sent themselves before the Chambers. Gramont rose and told them
that if they wished an accommodation, there was still one way, an appeal
to Europe. The word congress was no sooner pronounced than the Emperor,
seized by extraordinary emotion at the thought of salvation by his own
favourite chimera, was stirred even to tears. An address to the Powers was
instantly drawn up, and the council broke off. At six o'clock Leboeuf
received a note from the Emperor, seeming to regret the decision to call
out the reserves. On Leboeuf's demand the council was convoked for ten
o'clock that night. In the interval news came that the Ems telegram had
been communicated to foreign governments. As Bismarck had calculated, the
affront of the telegram was aggravated by publicity. At ten o'clock the
council met, and mobilisation was again considered. By eleven it was
almost decided that mobilisation should be put off. At eleven o'clock a
foreign office despatch arrived, and was read at the council. What was
this despatch, is not yet known--perhaps from the French military agent at
Berlin, with further news of Prussian preparations. It was of such a kind
that it brought about an instant reaction. The orders for mobilisation
were maintained.(212)

(M107) An inflammatory appeal was made to the Chambers. When a
parliamentary committee was appointed, a vital document was suppressed,
and its purport misrepresented. Thus in point of scruple, the two parties
to the transaction were not ill-matched, but Bismarck had been watchful,
provident, and well informed, while his opponents were men, as one of them
said, "of a light heart," heedless, uncalculating, and ignorant and wrong
as to their facts.(213)

On July 15 Mr. Gladstone reported to the Queen:--

Mr. Disraeli made inquiries from the government respecting the
differences between France and Prussia, and in so doing expressed
opinions strongly adverse to France as the apparent aggressor. Mr.
Gladstone, in replying, admitted it to be the opinion of the
government that there was no matter known to be in controversy of
a nature to warrant a disturbance of the general peace. He said
the course of events was not favourable, and the decisive moment
must in all likelihood be close at hand.

"At a quarter past four," says a colleague, "a cabinet box was handed down
the treasury bench to Gladstone. He opened it and looking along to us,
said--with an accent I shall never