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BIBLIOGRAPHY. 193
ADOLPHE THIERS 32
EDME-PATRICE-MAURICE DE MAC-MAHON 50
L?ON GAMBETTA 70
JULES FERRY 78
SADI CARNOT 96
MARIE-GEORGES PICQUART 124
REN? WALDECK-ROUSSEAU 136
A HISTORY OF THE THIRD FRENCH REPUBLIC
THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR
On the other hand, though France was still considered the leading continental power, and though its military superiority seemed unassailable, the imperial r?gime was unquestionably growing "stale." The Emperor himself, always a mystical fatalist rather than the hewer of his own fortune, felt the growing inertia of his final malady. A lavishly luxurious court had been imitated by a pleasure-loving capital. This had brought in its train relaxed standards of governmental morals and had seriously weakened the fibre of many military commanders. Outwardly the Empire seemed as glorious as ever, and in 1867 France invited the world to a gorgeous exposition in the "Ville-lumi?re." But Paris was more emotional year by year, and the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud were dominated by a narrow-minded and spoiled Empress. Court intrigues were rife and drawing-room generals were to be found in real life, as well as in Offenbach's "Grande Duchesse." But nobody, except perhaps Napoleon himself, realized how the Empire had declined. The Empress merely felt that it was time to do something stirring, and, without necessarily waging war, to assert again the pre-eminence in Europe of France, weakened in 1866 by the unexpected outcome of the rivalry between Austria and Prussia for preponderance among the German States.
In 1866, Prussia won from Austria the important victory of K?niggr?tz or Sadowa, and thereby asserted its leadership. The outcome was a check to Napoleon, who had expected a different result. Moreover, by it Bismarck was encouraged to pursue his plans for the consolidation of Germany under a still more openly acknowledged Prussian supremacy. A crafty and utterly unscrupulous diplomat, he was able to mislead Napoleon and his unskilful ministers.
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