NAPOLEON ON THE WAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 744, 11 October 1870, Page 3

NAPOLEON ON THE WAR.

" An Englishman " writes thus to the London Daily Telegraph from Paris :—Experience has warned me that authoritative expressions of opinion emanating from the protagonists in a great political crisis rarely find their way into foreign newspapers. It is with the purp: se of enabling your readers to form their own judgment upon the views now expressed by the Emperor Napoleon that I venture to repeat the words which he employed while speaking to a friend and to myself during an interview with which he honoured us at the Tuileries. I must begin by remarking that I have known the Emperor for many years, and have seldom seen him looking better. When last I spoke with him, five months ago, he looked careworn and haggard, with a complexion more than usually ealiow and ashcoloured. Yesterday his face looked fuller, his eye bright, his cheek healthy. I wish in addition to premise, that, after he had Bpoken, I inquired whether we were at liberty to repeat his words a haute voix. He answered, " I wish nothing better than that I should be represented to the people of England as holding these views." The Emperor, after speaking with bis usual quiet kindliness upon some private matters, turned suddenly to the political situation of France md of Europe. He said, " One fortnight before the utterance of the Due de Gramont in the Corps Legislatif —which utterance has it seems to me, been so unjustly reflected upon by the British Press —l had no notion that war was at hand ; nor am I, even at this moment, by any means prepared for it. I trusted that, when the Due de Gramont had set me straight with France by speaking manfully in public as to tha Hohenzollern candidate, I should be able so to manipulate and handle the controversy as to make pesce certain. But France has slipped out of my hand. I cannot rule unless I lead. This ia the most national war that in my time Krance has undertaken, and I have no choice but to advance at the head of a public opinion which I can neither stem nor check. In addition, M. de Bismarck, although a very clever man, wants too much, and wants it too quick. After the victory of Prussia in 1866, I reminded him that but for the friendly and self-denying neutrality of France he could never have achieved such marvels. I pointed out to him that I had never moved a French soldier near to the Rhine frontier during the continuance of the German war. I quoted to him from his own letter, in which he thanked me for my abstinence, and said that he had left neither a Prussian gun nor a Prussian soldier upon the Rhine, but had thrown Prussia's whole and undivided strength against Austria and her allies. I told him that, as some slight return for my friendly inactivity, I thought that he might surrender Luxembourg, and one or two other little towns which gravely menace our frontier, to France. I added that in this way he would, by a trifling sacrifice, easily forgotten by Prussia in view of her enormous successes and acquisitions, pacify the French nation, whose jealousies it was so easy to arouse, so difficult to disarm." M. de Bismarck replied to me, after some delay, " Not one foot of territory, whether Prussian or neutral, can I resign. But, perhaps, if 1 were to make some further acquisitions, I could make some concessions. How, for instance, if I were to take Holland? What would France want as a sop for Holland ?" "I replied," said the Emperor, " that if he attempted to take Holland, it meant war with France; and there the conversation, in which M. de Bismarck and M. de Benedetti were interlocutors, came to an end." I have repeated this conversation as ne*rly as possible in the Emperor's words. While we were speaking, the Duo de Trevise brought a despatch to his Majesty, which the latter read, and which was to the effect that " the eleventh corps of the Prussian army were at that moment trooping into Treves." I have little to add to this recapitulation. These words which I have faithfully endeavoured to interpret must speak for themselves.