The rapid recovery of France, whose milliards had proved somewhat of a "Greek gift" to Germany, had led to threats on the part of the war party at Berlin, which brought from Queen Victoria, as also from the Czar Alexander, private but pressing intimations to Kaiser Wilhelm that no war of extermination must take place.

This affair and its results in Germany's foreign policy will occupy us in Chapter XII.

Here we may note that Bismarck saw in it a reason for suspecting Russia, hating England, and jealously watching every movement in France.
Germany's future, it seemed, would have to be safeguarded by all the peaceable means available.

How natural, then, to tone down her internal religious strifes by bringing forward another topic of still more absorbing interest, and to aim at building up a self-contained commercial life in the midst of uncertain, or possibly hostile, neighbours.

In truth, if we view the question in its broad issues in the life of nations, we must grant that Free Trade could scarcely be expected to thrive amidst the jealousies and fears entailed by the war of 1870.