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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Two Chancellors, by Julian Klaczko,
+Translated by Frank P. Ward
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Two Chancellors
+       Prince Gortchakoff and Prince Bismark
+
+
+Author: Julian Klaczko
+
+
+
+Release Date: April 28, 2012  [eBook #39559]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO CHANCELLORS***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, JoAnn Greenwood, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://archive.org/details/cu31924027823990
+
+
+
+
+
+TWO CHANCELLORS:
+
+Prince Gortchakof and Prince Bismarck.
+
+by
+
+JULIAN KLACZKO.
+
+Translated from the Revue des Deux Mondes by
+Frank P. Ward.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+New York:
+Published by Hurd and Houghton.
+Cambridge: The Riverside Press.
+1876.
+
+Copyright,
+by Frank P. Ward.
+1876.
+
+Riverside, Cambridge:
+Stereotyped and Printed by
+H. O. Houghton and Company.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
+
+
+In the year 1866 Carlyle said: "The only man appointed by God to be His
+viceregent here on earth in these days, and knowing he was so appointed
+and bent with his whole soul on doing, and able to do God's work," is M.
+de Bismarck. If this be true, then M. de Bismarck has found a most
+valuable ally and colleague in the present Premier of Russia. It is of
+these two men, Prince Bismarck, and Prince Gortchakof, the Chancellor of
+Germany, and the Chancellor of all the Russias, that this book treats.
+The author is M. Julian Klaczko, a Polish refugee, a man of cosmopolitan
+habits, an accomplished and able writer, thoroughly acquainted with the
+contemporaneous history of Europe, prejudiced against Prussia, an ardent
+friend of Austria, and devoted to a conservative and monarchical form of
+government. He was always the friend of Poland. In 1863 he defended
+Denmark in a series of able papers, which came out in the "Revue des
+deux Mondes," under the title of "Studies of Contemporaneous Diplomacy."
+After the battle of Sadowa, he appeared as the friend of Austria in a
+work entitled, "The Preliminaries of Sadowa." Count de Beust summoned
+him to Vienna, and attached him to the Foreign Office. Klaczko was then
+elected Deputy in the Polish province of Galicia. After 1870 he resigned
+his posts and returned to France.
+
+In the "Two Chancellors" he has given a condensed but graphic review of
+the diplomatic history of Europe from 1855 to 1871, and a sketch of the
+lives of Prince Bismarck and Prince Gortchakof, the two most eminent men
+of the day. He also seeks to prove that the "disaster" of Sadowa,
+followed by the still greater one of Sedan, was brought about by the
+blind devotion of Prince Gortchakof to Prince Bismarck, aided largely,
+it is true, by the "inconceivable vacillations and hallucinations of
+Napoleon III., the Dreamer of Ham." In a word, he seeks to establish
+that the prodigious events of the last ten years are due to a conspiracy
+between Russia and Prussia. This is a one-sided, partial view, but is
+presented with such power as will almost persuade the reader that such
+may have been the case. According to Klaczko's theories, Prussia has
+grasped the substance and Russia the shadow, and the old chancellor of
+the great empire of the North has been the dupe of his pupil of Berlin.
+
+The great changes which will undoubtedly soon take place in the East,
+make M. Klaczko's views as to the past and present relations between
+Germany and Russia of marked interest, and the student of
+contemporaneous history will find in the "Two Chancellors,"
+notwithstanding the peculiar views and strong prejudices of the writer,
+one of the most instructive as well as interesting works that have
+appeared for many years. It has been issued in book form in Paris, and
+widely circulated in Russia, where it has caused a profound sensation.
+
+In the translation I have endeavored to reproduce as justly as possible
+the words of M. Klaczko, whose style, though strong and forcible, is at
+times somewhat involved. With these few words in regard to the
+importance of the subject and the character of the author, I leave to
+the judgment of the reader the account of the momentous events which may
+be truly said to have changed the political face of Europe.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+    I.
+
+    THE MISSIONS OF PRINCE GORTCHAKOF AND THE DÉBUTS
+    OF M. DE BISMARCK                                          1
+
+
+    II.
+
+    A NATIONAL MINISTER AND A FAULT-FINDING DIPLOMAT
+    AT ST. PETERSBURG                                         75
+
+
+    III.
+
+    UNITED ACTION                                            122
+
+
+    IV.
+
+    THE ECLIPSE OF EUROPE                                    188
+
+
+    V.
+
+    ORIENT AND OCCIDENT                                      227
+
+
+    VI.
+
+    TEN YEARS OF ASSOCIATION                                 287
+
+
+    APPENDIX                                                 311
+
+
+
+
+TWO CHANCELLORS.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+THE MISSIONS OF PRINCE GORTCHAKOF AND THE DÉBUTS OF M. DE BISMARCK.
+
+
+The good old Plutarch, in commencing his long and charming series of
+Parallels with the account of the lives of Theseus and Romulus,
+experiences some difficulty in justifying such an association of the two
+heroes; he can find in them only very vague traits of resemblance, and
+these by no means striking. "To strength they both joined great powers
+of mind, both carried off women by violence, and the one as well as the
+other was not exempted from domestic miseries; indeed, toward the end of
+their lives they both aroused the hatred of their fellow-citizens."[1]
+Without doubt a writer of our day, wishing to give a comparative study
+of the two most prominent figures of contemporaneous politics, the
+chancellors of Russia and Germany, would only mislead in giving
+prominence to such points of resemblance. The association in this case
+is justifiable, for it suggests itself to every contemplative mind, to
+whoever has meditated on the events of the last fifteen or twenty years.
+The modern Plutarch who would undertake to write the lives of these two
+illustrious men, could, as it seems to us, easily resist the temptation
+of searching too deeply for, or forcing analogies in a subject where
+similarities abound and are so striking. Perhaps he would rather have to
+guard against necessary and tiresome repetitions in presence of a
+commonalty of ideas and of a harmony of action such as history has
+rarely known in two ministers guiding two different empires.
+
+It is not, the reader may be well assured, a work of this sort which the
+author has undertaken in the following pages. We have only given the
+mere sketch of a picture which, to be even in a slight degree full and
+satisfactory, would have required much larger proportions, and above all
+a much more skillful hand. Without pretending to present here new and
+unpublished materials, or indeed to reunite all those which are already
+known, we have simply chosen a few, and tried to assort and arrange them
+so as to afford a better perspective. We have been obliged to renounce
+the wish to give to the different parts an equality of design and depth
+of coloring, and we have not even bound ourselves to follow a very
+regular and methodical course in this narration. Before a subject so
+vast and presenting so many shades and shadows, we have thought that it
+was permissible, that it was indeed occasionally useful, to vary the
+points of observation and to present it in different aspects.
+
+
+I.
+
+Like the Odoïefski, the Obolenski, the Dolgorouki, and many aristocratic
+families on the banks of the Moscova and the Neva, the Gortchakof also
+pride themselves on their descent from the Rourik; to speak more
+plainly, they claim to trace their origin from one of the sons of
+Michael, Grand Duke of Tchernigof, put to death towards the middle of
+the thirteenth century by the Mongolians of Batou Khan, since proclaimed
+martyr of the faith, exalted, indeed, among the saints of the Orthodox
+Church. One meets, nevertheless, with but few illustrious bearers of the
+name of Gortchakof in the gloomy and exciting annals of old Russia. In
+the epoch which preceded the accession of the Romanof, there lived a
+certain Peter Ivanovitch Gortchakof, the unfortunate commander of
+Smolenski, who surrendered this celebrated place to the Poles after two
+years of energetic and desperate resistance. He was taken to Warsaw, and
+there, in 1611, with the Czar Vassili, the two princes Schouyski,
+Sèhine, and a number of powerful _boiars_, he was forced to take part in
+the famous "_cortége_ of captives" which the grand constable Zolkiweski
+presented one day--_honorificentissime_, says the chronicle of the
+times--to the king and the senate of the most serene republic. It was
+only in the second half of the last century, under the reign of
+Catherine II., that a Prince Ivan Gortchakof succeeded (thanks
+especially to his marriage with a sister of the opulent and courageous
+Souvorof) in again raising the glory of his old house, which has never
+since ceased to distinguish itself in the different branches of state
+service, principally in the career of arms. The France of to-day has
+preserved the memory of two Princes Gortchakof, two old soldiers of
+Borodino who distinguished themselves during the war of the Orient. The
+one commanded the left wing of the Russian troops at the battles of
+Alma and Inkermann; the other, Prince Michael, was the generalissimo of
+the armies of the czar in the Crimea, and rendered his name imperishable
+by the heroic defense of Sebastopol. Afterwards he governed the Kingdom
+of Poland as lieutenant of the emperor, and became therefore (strange
+example of the vicissitudes of history!) the supreme representative of a
+harsh, foreign government in this same city of Warsaw, where one of his
+ancestors had formerly figured in a memorable procession of the
+vanquished. However, if this circumstance ever occurred to Prince
+Michael, he drew therefrom none but suggestions worthy of his character;
+he governed the conquered country with moderation and benevolence, and
+left behind him the fame of a man as just in civil administration as he
+was intrepid in war.
+
+The cousin of Prince Michael and present chancellor of the empire,
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch Gortchakof, was born in 1798, and was educated
+in that lyceum of Zarkoe-Zeloe which has its distinct place in the
+pedagogic history of Russia. Founded by Catherine II. as a model
+educational establishment for the aristocratic youth of the empire, the
+lyceum shone with great _éclat_ under the reign of Alexander I.,
+although the Rollin and the Pestalozzi would certainly have had more
+than one reservation to make with respect to a college which only
+moulded its scholars for the world, and thought the vigorous classical
+studies a burden too heavy to carry into the ethereal spheres of
+pleasures and elegance. Almost all the professors of the establishment
+were foreigners, men marked with the stamp of the eighteenth century,
+acute minds, slightly frivolous, and above all disciples of Voltaire.
+The most eminent among them, the professor of French literature, he who
+initiated the future chancellor into the language of Voltaire, of which
+he so well knew the subtleties, was a Genevese, who, under the
+inoffensive name of M. de Boudry, concealed another of a terrible
+significance. M. de Boudry was the brother of Marat, that "_sinistre
+conventionnel_."[2] The Empress Catherine, in order "to end a scandal,"
+had forced this patronymic change on M. Marat, without, however,
+succeeding in making him change his opinions, which always remained
+"Jacobin." He died in final impenitence, cherishing an openly avowed
+admiration for _the friend of the people_, unjustly calumniated. From
+this education of very doubtful value, the young Gortchakof succeeded in
+extracting a strong and useful substance. He left Zarkoe-Zeloe with
+various and solid acquirements; a surprising matter, he was even a good
+Latinist, and this last fact has remained a cause of amazement to his
+fellow-scholars as well as to the generations who followed. It is
+certain, however, that the chancellor could quote Horace with about the
+same appropriateness as Louis XVIII. of sainted memory. One of his best
+known dispatches ingeniously borrows from Suetonius an eloquent passage
+on the distinction to be established between liberty and anarchy.
+
+Next to his classical attainments, that part of his youth which the
+chancellor loves especially to recall is that he was the fellow-scholar,
+and that he remained the friend, of the great national poet, Pouchkine,
+a fact more to his honor inasmuch as this friendship has brought with
+it embarrassments at certain times. When, by the order of the Emperor
+Alexander I., in consequence of an offensive ode, which one is not now
+known, the young singer of "Rouslan" and "Loudmila" was confined in an
+obscure village in the far interior of Russia, only two of his former
+comrades at the lyceum had the courage to go to see and offer him their
+condolence, and one of these intrepid youths was Prince Gortchakof. One
+finds in the work of Pouchkine some verses written in a lively and
+playful style, and which only derive their interest from the name of
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, to whom they are addressed. In one of these
+juvenile pieces, Pouchkine wishes his friend "to have Cupid as an
+inseparable companion as far as the banks of the Styx, and to go to
+sleep on the bosom of Helen in the very boat of Charon." Thoughtless
+wishes, which human malignity would surely not have failed to carry out
+in the end, if very fortunately the chancellor had not been able to
+preserve his old days from every deceitful seduction, and to avoid even
+the appearance of an arctic Ruy Gomez. The inspiration of the poet was
+happier another time, when, speaking of their different vocations, he
+predicts for Alexander Mikhaïlovitch a splendid destiny, and calls him
+"the beloved child of fortune."
+
+Fortune was nevertheless slow to recognize its child, and to give him
+the lot which he merited. Having early entered the department of foreign
+affairs, being attached to the _suite_ of M. de Nesselrode at the time
+of the Congresses of Laybach and Verona, Prince Gortchakof had already
+long passed that period which Dante calls the _mezzo del cammin di
+vita_; and even when very near his fiftieth year, was still only a
+minister plenipotentiary at a little court in Germany. A fortunate event
+at last came to commend him to the kindness of his master, and to render
+him distinguished in those diplomatic circles, in those regions "free
+from tears, but filled with sighs," which in the language of diplomacy
+are called the secondary posts.
+
+In a moment of paternal weakness, the Emperor Nicholas had one day
+consented to the union of his daughter, the Grand Duchess Marie, with
+the Duke of Leuchtenberg, "the son of a Beauharnais, a Catholic officer
+in the service of the King of Bavaria," as was whispered with sadness in
+the intimate circles of the winter palace. Nicholas was not the man to
+retract his given word, but not the less did he feel the sting of what
+his surrounding court did not cease to call a _mésalliance_; and the
+bitterness increased when none of the foreign members of the imperial
+family came to take part in the brilliant festivities which preceded or
+followed the nuptial ceremony. Ill-luck would have it that soon
+afterwards a first cousin of the new imperial son-in-law and daughter of
+the ex-King Jerome married a Russian grown rich in trade, a prince in
+the valley of the Arno but scarcely a gentleman on the banks of the
+Neva,--a disagreeable accident, and which, according to the amazed
+courtiers, made the autocrat of all the Russias _the relation of one of
+his subjects_! It became necessary to efface all these unpleasant
+impressions, and to take, by a brilliant alliance, an incontestable
+revenge for so many vexations. It was hoped for a moment to be able to
+marry the Grand Duchess Alexandra to an arch-duke of Austria, but it was
+necessary to fall back on a prince of Darmstadt; for the Grand Duchess
+Olga, the most beautiful and the most beloved of the emperor's
+daughters, had been chosen by the only prince royal then unengaged, the
+presumptive heir to the throne of Würtemberg, of the old and illustrious
+house of Suabia.
+
+The plan was not easily executed. The good Suabian people had little
+liking for it. A Russian marriage made it tremble for its constitutional
+liberties; and what was a graver matter, the old King William of
+Würtemberg, a good, liberal sovereign, but obstinate in all things,
+showed himself rather reluctant, and at his own pleasure retarded the
+negotiation. Other objections came from other sides still; but the
+Russian minister plenipotentiary at Stuttgart, the old fellow-scholar of
+Pouchkine, knew how to overcome them all with consummate skill. By aid
+of art and address, he was able to establish the Grand Duchess Olga in
+the royal family of Würtemberg. The joy of the Emperor Nicholas was
+great and unreserved, and the winter palace sang the panegyrics of the
+wonderful diplomat. After such a success, Prince Gortchakof could well
+demand to be promoted in his career, having approached nearer by several
+strides towards that embassy of Vienna which was considered as the
+supreme goal of ambition. He did nothing of this sort, however, and
+showed an admirable patience,--the patience of the patriarch Jacob with
+Laban, son of Nahor. To the four years which he had already passed at
+Stuttgart, Alexander Mikhaïlovitch declared himself ready to add another
+term more prolonged if it were necessary. He promised the empress-mother
+to remain indefinitely by the side of the Grand Duchess Olga, to aid her
+as a guide and counselor in a foreign country and in the midst of
+surroundings entirely new to her. Barren as the soil might be, he did
+not despair of growing there under this ray of beauty and of grace,
+which came directly from the great boreal sun; and in truth he kept this
+post at Stuttgart for eight more long years. _Tenues grandia conamur!_
+
+However, any point of observation is good for one who understands how to
+adjust his glass and question the stars. The resident minister at
+Stuttgart had extensive information and found means of informing his
+government of many things quite outside the limits of the horizon of the
+little kingdom of Würtemberg. Soon the year 1848 came with its terrible
+catastrophes, with its great revolutionary earthquakes which added to
+the experience of the most experienced, which lightened with a sudden
+glimmer the ignorant depths of human nature, and, in the words of
+Milton, lightened the darkness. Such a lesson of history was not without
+profit, one can well believe, to the former scholar of Zarkoe-Zeloe. The
+_salons_ and the cabinets for a long time had had no secrets from him;
+he now knew those of the forum and of the cross-roads. The vicinity of
+Frankfort, seat of the famous parliament, permitted him to study closely
+and fully the German agitation of this memorable epoch; he understood
+beforehand the phases, by turns _naïve_, burlesque, and odious, and was
+able to predict in good time the unfailing miscarriage of a revolution,
+the subdued billows of which foamed for a day even in the streets of
+Stuttgart, ordinarily so peaceful.
+
+It was in the month of April, 1849. Preceding by twenty years the great
+work of 1870, the parliament of Frankfort had just formed a German
+Empire to the exclusion of Austria, and offered the crown to the King of
+Prussia, Frederick William IV. The King of Prussia hesitated, and ended
+by declining; the other German princes were still less willing to assent
+to a decree which implied their abdication; but this was by no means the
+plan of the German demagogy. It suddenly fell enthusiastically in love
+with this constitution, which on the very eve before it had denounced as
+reactionary, fatal to the liberties of the people, and designed to
+impose by force the Prussian vassalage decreed at Frankfort on different
+sovereigns of Germany. In Würtemberg, the chamber of deputies voted a
+pressing, imperious address in order to draw from the king the
+recognition of the Emperor Frederick William IV. The monarch replied by
+a refusal. The riot thundered on the public square, and the members of
+the court were forced to seek refuge at Ludwigsburg, fleeing from an
+enraged capital. "I will not submit to the House of Hohenzollern," the
+old King William of Würtemberg had said to the deputation of the
+chamber. "I owe it to my people and to myself. It is not for myself that
+I speak thus; I have but very few years to live. My duty to my country,
+my House, my family, forces this course of action on me." Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch, touched by these agitating scenes, by this pathetic
+protestation of the father-in-law of Olga, "for the House, for the
+family of Würtemberg," assuredly had then but little expectation that
+one day, as Chancellor of the Russian Empire, he would become the most
+useful auxiliary, the firmest aid of an aggressive, audacious policy,
+destined to realize in every particular the plan of the rioters of
+Stuttgart, and to make Queen Olga the vassal of Hohenzollern.
+
+This was, however, nothing but the noisy prologue of a drama yet far
+distant, and the year 1850 could indeed rejoice at seeing disappear in
+Germany the very last traces of an agitation which had done nothing but
+astonish Europe, instead of illuminating and warning it. Towards the end
+of this year, 1850, the German Confederacy was established anew under
+the terms of the ancient treaty of Vienna. The _Bundestag_ again
+commenced its peaceable deliberations, and Prince Gortchakof was quite
+naturally appointed to represent the Russian Government at the Diet of
+Frankfort. Alexander Mikhaïlovitch henceforth had his marked place in a
+great centre of political affairs, where the personal merit of the
+minister borrowed a peculiar _éclat_ from the extraordinary fortune
+which the latest events had created for his august master. Russian
+influence, at all times very considerable with the ruling houses of
+Germany, had grown prodigiously, having reached its zenith, one will
+remember, after the disorders of February. Alone remaining sheltered
+from the revolutionary tempest which had swept over almost all the
+States of the Continent, the empire of the czars appeared to be at that
+time the firmest stronghold of the principles of order and conservatism.
+"Humiliate yourselves, nations, God is with us!" said the Emperor
+Nicholas in a celebrated proclamation; and without being too much
+offended at language which made God in a manner the accessory to a great
+human boast, monarchical Europe had only acclamations for a prince who,
+after all, worked with a remarkable disinterestedness for the
+reëstablishment of the legitimate authorities, and for the maintenance
+of the equilibrium of the world.
+
+In fact, it is just to acknowledge that in these troubled years of
+1848-50, the autocrat of the North used his influence, as also his
+sword, only to strengthen the tottering thrones and to enforce respect
+for the treaties. He effectively protected Denmark, towards which from
+this epoch the rapacious hand of Germany was stretched, and he was the
+most ardent in calling a meeting of the Powers, which ended by snatching
+from the Germans the coveted prey. He interposed directly in Hungary,
+and with his military forces helped put down a formidable insurrection
+there, which had shaken to its foundations the ancient empire of
+Hapsburg, undermined at the same time by intestine troubles and an
+aggressive war which the kingdom of Piedmont had twice stirred up
+against it. Little favoring by his principles and interests this united
+Germany, "of which the first thought was a thought of unjust extension,
+the first cry a cry of war,"[3] he later used all his power in bringing
+about the reëstablishment pure and simple, of the German Confederation
+on the same basis as prior to 1848. The bonds of relationship and of
+friendship which united him to the court of Berlin were never strong
+enough to make him abandon for a single instant the cause of the
+sovereignty of princes, and of the independence of the States; and in
+spite of the sincere affection which he bore "his brother-in-law, the
+poet," he neither spared the King of Prussia, Frederick William IV., the
+evacuation of the Duchies, nor the hard conditions of Olmütz. Defender
+of European right on the Eider and the Main, of monarchical right on the
+Theiss and Danube, peacemaker for Germany, and, so to say, wholesale
+dealer in justice for Europe, Nicholas had at this moment a true
+greatness, an immense _prestige_, well merited on the whole, and which
+allowed no reflection on the agents charged with representing away from
+home a policy of which no one dared contest the immovable firmness and
+the perfect justice.
+
+The Emperor Nicholas, in accrediting Prince Gortchakof to the German
+Confederation, in an autograph letter dated 11th November, 1850,
+recognized in the reunion of the Diet of Frankfort "a pledge for the
+maintenance of the general peace," and thus characterized by an able and
+judicious act, the honorable and salutary mission of this Diet in
+ordering matters created by the treaties of 1815. However legitimate the
+grievances of the liberal Germans were against the internal policy of
+the _Bund_[4] and its tendencies, little favorable to the development
+of the constitutional _régime_, yet one cannot deny that, according to
+the European point of view, and with regard to the equilibrium and the
+general peace of the world, this was a marvelous conception, well fitted
+to preserve the independence of the States and to hinder any deep
+perturbation in the bosom of the Christian family. The chimerical and
+mercantile minds of the times, the leading men of Manchester and the
+rich publicists, with at least "one idea a day," imagined that this was
+the moment to declare "war to war," to force a universal disarmament, to
+abolish military slavery; and to this effect they convoked noisy
+congresses of peace in different parts of the world. They had, indeed,
+in a day of _naïveté_, convoked one at Frankfort, without suspecting
+that by their side, and in this very _Bundestag_ of such modest
+appearance, had sat for a long time a true and permanent congress of
+peace,--a congress which would do as much good as possible, and which,
+moreover, would have the advantage of not being ridiculous.
+
+Placed in the very centre of Europe, separating by its large and
+immovable body the great military powers which form the border, so to
+speak, of our old continent,--a power neutral by necessity and almost by
+law over those great plains, where in former times the destinies of
+empires were decided,--the German Confederation formed an _ensemble_ of
+States sufficiently coherent and compact to repulse any shock from
+abroad, yet not strong enough to become aggressive itself and to menace
+the security of its neighbors. Many years later, and when chancellor of
+the empire, Prince Gortchakof, in a celebrated circular, rendered homage
+to this beneficial combination of the _Bund_, "a combination purely and
+exclusively defensive," which permitted the localization of a war,
+become inevitable, "instead of generalizing it and of giving to the
+struggle a character and proportions beyond all human calculation, and
+which in any case would pile up ruins and cause torrents of blood to
+flow."[5]
+
+In truth, if in this long half century which intervened between the
+Congress of Vienna and the ill-omened battle of Sadowa, the frontiers of
+the States have changed so little in spite of so many and so great
+changes in their political complexion; if the revolution of July, the
+campaign of Belgium, and even the wars of the Crimea and Italy have been
+carried on without noticeably disturbing the balance of the nations, or
+injuring them in their independence, we are specially indebted to this
+_Bundestag_ so unappreciated, which by its very existence, by its
+position, and the wheelwork of its completed mechanism, prevented any
+conflict from becoming a general conflagration. It is doubtful whether
+the cause of humanity and civilization, or the very cause which the
+chancellor of Russia more specially represents with such facility and
+_éclat_, have gained in any considerable degree in seeing this old
+"combination" replaced in our time by another, more simple, it is true,
+but, perhaps, also much less calculated to restore confidence.
+
+While acquitting himself zealously of the duties of his office in
+connection with the Germanic Confederation, Alexander Mikhaïlovitch
+continued to occupy the post of minister plenipotentiary at Stuttgart.
+He held it to be a matter of honor to fulfill to the end his
+confidential and intimate mission by the side of the Grand Duchess Olga.
+He divided his time between the free city on the Main, the seat of the
+_Bund_, and the little capital on the banks of the Neckar, where a warm
+and kind interest always greeted him. At Frankfort he took especial
+pleasure in the society of his Prussian colleague, a young lieutenant in
+the _Landwehr_,[6] an entire novice in the diplomatic career, although
+marked out for such a prodigious destiny. There had been settled here
+for many years a great Russian celebrity, a poet, who was at the same
+time an influential courtier, and who could not be overlooked by a
+diplomat with a love for intellectual enjoyments, and who had been a
+school-fellow of Pouchkine. The good and mild Vassili Joukofski had
+certainly none of the genius of Pouchkine, nor his independent and
+ardent character. More properly a facile versifier and an ingenious
+translator than a creative and original mind, with a nature rather
+effeminate and contemplative, the formerly renowned author of "Ondine"
+had early made his peace with the official society which the despotic
+will of Nicholas had created, and had always sunned himself in the rays
+of imperial favor.
+
+During his long and pleasant career as poet at the court, he had not
+been without dignities and honors. He, however, had a mission much more
+important and honorable; he was charged with directing the education of
+the heir-presumptive, Alexander, the present emperor, and of his brother
+the Grand Duke Constantine. Joukofski devoted himself to this task with
+intelligence and ardor, and retained the affection of his two august
+pupils to the end of his life. A proof of this fact is the
+correspondence which ensued and which he still maintained with them
+while at Frankfort. These letters were published quite recently. After
+having finished the education of the grand dukes, he made a voyage of
+pleasure in Germany. At Düsseldorf he found a companion for life, much
+younger than himself, but sharing all his tastes, even his charming
+weaknesses. He finally selected a home on the banks of the Main, at
+Frankfort.
+
+Thus, as it happens to more than one of his compatriots, Joukofski,
+living entirely in a foreign country, and being indeed manifestly
+unwilling to return to his native land, considered the Occident
+miserably sunken and corrupted, and hoped only in "holy Russia" for the
+renovation and safety of a world overrun and possessed by the demon of
+revolution. The events of February only served to confirm him in these
+gloomy visions and to plunge him more and more into an uneasy mysticism,
+at times even irritating, but more often inoffensive and not devoid of a
+certain unhealthy charm. The campaign of Hungary caused a momentary
+diversion in his sad thoughts, and filled him with joy. It was not so
+much the glory with which the Russian army covered itself which pleased
+his mind; it was not even the triumph attained by the Russian sword, the
+sword of St. Michael, over "the impure beast:" his prayers, his hopes
+went far beyond. He hoped--thus he wrote to his imperial pupil that the
+great czar would profit by the power which God had given him and would
+"solve a problem on which the crusades had stranded;" that is to say,
+that he should drive the infidel from Byzantium, and liberate the holy
+land. Mme. Joukofski, although born a Protestant, felt in unison with
+her melancholy husband. Her soul had need of a "principle of authority,"
+which failed her in the reformed confession, and which she sought one
+day in the Orthodox Church, to the great joy of the poet, without,
+however, being able to find there perfect rest.
+
+Sometimes in the _salon_ of the Joukofski the conversations were
+strangely varied and _bizarre_, on literature, politics, the glorious
+destinies of holy Russia, the inanity of modern civilization, the
+necessity of "a new eruption of Christianity," and on many matters
+invisible and "ineffable." Occasionally there fell into the midst of
+this _salon_, like a fantastic apparition, like a ghost from the world
+of spirits, a genius original and powerful in a very different way, but
+also tormented and troubled differently from the good court poet and
+former preceptor of the grand dukes. After having unveiled the hideous
+sores of Russian society with a vigorous, implacable hand, after having
+presented to his nation, in "Les Ames Mortes" and in "L'Inspecteur," a
+picture whose vices were appalling with truth and life, Nicholas Gogol
+suddenly gave up in despair civilization, progress, and liberty, and
+betaking himself to adore that which he had burned, valued nothing but
+barbarian Muscovy, saw no salvation but in despotism, thought himself in
+a state of "unpardonable" sin, and went in search of divine pity which
+always fled from him. Shortly afterwards he went from St. Petersburg to
+Rome, then to Jerusalem, then to Paris, everywhere seeking appeasement
+for his lacerated soul. Then he came from time to time to Joukofski, and
+passed whole weeks in his house, exhorting his friends to prayer, to
+repentance, and to contemplation of the divine mysteries. There were
+discussions without end, without a truce, on the "heathens of the
+Occident," on "a crusade," which was drawing near, on the redemption of
+sinful humanity by a race not yet defiled, and which had kept its faith.
+At several revivals the physicians were forced to interfere to put an
+end to a connection not without peril. One day Gogol was found, having
+died of inanition, prostrate before the holy images, in the adoration of
+which he had lost all thought of himself.... May we be pardoned for this
+short digression. It makes us acquainted with the state of the minds of
+a certain Russian society towards the end of the reign of Nicholas, and
+adds a curious stroke to the picture of the origins of the war in the
+Orient. One delights, however, to think of Alexander Mikhaïlovitch in
+this _salon_ of the Joukofski, on an evening for instance, during such
+an intellectual conflict with the poor Gogol. The diplomat, equally
+cultivated and skeptical, was certainly made to recognize the bright and
+brilliant flashes which furrowed those driving clouds in a great,
+disordered mind; and he was made to unravel more than one strong and
+thrilling thought from the midst of those strange ramblings concerning
+an imminent crusade and the near deliverance of Zion.
+
+Who would have thought it? It was these mystics, these men laboring
+under hallucinations, who had the true presentiment and saw the signs of
+the times! While Joukofski composed his "Commentary on Holy Russia," and
+Gogol mortified himself before the _icônes_, the Emperor Nicholas
+revolved in his mind the great thought of a crusade, and prepared in the
+most profound secrecy the mission of Prince Menchikof. The fact that the
+monarch who had done so much for preserving the peace and equilibrium of
+Europe had suddenly decided to throw such a fire-brand of war in the
+midst of the continent scarcely consolidated, while on the other hand
+the autocrat had awaited precisely this epoch of relative calm and of
+the reëstablishment of general order to announce his designs, in place
+of executing them boldly some years before during the revolutionary
+tempest which paralyzed almost all the Powers, his armies being already
+in the very heart of Hungary and commanding the banks of the
+Danube,--these facts will be for the impartial historian an evident
+proof of the good faith with which the czar undertook his fatal
+campaign, of the mystical blindness which guided his spirit at this
+time, and of the profound conviction which he had of the justice of his
+cause. Did Prince Gortchakof partake in the same measure of the
+illusions of his master? We doubt whether he did. We believe that, like
+the Kisselef, the Meyendorf, the Brunnow, and all the distinguished
+diplomats of Russia, without excepting the chancellor of the empire, the
+old Count Nesselrode, he was conscious of the great error toward which a
+proud prince, who allowed no objections and understood being "his own
+minister of foreign affairs," was tending. That naturally did not
+prevent the Russian representative to the German Confederation from
+fulfilling his duty with all the zeal which circumstances so critical
+made necessary, and from placing the various resources of his mind at
+the service of his country in the sphere of action which was reserved
+for him.
+
+Events did not make it of much importance. In the _Bundestag_ were
+concentrated not only all the efforts of the secondary States of the
+confederation, but there also were formed or conceived the projects,
+the preparations, and even the desires of the two principal German
+powers, the assistance of which Russia on the one side and France and
+England on the other, were equally concerned in obtaining. Prince
+Gortchakof could not complain of the turn affairs took in Germany.
+Frederick William IV. was faithful against every temptation. The czar
+could count in any case on "his brother-in-law, the poet;" and Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch found an equally firm support in his colleague of Prussia,
+the young officer of the _Landwehr_. The cabinet of Berlin consented
+from time to time to join in the representations which the allies sent
+to St. Petersburg, to sign in concert with them the same note, or one
+analogous or concordant. But it did not take long to see that it only
+did this to retard their movements, and to deter them from any energetic
+resolution. At decisive moments it stopped short, hesitated, and
+pretended to preserve "_la main libre_" (_free Hand_). The other members
+of the _Bund_ were much more sympathetic and more frankly won over to
+the Russian policy. They did not think the demands of the czar against
+Turkey at all exorbitant, and troubled themselves very little about the
+preservation of the "sick man." They likewise desired to preserve "_la
+main libre_," closed their ranks in the famous conferences of Bamberg,
+and were at times all ready to draw their swords. In truth, Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch showed in the sequel, in the fatal year 1866, very little
+gratitude, very little distributive justice, for these poor secondary
+States, so devoted, so serviceable, so immovably attached at the time of
+the Oriental crisis.
+
+While at London and at Paris vehement comments were made in the
+celebrated dispatches of Sir Hamilton Seymour, and the ambitious
+projects of Russia were denounced there, at Hanover, at Dresden, at
+Munich, at Stuttgart, at Cassel, nothing but censure was heard against
+the proceedings of the allies and their "usurpations." At Berlin they
+groaned all the more at seeing Christian monarchies undertake so
+ardently the defense of the Crescent. A single Germanic power, however,
+at that time the largest it is true, maintained a different attitude; a
+single one thought the cause of the allies just, seemed, indeed, at
+moments to be inclined to make common cause with them; and that power
+was Austria,--Austria, but lately succored by the Russian arms; saved by
+the strong and generous hand of the czar on the very brink of the abyss;
+"saved" by him from sudden dissolution. The astonishment, the
+stupefaction, the exasperation of the Emperor Nicholas knew no bounds.
+The entire Russian nation shared his sentiments,--Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch like every patriotic Muscovite. "The immense ingratitude
+of Austria" became even then the unanimous cry,--the _siboleth_ of every
+political faith in the vast empire of the North; and so it has remained
+even to our days.
+
+It is necessary to lay stress upon this sentiment born in Russia in
+consequence of the Oriental conflict, and to discuss the real causes for
+it; for this sentiment has produced incalculable effects. It has
+contributed largely to the recent catastrophes; it has dictated more
+than one extreme resolution to the cabinet of St. Petersburg; it has
+made it abandon its venerable traditions,--its principles, consecrated
+by the experience of generations and seemingly immovable, having become,
+in a certain sense, the _arcana imperii_ of the descendants of Peter the
+Great. To sum up, it has governed the general policy of the successor of
+Nesselrode during the last twenty years.
+
+Assuredly Russia had the right to count on the recognition of Austria
+after the signal and incontestable service which it had rendered her in
+1849. The armies which the czar then sent to the succor of the tottering
+empire of Hapsburg contributed powerfully to suppress a fatal, menacing
+insurrection there; and if it is true that in order to obtain this
+succor it was sufficient to recall to the Czar Nicholas a word given
+long before in a moment of confidential intimacy, the action does not
+become the less meritorious, and does so much the more honor to the
+heart of the autocrat.[7] It would be difficult to deny that this
+intervention in Hungary had not a generous and chivalric character which
+astonished the contemporaries and the clever. The clever ones, the
+statesmen, who, at this troubled epoch of Europe, had still preserved
+enough liberal spirit to cast their eyes toward the Danube,--Lord
+Palmerston among others,--remained for a long time incredulous, and
+endeavored to divine the reward paid for the aid that was lent. Should
+not the czar retain Galicia as a recompense for his assistance? Would he
+not procure some positive assurance from the side of the Principalities?
+was asked in the offices of Downing Street. Nothing of the sort
+happened, however. The Russians left Austria without a reward, as they
+had entered it without an _arrière-pensée_, and the troops of Paskévitch
+evacuated the country of the Carpathians unladen with booty. A young and
+ardent orator in the Prussian chambers, with the name (as yet but little
+known) de Bismarck,--the same who fifteen years later was to project
+striking a _coup au coeur_ and arming the legions of Klapka,--admired at
+this moment the brilliant action of the czar, and only expressed the
+patriotic regret that this magnanimous _rôle_ had not fallen to his own
+country, to Prussia. It was for Prussia to bring assistance to its elder
+brother in Germany, to "its former comrade in arms."[8] But it is
+allowable to suppose that, even with a king as loyal and poetic as
+Frederick William IV., affairs would have been conducted much less
+handsomely than with the barbarian of the North, and that similar aid
+from Prussia would have cost the empire of Hapsburg a part of Silesia or
+a part of its influence on the Main.
+
+Shall we say, then, that in intervening in Hungary the Emperor of Russia
+acted from pure chivalry and platonic friendship, that he had no thought
+of personal interest and the good of his empire? Certainly not; and the
+czar had too much loyalty not to avow it frankly. He intervened in
+Hungary, not only as the friend of the Hapsburg, not only as the
+defender of the cause of order against cosmopolitan revolution; the most
+powerful motive in deciding him was the presence in the Hungarian army
+of Polish generals and officers, who intended to carry the war into the
+countries subjected to Russian rule. In his manifest of the 8th May,
+1849, Nicholas expressed himself as follows: "The insurrection sustained
+by the influence of _our traitors from Poland_, of the year 1831, has
+given to the Hungarian revolt an extension more and more _menacing_....
+His majesty, the Emperor of Austria, has invited us to assist against
+_the common enemy_.... We have ordered our army under way to quell the
+revolt, and to destroy the audacious anarchists, _who equally menace the
+tranquillity of our provinces_." The language was clear and frank, as
+was fitting for a sovereign preserving the consciousness of his dignity.
+This sovereign intended to render himself a service as well as his ally.
+He was going to stifle in his neighbors' territory an incendiary fire
+which threatened to harm his own domains; and in the act of intervening,
+let it be well understood, he at the same time acted in
+self-preservation.
+
+Well! it seems according to all justice that the gratitude should
+correspond to the service rendered, and that the law of preservation,
+the supreme law of nature, should have equal force for the party under
+obligations as for the benefactor. There is no policy in the world, were
+it even taken from Holy Writ which could advise voluntary servitude;
+there is no doctrine, however sublime one wishes to imagine it, which,
+among the duties of the confession, recommends suicide. Now, it was
+nothing less than absolute subjection, the ruin of its personality as a
+great European State, which the Russians demanded of Austria in
+demanding its assent to their pretensions against the Orient. By
+geography, by the spirit of races, by religion, the Russian enterprises
+would strike a mortal blow at the empire of the Hapsburg, if this empire
+allowed them to triumph. A Danubian power, Austria should take care that
+the Lower Danube remained neutral, and that it should not fall into the
+hands of a powerful neighbor, who would then become master of this great
+river. A Sclavic power in its Oriental provinces, it ought to guard
+against being placed in immediate contact with an empire pan-Sclavic by
+tradition and by fatality, and it could not wish it to be planted in the
+Principalities, in Bosnia and Herzegovania. A Catholic power, it was
+forbidden to recognize the influence and the protectorate which the
+orthodox czar claimed over the Christians of the Grecian rite, of whom
+it counted several millions among its subjects. "My conduct in the
+question of the Orient! Why it is written on a map?" said Count Buol, to
+his brother-in-law, M. de Meyendorf, the Russian ambassador. He added
+that it was also written in history. "I have made no innovation. I have
+only inherited the political legacy of M. de Metternich."
+
+In fact, in a previous crisis, at the time of the Hellenic insurrection
+and the war of 1828, the grand chancellor of the court and of the empire
+had defended this principle of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire with
+a firmness which nothing could disturb. During eight years he had
+defended it, braving the storm alone, not allowing himself to be
+discouraged either by the unpopularity then attaching to the Turkish
+cause or by the desertion of France. Why should the Russians hope that
+Austria would now desert this principle so vital for her, that she would
+desert it at the very moment when it commenced to triumph over the
+indifference of the Occident, and counted France and England among its
+most earnest champions?
+
+Placed between a sentiment of gratitude very lively and real, as we have
+said, and a great political necessity, the government of Vienna has
+certainly done for gratitude all that it owed. It lavished warnings,
+prayers, good offices, offers of mediation on the Emperor Nicholas.
+Austria pardoned Russia more than one want of respect, more than one
+action of ill humor; it pardoned her the more than airy tone in which it
+had been disposed of in the effusions with Sir Hamilton Seymour,--the
+manner in which a certain autograph letter of the Emperor Francis
+Joseph had been received at St. Petersburg,--the haughty, almost
+insulting attitude of Count Orlof during his mission at Vienna. It did
+not cease till the end to calm the irritation of the allies, to modify
+and alter their programme, to assert the conciliating disposition of the
+czar, to hope against all hope. It pleaded only for the return _in statu
+quo_, repudiating any idea of humiliating or weakening Russia; it
+demanded nothing from her but the freedom of the Danube, the
+renunciation of the protectorate, and refused to follow the allies in
+their demands concerning the Black Sea. Unfortunately, as it happens too
+often to him who wishes to be equitable and just towards all parties,
+the Austrian government, by this conduct, ended by alienating France and
+England and exasperating the Russians. In the summer of 1854, at the
+very moment when Prince Gortchakof exchanged his post at Frankfort for
+that at Vienna, an eminent publicist, who was then, so to speak, the
+mouth-piece of the Occident, and of its generous spirits, almost
+despaired of Austria, and cried with bitterness that over there, in the
+_Burg_, "the Russian alliance was something as sacred as a religion, as
+fixed as propriety, and as popular as a fashion!" In the spring of the
+following year, the cabinets of Paris and of London resisted, as too
+favorable to Russia, a new plan of arrangement presented by Count Buol,
+and the French government on this occasion reproached Austria, in the
+"Moniteur Officiel," with offering an expedient rather than a solution.
+
+The solution! The Emperor Francis Joseph certainly had it in his hands,
+and it perhaps depended only on him to render it as decisive and as
+radical as the most mortal enemies of Russia could wish. Why not
+confess it? To see the bitter fruit _gathered_ by Austria in consequence
+of its honorable efforts during the Oriental crisis, and to see the
+implacable hatred and the cruel disasters which fell to its lot because
+of its attitude then, one surprises one's self sometimes in regretting
+that the cabinet of Vienna had so many scruples at this memorable epoch.
+One almost reproaches it for not having given proof of that independence
+of heart which seems, alas! the forced, indispensable condition for the
+independence of states. If Austria had wished to be a little less
+grateful and a little less politic during this war of the Orient, she
+would have resolutely joined herself to France and England, she would
+have taken part in the struggle, and instead of letting the allies rove
+for years around the borders of Russia, in the Black Sea and Baltic, she
+would have opened for them the fields of Poland, and have entered there
+with them. In place of "tickling the soul of the Colossus or of filing
+off a nail,"--as Russian publicists said later, and not without
+justice,--they should then have given him a _coup au coeur_,--one of
+those blows that the great recluse of Varzin knows how to plan and give.
+The cabinet of the Tuileries would not have refused to do this. In his
+dispatch of the 26th March, 1855, M. Drouyn de Lhuys laid down very
+skillfully the question of Poland; neither would the cabinet of St.
+James have raised serious objections. As to the probable success of such
+an enterprise, it suffices to remember that Russia was at the end of its
+resources, and that Prussia had not yet re-formed its military
+organization, was not yet in possession of its "instrument," and lastly
+that in place of William the Conqueror, Frederick the Romantic occupied
+the throne of the Hohenzollern. The mind is confounded before the
+contemplation of the consequences which such a decision on the part of
+the Emperor Francis Joseph might have caused. The face of the world
+would have been changed; Austria would certainly not have seen Sadowa[9]
+in 1866; Europe would not have seen the dismemberment of Denmark, nor
+the destruction of the _Bund_, nor the conquest of Alsace and Lorraine.
+
+It was in the summer of 1854, as we have said above, that Prince
+Gortchakof was sent to Vienna. He replaced there, first provisionally,
+and in the following spring, definitely, Baron de Meyendorf, whose
+situation had become unpleasant in consequence of his ties of very near
+relationship with the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch at last held that post at Vienna to which he had so long a
+time aspired, the post which, with that of London, was considered, under
+the reign of Nicholas, as the highest in Russian diplomacy, like the
+_bâton_ of a marshal in his career. But now how full this honor was of
+bitterness, and what patriotic pangs accompanied a distinction formerly
+ardently wished for, to-day accepted through devotion to his sovereign
+and his country! On this ground, formerly so pleasant and smiling, the
+envoy of the czar could everywhere see nothing but briers and thorns.
+In this capital, renowned for its boisterous gayety and too frequent
+frivolity, he received nothing but disastrous and distracting news. And
+this "Austrian ingratitude," which he had only had glimpses of and
+combated from afar during his mission at Frankfort, he could now look in
+the face--and smile at it! There is a grief greater than the _ricordare
+tempi felici nella miseria_; it is to see a dream of happiness turn into
+a reality of misery, and one can easily understand what a treasure of
+gall this sojourn at Vienna must have heaped up in the wounded heart of
+the Russian patriot.[10]
+
+It is superfluous to lay stress upon the activity which the new envoy of
+the czar displayed in this unhappy mission; to mention the infinite
+variety of means which he placed at the service of his cause,
+especially during the conferences of Vienna, which were opened after
+the death of Nicholas and the accession of the Emperor Alexander II.
+That was a moving sight and one which was truly not wanting in grandeur,
+that of the two Gortchakof, one behind the ramparts of Sebastopol, the
+other before the council board of Vienna, both defending their country
+with an equal tenacity, only yielding each inch of ground after a
+desperate combat, forced into their last intrenchments, but honored even
+to the end by loyal and chivalrous adversaries. To-day an epoch "of iron
+and of blood" has accustomed us to the summary proceedings--we had
+almost said executions--of Nikolsburg, of Ferrières, of Versailles, and
+of Frankfort, and a martial law used by the diplomats in helmets has
+replaced that which a former Europe, full of prejudices, loved to call
+the right of nations. To-day it is difficult to resist a sentiment of
+astonishment, almost of incredulity, in re-reading the protocols of
+these conferences of Vienna, where everything breathes decorum,
+politeness, urbanity, and mutual respect. One thinks himself carried
+back to an idyllic age, one far from us, to a world of ancient
+gentlemen. M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Minister of Foreign Affairs in France,
+Lord John Russell, until lately President of the Privy Council of
+England, did not think it beneath their dignity to go in person to
+Vienna to discuss there with Prince Gortchakof the possible conditions
+of a peace. Russia had lost several great battles, the allied fleets had
+blockaded all its seas and even menaced its capital. That did not
+prevent the French and English plenipotentiaries from treating it with
+all deference, with all the respect which the diplomacy of this good
+old time could employ. They displayed a veritable art in the invention
+of euphemisms; they gave themselves pains to find the mildest mediums,
+the most acceptable terms for the representative of a vanquished power.
+Indeed, that excellent Lord John Russell forced kindness so far as to
+recall, and that in the face of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, that England had
+made Louis XIV. submit to conditions much harder and more
+humiliating.[11] That was, perhaps, the only instance of want of tact
+which one can find in the conferences of Vienna, and yet what was it but
+a courteousness from an ally to an ally? As for Austria, it exhausted
+itself in finding means to spare the susceptibilities of Russia, and
+ended by presenting a plan of arrangement which was judged inacceptable
+by the cabinets of London and Paris, and drew on it the reproach of the
+"Moniteur Officiel," of which we have already spoken.
+
+Negotiations were broken off, and nothing could be done but to await the
+issue of the supreme combat under the walls of Sebastopol. The Russian
+plenipotentiary awaited it at his post in Vienna in the twofold anguish
+of a patriot and a relation. The bulwark of the Crimea fell, and Russia
+found itself in the most critical situation. It was exhausted,--indeed
+much more exhausted than Europe then thought,--and the prolongation of
+the war would have infallibly transported the hostilities to the plains
+of Poland. At this moment Austria intervened anew. It agreed to the
+demands made by the allies at the conference of Vienna,--even that
+clause concerning the neutralization of the Black Sea, which it had
+hitherto resisted as too wounding to Russia. It was not possible to
+refuse this satisfaction to the allies after the capture of Sebastopol.
+In reality, these were the easiest conditions which have ever been
+imposed on a power at the close of a war so long, so bloody, and of such
+incontestable victories. Austria did more; it sent these conditions
+under form of an ultimatum, declaring that it would make common cause
+with the allies if they were not accepted; and Russia accepted them. To
+look at it plainly, this was a service rendered to a young sovereign,
+who, having inherited a disastrous war, thus found the means to spare at
+the same time the memory of his predecessor and the pride of his people.
+He could say now that he had only made peace because of a new adversary,
+who had arisen at the side of the old ones, and whom his father did not
+count on. In fact, it was said in Russia,--it was believed, indeed, so
+much was it in their interest to believe it. The Russian people were
+quickly reconciled with the conquerors of Alma and of Malakof. A single
+power remained in their eyes responsible for their disasters,--the power
+which during the whole war had rested on its arms. Even at this hour
+every Russian heart boils with indignation at the thought of Austria, of
+its immense ingratitude and its great treason.
+
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch shared these bitternesses, these popular
+rancors, and became the most energetic and openly avowed representative
+of them. In this respect he allowed his sentiments to burst forth with a
+frankness which approached very nearly to ostentation. A remark uttered
+by him during the session of the Congress at Paris, is still cited at
+Vienna: "Austria is not a state, it is only a government." These words
+preceded him to St. Petersburg and made his fortune there. The popular
+voice designated him as the future avenger, as the man destined to
+prepare for his nation a brilliant revenge; and the acute diplomat did
+not trouble himself to controvert such an opinion. Already, however, at
+this Congress of Paris certain tendencies, certain desires were
+revealed, which gave hope, which even opened horizons entirely new. The
+name of Italy was pronounced there. Roumania itself found there an
+unexpected support. At this strange Congress, which definitely regulated
+the conditions of a peace that France, England, and Austria had imposed
+on Russia, Austria appeared gloomy and morose, England irritated and
+nervous. France and Russia alone exchanged between one another the most
+exquisite politeness and surprising cordialities. The sword of Napoleon
+III. became the lance of Achilles, healing where it had just wounded,
+wounding where it had healed. "There was balm of Gilead in it," and
+support in the sovereign of the Tuileries. The day after the Congress,
+in the month of April, 1856, the old Count Nesselrode asked to be
+retired on account of his age, and Prince Alexander Gortchakof became
+Minister of Foreign Affairs.
+
+
+II.
+
+During the four years which he had passed at Frankfort as representative
+of his government to the German Confederation, Prince Gortchakof, as we
+have already seen, had made the acquaintance of, and maintained the
+most intimate relations with a colleague, whose rare qualities of mind,
+as probably also those of the heart, he appreciated as no one else did.
+The two friends were separated in the summer of 1854, when the Russian
+plenipotentiary went to fulfill his painful mission at Vienna. But they
+did not delay in meeting anew, and found as before that perfect
+congeniality of ideas and of sentiments, which, established since their
+first meeting in Frankfort, has never been interrupted, and has lasted
+for twenty-five years: _grande mortalis ævi spatium_. This friend of
+Prince Gortchakof on the smiling banks of the Main, was no other than M.
+de Bismarck, the future chancellor of Germany.
+
+Otto-Edward-Leopold de Bismarck-Schoenhausen, born the 1st of April,
+1815, at Schoenhausen, hereditary estate of his family in the old Mark
+of Brandenburg, could not flatter himself with having, like his friend
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, blood of the Saints in his veins. His
+biographers even observe with visible satisfaction, that at least two of
+his ancestors were excommunicated by the Church and died in final
+impenitence. What is more serious is that the most authorized historians
+of the Mark of Brandenburg, M. de Riedel among others, call into
+question the noble origin of the family. They show that the first of the
+line, of whom authentic documents of the fourteenth century speak, Rulo
+Bismarck, was a member and on several occasions even provost of "the
+guild of master tailors in cloth" at Stendal, a small market town of the
+old Mark. The fact does not seem doubtful. But could not the citizens of
+Stendal, just as well as those of certain cities in Tuscany, have
+forced every country noble, who wished to inhabit the city, to subscribe
+himself in one of those guilds? This is the opinion of the tories in
+this curious genealogical dispute. To hear them, the good citizens of
+Stendal must have been on a par, in the fourteenth century, with the
+great citizens of Florence and of Pisa, and Rulo Bismarck must have been
+master tailor in cloth about as much as Dante, his contemporary, was an
+apothecary. The whigs, on the contrary, the biographers in
+national-liberal colors, take their part gayly, and one of them
+ingeniously concludes, that in any case the ancestor Rulo ought "to
+contemplate with satisfaction and pride from the high heavens the
+splendid imperial mantle which his descendant has made for King William
+out of the cloth of Europe."
+
+In times relatively more modern, the House of Bismarck presents, like
+many a noble country family of Brandenburg, an unbroken succession of
+modest and faithful servants of the state, some soldiers, some employed
+in civil duties. The eighteenth century offers us two rather more
+curious specimens, the grandfather and great uncle of the chancellor.
+One was surnamed the _poet_, the other the _adventurer_. The _poet_,
+this painful avowal must be made, composed his verses in the French
+language. We have notably by him an "_Eloge ou Monument érigé
+à la Mémoire de Christine de Bismarck, née de Schoenfeld, par
+Charles-Alexandre de Bismarck_," Berlin, 1774. It was to his dead wife
+that the retired captain of cavalry thought necessary to elevate this
+mausoleum of words and of _Welche_ rhymes, full of the insipid
+sentimentality of the time. The _adventurer_ (Ludolf-August) is more
+deserving of his name. He killed his servant in a fit of anger or
+drunkenness, was pardoned, took service in Russia, became involved in
+political intrigues in Courland, and was forced to go to Siberia in
+exile. Pardoned again, he entered into Russian diplomacy, filled several
+missions, and died commanding general at Poltava. Let us say in passing,
+that this Ludolf was not the only one of his family to serve under the
+Russian flag, and thus the name of Bismarck has long been well known at
+St. Petersburg.
+
+The whig biographers lay much stress on the fact, that the mother of the
+young Otto, "an intelligent, ambitious, and rather cold woman," was a
+_bourgeoise_, a Miss Menken, of a family of _savans_ well known at
+Leipsic. They love to prove in this manner that the restorer of the
+empire was connected by his mother with the _bourgeoisie_, that studious
+and cultivated _bourgeoisie_ which is the great strength of
+Germany,--while claiming his right to the nobility and the army by his
+father, retired captain of cavalry, and by his grandfather the _poet_.
+Those profound Germans have a weakness, it is known, for all symbolism.
+They dignify very often with this name that which is nothing but a _jeu
+d'esprit_, in reality a play of words, and it is thus that they attach a
+certain signification to the futile circumstance that the young Otto was
+confirmed[12] at Berlin at the hands of Schleiermacher, the celebrated
+Doctor of Divinity, whose learning was much more respectable than his
+life; "in a manner and for a fleeting moment, it is true, but solemnly,
+the young man called to a life of action _par excellence_, was brought
+in contact with our learned theology and our romantic philosophy." Nor
+has it been forgotten to exalt the name of the "gray cloister" (_Grauer
+Kloster_), which the lyceum at Berlin bore, where the future destroyer
+of convents studied, or to note the French origin of one of his
+principal professors, Doctor Bonnet, descendant of a Huguenot family
+which sought refuge in Brandenburg in consequence of the revocation of
+the Edict of Nantes.
