Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T01:17:29.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

IV. Lord Clarendon's Attempt at Franco-Prussian Disarmament, January to March 1870

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. L. Herkless
Affiliation:
Wroxton College, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Oxon.

Extract

On 26 January 1870 die Marquis de La Valette, French ambassador to London, read to the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Clarendon, ‘a long and able letter’ from Count Daru, the French Foreign Secretary. In this letter Daru suggested that Clarendon recommend to the Prussian Government some measure of reciprocal French and Prussian disarmament. Daru's proposal was immediately taken up. Clarendon wrote to the queen the same day informing her of his intention to do so and to his friend Lord Lyons, the British ambassador at Paris, saying that Count Daru could be sure he would do everything possible ‘to meet his views’. As one might expect from so easy a reception the idea of disarma- ment, especially of Franco-Prussian disarmament, was not a new one to Lord Clarendon. In his letter to Lord Lyons he described it as a subject he had ‘long had at heart’; and he informed Lyons that during the previous summer, whilst he and the Russian Foreign Secretary Gortchakoff had been at a German watering place, he had unsuccessfully proposed that Gortchakoff take up die matter with Prussia. But one must note straightaway that, however warmly Clarendon accepted the idea that he suggest disarmament to Prussia, he did not expect to be successful, i.e. he did not expect Prussia to make any move to disarm in any measure. In his letter to the queen Clarendon says that he feels failure is certain with the king of Prussia. He has some faint hopes with the Crown Prince, Queen Victoria's son-in-law, but he does not dwell on them. In his letters both to Lyons and to the queen, Clarendon says, in almost identical phrases, that while the king of Prussia does not desire war,’… far from it, his army is his idol and he will not be an iconoclast’. It is most unlikely, he continues, that the king will countenance any proposal to reduce the size of his army or to alter the Prussian system of recruitment.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Daru to La Valette, Paris, 24 Jan. 1870, Les origines diplomatiques de la guerre de 1870–1891 (29 vols., Paris, 19101932) (hereafter Orig.Dip.), xxvi, 7888, p. 211.Google Scholar

2 Clarendon to Queen Victoria, 26 Jan. 1870, Buckle, G. E., ed., The Letters of Queen Victoria, 2nd ser. (2 vols., London, 1928) (hereafter QVL), 11, 11, p. 5;Google Scholar Clarendon to Lyons, 26 Jan. 1870, Lord Newton (Thomas Wodehouse Legh), Lord Lyons, A Record of British Diplomacy (2 vols., London, 1913) (hereafter Newton), 1, 247.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Clarendon to Buchanan, confidential, Wiesbaden, 3 Sept. 1869, Public Record Office, London, Foreign Office Correspondence (hereafter P.R.O. F.O.) 146/1394, no. 122.

4 Lyons to Clarendon, Paris, 30 Jan. 1870, Newton, 1, 248. Of course, no one supposed that Prussia would not guess that France was implicated.

5 Clarendon to Lyons, 26 Jan. 1870, Newton, 1, 247; La Valette to Daru, London, 27 Jan. 1870, Orig.Dip., xxvi, 7901, pp. 230–4.

6 Clarendon to Lyons, ibid.

7 Newton, 1, 246.

8 Private Letter, Lord Sanderson to H. Temperley, 11 Aug. 1922, Temperley, H. and Penson, Lillian M., Foundations of British Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 1938), p. 318.Google Scholar

9 Bismarck to Bernstorff, 29 Jan. 1870, Thimme, F., ed., Bismarck : Die Gesammelten Werke (15 vols., Berlin, 1924-1935) (hereafter G.W.), VI B, no. 1494.Google Scholar

10 Clarendon to Lord A. Loftus, 2 Feb. 1870, Newton, 1, 250.

12 Clarendon to Queen Victoria, 1 Feb. 1870, QVL, loc. cit., p 8.

13 Clarendon to Gladstone, 31 Jan. 1870, Gladstone Papers, B.M. (hereafter Glad.Pap.), XLIX, 143–5.

14 Gladstone to Clarendon, 31 Jan. 1870, Glad.Pap., CCCLIII, letter book, 1869–70.

15 Clarendon to Lyons, 3 Feb. 1870, Newton, 1, 250.

16 Bismarck to Bernstorff, 9 Feb. 1870, G.W., loc. cit., no. 1495; same to same, very confidential and secret, 9 Feb. 1870, ibid., no. 1496.

