reasonable ones among us are directed to prove to us others (who must
needs be "gloomy lunatics") the folly of believing in the Russian
alliance, and gently to prepare us for a last and supreme act of cowardly
surrender--namely, to give William II a friendly reception at Cannes or
in Paris.

The chief argument with which they would persuade us is, that Berlin is
quite willing to receive our philosophers and our doctors. But we are
more than quits on this score, seeing the number of Germans that we
entertain and enrich in Paris. To prove that we owe them nothing in the
matter of hospitality, it should be enough to ascertain on the 27th inst.
how many Germans will celebrate the birthday of William II in one of our
first-rate hotels.

Heaven be praised, hatred of the Hohenzollerns is not yet dead in France!
If it be true that the corpse of an enemy always smells sweet, the person
of a living enemy must always remain hateful.

Before we discuss the possibility of the King of Prussia visiting Paris,
however, let us wait until M. Carnot has been to Berlin.



January 29, 1891. [2]

The nearer we approach to 1900, the less desire have I to be up-to-date.
I persist in the belief that the solution of the problems of European
policy in which France is concerned, would have been more readily
attainable by an old fashioned fidelity to the memory of our misfortunes
than by scorning to learn by our experience.