+
+After having finished his studies at the lyceum of the gray cloister,
+Otto de Bismarck went to the University of Goettingen, to the celebrated
+_Georgia Augusta_, in order to study. In reality, he did nothing but
+lead the life of the sons of the muse, who have the good or bad fortune
+to be at the same time sons of family, _cavalieri_; he cultivated
+nothing but hunting, riding, swimming, gymnastic exercises, and fencing.
+He had more than twenty duels, and fully justified the glorious name of
+_Bursche_, which clung to him for a long time afterwards, even when he
+was ambassador and minister. One easily understands that the Institutes
+and Pandects cannot be very thoroughly studied in the midst of so many
+corporal exercises, and even the attempt to change the noisy _Georgia
+Augusta_ for the most quiet and sedate University of Berlin, was a
+remedy heroic rather than efficacious. Has M. de Bismarck ever regularly
+passed this "state examination" (_Staatsexamen_) which in Prussia is the
+indispensable condition for an appointment to any public function? A
+grave question, which was discussed for a long time in Germany, and out
+of which a weapon has shaped itself for twenty years against the man,
+the deputy, the ambassador, the president of the council. A fact worthy
+of notice, and one which well characterizes the formal and regulative
+mind of the nation: M. de Bismarck had already defied all Europe, and
+dismembered the Danish monarchy, when in the opposition journals of
+Germany, there appeared from time to time, like belated rockets,
+malignant allusions to this problematical state examination! Since the
+epoch of Sadowa only have these malicious jibes entirely ceased: Sadowa
+caused many other irregularities to pass unnoticed, and assuredly much
+graver ones.
+
+It is perhaps proper to inquire here what benefits M. de Bismarck reaped
+from his academic life, and to estimate, if but briefly, the cultivation
+and the peculiarities of his mind. It seems certain that M. de Bismarck
+is not a man of science and study, and that his liberal education shows
+more than one gap. A pleasing contrast, the two chancellors, Russian and
+German, of whom one knew but a single lyceum and that one of very
+doubtful merit, while the other attended the most renowned college
+(_gymnasium_) and _alma mater_ of learned Germany. Certainly the pupil
+of Zarkoe-Zeloe, as regards classical knowledge and true _humaniora_, is
+far in advance of the lucky foster child of _Georgia Augusta_.
+Nevertheless it is well to observe that M. de Bismarck fills and more
+than fills a certain programme laid down one day by the _spirituel_ and
+regretted Saint-Marc Giradin for the well educated men of the world. "I
+do not require, said he, that they know Latin; I only ask that they have
+forgotten it." From his academic youth, there has always remained to
+the chancellor of Germany a fund of culture of which he well knows the
+use on occasion, and he understands in a sufficient degree, his Bible,
+his Shakspere, his Goethe, and his Schiller, those four elements of all
+education, even the most common one, in German countries,--precious and
+enviable quadrivium of the children of Arminius! Prince Gortchakof has
+the refinements as well as the weaknesses of the man of letters; he
+takes care of his "_mot_," he corrects his phrase, he looks at and
+admires himself in his compositions; it is known that he was one day
+surnamed the _Narcissus of the inkstand_. By his tastes, by his
+exquisite sensibility, by his artistic instinct, he has a marked
+superiority over his former colleague of Frankfort. But the latter
+regains all this advantage as soon as one considers the original and
+personal stamp which he knows how to give to his thoughts and to his
+speech, as soon as one seeks the individuality, the breathing creator,
+the _mens agitans molem_, that something mysterious and powerful which
+antique sculpture rendered so ingeniously by placing a flame on the
+forehead of certain of its statues.
+
+The chancellor of Germany is not a lettered man in the strict and
+somewhat vulgar acceptation of the world. He is, to speak correctly,
+neither an orator nor a writer. He does not understand developing a
+theme well, graduating its arguments, arranging its transitions. He does
+not construct his period and does not trouble himself about it. He has
+difficulty in expressing himself, both on the tribune and also with the
+pen. His style is harsh, occasionally very incorrect, as unacademical as
+possible. It is intricate, embarrassed, even trivial at moments. Every
+part guarded, and all reserve made, there is something of Cromwell in
+his manner of expressing himself. But in an entirely different manner
+than in Cromwell one is forced to admire in him those flashes of
+thought, those strong and unforeseen images, those penetrating words
+which strike, which impress themselves, and which are not forgotten.
+When quite lately in the midst of an argument, disconnected and
+embarrassed, concerning his conflict with Rome, he suddenly cried out:
+"Be sure of one thing, gentlemen, _we will not go to Canossa_!"[13] one
+should remember that he knew how to comprise there, in a sort of
+menacing _cæterum censeo_,[14] a whole world of memories and of
+passions. In a very different spirit, also in a time already far
+distant, it is true, speaking one day--about twenty years have since
+flown--of the principles of revolution and contra-revolution, he said
+that a parliamentary debate could never decide between these two
+principles: "The decision will only come from God, from the God of
+battles, _when he lets fall from his hand the iron dice of destiny_!"
+One thinks that he hears De Maistre in this last part of the phrase, and
+like M. de Maistre the chancellor of Germany has had his passage decried
+by the _hangsman_; we wish to speak of this invocation to _iron_ and to
+_blood_, which must be replaced in its frame and put in its true
+light,--to settle its date,--to appreciate all the relief by the side
+of the incontestable brutality. The invocation was made when those
+national-liberals, to-day of such great servility towards him and with
+the _obedience of a corpse_, wished to prevent him from reforming the
+army, at the same time demanding him to complete the unity of Germany.
+The man who felt the distant thunder of Sadowa and Sedan rumble in his
+soul, launched at this moment to the orators the _défi_ which he has
+only too well justified since, saying that it was not by speeches that
+Germany could be united: "to consummate this unity, iron and blood are
+necessary!" This orator does not breathe at ease in the uniform which
+never leaves him, and he advances only by fits and starts. He collects
+laboriously the clouds of his rhetoric, but the spark ends by flashing
+and by illuminating the whole situation. To make himself understood he
+employs the greatest or most familiar images, without choice, just as
+they come; he borrows a quotation from Shakspere and from Goethe just as
+well as from the Wasps of M. Alphonse Karr, or from a couplet of the
+vaudeville. One of his most happy, most memorable inspirations, he
+suddenly drew one day from the libretto of the "Freischütz."
+
+The reader will kindly permit us to recall this last episode, even at
+the risk of delaying somewhat in some preliminary explanations of which
+a German auditory, full of souvenirs of its "Freischütz," would have no
+need. In this opera of Weber, Max, the good and unfortunate hunter,
+borrows a cartridge from Robin, the evil spirit, and immediately kills
+an eagle, one of whose feathers he proudly sticks in his cap. He then
+asks for some more cartridges, but Robin tells him that they are
+"enchanted balls," and that in order to obtain them he must surrender
+himself to the infernal spirits, and deliver his soul to them. Max draws
+back, and then Robin, sneering, tells him that he hesitates in vain,
+that the bargain is made, and that he has already committed himself by
+the ball he made use of: "Do you think, then, that this eagle was a free
+gift?" Well! when in 1849 the young orator of the Mark of Brandenburg
+had to implore the Prussian chamber not to accept for the King of
+Prussia the imperial crown which the parliament of Frankfort offered
+him, he ended by crying out: "It is radicalism which offers this gift to
+the king. Sooner or later this radicalism will stand upright before the
+king, will demand of him its recompense, and pointing to the emblem of
+the eagle on that new imperial flag, it will say: _Did you think, then,
+that this eagle was a free gift?_" A striking image and equally deep and
+ingenious! Yes, one cannot use with impunity the "enchanted balls" of
+revolution, and one does not make a bargain with the popular demon,
+without leaving it some of his soul. Sooner or later there will stand
+upright before you the bad genius whose aid you have accepted, Robin of
+the woods and the streets. He will come to receive your salute, and tell
+you that he did not intend to have worked for the King of Prussia. This
+magnificent oratorical burst of the young deputy of the Mark, the
+chancellor of Germany might have considered with benefit in more than
+one decisive circumstance, for instance on the day when he overthrew the
+secular throne, also the day when he gave the signal for the _combat of
+civilization_.
+
+The writer does not differ much from the orator, and, in speaking of the
+writer, we think above all of those intimate and familiar letters which
+have been published in the well known book of George Hesekiel, and which
+have had a merited success in Germany. There is always the same
+obscurity, the same embarrassment of elocution, the same disorder, from
+time to time passages of lively and original expressions, of astonishing
+figures, of a bitter, harsh _humor_, which grinds and bites you with
+cruel pleasure. These letters are for the great part addressed to his
+sister, to "dear Malvina" (married to an Arnim), and we will borrow from
+them more than once during the course of this study. One notices in them
+certain descriptions of nature, of the brightness of the moon, of the
+North Sea, of the view of the Danube from the heights of Buda-Pesth,
+which are not wanting in coloring effect, and make up a picture. There
+is something of Heinrich Heine in these private _Reisebilder_, and it
+has been remarked of them, that there is perhaps something of Hamlet
+(and what a Hamlet!) in the following passage, the only melancholy one
+which we have met with in the midst of so many sanguine and robust
+sallies. "At the mercy of God! Everything is in reality but a question
+of time, peoples and individuals, wisdom and folly, peace and war. To
+the living, everything upon earth is but hypocrisy and jugglery, and
+this _mask of flesh having once fallen off_, the wise man and the fool
+resemble each other greatly, and it would be hard to distinguish between
+the Prussian and the Austrian, _their skeletons being very carefully
+prepared_." These lines fell from the same hand, however, which, since
+then, and assuredly by a very specific patriotism, has furnished so many
+thousand subjects to the preparers of skeletons!
+
+One sees by these letters that M. de Bismarck handled at an early hour
+and with predilection this irony, in which he is without a master; a
+cold, crafty irony, and which too often approaches sneering. He used it
+later in his speeches, in his conversations with ministers and
+ambassadors, and even in diplomatic negotiations, in the most important,
+most decisive moments of history. At such moments this irony sometimes
+affects a great frankness, sometimes a great politeness, but a frankness
+to make you fall on your knees before the first lie, however brazen, a
+politeness to make you implore an incivility without forms as a
+veritable charity. One day, on the very eve of the war of 1866, Count
+Karolyi, ambassador of Austria, and acting in the name of his
+government, summoned M. de Bismarck to declare categorically if he
+expected to break the treaty of peace, the treaty of Gastein.[15] "No,"
+was the reply, "I have not that expectation; _but, if I had, would I
+answer you differently_?" There is an example of that frankness which
+disconcerts, which confounds, and seems to cry in your ear with that
+devil from the "Inferno":
+
+    "Tu non pensavi ch'io loico fossi!"
+
+As to the murderous politeness, which sometimes clothes the sarcasm of
+M. de Bismarck, let us recall here the _mot_ which he launched later at
+the negotiators of Versailles, coming to treat with him concerning the
+surrender of famished Paris, and to offer him two hundred millions in
+contributions. "Oh," said he, "_Paris is too great a personage_ that we
+should treat it in such a shabby manner; let us do it the honor of a
+milliard." That is truly an original turn which the rival of Heine
+thought to give to the _maxima reverentia_ which one owes to misfortune!
+When one is destined in a ripe age to exercise his _humor_ with such
+ease at the cost of princes and of peoples, how is it possible when
+young not to jest pleasantly about that poor fellow of a peasant in
+Pomerania who drank too much water? In one of his letters to his dear
+Malvina, the young country gentleman describes with a hilarious spirit
+an inundation which swept over his domain which is divided by a little
+branch of the narrow river Hampel. This inundation severed him from all
+his neighbors, carried off so and so many casks of _eau-de-vie_,
+"introduced an anarchical interregnum from Schievelbein to Damm," and he
+ends by this stroke: "_I am proud to be able to say_, that in my little
+branch of the Hampel a wagoner was drowned with his horse and his whole
+load of tar!" How proud in a different degree was this gentleman one day
+when, Europe having become his domain, he saw disappearing in the midst
+of the billows, billows of blood this time, a whole army and its chief,
+a whole empire and its emperor,--_currus Galliæ et auriga ejus!_ That
+did not prevent, at another time, the young country gentleman from
+jumping bravely into the water to rescue his groom and gaining the medal
+for saving life. During many years this medal was the only one to
+decorate the broad chest of the Prussian minister at Frankfort. Asked
+one day by a colleague to the _Bund_ about a decoration to which the
+diplomatic corps is but little accustomed, he replied in the tone which
+he alone possesses, that he sometimes happened to rescue a man,--in his
+leisure moments, be it understood. Probably, if he had been further
+pressed, he was capable of adding that he only did it for exercise.
+
+Thus, to resume, from the epoch of his apprenticeship at the gray
+cloister and _Georgia Augusta_, Otto de Bismarck carried a literary
+burden, which, without being either too heavy or too full, has
+nevertheless enabled him to make his tour of the political world with
+ease and honor. And also since this epoch his mind disclosed the
+precious qualities which still distinguish it; a vivid and powerful
+imagination, a rare happiness in his choice of expressions occasionally
+grandiose, occasionally vulgar, but always striking; and lastly, a
+_humor_ which has no equal, and which, to speak with Jean Paul, is a
+true _sirocco_ to the soul. With all this no grace, no charm, no
+distinction or delicacy,--not a generous accent, no sweet and
+sympathetic cord, a complete absence of that milk of human kindness of
+which the poet speaks, an absolute want of that charity which, according
+to the great Christian moralist, is like the heavenly perfume of the
+soul. As to the art or rather handicraft, as to the work which consists
+in arranging his phrases, in connecting and disposing them so as to
+introduce harmony and clearness in the different parts of speech, in
+effacing its asperities and inequalities, in one word as to the _style_,
+M. de Bismarck never learned it or always disdained it. If we dared to
+apply to this style one of those trivial but expressive images of which
+he himself offers us more than one example, we would willingly compare
+it to a certain strange drink, hardly credible, and which, according to
+his biographers, the German chancellor has always liked: it consists of
+a mixture of champagne and _porter_! The language is in imitation of the
+drink: one finds in it the _piquant_, the sparkling, the exhilarating of
+the _Aÿ_ together with the heaviness, the blackness, and above all the
+bitterness of the _stout_.
+
+It is a curious fact, that the man who one day was to impose on all the
+States of Germany the severe bureaucratic and military laws of Prussia,
+"to place Germany in the saddle," to use one of his _mots_, to press it
+into the straight jacket of obligatory service,--even to indirectly
+train all Europe to new exercises, and to make it leave the plow for the
+sword, liberal occupations for the autumn and summer manoeuvres,--this
+man, for his part, has never been able to bind himself down to academic
+duties, neither to the regular work of the bureau, nor to the severe
+discipline of the soldier. He himself has acknowledged having heard but
+_two_ hours of lecture during his whole stay at _Georgia Augusta_. The
+university course being ended, he tried several times the administrative
+or judiciary career; he tried it at Aix-la-Chapelle, at Potsdam, at
+Greifswalde, then again at Potsdam, and had to give it up every time,
+disgusted by the monotonous labor of the bureau, or by quarrels with his
+superiors. On this subject is told the _piquant_ reply of the young
+_referendarius_ to a principal who had made him wait an hour in an
+antechamber: "I came to request a short leave of absence; but during
+this long hour I have had time to reflect, and I demand my dismission."
+Thrice he made a trial of the military service, without arriving at a
+higher grade than that of lieutenant in the _Landwehr_, a rank which he
+appreciated, however, and of which he loved to don the uniform on solemn
+occasions, even at the very time when he was already minister at
+Frankfort. The reader knows that the day of Sadowa brought him the
+insignia of a general. Those ten or twelve years which had passed for M.
+de Bismarck since his disputed state examination to his entrance into
+the Prussian chamber, the German biographers call by the fine name
+"years of storm and trouble," which recalls one of the most brilliant
+epochs of their literature.[16] In truth they were stormy, filled with
+miscarriages of more than one kind, with travels, financial
+embarrassments, perhaps also with an unrequited love. At least that is
+the meaning one is inclined to give to the following passage from a
+letter addressed to his sister Malvina: "I struggle in vain, I shall end
+by marrying ----; the world wishes it thus, and nothing seems more
+natural, and then we will both be killed on the spot. She left me
+coldly, it is true, but they all do that. It would not be so bad,
+however, if one could throw off his feelings with his shirts, no matter
+how rarely one changes the latter."
+
+He seems to have had a very sincere affection for this sister; he
+overwhelms her with the most tender names. Thus he calls her his little
+dear, his Malvina, his _Maldewinchen_, his good little Arnim; he even
+calls her once (pardon him, O divinities of Walhalla) simply _and in
+French_, "_ma soeur_." In all the letters of this epoch, dated for the
+most part from the estates of Kniephof or Schoenhausen (it was not until
+later that M. de Bismarck acquired the famous Varzin[17]), by the side
+of an always biting and harsh _humor_, one can perceive a certain
+disenchantment; by the side of the cares of fortune appear from time to
+time projects for the future, very modest, truly, and which seldom aim
+at politics. In 1846 he attached a certain importance at being made
+surveyor of dikes in the district (_Deichhauptmann_). "The position is
+not remunerative, but it offers some interest in regard to Schoenhausen
+and other estates, for we would depend on it in a great measure if we
+were again without water as in the past year.... Bernard (a friend)
+insists on my going to Prussia (to Berlin). I would like to know what he
+expects there. He affirms that by my disposition and my inclinations, I
+am made for the service of the state, and that sooner or later I will
+end by entering it." Suddenly, and on the very eve of the reunion of the
+first Prussian parliament, one is surprised by the plan of a voyage to
+the Indias,--probably to make his fortune and establish himself
+there,--and one thinks involuntarily of Cromwell wishing to embark for
+America on the eve of the long parliament. Do not think, however, that
+the days passed sadly and morosely at Kniephof and at Schoenhausen: one
+lives there, one overlives the life of _Juncker_ (country squire) and
+the officers of the neighboring garrison are good and stout fellows, in
+whose company one hunts and dances, "one empties great bowls half filled
+with champagne, half with porter;" the guests are awakened in the
+morning by pistols fired off close to their pillows; on entering the
+_salon_ the female cousins are frightened with four foxes, and honor is
+paid to the name given by the whole country to the proprietor of the
+domain, the name of "mad Bismarck" (_der tolle Bismarck_). They are
+madcaps, and blusterers, prompt to draw their swords, to fight with
+pistol or steel, and they do not even avoid a pugilistic scene. One day
+in a smoking room at Berlin, the former pupil of _Georgia Augusta_ broke
+his beer mug on the skull of a stranger disrespectful in his language
+towards a member of the royal family; not, however, without having first
+addressed a charitable warning to the insolent speaker, nor without
+having afterwards, very sedately, very politely, asked of the waiter the
+cost of the damage.[18] This happened in 1850; M. de Bismarck had
+already been deputy several years, and was on the point of becoming
+minister plenipotentiary to the Germanic Confederation.
+
+_Der tolle Bismarck_; it was not only at Kniephof and at Schoenhausen
+that the future chancellor of Germany was thus called. The Berlinese
+themselves had no other name for him for a long time, during all the
+parliamentary period of the young deputy of the Mark, since his maiden
+speech and his first appearance on the tribune,--when having provoked
+an indescribable tumult by a violent attack against the liberals he
+drew from his pocket a newspaper, and quietly commenced reading, while
+waiting for the storm to calm,--up to his last speech on December 3,
+1850, which completed the exasperation of the chamber, but was worth a
+diplomatic post to the orator. Success advances a little like the
+aristocratic law of the Chinese: it is necessary to supply glory from
+the rear and to throw lustre on the obscure antecedents of the favorite
+of fortune. This was, however, more to mistake the time and to misplace
+the historical perspective, than to wish to assign to M. de Bismarck in
+those years (1847-50) any important _rôle_ which he did not fill until
+fifteen years later. The truth is that this _rôle_ was not in this first
+period either of such eminence, or, above all, sufficiently respected to
+be tempted to arrange itself in an abstract, inductive method. An active
+and restless member of the group of _Juncker_ in 1847, and of the great
+_party of the cross_ which was formed after the revolution of February,
+the country gentleman of Schoenhausen was far from having in the bosom
+of this party the authority of a Gerlach and a Stahl, or the great
+position of a similar feudal lord of Silesia or Pomerania. In spite of
+his audacity, his impetuosity, and his _sang-froid_; in spite of his
+exceedingly happy sallies with an eloquence unequal and embarrassed in a
+very different manner from to-day, M. de Bismarck was at this epoch
+nothing but the Hotspur, and the _enfant terrible_ of the sacred phalanx
+which defended the throne, the altar, and the conservative principles.
+He was in a measure the General Temple of the ill-tempered
+light-horsemen, a General Temple joined with the Marquis of Piré. At
+any rate he only passed for a successful Thadden-Triglaff, that brave M.
+Thadden-Triglaff who declared that he desired the liberty of the press,
+on condition, however, "that there was a power by the side of each
+journal to hang up the pamphleteers." The speeches of M. de Bismarck,
+friend and neighbor of this ingenious legislator of the press, were
+often not more reasonable. Did he not say one day, word for word, "that
+all the great cities ought to be destroyed and razed to the ground, as
+the eternal homes of revolution?"
+
+The Athenians of the Spree[19] laughed at these jests, repeated those
+words full of _humor_, and above all admired a certain argument _ad
+hominem_ by means of a mug of beer. Occasionally also they criticised
+with malice the advances made to the innocent, to the democrats, and
+diverted themselves especially over the famous little branch of olive
+which the country squire of Schoenhausen showed one day to his colleague
+of the chamber, the very radical Doctor d'Ester. This branch, he told
+him, he had cut in a recent excursion to Vaucluse, from the tomb of
+Laura and Petrarch. He put it carefully in his cigar case and thought of
+presenting it one day to the red gentlemen "as a sign of
+reconciliation." It was in the strange destiny of this extraordinary man
+not to be thought in earnest until the day when he became terrible. _Der
+tolle Bismarck_, the Germans said in 1850; at Frankfort the good Count
+Rechberg called him scoffingly a _Bursche_, and he was considered a
+personage worthy of laughter in the eyes of the French minister, a man
+of mind, however, even in 1864. The year after the legendary coast of
+Biarritz, he pursued with his projects the Emperor Napoleon III., who,
+resting on the arm of the author of "Colomba," whispered from time to
+time into the ear of the academician senator those words: "He is crazy!"
+Five years later the dreamer of Ham gave up his sword to the crazy man
+of the Mark.
+
+"I belong,"--such was the defiant declaration of M. de Bismarck in one
+of his first speeches in the chamber,--"I belong to an opinion which
+glories in the reproaches of obscurantism, and of tendencies of the
+Middle Age; I belong to that great multitude which is compared with
+disdain to the most intelligent party of the nation." He wanted a
+_Christian State_. "Without a religious basis," said he, "a state is
+nothing but a fortuitous aggregation of interests, a sort of bastion in
+a war of all against all; without this religious basis, all legislation,
+instead of regenerating itself at the living sources of eternal truth,
+is only tossed about by human ideas as vague as changeable." It is for
+this reason that he pronounced against the emancipation of the Jews, and
+repulsed, above all, with horror the institution of civil marriage, a
+degrading institution, and one which "made the church the train-bearer
+(_Schleppentraeger_) of a subaltern bureaucracy."[20] He was as
+_intransigeant_ for the throne as for the altar: he set at defiance the
+principle of the sovereignty of the people; universal suffrage (which he
+himself was to introduce one day into the whole German empire!) seemed
+to him a social danger and an outrage to good sense. He denied the
+rights of the nation; the crown alone had rights: the old Prussian
+spirit knew but that,--"and this old Prussian spirit is a Bucephalus who
+willingly allows his legitimate master to mount him, but who will throw
+to the ground every Sunday rider (_Sonntagsreiter_)!"
+
+A resolute adversary of modern ideas, of constitutional theories, and of
+all that then formed the programme of the liberal party in Prussia, the
+deputy of the Mark combated with the same energy the two great national
+passions of this party: the "deliverance" of Schleswig-Holstein and the
+unity of Germany. He deplored that "the royal Prussian troops had gone
+to defend the revolution in Schleswig against the legitimate sovereign
+of that country, the King of Denmark;" he asserted that they were making
+a groundless quarrel with this king, that they sought a quarrel with him
+"for no cause" (_um des Kaisers Bart_), and he did not hesitate to
+declare before an angry chamber, that the war provoked in the Duchies of
+the Elbe was "an undertaking eminently iniquitous, frivolous,
+disastrous, and revolutionary."[21] As to the unity of Germany, the
+young orator of the ultras repulsed it in the name of Right, of the
+sovereignty and of the independence of princes, as well as in the name
+of patriotism, be it understood. He was Prussian, a _specific_ Prussian,
+a hardened Prussian (_stockpreusse_), and cared very little to unite
+the good and firm substance "with the dissolved elements (_das
+zerfahrene Wesen_) of the South." He called on the army: Does this army
+wish to exchange the old national colors, black and white, for this
+German tricolor, which was only known to it as the emblem of revolution?
+Does it wish to exchange its old Dessauer march for the song of a
+Professor Arndt on the _German fatherland_?
+
+We have already spoken of his speech against the imperial crown offered
+by the parliament of Frankfort, of the ingenious allusion borrowed from
+the libretto of the "Freischütz." While refusing the imperial crown,
+Frederick William IV. did not the less endeavor, during the years 1849
+and 1850, to rescue some waifs from this wreck of unitarian ideas; he
+tried to group around himself, and with the aid of the liberals, a
+notable part of the Germanic body, to create a sort of northern
+confederation: "restricted union" became for a moment the _mot d'ordre_
+of a programme which General Radowitz was charged to place on the stage
+of the parliament of Erfurt. M. de Bismarck condemned without pity or
+weakness all these vain attempts; with the great theorician of his
+party, the celebrated Professor Stahl, he pleaded for the return to the
+_statu quo_ prior to 1848. Like him he demanded "that the overturned
+column of right be replaced in Germany," that the _Bund_ be restored on
+legal bases, according to the terms of the treaty of Vienna, and that no
+cessation should be made in placing Prussian politics on its guard
+against any "course of Phæton" in a region of clouds and thunder.
+
+The thunderbolt did not in truth delay in striking, and the "course of
+Phæton" was brusquely arrested by the hand of that great Austrian
+minister, who himself only traversed, like a luminous meteor, the most
+elevated regions of power to disappear suddenly and to leave behind him
+eternal regrets. Prince Felix de Schwarzenberg recalls in some respects
+those statesmen of whom England lately offered the astounding example,
+those Peterboroughs, those Bentincks, and those like them, who knew how
+to interrupt, almost suddenly, a life given up to pleasures and to the
+frivolous follies of the world, to reveal themselves in a trice like
+veritable political geniuses, and to die before their time, after having
+exhausted the intoxication of easy good fortune and of glory, arduous in
+a very different degree. It is known with what a firm and steady hand
+the prince seized the helm of affairs in Austria, and in how short a
+time he succeeded in lifting up a monarchy placed on the brink of an
+abyss. Was his conduct in every particular irreproachable; was it even
+provident to the end? That is not the question for us. Let us limit
+ourselves in saying that rarely has a minister met with more good luck
+in his short career, found so much assurance in success, and spoken in a
+loftier or prouder tone in vexatious necessities. This time Prince
+Schwarzenberg spoke with all the authority which right gave him. Perhaps
+he spoke even too harshly, and Prussia seemed for a moment ready to pick
+up the glove. Frederick William IV. demanded of the chambers a credit of
+fourteen million thalers for the armament, and made a warlike speech.
+Europe became attentive, the national assembly of France was on the
+point of ordering a new levy of troops, and, fatidical prelude of a
+tragedy which was not to be played till fifteen years later, in 1850 as
+in 1866, Louis Napoleon thought that he ought to encourage the cabinet
+of Berlin, encourage it with aid, and in direct opposition to the
+general sentiment of the country! While the national assembly in France
+pronounced itself very plainly for neutrality and the minister of
+foreign affairs was even inclined in favor of Austria, the president of
+the republic sent an intimate friend to Berlin, M. de Persigny, with the
+mission to engage the King of Prussia as much as possible in the war.
+War appeared inevitable. The troops were already disposed in two parts;
+there had already been encounters between the advanced guards. All of a
+sudden, and before a menacing ultimatum from Vienna, strengthened by a
+friendly notice from St. Petersburg, M. de Manteuffel, president of the
+Prussian council, proposed to that of Austria to hold an interview at
+Oderberg, on the frontier of the two States. Some hours after having
+sent this proposition, he announced by telegraph (a proceeding then very
+rare), that, on positive orders from the king, he should go as far as
+Olmütz, without waiting for the reply. He went there, and signed (29
+November, 1850) the preliminaries of peace, the famous "punctuations" by
+which Prussia yielded to the demands of Austria on every point.
+
+It is not astonishing that such a profound humiliation,--preceded by a
+measure of distress up to that time unheard of in the annals of
+diplomacy, and immediately followed by an Austrian dispatch which very
+uselessly did nothing but irritate the wound,[22]--filled liberal
+Prussia with grief and indignation. It was in vain that M. de Manteuffel
+endeavored to justify his conduct before the national mind. He affirmed
+that he would rather be placed "in front of conical balls than pointed
+speeches" (_lieber Spitzkugeln als spitze Reden_); the chamber of Berlin
+expressed with passion the griefs of the country, and M. de Vincke
+closed one of the most vehement philippics with these words: "Down with
+the ministry!" A single orator dared to undertake the defense of the
+ministry, and to make in the same moment the apotheosis of Austria.
+Already in the preceding year M. de Bismarck had desired for his country
+the _rôle_ of the Emperor Nicholas in Hungary. Since then he had never
+neglected an occasion to resent in behalf of the empire of the Hapsburg
+the insults which German liberalism had heaped on him, and he remained
+true to this policy even in the most extraordinary circumstances, and in
+the midst of the indescribable clamors of the assembly. He maintained
+that there could be no possible or legitimate federation in Germany
+without Austria. One of the greatest griefs of the Teutons against
+Austria has been in all times its not forming a state purely German, its
+containing in its bosom different populations and of an "inferior" race.
+This was the principal argument of the parliament of Frankfort in favor
+of the constitution of a Germany without the empire of the Hapsburg, and
+M. de Bismarck did not fail to reproduce it in 1866, in a memorable
+circular. In 1850 the deputy of the Mark did not share this opinion; he
+was convinced that "Austria was a German power in the full force of the
+term, although it also had the good fortune to exercise its dominion
+over foreign nationalities," and he boldly concluded that "_Prussia
+should subordinate itself to Austria_ to the end that they might combat
+in concert the menacing democracy." Truly, in recalling that session of
+the Prussian chamber on the 3d December, 1850, one can, in the words of
+Montesquieu, observe the spectacle of the astounding vicissitudes of
+history; but the irony of fate commences to take its truly fantastic
+proportions, when one remembers that it was precisely this speech of the
+3d December, 1850, which decided the vocation of M. de Bismarck and
+opened to him the career of foreign affairs. Forced to consent to the
+restoration of the _Bund_, and resigned to the preponderance of the
+empire of the Hapsburg, the Prussian government thought in truth that it
+could give no better pledges of its disposition than in choosing for its
+plenipotentiary to the Germanic Confederation the ardent orator whose
+devotion to the cause of the Hapsburg was even able to resist the proof
+of the humiliation of Olmütz. And it was as the most decided partisan of
+Austria that the future conqueror of Sadowa made his entrance into the
+arena of diplomacy!
+
+The chamber was prorogued in consequence of this stormy discussion. The
+rupture with the national party was consummated, and M. de Manteuffel,
+whose cold and bureaucratic mind sympathized in reality but very
+slightly with the ultras, thought it nevertheless useful to strengthen
+the government by making them some advances. Several prominent posts in
+the civil service were conferred on members of the extreme right: M. de
+Kleist-Retzow, among others, held the presidency of the Rhenish
+provinces. One could hardly dream of utilizing in the same manner the
+talents of the former _referendarius_ of Potsdam and Greifswalde, who
+had shown so little disposition and taste for the administrative career:
+on account of the considerations already mentioned, it was first thought
+of sending him to Frankfort as first secretary of the legation, but with
+the assurance of being made real representative at the end of some time.
+This choice produced some surprise. It was an entirely new proceeding
+(they have become accustomed to it there and in other places since) to
+reward a deputy with a diplomatic mission for his attitude or his vote
+in the chamber. It was asked if the eccentric and impetuous cavalier of
+the Mark would be the right man in the right place in the midst of such
+delicate circumstances. The timid and overscrupulous M. de Manteuffel
+was not without apprehension on this head, and the very ardor with which
+M. de Bismarck accepted the position only augmented the uneasiness of
+the president of the council. King Frederick William IV., who personally
+had a very high regard for the ardent "Percy" of the _party of the
+cross_, had nevertheless some doubts. "Your majesty can try me," said
+the aspirant for diplomacy; "if matters go wrong, your majesty will be
+at perfect liberty to recall me at the end of six months or even
+before."
+
+It was only, however, at the end of eight years that he was recalled by
+the successor of Frederick William IV. And still, after the first days
+of his mission (June, 1851) he expressed himself thus in a confidential
+letter concerning the men and the affairs he was charged to deal with:
+"Our relations here consist in distrust and mutual _espionage_. If we
+only had something to spy out or to hide! But these are merely silly
+trifles, for which these people torment their minds. These diplomats who
+retail with an air of importance their _bric-à-brac_, seem to me much
+more ridiculous than a deputy of the second chamber draping himself in
+the feeling of his dignity. If exterior events do not unexpectedly
+arise, I know from to-day exactly what we shall have done in two, three,
+or five years, and what we can dispatch in twenty-four hours, if we wish
+to be sincere and reasonable for one day. I never doubted that all these
+gentlemen did their cooking in water; but a soup so watery and insipid
+that it is impossible to find in it a trace of fat does not cease to
+astonish me.... I have made very rapid progress in the art of saying
+nothing with many words; I write several sheets of reports, plain and
+round, like the leading articles, and if, after having read them,
+Manteuffel understands a jot, he is cleverer than I am. No one, not even
+the most malicious of democrats can have any idea what nonsense and
+charlatanisms diplomacy hides."
+
+Some years later, during the complications of the Orient, he wrote to
+his sister Malvina: "I am at a session of the _Bund_; a very highly
+honored colleague is reading a very stupid speech on the anarchical
+situation in Upper Lippe, and I think that I cannot better improve this
+opportunity than in pouring out before you my fraternal sentiments.
+These knights of the _round table_ who surround me in this ground floor
+of the Taxis palace are very honorable men, but not at all amusing. The
+table, twenty feet in diameter, is covered with a green cloth. Think of
+X---- and of Z---- in Berlin; they are entirely of the calibre of these
+gentlemen of the _Bundestag_. I have the habit of approaching all things
+with a feeling of innocence which gapes. My disposition of mind is that
+of a careless lassitude after I have succeeded in bringing little by
+little the _Bund_ to the desolating consciousness of its profound
+nothingness. Do you remember the _Lied_ of Heine: _O Bund, o chien tu
+n'es pas sain_, etc.? Well! that _Lied_ will soon, and by a unanimous
+vote, be raised to the rank of national hymn of Germany."
+
+The lassitude, the disgust as well as the contempt for the _Bund_
+increased from year to year. In 1858 he thought of leaving the career
+forever. He had enough of "this _régime_ of truffles, of dispatches and
+of grand crosses." He spoke of withdrawing "under the guns of
+Schoenhausen," or still better of "growing young by ten years, and once
+more taking the offensive position of 1848 and 1849." He wished to
+fight, without being hindered by relations and official courtesies, to
+throw off the uniform, and to "go into politics in swimming drawers (_in
+politischen Schwimmhosen_)."
+
+What is there astonishing in it? Of all imaginable political men, M. de
+Bismarck was certainly the least fitted to have a regard and liking for
+a deliberative body essentially moderated and moderating, where
+everything was discussed in private, in elaborated speeches, thought
+over at length and still more freely discussed, and where the gashes and
+thrusts actually amounted to nothing. A great congress of peace could
+scarcely have any attraction for the ardent Percys whom the smallest
+conference of Bangor[23] caused, enraged, to jump out of their skins;
+and the _Bundestag_, as we have said, was a permanent congress of peace
+called to maintain the _statu quo_ and to remove every cause for
+conflict. The little incidents, the little manoeuvres and the little
+struggles for influence were not wanting, it is true, in this company,
+more than in any other; they served to maintain the good humor of the
+ordinary diplomats, and were generally considered as useful stimulants
+for the good management of affairs and good digestion of dinners. But
+they must have seemed paltry in the eyes of a man of action and of
+combat; they must have irritated, at times even exasperated him! To
+observe the affairs of the world from this post on the Main, which
+allowed them to be grasped in their _ensemble_; to profit by abundant
+information, to compose therefrom brilliant dispatches, fit to instruct
+and above all to amuse an august master; to utter occasionally a very
+_spirituel_, very malicious _mot_, and to rejoice at it; to make others
+enjoy it, even to carry it perfectly warm to Stuttgart, and to confide
+its further expedition to a gracious Grand Duchess,--that was an
+occupation which might content Prince Gortchakof, even charm the leisure
+hours of a man educated in the school of Count Nesselrode and grown old
+in the career. But how was it possible to make such an existence
+agreeable to a cavalier of the Mark, improvised into a minister
+plenipotentiary, or to shut up in such a narrow circle, though a
+pleasant one, a "_fiancé_ of Bellona," still foaming from battles
+delivered without cessation for four years on a resounding stage! In
+order to find a fitting compensation in the new circle in which he was
+placed, he needed at least some great European combination, some great
+negotiation capable of exercising his faculties, and of making them
+known,--and they talked to him of _bric-à-brac_, of Upper Lippe! A
+negotiation as insignificant as that with the poor Augustenburg, brought
+to a happy end in 1852, could certainly not be counted among the
+triumphs worthy of a Bismarck,[24] and this was nevertheless the single
+and pitiful "bubble of fat" which he was able to discover in the soup
+cooked during several years at Frankfort!
+
+It is true that the question of the Orient did not delay in breaking
+out, and that at first it even seemed to open vast perspectives. Prussia
+was well disposed towards Russia. The secondary States of Germany showed
+themselves still more ardent, and sometimes even went so far as to have
+the appearance of being willing to draw their swords; so much the worse
+for Austria if she persisted in making common cause with the allies;
+that might bring about important territorial modifications, and all to
+the advantage of the House of Hohenzollern! And the representative of
+Prussia to the Germanic Confederation ("his excellency the lieutenant,"
+as he was then called on account of the Landwehr uniform which he liked
+to wear) gave a warm and firm support in this crisis to his colleague of
+Russia, who had become his most intimate friend. He was not, however,
+long in seeing that the Germanic Confederation would not desert its
+neutrality; that the secondary States, in spite of all the agitations in
+the conferences of Bamberg, would not take an active part either in one
+sense or in the other, and that the war would be localized in the Black
+Sea and the Baltic. He conceived a profound disdain for the _Bund_, was
+"conscious of its unfathomable nothingness," and hummed over the green
+cloth of the Taxis palace the _Lied_ of Heine on the Diet of Frankfort.
+In addition, he experienced on this occasion a grief, which he never
+forgot, which he recalled many years afterwards in a confidential
+dispatch which has become celebrated. During the Oriental complications,
+he wrote in 1859 to M. de Schleinitz, "Austria overcame us at Frankfort
+in spite of all the commonalty of ideas and desires which we then had
+with the secondary States. These States, after each oscillation, always
+indicate with the activity of the magnetized needle, the same point of
+attraction." Nothing more natural, however; it was not from the empire
+of the Hapsburg that Hanover and Saxony had to dread certain annexation,
+as events have since proved only too clearly. But the man who can one
+day desire the destruction of great cities, as the hot-beds of
+revolutionary spirit, did not hesitate to condemn in his soul and
+conscience the small States as the inextinguishable hearths of the
+"Austrian spirit."
+
+Austria, in truth, was not slow in taking in the thoughts and the
+resentments of the cavalier of the Mark the place which the revolution
+had lately held there, and the ardent champion of Hapsburg in the
+chambers of Berlin became little by little their most bitter, most
+implacable enemy in the _Bundestag_. Moreover, all the great men of
+Prussia, commencing with the great elector and Frederick II., and
+without excepting William I., have always had, as regards Austria, "two
+souls in their breasts" like Faust, or, like Rebecca, "two children
+conflicting with one another in her bosom;" in a word, two principles,
+one of which imbued them with an almost religious respect for the
+antique and illustrious imperial house, while the other urged them to
+conquest and spoliation at the cost of this very house. In the month of
+May, 1849, the honest and poetical King Frederick William IV. declared
+to a deputation of ministers from the Germanic States,[25] "that he
+should consider that day as the most happy one of his life when he
+should hold the wash basin (_Waschbecken_) at the coronation of a
+Hapsburg as Emperor of Germany;" that did not prevent him later from
+smiling from time to time at the work of the parliament of Frankfort,
+and from working for the "restricted union" under the auspices of
+General de Radowitz. And even M. de Bismarck was certainly very sincere
+as deputy of the Prussian parliament in his "Austrian religion," when in
+the name of conservative principles he undertook the energetic defense
+of the Hapsburg against the attacks of German liberalism; but he was now
+the representative of his government in the Taxis palace, encountered
+Austria on its way to a struggle for influence with the secondary
+States, to a struggle of interests concerning the affairs of the Orient,
+and he began to engage in an order of ideas, at the end of which he was
+to take up the policy of "heart blow." It was thus that on the occasion
+of the war in the Orient and in the very city of Frankfort there arose
+in the hearts of the two future chancellors of Russia and of Germany
+that hatred of Austria which was to have such fatal consequences, for,
+that the reader may not be deceived, it was the connivance of these two
+political men,--the fatal ideology of the Emperor Napoleon III. aiding
+them largely, it is just to add,--which rendered possible the
+catastrophes of which our days have been the witnesses: the calamity of
+Sadowa, and the destruction of the _Bund_, and the dismemberment of
+Denmark as well as of France! With Prince Gortchakof, this sentiment of
+hostility burst forth suddenly in consequence of an erroneous
+appreciation of events, but which his whole nation shared with him. With
+M. de Bismarck, the hatred of Austria had not an origin so spontaneous;
+it had not, for instance, as an origin, the grievances of Olmütz, which
+the deputy of the Mark had on the contrary been able to easily overcome;
+it was slow in forming, it developed, consolidated itself in consequence
+of a long and daily struggle in the heart of the _Bund_, in consequence
+of an experience acquired at the end of several years of vain attempts,
+and from the definite conviction that Hapsburg would never of its free
+will, abandon the secondary States, and he defended them against every
+effort at absorption. Resuming the instruction which his sojourn of
+eight years at Frankfort had given him, the representative of Prussia to
+the Germanic Confederation wrote in 1859, in his often quoted dispatch
+to M. de Schleinitz, those remarkable words: "I see in our federal
+relations a fault which sooner or later we must cure _ferro et igne_."
+_Ferro et igne!_ that is the first version of the received text "iron
+and blood," which one day the president of the council laid down in an
+official manner in a speech to the chamber.
+
+At the same time that the ancient "Austrian religion" underwent with its
+former ardent confessor a transformation so radical, a no less curious
+change was wrought in his mind in regard to several other articles of
+the _credo_ of his party. Removed from the _mêlée_ and participating no
+longer in the parliamentary struggles, he began to observe more coldly
+certain questions important in those times, and to temper more than one
+antipathy of past days. Since 1852, on returning from a trip to Berlin,
+he writes: "There is something demoralizing in the air of the chamber;
+the best men of the world become vain there and cling to the Tribune as
+a woman to her toilet.... I find parliamentary intrigues hollow and
+unworthy of any notice. While one lives in their midst, one has
+illusions concerning them, and attaches to them I do not know how much
+importance.... Every time that I arrive there from Frankfort, I
+experience the feelings of a temperate man who falls among drunken
+people." Many things in old times disgraceful and abhorred, take now a
+less repulsive aspect to the eyes of the statesmen maturing great
+projects for the future. "The chamber and the press can become the most
+powerful instruments of our external policy," wrote in 1856 the former
+despiser of parliamentarism and friend of M. Thadden-Triglaff, and it is
+thus that one finds in the correspondence of these times the vague idea
+of a national representation of the _Zollverein_, even a pronounced
+desire for universal suffrage itself, provided that these means could
+become the _instrumenta regni_. The example of the second empire
+exercised then an influence which the historian should carefully bear in
+mind. This system of absolutism tinged with popular passions, "spotted
+with red," to employ a characteristic expression of M. de Bismarck,
+seduced the imagination of more than one aspirant for _coups d'état_ and
+_coups d'éclat_, and the former colleague of the Doctor d'Ester must
+have opened his cigar case more than once and contemplated there the
+little sprig of olive plucked from the tomb of Petrarch and Laura.
+
+Yet the goal seemed distant, and how veiled was the future, still
+indistinctly seen! It was not under King Frederick William IV., whose
+mind became more and more clouded, that he was permitted to think of
+action; even the accession of the regent, the present King William,
+seemed at first to make no change in the exterior situation. The new
+ministers of the regent, the ministers of the _new era_, as was said
+then, were honest doctrinarians who spoke of the development of conceded
+liberties and of the strengthening of the representative _régime_. The
+good and _naïf_, they even allowed William I. to proclaim solemnly one
+day that "Prussia need only make _moral conquests_ in Germany!"
+Evidently the _new era_ was not yet the era of M. de Bismarck. During
+the years which passed after the war of the Orient until his embassy in
+Russia, one sees the representative of Prussia to the Germanic
+Confederation in constant motion, on continual journeys across Germany,
+France, Denmark, Sweden, Courland, and Upper Italy, seeking subjects for
+distraction, or perhaps also subjects for observation, and each time
+returning to Frankfort only to raise a difficulty, break some
+_bric-à-brac_, and to press to the utmost the nervous and bilious Count
+Rechberg, Austrian representative and president of the _Bundestag_. His
+frequent excursions to Paris caused him to have a presentiment of the
+events which were preparing in Italy; he only became more aggressive,
+and there was a time when his recall was considered at Frankfort as
+indispensable for the maintenance of peace. It was at this moment that
+he thought of definitely abandoning this career, of throwing off the
+uniform, and of going into politics in his "swimming drawers." He
+consented, however, to do it in "a bear-skin and with caviar," as he
+expressed himself in one of his letters; in other words called to
+exchange his post at Frankfort for that at St. Petersburg. One hoped
+thus to remove him from the burning ground, to "put him on ice" (another
+expression of M. de Bismarck); as for himself, he perhaps attached other
+hopes to this removal, and in any case found consolation in seeing his
+former colleague of Frankfort become principal minister of a great
+empire, and with whom he was always on such good terms. The 1st of
+April, 1859, "the anniversary of his birth," M. de Bismarck arrived in
+the capital of Russia.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Plutarch, Theseus, _initio._
+
+[2] _Aus der Petersburger Gesellschaft_, vol. ii. p. 156.
+
+[3] Expressions from the Russian circular of the 6th July, 1848,
+addressed by Count Nesselrode to his agents in Germany.
+
+[4] The Germanic Confederation was formed in 1816. Frankfort was chosen
+as its seat, whither delegates were sent from all the States of Germany
+retaining sovereign rights. These delegates formed the assembly called
+the Diet.
+
+The assembly was composed of seventeen envoys, presided over by the
+representative of Austria. There were however thirty-one States
+exclusive of the free cities, represented in the last period of the
+Diet's existence. The Diet was so constituted that each of the following
+States or combination of States had one representative: Austria;
+Prussia; Bavaria; Kingdom of Saxony; Hanover; Würtemberg; Grand Duchy of
+Baden; Electorate of Hesse; Grand Ducal Hesse; Denmark, for the Duchies
+of Holstein and Lauenburg; The Netherlands, for Limburg and Luxemburg;
+The Duchies of Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Saxe-Altenburg;
+Brunswick and Nassau; The two Mecklenburgs (Schwerin and Strelitz);
+Oldenburg, Anhalt and two Schwarzburgs (Rudolstadt and Sonderhausen);
+Lichtenstein, Reuss, Schaumburg Lippe, Lippe Detmold, Waldeck and Hesse
+Homburg; The free cities, Lubeck, Frankfort, Bremen and Hamburg.
+
+The votes were equal. Sittings were secret.
+
+On important occasions the assembly was resolved into what was called
+the _plenum_, in which a greater number of votes were assigned to the
+chief States, and the total number of voices was then increased to
+seventy. In these cases a majority of three fourths was necessary for
+any question to be carried.
+
+The leading idea with the founders of the Diet was the preservation of
+internal tranquillity, the next, the formation of a league which should
+inspire other nations with respect.
+
+Ambassadors were accredited to the Diet.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[5] Russian circular of the 27th May, 1859, concerning the war in Italy.
+
+[6] This young lieutenant was M. de Bismarck. The _Landwehr_ is divided
+into two levies. The soldier belongs to the first levy seven years, to
+the second levy for a like period.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[7] A writer in a position to be well informed, a former under secretary
+of state in the ministry of Prince Schwarzenberg, thus narrates the
+origin of Russian intervention in Hungary, tracing it back to 1833, to
+the celebrated interview of Munchengraetz between the Emperor Francis I.
+of Austria and the Czar Nicholas. In one of the confidential
+conversations, Francis spoke with sadness and apprehensions of the
+sickly and nervous state of his son and prospective successor, and
+begged the czar to maintain towards that son the friendship which he had
+always had for the father. "Nicholas fell on his knees, and raising his
+right hand to heaven, swore to give to the successor of Francis all aid
+and succor he should ever need. The old Emperor of Austria was
+profoundly touched, and placed his hands on the head of the kneeling
+czar as a token of benediction." This strange scene had no witness, but
+each of the two sovereigns narrated it some months later to a superior
+officer who then commanded the division of the army stationed at
+Munchengraetz. This superior officer was no other than the Prince of
+Windischgraetz, who, later, in 1848, nominated and made generalissimo of
+the Austrian army at the critical moment of the Hungarian insurrection,
+took upon himself to recall to Nicholas, in a letter, the pledge
+formerly given at Munchengraetz. The czar replied by placing his whole
+army at the disposition of his imperial and apostolic majesty.--Cf.
+Hefter, _Geschichte Oesterreichs_, Prague, 1869, vol. i. pp. 68-69.
+
+[8] Session of the Prussian chamber of the 6th September, 1849. This
+speech is not reproduced in the official collection of the _speeches_ of
+M. de Bismarck published at Berlin.
+
+[9] The battle of Sadowa, or as it is more commonly called in Germany, the
+battle of Königsgrätz, was fought on the 3d of July, 1866, and decided the
+result of the conflict between Prussia and Austria.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[10] We take the liberty of citing on this subject a piquante _scène
+d'antichambre_ which has its instructive side. There was then at Vienna,
+in the ministry of foreign affairs, a very original figure, an usher,
+the memory of whom is not effaced at the Ballplatz. He bore the uncouth
+name of Kadernoschka; placed in the large waiting room before the
+cabinet of the minister, it was his duty to introduce the different
+visitors to the chief. This M. Kadernoschka was an usher of great style:
+he had been trained by the old Prince Metternich himself and loved to
+recall that he had "exercised his functions" from the time of the famous
+congress of 1815! One day, after a long interview with Prince
+Gortchakof, Count Buol sees this good Kadernoschka entering with a more
+than usually solemn air. He had a communication to make to his
+Excellency "in the interest of the service!" And Count Buol learns that
+the Russian envoy, after having left his Excellency, had appeared
+entirely overcome and suffocating with anger,--that he had asked for a
+glass of water; that for half an hour he had walked up and down in the
+waiting room, gesticulating with violence, talking to himself, and
+crying from time to time in French: "Oh! some day they shall pay me well
+for that, they shall pay me for that!"
+
+[11] Protocol of the conference of the 17th April, 1855.
+
+[12] A religious ceremony which, in the Protestant Church, corresponds
+in a certain degree to the first communion in the Catholic Church.
+
+[13] Referring to Henry IV., Emperor of Germany from 1056 to 1106, who
+humbled himself before Pope Gregory VII. at Canossa in 1077.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[14] Referring to the closing words of Cato's speeches: _Cæterum censeo
+Carthaginem esse delendam_.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[15] Treaty of Gastein, 14th August, 1865, between Austria and Prussia
+on the one side and Denmark on the other.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[16] _Sturm and Drang-Periode_, first period of Goethe and Schiller.
+
+[17] Varzin, the Tusculum of the German chancellor, is situated in
+Pomerania, to the right of the Stettin-Danzig road, and about ten miles
+from Schlawe. The comfortable dwelling-house is almost surrounded by a
+magnificent park of beech and oak trees. Varzin has been in M. de
+Bismarck's possession since 1867.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[18] In the popular edition of the book of M. Hesekiel, this scene is
+_illustrated_ by a vignette.
+
+[19] Berlin is situated on the river Spree.--TRANSLATOR.
+
+[20] Session of the chamber of the 15th November, 1849. One knows that
+the chancellor of Germany has lately enacted a law which institutes
+civil marriage in Prussia. However, none of the speeches which have been
+cited is found in the official collection of the _speeches_ of M. de
+Bismarck published at Berlin.
+
+[21] Session of the chamber of the 21st April, 1849. See also the
+interpellation of M. Temme in the session of the 17th April, 1863.
+
+[22] A circular of Prince Schwarzenberg, made public by a calculated
+indiscretion, after having related the incident of the telegraph, and
+the desperate course of M. de Manteuffel as regards the Austrian
+minister, added: "His majesty the Emperor thinks it his duty to comply
+with the desire of the King of Prussia, _so modestly expressed_."
+
+[23] Shakspere, _Henry IV._ part I. act iii. scene I.
+
+[24] It does not, however, fail to be interesting, and to even have a
+very piquant side. Still full of the conviction that they had made on
+Denmark a war "eminently iniquitous, frivolous, and revolutionary," the
+Prussian plenipotentiary to the _Bund_ labored, in 1852, very actively
+in dissipating for the future a possible cause of perturbation, and
+negotiated an Esau bargain with the Duke Christian-August Augustenburg,
+the former upholder of _Schleswig-Holsteinism_, and eventual pretender
+to the Duchies. Thanks to the intervention of M. de Bismarck, the old
+duke signed for the sum of one million and a half rixdalers given by the
+government of Copenhagen, a solemn act, by which he bound "_himself and
+his family_, on his princely word and honor, to undertake nothing which
+could disturb the tranquillity of the Danish monarchy." That did not
+prevent the son of Christian from impudently insisting on his pretended
+rights in 1863, nor even M. de Bismarck from supporting them for a
+certain time, up to the moment when the famous syndics of the crown cast
+the doubt in the soul of the first minister at Berlin and proved to him
+that the Duchies, belonging by right to no one, belonged to King William
+by the fact of conquest.
+
+[25] The minister of Nassau, Baron Max de Gagern was at the head of this
+deputation.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+A NATIONAL MINISTER AND A FAULT-FINDING DIPLOMAT AT ST. PETERSBURG.
+
+
+I.
