The Emperor has followed up his speech by a letter
to the crowned heads; to the Germanic Diet, and to the Swiss Re- public. The letter, which was first published at Frankfort, and then reprinted in the llioniteur, and is evidently his own work, repeats the assertion that the " European edifice is crumb- ling away on all sides;" calls on the thrones " to regulate the present and secure the future by a Congress ;" points out that civilization has rendered war still more destructive; alludes to his own "training in the school of adversity," which binds him " not to ignore the rights of sovereigns or the legitimate aspirations of nations;" accounts for his initiative by boldly admitting that he " is the sovereign to whom ambitious projects are most attributed;" and finally " prays them to accept Paris as the place of meeting ;" for "Europe would see, perhaps, some advantage in the capital from which the signal for subversion has so often been given becoming the seat of the conferences destined to lay the basis of a general pacification." The letter, though Imperial in style, and containing an under-tone of menace, seems dictated primarily by a wish to appear exceedingly moderate.
