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326 retired from the candidacy, and declined the crown that had been offered him. On the 13th France demanded from Prussia a guaranty that no such offer should be accepted in future; Prussia was naturally irritated by the demand, and refused it, whereupon the French minister, Count Benedetti, retired from Prussia, and almost immediately thereafter the Prussian minister left Paris. The emperor declared war on the 15th of July, with the hearty concurrence of the great majority of the French Chambers. After his surrender the emperor told Count Bismarck that he did not desire war, but had been forced into it by public opinion. He was evidently greatly deceived as to the strength and condition of his army, and equally deceived as to the forces that Prussia could bring into the field. Though vastly more numerous on paper, the French had hardly more than 300,000 men ready for the field, while the Germans had treble that number. Including their reserves and landwehr, or militia, the Germans had, on the first of August, 1870, a grand effective of 944,000 men, while on the peace footing, a month earlier, they had but 360,000. To the total on the war footing given above must be added the forces of Bavaria, Wurtemburg, and Baden, which gave a grand total for the German strength of 1,124,000 men. Napoleon had counted on the neutrality of the southern states of the North German Confederation, if not on their active hostility to Prussia, and is said to have been greatly disconcerted when, on the 19th July, the parliament met at Berlin and resolved to support Prussia in the war.

Impartial observers predicted at the beginning of the contest that the result would be disastrous to France. Commenting upon the war the Quarterly Review says: "The causes of the early ruin of the French army were: (1) The enormous superiority of the Germans in regard to numbers; (2) the absolute unity of their command and