+
+In the prodigious development which advanced the empire of the czars
+after the impulse which the genius of Peter the Great had given it, one
+can certainly signalize more than one Russian minister of foreign
+affairs whose name has a right to be commemorated by history. For
+instance, the mind of Count Panine was not an ordinary one, who
+conceived and caused to be accepted by different states the idea of
+_armed neutrality_ at sea, and this at an epoch when Russia scarcely
+began to be reckoned among the maritime powers of the second or third
+class. If in this bold conception, as well as in the still more
+interesting attempts of Panine to limit the absolute power of the czars
+by aristocratic institutions, the remote influence of an Italian origin
+could be seen (the Panine descended from the Pagnini of Lucca), one
+cannot, however, overlook the perfectly indigenous, largely,
+autochthonal character of another famous minister of the same century,
+that of the Chancellor Bestoujef, whose figure Rulhière has drawn so
+very originally. Bestoujef, who spoke perfectly, feigned stammering, and
+had the courage to simulate this defect for seventeen years. In his
+conversations with foreign ambassadors he stammered in such a manner as
+not to be understood. He also complained of being deaf, of not
+understanding all the _finesses_ of the French language, and had the
+same thing repeated a thousand times. He was in the habit of writing
+diplomatic notes with his own hand in a manner perfectly illegible. They
+were sent back to him and sometimes he could decipher their meaning.
+Having fallen into disgrace, Bestoujef immediately recovered his speech,
+hearing, and all the senses.
+
+Very different is the type which was presented during all of the first
+half of this century by the immediate predecessor of Prince Gortchakof,
+the chancellor of the emperors Alexander I. and Nicholas. Connected with
+Germany by origin and the interests of his family, never even having
+learned to speak the language of the country whose relations with other
+powers he watched over, Count Charles Robert de Nesselrode did not the
+less complete a long and laborious career to the satisfaction of his two
+august masters, and figured with honor in congresses and conferences at
+the side of Talleyrand and Metternich. Without having recourse to the
+too Asiatic subterfuges of a Bestoujef, Count Nesselrode knew and
+practiced all the allowable tricks of the profession, and few men
+equaled him in the art of preserving an air of dignity and ease in the
+midst of the most embarrassing situations. He knew how to change his
+conduct without too great a change of language, and among other things
+managed in a very delicate manner the transition between the policy of
+the czar Alexander I. (unfavorable to the Greeks) and the frankly
+philhellenic sympathies of his successor. During the last Oriental
+crisis he placed all the resources of a shrewd and subtle mind at the
+service of a cause in which he saw nothing but grave dangers, and of
+which he ignored the national and religious side completely. Differing
+from Bestoujef, and much more European in this sense than in many
+others, M. de Nesselrode lost in his disgrace or rather in his retreat,
+the greater part of his faculties and his virtues, and above all caused
+an immense deception by his posthumous memoirs, composed in the decline
+of life and of a hopeless insignificance. But perhaps this was nothing
+but a last trait of cleverness and diplomatic malice in order to deceive
+on this point profane curiosity, and to leave behind him a work as empty
+and uninstructive as possible of a life so well filled.
+
+Not one, however, of the Russian statesmen who have just been named was
+a great minister in the Occidental acceptation of the word. No one of
+them (in order to make comparisons in absolute monarchies only) had the
+position of a Duke de Choiseul in France during the last century, the
+authority of a Prince Clement de Metternich in Austria in the present
+century, or even the notoriety and popularity which Prince Gortchakof
+actually enjoys in Russia itself. Bestoujef, Panine, Nesselrode were,
+one may say, much better known abroad than in their own country, and
+their contemporaries were far from attributing to them the merit which
+posterity later saw in them, thanks to the posthumous revelations of the
+archives. No one of them was raised to power by a current of opinion,
+nor sustained in his position by public favor; not one of them
+pretended to show an individuality, to impress a personal direction on
+the affairs, which he conducted. This is because since Peter the Great
+to the present government, the _éclat_ of the imperial name in Russia
+cast into the shade every other name, and instead of being a favorite or
+a great captain, every state servant was only the subaltern executor of
+a single and absolute will. The external policy, above all, was then
+considered as the exclusive domain of the sovereign, and the very fixity
+of the system rendered in some degree secondary and unimportant the
+question of the persons charged with fulfilling it. In fact, from the
+time of Peter the Great, the Russian government has always had in its
+relations with Europe certain traditions approved by experience, and
+certain sacred principles, from which it never deviated even in a small
+degree. The minister of foreign affairs at St. Petersburg, whatever his
+name might be, always had to labor to augment Russian _prestige_ among
+the Christian populations of the Orient, to guard the maintenance of the
+equilibrium of power between Austria and Prussia, and to extend the
+influence of his government among the secondary States of Germany. To
+these rules, so to speak, elementary and invariable, of the external
+Russian policy, there was added from the year 1815 an international
+principle of preservation, a superior idea of solidarity between the
+governments for the defense of established order, the feeling of the
+duties and of the common interests created in the representatives of the
+monarchical authority in opposition to subversive passions sprung from
+the revolution, and it was this _ensemble_ of the views and convictions
+of the two emperors Alexander I. and Nicholas which Count Nesselrode
+had, during almost half a century, to enforce, in all the acts and
+documents emanating from the chancellor's office at St. Petersburg.
+
+It has been the destiny of the successor of Count Nesselrode to break
+little by little with all this _ensemble_ of traditions and principles,
+and to inaugurate for the empire of the czars, in its external
+relations, an entirely new policy. One may dispute the merit of this
+policy, and dispute it the more widely as it is still far from having
+borne all its fruit. What is indisputable and astonishes at first sight,
+is that Prince Gortchakof has been able to attach his name to a change
+of system which is marked in the diplomatic annals of his country, and
+to create for himself, as minister of foreign affairs in Russia, a
+situation entirely personal, an important position, such as none of his
+predecessors ever had. Alexander Mikhaïlovitch is not only the faithful
+servant of his august master, he is the veritable chief of his
+department, the directing minister; he accepts boldly his part of the
+responsibility, and above all his share of the _éclat_ in the different
+transactions of Europe. An equally new phenomenon in Russia, this
+minister not only retains the favor of his sovereign, but also that of
+the nation. He manages the public opinion of his country, he watches
+over it, sometimes he even flatters it, and it repays him. It has had
+some moments of infatuation for Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, even some
+moments of enthusiasm,--after the affairs of Poland; more than that, it
+has in a measure brought forward and created him. This elevation of the
+plenipotentiary of Vienna to the high position left vacant by Count
+Nesselrode in the month of April, 1856, was not without its results.
+
+In 1815, on his triumphal return from the congress of Vienna, Alexander
+could select as he wished from the celebrated men who then formed the
+_état-major_ of Russian diplomacy, the least known and the most humble
+of this illustrious body. Passing over Capo d'Istria, Pozzo di Borgo,
+Ribeaupierre, Razoumovsky, Stakelberg, d'Anstett, it was lawful for him
+to confide the direction of the external policy to a German gentleman of
+Westphalian origin, born at Lisbon, and Russian only by naturalization.
+In 1856, after the congress of Paris, the choice of Prince Gortchakof
+for the same position was, we will not say imposed, but certainly
+indicated to the Emperor Alexander II. by the voice of the people, or,
+if one likes it better, by that voice of the _salons_ which did not
+delay at this moment in taking more and more a popular tone. And since
+his _début_ at the Hotel of the Place du Palais the former pupil of
+Zarkoe-Zeloe distinguished himself by liberal ways and advances made in
+a public spirit, which must have occasionally astonished his
+predecessor, still living and in possession of the honored title of
+chancellor. For the first time, a Russian minister had _mots_, not only
+for the _salons_, but also for the lecture halls and the bureaux of
+journalists, words which went straight to the heart of the great lady
+and country gentleman, the humble student and proud officer of the
+_gardes_. His aphorism on Austria[26] went the rounds of all the
+Russias. Another aphorism, taken from a circular, soon transported the
+nation: the celebrated phrase, "Russia does not sulk, but meditates,"
+seemed to be dictated by the very soul of the people, and drew from it a
+cry of enthusiasm. It was then that one remembered the awakening of the
+Russian spirit after a long period of compression; the journals, the
+thoughtful periodicals, inaugurated their joyful _ébats_, the authors,
+the literary men, began to have an importance hitherto unknown;
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, who always displayed a liking and sympathy for
+Russian literature, the former fellow scholar of Pouchkine, passed for a
+patriotic statesman in the eyes of Pogodine, Axakof, Katkof, etc. One
+perceived that he had a great hatred for Austria, a pronounced desire
+for the French alliance, and the nation, which also shared equally and
+even in an exaggerated manner, these two sentiments, saluted in him the
+national minister _par excellence_. A strange comparison, well made to
+demonstrate the inanity of words and the instability of things on earth,
+is the manner in which the most decided partisan of the empire of the
+Hapsburg, M. de Bismarck, the future conqueror of Sadowa, entered into
+the _cænaculum_ of diplomats; and at the same time it was the implacable
+enemy of the Germans and the warm friend of the French whom, in 1856,
+the Russians exalted above all in the person of their vice-chancellor,
+the statesman who, later, by a policy of omission and commission, was to
+favor as no one else did, the dismemberment of France and the
+constitution of a Germany greater, more powerful, and more formidable
+than the history of past centuries has ever known! It is true that by
+the "Germans" the Russia of 1856 meant principally the Austrians,[27]
+and that in the France of that day it admired above all a certain
+absolutism in the democratic instincts which showed itself touched with
+the misfortunes of Italy, which professed to sympathize with Roumania,
+Servia, Montenegro, and which had not yet pronounced the fatal name of
+Poland.
+
+"Calm yourself," the emperor of the French said to M. de Cavour, in the
+month of April, 1856, after the closing of the congress of Paris,--"Calm
+yourself; I have a presentiment that the present peace will not last
+long."[28] Prince Gortchakof had without doubt the same presentiment,
+and perhaps others more positive in this respect. The thought of "making
+war for an idea," the thought of freeing Italy, had long been fixed in
+the mind of Napoleon III.; at the moment of signing the treaty of Paris
+"with an eagle's feather," he let his hidden and dreaming glance fall on
+the classic plains of Lombardy. Now, for the enterprise which France
+meditated against Austria, and in which it could scarcely count on an
+angry neutrality of England, it was thought useful to secure in good
+season the friendship of Russia and Prussia. Prussia had emerged from
+the Oriental crisis very much weakened with its policy "of the free
+hand;" England, Austria, and Turkey had even had little desire to admit
+it to the honors of the congress. The president of the council at
+Berlin, M. de Manteuffel, was obliged to wait long in the antechamber,
+while the plenipotentiaries of Europe were in full deliberation, and it
+was only at the instance of the emperor of the French that the Prussian
+envoy was at last admitted. Napoleon III. insisted absolutely, in 1856,
+on allowing _that_ Prussia to retake its position in Europe which
+fourteen years later was to dethrone him! As for Russia, we have already
+spoken of the politenesses and cordialities of which Count Orlof was the
+recipient from France during all the time of the congress. Since then,
+in the successive arrangements of the various difficulties which the
+execution of some of the clauses of the treaty of Paris caused to arise
+(Belgrade, Isle of Sérpents, navigation of the Danube, etc.), one saw
+the arguments or interpretations of the Russian plenipotentiary
+sustained almost constantly by the plenipotentiary of France. In the
+different and numerous conferences and commissions which followed in
+these years, 1856-1859, for regulating the pending questions, the
+distribution of the votes was almost invariably thus: England and
+Austria on one side, on the other France, Russia, and Prussia.[29]
+
+Although Prince Gortchakof acknowledged with good grace all these
+attentions of the cabinet of the Tuileries, he was not sufficiently
+complaisant to follow it in a campaign of remonstrances against the
+government of Naples, a campaign undertaken in concert with the cabinet
+of Saint James, in consequence of the famous letters addressed to Lord
+Aberdeen by M. Gladstone on the _régime_ of King Ferdinand II. A similar
+intermeddling in the internal affairs of an independent state did not
+seem very correct in the eyes of the successor of Count Nesselrode; but
+he was the more forward in seconding the Emperor Napoleon III. in his
+generous designs every time that there was a question of ameliorating
+the lot of the Christian populations in the Ottoman empire, of
+augmenting their autonomy, and, as was said then, of _reforming the
+Turk_. "To reform the Turk," maliciously thought M. Thouvenel,
+ambassador of France at Constantinople, "it is necessary to begin by
+first impaling him;" one commenced, however, by applying to him the
+question of _hatt-houmayoum_, by interrogating him concerning his
+intentions in favor of the rajahs of Bosnia, Bulgaria, and Herzegovina,
+and by thus annoying in a certain degree the cabinets of Vienna and
+London. Much greater was naturally the solicitude for the vassal States
+of the good padishah, for Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, and Montenegro;
+these States already had a demi-independence, they made it possible to
+render it entire.
+
+The little Prince of Montenegro, former _protégé_ and servitor of the
+Emperor Nicholas, had come to visit the sovereign of France after the
+peace of Paris, and since his return had quarreled with the sultan, in
+consequence of which the _Algésiras_ and _L'Impétueuse_ appeared before
+Ragusa. French vessels in the waters of the Orient to menace Turkey, to
+the great mortification of England and Austria, to the great rejoicings
+of Russia, all this scarcely two years after the war in the Crimea! The
+sight was surely not wanting in originality, and prepared the world for
+a series of surprises. At about the same time, Servia expelled Prince
+Alexander Kara Géorgevitch, and recalled to the throne the old Miloch
+Obrenovitch. The Porte protested, England and Austria joined in this
+protest; but, thanks to the combined efforts of Russia and France, they
+ended by acknowledging the right of the national Servian assembly, whose
+principal grievance against the dethroned prince was his having shown
+too much sympathy for the allies in the war of 1853! The question of the
+Danubian Principalities presented an aspect serious, and also _piquant_.
+France and Russia had begged at the congress of Paris for the complete
+union of Moldavia and Wallachia; the other Powers were opposed to it,
+and, weary of war, they had agreed to accept a combination which
+completely assimilated the administration in the two countries, while
+maintaining their separation. It was, as later in Italy, the project of
+confederation opposed to that of unity; but then there was also given on
+the banks of the Danube the first example of that national strategy,
+which was soon to show itself on a larger scale in Tuscany and Emelia.
+The twofold election of Prince Couza was in truth the first trial of
+that popular diplomacy, which later, in Italian affairs, took pleasure
+in so often confounding the combinations of high plenipotentiaries and
+high contracting parties, and proclaimed in the face of the world a deed
+accomplished by the suffrage of the nation. The popular votes annulling
+the arrangements of diplomacy, and the understanding of France and
+Russia to respect these votes, these are the two salient traits of the
+policy in the years 1856-1859, a policy which the liberal opinion of
+Europe received with favor without being too much astonished at such a
+concordance of views between the cabinets of the Tuileries and St.
+Petersburg on this very ground of the Orient, still warm with the
+bullets of the war; on this ground, from which Russia should have been,
+in the opinion of the allies of 1853, completely shut out, and where she
+now regained influence and a footing, modestly it is true, and under the
+protecting shadow of France.
+
+At last the Italian complications came, and the government of the czar
+increased the testimonials of his good relations with the cabinet of the
+Tuileries. "Our relations with France are _cordial_," replied Prince
+Gortchakof to Lord Napier, charged by his government with sounding the
+disposition of Russia in such grave matters. England then made earnest
+efforts to prevent the war in Italy from breaking out. Lord Cowley, sent
+with a certain flourish on a mission to Vienna, exerted himself to
+discover the possible bases of an accommodation, and the cabinet of St.
+James already flattered itself with the hope of having quelled the
+tempest, when Prince Gortchakof suddenly proposed a _congress_, and
+pronounced that fatal word which then, as so often since, was only the
+signal for a rupture. A congress! A treaty of peace before any
+hostility, the glory of the triumph without the peril of victory,--that
+was the eternal _hystéron-protéron_ of the Napoleonic ideology, that was
+the chimera pursued by the dreamer of Ham in the question of the Papacy,
+in the question of Poland, and of Denmark; and up to the catastrophe of
+1870, after the declaration of war, it is curious to see Prince
+Gortchakof first suggest a remedy which imperial France was yet to
+recommend so often for all the chronic evils of Europe.[30] The chief of
+the English government, the old Earl of Derby, complained bitterly of
+the horrible trick which the proposition emanating from St. Petersburg
+had played him, and there has never been any doubt in England but that
+it was brought about by a telegram sent from Paris. Not less serviceable
+for France did the Russian vice-chancellor show himself in his circular
+of the 27th May, 1859, when he endeavored to calm the warlike ardor of
+the secondary States of Germany, and it was in this celebrated dispatch
+that he made the judicious demonstration as well as the merited praise
+of the "combination purely and exclusively defensive" of the _Bund_, a
+salutary combination which permitted the localization of a war become
+inevitable, "in place of generalizing it and giving to the struggle a
+character and proportions which escape all human foresight."
+
+Napoleon III. descended to the plains of Lombardy; Austria was
+vanquished at Magenta and Solferino, and Russia could enjoy its first
+revenge on the ungrateful Hapsburg, who had "betrayed" it before
+Sebastopol. The year after, in consequence of the annexation of Savoy,
+Lord Russell made the solemn declaration to the parliament that his
+country "should not separate itself from the rest of the nations of
+Europe; that it should always be ready to act with the different states,
+if it did not wish to dread to-day such an annexation, and to-morrow to
+hear another spoken of." That was the funeral oration of the
+Anglo-French alliance: four years after the war of the Crimea, France
+had lost one and then the other of its two great allies in the crisis of
+the Orient, and Russia did not care to complain. It did not protest
+against the annexation of Savoy; it even declared that it only saw in it
+a "regular transaction;" but it profited by the moment to make its
+reëntry into European politics, and bring back on the tapis the question
+... of the Ottoman empire! The 4th May, 1860, Prince Gortchakof
+convoked in his cabinet the ambassadors of the great Powers in order to
+examine with them the "dolorous and precarious" position of the
+Christians in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Bulgaria, and soon a circular of
+the vice-chancellor (20th May) insisted on the reunion of a conference
+in order to alter the stipulations established by the treaty of Paris.
+"The time of illusions is passed," Alexander Mikhaïlovitch wrote in this
+circular; "all hesitation every adjournment will bring grave
+inconvenience," and he even seized upon the recent liberation of Italy
+as an argument for the future independence of the populations who
+awakened all his solicitude: "the events accomplished in the east of
+Europe have resounded in all the Orient _like an encouragement and like
+a hope_!" Thus, scarcely four years after the treaty of Paris, Russia
+began anew to speak to the world of the "sick man," and to do it, it did
+not shelter itself, as in the conferences and commissions of 1856-1859,
+under the protection and language of France; it went all alone, and took
+the initiative in the debate!
+
+This was not enough: in that year alone, 1860, the cabinet of St.
+Petersburg regained almost all the ground lost since the war of the
+Crimea; that was a year of peculiar fortune for Russia, for it was a
+year of universal distrust of France. The acquisition of Savoy, the
+strange and profoundly immoral spectacle which the negotiations of this
+treaty of Zurich offered, torn up even before being signed, the
+Piedmontese annexations in Italy, the expedition of Garibaldi to Sicily,
+the "new right" of which the official journals in France spoke, and the
+famous pamphlet on the "Pope and Congress," had caused the alarm and
+awakened in the highest degree the uneasiness of Europe. Lord Palmerston
+declared "that he would only be willing to give his hand to a former
+ally in holding the other on the buckler of defense," and he armed his
+_volunteers_. Switzerland was violently agitated; the _National-Verein_
+swore to die for the defense of the Rhine, and even those honest and
+peaceful Belgians affirmed in an address to the king that "if their
+independence was menaced, they would submit to the most severe trials."
+Above these popular frights the cabals of the sovereigns were agitated;
+the German princes united at Baden, and the emperor of the French
+thought it opportune to surprise them in a measure in the midst of their
+deliberations by making that "rapid voyage" from which the "Moniteur"
+promised "very happy results." "Nothing was wanting but the spontaneity
+of a proceeding so significant," added the official journal, "to put an
+end to this unanimous concert of malicious rumors and false estimations.
+In truth, the emperor, in explaining frankly to the sovereigns united at
+Baden how his policy never conflicted with right and justice, carried to
+minds equally distinguished and equally exempt from prejudices, the
+conviction which does not fail to be inspired by a true sentiment
+expressed with loyalty." It appeared, however, that the conviction had
+not worked completely on the prejudices, for, at the close of the
+reunion of Baden, there was another at Toeplitz, between the Emperor of
+Austria and the Prince Regent of Prussia, where they agreed on a third
+which was to be held at Warsaw with the Emperor of Russia,--and the
+czar accepted the _rendezvous_.
+
+"It is not a coalition, it is a reconciliation which I am going to make
+at Warsaw," declared the Emperor Alexander II. to the French ambassador,
+the Duke of Montebello, whose government was naturally much agitated by
+the turn affairs were taking. In truth, conciliating expressions were
+not wanting in the dispatch by which Prince Gortchakof "invited the
+French government to let him know in what measure it thought that it
+would be able to second the efforts which Russia was making to prevent
+_the crisis with which Europe was menaced_;" but, however polite these
+forms were, they did not hide a necessity for explanation. The cabinet
+of the Tuileries replied by a memorandum in which it gave, above all,
+"the categoric engagement not to give any support to Piedmont in case
+that Austria should be attacked in Venetia." The cabinets of Vienna and
+Berlin made their remarks on several points of the French memorandum,
+and addressed them ... to the Russian vice-chancellor, who transmitted
+them to Paris, with the request for new explanations more explicit and
+more reassuring. Sum total, no positive result came from this meeting of
+the three sovereigns of the North, who had for a moment caused very
+grave apprehensions in France. This was because the Emperor Alexander
+had gone to Warsaw only in a particular interest; he did not wish to
+make a coalition nor a reconciliation there; he simply wished to show
+his influence: to give a demonstration of his power. He was flattered at
+seeing these sovereigns, these German princes, coming to the former
+capital of Poland to deliberate there on the general situation, and to
+receive the word of command: that recalled the good days of the Emperor
+Nicholas. On the other side, Russia was very much pleased at making
+France feel the whole price of its friendship, at making it understand
+that its services had now a much greater value, perhaps even their
+tariff. The clever productions which emanated successively in these
+years 1856-1860 from the chancellor's office at St. Petersburg,
+indicated in a very plastic manner the continually ascending advance of
+Russia since the peace of Paris. In the first of these celebrated
+circulars, it declared "that it did not sulk, but meditated;" in the
+second, on the occasion of the Italian complications, it already emerged
+"from the reserve which it had imposed on itself since the war of the
+Crimea." After the annexation of Savoy "its conscience warned it of
+being any longer silent on the unhappy state of the Christians in the
+Orient, etc." At last, in the month of October, 1860, it was the
+mouth-piece of the general interests of Europe, the intermediary which
+demanded explanations from the cabinets of the Tuileries. A modest
+_protégé_ of France, and full of "reserves" until the war in Italy, it
+ascends in 1859 to the rank of a "precious friend," to become after the
+interview of Warsaw the important and almost indispensable ally,--an
+ally very resolute in not accepting a secondary _rôle_, in guarding its
+position of marked influence, in taking for itself a large part in the
+great combinations of the future.
+
+Assuredly the desultory, undecisive, and eternally contradictory policy
+of the Emperor Napoleon III. played into the hands of Russia. But it is
+just to acknowledge that Prince Gortchakof allowed no chance of fortune
+to escape, and that without creating the events, he understood admirably
+how to profit by them. The superiority of the statesman always reveals
+itself by the measure which he preserves in his "cordiality" and even in
+his vengeance, by the foreseeing mind which he does not cease to
+preserve even in the midst of the allurements of success. It is not
+doubtful for instance that the warnings of Russia after the battle of
+Solferino, the fears which it then suddenly expressed of not being able
+longer to restrain Germany in its ardor to go to the rescue of Austria,
+contributed greatly to the hasty peace of Villafranca, and, however
+fatal this event was as regards the interests of France and even of
+Austria, one cannot deny that Russia accomplished its purpose perfectly.
+In fact, the complete execution of the programme "of the Alps to the
+Adriatic" would have probably given an entirely different turn to the
+Italian affairs, would certainly have rendered possible in the future a
+sincere reconciliation between France and Austria, while the half drawn
+solution by the peace of Villafranca, leaving all the questions in
+suspense, could only embitter the relations of the two belligerents, and
+render the friendship of Russia more precious to France. On the other
+side, this campaign of Lombardy, while giving satisfaction to the
+Muscovite hatred sprung from the war of the Orient, was still far from
+destroying one of the fundamental elements of the traditional policy of
+the czars as regards Germany. In spite of the loss of Milan, Austria
+preserved its position intact in the centre of Europe, was a balance for
+Prussia, and the interview of Warsaw proved that the Russian influence
+among the Germanic States had certainly not decreased.
+
+Not less circumspect and skillful did the Russian vice-chancellor show
+himself in not compromising too far in his connivances with the Emperor
+Napoleon III. during these years 1856-1860, certain general principles
+of preservation which had made the greatness and strength of the reign
+of Nicholas. Without doubt, in Servia, in the Danubian Principalities,
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch was not of a vigorous orthodoxy, and allowed
+popular votes to annul there the arrangements stipulated by the
+treaties; but in comparison with those countries of the Orient Russia
+has always allowed itself many political licenses. In the affairs of the
+Occident, on the contrary, Prince Gortchakof took care to remain as far
+as possible in the traditions and not to overturn too much in the "new
+right." He let the journals and periodicals of Moscow and St. Petersburg
+plume themselves at their ease on what Russia boldly contributed to the
+deliverance of the peoples and to the triumph of nationalities; for
+himself, in the documents dated at his office, he refrained carefully
+from all these neologisms and persevered in the terminology consecrated
+by the old diplomatic language. In these documents he had not spoken at
+all of the national aspirations nor of the popular votes, when Milan and
+Savoy changed masters; in the eyes of the Russian vice-chancellor, all
+these were simply facts of war, "regular transactions." Still less did
+he care to make the revolutionary propaganda abroad and to associate
+himself in the commerce of exportation which, according to a malicious
+remark of those days, Napoleon III. had undertaken with liberal ideas.
+He declined categorically all participation in the remonstrances
+addressed to the King of Naples, and declared in his circular of the 22d
+September, 1856, "that to wish to obtain from a sovereign concessions as
+to the internal government of his states in a comminatory manner or by
+menacing demonstrations, was to substitute one's self violently on one's
+own authority, to govern in his place, and to proclaim without disguise
+the right of the strong over the weak." Lastly, in his famous note to
+Prince Gagarine of the 10th October, 1860, he took up the Sardinian
+government roundly for its conduct in Emilia, Tuscany, the Duchies of
+Parma and Modena, and strongly opposed the deposal of these princes and
+the annexations of those provinces, which six years later he was to
+tolerate, even favor in Germany. "It is no longer," he said in the
+dispatch to Prince Gagarine, "a question of Italian interests, but of
+general interests, common to all governments, it is a question which is
+directly connected with those eternal laws without which, neither order,
+peace, nor security can exist in Europe." Finally, he sneered at those
+Jenners of politics who recommend the vaccination of anarchy to remove
+from it its pernicious character, and who pretend to remove the arms
+from the demagogy in appropriating to themselves its baggage; "the
+necessity in which the Sardinian government pretends to be situated in
+combating anarchy does not justify it, since _it only moves with the
+revolution to recover by it its heritage_." In a word, the Russian
+vice-chancellor profited with prodigious dexterity by the good
+disposition of France and still more by its errors, without ever
+sacrificing the will, the decorum, and the principles of his own
+government to it. He made use of the Emperor Napoleon III. without using
+him too much, and above all without ever subjecting himself to an order
+of ideas in which Russia could find any deception. For the good of
+Russia, for the happiness of Europe, it would have been desirable for
+Prince Gortchakof to have observed later, in his intimacy with Prussia,
+a little of that care and that intelligent egotism which he gave proof
+of in such a superior manner in his intimacy with France. "To love,
+there must be two," said the great theologian of the Middle Ages on the
+subject that those centuries of faith called divine love, the relations
+of the human soul with its heavenly Creator. The precept is assuredly
+much more to be recommended in the much less mystical relations between
+the powers of the earth, and the Russian vice-chancellor did not forget
+it during that first period of his ministry, during those years of
+"cordiality" with the cabinet of the Tuileries. It was only during the
+second period that the heart of Alexander Mikhaïlovitch began to control
+the right of the state, and that the love for M. de Bismarck proved to
+be stronger than the world, stronger even than Russia and its interests.
+
+
+II.
+
+While Prince Gortchakof thus reaped the fruits of his "French" policy,
+among which that of vengeance on Austria was surely not the least sweet
+or pleasant, his former colleague of Frankfort, having become
+representative of Prussia at the court of Russia, was consumed at his
+side by the languishing fever of a man of action trammeled by foolish
+probity. He had arrived at St. Petersburg in the spring of the year
+1859, three months after the famous birthday reception given to M. de
+Hübner by the Emperor Napoleon III.; the Italian complications were
+about to break out, and the Russian vice-chancellor lent himself to all
+those diplomatic tricks which, according to the desire of the cabinet of
+the Tuileries, would drive the Emperor Francis Joseph to a declaration
+of war. The new plenipotentiary of Prussia at the court of St.
+Petersburg had not a moment of doubt concerning the bearing which his
+government should observe in circumstances so propitious. It was from
+this time (12th May, 1859) that his confidential dispatch to M. de
+Schleinitz dates, in which he recommends the rupture with the _Bund_,
+the radical proceeding by sword and fire, _ferro et igne_. In the
+preceding year, during a journey to Paris, he had occasion to have an
+interview with the Emperor of the French, and to recognize his good will
+toward Prussia, and the unqualified wishes which were expressed in the
+Tuileries for the greatness and the prosperity of the country of
+Frederick II. and of Blücher. In the month of November of that same year
+1858, Napoleon III. had charged the Marquis Pepoli, then _en route_ for
+Berlin, to represent to the Hohenzollern all the advantages which he
+would find in a rupture with Austria: "In Germany," the Emperor of the
+French had said, "Austria represents the past, Prussia represents the
+future; in linking itself to Austria, Prussia condemns itself to
+immobility; it cannot be thus contented; it is called to a higher
+fortune; it should accomplish in Germany the great destinies which await
+it, and which Germany awaits from it."[31] Thus thought the future
+prisoner of Wilhelmshoehe on the eve of Magenta and Solferino, and "his
+excellency the lieutenant" certainly found no objections in such a
+magnificent programme. But those good ministers of the _new era_ at
+Berlin unfortunately had not the slightest notion of the "new right,"
+and up to the prince regent himself, they did not cease to speak of
+conquests purely _moral_. They even asked one another at Potsdam if they
+should not assist Austria, and whether they did not have federal
+obligations towards the Emperor Francis Joseph! The Samson of the Mark
+strove in vain against the ties which the "Philistines of the Spree"
+imposed on him, and the war in Italy became his Dalila: in fact, it was
+from this epoch that the renowned boldness of the present chancellor of
+Germany dates.
+
+It is interesting to study, in the confidential letters to Malvina, the
+state of mind of M. de Bismarck during these years 1859-1860. At the
+commencement of hostilities, and evidently despairing of seeing his
+government adopt the line of conduct which he had not ceased to
+recommend, he left his post, went to Moscow to visit the Kremlin, passed
+an agreeable day in a villa, so much more agreeable "when one has the
+feeling of being sheltered from the telegraph." The news of a great
+battle fought in Lombardy (Magenta) caused him, nevertheless, to return
+to St. Petersburg. "Perhaps there will be something for the diplomats to
+do." At St. Petersburg, he learns of the strange desire at Berlin of
+interceding for Austria, of mobilizing the federal armies, and from it
+he conceived the greatest apprehensions for his country. He became ill.
+A very grave case of hepatitis endangered his life seriously. "They
+covered my body with innumerable cupping glasses large as saucers, with
+mustard poultices and quantities of blisters, and I was already half way
+to a better world when I began to convince my doctors that my nerves
+were disordered by eight years of griefs and excitement without
+intermission (the eight years of Frankfort!), and that by continuing to
+weaken me, they would lead me into typhoid fever or imbecility. My good
+constitution ended by conquering, thanks, above all, to several dozen
+bottles of good wine."
+
+His good disposition did not the less remain dull and morose, and two
+months later he avowed that he would not have been sorry to have ended
+his life then. Austria was vanquished, it is true; she had lost two
+great battles and one of the richest provinces; but Prussia had not
+drawn any material, palpable advantage from this disaster of the
+Hapsburg, and the cavalier of the Mark was not the man to cherish, like
+his friend Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, a purely Platonic hatred. He
+consoled himself, however, by the thought that the peace of Villafranca
+was only a truce: "to wish in the present state of affairs to seriously
+reconcile Austria with France, is to labor at the squaring of the
+circle." "I shall endeavor," he wrote at the approach of autumn, 1859,
+"to cower in my bear-skin, and to bury myself in the snow; in the thaw
+of next May, I will see what remains of me and our affairs; if too
+little I shall definitely settle with politics." The following month of
+May brought grave events; the annexation of Savoy became the signal for
+the greatest distrust in Europe, of which we have spoken above: but the
+cabinet of Berlin persisted in its ancient course, and the prince regent
+had, in July, an interview with the Emperor Francis Joseph at Toeplitz.
+"I learn," wrote the representative of Prussia at the court of St.
+Petersburg with undisguised spite, "that we have been shaved at
+Toeplitz, splendidly shaved; we have let ourselves be taken in by the
+Viennese good nature. And all that for nothing, not even the smallest
+plate of lentils." At last, in the month of October, after Castelfidardo
+and the conquest of the kingdom of Naples, the cabinet of Berlin
+addressed an energetic note to M. de Cavour, on the bearing of the House
+of Savoy on the Italian peninsula. The note established that "it is
+solely in the legal manner of reforms, and in respecting the existing
+rights, that a regular government is allowed to realize the legitimate
+wishes of nations," and closes by the following passage: "Called to
+express ourselves on the acts and principles of the Sardinian
+government, we can only deplore them profoundly, and we believe that we
+are fulfilling a rigorous duty by expressing in the most explicit and
+formal manner our disapprobation, both of those principles and of the
+application which has been thought could be made of them." One can
+imagine what bad humor such _naïvetés_ would cause to the future
+destroyer of the _Bund_, to the future spoliator of Denmark, of Hanover,
+and so many other states. He again thought of leaving the career; he
+resolved in any case to "cling to the situation of an observer," as
+regards the monstrous policy which was pursued at Berlin. He is
+perfectly astonished at the scandal which is caused on the banks of the
+Spree by the publication of the posthumous journal of M. de Varnhagen, a
+journal full of piquant revelations concerning the court of Prussia.
+"Why be so indignant. Is it not taken from life? Varnhagen is vain and
+_méchant_, but who is not? Does it not all depend on the manner in which
+nature has ripened our lives? According to what we have suffered from
+the bites of worms, from dampness, or from the sun, behold us sweet,
+sour, or rotten."
+
+That did not hinder him, however, from carefully cultivating, during
+these years 1859-1860, his relations with the political world of St.
+Petersburg from taking root there, and from attaching by a thousand ties
+the fortune of his country to this friendship of Russia, of which he
+understood all the value. The position of the representatives of Prussia
+has always been exceptional at St. Petersburg; thanks to the near
+relationship of the two courts, they enjoyed in the winter palace a
+confidence and intimacy which the envoys of other states scarcely ever
+obtained there. M. de Bismarck was able to add to these favorable
+conditions the influence of his personal merit, and the good reputation
+which he had acquired, in a Russian point of view, during his long
+sojourn at Frankfort. His former journeys in Courland had made him
+known and liked by the German nobility of the Baltic Provinces, by the
+Keyserlingk, the Uxküll, the Nolde, the Bruvern, etc., always so
+influential at court, in the chancellor's office, and in Russian
+diplomacy. "The first prophets of the future greatness of M. de
+Bismarck," says an author very _au fait_ in the society of St.
+Petersburg, "the first who predicted the providential mission which was
+reserved for him in Germany, were perhaps those barons of Courland and
+Livonia with whom the present chancellor of Germany had so often passed
+the hunting season, shared their amusements, their banquets, and their
+political conversations."[32] The representative of Prussia at the court
+of St. Petersburg took care, however, not to give himself up too much to
+this liking for the Courlanders and Livonians; he was careful to place
+in his affections, or at least in his demonstrations, the greatest part
+in Russian Russia, autochthonal Muscovy (_nastaïastchaïa_). This
+enthusiasm for the customs and genius of the "Scythians," this love for
+the "bear-skin and caviare," was it very sincere? We may perhaps doubt
+it; it is allowable to suppose that the man who, in the name of his
+Germanic superiority, has so often and boldly expressed his disdain for
+the _Welches_ and Latins, feels at bottom a still greater contempt for
+that Sclavic race which every good German makes rhyme with slave
+(_slave-esclave_).[33] However that may be, never did foreign
+ambassador on the banks of the Neva have so much devotion as the
+cavalier of the Mark for the polar stars, or pushed as far as he did the
+passion of local color. He pushed it so far as to introduce into his
+house several little bears which (as formerly the foxes at Kniephof)
+came, at the dinner hour, bounding into the dining hall, agreeably
+deranging the _convives_, licking the hand of their master, and "biting
+the calves of the servants' legs."[34] A worthy Nimrod, he never missed
+an expedition against the black king of the boreal forests; he did not
+fail to don on these occasions the Muscovite hunting costume, and the
+team of horses _à la Russe_ has remained dear to him up to the present,
+and even in the streets of Berlin. He also affected to interest himself
+greatly in the literary movement of the country; he had a Russian
+professor in his house, and he learned enough of it to be able to give
+his orders to those people in their native idiom, even to delightfully
+surprise one day the Emperor Alexander with some phrases pronounced in
+the language of Pouchkine.
+
+The Russians could not help giving a most cordial reception to a
+diplomat who showed himself so taken with their usages and customs, with
+their pleasures and their "peculiarities," and who, moreover, had the
+advantage of succeeding to that good M. de Werther, whose reputation,
+neither there nor anywhere else, was exactly that of a too hilarious
+character. On the contrary, they had never known on the banks of the
+Neva a Prussian as gay as this excellent M. de Bismarck, as good a
+fellow, as good a liver, having a loud laugh, coarse jests, and a witty
+speech. He indulged in all sorts of pleasantries at the expense of the
+"Philistines of the Spree," the "old fogies of Potsdam," which gave him
+no small success: a minister plenipotentiary slandering his own
+government, a grumbling, fault-finding diplomat in the very political
+sphere which he had the mission to represent and to second, that was an
+originality which could be appreciated by a world always on the watch
+for the _piquant_ and pleasing. He knew how to please the empress-mother
+Helen, whose influence at court was considerable, and whose warm support
+never failed him in consequence, in the most grave moments of his career
+as minister. The emperor had conceived a great affection for him,
+invited him regularly to his bear hunts, and did him the honor of
+admitting him in his _cortége_ during his journeys to Warsaw and Breslau
+to meet the Prince Regent of Prussia. As for Prince Gortchakof, he
+enjoyed more than ever the society of his former colleague of Frankfort,
+and the _salons_ often repeated a malicious _mot, a méchant_ insinuation
+of which Austria generally had to bear the brunt, and the paternity of
+which they indifferently attributed first to one then to the other of
+these two friends, grown inseparable, and whom spiteful intrigues
+nevertheless wished to separate! At the end of 1859, M. de Bismarck
+wrote in a confidential letter: "Austria and its dear confederates are
+intriguing at Berlin to have me recalled from here: I am, however, very
+amiable. God's will be done!"
+
+At Berlin, in the mean time, they began little by little to glide down a
+declivity, which would have caused Prussian politics to descend rapidly
+from the cloudy regions of the _new era_ upon that ground of realities
+and of action to which the tried friend of Alexander Mikhaïlovitch had
+so long invited them, and, curiously enough, it was precisely the
+mobilization of the Prussian army in 1859, the mobilization so condemned
+by M. de Bismarck, which was the immediate cause of this sudden revival
+fraught with incalculable consequences. It is fashionable now in France
+to represent the Prussian government as having meditated for half a
+century a war of revenge and conquest, slowly brightening their arms,
+and training a succession of generations for the decisive hour of
+combat. There is nothing more false, however. Neither the government of
+Frederick William III., nor that of Frederick William IV. ever cherished
+warlike projects, and even the humiliation of Olmütz was not an
+incentive to the minister of war at Berlin. The two predecessors of
+William I. only sacrificed to the military spirit just that which was
+necessary to insure them a stand among the great Powers, to hold
+reviews, and to be able to speak of their faithful troops, and of their
+always valiant swords; at bottom, they were not far from thinking like
+the Grand Duke Constantine, the brother of the Emperor Nicholas, who one
+day said naïvely: "I detest war, it spoils the armies!" The swords of
+Blücher and Scharnhorst were sheathed since 1815; even the adoption of
+the needle gun in 1847 was only an accident, rather a scientific
+experiment; in 1848 and 1849, the Prussian troops did not shine with
+marvelous _éclat_ in the war of the Duchies, and were even miserably
+held in check by the undisciplined bands of the insurrection of Posen
+and Baden. The brother of the king, who had commanded the troops in
+Baden, was grievously moved at the sight which his soldiers then
+presented, and, having become regent of the kingdom (October, 1858), he
+immediately turned his attention to military reform. Nevertheless it was
+only the mobilization attempted during the Italian complications (in the
+summer of 1859) which opened their eyes to all the grave inconveniences
+and incoherencies of the organization till then in force. Two superior
+men, MM. de Moltke and de Roon, joined with the prince regent in
+remodeling the system from the very bottom. They displayed in it an
+intelligence, an energy, and a rapidity without equal in history; they
+knew how to profit by all the discoveries of science, and above all did
+not let the great lesson escape them which a formidable civil war in
+North America soon taught, a war so rich in experiments and inventions
+of every kind. In spite of the obstacles which were thrown in their way
+without cessation from all sides, these two men, at the end of six
+years, produced an armed force, entirely new, powerful, invincible; and
+"the instrument," still rough and rudimentary in 1860, proved its ill
+omened "perfection" on the calamitous day of Sadowa! Not less erroneous
+is the opinion, very generally spread, however, that the Prussian people
+had demanded of its government victories and aggrandizement; to refute
+these perfectly gratuitous suppositions, it suffices to remember that
+the different parliaments of Berlin did not cease to oppose military
+reform, and that they had on their side the almost unanimous voice of
+the people. The ideas of German greatness, of German power, of the
+German mission, haunt the imagination of professors and authors much
+more than that of the people; they were academic themes, choice morsels
+of rhetoric and opposition, still they are much more in vogue south of
+the Main than north of this river,--and precisely there appears the
+astounding art of M. de Bismarck in having known how, to speak with
+Münchausen, "to condense mists into stones of size for a gigantic
+edifice," and to make of a dream of _savans_ a popular passion. The
+force of will, the force of character, and in one word the genius, can
+still, even in a century of democratic leveling and uniform mediocrity
+play a _rôle_, of which our poor philosophy of history scarcely had a
+suspicion, which drowns so skillfully all responsibility and initiative
+in the blind fatality of the "masses," and, as a Teutonic proverb says,
+cannot distinguish the trees on account of looking at the forest. Take
+from the most recent history of Prussia three or four men who answer to
+the names of William I., Moltke, Roon, and Bismarck, and the old
+Barbarossa would very probably up to the present time have continued his
+secular sleep in the cave of the Kyffhäuser.
+
+Nature delights as well in analogies as in contrasts, and it is thus
+that the antecedents of this prince regent, who to-day bears the name of
+William I., Emperor of Germany, does not fail to present some similarity
+with the past of the extraordinary man, who, at the destined hour, was
+to forge for him, _ferro et igne_, the imperial crown of Barbarossa. In
+order to be enlightened concerning these antecedents, it is necessary
+to turn to the posthumous "Journal" of M. Varnhagen von Ense,--the
+liberal, crabbed Dangeau, compromising in the highest degree, amiable as
+a whole, of the court of Berlin,--the same "Journal" whose defense we
+have seen M. de Bismarck undertake in a confidential letter, against the
+clamors which this publication had awakened in the capital of Prussia.
+There is no doubt that Prince William made an energetic opposition to
+the liberal desires which had signaled the _débuts_ of the reign of his
+brother, King Frederick William IV. He had begun to work out at this
+epoch _memoirs for consulting_ which established his right of _veto_ in
+every amendment of the fundamental laws of the state. The rumor of a
+formal protest in his name and in that of his descendants against every
+project of constitution, found credit for a moment even in the heart of
+the ministry; and under no conditions would he give his consent to the
+feudal "charter" granted by his brother the 3d of February, 1847, except
+on the express reservation that the States should not decide on the
+budget, and should never occupy themselves with foreign affairs. And the
+unpopularity of the heir presumptive was great before the revolution of
+1848; during the fatal month of March of that year, it was against him
+especially that the fury of the inhabitants of Berlin was let loose, who
+attributed to him (and wrongly) the order given to the troops to fire on
+the people. He was then forced to leave the country on a "mission" to
+London, and the multitude did not forego the satisfaction of inscribing
+on the palace of the fugitive the words of _national property_. Returned
+from England after the appeasement of the revolutionary effervescence,
+he placed himself, in 1849, at the head of the troops to stifle in Baden
+a ridiculous insurrection, and feigned "important military operations,"
+which kept him in the south of Germany, so as not to be present at the
+solemn session of the 6th February, 1850, when King Frederick William
+IV. took his oath to the definite statute.
+
+Afterwards, however, especially towards the last years of the
+disenchanted and morose reign of his brother, the Prince of Prussia
+commenced to relax in his "reactionary" vigor, and especially made a
+sufficiently marked opposition to the "pietist" influences at the court
+of Potsdam. Affections and family considerations contributed also in
+creating for the prince a peculiar situation. The esteem and tenderness
+with which Frederick William IV. surrounded his wife did not always
+console her for the sterility with which she was afflicted, and the
+sight of a sister-in-law a happy mother of children destined for the
+throne, probably to be called some day to occupy the throne, produced
+coolness and irritation which the wife of the heir presumptive sharply
+resented. The Princess Augusta was not of a disposition to bear certain
+thrusts. Sprung from that House of Weimar which was always distinguished
+by its taste for arts and pleasure, she early had her own acquaintances,
+friendships, and a bearing sufficiently different from the ordinary way
+of the court to resemble occasionally a divergence sought after with
+intention. The wishes of the Princess Augusta did not fail to finally
+exercise their influence on her husband, and the project, long nursed
+by the august couple, realized at last in 1857, of uniting their eldest
+son with the daughter of Queen Victoria, was regarded as the first
+concession made to popular opinion. In fact, courtiers were not wanting
+at Potsdam, the terrible M. de Varnhagen tells us, who asked in their
+soul and conscience if it were quite worthy of the House of Hohenzollern
+to ally itself by blood with a dynasty which was only half sovereign,
+and held in dependence by a house of commons! How the times and customs
+have changed at this court of Potsdam which last year saw the heiress
+presumptive of the throne of Prussia and Germany, this same daughter of
+Queen Victoria, send affectionate telegrams to Doctor Strauss when
+dying, and render to the author of the "Life of Jesus" an homage _in
+extremis_ which transported with enthusiasm all the valiant cavaliers of
+the _combat of civilization_!
+
+Habituated in a manner, and for several years already, to consider the
+brother of the king as reconciled to modern ideas and favorable to the
+cause of progress, the nation was much less astonished than charmed to
+hear him, on his accepting the regency, use liberal and constitutional
+language. A "new era" was to commence for Prussia; that word was almost
+officially adopted to designate the change of system, and in a memorable
+address, delivered on the 8th November, 1858, to the cabinet which he
+had formed, the prince regent sketched the programme of a reparative
+policy. He besought his councilors to bring about ameliorations in that
+which was arbitrary or contrary to the wants of the epoch. While
+defending himself against a dangerous _laisser aller_ towards liberal
+ideas, and expressing the will "to courageously hinder that which has
+not been promised," he did not the less proclaim the duty of keeping
+with loyalty the contracted engagements, and of not hindering useful
+reforms. The address ended with the phrase become celebrated, and since
+then so frequently cited, "that Prussia should make '_moral conquests in
+Germany_.'"
+
+The harmony between the regent and the nation was not, however, of long
+duration; the relations were not slow in cooling and proceeding towards
+a complete rupture, thanks especially to the projected reform of the
+army. The prince had this reform at heart: the wants of 1859 had only
+convinced him of the absolute urgency of a measure with which his mind
+had been occupied for many years; but the deputies of the nation refused
+to follow him in this road, and opposed him tenaciously and firmly. They
+did not understand the obstinacy which the prince displayed in a project
+which answered neither to the wants nor to the aspirations of the
+country, and they laughed at those who pretended that once in possession
+of his new "instrument," the Hohenzollern, would _do great things_! They
+had resisted judiciously, says a German author, the temptation of the
+parliament of Frankfort in 1849, and the provocation of Olmütz in 1850;
+they had let pass the opportunities which the wars of 1854 and 1859
+presented. The love of peace was absolute, there was a complete absence
+of ambition, they were perfectly resigned to the political situation
+which they occupied, and on the other side no one wished to admit that
+a kingdom so peaceable could be menaced by neighbors. In such a state of
+affairs, every aggrandizement of the army drawing after it an increase
+of military and financial charges, already heavy enough for the
+citizens, only seemed to the country an inconceivable caprice of its
+rulers.[35] The chambers refused the demanded credit; the government
+went its way and continued its expenditures. The military question thus
+became a question of budget, and soon transformed itself into an
+irremediable constitutional conflict. Towards the end of 1861, no other
+remedy could be seen for the situation but a _coup d'état_.
+
+Not less profound and irresistible was soon the change in the ideas of
+the court of Potsdam, as regarded the external policy. In proportion as
+the "instrument" perfected itself (and it perfected itself rapidly), one
+began to ask one's self about the most practical and fruitful employment
+for it. One did not yet distinctly know what one wished, but one wished
+it with strength, with the strength which one drew from the battalions
+increasing without cessation. Assuredly one always saw nothing but moral
+conquests in Germany, but one thought that a moral in action, aided
+somewhat by needle guns, would give excellent results. The atmosphere
+was charged with electricity and with the principles of nationality, and
+it was not only the professors and orators of the _National Verein_ who
+recommended a "united Germany with a Prussian point (_mit preussischer
+Spitze_)." When, in the month of October, 1860, the envoy of Prussia,
+Count Brassier de Saint-Simon, read to Count Cavour the famous note of
+M. de Schleinitz against the Italian annexations, the president of the
+Sardinian council listened in silence to the harangue, then expressed
+his great regret at having displeased the government of Berlin on this
+point, but declared that he consoled himself with the thought that
+"Prussia would one day, thanks to Piedmont, profit by the example which
+he had given it." In France, the journals of the democratic authority,
+the devoted organs of the "new right," did not cease to praise the
+"Piedmontese mission" of the House of Hohenzollern, and we have recalled
+above the encouragements which Napoleon III. sent to Berlin after 1858.
+The visit made by King William I.[36] to the Emperor of the French at
+Compiègne in the month of October, 1861, was in this respect a symptom
+more significant, since none of the sovereigns of the North had till
+then given this mark of courtesy to the choice of universal suffrage.
+Strange rumors began to spread concerning the alliance of the three
+courts of the Tuileries, of St. Petersburg, and of Berlin, and they
+continued up to the month of March, 1863. Publications of mysterious
+origin, but which denoted a very specious knowledge of political
+affairs, spoke of the "_great combination of states_ summing up in three
+races,--the Roman, Germanic, and Sclavic,--to which corresponded three
+centres of gravity, France, Prussia, and Russia, and of the definite
+establishment of the peace of the world by means of a _triple alliance
+of universal monarchies_, in which their full expression (_Abschluss_)
+would not only find the three principal races of the European system,
+but also the three great Christian churches!"[37] Lord Palmerston
+declared at this very epoch in parliament, with his Britannic
+_désinvolture_, "that the situation seemed pregnant with at least half a
+dozen respectable wars;" and in spite of the obscurity which still
+covers the transactions of the years 1861-1862, it is not doubtful that
+Napoleon III. had then occasionally brought up in his scheming mind a
+combination embracing at once the Orient and the Occident, a combination
+as vague as gigantic, and of which Prince Gortchakof prepared to profit
+with his tried dexterity. Whatever these shadowy projects were, the
+Hohenzollern had only to be satisfied with his sojourn at Compiègne,
+which he was to recall with a certain tenderness two years later in his
+polite reply to the invitation of the Congress. In October, 1861,
+Napoleon III., at Compiègne, probably made use of no other language than
+that which he had used in 1858 at Berlin by the mediation of the Marquis
+Pepoli, the fatidical language, "on the great destinies which awaited
+Prussia in Germany, and which Germany expected from it."
+
+It was thus that the difficulties from within and the facilities from
+without, the parliamentary conflicts in the interior and the political
+constellations in the exterior united, towards the end of 1861, in
+equally urging the King of Prussia to energetic resolutions. A man of
+vigor was wanted for the vigorous actions which were projected, and the
+glances naturally fell on that grumbling diplomat at St. Petersburg,
+who, for so many years already, had not ceased to criticise the
+ministers of the _new era_, and to blame their conduct from without as
+well as from within. In spite of the promise which he had given "to
+confine himself to his situation as an observer," M. de Bismarck had not
+failed from time to time to give a thrust during those years 1860 and
+1861, and to repeat without cessation the precept of Strafford, the
+precept of thorough (_à outrance!_). We see him during these years
+making very frequent journeys to Germany, seeking opportunities of
+meeting the head of the state, of conversing with him on his ideas and
+presenting him various memoirs. In October, 1861, on the very eve of the
+journey to Compiègne, he submitted to him a little project, from which
+he expected some success, and of which it is not so difficult in fact to
+imagine the tenor, when, above all, one takes care to study a
+confidential letter written by him a few days before (18th September,
+1861), and directed entirely against a political programme which the
+conservative party in Prussia had published. In this curious letter he
+rises with violence against the _Bund_, "the hot-bed of particularism,"
+demands "a (_straffer_) firmer concentration of the armed forces of
+Germany, and a more natural configuration of the frontiers of the
+States;" but, above all, he puts his party on guard against _the
+dangerous fiction of a solidarity which would exist between all the
+conservative interests_. To triumph over this "dangerous fiction"
+strongly rooted in certain minds, there was in truth the great
+difficulty for the future minister of William I., his _omne tulit
+punctum_, for it is not so easy in this order of things to well
+distinguish between reality and fiction; it is perhaps even perilous to
+discuss them, and a Retz would certainly have said of the conservative
+interests what he so finely remarked of the right of peoples and of that
+of kings, "that they never agree so well together as in silence." M. de
+Bismarck was once more obliged to combat this "fiction" at Berlin as at
+St. Petersburg, and if the mind as open as subtle of his friend
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch allowed itself most often to be convinced
+without too much assistance, it was not the same with the Hohenzollern,
+who, afterwards, on many an occasion, and in decisive moments, was to
+feel the scruples, the shudders, and what Falstaff calls the "tertian
+fevers of conscience."
