightly credit the rumours of the overtures made by Bismarck to the French Government; they were not only widespread and believed by those who had the best information, but my friends in Holland sent me precise details, and I immediately got the 'Journal des Debats' to publish an article which treated this attempted temptation as it deserved, and pointed out the honourable and pacific policy which France ought to follow on this occasion. I have reason to think that men of good sense in the French Government, who were trying to make the policy of law and peace prevail, congratulated themselves on being thus loudly upheld and encouraged. Never forget, 'my dear sir,' what the position of the friends of law and peace is in our general policy. You must some time have read Buerger's ballad of the 'Wild Huntsman,' founded on the legend of a certain nobleman, on the banks of the Rhine, a great hunter, who, if I mistake not, could never mount his horse for the chase without being accompanied, on either side, by a good and a bad angel, one urging him to follow the beaten track, and respect the rights of property, the other urging him to rush across the fields, trampling down harvest, gardens, and passers-by, careless of what injury he inflicted. For a long time France, both as to her Government and her people, has been in the position of this hunter, always accompanied by the two angels; all that has happened in France and in Europe during the last eighty years has put us in that position, and it is sometimes the good angel, sometimes the bad, which has made itself heard, and has seemed on the point of becoming the hunter's master. There is not a right-minded and sensible man in Europe who has not endeavoured to help the good angel and defeat the efforts of the wicked tempter. In my opinion, the Imperial Government was wrong in not accepting the withdrawal of the candidateship of the Prince of Hohenzollern; a withdrawal announced by the Prince himself, accepted by the King of Prussia, and accepted and officially communicated to France by the Spanish Government. This was held to be insufficient satisfaction for France, though I think neither necessity nor prudence called for a second demand, which offended the pride of all parties; and the manner in which it was rejected has destroyed the last chance of peace. Till that moment, the good angel had prevailed; but now the bad angel is speaking. But if there is one man in Europe who cannot avail himself of this blunder to rid himself of the responsibility of war, that man is surely the tempter of 1868.... _To Mr. Dempster_