New-York tribune., 1873-02-01
GRAMoNT's REVELATIONS.
FRENCH DIPLOMACY DURING THE LATE
WAR IN EUROPE.

TpYrps-AUsTRIA ACCUSED OF BEING IN
LEAGUE WITH FRANCE ..
IYRon TRE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE Tribune
PARIS. Jan. 1.-When the Duke dc Grainohe
left his post Embassador to Austria 10 peooi'
%, of Foreign Affairs in the olivier CABINET Prince
p,.marck was reported to said among other thgs
,nt ne 1Vas the siiest Of all French diplomasts ana
vet AT that time Bismarck had already fooled Beheoe'u
and was particularly we aware that Baron merecr uo
Iogende was the Emperors ambassador IN spaln ater
inistering TO bis diplomatic wants. as he dd at WASH
tngton The puzzng question which OF the three inca
pacities OF that queer Duke is greaes-the ineapaey
of seeing or Of knowing when he sees, or OF teIins
accurately what he knOws-is our holiday entertain
ment oddly enough, the question Is OF ms own pro.
posing though he says he forced TO bring u Oh y
NJ Thiers, that is by the publication month aSV u ~
testimony given some months earlier Dy NJ Ihiers' pe
fore the Committee OF Inquiry the Fourth september
The inquiry covers in its broad scope the origin anu
causes OF the war well as It's eonauct.
Therss deposition is among the abest perhaps the
most interesting certainly the most entertaining oi All
his works His talents for hstorieal oohPos'lon' oi
sism philosophzing. and clear flowing narration, no
nhere shneI more brilliantly than in this longspoken
memoir Donbtessly composed and finished with incest
care of mental processes was first edited orally before
the committee - say among committee mostly OF
friends and acquananees IL has the air ana chalh
of familiar conversations is lighted UP with bits of per
sopa adventure and traits OF bis own character ana
auchc of personality TO the address OF others is de-
uehtfuy auobiographieal as well grandly historical
Thus he makes point of telling his listeners how he
started on his journey TO Vienna and St. Peters
burg with such jealous haste that he took hardy time
for a light meal" You SMILE but not grin, reminded OF
Gen seotts "hasty plate OF soup" After narrating
the incidents and failure Of the negotiations for an arm
lsce he tells how he left Versailles and being escorted
past the advanced posts took passage on an engine
car and came into Tours seated ON a pile OF cOals'
What subject for historical picture the Lore val
ley landscape dmmed by November mists for the baek
ground the locomotive coming out, with the grimy fire
men and the anxious engineer, and the htte close
wrapped, shortlegged, great statesman, for Lett
Right, and Central figures.
1t strikes the reader as possible that the witness may
have been unduy Influenced by the present snug pil
vacy OF the cOmmitteeroom and so, in the as IL Were
cosy warmth Of intimate conversation, INDUCED III
certain negligence Of phrase and slipped into certain
unoficial ncautious freedom of approaching certain
men and their acts who which subjects of in
qury But seeing that he had long time to prepare ms
deposition that he knew it would be taken down Word
for word and after being revised in proof by himself
would printed and published TO the world; that MS
wisdom teeth were great many years ago and are
st of the sharpes his rm-set jaw-it is much more
probable that his seeming ndiscreton was calculated
One of the chief points the President pressed on the
Committee was that the Empire dashed into the crazy
war venture Of july 1870 without hacker; and he EN-
phatcay denies, particular, that Austria had ever
promised her alliance
The Duke de Gramont much provoked by this emphatic
and particular denial published first letter last fort
night Of rambling loose assertion in contradiction of
Thiers's positive statement which Theirs had deposed
was based the most positive declarations made TO
him when at Vienna in 1870 by the Austrian Ministers
Beust and Andrassy This first letter gave impulse to
great discussion and commentary in which all the West
European press has come TO take part The annual
Austrian Red Book diplomatic correspondence for lS70
and all other published documentary matter TO which
Gramonts deposition before the Committee Of Inquiry
and second published letter are notable contributions
have been brought forward with attendant CLOSES,
interpretations, deductions and decamatory rhetoric
altogether too voluminOus for cataOgung here, much
less analyzin
Surveying the whole field of controversy which ever
hkadenng and lacks as yet definite limits, should
AZ these were its initial points Gramonts assertion
that Austria did promise its alliance TO France in view
OF the war Therss assertion that Austria did not so
promise deprecated the and warned France that
she could not be her partner in it, That previous 10 the
war Austria through Beust, offered sympathyto France
as against Prussia through GramOnt is nearly certain
that feaheTheaded Gramont generated out OF that ana
his wish thought that sympathy was the synonym Of
material action, is apparent that after war was de-
clared Austria conveyed new expression Of this SYM
pathy 10 the Emperor evident from GramOnts second
letter-though with what qualifications il accom-
panied his scant quotation leaves to conjecture IL
is Characteristic Of the Dukes logical methods
that he alleges this phrase Of sympathy written
after war was declared proof positive that when the
declaration was made the Austrian alliance was to be
counted on 1t is not unlikely that Beust had formerly
talked with GramOnt in vein somewhat different from
that Of his later conversation with Thiers Nobody sup
poses that a French against Prussia, undertaken
with fair prospect Of success could be dsagreeable to
him There is reason for believing that he was
planning preparations for aiding France on such future
favorable OCCASION but serious statesman to
r1aa la
himself admits that the occasion unfayOrable 1t
is rumored that he will write public letter in answer to
the assertions OF the poor Duke. Whether he do or do not
and whether by doing he utterly purify his own
skrs will but slightly affect the question in controversy
between NJ Theirs and the Imperial Minister OF Foreign
Affairs The President may have spoken with a certain
dscreet pOsveness of form, but the general assertion
that France was plunged into without secured allies
remains irrefutabe.
Another point IN that deposition has pricked Baron
MERCER de Lostende into defensive print Thers
By resisting in dynastie interest the canddature Of
Monpense TO the Spanish throne the Bonapare house
undoubtedly gave origin to the Hohenzollern candida
ture" Merciers protest Is heplessly The very
letters cites written him by the Emperor and the then
Minister OF Foreign Affairs, merely recommend him not
10 interfere openyagainst Monpensier not only leav
ing real hostility 10 that Prince TO be implied but dis
tnetly revealing it, That hostility Of public noto
riety expressed and made eeetua in all ways as every
knows. Were there any doubt OF it, these three let
ters, In absence of other proof would 20 far to its
demonstration Truly is hard TO decide whether these
Imperial dipomatsts brilliant for incapacty
as dplomatists for ncapaey apologsts for their
diplomatic aetion-and inaction.
To recolect that the interests Of great nation,
100000 strong, were dependent the ignorance,
sevity, and partisan faneies OF such msmanagers Of
public affairs is ptable. More pitabe, and that which
gives painful interest of acuality to the controversy
their lame apOlogiss have provoked the spirit in
which is carried here What parties to the contro
versy either side, are seeking all this rusted