+
+On the return of William I. from Compiègne, the nomination of the
+cavalier of the Mark to the direction of affairs was already a
+well-arranged and fixed matter. M. de Bismarck soon afterwards came to
+assist at the coronation of the king at Koenigsberg, and he only
+returned to St. Petersburg to take leave definitely. At the beginning of
+the month of May, 1862, he was again at Berlin; at the great military
+parade which was held in the capital on the occasion of the unveiling of
+the statue of Count de Brandenburg (17th May), the political men, the
+deputies, and the high functionaries of state looked upon him already as
+the future "Polignac" of Prussia. The fears and the hopes which such a
+provision excited were not, however, so soon to be realized, and the
+world was somewhat perplexed in suddenly learning that M. de Bismarck
+was to be appointed to the post in Paris. Did he still hesitate to take
+charge of the burden of power, and did he in any case prefer to await
+the result of the new elections which were to be held in Prussia? It is
+more probable that before inaugurating his government of combat he
+wished to add some new conversations to those which were held at
+Compiègne, to take once again the measure of the man on whom a then
+universal belief made the destinies of Europe depend, and to prepare in
+general the minds in France for the new policy which he was to
+inaugurate.
+
+He only remained at Paris two months, during the two delightful months
+of May and June, but this short stay sufficed for him both to complete
+his studies and to throw light on his religion. He had more than one
+conversation with the sovereign of France, whose profound ideas every
+one exalted at this time, commented _ad infinitum_ on the smallest
+words, admired even his silence, and whom he, however, the future
+conqueror of Sedan, did not hesitate in his confidential effusions to
+define even then as "a great unrecognized incapacity." He saw also the
+influential men in the government, and in society, and strove to rally
+them to his ideas and his projects. He did not conceal that his
+sovereign would not delay to appeal to him, and he exposed without a
+_détour_ the line of conduct which he would adopt on such an occurrence.
+What history will perhaps most admire in the present chancellor of
+Germany, will be the supreme art with which he sometimes handled the
+truth: this man of genius has understood how to give to frankness
+itself all the political virtues of knavishness. Very artful and very
+cunning as to the means, he has nevertheless always been, as regards the
+goal which he pursued, of a _désinvolture_, of an indiscretion without
+equal, and it was thus that he had at Paris in 1862 those astonishing
+and confidential conferences which only amused and which should have
+made them reflect.[38]
+
+France,--said M. de Bismarck then and since, in 1862 as in 1864 and
+1865, every time that he conversed with any of the political men from
+the banks of the Seine,--France would be wrong in taking umbrage at the
+increase in Prussian influence, and, the case occurring, at its
+territorial aggrandizement at the cost of the small States. Of what
+utility, of what help are then those small States, without a will,
+without strength, without an army? However far the designs and wants of
+Prussia could reach, they would necessarily stop at the Main; the line
+of the Main is its natural frontier; beyond that river, Austria will
+guard it, even its preponderance will increase, and there will thus
+always be in Germany two powers balancing one another. Good order will
+gain, and certainly France will lose nothing there, it will even draw
+immense advantages for its politics, for its movement in the world. In
+fact Prussia has an unfortunate, impossible configuration; _it wants a
+stomach_ on the side of Cassel and Nassau, _it has a dislocated
+shoulder_ on the side of Hanover, it is in the air, and this painful
+situation necessarily condemns it to follow entirely the policy of
+Vienna and St. Petersburg, to turn without rest in the orbit of the holy
+alliance. Better outlined, planted more solidly, having its members
+complete, it would be itself again, would have freedom of movements, the
+_freedom of alliances_, and what alliance more desirable for it than
+that with the French Empire? More than one question pending to-day, and
+almost unsolvable could have been settled then with perfect security:
+that of Venice, that of the Orient,--who knows? perhaps even that of
+Poland! Finally, if the possible aggrandizements of Prussia seem to be
+excessive, and to break the balance of strength what would prevent
+France from growing, from increasing itself in turn? Why should it not
+take Belgium, and _destroy there a nest of demagogy_? The cabinet of
+Berlin would not oppose it; _suum cuique_, that is the antique and
+venerable device of the Prussian monarchy.
+
+All that said with liveliness, with spirit, with intelligence,
+accompanied by many an ingenious malicious remark, happy _mots_ on men
+and things, on that chamber of lords at Berlin, for instance, composed
+of respectable _old fogies_, and the chamber of deputies, equally
+composed of old fogies, but not respectable, and on an august personage,
+the most respectable, but the greatest old fogy of all. M. de Bismarck
+had at Paris during these two months almost the same success which had
+accompanied his three years' sojourn on the banks of the Neva. The
+important men, however, were careful not to overdo it; they readily
+recognized in him all the qualities of a man of intellect, but they
+could not make up their minds to consider him a _serious man_.
+
+In the last days of the month of June, the new representative of Prussia
+at the court of the Tuileries undertook a pleasure trip in the south of
+France. He visited in turn Chambord, Bordeaux, Avignon, Luchon,
+Toulouse, and made an excursion in the Pyrenees. "The chateau of
+Chambord," he wrote in a letter dated the 27th July, 1862, "answers, by
+its isolation, to the destinies of its possessor. In the great
+porticoes, in the splendid halls, in which formerly the kings with their
+mistresses held their court and their hunts, the playthings of the child
+of the Duke of Bordeaux now form the only furniture. The _concierge_,
+who served as my guide, took me for a legitimist, and _crushed_ a tear
+in showing me a little cannon of his prince. I paid him a franc more
+than the tariff for this tear, although I feel but little desire to
+subsidize Carlism." At Bordeaux he rejoiced in having been able to
+"study _in the original_, and in the cellar of those great masters
+called Lafitte, Mouton, Pichon, Larose, Margaux, Branne, Armillac,
+etc.," who are generally known in Germany only through bad translations.
+He is delighted with his tour in the Pyrenees, but above all the Baths
+of Biarritz and St. Sébastian made him happy. He "devotes himself there
+entirely to the sun and to the salt water," he forgets politics, and
+knows neither journals nor dispatches. It was at this moment (the end of
+September, 1862) that he received from his sovereign the pressing call
+to go to Berlin. The elections had given a deplorable result, the
+immense majority of the new chamber belonged to the _progressionists_.
+They had not been able to decide at Berlin on the choice of the
+president of the future ministry,--"a cover for the government pot," as
+M. de Bismarck said; he was to fill those functions in the interim by
+taking the portfolio of foreign affairs. Burned by the sun of the South
+and fortified by the waters of the Gulf, "tanned and salted," the former
+aspirant for the inspectorship of dikes in a district of the Mark,
+started for his country to fill there the first position in the state.
+He only, so to speak, crossed Paris this time, but he remained there
+long enough to leave a characteristic _mot_, which summed up his entire
+programme. "Liberalism," said the designated chief of the Prussian
+government, in taking leave in the bureaux of the Quai d'Orsay,
+"liberalism is only nonsense which it is easy to bring to reason; but
+revolution is a force, which it is necessary to know how to use."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[26] "Austria is not a state, it is only a government."
+
+[27] As well as the Germans born or naturalized in Russia who encumbered
+the different branches of the state service, and occupied in general a
+very large and important position in the administration of the empire.
+On his accession to the ministry, Alexander Mikhaïlovitch loudly
+signified his intention of "purging" his department of all these
+"intruders." Routine, however, and above all Sclavic idleness (which
+willingly leaves to foreigners and to "intruders" all work demanding
+perseverance and application) were not slow in triumphing over the
+principle of nationality; the palingenesis of the minister, announced
+with so much fuss, ended in a very insignificant change in the
+_personnel_ of the lower order, and the chancellor found among these
+Germans his two most devoted and capable aids: M. de Westmann, deceased
+last May at Wiesbaden, and M. de Hamburger, quite recently made
+secretary of state.
+
+[28] Letter of M. de Cavour to M. Castelli-Bianchi, _Storia
+documentata_, vol. viii. p. 622.
+
+[29] See, for this and all that follows concerning the relations of
+France and Russia in the years 1856-63, _Two Negotiations of
+Contemporaneous Diplomacy; the Alliances since the Congress of Paris_,
+in the _Revue des deux Mondes_, of the 15th September, 1864.
+
+[30] It is true that, in a circular of the 27th May, 1859, the Russian
+vice-chancellor took care to give a commentary to his proposition, and
+to prove that the congress which he had planned looked to nothing
+chimerical. "This congress," said he, "_did not place any power in
+presence of the unknown_: its programme had been traced in advance. The
+fundamental idea which had presided at this combination, _prejudiced no
+essential interest_. _On one side, the state of territorial possession
+was maintained_, and on the other there could come from the congress _a
+result which had nothing excessive or unusual in the international
+relations_." It would be well to re-read this remarkable circular, and
+to weigh every word of it. One will find in it the most curious and
+substantial criticism, made, so to speak, by anticipation, of the
+different projects of the congress, those which later the Emperor
+Napoleon III. was to present to Europe, especially the eccentric project
+which surprised the world in the imperial speech of the 5th November,
+1863.
+
+[31] Massari, _Il Conte Cavour_, p. 268.
+
+[32] _Aus der Petersburger Gesellschaft_, vol. ii. p. 90.
+
+[33] In 1862, at the moment of definitely leaving his post at St.
+Petersburg, M. de Bismarck received the visit of a colleague, a foreign
+diplomat. They were speaking of Russia, and the future chancellor of
+Germany said, among other things, "I am in the habit, when leaving a
+country where I have lived long, to consecrate to it one of my watch
+charms, on which I have engraved the final impression which it has left
+me; do you wish to know the impression which I carry from St.
+Petersburg?" And he showed to the puzzled diplomat a little charm on
+which these words were engraved: "_Russia is nothingness!_"
+
+[34] M. de Bismarck has since presented these quadrupeds to the
+zoölogical garden of the former free city of Frankfort.
+
+[35] Constantin Roessler, _Graf Bismarck und die deutsche Nation_,
+Berlin, 1871.
+
+[36] Frederick William IV. having died the 2d January, 1861, the prince
+regent took from that day the name William I.
+
+[37] See the remarkable pamphlet entitled _Europa's Cabinete und
+Allianzen_, Leipzig, 1862. It is the work of a Russian diplomat,
+celebrated in political literature, the same whose book on the
+_Pentarchie_ had such a loud echo under the monarchy of July.
+
+[38] See in the _Revue des deux Mondes_ of the 1st October, 1868, _Les
+Préliminaires de Sadowa_.
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+UNITED ACTION.
+
+
+I.
+
+However great one wishes to make the share of genius in the work of M.
+de Bismarck, one cannot deny that a great part also comes from the
+unforeseen, from an extraordinary combination of circumstances, in one
+word, from that goddess Fortune whom the _minnesinger_ of the Middle
+Ages did not cease to praise in song, whom Dante himself did not fail to
+extol in the immortal verses, "The course always luminous like a star in
+heaven, and the decree always hidden like a serpent in the grass."
+Without doubt, one can admire the extreme audacity with which the
+present chancellor of Germany has so often let fall from his hand the
+_iron dice of destiny_; one can even, to speak with the witty Abbé
+Galiani, suspect more than one cogged one in such a persistent "_pair
+royal of six_." It is not less true that in his long career as player,
+the president of the council at Berlin has occasionally met, in the most
+decisive moments, such marvelous luck as no human wisdom could foresee,
+that no political subtlety could prepare, and in which the hardy
+_punter_ only had the merit, very considerable it is true, of not
+letting the vein exhaust itself or of using up the series. One of these
+magnificent strokes of luck, one of these perfectly prodigious events
+fell to the lot of William I. on his accession to power, in the month
+of January, 1863. This event laid the first foundations of his future
+greatness, it became the mainspring of his action in Europe, the
+Archimedean point from whence afterwards he raised up a world of daring
+projects, and it is necessary to bear it well in mind.
+
+The ideal which M. de Bismarck had before him in taking into his hands
+the reins of state, was the aggrandizement, "the rounding off" of the
+monarchy of Frederick II. He had made the premature avowal of it at the
+time of his mission to Paris; he also declared it very frankly in the
+first sitting of the commission of the chamber at Berlin, scarcely a
+week after having been made minister (29th September, 1862). He
+certainly did not foresee in what measure he should realize this ideal,
+to what limits he could extend in Germany conquests which should cease
+to be "moral;" but he clearly foresaw that in this attempt he would find
+a resolute adversary in Austria, and he made up his mind to it.[39] The
+only question which engrossed him was the attitude which the other great
+Powers of Europe would maintain in view of certain events. Among them,
+he did not count England; with his rare political sagacity, he had early
+appreciated to what state of domestication and mildness that excellent
+school of Manchester had reduced the leopard formerly so fierce, and his
+conviction that proud Albion would not think of evil, and would even
+allow itself to be disgraced a little, was soon to be fully justified in
+the piteous campaign of Denmark. "England is far from entering into my
+calculations," he said in 1862, in a familiar conversation, "and do you
+know when I ceased to count her? From the day when she renounced of her
+free will the Ionian Islands; a Power which ceases to take and begins to
+surrender is a used-up Power." France and Russia remained, and it was
+not forbidden to think that, skillfully managed, these two states would
+favor to a certain degree the Prussian designs, or at least would not
+oppose them too strongly. On the banks of the Neva old grudges existed,
+sprung from the war of the Orient, imperfectly gratified by the war of
+Lombardy; the old relations between the Gottorp and the Hohenzollern,
+always cordial, had become more intimate than ever, thanks to the recent
+efforts of M. de Bismarck during his sojourn at St. Petersburg; finally,
+there was his friend Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, former colleague of
+Frankfort, so prepossessed in favor of the new minister of King William
+I., so well united with him in the hatred against Austria, and also so
+well warned against the "dangerous fiction" of a solidarity which should
+exist between all the conservative interests. On the banks of the Seine,
+in the Tuileries, still so much dreaded, there reigned a sovereign who,
+by dint of studying the general good of humanity, lost more and more the
+consideration of the French state, and whose vague vacillating regard it
+was not very difficult to dazzle, especially when one mirrored before
+him the "new right" and the affranchisement of Venice. Moreover, since
+the congress of Paris, there was established between the two cabinets
+of the Tuileries and St. Petersburg a "cordiality" which increased from
+day to day, and in which Prussia began to have a very large share: was
+there not ground to hope for the latter, in the enterprise which it
+meditated, a generous coöperation or at least a cordial neutrality of
+the two Powers so friendly to one another, and so unsympathetic towards
+the House of Hapsburg?
+
+And yet such an enterprise was so profoundly contrary to the well
+understood interests and to the firmly rooted traditions of Russia as
+well as of France, the substitution in the centre of Europe of a great
+military and conquering monarchy in the place of a pacific
+confederation, and one "purely defensive," presented such manifest
+inconveniences, even such evident dangers for the security and
+equilibrium of the world, that the president of the council at Berlin
+could scarcely entertain as regards this matter too flattering hopes.
+The bitter resentments at the winter palace, and the sweet dreams at the
+palace of the Tuileries, could not long prevail against the reality of
+geography and the brutality of facts. Unless at Paris and St. Petersburg
+there was a complete want of statesmen with a little political
+discernment in their minds, a little national history in their souls,
+one might wager that the two governments, Russian and French, would not
+remain indifferent spectators to such a formidable overturning in the
+balance of the Continent. From well-wishing, their neutrality would not
+delay in becoming by degrees watchful and alarmed, would even change to
+declared hostility, as the Prussian successes became marked, and it was
+this cordiality between the two empires, apparently so favorable to
+Prussia, which would then form another peril, facilitating prompt and
+decisive action against the Hohenzollern. Such being the situation of
+Europe at the beginning of the year 1863, what the new minister of
+William I. could wish for in his boldest combinations, invoke in his
+most golden dreams, was some unforeseen incident, some extraordinary
+event which should embroil in an irremediable manner the two emperors
+Alexander II. and Napoleon III., which should revive at St. Petersburg
+all the ancient rancor towards Vienna, which should permit Prussia to
+attach Russia to itself by ties stronger, more indissoluble, while
+preserving its necessary good relations with the cabinet of the
+Tuileries. A chimera! the boldest constructor of hypotheses would have
+certainly cried, before such demands; a problem of algebra and political
+alchemy unworthy of occupying a mind however frivolous! Well! chance,
+that providence of the fortunate of earth, did not delay to cause an
+event which realized to the profit of M. de Bismarck all the conditions
+of the indicated problem, which filled all the points of such a
+fantastic programme. "If Italy did not exist, it would be necessary to
+invent it," the president of the council at Berlin said later in 1865;
+in the month of January, 1863, he certainly did not think otherwise
+concerning the Polish questions.
+
+History offers few examples of a fall so rapid, so humiliating, from the
+sublime to the odious and to the perverse, than was presented on the
+banks of the Vistula by that lamentable drama which, after two years of
+bitter revolutions, reached its final catastrophe in this month of
+January, 1863, as if to celebrate the joyful accession of M. de Bismarck
+to power. Certainly there was something very poetic and very exalted in
+those first manifestations from Warsaw, when a people so long, so
+cruelly tried, knelt one day before the castle of the lieutenant of the
+king in mute complaint, holding only the image of Christ, and demanding
+only "its God and its country!" The lieutenant of the king, who was no
+other than the old hero of Sebastopol, Prince Michael Gortchakof, had a
+horror of a conflict so unequal, so strange; he appealed to St.
+Petersburg, and,--miracle of divine pity,--from that place, whence for
+thirty years only orders of blood and punishment had gone forth, there
+came this time a word of clemency and reparation. A generous spirit then
+animated the governing and intelligent classes in Russia, they were
+under the influence of ideas of reform and emancipation, they desired
+the esteem of Europe, the friendship of France, and they had the very
+sincere desire to be reconciled with Poland. The Emperor Alexander II.
+sent his brother to Warsaw; a patriot of rare vigor of mind and of
+character took in hand the civil government; the instruction, the
+justice, the administration received a national impress; a modest but
+certain autonomy was assured for the country. The precepts of the most
+common wisdom, the instinct of preservation, the terrible lessons of the
+past, should have all counseled the Poles to profit by this good
+disposition of their sovereign, to put to proof the granted
+institutions, to accept with _empressement_ the hand stretched out to
+them. In fact everything counseled them thus, but they bent to the
+anathema which the Holy Scriptures had long before pronounced against
+every kingdom which allows itself to be guided by women and children.
+The women and the youth of the schools resolved to continue to multiply
+the manifestations which had succeeded so well, and which, in ceasing to
+be spontaneous, became theatrical and sacrilegious. The European
+demagogy hastened to transport to a ground so overturned its emblems,
+its words of disorder, its secret societies, and its _instrumenta
+regni_; from afar, from the midst of the Palais Royal came
+recommendations "to leave the Catholic mummeries and to make
+barricades." The great conservative party showed itself cowardly there
+as elsewhere, as everywhere, as always; and, in wishing to save its
+popularity, it lost a whole population. One made a void around the
+brother of the emperor, around the patriotic minister, and this void was
+not slow in being filled by horror, by terror and crime. The government
+struggled in vain against a shadowy organization which enveloped it on
+all sides; it took contradictory and violent measures. The demagogy
+gained its cause; it succeeded in throwing into a powerless, foolish
+revolt an unhappy people which for a century seemed to have imposed on
+itself the task of astonishing the world by periodical resurrections,
+and of disheartening it at the same time by suicides, alas, not less
+periodical!
+
+This criminal folly of a nation could only be equaled by the
+heedlessness not less culpable with which Europe encouraged and fanned
+it. Europe, which had not dared to touch the Polish question during the
+war of the Crimea, thought it opportune to sympathize, to trifle with it
+in this moment, the most ill-timed and the most desperate! Lord John
+Russell was the first to enter the lists. In 1861 he wrote the famous
+despatch to Sir J. Hudson, and persuaded himself and England that by it
+he had delivered Italy. The year afterwards, in the celebrated dispatch
+of Gotha, he conceived for Denmark a most original constitution in four
+parts, with four parliaments, and thus gave the signal for the
+dismemberment of the Scandinavian monarchy. This time he believed that
+he ought to recommend parliamentary institutions for Poland; and to the
+observation of the Russian ambassador that it would be difficult for the
+czar to favor on this point his Polish subjects over his own national
+ones, he naïvely asked why he would not extend the same benefit to all
+the Russias?[40] Count Rechberg, the fatal minister who then directed
+the external affairs at Vienna, experienced on his part the desire of
+showing himself compassionate; he accorded himself the malicious and
+very costly pleasure of paying the cabinet of St. Petersburg, in Polish
+coin, for the sympathies which this latter had shown for the Italian
+cause. As if Austria had not already suffered enough from the imaginary
+grievances of the Muscovites as regards the pretended "treason" during
+the war of the Crimea, it desired to give it very legitimate grievances
+by a very real "connivance"[41] in Gallicia; Gallicia became, in fact,
+the refuge, the depot of arms, and the place of revictualing for the
+insurgents of the kingdom.
+
+It is just to acknowledge that the French government had long hesitated
+before starting on a way so perilous. From the first period of the
+Polish agitation, a note published in the "Moniteur" of the 23d April,
+1861, had put the press and public opinion on guard against "the
+supposition that the government of the emperor encouraged hopes which it
+could not satisfy."
+
+"The generous ideas of the czar," continued the note of the "Moniteur,"
+"are a certain gauge of his desire of realizing the ameliorations of
+which the state of Poland admits, and we should wish that it be not
+hindered by irritating manifestations." The French government persevered
+in this sensible and perfectly amicable attitude towards the czar during
+the years 1861 and 1862, in spite of the interest which the Parisian
+press did not cease to take in the "dramatic" events of Warsaw, in spite
+of several animated debates which were held in the English parliament,
+and which were rather addressed to France than to Russia. The Britannic
+statesmen in fact had not thought it useless during those two years 1861
+and 1862 to slightly embarrass the cabinet of the Tuileries in its very
+pronounced liking for the Russian alliance by the frequent and
+sympathetic evocation of the name of Poland. Lord Palmerston
+especially, in a very _witty_ speech on the 4th April 1862, exalted the
+Poles, praised their "indomitable, inextinguishable, inexhaustible"
+patriotism, while not neglecting to recall to them the cruel deceptions
+which a French emperor had already caused them "at another epoch."
+Napoleon III. always resisted the unguarded emotions at home, as well as
+the selfish excitements from abroad. Even on the 5th February, after the
+breaking out of the fatal revolt, M. Billault, the minister-orator in
+the midst of the legislative body, harshly qualified the Polish
+insurrection as the work of "revolutionary passions," and insisted with
+force on the danger of "useless words and vain protestations;" but the
+noisy language of the English ministers, the enigmatical attitude of
+Austria, and lastly the military convention which M. de Bismarck
+concluded with Russia (8th February, 1863), and which he made public,
+ended by involving him. After having done so much for seven years to
+gain the Russian "cordiality," after having sacrificed to it almost all
+the fruits of the war of the Orient, Napoleon III. overturned brusquely
+a scaffolding so laboriously constructed, and prepared to organize
+against the government of the czar a _great European remonstrance_ of
+which the first and terrible effect was naturally to increase in Poland
+the torrent of blood and tears. The general cry at Warsaw was then that
+the insurrection must last to justify the intervention of Europe,[42]
+that it was necessary to let as much Polish blood flow as sympathetic
+ink flowed from the chancellors' offices. One knows the deplorable
+issue of this great diplomatic campaign, which lasted nine months, and
+only served to demonstrate the profound disagreement between the Powers
+of the East. The foreign intermeddling wounded the pride of Russia, and
+impelled it to undertake against the Polish nationality a work of
+general, methodical, implacable extermination, and one from which it has
+never since desisted. However frivolous the diplomatic tourney of the
+Occidental Powers in favor of Poland was, the Russians did not the less
+think that they had been menaced with a moment of extreme peril, and
+that they had only escaped, thanks to the firmness of their "national"
+minister, to his patriotic courage, to his acute, dignified, and
+vigorous dispatches. Certainly the minister is, humanly speaking, very
+excusable for not having protested against a belief so flattering: he
+let it go, he let it be said that he had repulsed a new invasion and had
+"overcome Europe:" _scripsit et salvavit!_ He was made chancellor, he
+received enthusiastic ovations from his compatriots, he became the idol
+of the nation by the side of M. Katkof and the sanguinary Mouravief.
+During a whole year he did not attend a single banquet in the most
+obscure corner of Russia without these three names "saviors and blessed"
+being celebrated by speeches, fêted in toasts, congratulated by
+telegrams, and, whatever repugnance the descendant of the Rourik and the
+foster child of the classical humanities must have felt in his spiritual
+tribunal at being thus constantly coupled with a fierce journalist and
+with a frightful executioner, he made the sacrifice to his love for his
+country and for popularity. In his well meaning ardor to receive the
+homage which came to him from all sides, he even so far forgot himself
+one day as to thank with a stereotyped smile the German nobility of the
+Baltic provinces for a diploma as honorary citizen which had been sent
+him, and the national party reproached him with a certain bitterness for
+the "culpable delight" to which he gave way on this occasion. Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch had all the honors of the sad campaign of 1863; the
+profits of it went to another, to the former colleague of Frankfort, to
+the president of the council at Berlin, who was to find in it a solid
+and assured basis for all the great strategy in the future. We will show
+how the balance sheet of the situation, which created, towards the end
+of 1863, the _great European remonstrance_ in the affairs of Poland,
+presented itself to the interests and the hopes of Prussia: the happy
+quiet of England was duly established; France and Russia were from this
+time forward embroiled, and in an irreparable manner; the resentment
+against Austria had grown stronger than ever at St. Petersburg, and also
+the Prussian minister had more than ever the right of counting on the
+grateful friendship, on the devotion to any extent, of Prince
+Gortchakof; lastly, it was not so difficult to foresee that after his
+signal check of Warsaw the Cæsar of the new right would hasten to cast
+his glances on Venice, to wish to "do something for Italy," and would
+therefore favor more benevolently "a young power of the North" in its
+enterprises against the Hapsburg, to whom the Napoleonic ideology had
+long since assigned "a great destiny in Germany."
+
+It would, however, do too much honor to human genius to credit M. de
+Bismarck with a clear and precise view at first sight of all the
+favorable, even prodigious consequences, which the fatal insurrection in
+Poland was to bring him. Many circumstances seemed rather to indicate
+that, especially in the beginning, the Prussian minister only groped and
+sought his way in unfrequented paths. A curious matter, and which
+perhaps might give cause for reflection even to-day, M. de Bismarck, who
+had certainly studied Russia well, who had lived there for several
+years, and had just left it, seems to have very seriously doubted the
+strength of this empire in 1863, and doubted it so far that he did not
+even think it capable of conquering in that miserable affray with the
+unhappy Polish youth! He expressed his fears on this point before the
+plenipotentiaries of England and Austria,[43] and went so far one day as
+to become very confidential on this subject to the vice-president of the
+Prussian chamber, M. Behrend. "This question," said the minister of
+William I., towards the middle of the month of February, "can be solved
+in two ways: it is either necessary to stifle the insurrection promptly
+in concert with Russia, and to come before the Eastern Powers with an
+accomplished fact, or one can let the situation develop and aggravate
+itself; wait till the Russians are driven from the kingdom, or reduced
+to invoke aid, and then _proceed boldly and occupy the kingdom for
+Prussia_; at the end of three years all of it will be Germanized.... But
+that is a ball-room plan which you propose to me, cried out the
+stupefied vice-president (the conversation took place at a court ball).
+No, was the answer: I am speaking seriously of serious things. The
+Russians are tired of the kingdom, the Emperor Alexander himself told me
+at St. Petersburg."[44] This thought of recovering the line of the
+Vistula, lost since Jena, haunted more than once the mind of M. de
+Bismarck during the year 1863: let it be well understood, he did not
+wish to obtain the "rectification of the frontier" except with the
+consent of the Emperor Alexander II., but he did not neglect the means
+which could force to a slight extent such a solution. One of the most
+intimate confidants of the minister, and now the representative of
+Germany to the court of King Victor Emmanuel, M. de Keudell, proprietor
+of vast domains in the kingdom of Poland, profited by his relations with
+the prominent men of the unhappy country to advise them on several
+occasions to look to Berlin for help, to demand there, for instance, a
+_temporary_ Prussian occupation which would render them not liable to
+Russian duty! In looking carefully into the history of this fatal
+insurrection, one will perhaps find there other Prussian agents, much
+more obscure, but also much more compromising than M. de Keudell. Did
+the president of the council at Berlin seriously hope to obtain so much
+from the "lassitude" of the Emperor Alexander and the friendship of the
+Prince Gortchakof?
+
+Whatever these hopes or _arrière-pensées_ were, M. de Bismarck used a
+restless ardor in making evident from the time of his _début_ his
+absolute solidarity with the Russian vice-chancellor as opposed to the
+East. He offered him a military convention in the most spontaneous, even
+impetuous manner; he undertook his defense on every occasion, and did
+not cease to aid him faithfully, ardently, in passages of diplomatic
+arms with the cabinets of England, France, and Austria, experiencing
+with pleasure the first fire of the notes of M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
+supporting with joy the universal clamors of the press, responding with
+haughtiness to the interpellations of his parliament. The great men of
+the progressionist party understood nothing, on this occasion as on so
+many others, of the policy of their "Polignac;" they thought it
+inopportune, perilous, and demanded where the German interest was in all
+that? To which the Polignac replied one day in the chamber with this
+veiled and yet very significant image, that, "Placed before the
+chess-board of diplomacy, _the profane spectator_ believes the game
+ended at every new piece that he sees advanced, and can even fall into
+the illusion that the player is changing his objective point."
+
+Certainly M. de Bismarck did not change his objective point at all, and
+always had in mind the aggrandizement of Prussia; but it is evident that
+up to the autumn of that year, 1863, he had no well-fixed plan; he
+"moved his pieces" in different directions, and awaited the inspiration
+of chance to know from what side he should strike "the blow,"--from the
+Main, from the Vistula, or from the Elbe? He had aimed at Cassel for a
+moment, and had thrown himself with some bluster into the constitutional
+conflict of this country with the elector; he had even given on this
+occasion the pleasing spectacle of a minister intervening in a
+neighboring state to force the prince there to the most strict
+observation of parliamentary rule, while himself governing without
+regard for the constitution, and by means of taxes levied contrary to
+the vote of the chamber. Without speaking of the adventurous projects
+which were cherished at Berlin touching a possible rectification of
+frontier from the side of the Vistula, on the banks of the Elbe there
+was the old, everlasting question of the Duchies, a question hushed up
+since the treaty of London, but reawakened anew in 1859 in consequence
+of the events in Italy, and become even more dangerous since a famous
+dispatch, mortal for Denmark, which Lord John Russell, in a moment of
+inconceivable thoughtlessness, had issued from Gotha, the 24th
+September, 1862,--precisely the day of M. de Bismarck's accession to the
+ministry! The secondary States, the Diet of Frankfort, and M. de
+Rechberg himself, had become very ardent, and vied with each other in
+German patriotism in this cause of Schleswig-Holstein, a cause which at
+bottom they thought to be chimerical, and by which they only wished to
+embarrass Prussia, to convince it of "national lukewarmness." The
+temptation became great to take at their word the secondary States, the
+Diet of Frankfort, even Austria, to unite them against Denmark in a war
+which would give Prussia the magnificent port of Kiel, and would permit
+it, moreover, to try the "instrument" which King William I. "had been
+perfecting" for four years, ... provided that the war could be
+_localized_, and that the European Powers would not put themselves in
+the way as in 1848! The president of the council at Berlin did not
+entirely despair of succeeding by patient and wise manoeuvres. He
+counted on the friendship of Prince Gortchakof, on different political
+constellations, finally on the strange confusion, and, to speak with
+Montaigne, on "the great hubbub of brains" which certain principles of
+the new right and of nationality had introduced into each chancellor's
+office of the Continent. He said to himself occasionally, that in this
+grave enterprise he would certainly have for a determined adversary only
+that good Lord Russell, who, after his fatal dispatch of Gotha, had
+again altered his mind, had even constituted himself the advocate, the
+protector, and the _mentor_ of the unfortunate government of Copenhagen:
+such a partner did not greatly frighten the bold cavalier of the Mark.
+
+At first, however, and as long as the negotiations on Poland lasted, the
+cavalier of the Mark thought that he ought to use prudence and simulate
+to the cabinet of Saint James extreme indifference on the subject of
+this "vexatious" affair of the Duchies. Nothing is more instructive than
+to follow in the state papers, as well as in the documents communicated
+to the _Rigsraad_, the intimate and almost daily effusions by which M.
+de Bismarck had been able to persuade, up to the last hour, not only
+Lord Russell and his envoy Sir A. Buchanan, but also M. de Quade, the
+Danish minister at the court of Berlin, that this question of
+Schleswig-Holstein was a _hobby_ of the secondary States and of Austria,
+that Prussia was far from sharing those Teutonic effervescences and
+concupiscences, and that it would do all that lay in its power to calm,
+to allay them. The 14th October, 1863, two weeks after the Diet of
+Frankfort had decreed the federal execution in Holstein, M. de Bismarck
+stipulated in a conversation with the envoy of Great Britain, Sir A.
+Buchanan, to _prevent this execution_, if Denmark accepted the English
+mediation.[45] Denmark accepted it, and Lord Russell could at last
+breathe. Moreover, on the 6th November, 1863, M. Quade wrote from Berlin
+to his government: "The first minister of Prussia, be it on account of
+his personal views, or on account of the attitude taken by England, has
+put the affair in a position that _exceeds greatly all that one could
+have hoped_. I am not certain whether the question is regarded at Vienna
+with the same clearness and the same warmth (warmth for the interests of
+Denmark!) as it is here." Thus Sir A. Buchanan and M. Quade still judged
+the situation on the 6th November. But they were not slow in being
+brusquely awakened from their illusions by a despairing dispatch from
+the principal secretary of state, dated the 9th November, and couched in
+these terms: "If the information which reaches me is exact, M. de
+Bismarck no longer offers any objection (_n'oppose plus aucune
+objection_) to the federal execution in Holstein; the government of her
+majesty can only leave to Germany the responsibility of exposing Europe
+to a general war." The information was unfortunately only too correct,
+and the vexations of the good Johnny commenced.
+
+Two important facts had taken place in the interval of three weeks which
+had passed since the conversation of the 14th October; in this interval,
+the cabinet of Saint James had abandoned to the Russian government the
+affairs of Poland, and the Emperor Napoleon III. had launched into the
+world a fantastic project of a congress _for the arrangement of all the
+pending questions_! Charmed in the highest degree with the aid which M.
+de Bismarck lent him in this month of October in the Danish
+difficulties, the principal secretary of state had at last decided to
+make him the sacrifice so often demanded, of the Polish question, even
+to recall by telegraph a courier, bearer of a very comminatory note
+addressed to the government at St. Petersburg, and to replace this
+missive by a most humble dispatch, which renounced all ulterior
+controversy on this subject (20th October).[46] On his part, the
+Emperor of the French, kept informed of these intrigues, profoundly
+vexed at this abandonment by England, and not being able to resolve to
+accept his check, nor, above all, to make the avowal of it without
+ceremony before the legislative body, had thought (5th November) of that
+call for a general congress which only increased the uneasiness of
+Europe, and especially inspired the chief of the foreign office with
+unspeakable fears. Not content with replying to the invitation of the
+cabinet of the Tuileries by a most bitter and offensive note, Lord John
+Russell bestirred himself to preserve the foreign courts from the
+contagion of the French idea; he almost entirely lost from view the
+dangers of Denmark, and only cared to combat the project of Napoleon
+III., a project assuredly without vitality, and which, in order to die
+its natural death, had no need of such a display of British forces. The
+president of the Prussian council thought that the moment had come to
+begin his game. The last shadow of an Eastern understanding disappeared;
+only the alliance of Russia and Prussia remained intact, unshaken, in
+the midst of the general disorder of the cabinets. No European concerted
+action for the protection of Denmark was to be feared. M. de Bismarck
+could now "no longer have any objection" to the federal execution in
+Holstein; and soon an unhoped-for event, one of those magnificent
+strokes of fortune, such as the minister of William I. has so often met
+with in his marvelous career, proved that he was decidedly in luck. The
+sudden death of King Frederick VII. (15th November, 1863) has something
+so tragical, so fatal to the destinies of Denmark, that it makes one
+think of one of the most disconsolate sayings that antiquity has
+bequeathed to us, that mournful cry of the historian: "_Non esse curæ
+deis securitatem nostram, esse ultionem._"
+
+This death gave in truth an entirely new turn to the Teutonic demands
+towards the unfortunate Scandinavian monarchy. Germany did not content
+itself with a federal execution in Holstein; it pretended not to
+recognize the sovereignty of the new king, Christian IX., in the
+Duchies, and wished to enthrone there that intriguing and treacherous
+family of Augustenburg from whom M. de Bismarck himself had lately
+obtained the retraxit for one million and a half _rixdalers_ paid by the
+government of Copenhagen. And it was only from this moment that the
+plans of the minister of William I. seemed to be finally settled;
+decidedly it was from the side of the Elbe that Prussia was to begin to
+"round itself" and complete its unity! The resolution once made, M. de
+Bismarck carried it out with ardor, with audacity, with incomparable
+acuteness. This trial stroke was a master stroke; and the great
+Machiavelli would certainly have found a "divine" pleasure in
+contemplating the address, or, as he would have said, the _virtu_ with
+which the cavalier of the Mark knew how, in the space of some weeks, to
+engross the attention of this poor Lord Russell; to encircle the Emperor
+Napoleon; to involve Austria in a distant expedition equally unjust and
+foolish; to make use of and at the same time oust the _Bund_; to strike
+the secondary States with terror and throw off their _protégé_; lastly,
+to take into his own hands the holy cause of the German country, and,
+according to the word of the Apostle, make himself all things to all
+men!
+
+The spectacle which Europe presented at the beginning of the year 1864,
+was certainly one of the strangest and most painful that history has
+known. Two great Powers, jealous of one another, and even destined to
+soon fight in mortal combat for the spoils torn from their victim,--two
+great Powers, at once incited and cried down by a whole league of
+princes and peoples of Germany, attacked a feeble state, but
+nevertheless an old and glorious monarchy, and one whose existence was
+proclaimed by all the cabinets to be necessary to the balance of
+nations; they attacked it under the most futile pretext, in the name of
+a cause which the very chief of the coalition had formerly qualified as
+"eminently iniquitous, frivolous, disastrous, and revolutionary." It
+was, moreover, to punish King Christian IX. for his disobedience to the
+_Bund_ that Prussia and Austria had charged themselves with this work of
+"justice;" and this work they inaugurated with a formal declaration of
+their own disobedience to the same _Bund_; they acted "as proxies for
+Germany," and entire Germany protested against the usurpation of the
+mandate! All these monstrous things Europe saw and let pass, this same
+Europe which, in 1848 at the time of the first German aggression against
+the Scandinavian monarchy, had not failed in its duty, and had fulfilled
+it nobly in spite of the great revolutionary tempest which might have
+served it as an excuse. The Powers were then unanimous in defending the
+weak against the oppressor; the Emperor Nicholas was in accord on this
+point with the Republic of General Cavaignac, and it was only the
+diplomats improvised by the "surprise" of February who had not shown at
+this time a sufficient knowledge of the conditions necessary for the
+equilibrium of the world. It has been reserved for the most tried
+statesmen, for chancellors grown old in the tradition and respect for
+treaties, for the representatives of regular and strong monarchies, to
+allow the consummation of a revolutionary work which the Bastide and
+Petetin would have thought their duty not to admit![47] Without doubt it
+is, above all, England who will bear before posterity the shame of the
+ruin of Denmark, for she it was who had taken in hand the cause of the
+Scandinavian kingdom, who had counseled, guided, reprimanded up to the
+last day, and who had solemnly declared _that in the moment of danger it
+(Denmark) should not fight alone_; it would, however, be unjust to
+pretend to completely exonerate the rest of the European Powers. More
+than one thoughtful and honest mind assigned at that time to this
+dismemberment of a monarchy in the nineteenth century all the import
+that another dismemberment had had in the preceding century, and foresaw
+from it with anxiety great overturnings and formidable catastrophes in
+the future. The _naïfs_, or, to speak with M. de Bismarck, the
+_profane_, could alone believe the game finished after this first stroke
+dealt to the right of nations, after this first exploit also of the
+marvelous "instrument" which the Prussian government had employed so
+many years and so much time to "perfect."
+
+The cannon of Missunde was for the cavalier of the Mark what the cannon
+of Toulon had formerly been for a certain officer of Corsica, and this
+short campaign of the Duchies revealed many things to the future
+conqueror of Europe. He learned there that legitimate rights, sacred
+treaties, stipulated minutes, the sworn faith and many other
+old-fashioned things reputed inassailable were much more feeble and
+decaying than the poor fortresses erected by the Danes in the preceding
+ages, and, if Moltke and Roon made in this war a perfectly satisfactory
+trial of their needle gun, he could for his part prove the precious,
+unalterable qualities of his own instrument. It must be plainly said
+that during the whole of this expedition against Denmark, Prince
+Gortchakof did not cease to favor the Prussian minister by all means, to
+tender him with ardor, and very often privately, a helping hand at each
+new difficulty. His aid was absolute and the more efficacious since it
+took the appearance of a busy neutrality in search of a pacific
+arrangement. It was thus that he aided the president of the council at
+Berlin in forcing into the stubborn head of Lord Russell the equally
+specious and pleasing reasoning, that the occupation of Holstein by the
+federal troops would become a title of validity in the hands of the new
+King of Denmark. "M. de Bismarck told me," Sir A. Buchanan wrote on the
+28th November, "that a federal execution would prevent any revolutionary
+movement in Holstein, and would be at the same time to a certain degree
+an _indirect recognition_ of King Christian IX. as Duke of Holstein on
+the part of the Diet of Frankfort. His excellency affirmed that the
+alarming state of Germany forced him to proceed at once to the
+execution; but he could not or would not explain to me how such an
+execution could be a recognition of the sovereignty of King Christian,
+and could avoid the appearance of an occupation." Three days afterwards,
+the 1st December, Lord Napier wrote on his part from St. Petersburg:
+"The language of Prince Gortchakof makes me believe that he is
+persuaded that M. de Bismarck has _moderate views_ in this question. The
+vice-chancellor is disposed to consider a federal execution, if it is
+well conducted, as a _preservative measure_. In his opinion, the federal
+troops, acting according to judicious instructions, will assure order
+and maintain the necessary distinction between the legislative and the
+dynastic question." "_I despoil, then I recognize!_" said M. de Bismarck
+by a logic belonging to him alone,[48] but which Prince Gortchakof
+shared at this moment, and which the two friends soon tried to apply
+also to Schleswig, after the chief of the foreign office had resigned
+himself to it in Holstein. "This morning the Russian vice-chancellor
+suggested to me," again wrote Lord Napier from St. Petersburg under date
+of the 11th January, "that one should bind Denmark to _admit_ the
+occupation of Schleswig by the forces of Austria and Prussia under title
+of a _guarantee_ given to these two Powers as regards the German
+population of the Duchy." Thus the state papers and the documents
+communicated to the _Rigsraad_ continue to instruct and edify us; one
+does not find there a single insinuation or "suggestion" sent from the
+banks of the Spree against Denmark which was not at once reverberated on
+the banks of the Neva. And yet Denmark has always been the friend and
+the _protégé_ of the empire of the czars! More than any other Power in
+the world, Russia was interested in preserving the liberty of the
+Baltic, in not letting the port of Kiel fall into the hands of Germany;
+more than any other Power, also, it was interested in remembering that
+Courland and Livonia talked German much more purely and harmoniously
+than Schleswig! Lastly, it was certainly the cause of the revolution
+against that of legitimate sovereignty which was engaged in this debate
+on the Eider; the old Nesselrode had declared so in a celebrated
+circular, and what would the Emperor Nicholas have said of such
+complacency for revolution on the part of a Russian chancellor?
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch will yet cause the astonishment of history by
+the immensity of his gratitude towards M. de Bismarck.
+
+
+II.
+
+Thus was inaugurated, concerning Poland and Denmark, that common action
+of the two ministers of Russia and Prussia, which was to continue for so
+many years, and have such a considerable, such a disastrous influence on
+the affairs of the Continent. With this year 1863 the second period of
+the ministry of Prince Gortchakof commences, his second _term_, which
+was assuredly much less open to discussion. To the French "cordiality,"
+properly dosed and taken in fact as a tonic, which had prevailed till
+then, the Prussian friendship, undeniably too passionate and too
+absorbing, succeeded. In fact, in this second period, Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch no longer preserved that calm and reserved mind, and that
+intelligent egotism which made his fortune at the time of his intimacy
+with the Emperor Napoleon III.; he embraced all the opinions, every
+cause of his formidable friend at Berlin, unfortunately without
+possessing his astonishing flexibility of mind, his marvelous art of
+turning and twisting. Nothing, for instance, equals the address with
+which M. de Bismarck can, if necessary, forget a disagreeable past, and,
+above all, be unable to remember his wrong-doings toward others; in
+fact, he has a charming euphemism, he calls them _misunderstandings_.
+More than once, from the height of the tribune, he has adorned with this
+name his long and outrageous conflict against parliament which he
+sustained up to the war of 1866 against Austria (a little
+misunderstanding which cost 40,000 men their lives!). And how can one
+help admiring the affection, the enthusiasm, which he has inspired in
+that excellent Lord Russell, certainly the statesman whom he ridiculed
+and ill-treated the most in 1863, during the Danish contention? As for
+his Polish quarrels with the Eastern Powers in the same year (1863), he
+was the more ready to forget them as those very Powers felt that a great
+act of folly had been committed. He dictated to King William a most
+polite reply, full of tender souvenirs of Compiègne, in answer to the
+letter of Napoleon III. concerning the congress, and toward the end of
+the year he was already in touching accord with the cabinet of the
+Tuileries concerning the treaty of London, a treaty which guaranteed the
+entireness of the Danish monarchy, and which a circular of M. Drouyn de
+Lhuys now qualified as an _impotent work_! As regards Austria, he soon
+granted it full indulgence for its Polish error in the spring, and even
+forgave the very reprehensible enterprise which it attempted in the
+month of August at Frankfort, on _the day of the princes_. In the month
+of November he had already made it his companion and accomplice in the
+wars of the Duchies. Prince Gortchakof appeared in a very different
+light; he was never willing to pardon France and Austria for their
+intermeddling in the affairs of Poland, and remained immovable to every
+attempt at reconciliation. He knew no intimacy except with the cabinet
+of Berlin, and his former colleague of Frankfort became his only
+confidant and ally. The famous aphorism of 1856 then underwent an
+important modification; beginning with 1863, the Russian chancellor
+began to sulk while continuing to _meditate_, and the Achaeans have paid
+dearly for this spite of Achilles. The "sulks" of Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch have been almost as fatal for Europe as the dreams of
+Napoleon III.
+
+This Napoleonic policy regarding the affairs of Germany, at once
+reasonable and chimerical, ingenious and ingenuous, which he sincerely
+thought would work good, and which only accumulated disasters and ruin,
+seemed like a dream, a real _summer night's dream_. One day they had a
+sublime vision at the Tuileries: Italy was completed in its unity,
+Austria reëxalted, Prussia rendered more homogeneous, Germany more
+satisfied, Europe regenerated, and France consolidated and glorious. All
+this only depended on a single hypothesis, but a hypothesis which did
+not exist, on a battle fought and won by the brave _Kaiserliks_ always
+inured against this Prussian _Landwehr_ which for half a century had not
+smelt powder, and it was on this frail skiff, on this "nut-shell," as
+the Puck of Midsummer Night's Dream had said, that the fortune of Cæsar
+and that of France was embarked! In fact, at this moment, all the world
+believed in the incomparable military superiority of Austria over its
+bold rival in Germany; no one admitted the possibility of a Prussian
+victory, still less a victory as decisive, as startling as that at
+Sadowa. "That was," M. Rouher said later, in a memorable session of the
+legislative body,--"that was an event which Austria, which France, which
+the military man, which the simple citizen had all considered as
+unlikely; for there was an universal presumption that Austria would be
+victorious and that Prussia would pay, and pay dearly, the price of its
+imprudence." This presumption, very real and universal at that time,
+remained the sole excuse of Napoleon III. before history, for that
+lamentable phantasmagoria which was announced to the world by the speech
+of Auxerre in the month of May, 1866, but whose origin goes back as far
+as the convention of September and the first journey of M. de Bismarck
+to France after his campaign in Denmark in the autumn of 1864.[49]
+
+"I have at least one superiority over my conqueror," the Emperor of
+Austria, Francis I., said to M. de Talleyrand, the negotiator of the
+peace of Presburg, with a dignity not without keenness; "I can reënter
+my capital after such a disaster, while it would be difficult for your
+master, in spite of all his genius, to do the same thing in a similar
+situation." This curious _mot_ displayed in a striking manner the
+profound, incurable vice of all Cæsarism. No more than the conqueror of
+Austerlitz, could Napoleon III. accept a check; he was obliged _to do
+great things_, condemned to success and prestige. Soon after the
+misadventures and the miscalculations in the affairs of Poland, of
+Denmark, and of the congress, he was forced to look out for a revenge,
+he cast his glances from north to south, "struck an attitude" by means
+of the convention of September, which seemed to be the preface of a new
+and great work. He was isolated in Europe, incensed against England,
+very much embarrassed in regard to Russia, more than cool with Austria,
+and it was with a certain inward trepidation that one saw M. de Bismarck
+hasten to France (October, 1864) at the first news of the convention
+concluded with the cabinet of Turin. Evidently "something was to be done
+for Italy;" without rancor, as without prejudices, the president of the
+Prussian council came to renew the conversations broken off two years
+before at the time of his short mission to Paris.
+
+He added nothing to the truth; he only affirmed that his alliance with
+the Hapsburg in the war against Denmark had been a simple incident, and
+he allowed to be clearly seen his desire to keep for Prussia the
+countries recently conquered on the Elbe in the name of the Germanic
+Confederation. For the rest, he only varied the ancient theme on the
+inevitable imminent duel between Berlin and Vienna, on the advantages
+which Italy might gather from it, on the advantage that would accrue to
+France, having Prussia, with a better defined and firmer outline, as its
+natural, unfailing ally in all the questions of _civilization_ and
+_progress_. Such expressions, coming from a minister who had shown his
+character in the campaign of the Duchies, now met an auditory much more
+attentive than that of 1862. Without yet taking him for a perfectly
+_serious_ man, they began to recognize in him the qualities of a useful
+man, of a man of the future, whom Italy should cultivate with care, whom
+France, for its part, should watch carefully, encourage, and manage. The
+leaders of the imperial democracy, Prince Napoleon first of all, showed
+themselves especially taken with the prospectives which were opened to
+them. A distinguished member of this group, a diplomat reputed to be
+acute above all, and whose name even allied him to the Italian cause,
+was sought out in his retreat and placed at the head of the mission at
+Berlin, elevated now to an embassy. Another member of the "party of
+action," equally unattached for some time, a former ambassador at Rome,
+was not long in being recalled into the councils of the empire: by the
+side of M. Rouher, he was destined to form there a useful counterpoise
+to the slightly "antiquated" ideas of M. Drouyn de Lhuys. Finally, on
+the other side of the Alps, at Turin, a general, well known for his
+"Prussomania," had taken in hand the direction of political affairs on
+the 23d September. Each of these personages,--M. Benedetti, M. de La
+Valette, General La Marmora,--will have his _rôle_ and his day in the
+great drama of 1866.
+
+At this time, however, in the autumn of 1864, no plan was fixed or even
+discussed: one had only come as yet to simple confidences, to vague and
+fleeting conversations, to that which, in diplomatic language, one had
+not even dared to call an exchange of ideas; but the impression which
+the Prussian minister obtained from this rapid journey to France was
+sufficiently encouraging for him soon to launch that circular of the
+24th December, 1864, which became the point of departure for his action
+against Austria. It was in this circular, in fact, that M. de Bismarck
+broached for the first time the question of the countries of the Elbe,
+which he well knew to be a question of war. Six months before, in the
+peremptory declaration made the 28th May, 1864, in the midst of the
+conference of London, Austria and Prussia had demanded the "reunion of
+the Duchies of Schleswig and of Holstein in a single state under the
+sovereignty of the hereditary Prince of Augustenburg," and the cabinet
+of Berlin took care to add then that this prince had, "in the eyes of
+Germany, _the greatest right_ to the succession; that his recognition by
+the _Bund_ was consequently assured, and that, moreover, he would
+reunite the _indubitable suffrages_ of the great majority of the
+population of this country." Quite different were the sentiments of the
+Prussian minister towards the end of the same year, some time after his
+return from Paris. In a circular dispatch addressed to the German
+courts, the president of the council of Berlin declared now (24th
+December, 1864) that grave doubts assailed his mind touching the titles
+of the Duke of Augustenburg, that several serious competitors, such as
+the Princes of Oldenburg and Hesse, had arisen in the interval;[50]
+that in the midst of such multiplied and such confused claims he was
+perplexed; that his conscience was not sufficiently enlightened on this
+point of right; that he felt the need of meditating and of "consulting
+the legists!"
+
+The world knows the magnificent decree which the "legists"--the syndics
+of the crown--did not delay in pronouncing, as well as the conclusions
+which the scrupulous minister conscientiously drew from them. There were
+judges at Berlin, and they proved it in overruling all parties, in
+declaring them all badly grounded in their pretensions: Hesse,
+Oldenburg, Brandenburg, Sonderburg, Augustenburg, none of them had the
+right of succession to Schleswig-Holstein. The King of Denmark alone had
+the titles! But as the King of Denmark had been forced by the war to
+abandon the provinces of the Elbe to the sovereigns of Prussia and
+Austria, M. de Bismarck concluded therefrom that the two monarchs could
+dispose of their "property" as they wished, without any intervention of
+the _Bund_, and he demanded of the Emperor Francis Joseph the cession of
+his part of the conquest for ready cash. The Prussian minister made
+this impudent demand in an arrogant dispatch, full of menaces, dated the
+11th July, 1865, from Carlsbad, from the very place where the old King
+William had come to enjoy the Austrian hospitality during the season.
+The alarm was great for some weeks. M. de Bismarck made no mystery of
+the negotiations which he entered upon with Italy; he said to M. de
+Gramont "that far from dreading the war, he desired it by all means;"
+some days after, he even declared to M. de Pfordten, president of the
+council of Bavaria, "that Austria could not sustain a campaign, that it
+would suffice to strike a single blow, to fight a single and great
+battle from the side of Silesia to obtain satisfaction of the Hapsburg."
+In reality, he only wished to sound the ground and to make a careful
+examination. At this moment he was not yet sufficiently sure of the
+disposition of the Emperor Napoleon to dare to risk the great cast; he
+also wanted time to persuade the pious Hohenzollern to pronounce the
+"God wills it!" of a fratricidal war. He had to content himself with
+that convention of Gastein (14th August, 1865) which was only a
+provisional arrangement, yet the first breach made in the rights of the
+_Bund_, and like an indirect consecration of the conclusions which he
+had pretended, to draw from the decree pronounced by the famous syndics
+of the crown.
