had expiated by a check the grave fault she had committed,"--that
France had prevailed in substance, and all that remained was "a
question of form," "a question of susceptibility," "questions of
etiquette." The experienced statesman asked for the dispatches.
Then came a confession. The Prime-Minister replied, that he had
"nothing to communicate,--that, in the true sense of the term,
there had been no dispatches,--that there were only verbal
communications gathered up in reports, which, according to
diplomatic usage, are not communicated." Here Emmanuel Arago
interrupted: "It is on these reports that you make war!" The
Prime-Minister proceeded to read two brief telegrams from Count
Benedetti at Ems, when De Choiseul very justly exclaimed: "We
cannot make war on that ground; it is impossible!" Others cried
out from their seats,--Garnier Pages saying, "These are phrases";
Emmanuel Arago protesting, "On this the civilized world will
pronounce you wrong"; to which Jules Favre added, "Unhappily,
true!" Thiers and Jules Favre, with vigorous eloquence, charged
the war upon the Cabinet: Thiers declaring, "I regret to be
obliged to say that we have war by the fault of the Cabinet";
Jules Favre alleging, "If we have war, it is thanks to the
politics of the Cabinet;....from the exposition that has been
made, so far as the general interests of the two countries are
concerned, there is no avowable motive for war." Girault
exclaimed, in similar spirit: "We would be among the first to come
forward in a war for the country, but we do not wish to come
forward in a dynastic and aggressive war." The Duc de Gramont, who
on the 6th of July flung down the gauntlet, spoke once more for
the Cabinet, stating solemnly, what was not the fact, that the
Prussian Government had communicated to all the Cabinets of Europe
the refusal to receive the French Ambassador, and then on this