ion offered.

"It was," he said, "a melancholy result of the centuries of
disunion. There were traitors in the country; they did not hide
themselves; they carried their heads erect; they found public
defenders even in the walls of Parliament."

Then he continued:

"Everywhere where corruption is found there a form of life begins
which no one can touch with clean kid gloves. In view of these
facts you speak to me of espionage. In my nature I am not born to
be a spy, but I believe we deserve your thanks if we condescend
to follow malignant reptiles into their cave to observe their
actions."

This is the origin of the expression "the _reptile Press,"_ for the name
was given by the people not to those against whom the efforts of the
Government were directed, but to the paid organs to which, if report is
true, so large a portion of the Guelph fund was given.

But we must pass on to the events by which the work of 1866 was to be
completed.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR WITH FRANCE.

1867-1870.

Ever since the conclusion of peace, the danger of a conflict between
France and Germany had been apparent. It was not only the growing
discontent and suspicion of the French nation and the French army, who
truly felt that the supremacy of France had been shaken by the growth of
this new power; it was not only that the deep-rooted hatred of France
which prevailed in Germany had been stirred by Napoleon's action, and
that the Germans had received confidence from the consciousness of their
own strength. Had there been nothing more than this, year after year
might have gone by and, as has happened since and had happened before, a
war always anticipated might have been always deferred. We may be sure
that Bismarck would not have gone to war unless he believed it to be
necessary and desirable, and he would not have thought this unless there
was something to be gained. He has often shewn, before and since, that
he was quite as well able to use his powers in the maintenance of peace
as in creating causes for war. There was, however, one reason which
made war almost inevitable. The unity of Germany was only half
completed; the southern States still existed in a curious state of
semi-isolation. This could not long continue; their position must be
regulated. War arises from that state of uncertainty which is always
present when a political community has not found a stable and permanent
constitution.