"We have been permitted, after many storms, to spend a quiet and happy summer, admiring nature and art, and visited by people of all kinds and of all nationalities--mutable and merry, despite the stillness of the cloister surrounded by giant mountains. Even a few Englishmen put in an appearance, and I gave them the heartier welcome for the hope that they will now spread healthier ideas about Oriental countries amongst their fellow countrymen. Unfortunately the shade of Palmerston still moves amongst England's diplomatists, and her inhabitants are more Turkish than the Turks themselves, which fact you will be able to estimate correctly, as you are acquainted with Turkish rule. I have said this to all who came, and I hope that the Foreign Office will acquire a more just appreciation, particularly of the territories of the Danube." _From the_ GERMAN CROWN PRINCE, _October 28th, 1872_. "We fared very well during the summer; my wife and I and our two youngest children enjoyed the Alps in Berchtesgaden and Salzburg, a region which we find extraordinarily attractive. "There, as in the whole of South Germany, where later on I inspected troops, a reception was prepared for me as hearty and brilliant as any in the old Mother Country. The feeling of cohesion amongst all German races since the re-establishment of the German Empire has spread in those parts extraordinarily, broadly, and quickly. All feel themselves elevated and strengthened; they see themselves as members of a nation which commands a respect such as the former thirty Fatherlands could never have commanded. The enemies of our union, against whom we struggle, cannot prevail in face of this political power, but they will leave no means of damaging it untried. Only we must not make a mistake in our choice of weapons, for otherwise we shall make martyrs of our opponents, and shall reap neither thanks nor advantage." _From_ PRINCE CHARLES ANTHONY, _November 26th, 1872_. "The burning question in the new German Empire is the Church. This question is making a great stir and embittering family life; it undoubtedly points to future danger, since the Ultramontane Party will use it as a lever to intrigue against the new German Empire and the Protestant Emperor. Simply to oppose Germany, France is highly in favour of Rome and everything connected with it, and so she is enlisting the sympathies of our Ultras, who believe, or wish to have it believed, that France is the only sanctuary of Catholicism, and that Prussia's policy is universal evangelisation. This tendency in France is at present a means of agitation, inspired by revenge and not by the glorification of the Church.