ABSTRACT
Public feeling in England at first and for some time leaned strongly to Germany’s side, from a belief that France had wanted war and had wantonly provoked it. The revelation showed France in a peculiarly unfavourable light, and neutral nations, which had never approved of the Due de Gramont’s violent diplomatic methods, drew back into still greater reserve. The territory taken from France had a population of 1,600,000, and comprised the seat of a highly developed and prosperous industry, principally the manufacture of cotton goods and machinery. Louis Napoleon promptly wrote to his Foreign Minister a letter in which he charged Otto von Bismarck with having himself tried to incite France to annex Belgium. The agreement was concluded at the wish of France itself, and as with each payment additional departments were evacuated, its effect was that the hated force of occupation disappeared over the Rhine much sooner than had been hoped or intended.
