The Pastor Mr. S. Descombaz, President of the Evangelical Alliznce of Lyons to Granville Leveson-Gower, October 9, 1870

Lord Lyons to Earl Granville

My Lord: Your lordship did me the honor to inform me that you had received assurances from the Prussian government that the members of the diplomatic body at Paris would receive at the hands of the Prussian authorities all the usual courtesy to which they were entitled, although it was difficult to specify beforehand the particular course which would be adopted.

I observe, however, that in answer to a request conveyed by M. Jules Favre from the diplomatic body remaining in Paris, to be warned in case it should be intended to bombard the town, and given the means of quitting the place, Count Bismarck, in a letter dated on the 26th ultimo, at Ferrières, answers that military considerations forbid his making any communications respecting the time and manner of an attack upon the fortress of Paris.

I cannot conceal from your lordship the anxiety which this letter causes me to feel for the safety of the members of Her Majesty’s embassy, whom I have left in Paris, as well as for that of the numerous British subjects who have, I fear, in despite of my warnings, imprudently remained there. As regards these last, your lordship is aware that, both by advice given specially to individuals and by general notices, I did all in my power to induce Her Majesty’s subjects to withdraw in time; and that I published in the newspaper and distributed among them a printed caution that those of them who remained after the warnings given would do so at their own risk and peril; and that if they delayed any longer they might not afterwards be able to get away. Notwithstanding my pressing counsels, some remained voluntarily, while others were, from illness or other causes, unable to move. I cannot, therefore, help submitting to your lordship a request that the Prussian authorities, if they really resolve on bombarding Paris, should be pressed to give these inoffensive neutrals an opportunity of previously quitting the place. The funds which were in the hands of the British charitable fund would, I should hope, suffice to pay the expense of removing those who are unable to pay for their own journey; and, in case of need, Mr. Wodehouse might be authorized to act upon the instruction contained in your lordship’s dispatch of the 8th ultimo.

But it is, naturally, with regard to the members of the embassy that I feel most uneasiness. Count Bismarck states in his letter that he cannot defer to the opinion of those who regard the interior of the Paris ramparts and redoubts during a siege as a proper place for carrying on diplomatic intercourse. This observation may be, to a certain extent, well founded, so far as it regards those chiefs of missions who, having of their own free will chosen to remain in Paris, ask for special facilities for sending or receiving dispatches; but I submit that it cannot at all apply to a case like that of Mr. Wodehouse, who has staid in Paris by order of his official superiors, in order to give, as long as possible, protection to his fellow-subjects, and to preserve, as far as possible, the archives of the embassy and the government property from injury. Nor can Count Bismarck’s objection affect the case of Captain Hore, who was too ill to leave Paris before it was invested. Captain Hore had indeed been for some time previously so seriously unwell as, notwithstanding the zealous efforts he made, to be scarcely able to discharge his duties. During several days before I came away he was confined to his bed in a very critical state, and I was prevented from taking him with me by the declaration of his physicians that he was. not in a state to be moved. There are, moreover, servants of the embassy and servants of my own who have been kept in Paris in discharge of their duties.

I trust, therefore, that your lordship will not deem me presumptuous in earnestly requesting that special representations may be made to the Prussian authorities in order to induce them to give the persons belonging to, or employed by, the embassy the means of acting upon the instructions which I left with them to come away if the place should be threatened with bombardment or there should be any other imminent danger.

I have. &c.,