en his assent. That Bismarck
invented the Hohenzollern candidature the evidence is not conclusive. What
is undoubted is that in the late spring of 1870 he took it up, and was
much discontented at its failure in that stage.(203) He had become aware
that France was striving to arrange alliances with Austria, and even with
Italy, in spite of the obnoxious presence of the French garrison at Rome.
It was possible that on certain issues Bavaria and the South might join
France against Prussia. All the hindrances to German unity, the jealousies
of the minor states, the hatred of the Prussian military system, were
likely to be aggravated by time, if France, while keeping her powder dry,
were to persevere in a prudent abstention. Bismarck believed that Moltke's
preparations were more advanced than Napoleon's. It was his interest to
strike before any French treaties of alliance were signed. The Spanish
crown was an occasion. It might easily become a pretext for collision if
either France or Germany thought the hour had come. If the Hohenzollern
candidate withdrew, it was a diplomatic success for France and a
humiliation to Germany; if not, a king from Prussia planted across the
Pyrenees, after the aggrandizements of north German power in 1864 and
1866, was enough to make Richelieu, Mazarin, Louis XIV., Bonaparte, even
Louis Philippe, turn in their graves.

On June 27, 1870, Lord Clarendon died, and on July 6 Lord Granville
received the seals of the foreign department from the Queen at Windsor.
The new chief had visited his office the day before, and the permanent
under-secretary coming into his room to report, gave him the most
remarkable assurance ever received by any secretary of state on first
seating himself at his desk. Lord Granville told the story in the House of
Lords on July 11, when the crash of the fiercest storm since Waterloo was
close upon them:--

The able and experienced under-secretary, Mr. Hammond, at the
foreign office told me, it being then three or four o'clock, that
with the exception of the sad and painful subject about to be
discussed this evening [the murders by brigands in Greece] he had
never during his long experience known so great a lull in foreign
affairs, and that he was not aware of any important question that
I should have to deal with. At six o'clock that evening I received
a telegram informing me of the choice that had been made by the
provisional governmen