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

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Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , September 1972 , pp. 455 - 470
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

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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.

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52 Ibid.

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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.

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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.

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