17 The Struggle for Mastery in Europe (Oxford, 1960), p. 196.Google Scholar

18 Studies in Diplomatic History (London, 1930), p. 264.Google Scholar

19 Count Emile Felix Fleury, La France et la Russie en 1870 (Paris, 1902).Google Scholar

20 The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy, III, 1866–1919 (Cambridge, 1923), p. 25.Google Scholar

21 The European Powers and the German Question, 1848–71 (Cambridge, 1958).Google Scholar

22 Gladstone, W. E., The Stale in its Relation to the Church (London, 1838);Google Scholar cf. Eyck, Erich, Gladstone (London, 1938), pp. 43–8.Google Scholar

23 Mosse, p. 8.

24 British Foreign Policy and the Coming of the Franco-Prussian War (Oxford, 1965), p. 221.Google Scholar

25 Clarendon to Lyons, Wiesbaden, 31 Aug. 1869, Newton, 1, 236.

27 Lyons to Clarendon, 3 Dec. 1869, ibid., p. 240. Regarding the Anglo-French commercial treaty, see Dunham, A. L., The Anglo-French Treaty of Commerce of 1860 (Ann Arbor, 1930).Google Scholar

28 Lyons to Clarendon, ibid.

29 Clarendon to Lyons, ibid.

30 Clarendon to Lyons, 12 Mar. 1870, Newton, 1, 266.

32 pp. 220–5 et passim.

33 Clarendon to Bloomfield, telegram, 17 Apr. 1866, P.R.O. F.O. 146/1246, no. 117.

34 Loftus to Stanley, confidential, Berlin, 27 Apr. 1867, P.R.O. F.O. 146/620, no. 243.

35 Cowley to Clarendon, Paris, 12 June 1867, Sir Maxwell, H., The Life and Letters of Lord Clarendon (2 vols., London, 1913) (hereafter Maxwell), 11, 336–7.Google Scholar

36 Lyons to Stanley, Paris, 24 Apr. 1868, P.R.O. F.O. 27/1704, no. 405.

37 La Tour to Moustier, telegram, London, 14 Nov. 1868, Orig.Dip., XXII, 238–9; same to same, confidential, London, 15 Nov. 1868, ibid. pp. 241–3.

38 Clarendon to Loftus, private, 20 Oct. 1869, Clarendon Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford (hereafter Clar.Pap.), C. 474.

39 Lyons to Stanley, 20 Oct. 1868, Newton, 1, 203–4.

40 Same to same, ibid., p. 203.

41 Lyons to Stanley, 31 Mar. 1868, ibid., p. 191.

42 Claremont to Lyons, confidential, Paris, 7 Apr. 1868, P.R.O. F.O. 27/1704, no. 25.

43 La Tour to Moustier, London, 5 July 1868, Orig.Dip., XVI, 395.

44 Stanley to Lyons, 14 Apr. 1868, Newton, 1, 196.

45 Newton, 1, 203.

46 Clarendon to Lyons, 18 Dec. 1868, ibid., p. 207.

47 Bismarck to Bernstorff, Berlin, telegram, 7 Dec. 1868, G.W., vi A, no. 1221; same to same, Berlin, 8 Dec. 1868, ibid., no. 1222.

48 Metternich to Beust, Paris, 28 Oct. 1868, Houston, D. W., The Negotiations for a Triple Alliance between France, Austria and Italy, 1869–70, University of Pennsylvania Dissertation, 1959, p. 57.Google Scholar

