We have already seen the results of this strife between the pro-Prussian foibles of the Emperor and the eager prejudices of Frenchmen, whose love of oppressed and divided nations grew in proportion to their distance from France, and changed to suspicion or hatred in the case of her neighbours.  In 1866, under the breath of ministerial arguments and oratorical onslaughts Napoleon III.’s policy weakly wavered, thereby giving to Bismarck’s statecraft a decisive triumph all along the line.  In vain did he in the latter part of that year remind the Prussian statesman of his earlier promises (always discreetly vague) of compensation for France, and throw out diplomatic feelers for Belgium, or at any rate Luxemburg[8].  In vain did M. Thiers declare in the Chamber of Deputies that France, while recognising accomplished facts in Germany, ought “firmly to declare that we will not allow them to go further” (March 14, 1867).  Bismarck replied to this challenge of the French orator by publishing five days later the hitherto secret military alliances concluded with the South German States in August 1866.  Thenceforth France knew that a war with Prussia would be war with a united Germany.

[8] In 1867 Bismarck’s promises went so far as the framing of a secret compact with France, one article of which stated that Prussia would not object to the annexation of Belgium by France.  The agreement was first published by the Times on July 25, 1870, Bismarck then divulging the secret so as to inflame public opinion against France.

In the following year the Zollverein, or German Customs’ Union (which had been gradually growing since 1833), took a definitely national form in a Customs’ Parliament which assembled in April 1868, thus unifying Germany for purposes of trade as well as those of war.  This sharp rebuff came at a time when Napoleon’s throne was tottering from the utter collapse of his Mexican expedition; when, too, he more than ever needed popular support in France for the beginnings of a more constitutional rule.  Early in 1867 he sought to buy Luxemburg from Holland.  This action aroused a storm of wrath in Prussia, which had the right to garrison Luxemburg; but the question was patched up by a Conference of the Powers at London, the Duchy being declared neutral territory under the guarantee of Europe; the fortifications of its capital were also to be demolished, and the Prussian garrison withdrawn.  This success for French diplomacy was repeated in Italy, where the French troops supporting the Pope crushed the efforts of Garibaldi and his irregulars to capture Rome, at the sanguinary fight of Mentana (November 3, 1867).  The official despatch, stating that the new French rifle, the chassepot, “had done wonders,” spread jubilation through France and a sharp anti-Gallic sentiment throughout Italy.

And while Italy heaved with longings for her natural capital, popular feelings in France and North Germany made steadily for war.