+
+The very day on which he signed this equivocal transaction at Gastein,
+M. de Bismarck wrote his wife a short note as follows: "For several days
+I have not found a moment of leisure to write you. Count Blome is again
+here, and we are doing our best to preserve peace and stop up the
+crevices of the building. Day before yesterday I devoted an entire day
+to hunting. I think that I wrote you that I returned disgusted from my
+first expedition; this time I at least killed a roe, but I saw nothing
+else during the three hours that I devoted without cessation to
+experiments on all sorts of insects, and the noisy activity of the
+cascade below me drew from my heart the cry: '_Little brook, leave there
+thy murmur._'[51] After all, it was a very good shot made across the
+precipice. The animal, killed instantly, fell with its four feet in the
+air from a height of several church steeples into the torrent at my
+feet." After all, he no more missed the shot than when he slew, in order
+that he might no longer be the cherished candidate of the _Bund_, the
+poor Augustenburg, and made the little Duchy of Lauenberg fall into the
+Prussian game-bag! This fact of the chase and of diplomacy even had an
+extraordinary reëcho in Germany, in France, and even as far as Lord
+Russell, who experienced the shock. The principal secretary of state
+insisted on the honor of associating himself with M. Drouyn de Lhuys in
+a very eloquent protest against the arrangements made at Gastein, and
+the iron-clad squadron of England, which had not appeared in the Baltic
+since the war of Denmark, came this time at least to pay a courteous
+visit to the French fleet at Cherbourg. There, however, the
+demonstration of the two Powers of the East limited itself; M. de
+Bismarck could enjoy in peace his triumph and the title of count which
+the fortunate campaign of 1865 brought him.
+
+Is it admissible to depart from the gravity of history to describe still
+another incident of Gastein, a little _genre_ picture of manners which
+was much talked of at this epoch, and even became the object of
+confidential explanations between the president of the Prussian council
+and a devoted friend, all extremely devout? And why not, since the
+letter of M. de Bismarck to M. André (de Roman) concerning Mlle. Pauline
+Lucca is one of the most curious pages of his familiar correspondence,
+if it throws light in a very picturesque manner on that vast and bald
+forehead on which the hand of King William had just placed the coronet
+of a count. Well, in the midst of those political negotiations and the
+deer hunts, M. de Bismarck found time at Gastein to be photographed in a
+romantic attitude with Mlle. Lucca, first _cantatrice_ of the royal
+opera at Berlin. The photographs caused a certain scandal on the banks
+of the Spree; the leaders of _the party of the cross_ were especially
+moved at the thermal license which the former Levite of the tabernacle,
+the fervent disciple of MM. Stahl and de Gerlach, took. M. André (de
+Roman) was perfectly willing to accept the _rôle_ of Nathan in the
+Bible, and, in a sermon written in entire confidence, he did not limit
+himself to talking of the Bethsabea of the opera; he also spoke some
+well-chosen words touching the reparation by arms which the first
+minister of Prussia had but lately wished to impose on the good Doctor
+Virchow, the very learned and very peaceful discoverer of _trichina_. M.
+André found that that was not the conduct of a true Christian; he did
+not conceal that his old friends sighed at not seeing their Eliakim
+assist at divine service, and even began to be rather uneasy at the
+state of his soul. It was to such a sermon that M. de Bismarck replied
+by the confidential letter which follows, and which a lucky indiscretion
+has since given to the public, a letter assuredly very characteristic,
+and which makes one think once more of Cromwell, whose memory has been
+so often called forth in the course of this study:--
+
+     "DEAR ANDRÉ,[52]--Although my time is very much restricted, I
+     cannot, however, refuse to reply to a summons addressed to me
+     by an upright heart, and in the name of Christ. I am
+     profoundly pained at scandalizing Christians who have faith,
+     but I have the certainty that it is an inevitable
+     circumstance in my position. I will not yet speak of the
+     parties who are necessarily opposed to me in politics, and
+     who not the less count in their midst a great number of
+     Christians, who have far preceded me in the way of salvation,
+     and with whom, nevertheless, I am obliged to be in conflict
+     on account of matters which, in my estimation as well as
+     theirs, are terrestrial; I appeal only to what you yourself
+     said: 'That nothing that is omitted or committed in the
+     elevated regions remains hidden.' Where is the man who, in a
+     similar situation, would not cause scandal, rightly or
+     wrongly? I will grant you much more still, for your
+     expression 'does not remain hidden' is not exact. Would to
+     God that apart from the sin the world knows I had not upon my
+     soul others which remain unknown, and for which I can only
+     hope for pardon in my faith in the blood of Christ! As a
+     statesman, I even think that I use far too much
+     consideration; according to my idea I am rather cowardly, and
+     that perhaps because it is not so easy in the questions
+     which come before me to arrive always at that clearness at
+     the bottom of which confidence in God exists. He who
+     reproaches me with being a political man without conscience,
+     wrongs me; he should first commence by himself testing his
+     conscience on the field of battle. As regards the matter of
+     Virchow, I have long since passed the age in which, on
+     similar questions, one seeks counsel from flesh and blood. If
+     I expose my life for a cause, I do it not only in this faith
+     which I have fortified by a long and painful combat, but also
+     by fervent and humble prayer before God; this faith, the word
+     of man cannot shake, not even the word of a friend in the
+     Lord, and of a servant of the church. It is not true that I
+     have never attended a church. For just seven months, I have
+     been either absent from Berlin or ill; who then can have made
+     the observation on my negligence? I willingly agree that it
+     has often happened, much less for want of time than for
+     considerations of health, especially in the winter; I am
+     always ready to give more detailed explanations to all those
+     who consider it their vocation to be my judges in this
+     matter: as for you, you will believe me without other details
+     of medicine. As to the Lucca photograph, you would probably
+     judge less severely, if you knew to what chance it owes its
+     origin. Besides, Mlle. Lucca, although a _cantatrice_, is a
+     lady whom the world has never, any more than it has me,
+     reproached with illicit relations. Nevertheless, I would have
+     certainly taken care to keep away from the glass pointed at
+     us, if I had in a tranquil moment reflected on the scandal
+     which so many faithful friends would find in this jest. You
+     see by the details into which I enter that I consider your
+     letter as well meant, and that I do not dream in any way of
+     placing myself above the judgment of those who share with me
+     the same faith; but I expect from your friendship and from
+     your Christian knowledge which you commend to others, in
+     future circumstances, more indulgence and charity in their
+     judgments: all of us have need of them. I am of the great
+     number of sinners to whom the glory of God is wanting; I do
+     not hope the less with them that in His mercy, He will not
+     withdraw from me the staff of the humble faith by the aid of
+     which I seek to find my way in the midst of the doubts and
+     dangers of my position; this confidence, however, should not
+     render me deaf to the reproaches of friends, nor impatient at
+     proud and harsh judgments."
+
+Let us lock up the hair shirt with the discipline; let us only think of
+the diplomat in tunic and helmet, of the "iron count" (_der eiserne
+Graf_), as his people soon called him, and let us look at the
+disposition of France towards him at the moment when, after having left
+the rugged valley of Gastein, he prepared to visit the delightful region
+of Biarritz, to salute, interrogate, divine, and ... cast down the
+sphinx!
+
+In the councils of the empire the debates had become from day to day
+sharper between the ancients and the moderns, between those zealous for
+the new right and the partisans of a more circumspect and traditional
+policy, in proportion as the Austro-Prussian conflict had grown more
+bitter and aggravated. The ardent ones would have willingly concluded an
+offensive and defensive alliance with Prussia. They showed the
+irresistible movement which was drawing Germany towards unity, and the
+advantages which France would reap by favoring this evolution in place
+of opposing it, by attaching to itself by the ties of an eternal
+recognition the Piedmont of Germany, as it had already done with that of
+the peninsula. Passionate friends of Italy, and still more violent
+adversaries of Austria, this bulwark of the reaction, of legitimacy and
+of temporal power, they cherished in the kingdom of Frederick the Great
+the incontestable representative of civilization, and trembled at seeing
+it going toward certain defeat in an unequal contest with the
+_Kaiserliks_. To hear them, the united action of France, Italy, and
+Prussia was not too much to preserve the cause of progress and to place
+Europe on new and immovable bases. Why, however, should not Belgium be
+the legitimate recompense of the French efforts in favor of Germany, as
+Savoy had been in consequence of the constitution of the kingdom of
+Italy, and how decline a combination in which each of the three nations
+representing _par excellence_ modern ideas on the Continent was called
+to complete its respective unity?
+
+Very different was in this respect the sentiment of the "ancients," the
+statesmen of the old school, of a whole political group of which M.
+Drouyn de Lhuys was in the cabinet the most authorized and clearsighted,
+if not the firmest. First casting aside all desire for Belgium, as a
+certain cause of a formidable conflict with England, they asserted the
+absolute impossibility of finding for France a compensation, however
+small it might be, in proportion to the injury which the unification of
+Germany would cause it. Without misunderstanding the Germanic
+aspirations for a federal reform, for a more homogeneous and united
+constitution, they asked what obligation France was under to hasten such
+a work, and if in any case it were not more desirable that such a
+transformation should be accomplished by the enlightened and pacific
+classes, by the federal diet, even by Austria,--always respecting
+acquired rights and particular sovereignties,--rather than by a power
+peculiarly military, bureaucratic, and centralistic? Was not that also
+the almost general wish of the other side of the Rhine, of the dynasties
+as well as of the chambers, of the princes as well as of the peoples,
+and had not the pretension of Prussia, among others, of confiscating for
+its own profit the conquest of Denmark aroused the consciences of all of
+them? Only the press of France and Italy which persisted in speaking of
+"the Piedmontese mission" of the Hohenzollern; on the banks of the Main
+and Elbe, every one rejected this pretended mission, and even the
+_National-Verein_, brought into contempt some time before while
+demanding "a united Germany with a Prussian point," did not the less
+repudiate M. de Bismarck, and declared him unworthy of taking in hand so
+holy a cause. As to the danger of seeing Prussia succumb in the
+conflict, and thus render the Hapsburg all powerful in Germany, there
+was a very simple means of preventing such an eventuality, that was to
+refuse the government of Berlin any aid in the enterprise which it
+meditated. However bold in truth M. de Bismarck was, it was not doubtful
+that he would never dare to defy Austria and its allies of the _Bund_ in
+the face of a formal veto of France, which at the same time would take
+from him all hope of aid from Italy.[53] The plan to follow in such
+events seemed then as clearly indicated as singularly easy. Without
+mixing directly in German affairs, without wounding at all the Teutonic
+susceptibilities, one could oppose an insuperable barrier to Prussian
+ambition; one had only to maintain the _statu quo_. Such a policy would
+inevitably have the warm support of England, and would encourage the
+resistance of Austria and the secondary States. Without doubt, the
+Venetian question would be thus warded off; but, besides that, the peace
+of Europe and the greatness of France were well worth "the pearl of the
+Adriatic;" it was not forbidden to have great hopes for the city of
+lagoons from the progress of time, and from the good relations preserved
+and augmented between France and Austria.
+
+Generally silent in the midst of these contradictory debates, loving,
+moreover, to plan beneath the passions and agitations of his surrounding
+counselors in the serenity of a calm and meditative intelligence, the
+Emperor Napoleon III. slowly ripened a project which seemed to him to
+sufficiently take into consideration the different arguments of the two
+sides, and which, moreover, well answered the recommendation made by him
+at about the same time to his minister of foreign affairs, _inertia
+sapientia_! Italy naturally was of more real interest to him than to M.
+Drouyn de Lhuys; that was a passion, perhaps indeed a youthful contract,
+and it was even so with the Empress Eugenie, who had become ardent for
+the affranchisement of Venice since the entry of M. de La Valette to the
+ministry, also since the day when M. the Cavalier Nigra had turned some
+couplets full of graceful allusions to a gondola which she had had made
+for the lake of Fontainbleau. Not less inveterate, but much more fatal,
+was Louis Napoleon's liking for the country of Blücher and Scharnhorst;
+the "great destinies" of the monarchy of Brandenburg in Germany formed
+one of the articles of his cosmopolitan faith. "_The geographical
+position of Prussia is badly defined!_" as he cried out the following
+year, at a solemn moment, and in a document too much forgotten.[54] He
+certainly did not intend to destroy the empire of Hapsburg, and allow
+the Hohenzollern to rule from the Sound to the Adriatic, as such a
+course would have readily recognized the _intransigeans_ and the
+know-nothings of the principle of nationality. A strong appreciator of
+logic in the affairs of states, and in that (in that alone, perhaps!)
+truly French spirit, the former prisoner of Ham would have willingly
+constructed an essentially Protestant Prussia opposed to a traditionally
+Catholic Austria in the centre of Germany, leaving for the secondary
+States an intermediary and fluctuating situation in a religious as well
+as in a political point of view. An augmented and rounded Prussia on
+the Elbe and the Baltic, and thus rendered "stronger and more
+homogeneous in the North," seemed to him a useful combination, almost
+indispensable, counterbalancing Russia, and it was perfectly just that
+in exchange for new and vast Protestant territories, which it would
+acquire, the monarchy of Frederick II. should lose Silesia, a Catholic
+country and former patrimony of Hapsburg, that it should also renounce
+the Catholic provinces of the Rhine, situated too far outside of its
+natural orbit. "One would thus maintain for Austria its great position
+in Germany," above all its position as a great Catholic state, and the
+return of Silesia would be for the Emperor Francis Joseph an ample
+compensation for the Venetian province which he would cede to King
+Victor Emmanuel. For the secondary States of the Confederation, one
+would mediatize for their profit several of the little unimportant
+princes; one would add to them, perhaps, as a new member of the _Bund_,
+a new State composed entirely of Rhenish provinces taken from Prussia;
+one would assure for them, in any case, "a closer union, a more powerful
+organization, a more important _rôle_," which the great leaders of the
+party of Würzburg, the advocates of the _triad_, MM. de Beust, de
+Pfordten, and de Dalwigk, did not cease to demand. A curious fact, in
+these vast projects which embraced the world and which tended to
+determine and to satisfy the "legitimate wants" of Italy, Prussia,
+Austria, the Germanic Confederation, the only obscure question, and
+never decided in the mind of the French sovereign, was that of the
+compensations which, in the presence of this universal alteration, he
+could claim for his own country. He did not dare to touch the problem
+of Belgium; it would be, he declared very honestly, "an act of
+brigandage."[55] Neither did he deceive himself on the impossibility of
+annexing important Germanic territories; generally he stopped at the
+idea of a simple rectification of frontiers on the side of the Saar and
+the Palatinate, and of the neutralization of the German line of
+fortresses on the Rhine. Even reduced to these modest proportions, the
+end did not seem to him to be less worthy of being ardently pursued, in
+view of the very great and moral satisfaction France would find in the
+achievement of its work in Italy, and in the rational ordering of
+affairs in Germany.
+
+Moreover, that which, in the situation in which he was engaged,
+especially flattered his instincts, generous at bottom and vaguely
+humanitarian, was that he hoped to reap considerable advantages for his
+own country, for the entire universe, without any necessity of drawing
+the sword, without spilling a drop of blood, "by moral force only," by
+the ascendancy of the name of France. He was resolved to "remain in a
+watchful neutrality," not to leave it except in the extreme case of the
+too complete victories of one of the belligerents menacing "the
+overthrow of the equilibrium and the modification of the map of Europe
+for the benefit of a single Power." He proclaimed it very loudly, on all
+occasions, and gloried in such "disinterested" policy,--a very strange
+policy, however, and which, according to the very judicious _mot_ of
+Prince Napoleon, declared itself in advance _hostile to the conqueror_.
+"You have changed the address of your letter," said with fine raillery
+the conqueror of Austerlitz to the Prussian envoy who brought him the
+congratulations of his sovereign; the nephew of Napoleon I. acted in
+such a manner that he could not change the address, alienating in
+advance the still unknown conqueror. It is true that he believed he knew
+him, that, with all the world, he saw him in the Emperor of Austria, and
+that he counted on making with him preventive arrangements. Moreover,
+even should the army of William I. show itself much superior to the
+general opinion one had of it,--and, more perspicacious in that than his
+followers, he fully admitted such an eventuality,--still he only saw in
+this case a long and fatiguing conflict which would exhaust the two
+parties and would allow him more easily to intervene as judge of the
+combat and as protector of the right. He thus hoped, in any case, at his
+time and at his convenience, to be able to pronounce a word of peace, of
+equity, and of equilibrium, and he was convinced that "this word would
+be heard." It was important for the moment that Prussia should begin the
+combat, and to decide it in its favor it would be necessary for it to
+procure the alliance of Italy. It was also necessary to carefully avoid
+with the court of Berlin an untimely debate on the combinations and
+compensations to come; the least insistence on this delicate point might
+wound the patriotic feelings of William I., cool his warlike ardor,
+destroy in the embryo a world of great things, _novus rerum ordo_! It
+was better to ask nothing, to promise nothing, to compromise nothing.
+Moreover, what use in demanding notes of a bankrupt, taking sureties
+from one whose fate seemed so little assured, and whom, according to all
+probabilities, one would soon have to protect, to defend against too
+hard conditions which its Austrian conqueror would wish to impose on it?
+
+So complicated and specious as was the strategy planned by the Emperor
+of the French, there is no doubt that M. de Bismarck penetrated it from
+the beginning, that he divined it, foresaw it in some way, even before
+it was completely fixed in the mind of its author, and we have on this
+subject a most striking proof. In the month of August, 1865, at the time
+when the first conferences were held between the two governments of
+Prussia and Italy against Austria, which were soon to interrupt the
+brusque conclusion of the armistice of Gastein, M. Nigra wrote to
+General La Marmora, being evidently inspired by the observations of his
+Prussian colleague at Paris, Count Goltz: "The cabinet of Berlin would
+not wish that, war once declared and begun, France should come, like the
+Neptune of Virgil, to dictate peace, lay down conditions, or convoke a
+congress at Paris."[56] Thus all is foreseen in those few lines written
+long before Biarritz, all up to that congress which a Napoleon III.
+would naturally not fail to extol one day or another, and which he in
+fact was to advance in the month of May, 1866. "The difficulty consists,
+then," continues M. Nigra in his dispatch, "in obtaining from France a
+promise of absolute neutrality. Will, or can, the Emperor Napoleon make
+this promise? _Will he give it in writing as Prussia wishes it?_" This
+promise of _absolute_ neutrality M. de Bismarck certainly did not obtain
+at Biarritz (October, 1865), still less was there a question of any
+engagement _in writing_; but he learned there from august lips that
+Italy was right in wishing to "complete its unity," that it should not
+fail to profit by the first favorable occasion,--that France, for its
+part, was resolved to respect Germany, not to contradict on the other
+side of the Rhine the "national aspirations." Unless the map of Europe
+was to be modified to its detriment, France would preserve the
+neutrality, and this neutrality would not be other than "favorable" to a
+combination in which the interests of Italy were engaged. It is
+allowable to recall a reminiscence which is like a fragment of the
+conversations of Biarritz in this curious declaration, made six months
+afterwards by the president of the council of Prussia to General
+Govone,[57] "that apart from the profit which he might find in it, and
+with no _regard for principles_, the Emperor of the French would sooner
+approve the great war for the German nationality than the war for the
+Duchies of the Elbe!"
+
+What, during his sojourn at Biarritz, could hardly have escaped a
+sagacious observer like M. de Bismarck, was the hold which his profound
+attachment for the country of Cavour and Manin had on the mind of Louis
+Napoleon; there was the key to the position, the real word of the
+Sphinx, and that certainty acquired, compensated in the eyes of the
+Prussian minister for many still disquieting doubts, made him pass over
+many a reticence of the august, taciturn man.[58] For certain reasons,
+he could even congratulate himself on the reserve which he preserved
+towards him, on the care which he took to avoid a discussion in detail;
+that released him on his part from any precise engagement, from any
+premature offer; it allowed him to confine himself to generalities, to
+make fantastic journeys over spaces and centuries,--and he neglected
+nothing. He spoke of Belgium and a part of Switzerland as the necessary
+and legitimate complement of French unity,--of the common action of
+France and Germany for the cause of progress and humanity,--of a future
+accord between Paris, Berlin, and Florence, even London and Washington,
+to conduct the destinies of Europe, to regulate those of the entire
+world, to lead, for instance, Russia to its real vocation in Asia and
+Austria to its civilizing mission on the Danube. How many times was seen
+on this henceforward historical coast of the Gulf of Biscay, the Emperor
+Napoleon slowly walking and leaning on the arm of Prosper Mérimée, while
+the president of the Prussian council followed him at a respectful
+distance, haranguing, gesticulating, and generally receiving for reply
+only a dull and slightly incredulous look, and how the thought remains
+to-day sadly fixed on this strange group of the romantic Cæsar, the
+romancing Cesarean and the terrible realist who, very obsequious at
+this moment towards his imperial host, four years later was to harshly
+assign him the prison of Wilhelmshoehe! From time to time Napoleon III.
+caused the author of "Colomba" to understand by a furtive pressure of
+the arm how amusing he found this diplomat with the futile imagination,
+this representative of a more than problematical Power, who so cleverly
+dismembered Europe and distributed the kingdoms. "He is crazy!" he even
+whispered one day in the ear of his companion; but, before recriminating
+a remark so cruelly expiated since, one can well recall the following
+passage of a dispatch which General Govone wrote the year after: "In
+speaking to me of Count Bismarck, M. Benedetti told me that he was, so
+to speak, a _maniacal_ diplomat,"[59] and M. Benedetti took care to add
+that he had long known his man, that he had "followed" him for nearly
+fifteen years!
+
+Is it not necessary in fact to be a little _maniacal_, to have that
+"little grain of folly" which Molière attributes to all great men, and
+which Boerhaave believes he finds in every great genius,[60] to launch
+the monarchy of Brandenburg into an adventure so eminently perilous as
+that of 1866? The minister of William I. remarked correctly, however, at
+Paris, that he would perhaps meet a second Olmütz, and his biographers
+quote a characteristic speech of his, "that death on the scaffold is
+under certain circumstances neither the most dishonorable nor the worst
+of deaths." In a diplomatic point of view, his only assurance was the
+profound love of Napoleon III. for the Italian cause, and after as
+before Biarritz the "Neptune of Virgil" arose, always menacing, free to
+pronounce his _quos ego_: the war once declared and begun, France could
+always dictate peace, lay down the conditions or convoke a congress. The
+whole point, then, was not to allow the benevolent neutrality of
+Napoleon III. the time to work those infallible changes; all that was
+necessary was to act quickly and well, to strike a blow at the beginning
+which should dictate peace to Vienna and respect to Paris; victory was
+only possible at this price! But, however, there has always been luck
+and misfortune in the affairs of this world,--"the all powerful God is
+capricious," according to the singular expression of M. de Bismarck at
+one of the most solemn moments,[61]--how far could one count on an army
+formed only a few years before, and which, as well as its chiefs, had
+never gone through a great campaign? An extraordinary circumstance in
+truth, and one which will never cease to be an astonishing fact in
+history, of the two eminent men who took upon themselves more especially
+the terrible responsibility of commencing the combat, neither of them
+had had a superior command, or had made his name illustrious on a
+historical field of battle! Before 1864, the only campaign in which
+General Moltke had ever assisted was that of Syria between the Turks and
+the Egyptians; in 1864 he had borne arms against his own country in that
+invasion of Denmark which was certainly not calculated to produce
+Turennes and Bonapartes. General de Roon had formed a part in 1832 of a
+"corps of observation" which watched the French besieging Antwerp, and
+had only distinguished himself since by books of military geography.
+"After all that we have heard said of these officers," General Govone
+wrote from Berlin on the 2d April, 1866, "the army is not enthusiastic
+for the war against Austria; there is rather in its ranks sympathy for
+the Austrian army. I know well that the war, once declared, the army
+will be electrified, and will do its duty bravely; but it is neither a
+spur nor a support for the policy which Count de Bismarck wishes to make
+prevail."[62]
+
+As to public opinion in Germany, as to the national sentiment of the
+blond children of Arminius, far from finding there a "spur and support,"
+the Prussian minister only met with repugnance and imprecations. All the
+Napoleonic ideology was necessary to see in the conflict which was
+preparing "the great war for German nationality," all the blindness of
+the authoritative and democratic press in France was necessary to
+assimilate the enterprise of M. de Bismarck on the other side of the
+Rhine to the work of Cavour in the peninsula. The German nationality was
+neither oppressed nor threatened from any quarter; none of the States of
+the _Bund_ groaned under a foreign dominion; the ruling houses in
+Hanover, Saxony, Würtemberg, Bavaria, etc., were indigenous, antique and
+glorious, popular and liberal dynasties; the larger part of these
+countries enjoyed a constitutional and parliamentary system unknown at
+Berlin; the cities of Frankfort, Hamburg, Lubeck, Bremen were even
+republics! To-day, when success has obscured the conscience and even the
+memory of contemporary generations, and when a sad philosophy of history
+is always on the point of justifying the present by falsifying the past,
+one is prepared to recognize the "providential," irresistible movement
+which drew Germany towards Prussian unity, and to almost call with M. de
+Bismarck the campaign of 1866 "a simple misunderstanding." The truth is
+that this campaign was a civil war, a fratricidal combat, and it was not
+only the Prussian people which repudiated the thought and even cursed
+its author on the eve of Sadowa. On the eve of Sadowa, the principal
+cities of the kingdom, Cologne, Magdeburg, Stittin, Minden, etc., sent
+addresses to the sovereign in favor of peace and against "a baleful
+policy of the cabinet," the great corporation of merchants of
+Koenigsberg, the city of Kant, even decided to no longer celebrate the
+king's birthday. On his arrival at Berlin, General Govone wrote: "Not
+only the upper classes, but even the middle classes are against or
+unfavorable to the war. This aversion shows itself in the popular
+journals; there is no hatred of Austria. More than that, although the
+chamber has neither great prestige nor great popularity, the debates
+still create adversaries for Count de Bismarck." Two months later, and
+at the approach of hostilities, he wrote: "Unfortunately the public mind
+in Prussia does not awaken in a perceptible manner, even face to face
+with a situation so decisive, so vital for the country."[63]
+
+It is true that none of these obstacles were of a nature to disturb the
+president of the council at Berlin in his resolutions, nor to retard the
+course which was traced out. On the contrary there were quite other
+difficulties and falterings against which he stumbled in the court
+itself, with the old fogies of Potsdam, especially with his sovereign,
+and in many a circumstance the "iron count" could well say, like a
+certain cardinal, "that the cabinet of the king and his _petit-coucher_
+embarrassed him more than all Europe." In spite of the faith of William
+I. in his "mission from above," in spite of the equally strong
+resolution to preserve at any price his good port of Kiel, he did not
+the less look upon an open conflict with the Emperor of Austria, an act
+of hostility declared against this German sovereign who bore the
+venerated name of Hapsburg, as the last of extremities, and he did not
+wish to have recourse to it until after having exhausted all the means
+of an amiable settlement. For the extreme case, and in opposition to
+Napoleon III., he also greatly preferred the little war for the Duchies
+to "the great war for German nationality;" but what he disliked above
+all things, was the idea of a compact with Italy, a veritable compact,
+offensive and defensive, in place of a "generic" treaty with a vague
+declaration of _alliance and friendship_, and only destined, as one had
+persuaded him from the first, to make Austria reflect and bring it to an
+adjustment. He, the loyal Hohenzollern, to make war on a Hapsburg on
+joint and equal terms with a _Welche_,--he, the Lord's anointed, the old
+combatant of the holy alliance, to become the brother in arms of a
+Victor Emmanuel, that representative of revolution, that usurper who had
+overthrown so many legitimate princes, besieged and dethroned his own
+nephew, and made Garibaldi in a red shirt sit near him, in the coach of
+the king!
+
+The faltering and compunctions on this point were very sincere.
+Notwithstanding what has been said, nothing less than the marvelous art
+of M. de Bismarck was necessary to triumph in the end over these
+"syncopes" of the mission, to operate on these tumors of the conscience.
+"There is my doctor!" said the old monarch of Prussia one day to a
+Russian princess who congratulated him on his good health, pointing to
+his first minister.[64] The difficulty of _gaining over the king_, of
+triumphing over his _superstitions_, over the _old ideas_, over his
+_legitimist scruples_,--these words were continually on the lips of M.
+de Bismarck in the confidential interviews of the spring of 1866, which
+the valuable reports of General Govone have so fortunately preserved for
+posterity. Assuredly, in studying those reports, as well as the other
+dispatches which M. le Marquis La Marmora wished very much to deliver to
+the public, one can enjoy the spectacle of a comedy in five different
+acts, all doing little honor to human nature; one can ask who bears away
+the palm in duplicity of language, and in _æs triplex_ of the forehead,
+the grandsons of Machiavelli or the heirs of the Teutonic order; one can
+admire there how, to use an ingenuous expression of the Italian
+negotiator, the Southern _viper_ attempts to _bite the charlatan_ of the
+North, and the charlatan puts his foot on the viper.[65] What, however,
+is the most curious and the most instructive in these documents is the
+quantity of matters which the president of the Prussian council
+succeeded in this short space of some months in teaching his august
+master, a still greater quantity than he had made him forget. Without
+doubt, one of the most remarkable of these forgetfulnesses is a certain
+_word of honor_ given in _June_, 1866, by a very august personage to the
+Emperor Francis Joseph, _that there was no treaty signed with
+Italy_,[66] when that treaty, a treaty of offensive and defensive
+alliance in good and due form, already counted at this moment two months
+of existence, which had been signed at Berlin the 8th April by the
+respective plenipotentiaries, ratified by the King of Italy at Florence
+on the 14th, and then ratified on the 20th by the King of Prussia at
+Berlin.
+
+By the side of official Italy, the minister of William I. had taken care
+to equally attach discontented Italy, which murmured in the shallows of
+the young monarchy, and General La Marmora complains on several
+occasions, in his interesting book, "of the intimate and cordial
+relations which the minister of Prussia at Florence, Count d'Usedom,
+entertained with some members of the party of action," and whose
+untoward advice it followed only too often. On his part, the consul of
+Prussia at Bucharest held in hand (February, 1866) the thread of a
+conspiracy which was to bring about the fall of the Prince Couza, and
+make a considerable difference in the action of the government at
+Berlin. "Liberalism is childishness which it is easy to bring to reason;
+but revolution is a force of which it is necessary to know how to avail
+one's self," the cavalier of the Mark one day said at Paris, and he did
+not delay to prove the two truths of his aphorism. It is known that his
+relations with Mazzini were kept up a long time even after Sadowa,[67]
+and the engagements contracted in 1866 towards Prussia by the Magyar
+chiefs have since influenced, influence still at the present time, and
+much more than is generally thought, the external policy of the empire
+of the Hapsburg. It was also in the conventicles of the men of the
+European revolution where the fantastic plan of campaign was worked out,
+which M. d'Usedom wished to force on General La Marmora in his famous
+dispatch of the 17th June;[68] in it he recommended making war
+thoroughly, to overturn the quadrilateral, to march along the Adriatic,
+to penetrate into Hungary, which would at once rise at the name of
+Garibaldi: "we will thus strike Austria, not at the extremities, but at
+the heart!" As to the endeavor to form, under the orders of the refugee
+General Klapka, a legion composed of deserters from the Austrian army,
+the president of the Prussian council greatly wished to affirm before
+the chambers of Berlin, in his celebrated speech of the 16th January,
+1874, that he had _rejected with energy all those projects at the
+beginning of the war_. "It was not until after the battle of Sadowa, at
+the moment when the Emperor Napoleon III., by a telegraphic dispatch,
+had caused the possibility of his intervention to be seen,--it was not
+till then, and as an act of legitimate defense, that I did not order but
+only tolerated the formation of this Hungarian legion." Unfortunately,
+the dates are not quite in accord with the declarations of the present
+chancellor of Germany. The battle of Sadowa was fought the 3d July; but
+on the 12th June, M. de Bismarck let the Italian government know that it
+had definitely accepted the aid of the Sclavic and Hungarian
+defections,[69] and it is established by evidence that, long before
+Sadowa, even before any beginning of war, the Prussian government had
+had recourse to a means which, according to the chancellor's own
+expressions, "would excite to revolt and treason the Magyar and
+Dalmatian regiments of the Austrian army." Let us not forget, however,
+that, while treating with Mazzini and M. Klapka, the minister of William
+I. was not sparing in denouncing to Europe the Jacobin spirit of the
+House of Hapsburg: "The king, our august master," said a Prussian
+dispatch of the 26th January, 1866, "is grievously affected at seeing in
+the Duchies of the Elbe, and under the ægis of the Austrian eagle,
+revolutionary tendencies, hostile to all thrones. If at Vienna they
+believe that they can tranquilly assist in this transformation of a race
+distinguished up to the present time by its conservative sentiments into
+a hot-bed of revolutionary agitations, we cannot do it for our part, and
+we are decided not to do it."
+
+It was in the midst of such dark intrigues, and of negotiations more or
+less regular, of preparations for war and a continual exchange of notes,
+of parliamentary conflicts and of almost continual daily combats with
+the "old fogies" of the court, that the first six months of the year
+1866 passed for the president of the council at Berlin, and rarely has a
+statesman lived through a more troubled or disturbed period. The waves
+of events first cast him ashore, then threw him back again, and seemed
+to remove him farther than ever from his goal. The revolution in
+Roumania, and the election of Prince Hohenzollern by the people of
+Bucharest, was, for instance, a great stroke of fortune, for this
+incident brusquely shut a door through which, in the opinion of more
+than one politician at that time, the Venetian question might have
+resulted in peace,[70] and it was through efforts of the French, who
+had contributed to the installation of the young Prussian prince on the
+banks of the Danube! However, immediately after, M. de Bismarck was
+again aroused from his security by vague rumors of conferences between
+Austria and France, touching the city of Saint Mark. He, at least,
+profited by them to persuade the king to sign the secret treaty of the
+8th April with the government of Florence; but soon the offer of
+disarming, made by the cabinet of Vienna, the debates in the midst of
+the legislative body, and the manifestations of public opinion in
+France, more and more favorable to the cause of peace, produced a
+despairing lull, and again gave courage to the numerous partisans of
+Austria at the court of William I. The Emperor Napoleon III. then
+rendered to the Prussian minister the signal service of again putting in
+motion the great political machine which began to slacken. He made the
+speech of Auxerre (6th May), and defied, with scorn, the treaties of
+1815. That did not, however, prevent him from immediately baffling all
+the plans of M. de Bismarck, by the sudden proposition of a congress,
+and, at this new occurrence, which seemed to compromise everything, the
+president of the council at Berlin spoke _for the first time_ of
+compensations for France. "I am much less German than Prussian," he said
+to General Govone; "I would not have any difficulty in ceding to France
+the whole country comprised between the Rhine and Mosel, but the king
+would have very grave scruples."[71] Let it be well understood, he would
+in return demand of the French government an active coöperation in the
+war. But what did not enter at all into the views of Napoleon III. was,
+that the state of opinion in France did not even permit it to be thought
+of. In the interim, he learned that new negotiations had just been
+entered on between Austria and France concerning Venice, and that on the
+other side the king was making, without his knowledge, propositions to
+the Emperor Francis Joseph for an amicable arrangement: William I.
+always preferred the little question of the Duchies to the great war for
+the German nationality! One can surmise what must have been at this
+moment the state of mind of the minister who, for so many months,
+complained before the Count de Barral, Italian plenipotentiary at
+Berlin, of being betrayed by his agents at London, at Florence, and at
+Paris. Moreover, he considered his life in danger since an attack made
+on his person the 7th May; he was not without uneasiness about his
+sojourn at Paris during the congress in which he was going to take part,
+and which he dreaded for so many other reasons. "He does not go out
+unaccompanied," wrote the Count de Barral, the 1st June, "and agents of
+French police will come as far as the frontier to follow him during the
+whole journey."[72]
+
+The journey did not take place, as is known; Prussia, in the words of M.
+d'Usedom, was "rescued from the congress," and Prince Gortchakof
+contributed largely to this work of salvation. Always a ready friend, he
+was the first to think that the projected conference had no "practical
+aim" with the reservations which Austria wished to bring to it,[73] and
+thus gave the signal for the general overthrow. From that time M. de
+Bismarck set himself to "work on the mind of his royal master," and he
+ended by freeing him from all _scruples_. "His majesty," Count de Barral
+telegraphed even on the 23d May from Berlin, "was very much _moved_ at
+the situation, of which he spoke with great tears in his eyes." Two
+weeks later, the 8th June, the king wept no longer, but "he still had in
+his voice something sad, indicating clearly the decision of a resigned
+man, who believed that he could not act differently. His majesty told me
+that he had full confidence in the justice of his cause. I have a clear
+conscience," he added, with a moved air, and placing his hand on his
+heart; "for a long time I have been accused of wishing war for ambitious
+views, but now the whole world knows who is the aggressor."[74]
+
+"I will return _via_ Vienna or Munich, or I will charge with the last
+squadron, which will never return," M. de Bismarck said to a foreign
+ambassador, at the moment of leaving Berlin for the head-quarters, the
+30th June, 1866. Two days later he was already at Jitschin, on the field
+still smoking from a great battle which had just been fought there. "I
+have just arrived," he wrote to his wife from Jitschin; "the ground is
+still heaped up with corpses, horses, and arms. Our victories are much
+greater than we thought.... Send me some French romances to read, but
+not more than one at a time. May God keep you!" This was written the 2d
+July, 1866; the next day the battle of Sadowa was fought; the next day
+Germany was at the feet of this singular lover of _French romances_; and
+the Emperor Napoleon III. was sadly awakened from his own romance, from
+his long humanitarian dream. Like the Titania of the "Midsummer Night's
+Dream," imperial France saw all at once that, in a state of
+inconceivable hallucination, she had caressed a monster.
+
+And while so many events were taking place on the world's stage, great,
+marvelous, and terrible events, Russia continued to sulk and meditate;
+it meditated in the perpetual adoration of Prussia. One seeks in vain
+for a trace of its action in the events which, nevertheless, concerned
+in so high a degree its interests, its family alliances, its secular
+traditions. "Since I have been in Russia," wrote M. Benedetti to his
+chief in the spring of the year 1866, "let me mention that I have always
+remarked, not without surprise, the indifference with which the cabinet
+of St. Petersburg seems to me, from the beginning, to watch the
+pretensions of Prussia and the eventuality of a conflict between the two
+great Germanic Powers; and what I have not been less struck with is the
+_constant security_ in which I have found M. de Bismarck as to the
+attitude and the intentions of the Empire of the North." Russia was
+silent in 1865 during the crisis of Gastein; in the month of May, 1866,
+it only accepted the invitation to the congress to make them despair
+and to discourage the other Powers from it; it was absent from the
+deliberations of Nikolsburg and of Prague; it left to France the care of
+making efforts for the South of Germany, for Saxony; it even left it the
+honor of stipulating a clause in favor of unhappy Denmark, the country
+of the future empress! One moment, it is true, M. d'Oubril, the Russian
+ambassador at Berlin, a diplomat of the old school, had shown himself
+very much alarmed at the victories and conquests of the Hohenzollern; he
+was ordered in all haste to St. Petersburg, and "returned from there in
+a few weeks entirely reassured, and affecting a satisfaction which was
+not disturbed a single instant either by the reverses of the German
+princes allied with the House of Russia, or by the developments which
+Prussia made in its military power."[75] Prince Gortchakof did not
+sacrifice to the old idols of the right of nations and of the balance of
+power; he did not share certain prejudices touching the "solidarity
+which should exist among all the conservative interests;" and he had too
+lofty a soul to be jealous of a good neighbor. Moreover, had he not too
+"vanquished Europe," three years previously, in the memorable campaign
+of Poland? Some august personages, some princesses and grand duchesses,
+had said in vain, with the women of the Bible, that Saul killed his
+thousands, but David tens of thousands; they had in vain showed their
+despoiled relations and their confiscated patrimonies; Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch did not envy the young laurels of his former colleague of
+Frankfort, become Chancellor of the Confederation of the North. He
+rejoiced in seeing Austria severely punished and France well mortified;
+for the rest, he thought that nothing was changed, and that there was
+only one more great chancellor in this century.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[39] See the celebrated circular dispatch of M. de Bismarck of the 24th
+January, 1863, in which he gives an account of the curious interviews
+which he had with the ambassador of Austria, Count Karolyi, in the last
+months of the year 1862, soon after his accession to power.
+
+[40] "Why, then, should not representative institutions be accorded at
+the same time to the kingdom of Poland and to the empire of
+Russia?"--Dispatch of Lord John Russell to Lord Napier, 10th April,
+1863.
+
+[41] "This _connivance_ of Austria was not the least remarkable event in
+the history of this insurrection."--Confidential dispatch of M. de
+Tengoborski to M. d'Oubril, 4th February, 1863.
+
+[42] "The Polish insurrection, on which its duration impressed a
+national character," the Emperor Napoleon III. said in his speech of the
+5th November, 1863.
+
+[43] "On former occasions, M. de Bismarck always spoke to me of the
+probability that the Russian army would be too weak to suppress the
+insurrection."--Dispatch of Sir A. Buchanan, 21st February, 1863. He
+uses the same language to the Austrian minister, Count Kavolyi. On his
+part, the director of the diplomatic chancellor's office of the Grand
+Duke Constantine wrote on the 4th of February, at the first news of the
+envoy of the Prussian generals for the conclusion of a military
+convention: "While recognizing the courtesy of the mission of these
+gentlemen, we cannot give an exact account of what has influenced it.
+There is no _pericolo_ (_sic!_) _in mora_, and we have no need of it for
+the coöperation of foreign troops.... The Prussian government paints the
+Devil much blacker than he really is."--Confidential dispatch of M. de
+Tengoborski to M. d'Oubril, Russian minister at Berlin.
+
+[44] The German papers at this time published this interview after the
+narration of M. Behrend, who did not deny it. See, among others, the
+_Cologne Gazette_ of the 22d February, 1863.
+
+[45] Dispatch of M. Buchanan of the 17th October, 1863. Inclosure.
+Minute of conversation between M. de Bismarck and Sir A. Buchanan.
+
+[46] Seeking an issue, however dishonorable to the campaign so foolishly
+undertaken, the chief of the foreign office had decided towards the end
+of September (after the speech of Blairgowrie) to declare the Emperor
+Alexander _deprived of his rights over Poland_, "for not having
+fulfilled the conditions in virtue of which Russia obtained this kingdom
+in 1815." France was to make an analogous declaration, but M. Drouyn de
+Lhuys, become prudent, and with reason would not send his note until
+after that of England had reached Prince Gortchakof. Lord Russell then
+wrote his dispatch; it was read at the council, approved by Lord
+Palmerston, and a copy of it was given to the minister of foreign
+affairs of France. Lord Napier had already been advised to inform Prince
+Gortchakof of an "important communication" which he would soon have the
+honor to transmit to him, and the Duke of Montebello was also instructed
+by the French government to support his colleague of Great Britain in
+his solemn declaration; already the debated document had left for its
+destination, and was on its way to St. Petersburg, ... when suddenly, and
+to the unspeakable astonishment of the persons initiated, a telegram
+brusquely stopped in Germany the bearer of the note; another telegram
+informed Lord Napier that no further attention should be given to the
+"important communication." For during the interval Count Bernstorff had
+read at the foreign office a Prussian dispatch in which M. de Bismarck
+advised the principal secretary of state to take care how he
+proceeded,--for, if the czar were declared deprived of his rights over
+Poland for his violation of the treaty of Vienna, the German governments
+could also declare on their part the King of Denmark deprived of his
+sovereignty over the Duchies of the Elbe for not having fulfilled all
+the engagements of the treaty of London. Lord John Russell recalled the
+courier and tore up the note.--_Vide_ in the _Revue des deux Mondes_ of
+the 1st January, 1865, "Two Negotiations of Contemporaneous Diplomacy;
+M. de Bismarck and the Northern Alliance."
+
+[47] "In 1848 Denmark had demanded the protection of France; M. Bastide,
+then minister of foreign affairs under the republic, took its part
+warmly, and there was even an idea of sending 10,000 men to assist the
+Danes in the defense of their country."--Dispatch of Lord Cowley of the
+13th February, 1864. See also the curious dispatches of M. Petetin, then
+envoy of the republic at Hanover.
+
+[48] The official journals of Berlin have renewed this reasoning in
+their recent discussions on the laws of guarantee accorded to the Holy
+See. The Pope, they argue, cannot be treated as a sovereign, as
+reprisals cannot be exercised against him by seizing his states.
+
+[49] See the _Revue des deux Mondes_ of the 1st October, 1868, _Les
+Préliminaires de Sadowa_, as well as the instructive work of General La
+Marmora, _Un pó più di luce_, Firenze, 1873.
+
+[50] It is not useless to mention, _en passant_, the circumstances in
+the midst of which these new candidatures were produced. Summoned by the
+conference of London to present his pretensions, M. de Bismarck (28th
+May, 1864) could not do otherwise than to follow Austria, and to
+pronounce himself for the Duke of Augustenburg. The 2d June, at the
+reunion succeeding the conference (the telegraph had had time to work),
+the Russian plenipotentiary declared unexpectedly that the emperor, his
+august master, "desiring to facilitate as far as he could the
+arrangements to be concluded," had ceded his eventual rights, as chief
+of the House Holstein-Gottorp, to his relative, ... the Grand Duke of
+Oldenburg! The 18th June, another relative of the Emperor Alexander II.,
+Prince Frederick William of Hesse, also asserted his rights to the
+succession at the conference of London. This is an example of the
+numerous and discreet services which Prince Gortchakof knew how to
+render to his friend of Berlin in the sad campaign of the Duchies.
+
+[51] Verse of a German song.
+
+[52] We have taken care to preserve in the translation the character of
+edifying obscurity which distinguishes the original.
+
+[53] "What can one say now, if France had shown itself opposed to these
+proceedings (the treaty of Italy with Prussia), we could not run the
+risk of finding ourselves face to face with an Austro-Franco alliance.
+Prussia was as solicitous as we, perhaps even more, with the attitude
+which France would take in case of a war of Prussia and Italy against
+Austria."--La Marmora, _Un pó più di luce_, p. 80. Three days before the
+signing of the secret treaty with Italy, M. de Bismarck said to General
+Govone: "_All this, let it be well understood, if France wishes it, for,
+if she shows ill will, then nothing can be done._"--Dispatch of General
+Govone to General de la Marmora of the 5th April, 1866. _Ibid._ p. 139.
+
+[54] Letter of the emperor to M. Drouyn de Lhuys of the 11th June, 1866.
+It is from this letter, solemnly presented to the legislative body, that
+the quotations which follow are taken.
+
+[55] He used this expression more than once, and in a very convincing
+tone, in the council of ministers before 1866. It was not till later,
+after Sadowa and the affair at Luxemburg, that he at times seemed to
+yield to the "party of action" in his views concerning Belgium, without,
+however, ever giving his full acquiescence.
+
+[56] Dispatch of M. Nigra of the 8th August, 1865. La Marmora, p. 45.
+
+[57] Dispatch of General Govone of the 17th March, 1866. La Marmora, p.
+90.
+
+[58] It was on his return from Biarritz that M. de Bismarck said to the
+Chevalier Nigra, these significant words: "If Italy did not exist, it
+would have to be invented." La Marmora, p. 59.
+
+[59] Dispatch of General Govone, of the 6th April, 1866. La Marmora, p.
+139.
+
+[60] _Est aliquid delirii in omni magno ingenio._--BOERHAAVE.
+
+[61] At the moment when hostilities commenced; dispatch of M. de Barral
+of the 15th June, 1866. La Marmora, p. 332.
+
+[62] Dispatch of General Govone of the 2d April, 1866. La Marmora, p.
+131.
+
+[63] Dispatches of General Govone of the 2d April and 22d May 1866. La
+Marmora, pp. 131 and 245.
+
+[64] George Hesekiel, iii. p. 271.
+
+[65] _E la vipera avrà morsicato il ciarlatano._ Dispatch of General
+Govone of the 15th March, 1866. La Marmora, p. 88.
+
+[66] It was the Queen Augusta who affirmed it in a letter to the Emperor
+of Austria, saying that on this matter she had received the word of
+honor of her royal spouse. See the curious dispatch of M. Nigra of the
+12th June, 1866, as well as the telegram of General La Marmora of the
+same day. La Marmora, pp. 305 and 310.
+
+[67] After the death of the great Italian agitator, the journals of
+Florence published his letters to M. de Bismarck during the years
+1868-1869. In case of a war between France and Germany, Mazzini suggests
+the plan of overthrowing Victor Emmanuel, if this latter allied himself
+with the Emperor Napoleon III.
+
+[68] It is necessary to observe that the strategical part of the note of
+d'Usedom was an _almost literal_ copy of an article of Mazzini published
+in the _Dovere_ of Genoa, the 26th May, 1866.
+
+[69] See the notes of M. d'Usedom of the 12th and 17th June, as well as
+the dispatch of Count de Barral of the 15th June. La Marmora, pp. 316,
+331, 345-348.
+
+[70] In a dispatch of the 1st March, 1866, M. Nigra informs General La
+Marmora that, conformably with his authorization, he endeavored to
+broach the question of the exchange of the Danubian Principalities for
+Venetia. He showed the advantages which this solution would have for
+France and England, who would thus see the two programmes of the wars of
+the Crimea and Italy peacefully accomplished. The minister adds that the
+Emperor Napoleon III. was _struck with this idea_. La Marmora, p. 119.
+
+[71] Dispatch of General Govone of the 3d June, 1866. La Marmora, p.
+275.
+
+[72] Telegrams of Count de Barral of the 7th April and the 1st June,
+1866. La Marmora, pp. 141 and 266.
+
+[73] Telegram of M. de Launay, from St. Petersburg, of the 1st June,
+1866. La Marmora, p. 266. One can see in the same work with what
+_empressement_ M. de Bismarck used this opinion of the Russian
+chancellor, and transmitted it by telegraph to the different cabinets.
+
+[74] Telegrams of M. de Barral. La Marmora, pp. 248 and 294.
+
+[75] Benedetti, _Ma Mission en Prusse_, pp. 99 and 254.
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+THE ECLIPSE OF EUROPE.
+
+
+I.
+
+In the little _salon_ of the house Jessé, situated on the Rue de
+Provence at Versailles, in the first of the sad month of November, 1870,
+sat by the side of the fire two illustrious speakers, whose movements
+Europe in suspense watched with the most intense anxiety. Leaning his
+elbow on a writing table, on which "two bottles with candles in their
+necks did service as lights,"[76] M. de Bismarck had asked M. Thiers for
+permission to smoke a cigar, while he rested from the negotiations
+pursued during the whole day concerning the armistice and the peace, and
+entered into a conversation full of _abandon_ and gossip on the events
+of the war. Among other things he related that the Emperor Napoleon
+III., having retired to a little garden after the capitulation of Sedan,
+grew pale at seeing him arrive armed with two pistols in his belt: "He
+thought me capable of an action in bad taste." One would scarcely be
+deceived in supposing that the man who since the attack of Blind had
+not ceased to show a very nervous solicitude for his person,[77]
+attributed here in this circumstance, and surely very ungenerously, to
+the unhappy monarch sentiments which were far from his mind. However
+that may be, the Prussian minister took pleasure during whole hours in
+the reminiscences and stories in which he showed all his brilliancy of
+mind; and on his part M. Thiers, scarcely returned from that journey of
+forty days, during which he had twice crossed Europe and negotiated with
+so many sovereigns and ministers, was not behind hand with _piquant_
+anecdotes and ingenious ideas. He thought, however, that it was
+necessary to recall, after some time, the serious matters which brought
+him to the head-quarters; but M. de Bismarck,--this "savage full of
+genius," as the French statesman soon called him in his effusions at the
+bishop's palace at Orleans,--seemed to wish to prolong as much as
+possible a delightful chat, and, taking the hand of M. Thiers, he cried
+out, "Allow me, I beg of you; allow me, it is so pleasant to be a little
+while with civilization!" The _civilization_, allowed at last to plead
+his cause anew, did not the less find the old "iron count" in the
+affable and fluent talker of a few moments before: the arts had
+decidedly in no respect softened the political manners of the _savage_.
+Then M. Thiers remembered the favorable disposition which he had found
+in Russia, and he thought it useful to make the most of it in a moment
+so critical. During his sojourn at St. Petersburg, he had addressed to
+the delegation of Tours a telegraphic dispatch singularly hopeful. "He
+had every cause," he said, "to be very much satisfied with his reception
+by the emperor, the imperial family, Prince Gortchakof, and the other
+dignitaries as well as with that of Russian society in general. The
+emperor and his chancellor had expressed themselves warmly against the
+exorbitant conditions of peace laid down by Prussia; they had declared
+that Russia would never give its consent to conditions which were not
+equitable; that, in consequence, the consent of the other Powers would
+likewise be wanting; the exactions of Prussia would only be from the
+effect of force, and would not rest on any sanction."[78] Without
+entering into such developments, M. Thiers spoke this time in general
+terms of the marks of solicitude which "his friend Prince Gortchakof"
+had given him, and ended by stating that Russia had become alarmed and
+irritated. At these words, M. de Bismarck got up and rang: "Bring the
+portfolio that contains the papers of Russia." The portfolio having been
+brought, "Read," said he; "here are thirty letters from St. Petersburg."
+M. Thiers did not fail to profit by the permission: he read, he
+understood, and he was disabused.
+
+Yet, it would not have been difficult for the illustrious historian of
+the Consulate and the Empire to have spared himself this cruel
+deception, to have avoided, also, more than one false step in his rapid
+course across Europe, if he had only wished to consult competent men or
+even paid them the least attention. M. de Beust, for instance, was
+perfectly able to enlighten him on the real relations between Russia and
+Prussia; but it was especially M. Benedetti who could have told him the
+precise and already old date of the understanding agreed upon by the two
+courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg in view of a war with France, as
+well as the very extraordinary circumstances which had accompanied this
+understanding. Let us briefly recall here those circumstances,
+endeavoring to free them as much as possible from certain obscurities
+with which the interested parties continue to surround them, and let us
+return once more to the day after Sadowa, to the public or secret
+transactions which followed this dreadful day. The greater part of the
+political combinations which were to be so fatal to France in the war of
+1870, were contrived and consolidated during that equally gloomy and
+turbulent period, during the two months of July and August of the year
+1866.
+
+"None of the questions which touch us can be solved without the consent
+of France," the Emperor Napoleon III. had declared the 11th June, 1866,
+in a solemn document produced before the legislative body; and among
+those questions any "modification of the map of Europe to the exclusive
+profit of a great Power" was naturally placed in the first rank. But,
+using that equally immense as unhoped-for victory of the 3d July, 1866,
+Prussia intended changing the map to its exclusive profit. In place of
+"maintaining for Austria its great position in Germany," as the imperial
+letter of the 11th June had demanded, Prussia demanded that the empire
+of the Hapsburg should be totally excluded from the Germanic
+Confederation; in place of according to the secondary States "a more
+important _rôle_, a more powerful organization," it aspired to the
+complete hegemony over all Germany, and furthermore wished to complete
+large annexations in the countries occupied by its troops. In fomenting
+this war which was to end in such unforeseen results, the imperial
+policy had above all pursued two ends,--the affranchisement of Venice,
+and the equitable settlement of affairs in Germany. Venice was ceded,
+ceded even before the commencement of hostilities, and in accepting this
+cession, in announcing in the "Moniteur" this "important event" after
+the great disaster of General Benedeck, the Emperor Napoleon, in the
+judgment of his minister of foreign affairs, was the more bound not to
+allow Austria and its allies to be overwhelmed as it concerned the vital
+interests of France itself. The minister demanded, in consequence, his
+august master to convoke the legislative body, to send to the frontier
+of the East an army of observation of 80,000 men whom Marshal Randon
+would bring together very quickly, and to declare to Prussia that they
+would occupy the left bank of the Rhine, if it was not moderate in its
+demands towards the vanquished, and if it realized territorial
+acquisitions of a nature to destroy the equilibrium of Europe.
