Year: 1874

THE VON ARNIM SCANDAL.


When the earliest reports of the arrest OF
Count Won Arnim reached us, it was natural
that Prince Bismarck should be somewhat
severely criticised for an act which looked
like an arbitrary exercise of administrative
power. But the subsequent stages of the in
vestigation which has resulted in Count Won
Arnim's release upon ball. have shown that
this question: like most others, has two sides
to it. The most noticeable feature about the
case has been the studied care with which the
Chancellor has held himself alOof from it. 1t
may still be that his hand moves all the Ofli-
cial springs whose workings are manifest, but
thus far there is nothing to show that any
personal feeling of Prince Bismarck has been
influential in bringing about the disgrace of
Count Won Arnim. The correspondence of the
Foreign Office demanding the return of the
missing documents, seems actuated only by
an unbending spirit of bureaucratic discipline,
and the judicial proceedings, whatever
we may think of their wisdom, seem regular
enough. except in the fact that the Courts of
Berlin have shown hardly the proper respect
to those of Stettin.


1t is evident that Count Won Armin is far
from blameless in the matter. His mistakes
in connection with it date some distance back.
While in Rome, his suggestions in relation to
the Gcumenical Council were not distinguished
for discretion and sagacity, and were generally
overruled by the Chancellor. After he was
appointed ambassador at Paris portion of
his correspondence was published, which re-
flected somewhat upon DR.. D0llinger. Upon
this, Count Won Arnim yielded to the most
fatal temptation which can assail a diplomatist
and wrote a too lively letter to the great
Bavarisn theologian, explaining and partially
retracting his former illusions, in o manner
which certainly did not sin by excess OF
respect toward the Foreign Office. The breach
between the ambassador aud the Chancellor
may be said to date in fact from this letter.
Having made this first lapse Count Won Armin
was not slow in supplementiDg it with others,
and the inevitable result was his removal from
his post at Paris, and his transfer to the
retired list. In these circumstances, his
only salvation was strict compliance with the
letter of his duties, so that no technical ex-
cuse could be found for proceeding against
him and still farther destroying his influence
and his character But he was too angry to
be prudent, and his outraged dignity betrayed
him into positions which were utterly inde-
fensible. In the later months of his cOrre-
spondence with the Chancellor he received
several dispatches rather severely disappearing
his official action. He kept these in his private
possession. not wishing them to go upon the
files of the Embassy to be read by his subOr-
dinates This was perhaps justifiable but when
he gave up the mission his duty to return
these dispatches to their places is too plain to
discuss. Private letters from q Minister of
Foreign Affairs to an Envoy are the private
property of the latter, but official dispatches,
numbered in the regular sequence Of instruc-
tions, are in no sense his own, and he has no
shadow of claim to withdraw them from the
archives of the Legation.


When Prince HOhenlohe succeeded to the
Paris Embassy, he began of course to over
haul the archives and compare the documents
with the inventory, and found an enormous
deficit of dispatches. He reported this to the
Foreign Office, and Count Won Bulow at once
called upon Count Won Arnim for an explana-
ton. Tho latter answered in the letter we
printed few days ago, which would be an
extraordinary communication in any service,
and still more so in service whose traditions
of discipline are so strict as the Prussian. He
declared that he was not responsible to the
Foreign Office, although drawing a salary from
it; that some of the missing documents he
knew nothing about, and others he had and
proposed to keep for his own vindication.
When the Minister of Foreign Affairs an
swered, referring to the penalties to which he
was exposing himself by the civil and crimi-
nal code, the angry Count rejoined that he
did not care to discuss that question, but
would be glad to be prosecuted as the Minis
ter had threatened. In this state of things il
was scarcely possible for the Imperial Gov.
ernment to refrain from testing the question
so deGantly raised.


The manner in which the Foreign Office
sought to effect its purpose is doubtless open
to criticism 1t is asserted, with some appear-
ance of truth, that after Count von AInim
was arrested, Commission was sent from
Berlin to Paris to prosecute inquiries with
view to the collection of evidence inuriously
him with stock speculations aud
with improper relations with certain news
paper publications, which attempt is said to
have failed. The preliminary proceedings and
the release of the Count on bali provo with
sufficient cearness that the more serious
rumors about him were unfOunded, and that
- coee resolves itself into "n" Of simple in