49 Cf. Clarendon to Loftus, 2 Feb. 1870, Newton, 1, 250.

50 Lyons to Clarendon, 30 Jan. 1870, Newton, 1, 248.

51 Loftus to Clarendon, 5 Feb. 1870, ibid., p. 254.

53 Bismarck to Bernstorff, Berlin, 9 Feb. 1870, G.W., VI B, no. 1495; same to same, 9 Feb. 1870, ibid., no. 1496.

54 Gladstone to Clarendon, 12 Feb. 1870, Glad.Pap., CCCLIII, letter book, 1869–70.

55 Lyons to Clarendon, private, Paris, 15 Feb. 1870, Lyons Papers, Arundel Castle (hereafter Lyons Pap.), R.C. 2.

56 Lyons to Clarendon, Paris, 11 Feb. 1870, Newton, 1, 258.

57 Lyons to Clarendon, very confidential, Paris, 1 Feb. 1870, Royal Archives, Windsor Castle (hereafter R.A.), J. 83/117.

58 Clarendon to Lyons, 12 Mar. 1870, Newton, 1, 266.

59 Loftus to Clarendon, 18 Mar. 1870, P.R.O. F.O. 361/1.

60 Clarendon to Lyons, 23 Mar. 1870, Newton, 1, 276.

61 Lyons to Clarendon, 17 Mar. 1870, ibid., p. 274.

62 Clarendon to Lyons, 23 Mar. 1870, ibid., p. 276.

63 Daru to La Valette, 1 Feb. 1870, Orig.Dip., XXVI, no. 7907, p. 247.

64 La Tour to Moustier, telegram, London, 14 Nov. 1868, ibid., XXII, 237–9; same to same, confidential, London, 5 July 1868, ibid., XVI, 395.

65 Millman, O. 220.

66 Lord Halifax's Journal, 26 Nov. 1868, Maxwell, II, 353.

67 Grey to Queen Victoria, 1 Nov. 1868, R.A. C. 32/129.

68 Millman, pp. 226–8. See also below p. 18.

69 Clarendon to Lyons, private, Wiesbaden, 31 Aug. 1869, Clar.Pap. C. 149.

70 Gladstone to Clarendon, 4 Nov. 1869, Glad.Pap., CCCLIII, letter book, 1869.

71 Lyons to Clarendon, private, Paris, 9 Dec. 1869, Lyons Pap., R.C. 2.

72 It is interesting to note that La Tour believed that Clarendon, when he took over the Cretan affair from Stanley, was showing greater interest in co-operating with France. La Tour to Moustier, London, 18 Dec. 1868, Orig.Dip., XXII, 386.

73 See Craig, G. A., ‘Great Britain and the Belgian Railways Dispute of 1869’, American Historical Review, 1, no. 4, 1945, pp. 738–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

74 Lumley to Clarendon, Brussels, telegram, 20 Apr. 1869, F.O. 10/295.

75 Clarendon to Lumley, private, 21 Apr. 1869, Clar.Pap., C. 474.

76 Bismarck to Bernstorff, Berlin, confidential, 20 Apr. 1869, G.W., VI B, no. 1371.

77 Newton, 1, 214; Clarendon to Lyons, 19 Apr. 1869, ibid., p. 217.

78 Ibid., p. 246.

79 See esp. Claremont to Lyons, confidential, Paris, 7 Apr. 1868, P.R.O. F.O. 27/1704, no. 25; and same to same, Paris, 25 Jan. 1870, P.R.O. F.O. 27/1798.

80 Clarendon to Lyons, 23 Mar. 1870, Newton, 1, 277. Italics mine. Of course, Clarendon was acting in the interest of France; but, presumably, he did not want Bismarck or William to think he was acting simply in the interest of France, with hopes, say, of some return favour. It was a case of the interests of France and Britain coinciding.

81 See Newton, 1, passim.

82 Maxwell, 11, 366.

83 Mosse, p. 303.

84 Princess Royal to the queen, 12 Mar. 1870, R.A. Z. 24/38; Clarendon to the queen, 14 Mar. 1870, R.A. I. 63/2. Mosse, pp. 302–3.

85 Clarendon to Lyons, 8 June 1870, Newton, 1, 293.

86 Cf. Bonnin, Georges, ed., Bismarck and the Hohenzollern Candidature to the Spanish Throne (London, 1957).Google Scholar

87 Clarendon to Buchanan, confidential, Wiesbaden, 3 Sept. 1869, P.R.O. F.O. 146/1394, no. 122.