+
+Assuredly, after the terrible experiences of the year 1870, these very
+legitimate doubts as to the efficaciousness of the measures proposed by
+M. Drouyn de Lhuys in the month of July, 1866, can be raised; it is
+nevertheless well to remember that the prestige of France was still
+great and almost intact; that in a week Austria could bring back from
+Italy 120,000 or 130,000 soldiers still fresh from the victory of
+Custozza, and that the troops of General Moltke already began to
+experience the natural consequences of the whole war, although
+fortunate. "Prussia is victorious," wrote the ambassador of France at
+the court of Vienna, "but it is exhausted. From the Rhine to Berlin
+there are not 15,000 men to be met with. You can be master of the
+situation by means of a simple military demonstration, and you can do it
+in all security, for Prussia is incapable at this moment of accepting a
+war with France. Let the emperor make a simple military demonstration,
+and he will be astonished at the facility with which he will become,
+without striking a blow, arbiter and master of the situation." In the
+confidential letters addressed by M. de Bismarck to his wife during this
+campaign, there are some traces of anxiety which at this moment assailed
+his mind, especially of his efforts to talk sense to the overexcited,
+"to the good people who do not see farther than their noses, _and swim
+at their ease on the foaming wave of the phrase_." Six days after
+Sadowa, on the way to Vienna, he wrote from Hohenmauth: "Do you still
+remember, my heart, that we passed by here nineteen years ago, in going
+from Prague to Vienna? No mirror then showed us the future, neither did
+it in 1852, when I crossed this iron line with the good Lynar!... As for
+us, all is well, and we will have a peace which is worth something, if
+we do not exaggerate our demands and do not think that we have conquered
+the world. Unfortunately we are as quick to get drunk as to despair, and
+I have the unthankful task of pouring water in the foaming wine, and to
+show that _we are not alone in Europe_ and that we have three
+neighbors." Lastly, in his celebrated speech of the 16th January, 1874,
+in the Reichstag, the chancellor of Germany, in speaking of those
+decisive days, made the important avowal, that, "if France had then had
+only a few available troops, a small body of French troops would have
+sufficed to make quite a respectable army by joining the numerous corps
+of South Germany, which on their part could furnish excellent materials
+whose organization alone was defective. Such an army _would have first
+placed us in the prime necessity of covering Berlin, and of abandoning
+all our successes in Austria_." Let us add to that that Germany was
+still effervescent against the "fratricidal" policy of Prussia, that the
+proceedings and the exactions of Generals Vogel de Falkenstein and
+Manteuffel had exasperated the minds of all on the banks of the Main:
+there was a single instant, very fleeting also, it is true, when the
+appearance of the French on the Rhine would not have wounded the
+Teutonic susceptibilities, would have even been saluted with joy!
+"Sire," said to the Emperor Napoleon III. one of the most eminent
+ministers of the Germanic Confederation,--"sire, a simple military
+demonstration on your part can save Europe, and Germany will also
+preserve an eternal recollection of it. If you let this moment pass, _in
+four years from now_ you will be forced to make war against Prussia, and
+then you will have all Germany against you."
+
+But the fright caused by the prodigious victories of Prussia was too
+great in the Tuileries to allow the preservation of the _sang froid_
+which the circumstances so imperiously demanded. The needle gun was also
+a revelation which, by turns, exalted or depreciated beyond measure by
+authorities reputed competent, contributed not a little to increase the
+perplexities springing up on all sides; lastly, doubts arose even as to
+the possibility of getting together the 80,000 men of whom the minister
+of war spoke. The fatal expedition to Mexico had swallowed up almost all
+the arms, and almost all the troops of France! They were forced to make
+the strange avowal that they had desired with ardor, favored, provoked
+the greatest European complications without even asking if, at the
+critical and foreseen moment of the rupture of the equilibrium of the
+world, they would be in a condition to make even a simple military
+demonstration. The _party of action_ in the councils of the empire would
+then have had a good chance to praise Prussia as the powerful agent of
+civilization and progress, to rise against the tendencies, always
+Austrian, of the bureaux of the Quai d'Orsay, and to recommend more than
+ever an alliance with M. de Bismarck: it was necessary to give him
+_carte blanche_ in Germany, and to complete French unity in acquiring
+Belgium. M. Drouyn de Lhuys did not take the trouble to demonstrate the
+inanity, the temerity of such suggestions, and he asked, not without
+bitterness, how France, which they declared incapable of placing on foot
+even a corps of observation on the Rhine, would be strong enough to
+attack Antwerp, provoke England, and end by probably arraying against
+itself all the Powers of Europe, among whom Prussia would not be the
+last? He was not behind hand in recriminations; he showed the officious
+and culpable zeal which had been used in order to incite war, the
+consequences of which he, for his part, had never ceased to dread, as
+they had taken care to place no limit to the _license_ allowed to one of
+the parties, the most redoubtable, the most skillful, and from which it
+was most essential to take sureties in advance. On the side from which
+it was never threatened, it had neglected no precaution; in case of the
+victory of Austria, Venetia would have nevertheless been acquired by
+Italy. "In my opinion," ingenuously added the minister, "in a French
+point of view it is a bad result; but the emperor insisted on it, above
+all, and I have procured it for him." It was certainly the least that
+could be asked, he thought, that they should allow him to obtain, on the
+other hand, compensations, _French this time_, which alone could justify
+before the nation the kindnesses shown to Prussia.
+
+The debates were long and very violent for several days, and different
+influences worked in the most opposite directions. The party of the
+_Palais Royal_ was not the only one, however, to preach the abandonment
+of the conqueror of Sadowa; in a certain measure it found its adherents
+among statesmen the most moderate in their opinions, and ordinarily the
+most calm in their judgments. M. Rouher was one of the first to oppose
+any armed demonstration on the Eastern frontier, and soon we even hear
+him speak of a _necessary and fruitful_ alliance between France and
+Prussia! "Austria," thought another important member of the privy
+council, "only inspires to-day that interest, so near to indifference,
+which one feels for the strong become weak through their fault, not
+having foreseen or prepared themselves. _Up to the present time, all is
+for the best!_"[79] While M. Magne thus pronounced the _væ victis_ on
+the empire of the Hapsburg,--without thinking that four years later,
+alas! Europe would use almost the same expressions in regard to France
+itself,--an august woman, a sister of the King of Würtemberg, and a near
+relative of the imperial family of France, used different language. "You
+cherish strange illusions," said she; "your prestige has diminished more
+in these last two weeks than during the whole duration of your reign.
+You allow the weak to be destroyed, you let the insolence and brutality
+of your nearest neighbor grow beyond measure; you accept a gift, and you
+do not even know how to address a kind word to him who gives it. I
+regret that you do not believe me disinterested in the question, and
+that you do not see the fatal danger of _a_ powerful Germany and _a_
+powerful Italy. The _dynasty_ is menaced, and it will suffer the
+consequences. Do not believe that the misfortune which overwhelms me in
+the disaster of my country makes me unjust or distrustful. Venice ceded,
+it would be necessary to succor Austria, to march to the Rhine, impose
+your conditions! To let Austria be slaughtered is more than a crime, it
+is an error!" Error or crime, the decision on this point had been
+already reached, before this warm appeal from the Queen of Holland
+reached the Tuileries.[80] Napoleon III. was very ill at this epoch,
+struggling against the first advances of a cruel disease which never
+forsook him,--in consequence less than ever inclined to vigorous
+resolutions; and, on the 10th July, after a grand council of ministers
+held at Paris in presence of the emperor, the Prince de Metternich was
+obliged to telegraph to Vienna that France would only interfere in the
+conflict through its diplomats.
+
+Yet there was something more efficacious, more loyal in any case, in
+trying only a vain isolated mediation, full of perilous reticence and
+selfish calculations: that was simply to agree on a harmony of action
+among the Powers on a question certainly eminently "European," and which
+interested the equilibrium of the world in so high a degree. A word from
+France in the sense indicated "would certainly have been listened to,"
+to borrow an expression from the imperial letter of the 11th June, for
+it was Prince Gortchakof himself who spoke at this moment of the
+necessity of a general congress.[81] Threatened with the first and
+violent commotion caused by the sudden undermining of Austria at the
+sight of so many relations and cousins of his august master menaced with
+spoliation and ruin, the Russian chancellor had in truth given this true
+description of the situation. So devoted as he was to his former
+colleague of Frankfort, so fascinated by his genius, Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch had not yet sufficiently cast aside the old Adam, the
+_attaché_ of the suite of Count Nesselrode at the reunions of Laybach
+and Verona, to admit in a trice that such a considerable transformation
+of the public right could be effected without the knowledge of Europe
+and without its consent. Why did the cabinet of the Tuileries not
+appreciate the solution offered by the Russian chancellor? Why did it
+not try to provoke a concerted action of the Powers in view of an
+overturning so menacing for the balance of the states? Why did it not
+see that in treating separately with M. de Bismarck it only made the
+game for the conqueror? In spite of all his triumphs, even in spite of
+all his audacity, the Prussian minister would have been slightly
+embarrassed in asking before the areopagus of the Powers for the almost
+complete abolition of the treaties of 1815, the dethronement of the old
+House of the Guelphs, or the expulsion of the empire of the Hapsburg
+from the bosom of Germany; and one will see in the sequel the cleverness
+which he used in escaping from such a necessity and in making France an
+accomplice in the eclipse of Europe. Strange fatality of the Napoleonic
+ideology! The dreamer of Ham had passed all his reign in proposing
+congresses, in invoking them at the most inopportune moments, under the
+least propitious circumstances, and he neglected to apply this panacea,
+so celebrated and recommended, on the only occasion where it was
+demanded by good sense and good right, in the only crisis in which it
+could become useful and salutary! The not less surprising good luck of
+the minister of William I., who was "saved from the congress," according
+to the _mot_ of Count d'Usedom, and saved on two occasions in the space
+of some weeks: in the month of June, thanks to the kindness of Prince
+Gortchakof, and in the month of July, thanks to the infatuation of
+France! They were not ignorant at the Tuileries of the desire manifested
+in a moment of happy inspiration by Alexander Mikhaïlovitch; but the
+treaties of 1815 had been so eloquently "cursed" in the speech of
+Auxerre, they had announced with so much noise the "important event" of
+Venice and had illuminated Paris! As always, they clung to the
+_prestige_, to the glory of appearing as the "Neptune of Virgil," in the
+eyes of the profane, and they hoped more than ever to obtain some good
+God-send by again obliging the "Piedmont of Germany." Consequently M.
+Benedetti received the order to present himself at the head-quarters in
+Moravia, to offer to M. de Bismarck French mediation, and to "sound"
+him on the advantages that in justice he could scarcely fail to accord
+to the ardent mediator.
+
+
+II.
+
+There is nothing more curious than the language used by the minister of
+Prussia to the ambassador of France at those first conversations in
+Moravia! M. de Bismarck began by renewing the fantasies of Biarritz, and
+it was the very opposite of a Tilsit who appeared to form plans at the
+head-quarters at Brünn: the son of Frederick William III., conquered at
+Jena, seemed to wish to offer to the nephew of Napoleon I. to share the
+world with him, to share it to the detriment of Russia and England! "He
+endeavored to prove to me," wrote M. Benedetti on the 15th July, "that
+the reverses of Austria allowed France and Prussia to modify their
+territorial situation, and to solve at the present time the greater part
+of the difficulties which will continue to menace the peace of Europe. I
+reminded him that treaties existed, and that the war which he desired to
+prevent would be the first result of such a policy. M. de Bismarck
+answered me, that I misunderstood, that France and Prussia, united and
+resolved to remodel their respective frontiers by binding one another by
+solemn engagements, were henceforward in a position to regulate together
+these questions, without fear of meeting an armed resistance _either on
+the part of England or on the part of Russia_." In other words,--and
+these words were likewise employed in the report of M. Benedetti,--the
+Prussian minister believed that "he could free himself from the
+obligation to submit to the control of Europe," thanks to a separate
+agreement with France. As to the means to bring about this precious
+agreement, it was perfectly simple: France had only to seek its fortune
+along the Meuse and the Escaut. "I do not tell your excellency anything
+new," wrote M. Benedetti to his chief, some days after, from Nikolsburg,
+in announcing to him that M. de Bismarck was of the opinion "that we
+should seek compensation in Belgium, and that he offered to act in
+concert with us." He did not, however, utterly repel the idea of giving
+France its share on the Rhine, not, for instance, in the Prussian
+territories, where it would be difficult to persuade King William to
+renounce any portion of his possession; "but something could perhaps be
+found in the Palatinate," that is, in Bavaria. He was always "much more
+Prussian than German," and reasonable terms could be made with the
+Walhalla.
+
+The French government fell into the trap which was thus set, and it then
+aided Prussia in _freeing itself from all control of Europe_, in working
+at these preliminaries of Nikolsburg, signed the 26th July, and which
+sealed the exclusion of Austria from Germany, and constituted a
+confederation of the North, under the hegemony of the Hohenzollern. This
+grave attack on public right and the equilibrium of the world once
+conceded, and the war virtually ended, one began to talk of
+compensations. In a letter addressed to M. de Goltz, and dated from Vichy
+the 3d August, M. Drouyn de Lhuys declared that the emperor, his august
+master, "had not wished to complicate the difficulties of a work of
+_European interest_ in treating _prematurely_ with Prussia" on
+territorial questions; but the moment seemed finally come to consider
+these questions, all the more as they were preparing to obtain large
+annexations north of the Main. "The king," M. de Bismarck had written to
+M. de Goltz the 10th July,--"the king cares less for the constitution of
+a political northern confederation, and _above all desires annexations_;
+he would rather abdicate than return without an important territorial
+acquisition."[82] In fact, besides the Duchies of the Elbe, the
+abandonment of which had been stipulated at Nikolsburg, Prussia still
+wished to absorb the free cities, Cassel, Hanover, even Saxony, and at
+the Tuileries they hoped to measure the French demands according to the
+number of souls and of square leagues that William the Conqueror should
+demand for himself. "The great war for German nationality," which the
+popular Cæsar had recommended at Biarritz, turned in a measure into "this
+human cattle market," so blamed at the congress of Vienna, at the
+"execrated" treaties of 1815,--and how is it possible not to acknowledge
+that France played a _rôle_ there unworthy of itself? It was for it to
+deny at once the new and the old right, the principle of national will as
+well as that of the legitimacy of princes; it wished, moreover, to
+realize an illicit gain and a paltry sum on the occasion of a great
+universal calamity, and, to speak with the English humorist, to profit by
+the eruption of Vesuvius to boil an egg! M. de Bismarck uttered at this
+moment a cruel _mot_, but which was not entirely unmerited. "France,"
+said he to a former minister of the Germanic Confederation,--"France
+_follows a Trinkgeld policy_ (_la France fait une politique de
+pour-boire_)."
+
+A letter written by M. Rouher on the 6th August, 1866, and since found
+among the papers of the Tuileries,[83] makes us see the strange
+illusions which the French government then cherished, and the ambassador
+of Prussia at Paris did his best to sustain. "M. de Goltz finds our
+pretension legitimate in principle," wrote the minister of state; "he
+considers that satisfaction ought to be given to the only wish of our
+country to constitute between France and Prussia _a necessary and
+fruitful alliance_." The embarrassment is solely to determine the sum of
+the demands that should be put forward. "The empress would demand much
+or nothing, in order not to compromise our final pretensions." As for M.
+Rouher, he thinks that "public opinion would have _food_ and
+_direction_, if to-morrow we could say officially, Prussia consents that
+we retake the frontiers of 1814, and thus efface the consequences of
+Waterloo." Let it be well understood, the minister of state does not
+admit "that this rectification would serve as a receipt for the future!"
+"Without doubt, new facts must develop in order that new pretensions
+arise, but these facts will certainly be developed. Germany is only in
+the first of those numerous oscillations which it will undergo before
+finding its new position. Let us be more ready, in the future, to better
+profit by events; opportunities will not be wanting. The States south of
+the Main, especially, will be, in a few years from now, an apple of
+discord or a matter for a compromise. M. de Goltz does not dissimulate
+at present the covetousness as regards this group of confederates."
+Thus, at the very moment that they boasted of "saving" the States of the
+South, of establishing on the other side of the Rhine a new political
+combination which the minister of state was soon to adorn with the
+famous name of _three fragments_, and to declare, marvelously reassuring
+for France, they already waited for an opportunity to abandon this
+combination, and to traffic for it "at a reasonable price!"
+
+How naïve to think that after Sadowa and Nikolsburg, the ruin of Austria
+consummated, Germany completely subjected, all intervention of Europe
+checked, and the military weakness of France proclaimed to all the
+winds,[84] that one would find Prussia accessible to those arrangements
+which it had not wished to make before its immense victories, at the
+moment of its greatest perplexities, and in the midst of the anguish of
+a crisis which all the world agreed in proclaiming perilous in the
+extreme! Even on the 8th June, on the eve of the war, M. Benedetti thus
+summed up the state of public opinion in Prussia in regard to France:
+"The apprehensions which we inspire everywhere in Germany still exist,
+and they will awaken unanimously and violently at the least sign which
+would allow our intention of enlarging our boundaries towards the East
+to be guessed. The king, like the most humble of his subjects, would not
+bear at this moment the suggestion of the probability of a sacrifice on
+the Rhine. The crown prince, so profoundly convinced of the dangers of
+the policy of which he is the witness, declared, not long ago, to one of
+my colleagues, with extreme vivacity, that he preferred war to cession,
+if it was only the little county of Glatz."[85] And it was the same
+diplomat who had so appreciated the situation before the campaign of
+Bohemia, it was this same ambassador who now took upon himself to
+present to M. de Bismarck the demands of the cabinet of the Tuileries,
+who even submitted to him on the 5th August a project for a secret
+treaty, implying the abandonment to France of all the left bank of the
+Rhine, without excepting the great fortress of Mayence! "In view of the
+important acquisitions which the peace assures to the Prussian
+government," said M. Benedetti, "I was of the opinion that a territorial
+remodeling would hereafter be necessary for our security; I have
+instigated nothing, I have still less guaranteed the success; I have
+only allowed myself to hope for it, provided that our language were firm
+and our attitude resolute." Was firmness wanting, or was too much of it
+shown? In any case, M. de Bismarck asserts that he replied in a tone
+which certainly showed no irresolution. "Very well," he replied to the
+pressing entreaties of the ambassador, "then we will have war. But let
+his majesty well observe, that such a war could become in certain
+eventualities _a_ war with a revolution, and that in presence of
+revolutionary dangers, the German dynasties would prove to be much more
+firmly established than that of Napoleon."[86]
+
+That was not, however, the last remark of the Prussian minister.
+Perfectly decided not to admit the discussion on the subject of the
+Rhine, he took care, nevertheless, not to completely discourage the
+French ambassador, and to continue a game with him which later, in his
+circular of the 29th July, 1870, he called by the name, unknown until
+then in the diplomatic dictionary, of _dilatory negotiations_. He spoke
+of his liking for Napoleon III., of his great ambition to solve in
+concert with him the important problems of the future. "Prussia needs an
+alliance with a great Power;" that was his inmost conviction; he did not
+cease to preach it to the king his august master,--and what alliance
+more desirable, in a point of view of progress and of civilization, than
+that with the French empire? He thus returned to his recent effusions of
+Brünn and Nikolsburg; he insinuated "that _other arrangements_ could be
+made which would satisfy the respective interests of the two
+countries,"[87] and he strengthened M. Benedetti in his design to return
+to Paris and to expose the situation.
+
+At Paris the conflict of Powers was carried on with vigor between the
+minister of foreign affairs and the ambassador of Prussia, M. de Goltz,
+ably seconded by the _party of action_, to which the arrival of M.
+Benedetti (11th August) brought considerable support. M. Drouyn de Lhuys
+was not at all surprised at the _Prussian ingratitude_, as M. Benedetti
+had expressed it in one of his last dispatches,[88] but, by a logic
+which escapes us, he did not the less rejoice at seeing the French
+demands at last stated, "They can be taken up again in good time." He
+had no doubt of the use that they would soon make on the banks of the
+Spree of the project of the treaty of the 5th August! He hoped, besides,
+that the final refusal given at Berlin would cause the ardent promoters
+of dangerous intrigues to reflect that it would prevent certain
+engagements for the future which he apprehended above all. M. de Goltz
+suddenly told him that he had come to an agreement with the emperor
+concerning the annexations to be effected by William I. in Northern
+Germany, and a letter addressed the 12th August by the chief of state to
+the Marquis de La Valette cut short all controversy with Prussia. "It
+results from my conversation with Benedetti," wrote Napoleon III. to the
+minister of the interior, "that we will have all Germany against us for
+a small profit; it is important not to let public opinion be mistaken on
+this point." The misfortune was only that the imperial government
+allowed itself at this moment to be misled on a very dangerous point,
+and that Belgium became for it, from that time, the object of a
+negotiation as deceptive as fatal, and from which later, at the
+beginning of the war of 1870, it in vain endeavored to elude the
+crushing responsibility.
+
+That M. de Bismarck was, from the beginning, the great tempter of the
+imperial government, and the tempter repulsed even for a long time, in
+these shadowy projects concerning the country of the Meuse and the
+Escaut, is a truth which to-day cannot be doubted, the authentic
+documents published lately suffice to convince the most incredulous
+mind. It was not only in his conversations with General Govone that the
+president of the Prussian council indicated on several occasions, and
+very clearly, Belgium and certain parts of Switzerland as the most
+proper territories to "indemnify France:" long before the spring of the
+year 1866, even long before the interview of Biarritz, M. de Bismarck
+had tried to _sell the bear-skin_, as Napoleon III. said to him one day.
+General La Marmora, who understood it a long time, adds that "the bear
+was neither in the Alps nor in the Carpathians; he was very well (_stava
+benone_) and he neither wished to die nor to be caged up."[89] Such
+suggestions were, without doubt, of a nature to startle the _party of
+action_ in the councils of the empire, they were, however, eagerly
+received by it; but scornfully checked, up to that point, by M. Drouyn
+de Lhuys, treated as "projects of brigandage" by the chief of the state,
+they had to await that hour of _patriotic anguish_ which marked the
+arrival of Benedetti, to be at last taken into serious consideration.
+
+Certainly the ambassador of France at the court of Berlin had, in this
+year 1866, a very difficult and painful situation, we had almost said a
+pathetic one. He had worked with ardor, with passion, to bring about
+this _connubio_ of Italy and Prussia, which seemed to him to be an
+immense good fortune for the imperial policy, a brilliant victory gained
+over the old order of things to the profit of the "new right" and
+Napoleonic ideas. In the fear, very well founded besides, of seeing this
+work miscarry and Prussia draw back, if one spoke to it of eventual
+compensations and preventive engagements, he had not ceased to dissuade
+his government from any attempt of this kind, and to lay stress upon the
+fierce, intractable, and suspicious patriotism of the House of
+Hohenzollern, even to the point of being sometimes suspected at the
+Hotel of the Quai d'Orsay of somewhat exaggerating the colors, and of
+making a certain devil blacker and more German than he really was. The
+work had at last succeeded; succeeded beyond all expectations; succeeded
+in inspiring fear, in suddenly convincing M. Benedetti "that a
+territorial remodeling was henceforth necessary to the security of
+France." This remodeling he had flattered himself for a moment with
+having obtained on the Rhine: "He had not guaranteed the success, but he
+had allowed himself to _hope_ for it." Refused with firmness, if not
+with pride, "and having taken the measure of Prussian ingratitude," he
+was nevertheless soon given to hope what the minister of William I. had
+insinuated to him, "that other proper arrangements could be made to
+satisfy the respective interests of the two countries," and he had
+grasped at the expedient which was thus pictured before his eyes, with
+so much the more feverish energy as he saw in it a new triumph for the
+modern right and the principles dear to his party. Anxious to repair the
+consequences of a policy to which for his part he had contributed more
+than any other to make it successful; recognizing, however, the
+difficulties, if not the impossibility, for the court of Berlin to cede
+any portion of the German soil, and always convinced of the sincere
+desire of M. de Bismarck "to indemnify France,"[90] at this decisive
+hour he made himself, at the side of Napoleon III., the interpreter of
+the ideas which he had gathered from the head-quarters at Brünn, and
+pleaded with warmth for this necessary and fruitful alliance with
+Prussia, which, extolled for a long time by the Palais Royal, had
+recently deluded even the well balanced mind of M. Rouher.
+
+Let it be well understood, there was no question of immediate action, of
+which, indeed, the military situation of the country allowed no thought;
+the question was simply of an agreement and a solidarity to be
+established for future eventualities, for the time more or less distant,
+but inevitable, when Prussia should think of crowning its work, of
+freeing the Main, of extending its rule from the Baltic to the
+Alps,--this question was of _boldly taking stand on the ground of
+nationalities_! "If France boldly takes its stand on the ground of
+nationalities," said a curious note found among the papers of the
+Tuileries, and which incontestably sums up the ideas of the party of
+action at this epoch,[91] "it is necessary to establish now that there
+exists no Belgian nationality, and to fix this essential point with
+Prussia. As the cabinet of Berlin seemed to be, on the other hand,
+disposed to enter with France into arrangements which would suit France,
+there would be time to negotiate a secret act which should bind the two
+parties. Without pretending that this act was a perfectly sure
+guarantee, it would have the double advantage of compromising Prussia,
+and would be for it a gage of the sincerity of the policy or of the
+intentions of the Emperor.... To be certain of finding at Berlin a
+confidence which is necessary for the maintenance of an intimate
+understanding, we must try to dissipate the apprehensions which have
+always been entertained, which have been reawakened, and even
+overexcited by our last communications. This result cannot be obtained
+by words; an act is necessary, and one which will regulate the ulterior
+lot of Belgium in concert with Prussia, in proving at Berlin that the
+emperor seeks elsewhere than on the Rhine the extension necessary for
+France since the events of which Germany was the theatre. We must at
+least have a relative certainty that the Prussian government will not
+oppose our aggrandizement in the North."
+
+
+III.
+
+It was with the mission of negotiating a _secret act_, binding the two
+parties in the sense indicated by the note which we have just given,
+that M. Benedetti left Paris towards the end of the month of August. The
+act was to provide for an offensive and defensive alliance between the
+two states, and, in exchange for the recognition of the changes already
+accomplished or still to be accomplished in Germany, to assure to
+Napoleon III. the diplomatic aid of Prussia for the acquisition of
+Luxemburg, and its _armed_ aid at the moment when France should judge it
+opportune to annex Belgium. Immediately on his arrival at his post the
+French ambassador went resolutely to work: he carried on the negotiation
+_without the knowledge of his immediate chief_, and only referred to the
+emperor and the minister of state.[92] He begged the president of the
+council of Prussia to regard the propositions of the 5th August, those
+relative to the left bank of the Rhine, as null and void, as a joke of
+M. Drouyn de Lhuys during the sickness of his august master, and
+submitted to him a new project in five articles concerning Belgium. It
+matters little that the ambassador of France had with him the minute of
+it which he had written in the cabinet of the Prussian minister, at his
+request, and, "in some measure at his dictation;" it is certain that
+Benedetti acted according to the instructions from Paris,[93] and that
+M. de Bismarck on his part did not decline such overtures. He had even
+made observations on some of the terms employed in the draft, and
+insisted on introducing several changes in the text. The project thus
+amended was sent to Paris, and returned anew to Berlin with
+rectifications made by the emperor and M. Rouher. On the banks of the
+Seine, in the councils of the small number initiated in the secret,
+they were full of expectation and cheerfulness; they debated the
+question of the successor of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and the opinions were
+divided between M. La Valette and M. Benedetti; they exchanged ideas
+which were soon expressed in a sadly celebrated document, and they
+rejoiced at seeing "the treaties of 1815 destroyed, the coalition of the
+three Powers of the North broken, and Prussia made sufficiently
+independent and sufficiently compact to ignore its former
+traditions."[94] All of a sudden a discouraging dispatch from the
+ambassador of France at the court of Berlin (29th August) troubled their
+minds, and they had again some apprehensions on the subject of the
+"necessary and fruitful alliance" which they flattered themselves with
+having established.
+
+The conferences had continued up to the last days of the month of
+August, and M. de Bismarck had lent himself with good grace to the
+_dilatory negotiations_. In the mean time, the peace of Prague, the
+definite peace with Austria, was signed (26th August); the States of the
+South had adhered one after the other to the stipulations of Nikolsburg,
+and solemnly recognized the confederation of the North, as well as the
+territorial acquisitions of Prussia. The secret act concerning Belgium
+was in the hands of the minister of William I., and only needed to be
+fairly copied and signed, but at this moment M. Benedetti suddenly met
+with strange inconceivable distrusts which did not fail to wound him
+deeply. M. de Bismarck hesitated, spoke to him of his fears "that the
+Emperor Napoleon would wish to make use of such a negotiation to create
+suspicion between Prussia and England." The stupefaction of the French
+ambassador was extreme. "What degree of confidence can we on our side
+accord to those open to such suspicions?" he asked in his dispatch of
+the 29th August.[95] The proceeding seemed to him unjustifiable, and, in
+order not to be tempted to qualify it, he judged it opportune "to go for
+a fortnight to Carlsbad where he would hold himself ready to return to
+Berlin on receipt of the first telegram which M. de Bismarck should
+address to him." Slightly moved at this circumstance, the court of the
+Tuileries was not the less obstinate in believing in the _secret act_
+which was preparing at Berlin; it dismissed M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and long
+before the arrival of his successor from Constantinople, M. de Moustier,
+they hastened to publish that famous circular of the 16th September,
+which bore the signature of the minister of the interior, M. de La
+Valette, and was one more pledge given to the conqueror of Sadowa. The
+manifest praised the theory of combinations and affirmed that "Prussia,
+enlarged, free henceforth from any solidarity, would assure the
+independence of Germany;" as to the most secret hopes, scarcely an
+allusion was made to them: "France can only desire territorial
+aggrandizements which do not alter its powerful cohesion." Nothing
+happened, however, and M. Benedetti waited in vain under the elms and
+the beautiful firs of Carlsbad: M. de Bismarck gave no sign of life. He
+had gone to Varzin, from whence he did not return until the month of
+December. The _dilatory negotiations_ had borne all their fruit in the
+month of August, and the French government would have been too happy if
+all those shadowy intrigues had remained for it only a simple deception:
+they became its chastisement.
+
+M. de Benedetti had, however, pretended to know his man, to have
+_followed_ him for fifteen years! He had followed him in any case during
+the negotiations of the spring which brought about the treaty between
+Prussia and Italy; he had then contemplated the magnificent tilt between
+the _viper_ and the _charlatan_, and himself very judiciously judged a
+situation in which the plenipotentiaries of the two countries had
+surpassed one another in miracles of the true Punic faith. "M. de
+Bismarck and General Govone distrusted and still distrust one another,"
+M. Benedetti wrote in his dispatch of the 27th of March, 1866. "It is
+feared at Florence that, finding itself in possession of _an act which
+places Italy in a certain degree at its discretion_, Prussia will make
+known the stipulations of it at Vienna and will persuade the Austrian
+cabinet, by intimidation, to peacefully make the coveted concessions. At
+Berlin, they fear that Italy, if they promised to negotiate on these
+bases, will directly inform Austria before concluding any treaty, and
+will thus try to obtain from it the abandonment of Venice." After a
+similar experience _in anima vili_, how could M. Benedetti have left on
+the table of the president of the council of Berlin his compromising
+autograph on the subject of Belgium, _an act which in a certain degree
+placed France at the mercy of Prussia_? How could he be astonished at
+seeing his interlocutor "open to certain suspicion," and did he not on
+the contrary make the same calculations for his own account and profit?
+It was, however, very foolish to suppose that M. de Bismarck had the
+will to do unto others that which he declared he did not wish others to
+do unto him! And the ambassador of France would have scarcely been wrong
+in crediting this charitable thought to his interlocutor, however
+unevangelical, for the amusing or rather the sad part of the
+affair,--the true humor of all this imbroglio, as the Bardolph of
+Shakspere would say,--is that the cavalier of the Mark had already
+executed precisely the manoeuvre, indifferently chivalric surely, of
+which he pretended to suspect Napoleon III., and that the thing was done
+at the moment when he demanded if they had nothing in their hands and
+pockets. They had left in his hands two very secret and dangerous
+documents, the two plans of the treaties on the Rhine and Belgium,[96]
+and he took care not to avail himself of them immediately at the expense
+of the interested parties, whom he had every interest to attach to
+himself.
+
+The preliminaries of Nikolsburg, the reader will remember, had
+stipulated that the States of the South should remain outside of the new
+confederation directed by Prussia, and that they should form among
+themselves a restricted union. That was the great success obtained by
+the French mediation, the salutary combination of the _three fragments_,
+much more favorable to the interests of France, according to its
+opinion, than that of the former _Bund_, the ill-omened creation of
+1815. It is true that among the persons initiated in the secret of
+Benedetti's mission, "this group of confederates" was only regarded as
+"a matter of business for a reasonable profit;" in waiting, however,
+they "saved" the South, and M. Drouyn de Lhuys honestly exerted himself,
+in this month of August, 1866, to aid the unhappy plenipotentiaries of
+Bavaria, of Würtemberg, of Hesse, etc., who had gone to seek a definite
+peace at Berlin. M. de Bismarck had first frightened them by his fiscal
+and territorial demands; they had invoked and obtained the support of
+the emperor, and in the Tuileries they flattered themselves with having
+in truth persuaded the minister of William I. to more equitable
+sentiments. Still, on the 24th August, M. Drouyn de Lhuys wrote to his
+agent in Bavaria: "I am happy to think that our last step has not been
+without influence on the result of a negotiation which is ending in a
+more satisfactory manner than the cabinet of Munich had at first thought
+possible;" and it was not only M. Benedetti who took to himself in this
+matter the credit of playing the fine _rôle_ of moderator.[97] The truth
+is, that if M. de Bismarck ended by becoming more moderate and even
+amicable towards the Southern States, he had very different motives than
+the desire of being agreeable to the cabinet of the Tuileries. He had
+simply shown to "the group of confederates" the project of the treaty of
+the 5th August; he had made them see that the French government, at the
+same time when it seemed to protect, sought to extend itself together
+with Prussia at their expense, and demanded portions of the Palatinate
+and of Hesse. In place of demanding from them the sacrifices which they
+feared, the minister of William I. offered to defend them against the
+"hereditary enemy." There was no hesitation: the States of the South
+surrendered, and Prussia concluded with them (from the 17th to the 23d
+August) _secret_ treaties of offensive and defensive alliance. The
+contracting parties guaranteed reciprocally the integrity of their
+respective territories, and the States of the South engaged to place, in
+case of war, all their military forces at the disposal of the King of
+Prussia. The "matter of business," on which M. Rouher had counted, was
+henceforward out of the market; the line of the Main found itself free
+before it had been traced on the official map of Europe, and from the
+month of August, 1866, M. de Bismarck could count on the armed
+coöperation of all Germany.[98]
+
+The military conventions with the States of the South were kept
+rigorously secret for a long time, and it was not till the spring of the
+following year that M. de Bismarck found it convenient to give them a
+crafty publicity in reply to the speech of the minister of state on the
+_three fragments_. Up to that time M. Benedetti had been ignorant of
+them, like other mortals, but he had shown himself more clear-sighted as
+regards another very grave event, contemporary with these conventions
+concluded with the South, and he recognized from the beginning the
+ominous bearing of the mission of General Manteuffel to St. Petersburg
+in the month of August, 1866. It must not be forgotten that at the
+bottom of the "new policy" which during this month they were flattering
+themselves with having inaugurated at the Tuileries by a cordial
+understanding with the court of Berlin, a Russian problem was agitating.
+Would the monarchy of Brandenburg, "rendered sufficiently independent
+and sufficiently compact to loosen itself from its traditions, free
+henceforward from all solidarity," decide to break its secular and
+hitherto unrelaxed ties with the empire of the czars? That was the true
+and vital question of the future. "Prussia must have an alliance with a
+great Power," the minister of William I. did not cease to reiterate at
+this epoch; but, as Austria was destroyed, and England had long since
+condemned itself to widowhood, only France and Russia remained, between
+whom the lucky conqueror of Sadowa had then the position of the Don Juan
+of Mozart, between Doña Anna and Doña Elvira. Surprised in the darkness,
+imposed upon in a moment of deplorable misunderstanding, the proud and
+passionate Doña Anna occasionally cast glances of defiance and
+_venganza_, oftener, alas! looks still ardent from the last embrace, and
+betraying the secret flame, which even said very plainly, that she
+would go still farther, provided there was reparation, provided that a
+marriage followed, if it was only a clandestine marriage. Russia was
+Doña Elvira, the former, the _legitimate_ ally a little vexed at recent
+neglect, even very gravely injured in family interests, but always
+loving, always fascinated, and only waiting for a kind word to forget
+all and to throw herself into the arms of the fickle one. We only speak
+briefly of Zerline, of Italy, a cunning and lively soubrette, intruding
+herself everywhere, in love, she also, the poor little thing, with the
+irresistible seducer, and often treated very cavalierly, happy,
+nevertheless, to be pinched privately, and to say that she also was
+"protected by a great lord."
+
+Such being the situation in this decisive month, the ambassador of
+France to the court of Berlin experienced a violent shock in learning
+one day of the sudden departure for St. Petersburg of General
+Manteuffel, the general-diplomat, more diplomat than general, the
+confidant, _par excellence_, of King William, and always the man for
+private missions. "I have asked M. de Bismarck," M. Benedetti hastened
+to write to Paris, "what I should think of this mission, confided to a
+general commanding troops in the campaign. After having pretended that
+he thought he had informed me of it, M. de Bismarck assured me that he
+had told M. de Goltz, in order that he might instruct you." Strictly
+speaking, one finds it natural that the king wished to plead before his
+imperial nephew the extenuating circumstances of a painful situation,
+which forced him to take the goods and the crowns of several very near
+relations of the House of Romanoff; but the French ambassador was above
+all struck by the circumstance that the journey of M. de Manteuffel had
+been decided the day after he had delivered his project of the treaty.
+"I asked the president of the council," he continues in the same
+dispatch, "if this general officer had been informed of our overture; he
+answered that he had had no occasion to make him a party to it, but that
+he could not guarantee to me that the king had not told him the
+substance. I should add, as I have told you by telegraph, that I gave a
+copy of our project to M. de Bismarck on Sunday morning, and that
+General Manteuffel, who had scarcely removed his head-quarters to
+Frankfort, was called to Berlin in the following night." Towards the end
+of the month of August, when M. de Bismarck for the first time showed
+his hesitation in signing the secret act concerning Belgium, M.
+Benedetti wrote, in a letter to M. Rouher, concerning the mission that
+M. de Manteuffel continued to fill at St. Petersburg. "They have
+elsewhere obtained assurances which dispense with our aid," said he; "if
+they decline our alliance, it is because they are already provided, or
+on the eve of being."[99]
+
+General Manteuffel remained several weeks at St. Petersburg; he stayed
+there long enough to dissipate a certain sadness caused by the recent
+misfortunes of the Houses of Hanover, Cassel, Nassau, etc., all allied
+by blood to the imperial family of Russia, also long enough to
+communicate such projects and show autographs by which they had
+treacherously endeavored to turn the Hohenzollern from his loyal,
+unalterable affection for his relative of the North. Thanks to all these
+proceedings, and all these attentions, the good harmony between the two
+courts became greater than ever; they easily explained the past, and
+arranged for the future, and the ambassador of France at the court of
+Berlin was not deceived in designating, from this moment, the "bear,"
+whose skin the general-diplomat had gone to sell on the banks of the
+Neva. To speak in the words of the Marquis La Marmora, it was a bear of
+the Balkans, which had not been well for a long time, and which the
+Emperor Nicholas had declared _sick_ twenty years before. One will see
+in the sequel that Alexander Mikhaïlovitch did not the less miss the
+deer at the general hunt in 1870, that he scarcely succeeded in getting
+for himself a handful of hair well fitted to adorn his helmet; that
+takes nothing from the merit of the perspicacity which the unfortunate
+negotiator of the _secret_ act concerning Belgium had given proof of on
+this occasion. M. Benedetti early foresaw the desolating truth, which,
+for M. Thiers, was not visible until very late, at the bottom of this
+_Russian box_ which M. de Bismarck allowed him one evening, at
+Versailles, to rummage with a liberality which was certainly not free
+from malice.
+
+In endeavoring, after the great disaster of the campaign of Bohemia, to
+obtain from Prussia compensations first on the Rhine, then on the Meuse,
+the Emperor Napoleon III., in those months of July and August, 1866, had
+only facilitated for M. de Bismarck the two great political
+combinations which were since, in 1870, of such prodigious use: the
+armed coöperation of the Southern States, and the moral aid of Russia in
+case of a war with France. The chief fault, however, of the Napoleonic
+policy the day after Sadowa, was to have so well served Prussia in its
+desire to escape from all control on the part of Europe, and to have
+given its sanction from the very first to such an immense derangement of
+the equilibrium of the world, without the cause being brought before the
+areopagus of nations. This forgetfulness of the duties towards the great
+Christian family of states was only too quickly and too cruelly avenged,
+alas! and Prince Gortchakof, in 1870, only followed a recent and
+lamentable example in allowing France and Germany to decide their
+quarrel in the lists, in hindering all common action of the Powers, all
+European concert. "I see no Europe!" cried M. de Beust, in 1870, in a
+celebrated dispatch, and no one thought of disputing this dolorous
+affirmation. A few only observed with sadness that the eclipse had
+already lasted several years, that it dated from the preliminaries of
+Nikolsburg and from the treaty of Prague.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[76] This detail, as well as those which follow, are taken from the
+narration made by M. Thiers himself, some days later, to the diocese of
+Orleans, and gathered together by M. A. Boucher in his interesting
+_Story of the Invasion_ (Orleans, 1871), pp. 318-325.
+
+[77] "He (M. de Bismarck) only goes out accompanied, and agents of
+French police will come as far as the frontier to follow him during the
+whole journey," announced M. de Barral from Berlin, the 1st June, 1866,
+three days after the assault by Blind. M. Jules Favre (_History of the
+Government of the National Defense_, vol. i. p. 163-164) speaks of the
+uneasiness manifested by the minister of William I. at the interview at
+the castle of _Haute-Maison_, at Montry: "We are very badly off here;
+your _Franc-tireurs_ can take aim at me through the windows." One can
+also recall the language of the German chancellor in the Prussian
+chambers concerning the assault by Kulmann.
+
+[78] According to the analysis of Lord Lyons, to whom M. de Chaudordy
+communicated this telegram.--Dispatch of Lord Lyons, of the 6th October,
+1870. It is curious to compare with this singular telegram of M. Thiers
+the opinion expressed by Prince Gortchakof before the English
+ambassador, "that the conditions indicated in the circular of M. de
+Bismarck of the 16th September could only be modified by military
+events, and that nothing authorized such a conjecture."--Dispatch of Sir
+A. Buchanan of the 17th October. Now the conditions indicated in the
+Prussian circular of the 16th September were already _Alsace and Metz_.
+
+[79] Confidential note of M. Magne for the emperor.--_Papers and
+Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. p. 240.
+
+[80] The letter addressed to the minister of France at the Hague and
+placed under the eyes of the emperor, was re-found at the Tuileries
+after the 4th September.--_Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial
+Family_, vol. i. p. 14.
+
+[81] This, however, was only a short desire on the part of Prince
+Gortchakof, a design without consequence, and of which we find the only
+authentic trace in an obscure phrase of a dispatch of the French
+ambassador at Berlin. Vide Benedetti, _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 226.
+
+[82] Dispatch in cipher intercepted by the Austrians and published in
+connection with the war of 1866 by the Austrian staff.
+
+[83] _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. ii. pp.
+225, 228. The editors pretend that this letter was addressed to M. de
+Moustier, which is entirely erroneous, M. de Moustier being then at
+Constantinople. We are inclined to believe that the receiver was M.
+Conti, who had accompanied the emperor to Vichy. It will be remembered
+that Napoleon III., very unwell and suffering during this whole epoch,
+had gone the 27th July to Vichy, where M. Drouyn de Lhuys went to see
+him for a short time; the chief of the state could not, however, prolong
+his sojourn in the watering-place, and returned to Paris on the 8th
+August.
+
+[84] "For some time it has been too often said that France _is not
+ready_."--Confidential note of M. Magne of the 20th July (_Papers and
+Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. p. 241). M. de Goltz had
+early discovered this secret, and had not ceased to recommend to M. de
+Bismarck a firm attitude as regarded France.
+
+[85] _My Mission in Prussia_, pp. 171-172. M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who had
+already obtained from Austria the cession, in any case, of Venetia,
+insisted at this moment more strongly than ever that they should also
+take pledges in advance from Prussia, "the most formidable, the most
+active of the parties." M. Benedetti did not cease to oppose such a
+proceeding, fearing that Prussia would renounce in this case all idea of
+war against Austria, and this dispatch of the 8th July was in reality
+only a new plea in favor of the _laisser-aller_ without conditions which
+should be granted to M. de Bismarck.
+
+[86] Benedetti, _My Mission in Prussia_, pp. 177 and 178. _Moniteur
+prussien_ (_Reichsanzeiger_) of the 21st October, 1871.
+
+[87] _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 181. This assertion of M. Benedetti is
+fully confirmed by the note found among the papers of the Tuileries, of
+which we will speak farther on.
+
+[88] "Prussia will disregard what justice and foresight demand, and will
+give us at the same time the measure of its ingratitude, if it refuses
+us the guarantees which the extension of its frontiers obliges us to
+claim."--Dispatch of M. Benedetti, the 5th August, 1866, found at the
+castle of Cerçay among the papers of M. Rouher, and published in the
+_Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October, 1871. Towards the same epoch,
+they spoke also of the ingratitude of Italy. "The unjustifiable
+ingratitude of Italy irritates the calmest minds," wrote M. Magne in his
+confidential note by order of the emperor, dated the 20th July. The
+cabinet of Florence in truth created in France at this moment unheard of
+embarrassments by susceptibilities and demands which, to say the least,
+were very ill-timed. After having been beaten on land and sea, at
+Custozza and at Lissa, and having received as a recompense the
+magnificent gift of Venetia, the Italians made pretensions to Tyrol!
+There was even an instant when the emperor thought "of renouncing the
+fatal gift made him, and of declaring, by an official act, that he gave
+back to Austria its parole." See the curious note of M. Rouher written
+by order of the emperor, _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial
+Family_, vol. ii. pp. 229 and 23.
+
+[89] La Marmora, _Un pó più di luce_, p. 117. Report of General Govone,
+3d June, 1866. _Ibid._ p. 275.
+
+[90] "All the efforts which he (M. de Bismarck) has without cessation
+made to bring about an agreement with us prove sufficiently that, in his
+opinion, it was essential to indemnify France."--_My Mission in
+Prussia_, p. 192. Thus thought the ex-ambassador of France, even in
+1871!
+
+[91] _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. pp. 16,
+17. The editors thought that they recognized in this note the
+handwriting of M. Conti, chief of the emperor's cabinet.
+
+[92] "On my departure from Paris, towards the middle of August," says M.
+Benedetti, in his book, _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 194, "M. Drouyn de
+Lhuys had offered his resignation, and I supposed that his successor
+would be M. Moustier, who was then ambassador at Constantinople. At this
+moment there was no minister of foreign affairs. In this state of
+things, I thought it _proper_ to address to the minister of state, M.
+Rouher, the letter in which I announced my interview with M. de
+Bismarck, and which accompanied the plan of treaty relative to Belgium."
+M. Drouyn de Lhuys had not tendered his resignation towards the middle
+of August; right or wrong, he believed at this epoch that he was "doing
+an act of honesty and disinterestedness in remaining," and his portfolio
+was not taken from him till 1st September, 1866. Up to that date M.
+Drouyn de Lhuys had not ceased to direct the department; the ambassador
+himself quotes in his book several dispatches exchanged with him, on
+grave questions, dated 21st and 25th August (pp. 204, 223), and M.
+Benedetti has singular ideas on the hierarchical duties, believing that
+it is _proper_ for an agent to evade the control of his immediate chief
+in view of his near retirement. The conclusion of the passage quoted in
+the book of M. Benedetti is not less curious: "M. Rouher," says he, "has
+not laid before the ministry, having never taken the direction of it,
+the correspondence which I, during several days, exchanged with him. If
+I gave it here, I should not know how to refer the reader, that he might
+verify the text of it, to the depot of the archives, as I am authorized
+to do with all the documents which I put before his eyes." What of that?
+Once decided to make revelations, M. Benedetti could have well produced
+this correspondence with M. Rouher on such a disputed subject, while
+conscientiously warning the reader that he could not find the originals
+at the depot of the archives. (It is known that the originals were
+seized by the Prussians, with a great number of other important
+documents, in the castle of M. Rouher, at Cerçay.) While throwing "a
+little more light" on all the unnatural obscurities, let us also observe
+that it is wrongfully, but with a design easy to divine, that the
+celebrated circular of M. de Bismarck, of the 29th July, 1870 (at the
+beginning of the war), had assigned to this plan of the secret treaty
+concerning Belgium a much later date, the year 1867, the epoch after the
+arrangement of the affair of Luxemburg. This allegation does not
+withstand a first examination and a simple comparison of the parts
+delivered to the public. The shadowy negotiation on the subject of
+Belgium was held in the second half of the month of August, 1866, as M.
+Benedetti says.
+
+[93] The _Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October, 1871, gives (from the
+documents seized at Cerçay) extracts from the instructions sent from
+Paris the 16th August to M. Benedetti concerning the secret treaty. A
+passage from these instructions contains "the designation of the persons
+to whom this negotiation was to be confined."
+
+[94] Quoted from the circular of M. de La Valette of the 16th September,
+1862.
+
+[95] These details, as well as those which follow, are taken from the
+papers seized at Cerçay and published in the _Moniteur prussien_ of the
+21st October, 1871.
+
+[96] The two plans of the treaties have since been published by the
+Prussian journals of the 29th July and 8th August, 1870. The Prussian
+government is now in possession of two French autographs of the plan
+concerning Belgium; the one which M. Benedetti left with M. de Bismarck
+in the month of August, 1866, the other likewise from the hand of M.
+Benedetti, with marginal notes by Napoleon III. and M. Rouher; this
+latter document was seized at Cerçay. For the description and other
+details, see the _Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October, 1871, and the
+article from the _North German Gazette_ on the subject of the affair La
+Marmora.
+
+[97] Private letter from M. Benedetti to the Duke of Gramont, dated 22d
+August, 1866. _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 192.
+
+[98] Albert Sorel, _Diplomatic History of the Franco-German War_, vol.
+i. pp. 29, 30.
+
+[99] Papers seized at Cerçay, _Moniteur prussien_ of the 21st October,
+1871.
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+ORIENT AND OCCIDENT.
+
+
+I.
+
+"They have provided themselves elsewhere," the French ambassador at the
+court of William I. sadly wrote, in the last days of the month of
+August, 1866, on seeing Prussia so brusquely break off the _dilatory
+negotiations_ concerning Belgium; and it is just to add that he has
+never since ceased to clearly appreciate the situation, and to keep his
+country constantly on its guard as regards the confidential harmony and
+absolute agreement between the two courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg
+after the mission of General Manteuffel. If he nevertheless endeavored
+for some time to obtain a compensation for his country,--a very modest
+one, it is true, and consonant with the new fortune of France,--if,
+during the first months of the year 1867, he particularly flattered
+himself with obtaining from the kindness of M. de Bismarck the
+permission to buy Luxemburg from the King of Holland, if he even once
+went so far, during a hasty journey to Paris, as to affirm, in a
+confidential conversation, that he already had the fortress of Alzette
+"in his pocket," it was not that he thought it possible to return to the
+beautiful dream of the head-quarters of Brünn, and to effect that
+"necessary and fruitful alliance with Prussia" with which at a certain
+moment some sanguine minds on the banks of the Seine had been deluded.
+He was only persuaded that the conqueror of Sadowa would not envy France
+this paltry atonement of Luxemburg, that he would even find it worth
+while to "indemnify" the Emperor Napoleon III. so cheaply, so that, in
+the words of the poet, "the lion would only gape before such a little
+morsel." The lion roared, however, shook his mane with fury, and
+signified harshly that it had done forever with any _politique de
+pour-boire_. But even this only confirmed M. Benedetti in the opinion
+that they had provided themselves elsewhere, and that henceforward they
+were on the verge of great trouble. He thought rightly that M. de
+Bismarck must be very sure of the support, in any case, of his former
+colleague of Frankfort, to refuse to France even this moderate prize
+(_aubaine_), and to give it on this occasion "the measure of its
+ingratitude."
+
+At the same time with the affair of Luxemburg, the events in Crete
+showed in their turn to the cabinets of Vienna and the Tuileries how far
+Prince Gortchakof was already pledged to M. de Bismarck, and how
+resolved to sacrifice to his friendship with Prussia the most brilliant
+prospects. Whoever reads attentively the curious exchange of notes which
+the troubles of Crete had caused, will see that, during the entire epoch
+from the month of November, 1866, to the month of March, 1867, the two
+governments of Austria and France had sought to sound the designs of the
+court of St. Petersburg, and to make very significant advances to it.
+The insurrection of the Candiots, one will remember, in the autumn of
+1866, surprised and moved Europe, scarcely recovered from the violent
+shock of Sadowa. Immoderately exaggerated by the journalists, who were
+more or less interested, after having excited lively sympathy in Russia,
+the insurrection ended by seriously occupying the attention of the
+chancellors, and seemed for a moment destined to bring before the
+cabinets the whole question of the Orient in its appalling _ensemble_.
+Certain cabinets did not even seem greatly dismayed at the contingency:
+instead of conforming with the constant traditions of diplomacy in the
+Ottoman affairs, instead of quelling the disturbance and lessening as
+much as possible its proportions and bearings, M. de Moustier thought
+that he ought "to find means to pacify the Orient," and busied himself
+"in convoking a sort of _consultation of doctors_ to learn the opinion
+of each one concerning the remedy to be applied to the evil."[100] Still
+more astonishing was the language used by the government of Vienna, by
+the Power which up to that time and always had contented itself with
+sustaining Turkey _per fas et nefas_, without demanding anything from
+it, no more for the immediate subjects of the sultan than for the
+tributary provinces. Resolutely breaking with these habits of the past,
+M. de Beust, who had at this time just undertaken the direction of
+affairs in Austria, wrote on the 10th November, 1866, to his ambassador
+at Paris that, while desiring to preserve the throne of the sultan,
+"Austria could not refuse its sympathies and its support in a certain
+degree to the Christian peoples of Turkey who have at times just
+demands to make, and who are connected with some of the peoples of the
+Austrian empire by close ties of blood and religion." Questioned some
+days later (28th November) by the envoy of Russia at the court of
+Vienna, the Austrian minister did not hesitate to reply that he was
+disposed to favor amongst the Christians of the Orient "the development
+of their autonomy and the establishment of a limited self-government by
+a bond of vassalage." Lastly, in a remarkable dispatch addressed to
+Prince Metternich and dated the 1st January, 1867, M. de Beust proposed
+"a revision of the treaty of Paris of the 30th March, 1856, and
+subsequent acts," announcing in advance his desire to make over, in the
+arrangement to intervene, the greater part to Russia. He had no trouble
+in showing that "the remedies through which they had sought, in the
+course of the last few years, to maintain the _statu quo_ in the Orient,
+had shown themselves insufficient to subdue the difficulties which grew
+with each day." "The physiognomy of the Orient taken as a whole,"
+continued the dispatch, "shows itself to-day under an essentially
+different aspect from that which it had in 1856, and the stipulations of
+that epoch, exceeded as they are on more than one important point by
+after events, no longer answer to the necessities of the actual
+situation." In a word, M. de Beust looked to nothing less than to a
+joint intervention of the European Powers in the affairs of Turkey,
+without concealing that in such a situation, "there would be an
+opportunity to take into consideration, in a fitting degree, the natural
+_rôle_ which the commonalty of religious institutions would secure for
+Russia in the Orient," and clearly showing the necessity of relieving
+the empire of the czars of the onerous conditions which were imposed
+upon it in the Black Sea, "in order to secure for himself by a
+conciliating attitude the sincere coöperation of this Power in the
+questions of the Levant."
