e was subject to spying and misrepresentation, but this did
not deter him from doing his duty and more than his duty. He took
measures to safeguard those dependent on him, in case Hesse came into
the theatre of war. He organized medical aid for the wounded on both
sides. He took a journey in September into Alsace and Lorraine to
ascertain the feeling of the inhabitants, that he might give the best
possible advice to his Government if the cession of these districts
became a European question. He came to the conclusion that Alsace was
not a homogeneous unit--that language, religion, and sentiment varied in
different districts, and that it was desirable to work for a compromise.
But Bismarck was determined in 1870, as in 1866, that the settlement
should remain in his own hands and that no European congress should
spoil his plans. Morier found that he was being talked of at Berlin as
'the enemy of Prussia', and atrocious calumnies were circulated. One of
these was revived some years later when Bismarck wished to discredit
him, and Bismarckian journals accused him of having betrayed to Marshal
Bazaine military secrets which he discovered in Hesse. Morier obtained
from the Marshal a letter which clearly refuted the charge, and he gave
it the widest publicity. The plot recoiled on its author, and Morier was
spoken of in France as 'le grand ambassadeur qui a roule Bismarck'. Yet
all the while, with his wife a strong partisan of France, with six
cousins fighting in the French Army, with his friends in England only
too ready to quarrel with him for his supposed pro-German sentiments, he
was appealing for fair judgement, for reason, for a wise policy which
should soften the bitterness of the settlement between victors and
vanquished. Facts must be recognized, he pleaded, and the French claim
for peculiar consideration and their traditional _amour propre_ must not
be allowed to prolong the miseries of war. At the same time Morier did
not close his eyes to the danger arising from the overwhelming victories
of the German armies. No one saw more clearly the deterioration which
was taking place in German character, or depicted it in more trenchant
terms. But it was his business to work for the future and not to let
sentiment bring fresh disasters upon Europe.

Apart from this critical period, life at Darmstadt bored him
considerably. His presence there was valued highly by Queen Victoria,
one of whose daughters had married the Grand Duk