+
+It was truly a bold plan; it did not even fail to violently shock the
+French feelings. Was it not in truth to erase with a single stroke a
+past of ten years, to lose all the fruit of the Crimean war? They had
+some repugnance in avowing to themselves that the treaty of 1856 had not
+existed for a long time, alas! since the day when the French government
+had broken by its gratuitous kindness towards Russia this cluster of the
+three great Occidental Powers which alone could assure its efficacious
+execution. Since then the act had gradually become void, had been
+violated in the majority of the stipulations; and the conference of
+Paris, charged nominally with watching over the observance of the
+treaty, was always restricted, as the Austrian dispatch observed, "in
+giving its sanction to facts accomplished outside of its sphere of
+action, and which were not in harmony with the agreements placed under
+its protection." However, on the day after Sadowa, Prince Gortchakof did
+not fail to seize the first opportunity to begin to prepare the epitaph
+of the treaty of Paris. "Our august master," said the Russian chancellor
+in a document dated the 20th August, 1866, and marked by fine
+irony,--"our august master does not intend to insist on the general
+engagements of the treaties _which have no value except by reason of
+the accord existing between the great Powers in order to make them
+respected_, and which to-day have received, by _the want of this joint
+will_, too frequent and too severe blows not to be rendered _invalid_."
+It was exactly this _collective will_ which M. de Beust expected to
+revive and strengthen in projecting the revision of the act of 1856.
+According to his opinion, the treaty of Paris had not attained its
+purpose, which was to insure the entireness and the vitality of the
+Ottoman empire. On one side the Occidental Powers have imposed on Russia
+on the banks of the Euxine a restriction of its rights of sovereignty
+which a great empire could not definitely accept, and from which sooner
+or later it would seek to free itself. On the other side, and as regards
+the Christian population of the Levant, they contented themselves with
+promulgating a firman promising reforms, and leaving Turkey to itself,
+instead of reserving for Europe the right to watch over the Ottoman
+government with a gentle but continued vigilance, so that it should
+fulfill its duties toward the rajahs, and by a wise and honest
+administration become independent and strong. The treaty of Paris had
+only, thought the Austrian minister, given to Russia what the Crimean
+war ought to have refused it above all,--the monopoly of influence over
+the rajahs; this monopoly it continued to exercise as in the past, in a
+hidden manner, it is true, but so much the more dangerously as it
+recognized no competition. M. de Beust wished to reëstablish the
+competition, or rather he wished to establish a general agreement "to
+make the Christian populations of the sultan _the debtors of all
+Europe_, in giving them, by the care of all the guaranteeing courts,
+autonomous institutions according to the diversity of religions and
+races,"[101] and he hesitated the less to make to this vast conception
+the sacrifice of the article of the treaty of Paris touching the
+neutralization of the Black Sea which Austria had combated from the
+beginning, and to which it had only given its adherence at the last
+moment to humor the Occidental Powers and put an end to the Crimean war,
+the events of which had since demonstrated its complete inefficacy. It
+was under the influence of the disaster of Sinopa that France and
+England had hoped to restrain the naval forces of the czar in the
+Euxine. They had thus thought to shelter Constantinople from a blow from
+the Russian hand; but on this point, as on so many others, the
+physiognomy of the Orient had essentially changed. Russia no longer
+meditated a _coup de main_: it advanced more slowly, but much more
+surely, towards its goal. The pacification of the Caucasus[102] the
+irremediable weakness of the Porte and the daily increasing discontent
+of the rajahs, as impatient of the Turkish yoke as they were devoted to
+their sole protector, the czar, were worth to it all the vessels of the
+Black Sea. "However, have they really freed Constantinople from all
+danger on that side?" asked the Austrian minister. "Supposing that
+Russia decides to construct vessels in the Sea of Asoph, will war be
+declared to hinder it?" And the cabinet of Vienna concluded by these
+characteristic words: "The question of _amour-propre_ should not be
+decisive in view of the immense interests which are at stake to-day." In
+fact, they could not insist too much on this truth: the clause on the
+subject of the Euxine had been for a long time only a "question of
+_amour-propre_" between the Occidental Powers and Russia; nor could one
+deny that M. de Beust saw far and justly in his dispatch of the 1st
+January, 1867. On the day after Sadowa, he sought to reconstitute
+Europe, to regain it, if we are allowed to express ourselves thus, and
+he knew how to fix the price of it.
+
+In a different direction, France exerted itself on its part to accede to
+the views of the cabinet of St. Petersburg in concentrating its efforts
+principally on the question of the hour, on this Candian insurrection,
+of which public opinion in Russia had so ardently espoused the cause. M.
+de Moustier proposed to Prince Gortchakof "an understanding on the
+eventualities which might arise in the Orient," and, after having
+already spoken of a "consultation of doctors," in a dispatch addressed
+to the ambassador of France at Constantinople (7th December, 1866) he
+even pronounced the words "heroic remedies." By this always medical
+euphemism, one understood, at Paris, the annexation of the isle of Crete
+to Greece, "the only possible issue," Prince Gortchakof had affirmed,
+the 16th November, 1866, "if the Powers will leave expedients and
+palliatives, which up to the present time have only increased for the
+future the present difficulties." The marriage of the young King of the
+Greeks, George I., with the Grand Duchess Olga Constantinovna, was then
+a decided matter, and at the Tuileries one demanded nothing better than
+to make the isle of Crete the "dowry" of the Russian princess. In fact
+they would not have felt any inconvenience, it seems, in increasing this
+dowry with Epirus and Thessaly: that was going very far, much farther
+even than could be desired by Russia, which had no interest in "allowing
+such an extension of Greece that it might become a powerful state."[103]
+It was the reconciliation between France and Russia that gave birth to
+the plan of a common proceeding to demand of the Turkish government the
+realization of the internal reforms, and the cession of Crete, disguised
+under the proposition of a plebiscite, a proceeding which was
+effectively realized in the month of March, 1867, and to which Austria,
+Prussia, and Italy rallied. Without doubt there was still a great deal
+of vagueness, and above all of desultoriness in the situation which
+began to take a form at this moment, and it was to be regretted that
+France and Austria had not previously agreed to be of one mind on the
+nature of the offers which they intended to make to Russia; but the
+offers were very real and very great, we cannot deny that; and it only
+depended on the successor of Count Nesselrode to arrange, to adjust, and
+to turn them to the profit and the glory of his august master. England
+could not oppose serious obstacles to the joint will of France, Russia,
+and Austria, in the affairs of the Levant; it was already resigned, and
+certainly the fruit which Prince Gortchakof saw ripening in the spring
+of 1867, although not having all the attraction of forbidden fruit, was
+nevertheless good and savory, very different from that which, four years
+later, he was to pick up in the ashes of Sedan.
+
+It is true that the governments of France and Austria did not mean to
+make a gratuitous gift; it was understood that, in exchange for these
+very large concessions in the Orient, they should obtain the support of
+the cabinet of St. Petersburg in the menacing complications of the
+Occident, and many circumstances seemed to plead in favor of such a
+combination. After all, and exclusive of the vengeance taken on "the
+ungrateful" empire of the Hapsburg, Russia could not greatly rejoice at
+the work of M. de Bismarck. Without mentioning several relations of the
+imperial family whom the Hohenzollern dethroned and despoiled with
+firmness tempered with a few tears, there was in general in the
+proceedings and principles inaugurated on the Elbe and the Main a strong
+revolutionary taint which could hardly please a court which did not
+cease to protect the shadow of Nicholas. The gravest, however, was that
+the victory of Sadowa had just brusquely disturbed and even threatened
+to ruin entirely the secular system of the Russian policy in regard to
+the affairs of Germany.
+
+In fact, since Peter the Great, especially since Catherine II., Russia
+had always labored to obtain a preponderant influence among the
+different German courts: its czars have more than once acted with a high
+hand and used high words in the Teutonic troubles. "The Romanof enjoys
+with us a birthright acknowledged by his brothers, our sovereigns of the
+_Bund_," a celebrated publicist of the other side of the Rhine exclaimed
+with bitterness one day, and the attitude of the secondary States during
+the Crimean war truly did not weaken the justice of this expression. But
+it was this work of several reigns, and of a thought hitherto immutable,
+that Russia saw placed in question by the foreseen results of the
+campaign of Bohemia. The North of Germany was already escaping its
+influence, and the "_naïf_" ones alone could deceive themselves on the
+fortune reserved for the South in a very near future. "From the month of
+September, 1866, the cabinet of Berlin had, in a circular which was
+designedly made public, claimed for the confederation of the North and
+the States of the South alone, to the exclusion of all the other Powers,
+without excepting Austria, the right to bind their relations as closely
+as they wished, thus giving to Article IV. of the treaty of Prague, an
+interpretation of which it did not admit. In the speeches which he had
+delivered at the opening of the Prussian chambers and of the Northern
+parliament, the king himself, while addressing them _to Germany, to the
+brotherly peoples, to the country which the Alps and the Baltic bound_,
+had given utterance to allusions which made, according to the expression
+of the official journals, the hearts of all patriots tremble."[104] On
+his part, M. de Bismarck had cried out in the midst of the same
+parliament, using these gambling terms which are so common in his
+language and so characteristic of his temperament: "Our stake has become
+greater in consequence of our victories; we have now more to lose, but
+the game is still far from being completely won!" By means of a combined
+and resolute action of Europe; the absorption of all Germany by Prussia
+was only a question of time and of management; Russia, even less than
+France, would find its reward in it. France only saw uniting in a more
+compact and menacing body a confederation of kingdoms and principalities
+which already before had been either hostile, or at least opposed to it.
+Russia, on the contrary, lost an entire league of states, whose fidelity
+and devotion had never wavered, who formed for it a sort of continuous
+_enceinte_ on the side of an occasionally unsympathetic Occident; in
+their place was to arise a formidable Power, restless and invading from
+the very start, called sooner or later by the necessity of history, by
+the fatality of race, to represent and to oppose the Germanic to the
+Sclavic idea. At every other epoch of the empire of the czars, in the
+good old time of Count Nesselrode, for instance,--when, in place of a
+policy of spite and propaganda on the banks of the Neva, they maintained
+a policy of conservation and equilibrium,--the conduct of a Russian
+chancellor in such an occurrence would not have been doubtful: a
+coalition of Russia, of France, and of Austria would have been formed on
+the day after Sadowa for the safety of Europe, and it is not saying too
+much to affirm that, in the spring of the year 1867, Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch held in his hands the destinies of the world.
+
+Thus compelled to make his choice, Prince Gortchakof was unwilling to
+decline the French and Austrian advances in the question of the Orient;
+on the contrary, he hastened to echo them loudly, and sometimes even
+rose on this occasion to a lyricism not often heard in the chancellors'
+offices. He was charmed with the new minister of Austria, and filled all
+the country with a rather forced enthusiasm. "M. de Beust," he wrote to
+his ambassador in London, "inaugurates a new era in the policy of
+Austria, an era of large and elevated views; he is the first statesman
+of this country and of our epoch who courageously endeavors to leave the
+ground of petty rivalries." As regards France, he endeavored especially
+to indicate plainly that the initiative came from it, and "while begging
+the Emperor Napoleon III. to recall the interviews which the Emperor
+Alexander had had with him at Stuttgart" (in 1860), he seemed to wish to
+assign to the present conferences an extraordinary character of gravity
+and generality. "His imperial majesty," continued the Russian
+chancellor, in his dispatch of the 16th November, 1866, to M. de
+Budberg, "has received with satisfaction the overtures which M. le
+Marquis de Moustier has made us in view of an understanding between the
+French cabinet and ours on the eventualities which might arise in the
+Orient. The general principles which the French minister of foreign
+affairs has propounded, the assurances which he has given us, have in
+the eyes of our august master a very especial value, since they emanate
+from the direct thought of the Emperor Napoleon, and since it was by the
+express order of his majesty that M. le Marquis de Moustier has
+broached these questions." The animation and spirits of Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch increase daily: he even ended by talking Latin and by
+confounding the poor Turkish envoy with a classical quotation. "Here,"
+he wrote in the month of February, 1867, "is what I have said to
+Comnenos-Bey: the isle of Crete is lost to you; after six months of such
+a bitter struggle, reconciliation is no longer possible. Even admitting
+that you succeeded in reestablishing there for some time the authority
+of the sultan, it would only be on a heap of ruins and a mountain of
+corpses. Tacitus long ago told us of the danger there is in this reign
+of silence which succeeds devastation: _Solitudinem faciunt, pacem
+appellant_."
+
+Unfortunately it did not take long to see that while holding out hopes
+to France and Austria for the success of their Oriental movement, and
+even endeavoring to compromise them in this direction as much as
+possible,[105] the Russian chancellor was extremely careful to maintain
+his intimate accord with his former colleague of Frankfort, and not to
+oppose him in his ideas in the affairs of the Occident. Very ardent for
+the cause of the plebiscite in Crete, he showed on the contrary an
+absolute indifference on the subject of an analogous cause on the Eider,
+otherwise legitimate, however, guaranteed by solemn treaties,[106] and
+which interested to such a high degree the noble and unfortunate country
+of the future empress. He preserved a not less significant silence as
+regarded the publication made in the month of March, 1867, by M. de
+Bismarck, of the conventions with the Southern States, conventions which
+bound to Prussia the military forces of Germany, and abolished, in fact,
+"the international independent situation" which the preliminaries of
+Nikolsburg had stipulated for Bavaria and Würtemberg.[107] Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch held Würtemberg as cheaply as Denmark, the throne of Queen
+Olga, as the cradle of the Princess Dagmar. In the mean time the affair
+of Luxemburg arose, and the French government could measure the degree
+of benevolence with which it had succeeded in inspiring the cabinet of
+St. Petersburg by its "heroic remedies" as regards Turkey. The Russian
+chancellor was surely right and very sincere in his desire for peace,
+but he had not for the position of France the regards which England
+itself thought just to show it; he seemed, above all, engaged in not
+giving umbrage to his illustrious friend of Berlin. While also
+glorifying M. de Beust for his "courageous endeavor to have done with
+petty rivalries," the Russian government did not fail to encourage at
+the same time, in the most dangerous and provoking manner, the violent
+Sclavic opposition in the empire of the Hapsburg by means of that famous
+_congress_ of Moscow, of which we shall speak later. Other deceptions
+still, less known to the public, but not less sharp, probably added to
+all these disappointments, for Austria as well as France did not delay
+in making their retreat from this shifting ground of the Orient and
+joining in with England in thenceforward firmly maintaining the rights
+of the sultan. The "consultation of doctors" had a final end, and the
+legendary _sick man_ was none the worse for it; but all was then decided
+for the terrible eventualities of the future.
+
+"There exists an understanding between St. Petersburg and Berlin," M.
+Benedetti again avowed in the year after (5th January, 1868), while
+speaking of the so often mentioned mission of General Manteuffel as the
+point of departure of this agreement which did not cease to harass him.
+"Was it not, in fact, from this moment," he asked, "that the two courts
+indicate more plainly their policy, Russia in the Orient and in the
+Sclavic Provinces of Austria, Prussia in Germany, without even a cloud
+arising between them? Firmly united on all questions, they have, each
+for itself, pursued their designs with a confidence which proves that
+they have stipulated mutual guarantees." And the ambassador adds that
+this conviction begins to impress itself on many minds, especially on
+Lord Loftus, his English colleague, for a long time very incredulous on
+this matter. "His manner of seeing is sensibly modified, and he is not
+less persuaded than other members of the diplomatic corps that final
+arrangements had been made between the two governments of King William
+and the Emperor Alexander. I have, for my part, found the permanent
+demonstration of it, if I may so express myself, in the firmly fixed
+resolution, which has never changed, of the cabinet of Berlin, to
+inaugurate German unity for its own especial benefit, without allowing
+itself to be moved for an instant by the possibility of a conflict with
+France. I have also seen the proof of it in the care with which M. de
+Bismarck avoids explaining himself on the question of the Orient. When
+one asks him, he replies that he never reads the correspondence of the
+ministers of the king at Constantinople; and your excellency will not
+have forgotten with what complaisance he has always lent himself to the
+views of Prince Gortchakof." M. Benedetti also notices "the new impulse
+given since last summer to the Pan-Sclavic propaganda;" he shows very
+clearly the vast designs and far-reaching hopes of the cabinet of St.
+Petersburg, in its connivance with Prussia, and gives a higher and
+juster idea in general of the Russian policy at this epoch than certain
+ill-advised panegyrists of our day, who, to prove that Prince Gortchakof
+has filled his _rôle_ as completely as possible, and with all desirable
+success, can devise nothing better than to lessen and depreciate this
+part.
+
+
+II.
+
+It is the characteristic of all conventional praise to exaggerate not
+only the tone, but even to deceive itself sometimes in the amount; there
+is perfume and ashes in incense, said the ancients, and there is
+something equivocal also in the usual manner of congratulating the
+Russian chancellor on his "triumph" in the question of the Euxine. To
+pretend that Prince Gortchakof did not favor the audacious designs of
+Prussia in order to free Russia from its bonds in the Black Sea, that he
+delivered Europe in advance to Prince Bismarck in the sole hope of some
+day repudiating to his advantage the act of 1856, is in truth to pay as
+little honor to his genius as to his patriotism. Certainly the eminent
+statesman whose "prophetic glance" the grandchildren of Washington[108]
+celebrated at St. Petersburg in the year of Sadowa, supplicating the
+eternal God, "who had made the sun stand still for Joshua," also to
+suspend the course of life for Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, "so that the
+eyes of the world might long remain fixed on him,"[109] the consummate
+diplomat who, in the spring of 1867, slighted the important advances
+made by the cabinets of Vienna and the Tuileries,--certainly this
+minister did not fail at this moment to put aside with a disdainful
+smile, the petty hypothesis, that in the approaching and foreseen
+overturning of Europe, there would be assigned to Russia as its sole
+victory and conquest, the abolition of any wounding article of a treaty
+which events had long before rendered "invalid." It was not for such a
+"plate of lentils," to use the language of M. de Bismarck, that Prince
+Gortchakof intended to cede to the Hohenzollern the fixed _birthright_
+of the Romanof; he did not think of abandoning the Occident for such a
+ridiculous price: he looked higher, and expected to have the lion's
+share in the quarry to come. Fortune has deceived his hopes, defeated
+his calculations, and forced him to bend to many unforeseen necessities;
+but, if it is puerile to allow him to have made virtues of all these
+vexatious necessities, and to form for him a sort of aureole of
+lightnings and thunderbolts of the war of 1870, history, in its
+impartiality, must not the less take into consideration the intentions
+of Prince Gortchakof, which were as great as the events themselves, and,
+without denying his defeat, nevertheless accord him the full benefit _in
+magnis voluisse_.
+
+They cherished, in fact, great, gigantic projects on the banks of the
+Moscova and the Neva, in all this agitated and feverish epoch which
+separated Sedan from Sadowa; they deluded themselves with enchanting
+dreams; they divided the world between Sclavians and Germans, and the
+"national" minister responded to the ardent wishes of the entire nation
+in making the Prussian alliance the pivot of its policy, in seeing in it
+the absolute condition and the sure pledge of a future of glory and
+prosperity for Russia. We must look back on the universal mental
+agitation in consequence of the equally prodigious and unforeseen
+victory of Prussia in 1866, on the innumerable fantastic plans which
+were then suddenly formed for the reconstruction of empires and races;
+it is necessary to recall this endless flight of Minervas all armed,
+whom the blow of the German Vulcan's hammer caused to spring forth from
+so many cracked heads who thought themselves Olympian,--the general
+_remoulding_ which our poor philosophy of history, at once so cutting
+and so malleable, undergoes in the twinkling of an eye,--to appreciate
+justly the current of strange and impetuous ideas which then seized the
+people of Peter the Great and of Catherine II. "An irresistible power
+forces the people to reunite in great masses, making the secondary
+States disappear, and this tendency is perhaps inspired by a sort of
+providential prevision of the destinies of the world." This, on the day
+after Sadowa, was the expression of an official document of
+incontestable authority, a diplomatic manifest which announced _urbi et
+orbi_ the profoundest thoughts of the imperial government of
+France.[110] How can one be astonished, then, that the children of
+Rourik followed the same reasoning, and asked themselves with candor if
+the battle of Koenigsgraetz did not entirely deliver Central Europe to
+the Hohenzollern and Oriental Europe to the Romanof? After some moments
+of hesitation and surprise, Muscovite patriotism resolved therefore, to
+take no umbrage at the ambition of King William I., but it immediately
+proclaimed that Russia also had a mission to fulfill, an "idea" to
+realize, and that the sun of national unities and grand combinations
+shone for all the world.
+
+There was in the old capital of the czars a celebrated journal whose
+power has since greatly declined, and which, although now an ordinary
+paper only, but still important, then exercised a preponderant, tyrannic
+influence, from the Dwina to the Ural: it was occasionally called, and
+without malice, "the first power in the state after the emperor." From
+the time of the fatal insurrections of Poland, the "Gazette of Moscow"
+was in truth the monitor of the popular passions of Holy Russia, the
+office from whence the word of command for public opinion went forth
+into the vast empire of the North, and it often issued formal
+instructions for the directing ministers at St. Petersburg. Even at this
+time the all-powerful organ of M. Katkof made itself the mouth-piece of
+the nation, and imperiously traced the programme of the policy of the
+future. Only a short time after the conclusion of the peace of Prague,
+the journal of Moscow laid down "as an incontestable truth, that the
+march of events has produced interests which invite the two Powers of
+Russia and Prussia to ally themselves still more actively than in the
+past;" it affirmed, moreover, that overtures on this point had been made
+by M. de Bismarck, "overtures the more acceptable as Prussia has no
+interests in the Orient; on this question, the cabinet of Berlin could
+take, in concert with Russia, such an attitude as suited it." The theme
+was again taken up and developed under many a form and in many an
+article, until a leader of the 17th February, 1867, impressed on it the
+great consecration of a speculative and humanitarian principle.
+
+"The new era is at last sketched," one reads there, "and for us Russians
+it has a peculiar bearing. This era is truly ours; it calls to life a
+new world kept until now in the shadow and expectation of its destinies,
+the Græco-Sclavic world. After centuries passed in resignation and
+servitude, this world at last reaches the moment of renovation; what has
+so long been forgotten and down-trodden, comes back to the light and
+prepares for action. The present generations will see great changes,
+great facts, and great formations. Already on the peninsula of the
+Balkan, and under the worm-eaten couch of Ottoman tyranny, three groups
+of lively and strong nationalities are being formed, the Hellenic,
+Sclavic, and Roumanian groups. Closely bound among themselves by the
+commonalty of their faith and their historical destinies, these three
+groups are equally connected with Russia by all the ties of religion and
+national life. These three groups of nations once reconstructed, Russia
+will reveal itself in an entirely different light. It will no longer be
+alone in the world; in place of a sombre, Asiatic power, as it now seems
+to be, it will become a moral force indispensable to Europe, a
+Græco-Sclavic civilization completing the Latin-German civilization,
+which without it would remain imperfect and inert in its sterile
+exclusiveness." Soon after descending from these rather abstract heights
+to the more practical ground of ways and means, the fiery apostle of the
+_new era_ exclaimed on the 7th April: "If France sustains by arms and by
+its political influence the _renaissance_ of the Latin races, if Prussia
+acts in the same manner _vis-à-vis_ to Germany, why, then, should not
+Russia, the only independent Sclavic Power, sustain the Sclavic races,
+and should it not prevent foreign Powers from placing obstacles in the
+way of their political development? Russia should employ all its powers
+to introduce in its neighbors of the South a transformation similar to
+that which took place in Central and Occidental Europe; _vis-à-vis_ the
+Sclavians it should take, without the least hesitation, the rôle which
+France has taken in regard to the Latin races and Prussia _vis-à-vis_
+the German world. The task is a noble one, for _it is exempt from
+egotism_: it is beneficial, for it will achieve the triumph of the
+principle of nationalities, and will give a solid basis to the modern
+equilibrium of Europe; it is worthy of Russia and of its greatness; it
+is immense, and we have the firm conviction that Russia will fulfill
+it."
+
+It was under the stimulant of such theories, hopes, and passions, that,
+in the spring of the year 1867, the strange _ethnological exposition of
+Moscow_[111] was instituted, which soon became the pretext for a great
+demonstration from without, sufficiently inoffensive in appearance to
+remove all diplomatic embarrassment, well calculated, however, to
+produce its effect on _naïf_ and inflammable minds, to fascinate
+unfortunate, disinherited people, richer in imagination than in culture.
+Certainly, true science would draw very little profit from this
+projected reunion in the _manége_ of Moscow of all the Sclavic "types"
+with their costumes, their arms, their domestic utensils, and their
+flora; but the undertaking was considered not the less worthy of the
+most august protection. The emperor and the empress offered considerable
+sums to defray the costs of the work, the Grand Duke Vladimir accepted
+the honorary presidency of it, the high dignitaries of the court and the
+church charged themselves with its direction. Warm appeals were
+addressed to the Sclavians of Austria and Turkey, to their different
+historical, geographical, or other learned societies, to add by
+numerous contributions to the magnificence of the exposition, and a
+cloud of emissaries collected in the countries of the Danube and of the
+Balkan in search of adhesion, samples, and "types." Committees were
+formed in different parts of the empire, in order to worthily prepare
+the reception of the "Sclavic guests," who did not fail to swarm to the
+"national jubilee," and soon a _congress_ was spoken of, in which should
+be discussed the wants and the interests of so many "brother peoples,"
+the hopes and the griefs of the great common country, of the _ideal_
+country. It was the moment, it is necessary to recall it, when the
+Cretan insurrection, always persistent, stirred up by Greece, and
+exaggerated by the journals too little or too well informed, kept the
+Christian populations of Turkey in alarm and on their guard; the moment,
+also, when the Czechen of Bohemia; urging on in consequence almost all
+the Sclavians of Austria, protested against the Cisleithan constitution,
+and refused to sit in the representative chambers of the empire. The
+_Kremlin_ thus became the _mons sacer_ of the _intransigeans_ of the two
+banks of the Leitha, the _congress of Moscow_ had all the appearance of
+an _opposition parliament_ opposed to the Reichsrath of Vienna, and the
+language held by the authorized organs of the cabinet of St. Petersburg
+was not calculated to calm the susceptibilities of the interested
+governments, nor to dissuade vexatious manifestations. Speaking of the
+pious _pilgrims_ of Turkey and Austria who were preparing to visit
+Moscow, "that holy Mecca of the Sclavians," the "Correspondance Russe,"
+the ministerial journal _par excellence_,[112] thus expressed itself in
+the month of April, 1867: "One cannot reasonably demand of us that we
+abjure our past. We will let, then, our guests believe that they have
+come to a sister nation _from whom they have everything to expect_ and
+nothing to fear; _we will listen to their grievances_, and the recital
+of their evils can only tighten the ties which unite us with them. If
+now they intend to establish a comparison between their political state
+and ours, _we will not be foolish enough_ to prove to them that they are
+in the most favorable conditions of Sclavic development. These
+conditions, we believe, on the contrary, to be bad; we have said so a
+hundred times, and we can well say so again."
+
+Without doubt the Russian intrigues in the countries of the Danube and
+the Balkan were not of very recent invention; they even dated back very
+far in the past, from the reign of the great Catherine. Underhandedly
+and secretly, the Pan-Sclavic propaganda had been encouraged or
+protected for nearly a century; but it was for the first time, in this
+summer of 1867, that the government of St. Petersburg thus loftily
+assumed the responsibility of such a propaganda, and unfurled in its
+states the flags of Saints Cyrille and Methode. In an empire where all
+is watched, regulated, and commanded from the throne, where nothing is
+done spontaneously, where all is arranged and _devised_, "foreign
+Sclavians," subjects of two neighboring and "friendly" Powers, were
+admitted, encouraged to come to expose their grievances, to bring
+complaints against their respective governments, to demand assistance
+and deliverance in the name of a new right of nations, of a principle
+lately discovered of great combinations and national unities. _They were
+not foolish enough_ to dismiss these foreign "deputies," to counsel
+reason and resignation to them; on the contrary they spoke to them of a
+"better and approaching condition," they took them through all the
+cities of the empire amidst enthusiastic manifestations directed by the
+colonels and archimandrites, they overwhelmed them with testimonies of
+sympathy, ovations and demonstrations, in which the army, the
+magistrates, and all the higher official world took part. Generals,
+admirals, and ministers presided at banquets where the disaster of
+Sadowa was celebrated as a providential and happy event by the subjects
+of the Emperor Francis Joseph, where appeals were addressed to the czar
+"to revenge the secular outrages of the White Mountain and of Kossovo,
+and to plant the Russian banner on the Dardanelles, and on the basilica
+of St. Sophia." The shock given by such demonstrations to a whole race,
+to a whole religious world, was profound and prolonged, and certainly
+the contemporaneous annals have rarely known a period as _incorrect_ in
+point of view of international right and of the usages of the
+chancellors' offices as that which had for its starting point the
+congress of Moscow and for its end the conference of Paris on the
+subject of Greece. It was a strange one in truth, this epoch, with such
+presidents of the council as Ratazzi, Bratiano, Koumondouros, with
+generalissimos like Garibaldi, Pétropoulaki, and "Philip the
+Bulgarian;" with these expeditions of Mentana, of Sistow, of the
+_Arcadion_ and _Enosis_; with these agitations, to mention all, German,
+Italian, Czech, Croatian, Roumanian, Servian, Bulgarian, Grecian, and
+Pan-Sclavic. Without entering farther into the tiresome history of these
+complex and not yet explained events, it suffices, in order to
+appreciate the general character of them and to comprehend their close
+ties, to re-read with all the attention which it merits the report,
+already mentioned, of the ambassador of France to the court of Berlin,
+dated the 5th January, 1868. "M. de Bismarck must have," wrote M.
+Benedetti, "a disturbed Italy, in permanent disagreement with France, to
+constrain us to maintain forces more or less considerable in the States
+of the Holy See, to be able, if necessary, to excite, by the aid of the
+revolutionary party, a violent rupture between the government of the
+emperor and that of King Victor Emmanuel, to neutralize, in a word, our
+liberty on the Rhine.... And I would not be surprised if M. de Bismarck
+were the instigator of the new impulse given since last summer to the
+Pan-Sclavic propaganda; he finds in it the immediate advantage of
+disturbing Austria by Russia. Russia will assuredly show itself less
+enterprising, and Prussia on its part will not encourage it (Russia) to
+renew the question of the Orient, for the simple reason that it itself
+(Prussia) would gain no advantage in it, if it did not think it
+indispensable to pay with this price for the liberty which it claims in
+Germany. The uncertainty of the situation only tightens every day the
+ties which unite Prussia with Russia and solidifies the ambitions of the
+one in Germany with those of the other in the Orient."
+
+A _permanent committee for the interests of Sclavic unity_ was formed on
+the day after the congress of Moscow, under the auspices of a grand
+duke, and his action was not slow in making itself felt among the
+Ruthenes, the Czechen, the Croatians of Austria; but it was especially
+in the tributary or subject provinces of the Ottoman Porte that the
+agitation became as chronic as it was perilous. The unfortunate Turk was
+assailed on all sides: one day it was the Vladika of Montenegro who
+demanded of him in a menacing tone some port of the Adriatic, another
+day the Prince of Servia demanded the evacuation of some fortress,
+enforcing his request with extraordinary armaments. Numerous convoys of
+arms arrived from Russia in the Danubian Provinces under the false
+designation of material for the construction of railroads,[113] while
+the Greek ships of war did not cease to wish to rekindle with all their
+strength in the isle of Crete an insurrection about to be extinguished
+and which, in truth, never was of very great extent. It was the epoch of
+"committees of aid" and "liberating bands" now overrunning the States of
+the Pope with the cry "_Roma o Morte!_" now making incursions in
+Thessaly to revenge "the outraged manes of Phocion and Philopoemon," or
+again freeing five times in the space of a year the Danube from the side
+of Roumania only to awaken in the Balkans "the lion with the golden
+mane!" "To-day it is our duty, brothers, to prove to European diplomacy
+that descendants of the terrible Krum still exist; the lion with the
+golden mane and the trumpet of war call you." Thus read in the month of
+August, 1868, a proclamation dated from the "Balkans," and signed
+"_Provisional Government_."[114] "It is a fact," wrote on the 6th
+February, 1868, in a curious report addressed to Count de Beust by the
+agent of Austria in the Principalities, Baron d'Eder,--"it is a fact
+that at Bucharest, as in the different cities on the banks of the
+Danube, there exist Bulgarian committees; their object is to provoke
+troubles in Bulgaria, to aid them, to give them more extended
+proportions than those of the past year. Only quite lately they were
+persuaded here that on the return of pleasant weather serious
+complications would break out in Occidental Europe which would permit
+Russia to declare war against Turkey, and, foreseeing these events, they
+have made preparations to influence with energy the Bulgarian rising.
+Although the government of the Principalities is in the hands of a party
+(radical) traditionally hostile to Russia, it has nevertheless for some
+time inclined towards this Power, and expects from it the realization of
+its efforts and its hopes. The journals of the opposition (conservative)
+combat these Russophile tendencies of the government; they reproach it
+with acting in concert with Prussia and with preparing difficulties for
+Austria in case of a conflict between France and Prussia. The journals
+of the government reply by saying that the national party is from
+principle the adversary of no Power, and that there is no reason for
+combating Russia from the moment that this Power defends the cause of
+right and of oppressed nationalities."
+
+Assuredly it would be unjust to throw on the Russian government the
+responsibility of all the disorderly agitations of this epoch in the
+Sclavic-Græco-Roumanian world, but it is not the less true that it did
+nothing to stop or even disown them. In looking over the parliamentary
+documents of this time,--the different blue, red, green, and yellow
+books of the years 1867-1869,--one is struck at meeting at every step
+repeated and energetic representations, addressed by the cabinets of
+London, of the Tuileries, and of Vienna to Servia, Roumania, and to
+Greece concerning their military preparations, the clandestine shipments
+of arms and marauding bands, while the cabinets of St. Petersburg and
+Berlin carefully abstained from any proceeding of this sort. By a
+piquant change of things here below, which must have astonished the
+Nesselrode and the Kamptz in their heavenly abode, the Occidental Powers
+now, England and France, to whom also Austria joined itself, denounced
+to the world the revolutionary practices of the European demagogic
+party, while Prussia kept silent, and Russia refused to deny the fact or
+to plead extenuating circumstances for it. The excuses for the
+government of Athens Prince Gortchakof kindly found in the Hellenic
+constitution: "This constitution," said he, "gives to all Greeks full
+liberty to leave their own country and to take part in any conflict such
+as existed in Crete;"[115] and that was truly an original spectacle,
+that of a minister of an autocracy displaying before an old whig like
+Lord Clarendon the inexorable conditions of a parliamentary and legal
+_régime_. The Porte, it will be remembered, wished to know nothing of a
+legality which destroyed it; it ended by losing patience, by addressing
+an _ultimatum_ to the government of Athens, and a conference assembled
+at Paris "to seek for means to smooth over the difference between Turkey
+and Greece." Some good people apprehended an embarrassed attitude on the
+part of the Russian chancellor before such areopagus, they even believed
+him capable of trammeling the labors of this reunion: this was to ignore
+the resources of a mind as crafty as cultivated, and which profited by
+the occasion to venture his famous _mot_ on Saturn. "I remember," he
+wrote to Baron Brunnow, at London, 13th January, 1869, "that there are
+some persons who accuse Russia of wishing to render the conference
+abortive. One is not ignorant that the conference emanates from the mind
+of the emperor. The fable of Saturn has no application in the wanderings
+of the policy of the imperial cabinet." Alexander Mikhaïlovitch was not
+at the end of his boldness; he became bitter, almost aggressive; he
+spoke of the "excitement from without," of a "process of progress," of
+the "distrust which was attached to every step of Russia," and went so
+far as to denounce a great conspiracy contrived by the Occidental Powers
+against the peace of the Levant. "It is impossible for us not to
+remark," he said, in a dispatch to Baron de Brunnow, of the 17th
+December, 1868, "that this discordant note is not the only one which has
+come to _disturb the echoes of the Orient_. It is thus that we have
+first seen Servia become the end in view of an agitation which,
+originated with the press, ended by gaining over diplomacy; Prince
+Michael Obrenovitch was suspected, and nothing less than his tragic end
+was necessary to disarm the hostilities directed against him. Soon
+after, accusations were directed against the government of the united
+Principalities: the Bulgarian bands became a motive for incrimination,
+it was reproached with having tolerated them, it was accused with having
+encouraged them. This complication was scarcely removed, before a new
+crisis arose in the relations of Turkey with Greece, a crisis still more
+grave and more dangerous to the general peace." Decidedly, in absence of
+the "fable of Saturn," that of the wolf and the lamb had its application
+in the wanderings of the policy of the imperial cabinet of St.
+Petersburg.
+
+The conference of Paris succeeded, nevertheless, in its efforts; the
+Græco-Turkish difference was smoothed over, and with the spring of the
+year 1869 the cold wind of the propaganda whistled less strongly in the
+valleys of the Danube and the gorges of the Balkan. There was a sort of
+lull; but the combustible matters still remained heaped up, ready to
+catch fire from the first spark. The radicals of Roumania were not the
+only ones to foresee an offensive action of Russia in the Orient as soon
+as serious complications should break out in Occidental Europe; that was
+an almost universal conviction, and one which the children of Rourik
+shared the very first. The end of the year 1869 was signaled by an
+incident which did not fail to gravely impress all serious minds. They
+celebrated at St. Petersburg the centennial of the institution of the
+Order of St. George, the great military order of Russia, and of which
+the first class is only conferred on him who gains a brilliant victory.
+The Emperor Alexander II. sent this distinction to King William I., to
+the conqueror of Sadowa and the former champion of 1814. "Accept it," he
+telegraphed him, "as a new proof of the friendship which unites us, a
+friendship founded on the souvenir of that great epoch when our united
+armies fought for a sacred cause which was common to us." And the King
+of Prussia soon replied by telegraph: "Profoundly touched, and _with
+tears in my eyes_, I thank you for the honor which you have done me, and
+which I did not expect; but what pleases me still more are the
+expressions by which you have announced it to me. I see, in truth, in
+these expressions a new proof of your friendship and your remembrance of
+the great epoch when our united armies fought for the same sacred
+cause."[116]
+
+At the commencement of the same year, and while the conference of Paris
+was still sitting, there died at Nice a faithful servant of the
+sultan's, one of the last great statesmen of Turkey. Before descending
+into the tomb, Fuad-Pacha traced with a faltering hand a memorial for
+his august master, which he said was his political testament. The
+document was to remain secret, and, in fact, only came to light quite
+recently.[117] "When this writing is placed before the eyes of your
+majesty," one reads in it, "I will no longer be in this world. You can
+therefore listen to me without distrust, and you should imbue yourself
+with this great and grievous truth, that _the Empire of the Osmanlis is
+in danger_." And after having reviewed the different states of the
+Continent, and marked out the conflict more or less near, but
+inevitable, between France and Prussia, Fuad-Pacha concluded by these
+words: "An intestine dissension in Europe, and _a Bismarck in Russia_,
+and the face of the world will be changed."
+
+
+III.
+
+God alone could contemplate his finished work, and say "that it was
+good;" our poor humanity rarely tastes such a pure enjoyment, and the
+_party of action_ in the councils of the second empire scarcely
+experienced it in consequence of the events of 1866, which it had so
+powerfully contributed to create. The ambassador of France at the court
+of Berlin was among the number of the disabused; the achievement of
+Italian unity only consoled him, very imperfectly in truth, for the
+profound blow which the calamity of Sadowa had given his own country.
+His disenchantment was great; but there is nothing like a great and
+grievous deception to sharpen and refine a mind naturally sagacious; and
+if Pascal has spoken of a second ignorance, that which comes after
+knowledge, there is also for certain diplomats a second knowledge, and
+like a second sight after a passing blindness. One cannot praise too
+highly the eminent qualities of observation and of judgment which M.
+Benedetti showed during the last four years of his embassy at Berlin,
+and, for this epoch of 1867 to 1870, history will fully confirm the
+testimony which he once thought proper to testify of himself, while
+protesting before his chief,[118] that during his mission in Prussia he
+had been "an active, correct, and far-seeing agent."
+
+From 1867, in fact, the ambassador worked with patriotic zeal to
+enlighten his government on the state of affairs in Europe, and to
+advise it to make a strong resolution, either to resign itself frankly
+to the inevitable, or to prepare in good time for a conflict very
+imminent and full of great perils. He represented Prussia as working
+without cessation to unite all Germany, at the risk of provoking a
+conflict with France, inclining only too often to consider such a
+conflict as the surest and most direct means of arriving at its ends. In
+such a case, he guarded against giving them the least hope from the
+_particularists_ of the South. "At the beginning of a national war," he
+said, "the most obstinate among them will only be extinguished by the
+masses who will regard the struggle, whatever may be the circumstances
+in the midst of which it will break out, as a war of aggression of
+France against their country; and if the fortune of arms were favorable
+to them, their demands would know no limits." He also noticed "the most
+active propaganda" which M. de Bismarck maintained in the countries the
+other side of the Main: "With the exception of some journals in the pay
+of the governments (of Munich and Stuttgart), or belonging to the
+ultra-radical party, the press seconds him in all the Southern States."
+He also sent word to Paris that the minister of William I. continued
+his negotiations with the revolutionary party in Italy; that he received
+agents of Garibaldi, unknown to the regular government of King Victor
+Emmanuel, the personal friend of the Emperor Napoleon III., who, at the
+time of the complications of Mentana, had only sounded Prussia in order
+to know "in what measure it could lend it its aid."[119] He was also the
+first to give warning concerning the shadowy practices with Prim and the
+Spanish candidature of the Hohenzollern. Lastly, one has already seen
+that he had recognized from the beginning the alarming character and
+true bearing of the mission of General Manteuffel to Russia.
+
+"However difficult it may be for a great country like France to trace in
+advance its line of conduct in the actual state of things," said M.
+Benedetti to his government at the beginning of the year 1868, "and
+however great may be the part which it expects to take in unforeseen
+contingencies, the union of Germany under a military government strongly
+organized, and which in certain respects has of parliamentary _régime_
+only external forms, constitutes, however, a fact which touches too
+closely our national security to allow us to dispense with preparations,
+and to solve, without longer delay, the following question: Would such
+an event endanger the independence or the position of France in Europe,
+and would not this danger be conjured up only by war? If the government
+of the emperor thinks that France has nothing to fear from such a
+radical alteration in the relations of the states situated in the centre
+of the Continent, it will be desirable, in my opinion, in the interest
+of the maintenance of peace and public prosperity, to shape entirely and
+without reserve our attitude according to this conviction. If the
+contrary opinion is entertained, let us prepare for war without
+cessation, and let us be well assured in advance of what aid Austria can
+be to us; let us shape our conduct so as to solve one after the other
+the questions of the Orient and that of Italy; all our united forces
+will not be too great to render us victorious on the Rhine."
+
+Especially in his manner of judging of the accord established between
+the two courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg, M. Benedetti showed a
+justness and superiority of judgment truly remarkable. He had the merit
+of foreseeing the understanding from the first moment, and of positively
+believing in it until the last. In the month of September, 1869, the
+Emperor of the French had thought of appointing as ambassador to the
+czar one of his most intimate friends, one of his most devoted
+coöperators of the 2d December, a general renowned for his bravery and
+intelligence, a grand equerry. It was sufficient to indicate that they
+wished to enter into relations as intimate and direct as possible, and
+in spite of the exchange of telegrams at the festival of St. George,
+they were already, at the beginning of the year 1870, full of hope; they
+believed that _the affair was progressing of itself_.[120] The French
+general, an able man, however, was very quickly taken to the bear hunts,
+to journeys on sledges, and shown many other marks of august kindness,
+which he had the modesty to credit to the policy of his master, in place
+of attributing them with much more reason to his very real and in truth
+very fascinating personal charms. The conviction of the grand equerry
+was shared by those surrounding him, especially by his aides-de-camp,
+who did not delay to praise in their confidential letters addressed to
+Paris, "the great results obtained" by their chief, and to speak of "his
+growing favor with the Emperor of all the Russias," in terms very strong
+and much more military than diplomatic.[121] Without being imposed upon
+by all these recitals, full of cheerfulness, M. Benedetti did not the
+less persist in his well founded conviction; even on the 30th June,
+1870, on the very eve of the war, he expressed it in a lucid dispatch,
+from which we will have more than one instructive passage to quote.
+Speaking of the recent interview (1st-4th June) of the Emperor Alexander
+and the King of Prussia at Ems, the ambassador supposes that M. de
+Bismarck had shown himself then, as generally, on one side favorable to
+the policy of the cabinet of St. Petersburg in the Orient, and that on
+the other he endeavored to excite the susceptibility of the czar in the
+questions which agitate the national sentiment in Russia as regards
+Austria, Galicia, etc. "While the minister will have undertaken to
+reassure the emperor on the first of these two points and to alarm him
+on the other, the king will have displayed that good grace of which he
+has always known how to make such a marvelous use to capture the
+sympathies of his august nephew, and I do not doubt, for my part, that
+they have left impressions in conformity with his desire. But whatever
+may have been the means which they employed, their object must have been
+to strengthen the emperor in the sentiments which they have been able to
+inspire in him, and they have attained it more or less."
+
+M. Benedetti was, however, far from admitting an official arrangement
+drawn up in due form between the two courts, and above all far from
+believing that the minister of Prussia had in all sincerity and candor
+made the cession and abandonment of the Oriental heritage to the hands
+of his former colleague of Frankfort, and it is precisely in such
+estimates that the uncommon perspicacity of the French diplomat shows
+itself. M. de Bismarck could for the necessities of the moment, simulate
+indifference regarding the affairs of the Levant, affirm that he "never
+read the correspondence of Constantinople," and even consider the
+pretensions of Russia "to introduce a certain unity in the intellectual
+development of the Sclavians, legitimate;"[122] but the extreme care
+which he used at the same time to maintain the most intimate relations
+with the Hungarians, his allies of 1866, should have already enlightened
+the zealots of Moscow concerning the inanity of their dream of a
+division of the world between the sons of Teut and those of Rourik. "The
+Hungarians regard us, us Prussians, as their mediate protectors against
+Vienna in the future," wrote, in a confidential dispatch, Baron de
+Werther in the month of June, 1867, on his return from the coronation of
+Buda, to reassure the cabinet of Berlin on the recent enthusiasm of the
+Magyars reconciled with their "king;" it is not only against Vienna, it
+is still much more against Moscow and St. Petersburg, against any
+Sclavic preponderance on the banks of the Danube, that the children of
+Arpad will in the future have aid from the Hohenzollern. "Prussia has no
+rightful interests in the Orient," M. de Bismarck was pleased to say in
+the years 1867-1870, and the organ of M. de Katkof did not cease to
+repeat this remark so often commented on; but from the day when Prussia
+identified itself with Germany, or rather incorporated itself in it, it
+remained charged, under pain of forfeiture, with the Germanic interests
+and influences in the countries of the Danube and of the Balkan, and the
+interest then became greater, much greater, than that of France and
+England.
+
+All this was very well understood by the ambassador of France to the
+court of Berlin, and from time to time keenly exposed in the dispatches
+which he addressed to his government during the last years of his
+mission in Prussia. Writing, in his report of the 5th January, 1868, of
+the complaisance with which the chancellor of the confederation of the
+North always lent himself to the views of Prince Gortchakof, M.
+Benedetti added, however: "He (M. de Bismarck) persuades himself without
+doubt that other Powers have an interest of the first order in
+preserving the Ottoman empire from the covetousness of Russia, and he
+abandons the care of it to them; he knows, moreover, that _nothing can
+be definitely accomplished there without the aid or the adhesion of
+Germany, if Germany is united and strong_; he believes, then, that he
+can, for the present, and without peril, himself sharpen the ambition of
+the cabinet of St. Petersburg, provided that he obtains in return for
+this condescension a kind withdrawal from everything which he undertakes
+in Germany."
+
+"In the Orient," wrote the ambassador some time after (4th February,
+1868), "M. de Bismarck is careful to preserve a position which does not
+bind him in any way, and permits him, according to the necessities of
+his own designs, to give the hand to Russia, or to ally himself with
+Occidental Powers; but he can only preserve this position by abstaining
+from any proceeding which would compromise him with the friends or the
+adversaries of Turkey." This reasoning was not long in being fully
+justified by the attitude of Prussia, during the conference of Paris, on
+the subject of Greece (January, 1869). The cabinet of Berlin did not
+share in the ardor of Alexander Mikhaïlovitch; it did not defend, as he
+did, persecuted innocence in the person of "the young Roumania," and of
+the Servian _Omladina_, and above all was careful to denounce the great
+conspiracy of England, France, and Austria against the peace of the
+Levant. In reality the minister of Prussia did not wish the death of the
+just Osmanli, still less the collapse of Hungary, the advance guard of
+the Germanic "mission" in the East;[123] and his sympathies for a
+"certain ideal unity" of the Sclavians grew cold in proportion as the
+hour of the real unity of Germany approached. "Any conflict in the
+Orient will put it under the influence of Russia," wrote the French
+diplomat the 27th January, 1870, "and he will seek to excite it; he
+tried it last year at the beginning of the Græco-Turkish trouble.
+_Russia is a card in his game_ for the eventualities which may arise on
+the Rhine, _and he is particularly careful not to change the rôles_, not
+to become himself a card in the game of the cabinet of St. Petersburg."
+
+Some months after, on the very eve of the war with France (30th June,
+1870), M. Benedetti, while thinking that the ties between Russia and
+Prussia could only have been drawn closer in the recent interview of
+Ems, concluded by the following observations: "It must not be supposed,
+however, that M. de Bismarck thinks it opportune to connect his policy
+closely with that of the Russian cabinet. In my opinion, he has not
+contracted and is not disposed to make any engagement which might, while
+compromising Prussia in the complications of which Turkey will become
+the scene, draw France and England closer together, and create
+difficulties for him or weaken him on the Rhine. The kind feelings of
+the chancellor of the confederation of the North for Russia will never
+be of a nature to limit his liberty of action; _he promises in fact
+more than he means to do_, or, in other words, he seeks the alliance
+with the cabinet of St. Petersburg to gain for himself the benefit of it
+in case of a conflict in the Occident, but with the well-fixed
+resolution never to engage the resources or the forces of Germany in the
+Orient. I have also always been persuaded that no official arrangement
+has been concluded between the two courts, and we can certainly believe
+that they did not consider that at Ems."
+
+Everything, in fact, leads us to believe that neither a treaty was
+signed there, nor conditions discussed; the commonalty of views and the
+harmony of hearts dispensed with a fatiguing discussion of details.
+Moreover, it would have been very difficult, in all the useless cases,
+to make stipulations _en règle_ for the eventualities, the time of whose
+appearance is not known, of which it is impossible to calculate the
+distant consequences, or even the immediate effects. They contented
+themselves with the conviction that they had no opposite interests;
+that, on the contrary, they were congenial and sympathetic, and that it
+was understood that at the propitious moment each one would be for
+himself and God for all. It must also be acknowledged that the Russians,
+in their views concerning the Orient, are not exempt from certain
+_mirages_. Europe credits them with much more method than they have in
+reality: the sentiment is profound and tenacious, but the plans are as
+wavering as they are different and vague. One might say that this great
+people suffer in this regard rather from a fascination and almost a
+fatality which prevents them from pursuing a systematic conquest; it
+advances on the phantom which possesses it only to make it recoil. It
+is a matter worthy of notice that Russia is never so far removed from
+the goal as when it undertakes to force the _dénoûment_. In 1829, a few
+halting places only separated its armies from Constantinople, and they
+turned back. It lost, in 1854, all the fruit of its campaign in Hungary,
+and of its ascendency in consequence of the catastrophe of February,
+while its prospects were never as brilliant as on the day when the
+treaty of Paris expected to close the Black Sea to it. It lost
+Sebastopol, but it gained the Caucasus and a whole world on the banks of
+the Amour and the Syr-Daria. The temptation became then very natural in
+presence of the formidable conflict which since 1867 was preparing in
+the centre of Europe, rather to await events than to wish to regulate
+them and to prescribe their course. In a war between the two strongest
+Powers of the Continent, which promised to be as long as desperate, and
+which in the end might well equally exhaust the two adversaries and draw
+several other states into the lists, Russia--thus they surely thought on
+the banks of the Neva--would always find the opportunity and the means
+of saying its word and securing its booty. Such a line of conduct seemed
+entirely marked out for a chancellor to whom so much good fortune had
+already come while "meditating;" it recommended itself to a policy which
+only measured the infinity of its aspirations by the uncertainty of
+possible events. The infinity of desires accommodates itself in case one
+can do nothing better with the indefinite in the designs, and nothing at
+times gives such a false impression of depth as emptiness.
+
+It was cruelly ironic of the founder of German unity to choose in each
+of his successive enterprises an accomplice who was to become his victim
+in the following undertaking; but he showed, also, his great superiority
+in having had each time a very clear aim, a well-defined object marked
+out, and, so to speak, tangible, while his partners allowed themselves
+to be drawn in, one after the other, in the perilous game, under the
+impulse of abstract principles, vague desires, and cloudy combinations.
+At the time of the invasion of the Duchies and his first attempt against
+the equilibrium of Europe, M. de Bismarck was certainly not at a loss to
+show his aim: the prey was in reach of his hands, and the roadstead of
+Kiel spread itself in all its splendor before whoever had eyes to see;
+but M. de Rechberg is still seeking for it to-day, and to make the
+motives of his coöperation in this work of iniquity acceptable. "He
+tried to master the demagogic passions, to gain the ascendency over the
+revolution,"--these are the pompous and sonorous phrases taken from the
+"doctrine" with which later the former Austrian minister was to seek to
+cover up before the Austro-Hungarian delegations his fatal and pitiful
+policy of 1863. At Biarritz, the president of the Prussian council
+demanded in very clear terms the line of the Main for his country, while
+the dreamer of Ham recommended "the great war for the German
+nationality," and let his undecided glance fall first on the right bank
+of the Rhine and Mayence, then on the limits of 1814, and only fixed it
+on the winged lion of St. Mark. From 1867 to 1870, the chancellor of the
+Northern Confederation resolutely made preparations for the unification
+of Germany and the conquest of Alsace and Lorraine, leaving to his
+former colleague of Frankfort perfect leisure "to awaken the echoes of
+the Orient," and to demand of them the key to the approaching destinies
+of Russia. In each of these fatidical circumstances, the same great
+_realist_ is always leading the ideologists to different degrees and to
+different titles: it is always the same Fortinbras of Shakspere,--the
+_fort en bras_ of Germany,--proclaiming his dominion where the
+doctrinary, melancholy, or word-making Hamlets have only lost their way
+in chimerical and puerile machinations, and, before a "murder which
+cries out to heaven," find no other words than,--the time is out of
+joint!
+
+"Russia cannot feel any alarm at the power of Prussia,"[124] said Prince
+Gortchakof, in reply to the representations which were made him from the
+beginning of the Hohenzollern affair on "the danger which would result
+to Russia from the aggrandizement of Prussia, and from the extension of
+its influence in Europe." As to the Spanish candidature of the Prussian
+prince, the chancellor recalled that "when Prince Charles of
+Hohenzollern became (in 1866) sovereign of Roumania, with the support of
+France and in spite of Russia, this latter had limited itself to
+remonstrances, and had then accepted the fact, he did not see why to-day
+Prussia could be more responsible for the election of another member of
+the royal family to the throne of Spain." Thus spoke the minister of the
+czar at the very beginning of the conflict, the 8th July, 1870, before
+the renunciation of Prince Anthony, before any exhibition of anger on
+the part of the cabinet of the Tuileries, and at the moment when Europe
+still thought well of the legitimate susceptibilities of France.
+However, when the hour of blindness and giddiness came, and when the
+government of Napoleon III. lost all the profit of a great diplomatic
+success by its provoking language before the legislative body, by its
+demands of Ems, and its fatal declaration of war (15th July), illusions
+could no longer be cherished concerning the true sentiments of the
+cabinet of St. Petersburg. "With all due deference to General Fleury,"
+wrote with humor M. de Beust to Prince de Metternich, the 20th July,
+"Russia perseveres in its alliance with Prussia so far, that in certain
+eventualities the intervention of the Muscovite arms must be looked upon
+not as probable, but as _certain_." Soon after the declarations of war
+of the 15th July, the Russian government had addressed to Vienna the
+very clear and categorical notice that it would not allow Austria to
+make common cause with France. General Fleury was even soon to think
+himself lucky with having at least made sure that this invalidating
+clause touching the empire of the Hapsburg was not explicitly mentioned
+in the declaration of neutrality which the Emperor Alexander II.
+published the 23d July.[125]
+
+"Russia has done us much harm," said the Duke de Gramont, in regard to
+this interdicting command to Austria.[126] It weighed equally on the
+court of Copenhagen and forced it to neutrality, in spite of all the
+enthusiasm of the unfortunate Scandinavian people for an alliance with
+which was connected a French plan of a landing in the North, an
+enterprise of the greatest strategical interest, General Trochu said,
+who was to have taken part in it. "Russia," thought with an official
+journal of the country, the ambassador of the United States at St.
+Petersburg, "has contributed more to the neutrality than any other
+nation; by its menaces it has forced Austria not to move, and it has
+succeeded, by the influence of the emperor and the hereditary prince, in
+hindering Denmark from taking part with France."[127] England, it is
+just to add, powerfully seconded in all this the Russian chancellor. It
+was more prejudiced than ever against France, thanks to the recent and
+terrible revelations of M. de Bismarck concerning the _dilatory
+negotiations_ in August, 1866, on the subject of Belgium. It was evident
+that for the pleasure of Prince Gortchakof the conflagration came much
+too soon. The military preparations of Russia were not made; even the
+perfectly "moral" action on the Sclavic world had undergone a rest since
+the conference on the subject of Greece. M. de Bismarck had not exactly
+consulted the convenience of his colleague on the Neva. As M. Benedetti
+had predicted, he had taken care not to invert the _rôles_ and thought
+only of his own convenience and opportunities; but Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch did not the less apply himself to play his _rôle_
+according to his strength. A sagacious observer, the ambassador of the
+United States, already mentioned, wrote about this time from St.
+Petersburg to his government: "The general opinion here seems to be
+that, if Russia were ready, it would declare war and try to gain certain
+advantages from it.... The government is making great efforts to prepare
+for future events. The cartridge factories work night and day. An order
+for a hundred Gattling cannon has just been sent to America." They
+armed, they deterred or intimidated the probable allies of France,
+thinking thus to equalize for the moment the chances between the two
+belligerents,[128] and they still hoped to find more than one favorable
+opportunity in the midst of the numerous events of a war which Napoleon
+III. himself proclaimed must be "long and difficult."
+
+The terrible disasters of France in the beginning of the campaign
+suddenly arrested the imaginations in their flight and dissipated the
+sublime vision of a "new Græco-Sclavic world," which since 1867 had
+haunted the minds of those on the banks of the Moscova and the Neva.
+With the marvelous political and _realistic_ aptitude which
+distinguishes it, the Russian nation soon understood that for the moment
+any crusade in the Orient was impossible, that the destiny of the world
+was being decided at the foot of the Vosges, and that it must attend to
+the most urgent and reasonable claims. A curious phenomenon, the
+peninsula of the Balkan was never as relatively quiet, as little
+tormented by the "great idea" as during these years 1870-1871, during
+this "intestine dissension in Europe" which Fuad-Pacha when dying had so
+feared for the empire of the Osmanlis. Towards the end of the month of
+August, still before the catastrophe of Sedan, public opinion in Russia
+cared only for the displeasing article of the treaty of Paris on the
+subject of the Euxine. "Russia," said an influential journal of St.
+Petersburg,[129] "has not hindered the forced unification of Germany,
+and, in its turn, _it does not dream of the forced unification of the
+Sclavians_; but it has the right to demand that its position on the
+Black Sea and the banks of the Danube be ameliorated. We hope that its
+legitimate demands will be taken into consideration in the European
+congress which will probably follow the present war." A European
+congress! that was in truth the only logical issue, however unreassuring
+in such grave events, disturbers of the equilibrium of the world; and it
+must render this justice to the greater part of the Russias, that they
+have the true appreciation of the situation, and aspire to a _rôle_ as
+legitimate as honorable. They wish to attain a satisfaction of
+_amour-propre_; but they did not wish to sacrifice France and the
+general interests of the Continent to it; the little question was in
+their eyes only the corollary of the great. At Constantinople one did
+not augur otherwise from the line of conduct which the cabinet of St.
+Petersburg undoubtedly pursued, although dreading it. On the 2d
+September, Mr. Joy Morris, minister of the United States to the Porte,
+wrote to his government that the general conviction on the Bosphorus was
+that Russia would profit by the crisis to bring about the revision of
+the treaty of 1856. "It would be strange if it did not succeed in it,"
+added the "Yankee" diplomat, "seeking, as it will, to obtain honorable
+conditions of peace for France, and exercising a dominating influence on
+the regulations of the terms of peace." Unfortunately, and for the first
+time in his long and popular reign at the chancellor's palace, the
+"national minister" divorced himself on this occasion from the sentiment
+of the nation, and in place of acting as "a good European," according to
+the favorite expression of M. de Talleyrand, he sought above all to show
+himself the good friend of his former colleague of Frankfort. He took
+care to renounce the question of the Black Sea,--he owed his country
+this little consolation after such great mistakes,--but he resolved to
+separate two causes which public opinion in Russia demanded to have
+united; and it demanded it with an idea much more politic than generous,
+in an instinct much more sensible for the vital interests of the future
+than for the satisfaction more or less lively of the present moment. He
+thought that he could not better serve the Russian cause on the Euxine,
+than in injuring as much as possible the cause of Europe in Alsace and
+Lorraine, and he endeavored above all to let France and Prussia fight
+out their quarrel in single combat. Immediately after the first French
+disasters, he seized with _empressement_ the ingeniously perfidious idea
+of the _league of neutrals_, originally an Italian idea, naturalized in
+England by Earl Granville, and soon became in the hands of the Russian
+chancellor, as was very acutely remarked, the most efficacious means to
+"organize impotence in Europe." M. de Beust had vainly essayed, _while
+adopting the principle_ of the English proposition (19th August) to
+change the character of it, to make it the point of departure of a
+concerted intervention; he demanded "efforts not separated, but common
+in view of a mediation," in place of a ridiculous conception which only
+"leagued" the states to prevent any collective proceeding. "The
+combination which the minister of Austria then suggested," wrote on this
+subject a judicious historian, "was repeated again and again by him
+during the whole duration of the war. If it had been adopted, it would
+have changed the course of things. One can say that it is for this
+reason that Europe did not adopt it."[130]
+
+It is for this reason that Prince Gortchakof especially opposed it from
+the first day to the last. There was a moment when England itself felt
+some qualms of conscience and showed a wish for mediation. That was at
+the beginning of the month of October, after a circular of M. de
+Bismarck had announced to Europe the conditions of peace of Germany,
+which were Alsace and Lorraine. "The ambassador of Prussia communicated
+this circular to the Russian government, and Prince Gortchakof abstained
+from making his impressions known. Sir A. Buchanan said to him then,
+that at London they were disposed to be governed in a certain measure by
+what was done at St. Petersburg. The chancellor replied simply that
+Prussia, not having asked of him his opinion, he had not given it.[131]
+Earl Granville had the, for him, extraordinary courage to return again
+to the charge, and Sir A. Buchanan read to the Russian chancellor a
+memorandum timidly asking "if it would not be possible for England and
+Russia to arrive at an agreement concerning the conditions under which
+peace could be concluded, and then to make, with the other neutral
+Powers, an appeal to the humanity of the King of Prussia, also
+recommending moderation to the French government." Prince Gortchakof
+gave to those overtures a dry and disdainful reception. Prussia, said
+he, has indicated its conditions of peace; a victory alone can modify
+them, and this victory is not probable. Confidential conversations
+between England and Russia will be then without object; common
+representations would always have a more or less menacing character.
+Isolated action of each of the neutral Powers before the King of Prussia
+is preferable.[132] Isolated action! Alexander Mikhaïlovitch was not
+moved, and for Russia this action was summed up in several personal
+letters addressed by the august nephew to his royal uncle, very
+charming letters, which recommended peace, justice, humanity, and
+moderation, and to which the conqueror of Sedan always replied
+affectionately, with a moved heart and with tears in his eyes, pleading
+his duties to his allies, his armies, his people, and his
+frontiers.[133] It was this "policy of euphemism," as the historian has
+so well called it, which they did not cease to practice, during the
+entire war, on the banks of the Neva, towards General Fleury as well as
+towards M. Thiers and M. de Gabriac, and the last word as well as the
+first thought of "action" of Prince Gortchakof was to leave France alone
+with its conqueror, alone till exhaustion, _usque ad finem_. It is known
+in what terms this end was announced at St. Petersburg. "It is with
+inexpressible feeling and returning thanks to God," the Emperor of
+Germany telegraphed from Versailles to the Emperor of Russia, on the
+26th February, 1871, "that I announce to you that the preliminaries of
+peace have just been signed. Prussia will never forget that it owes to
+you that the war has not taken extreme dimensions. May God bless you for
+it. Your grateful friend for life."
+
+"Long and disastrous" was this war, alas! as the unhappy Cæsar had well
+predicted, long enough at least to let Europe measure all the depth of
+its abasement, and "to give it all the time to blush at nothing,"
+according to the strong expression of the poet. Still more humiliating,
+perhaps, than this abasement, is the thought of the perfect similarity
+of the two terrible catastrophes which succeeded one another in the
+interval of scarcely four years; in producing its second tragedy so soon
+after the first, destiny was sufficiently disdainful to our generation
+not to even change the procedure or bestow any care on the imagination.
+The work of 1870 was only the exact copy of that of 1866. You will take
+the Orient, M. de Bismarck said at St. Petersburg, through General
+Manteuffel, as on the shore of Biarritz he had told the Emperor Napoleon
+III. to take Belgium, always making the same gift of the property which
+did not belong to him, the same gracious gift of the fruit defended by
+the dragon. The dreamers of Moscow believed in a _new era_, in a new
+"Græco-Sclavic-Roumanian world," as Napoleon III. had thought of a
+Europe remodeled after the principle of nationalities. "Russia will not
+feel any alarm at the power of Prussia," Prince Gortchakof declared at
+the beginning of the Hohenzollern affair, exactly as the zealots of the
+_new right_ had affirmed of France on the eve of the campaign of
+Bohemia. In both of the terrible years they had counted on the events
+and opportunities of a war, slow and of divers fortunes; they had even
+made it a study to derisively equalize the chances of the belligerents,
+and the surprise and the fright were not less great at St. Petersburg
+after Reichshoffen and Sedan than it had been at Paris after Nahod and
+Sadowa. The military preparations were wanting in Russia in 1870, as in
+France in 1866, and after the one as after the other of the calamities
+which desolated and overturned the world, they had only egotistical and
+petty thoughts; they prevented designedly any collective intervention,
+they aided Prussia in _freeing itself from all European control_; in a
+word they sacrificed the policy of justice, preservation, and
+equilibrium to a calculation as false as sordid, and which the great
+humorist of Varzin had one day called the _politique de pour-boire_.
+
+The Russian chancellor, it is just to acknowledge, was happier after
+Sedan than Napoleon III. had been after Sadowa: he had his Luxemburg, he
+could proclaim the abrogation of Article II. of the treaty of Paris,
+"the abrogation of a theoretical principle without immediate
+application," as he himself said in an official document.[134] One knows
+the judgment which at that time the cabinets gave on this "conquest"
+purely nominal in reality, and extremely small in any case in proportion
+to all those which Alexander Mikhaïlovitch had allowed to his former
+colleague of Frankfort. He succeeded, but not by legitimate means, by
+that action of _éclat_ and equity which one had hoped for in Russia,
+dreaded at Constantinople; he did not provoke the revision of the treaty
+of 1856, in "seeking to obtain honorable conditions of peace for France
+and in exercising a dominating influence on the regulation of the terms
+of peace."[135] He chose precisely "the psychological moment" of the
+defeats of France, of the disorder of Europe and of the gloomy shock to
+public right, to give it in his turn a humiliating blow, a _telum
+imbelle_, but not _sine ictu_. He freed himself and his own chief from
+an engagement contracted with the Powers, as he had freed his friend of
+Berlin from any control of Europe. "The procedure of Russia," said Earl
+Granville, in his remarkable dispatch of the 10th November to Sir A.
+Buchanan, "breaks all the treaties: the object of a treaty is to bind
+the contracting parties one to the other; according to the Russian
+doctrine, each party submits all to his own authority, and holds himself
+bound only to himself."
+
+At the beginning of the year 1868, an eminent man whom the disasters of
+his country were soon to restore to the political life which the second
+empire closed to him, rose even here[136] with passionate eloquence
+against "the growing mistrust of this elementary right which honor and
+good public sense have called the faith of treaties." "We see," said he,
+"creating itself every day under our eyes, a fruitful jurisprudence
+whose rapid development does not astonish those who know what force
+false principles borrow from and lend in turn to the passions which they
+favor. Only a few years ago they imposed on this unilateral resilition
+of reciprocal treaties some conditions which made the usage of them more
+legitimate, or at least more rare and less perilous. They still wished
+greatly to admit that, in case one state should want to repudiate a
+treaty signed by representatives regularly accredited, it should be
+necessary that in its interior one of those great overturnings of
+institutions, persons, and things should be effected which is called a
+revolution. A revolution was a sheriff's summons by which a nation made
+known to whom it should concern its intention to put itself into
+bankruptcy and to no longer pay its debts. This was, it seems to me, a
+sufficiently great facility, but the last form of new right does not
+find it sufficient to its taste. The formality of a revolution is
+embarrassing and costly to carry out. A change of ministry, or, better
+still, a vote of parliament causes less inconvenience. Nothing more will
+be necessary henceforward in order that a convention in which God,
+honor, and conscience have been taken to witness the past year be
+trampled under foot the following year."
+
+Well! we have lived through enough, since the time when an honest
+conscience uttered this cry of alarm, to see foreign jurisprudence arise
+without even the formality of a revolution, of a change of ministry or a
+vote of parliament, to hear it proclaimed by the minister of a regular
+absolute monarchy, by a Russian chancellor. It is true that the Italians
+also then hastened to profit by the misfortunes of France, to break in
+their turn a solemn engagement made with it in a public document, that
+in 1870 they had even anticipated Prince Gortchakof in a proceeding well
+known to them; but it was not from a government born yesterday that the
+successor of Count Nesselrode should have borrowed the procedures. There
+was a day when Alexander Mikhaïlovitch reproached this very government
+with _moving with the revolution to reap the heritage of it_.[137]
+Since then he has also moved with the revolution,--with one of the most
+audacious, most violent revolutions which has ever overturned thrones
+and kingdoms; he has reaped no heritage from it, it is true (it is only
+too often so in life, as one knows), he only accepted from it a gracious
+legacy, a legitimate donation, a modest gift in fact, and out of
+proportion to services rendered, but which was not the less sullied with
+undue influences, and which injured the right of the third parties, the
+right of nations.
+
+How otherwise great and glorious might have been the "conquests" of
+Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, if, inspiring himself, in the month of October,
+1870, with the legitimate ambition of the Russian people, the "national
+minister" had brought about a concerted action of Europe in order to
+produce peace between France and Germany, and to regulate the troubled
+affairs of the Continent! "We have always been of the opinion," wrote M.
+de Beust, on the 10th September, to St. Petersburg, "that it is for
+Russia to take the initiative." Its great influence abroad, its security
+in the interior, its good relations with the conqueror, assigned to it
+in truth such an initiative, and certainly neither Austria, Italy, nor
+England would have hesitated to range themselves under its banner. There
+was no necessity for a menacing intervention, nor even for that armed
+neutrality which M. Disraeli recommended:[138] the wish firmly expressed
+by all the Powers of the Continent would have fully sufficed. They could
+have thus limited the losses of France, given to Germany a less
+formidable organization, more in harmony with the aspirations and
+liberal occupations of our century,--the great vassals of the new
+emperor would not have failed to lend their aid to it,--a general
+disarmament would have given to a generation cruelly tried, and which
+now cannot even rest in its sterility, a reparative and a fruitful work.
+And who would dare to doubt that after such services Russia would not
+have obtained of Europe the grateful abrogation of that onerous article
+of the treaty of 1856? France would certainly not have thought of
+opposing it; Austria would not have maintained a clause which it had
+combated from the beginning, and which, four years before, it had
+solemnly declared to be "only a question of _amour-propre_," whose
+gravest interests demanded the sacrifice; as to England, it is well
+known that in course of time it accommodates itself to everything. How
+much such a benefit procured for humanity by a monarchical government,
+absolute indeed, would have given force to the cause of order and
+preservation, of rejuvenation of monarchical principles! with what
+prestige it would have surrounded the Russian people; what imperishable
+splendor it would have attached to the name of Alexander II! The call of
+destiny was very manifest; the _rôle_ as plain as easy: the successor of
+Count Nesselrode shrunk from it. It was only a sin of omission, if you
+will, but of that sort which the sublime lover of justice Alighieri did
+not pardon when they were committed against his ideal of _justitia et
+pax_. On such a sin he inflicted the name of _il gran rifiuto_.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[100] Dispatch of Count de Mülinen to Baron de Beust, 30th December,
+1866.
+
+[101] Dispatch of M. de Beust to Baron de Prokesch at Constantinople,
+January 22, 1867.
+
+[102] "What alarms me the most, is the considerable change which the
+pacification of the provinces of the Caucasus has given to the situation
+of Russia. I have no doubt that in future possibilities the most serious
+attacks of the Russians will be directed against our provinces of Asia
+Minor." Thus Fuad-Pacha expresses himself at the beginning of 1869 in
+his political testament addressed to the sultan.
+
+[103] Remarks of the Emperor Nicholas to Sir Hamilton Seymour. For the
+rumors concerning Thessaly and Epirus, see especially the dispatch of
+Fuad-Pacha to the ambassadors at Paris and London, 27th February, 1867.
+
+[104] Benedetti, _My Mission in Prussia_, p. 249.
+
+[105] "I wish very much that you would send your carriage before my
+door, but on the condition that you get in at my house," one of the
+predecessors of M. de Moustier said wittily to M. de Budberg, at the
+Hotel of the Quay d'Orsay, some years before, but in the same way in
+which Russia encouraged the advances of the cabinet of the Tuileries, at
+the same time that it carefully avoided any positive engagement with it.
+
+[106] The preliminaries of Nikolsburg as well as the treaty of Prague
+had stipulated the retrocession to Denmark of the northern districts of
+Schleswig after a popular vote. One knows that Prussia up to the present
+has evaded the execution of this engagement.
+
+[107] M. de Beust wrote concerning these military conventions with a
+resigned _finesse_: "An alliance established between two states, one of
+which is weak, the other strong; an alliance which has no particular
+text, but which should be permanently maintained for all the
+eventualities of war, is not of a nature to create a belief in an
+_international, independent existence_ of the weak state."--Dispatch to
+Count Wimpffen, at Berlin, 28th March, 1867.
+
+[108] See Appendix.
+
+[109] Speech of the assistant secretary of state, Mr. Fox, at the
+banquet given by the English Club of St. Petersburg to the mission
+extraordinary from the United States in 1866.
+
+[110] Circular of M. de La Valette, 16th September, 1866.
+
+[111] See the _Revue des deux Mondes_ of the 1st September, 1867: "The
+Congress of Moscow and the Pan-Sclavic Propaganda."
+
+[112] It emanated directly from the ministry of the interior, was
+written in French, and destined to "enlighten" foreign opinion on the
+facts and deeds of the Russian government.
+
+[113] See, on this subject, the English, French, and Austrian
+parliamentary documents of the year 1868, and especially the reports of
+the agents of Austria at Iassy and Bucharest.
+
+[114] Appendix to the dispatch of the Consul de Knappitsch to Baron de
+Prokesch at Constantinople, Ibraïla, 14th August, 1868.
+
+[115] Dispatch of Sir A. Buchanan to the Earl of Clarendon, 19th
+December, 1868.
+
+[116] Official journal of the Russian empire, 12th December, 1869.
+
+[117] One can read this remarkable document, which bears the date of the
+3d January, 1869, in the interesting pamphlet of M. J. Lewis Farley,
+_The Decline of Turkey_, London, 1875, pp. 27-36.
+
+[118] Private letter to the Count Daru, 27th January, 1870.
+
+[119] See, on this subject, the curious dispatch of the 10th November,
+1867. The correspondence of Mazzini with M. de Bismarck during the years
+1868 and 1869, suggesting the plan of overthrowing Victor Emmanuel if
+this latter became the ally of the Emperor Napoleon III., has been
+brought to light only very recently, after the death of the celebrated
+Italian agitator.
+
+[120] Confidential letter of M. de Verdière, St. Petersburg, 3d
+February, 1870. _Papers and Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol.
+i. p. 129.
+
+[121] "The Emperor of Russia has taken the general in great favor; he
+takes him continually on bear hunts, and makes him travel with him on a
+f... in his one-seated sleigh. That is the height of favor, and I think
+that politics are in a good condition."--Confidential letter of M. de
+Verdière, 25th January, 1870. _Papers and Correspondence_, vol. i. p.
+127.
+
+[122] Expressions of the _North German Gazette_ (principal organ of M.
+de Bismarck) of the 20th July, 1867, on the occasion of the congress of
+Moscow.
+
+[123] _Drang nach Osten._
+
+[124] Dispatch of Sir A. Buchanan, St. Petersburg, 9th July, 1870. For
+the details of these years, 1870-71, we can only refer the reader to the
+very instructive work of M. A. Sorel, _Diplomatic History of the
+Franco-German War_, Paris, Plon, 1875, 2 vols. We have only two
+reservations to make in regard to a book written with as much sincerity
+of investigation as loftiness of mind. The author shows a pronounced
+weakness for "the diplomacy of Tours," and limits in much too great a
+degree the original views of Prince Gortchakof in his connivance with
+Prussia since 1867.
+
+[125] Dispatches of Sir A. Buchanan of the 20th and 23d July. Valfrey,
+_History of the Diplomacy of the Government of National Defense_, vol.
+i. p. 18.
+
+[126] _France and Prussia_, p. 348.
+
+[127] Dispatch of Mr. Schuyler to Mr. Fish, St. Petersburg, 26th August.
+General Trochu, _Pour la vérité_, p. 90.
+
+[128] Prince Gortchakof was far from having at the beginning absolute
+confidence in the victory of Prussia; he told M. Thiers more than one
+_piquant_ detail on this subject. Deposition of M. Thiers before the
+commission of inquiry, p. 12. In an interview, towards the end of July,
+with a political personage whom he knew to be in relation with Napoleon
+III., he even let these words fall: "Tell the Emperor of the French to
+be moderate." Valfrey, vol. i. 79.
+
+[129] The _Golos_, quoted in the dispatch of Mr. Schuyler, 27th August.
+
+[130] A. Sorel, _Diplomatic History_, vol. i. p. 254. Let us quote the
+passage from another dispatch of M. de Beust, dated the 29th September,
+and destined for London: "Let us not fear to say it: what to-day serves
+powerfully to prolong the conflict to the extreme horrors of a war of
+extermination, is, on one side illusions and false hopes, on the other
+indifference and contempt for Europe, spectator of the combat."
+
+[131] A. Sorel, _Diplomatic History_, vol. i. p. 402.
+
+[132] Report of Sir A. Buchanan of the 17th October.
+
+[133] It was only the simple recommendation of an armistice, with no
+other design of influencing what might be the conditions of peace, that
+Prince Gortchakof declined to make common cause. M. d'Oubril, his
+minister at Berlin, found himself at the last moment without
+instructions on this subject. "It is singular enough," wrote Lord
+Loftus, on the 26th October, "that Russia, after having in many
+circumstances, proved its desire for peace, thus stands aside and
+prefers isolated to common action."
+
+[134] Dispatch of Prince Gortchakof to Baron Brunnow at London, November
+20, 1870.
+
+[135] Dispatch of Mr. Joy Morris of the 2d September, quoted above.
+
+[136] See the _Revue des deux Mondes_ of the 1st February, 1868 ("The
+Diplomacy and the Principles of the French Revolution," by M. le Prince
+Albert de Broglie).
+
+[137] Note to Prince Gagarine at Turin, 10th October, 1860.
+
+[138] Speech on the 1st August, in the House of Commons.
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+TEN YEARS OF ASSOCIATION.
+
+
+On the 9th January, 1873, Napoleon III. passed sadly away from the land
+of exile at Chiselhurst, and a short time after, the 27th March, William
+I. entered on the sixty-sixth year of a life in which assuredly the most
+extraordinary favors of fortune have not been wanting. Germany
+celebrated the _fête_ of its new emperor with transports of joy, the
+more noisy and sincere since the monarch had waited for this anniversary
+to ratify a last convention with the government of Versailles, a
+convention which assured the anticipated payment of the fifth milliard
+of the French ransom, and the very early return of the troops of
+occupation from the other side of the Vosges. The great accounts with
+_the hereditary enemy_ thus definitely settled, the conqueror of Sedan
+thought, on his part, of acquitting himself of a little debt of the
+heart: he resolved to carry to the Emperor Alexander II. the expression
+of his lively gratitude for the loyal aid which he had lent him during a
+memorable period of trials and combats. Long foreseen, from time to time
+announced and put off, the journey to St. Petersburg was at length
+undertaken at the beginning of pleasant weather, and M. de Bismarck took
+care to state precisely on this occasion the date as well as the
+character of the close association of interests established between
+Russia and Prussia, and which became so fatal to the Occident. "The
+commonalty of views,"--thus the official organ of the German chancellor
+expressed itself,[139]--"which brought about the alliance of Prussia and
+Russia in 1863, at the time of the Polish insurrection, was the point of
+departure for this present policy of the two states, which, on the
+occasion of the great events of the last years, has affirmed its power.
+Since the attitude of Russia in the question of Schleswig-Holstein, up
+to the important proofs of sympathy given to Germany by the Emperor
+Alexander during the last war, all has concurred to render this alliance
+still more firm."
+
+By a sort of historical fiction which confounds the reason not a little,
+but which a sovereign will imposes on acts and even public monuments in
+Russia, the campaign of 1870 did not cease to be exalted in the official
+spheres of the empire of the czars as the continuation of the work of
+1814, as the final episode of "that great epoch when the united armies
+of Russia and Prussia fought for a sacred cause which was common to them
+both."[140] At the Kremlin, in the splendid hall consecrated by the
+Emperor Nicholas to the military glories of the country, and which is
+the _arc de l'Etoile_ of Holy Russia, the foreign tourist is astonished
+to see glittering now in letters of gold on the marble the names of
+Moltke, of Roon, and other captains of Germany who shone in the last war
+against France.[141] And the conqueror of Sedan might imagine that he
+was still in the midst of his subjects in traversing in 1873 the vast
+Muscovite plains: from the frontier to the Gulf of Finland the journey
+was an uninterrupted succession of triumphs and ovations. At each depot
+where the imperial train stopped a guard of honor was in waiting, and
+played the German national song; the czar came to meet his august guest
+to Gatchina, and the 27th April the two sovereigns entered the capital
+of Peter the Great. The skies were gloomy and cold, and the sun refused
+to lighten "the city of wet streets and dry hearts," as one of its poets
+has called it; but human industry did all that was possible to supply
+the place of nature, and make amends for the irreparable outrage of the
+climate. "All the green-houses of the capital, without excepting those
+of the imperial gardens," says an eye-witness,[142] "were literally
+devastated to improvise around the gates and windows a spring which,
+retarded in our North, only arrived with summer," and the rich carpets
+suspended from the ledges or stretched along the edifices gave to the
+boreal city the joyous aspect of the city of lagoons. "The perspective
+of Izmaïlovsky, the perspective of Voznessensky, the Grande-Morskaïa,
+formed a sort of continuous alley of draperies of the Russian, German,
+and Prussian colors. On a great number of balconies, one saw in the
+midst of the verdure and the flowers the busts of the two monarchs
+crowned with laurel. The façade of the great stable Préobrajensky was
+ornamented with a number of standards surrounding a colossal cross of
+that military order of Saint George of which his majesty the Emperor
+William is the oldest knight and the only grand ribbon." The crowd
+pressed close to the passage of the guests from Berlin; the unreserved
+Prince de Bismarck and the taciturn Count de Moltke especially attracted
+the eyes of the spectators.
+
+For twelve days there was an endless succession of reviews, parades,
+tatoos, illuminations, balls, _raouts_, banquets, concerts, and gala
+representations. Among the latter, the chroniclers mention the two
+splendid ballets of the "Roi Candaule" and "Don Quixotte." The people
+had also their part in the rejoicings, especially on the evening of the
+29th April, at the gigantic festival of the Place du Palais. The two
+sovereigns were present at the immense balcony concert above the piazza
+of the castle. "On their arrival, five electric suns all at once lighted
+the square with such intensity that one could distinguish the features
+of all the spectators, and the orchestra struck up the national Prussian
+hymn. The total number of musicians was 1,550, in addition to 600
+trumpets and 350 drums. After the hymn the "March of King Frederick
+William III." was played; then came a whole series of military marches,
+the "March of Steinmetz," the "Watch on the Rhine," the "March of the
+Garde of 1808," to the music of which the Russian regiments returned to
+St. Petersburg after the campaign of Eylau, and the "March of Paris,"
+which the allied armies heard in olden times at the time of their
+triumphal entry into the capital of France. The military prayer, "God is
+great in Zion," also produced an immense effect." One can hardly explain
+how, in the midst of music entirely consecrated to the gods Mars and
+Vulcan, the sweet romance of Weber, entitled "The Praise of Tears,"
+could be introduced, unless it was a discreet homage rendered to the
+well known sensibility of the old Hohenzollern, and of which many
+speeches, letters, or telegrams bear in history authentic traces. This
+easily impressionable character of the sovereign of Germany was visible
+as far as was necessary at St. Petersburg; it showed itself especially
+at the moment when the two monarchs made their adieux in the imperial
+_salons_ of the depot of Gatchina. In order not to succumb to his
+emotion, William I. had to leave the _salon_ brusquely; his head bent
+forward, his features contracted, he went out with hasty steps and
+reached the car _without turning round_.
+
+However, if during this sojourn of the Prussian guests on the banks of
+the Neva all the honors were for the uncle of the czar, the curiosity of
+the public, panting and almost feverish, willingly turned, one may be
+sure, to the extraordinary minister whose uniform of the white
+curassiers set off his imposing stature--to this chancellor of Germany
+who, in the short space of a lustrum, had founded an empire on the ruins
+of two others. One had not had time to forget at St. Petersburg the
+grumbling diplomat, who from 1859 to 1862 astonished and amused the
+Russian society by his slanders against his own court, by his
+pleasantries on the "old fogies of Potsdam" and the "Philistines of the
+Spree," and who occasionally repeated the famous _mot_ of M.
+Prudhomme--the _mot_: "_If I were the government!_"--he who was to laugh
+at it the first. He was the government at this time, he was even the
+master of Europe; and his star had dimmed the star of a Hapsburg, of a
+Napoleon! The subject gave rise to more than one touching
+reconciliation, to many a _piquant_ reminiscence, and there was room
+also for futile remarks for the _plerisque vana mirantibus_ of which the
+immortal historian speaks in presence of any prodigious change of
+fortune. In presence of the man of the five milliards, the great ladies
+at the winter palace remembered a certain ambassadress ten years before,
+who one day boldly declared that she could not pay forty silver roubles
+for early asparagus, who another day avowed in all candor that she owed
+her new diamond ear-rings only to the exchange of a valuable snuff-box,
+an old gift of the Prince of Darmstadt.[143] The ambassadress was the
+wife of Prince de Bismarck, then baron, prince to-day, a good prince
+too, and having lost nothing of his former affability. He was easy,
+playful, earnest, as at the time of his mission in Russia; he inquired
+for friends, acquaintances, small or great people whom he had known
+formerly, and seemed to renew relations and conversations as if
+interrupted only yesterday. The statesman disappeared entirely, to show
+only the courtier and the man of the world, and it was only in his
+relations with Prince Gortchakof, a sagacious observer tells us, that
+he laid aside the foreign minister, and only appeared as the companion,
+almost as the compatriot. He showed him the deference of an affectionate
+friend towards his elder,--of a disciple towards the master, said the
+flatterers, without thinking of evil, without thinking, above all, on
+the _discipulus supra magistrum_ of whom Alexander Mikhaïlovitch, a good
+Latinist himself, perhaps thought.
+
+They often appeared thus in public, at numerous _fêtes_ and receptions,
+side by side, the one towering above the crowd with his strongly-marked
+head, the other also easily recognizable by his fine, _spirituel_, and
+rather sharp features. According to that ingenious court etiquette of
+which the good Homer has given the first precept, in making Diomede and
+Glaucus exchange their brilliant armor, the Russian minister wore the
+insignia of the black Eagle of Prussia, and the Prussian minister the
+insignia of St. Andrew of Russia,--and this exchange of ribbons
+involuntarily recalled the commonalty of ties which had for so long
+united these illustrious diplomats. Such a cordial, unalterable
+understanding between two statesmen directing two different empires, was
+assuredly a rare phenomenon, well calculated to excite attention, and
+which, during the pompous solemnities of St. Petersburg, did not cease,
+in fact, to occupy reflective minds. They sought in vain in the past for
+the example of a harmony of action as constant and glowing: certain
+political friendships celebrated in history, those among others of
+Choiseul and Kaunitz, of Dubois and Stanhope, or yet of Mazarin and
+Cromwell, were only evoked an instant to be immediately recognized as
+deceptive souvenirs, apparent analogies only. No one, however,
+disregarded the considerable, decisive influence which the accord
+between the two chancellors has had on the recent destinies of Europe;
+nor did any one doubt the prodigious benefit which M. de Bismarck has
+been able to draw from this juncture in his bold enterprises: the
+opinions began to differ only when there was a question of settling the
+accounts of Russia, of fixing well the profits brought to the empire of
+the czars by this association of ten years, the most turbulent ten years
+which the Continent has known since the day of Waterloo.
+
+According to the ideas of some, there was only advantage and gain for
+the people of Rourik, in the situation created by the immense events of
+Sadowa and Sedan. They showed the humiliating treaty of 1856 torn up,
+Austria punished for its "treason" at the time of the Crimean war,
+France sunken and weakened, England a resigned spectator of the progress
+of General Kaufman at Bokhara, and Russia recovering its ancient
+prestige, tasting in all quiet the vengeance, that pleasure of the gods
+and of the great favorites of the gods like Alexander Mikhaïlovitch. Is
+there not in truth, was said, a marvelous fortune, an imposing unity in
+the career of this minister who, at the conference of Vienna, had sworn
+to take revenge for the abasement of his country, and who has so well
+kept his word? Is there not a grand Nemesis in the successive
+chastisement of these proud "allies" who, in 1853, had undertaken the
+defense of the crescent against the cross of St. Andrew, who, ten years
+later, had dared to raise the question of Poland? At the present time
+Austria and France are rivals in flattering, obsequious conduct before
+the so decried "barbarian of the North," England solicits of him a
+_modus vivendi_ in central Asia; and this enviable and glorious position
+Russia has obtained without conflict, without sacrifices, only by
+_meditating_, developing its interior prosperity, and letting its
+neighbor act alone, its secular, tried friend, whose devotion has never
+been doubted. It is only just that Prussia should reap the fruits of its
+valor and its fidelity, and the well known sentiments of the Emperor
+William towards the czar, the family ties which have so long united the
+two courts; lastly, the destinies, so distinct and yet so connected, of
+the two states, are certain gages of a future, permanent, and immovable
+understanding. How many times has Prussia solemnly declared that it has
+no interest in the Oriental question. The day when the question of the
+succession of the Osmanli arises, the Hohenzollern will prove his
+gratitude to the Romanof. The little jealousies and the little rivalries
+have had their day, like the little states and the little artifices of
+influence and of the balance of power: the future is for a rational
+policy based on the nature of things, the reality of geography, the
+homogeneity of races; and this policy assigns to Russia and Germany
+their respective _rôles_ and corollaries. In point of view of general
+principles, we can only rejoice that the sceptre of the Occident has
+escaped a turbulent, volcanic nation now making Jacobin, now
+ultramontane propaganda, but always revolutionary, to pass into the
+hands of a well-ordered, hierarchical, and disciplined state, as it is.
+Lastly, Sadowa and Sedan were Protestant victories over the first two
+Catholic Powers, and the contest in which M. de Bismarck engaged against
+the Roman Curia is only the logical consequence of this great fact of
+history; but without even sharing certain ideas, widely spread however,
+of a possible fusion of the Protestant and Orthodox beliefs, it is not
+for the church of Photius, in any case, to take umbrage at the mortal
+blow given to the Vatican.
+
+To such justifications, in which neither convincing arguments nor sharp
+touches were wanting, those dissenting opposed objections inspired by a
+patriotism equally sincere, but much less hopeful. Also admiring the
+facility and promptitude with which Russia has arisen from its great
+disaster of the Crimea, they pretended only that this great result had
+been obtained long before the advent of M. de Bismarck, long before any
+association with him, and that from the year 1860 the empire of the
+Rourik had retaken the great position which it deserved in Europe, when
+the sovereigns of Austria, Prussia, and so many of the princes of
+Germany had come to salute the czar at Warsaw, to recognize his moral
+supremity, and that Napoleon III. on his part sought his friendship and
+accepted his arbitration. The great ability with which Prince Gortchakof
+used the "French cordiality" for the good of Russia, without giving up
+any essential interests, and without compromising the conservative and
+traditional principles of his government, always remained one of his
+greatest claims to the gratitude of his country, and it would have been
+desirable had he preserved the same moderation, the same reserve, later
+in this intimacy with Prussia, which on the occasion of the Polish
+insurrection had replaced the former understanding with the Tuileries.
+The successor of Nesselrode exaggerated, without doubt, the bearing and
+the danger of the famous _remonstrances_ on the subject of Poland, as
+well as the nature of the services, very selfish as a whole, which his
+friend of Berlin then rendered him; in any case, that was certainly not
+a reason to pout at Europe after the affair had turned out to the
+striking advantage of the Russian government, to pout at it during long
+years, to wish no other ally than Prussia, and to persist, in respect to
+this last Power, in the constant policy of let-go, let-do, and let-take.
+
+This was in general the profound misfortune of the fifteen or twenty
+last years,--thought these enlightened patriots,--that rancor and bad
+humor had played such a great _rôle_ in the grave affairs of the world:
+sad sentiments surely, and from which the present chancellor of Germany
+has alone been able to preserve himself! It was through anger at the
+conduct of the cabinet of St. Petersburg in the Italian question, that
+Austria took under its protection the insurgents of Poland; it was
+through bad humor towards England in the question of the congress that
+Napoleon III. abandoned the cause of Denmark, and Alexander
+Mikhaïlovitch yielded to such motives more than to any others; he was
+the first to practice this "policy of spite" with his imaginary
+grievances against Austria in the war of the Orient, as he was also not
+the last to cherish a certain "_policy de pour-boire_" with his _league
+of the neutrals_ which hindered any concerted action of the Powers.
+What happy opportunities for the preservation of Europe, for the glory
+of his nation and the splendor of his august master, has not the Russian
+chancellor let pass through love for Prussia: in the spring of 1867,
+when France and Austria offered him such large concessions in the
+Orient; in the autumn of 1870, when England and Austria solicited him to
+take the initiative in the work of peace! What illusions also in that
+belief, that Prince Gortchakof has sacrificed nothing during those ten
+years of association with his formidable colleague! Was the port of
+Kiel, the key of the Baltic, delivered into the hands of the Germans,
+nothing? Was that nothing, the dismemberment of the Danish monarchy, the
+country of the future empress? Was the vassalage of Queen Olga nothing?
+The overturning and spoliation of so many reigning families allied by
+blood to the House of Romanof, the loss of the independence of these
+secondary States always so devoted and so faithful to Russia? Lastly,
+was this profound overturning of the ancient European equilibrium, and
+the unmeasured, gigantic aggrandizement of a neighboring Power, nothing?
+
+"Greatness is a relative thing, and a country can be diminished, while
+remaining the same, when new forces accumulate around it."[144] These
+words, which Napoleon III. heard on the day after Sadowa, Russia could
+well apply to itself, since the day of Sedan, for assuredly no one would
+wish to pretend that the abolition of Article III. of the treaty of
+Paris is the equivalent of the forces accumulated by Prussia in the
+centre of Europe. As to the _hopes_ in the Orient, they are very
+contingent, like every speculation of heritage: the _sick man_ has
+already so many times deceived the expectations of his doctors, one can
+no longer count the mortal crises which should have carried him off, and
+perhaps it is not Russia that should complain of this prolongation of
+the agony. It is still a question in truth if Russia is now in a
+position to take care of the succession, if it is sufficiently supplied
+with implements for such a vast establishment; if, in a word, it has all
+its military and financial strength, as well as all the administrative
+_personnel_ indispensable to advantageously occupy the domains as
+various as extended. It cannot take possession of European provinces
+like the countries along the Amour and Syr-Daria; it runs the risk of
+finding more than one ungovernable Poland among those peoples of the
+Danube and the Balkan; and the unity of the law, the uniformity of the
+_svod_, will not be so easy to establish in the countries where, side by
+side, the most incongruous institutions have flourished from the
+_régime_ of the cimeter to that of the parliament. Will not the
+transformation of Turkey transform, however, in turn the Muscovite
+people, and will not history on this occasion be careful to repeat the
+great and pathetic lessons of _Græcia capta_? Will Russia still be
+Russia the day when it rules the Oriental peninsula, and can an empire
+bathed by the blue waves of the Bosphorus preserve its capital on the
+icy banks of Finland? Grave and obscure problems before which it is
+allowable to stop, to conceive apprehensions and doubts. What is not
+doubtful, on the contrary, is that at the destined hour Prussia will
+make its conditions and will stipulate its compensations. It will not be
+a debt of gratitude which it will think of paying then, it will be a new
+bargain which it will make. Will it demand as the price of its consent,
+Holland, Jutland, or the German territories of Austria? the frontier of
+the Vistula, or the provinces of the Baltic?
+
+But who knows if this prolonged drama of Turkish decadence is not yet
+destined to receive a _dénoûment_ little or not at all foreseen, yet
+very original and nothing less than illogical. The publicists and the
+patriots of Berlin do not speak to-day of the mission of Austria in the
+countries of the Danube and the Bosphorus, which they say is called by
+Providence to strengthen in these countries German interests, to bring
+there "German culture." Since the great day of Sedan, especially,
+exhortations and summons are not wanting to this Power "to seek its
+centre of gravity elsewhere than at Vienna," in short, to justify its
+secular name of _Ostreich_, and to become an empire of the East, in the
+true meaning of the word. A monarchy constantly menaced with the early
+loss of its Germanic possessions on the Leitha may at length be brought
+to try the experiment, when, above all, care is taken to present to it
+this experiment as a necessity and as a virtue; a state which has never
+been strongly centralized, and which has always oscillated between
+dualism and a federal system more or less definite, will even have a
+great chance to appear to Europe as the most proper outline of this
+medley of races, of religions, of institutions, which stretches from the
+Iron Gates to the Golden Horn. An _empire of the East_ of Germanic
+traditions and influences on the Bosphorus, more to the South a kingdom
+of Greece enlarged by Thessaly and Epirus, lastly, in the North a
+Germany completed in its unity by the Cisleithan provinces,--that will
+be something to fully content the world, not excepting England. We must
+acknowledge, one solution of the formidable Ottoman question is like
+another, and every hypothesis, every fantasy, has the right to appear,
+when one touches this fantastic world of the Orient, and that world not
+less mysterious and terrible which the great recluse of Varzin carries
+in his head.
+
+What, in any case, is not within the domain of hypothesis and fantasy,
+what unfortunately is only a too evident and palpable reality, is, that
+in place of this "combination purely and exclusively defensive," as
+Prince Gortchakof one day so justly called the old _Bund_,--in place of
+a league of peaceful states, all devoted friends of Russia, and forming
+for it a continual succession of ramparts,--the empire of Alexander II.
+now sees before it, firmly settled all along its frontier, a formidable
+Power, the strongest Power of the Continent, ambitious, avaricious,
+enterprising, and having henceforward the undoubted mission of defending
+against it what they have agreed to call the _interests of the
+Occident_. This Power can always excite the Polish question, if it
+wishes to, according to its wants, and quite differently than the
+cabinets of Paris and London would do it: has not the argument for such
+a "_coup au coeur_" been very warmly sustained in 1871, by certain
+Hungarian statesmen in the confidence of the Prussian minister? The
+conduct of the government of Berlin at the time of the last insurrection
+of Warsaw did not injure it in the future: the passionate speeches of M.
+de Bismarck in 1849 against the revolt of the Magyars did not prevent
+him from arming, many years later, the legions of General Klapka. We
+cannot at least deny the Prussian plans in 1863 on the left bank of the
+Vistula, "the natural frontier;" now, do not the friends of Berlin
+occasionally insinuate that this would be the most efficacious means to
+end the spirit of Polonism? They do not speak of the provinces of the
+Baltic, as before Sadowa they repudiated all thoughts of ever wishing to
+free the Main; but the Teutonic effervescence from Courland and Livonia
+goes on increasing, and to what grievous sacrifices will the
+Hohenzollern not resign himself when he thinks that he hears a voice
+from above, the voice of "German brothers?"
+
+Certainly it would have made the prince regent tremble in 1858, if any
+one had spoken to him then of a war against a Hapsburg, and of a
+companion in arms named Garibaldi; he ended, however, by accepting the
+hard necessity, and he gave the signal for a fratricidal combat, with
+grief in his soul and tears in his eyes. Is it not puerile, however, to
+measure the destinies of nations by the life, more or less long, of this
+or that sovereign? An emperor can reign in Germany who has neither
+affection for, nor the remembrance of Alexander II.; he can raise up "a
+Pharaoh who knows not Joseph," to speak with Holy Writ, and then there
+is something stronger in the world than czar and emperor: the necessity
+of history, the fatality of race. A formidable race that of these
+conquerors of Sadowa and Sedan, whose invading and conquering minds have
+from the beginning survived all transformations and accommodated
+themselves to all disguises! Humble, and at the same time presumptuous,
+temperate and prolific, expansive and tenacious, practicing with
+persistence their old proverb, _ubi bene, ibi patria_, and nevertheless
+always preserving a rough attachment for the _mother country_, the
+Germans infiltrate every country, penetrate all regions, disdain no
+corner of the habitable world. They have their friends and relations on
+all the thrones and in all the offices of the world; they people the
+industrial centres of Europe and the solitudes of the far West; they
+decide the presidential elections in the United States; they furnish the
+largest contingent of the high administrative _personnel_ in the empire
+of the czars, and the remembrance is still recent of that statistic of
+the Russian army, which, in 100 superior officers, counts eighty of
+German origin.[145] So Germany appeared before the great strokes of
+fortune of 1866 and of 1870, before the era of _iron and blood_, before
+M. de Bismarck had awakened in it the secret of its strength, had said
+to it the magic word, _tu regere imperio populos_! Is it necessary to
+recall now the hatred which the Germans have always borne against the
+Sclavic name, the extermination which they lately vowed on the Elbe
+and the Oder; and does not the mind recoil in terror before a new
+conflict of the two races, to-day more probable than ever? It is
+allowable to treat all these apprehensions as boyish dreams, hollow
+thoughts of _literati_ and professors; but the eminent men, the serious
+men, the _augures_ and _aruspices_ of politics, have they in our day
+treated otherwise many a formidable problem? Have they not used the same
+language on the question of Schleswig-Holstein and the German
+pretensions to Alsace, in regard to the unity of Italy and the plans of
+the _National Verein_? That would be a curious chapter of
+contemporaneous history to write, that of the _Diplomats and
+Professors_, and which could well show that of these two respectable
+bodies the most pedantic and the most ideological is not exactly the one
+which a vain people thinks.
+
+Is there not,--the same persons continue, more careful of the interests
+of the present and the future than of the unseasonable reminiscences of
+the past,--is there not ideological force, for instance, in the manner
+of assimilating the two epochs of 1814 and 1870, and of saluting in
+Field Marshal Moltke the continuator of the work of Koutouzof? At the
+time of the memorable war of which the burning of Moscow had given the
+heroic signal, it was all Europe that arose against an insolent master
+and bore deliverance to states trodden and ground down by a universal
+dominion. Was it the same in the last conflagration? and can one not
+rather say that it was France, on the contrary, that fought at this
+moment for the equilibrium of the world and the independence of
+kingdoms, trying to repair by a tardy and badly conceived effort a
+series of culpable errors, but from which it was not the only one to
+suffer? Different in their motives, the two epochs scarcely resemble
+each other more as to ways and means. It was "a war by means of
+revolutions" that the Prussian minister had early announced to M.
+Benedetti, and he has kept his word; he had regards, attenuations,
+_comprehensions_ for the _commune_ difficult to justify; now he openly
+protects the Republican _régime_ in France against any attempt at
+restoration, thus sacrificing the monarchical principle and the highest
+considerations of European order to a purely selfish and vindictive
+calculation. That is not the spirit which animated the allies of 1814;
+the magnanimous Alexander I. especially understood differently the
+duties of sovereigns and the solidarity of conservative interests. And
+what a severe judgment would the Emperor Nicholas have given on every
+_ensemble_ of the policy of Berlin, on that regeneration of Germany
+which has not ceased to be the revolution from above, from the federal
+execution in Holstein up to the arrest of the syndics of the crown; from
+the destruction of the _Bund_ up to the overturning of the dynasty of
+the Guelphs; from the formation of the Hungarian legions and the close
+relations with Mazzini to the _Kulturkampf_ against the Catholic Church!
+
+That we may not be deceived in fact, we can still say it is the
+revolution alone which finds its profit in the war made to-day in
+Germany on Catholicism, and very great, very _naïve_ is the illusion of
+those who flatter themselves with seeing Protestant or Orthodox ideas,
+the religious spirit in general, benefited by the losses of Papacy. It
+suffices to cast a glance on the great battalions of the _Kulturkampf_
+to recognize their God; they bear on their banners very clearly the sign
+under whose name they expect to conquer. Are these sincere Protestants,
+these _evangelical men_ for whom the Gospel is a truth, who first rush
+to the assault or who only follow it with their wishes and their
+prayers? Assuredly not; all those who from the Reformation have not kept
+the name in vain, but the strong doctrine, openly repudiate this
+dissension, while sighing in their souls. They have the just feeling
+that in our epoch, so overturned, so profoundly disturbed by the genius
+of negation, religious interests are conjointly responsible between them
+just as well as conservative interests. Those eager for the combat, the
+zealots "filled with the divine spirit," are precisely those who admit
+neither divinity nor spirit, who have no other positive religion than
+positivism; and it is not in them surely that Luther resuscitated would
+wish to recognize his children. The great adversary of Rome in the
+sixteenth century held on to the revelation, he held on to his Bible, to
+his dogma of pardon: are not all these things very "old-fashioned," and
+very laughable in the eyes of the disciples of Strauss and Darwin? The
+apostle of Wittemberg believed in justification through faith; the
+apostles of Berlin believe in justification through success.
+
+It is a grave matter,--at length conclude these men, alarmed in their
+patriotism and in their conservative sentiments,--an extremely perilous
+matter for a great state to abandon, in its relations with the Powers,
+certain established maxims, certain rules of conduct tried by long
+experience, become in a manner the _arcana imperii_, and Napoleon III.
+has just paid dearly for such a rupture with the ancient traditions in
+the exterior policy of France. Russia had also, in regard to Europe,
+sacred traditions, which have made the greatness and the strength of the
+preceding reigns; under these reigns, they were jealous in defending the
+liberty of the Baltic, they watched over the maintenance of the
+equilibrium of strength between Austria and Prussia, they appreciated
+the friendship and the devotion of the secondary States of Germany, and
+they caused the monarchical principle to be everywhere respected as
+opposed to revolution. Then Russia never had to repent at having turned
+aside from the ways hollowed out by the triumphal car of Peter the
+Great, of Catherine II., of Alexander I., and of Nicholas!
+
+Thus spoke the independent minds on the banks of the Neva while the
+official world there displayed all the northern magnificence in honor of
+William the Conqueror: however, they only lent a reasoning and touching
+language to a vague, but intense and profound sentiment which agitated
+the very soul of Russia. With that habit of obedience and discipline
+that one can often accuse of a servile instinct, but which with this
+people is also sometimes a great and admirable patriotic instinct, the
+children of Rourik were careful not to cross the government in the
+brilliant reception which it gave the Prussian; they limited themselves
+to remaining impassible witnesses of a spectacle which did not appeal to
+their inmost feelings. The press showed itself abstemious of
+descriptions, more sparing still in reflections during these days of
+_fêtes_ and festivals; the officials of Berlin only praised them with
+having maintained a _decorous_ tone. Such was also the tone of Russian
+society taken as a whole; the beautiful _perspectives_ of the imperial
+residence appealed to the moral as well as to the physical man; flowers
+from hot-houses on the first floor, ice under foot! The guests were not
+the last to see the contrast: with the exquisite perfumes of exotic
+plants, they breathed from time to time the sharp air of the country,
+the rough North wind, and it was not M. de Bismarck himself who did not
+seem to feel the circumambient atmosphere. One found in him more
+vivacity and enjoyment than of dash and warmth; his words preserved a
+measuredness which was not usual with him, and seemed to designedly
+avoid all _éclat_ and all light. A curious matter, during this sojourn
+of two weeks in the capital of Russia, the former grumbling diplomat did
+not let any of his sallies and jokes escape, of which he is generally so
+prodigal,--none of those amazing indiscretions which are at once the
+amusement and the horror of the _salons_ and the chancellors' offices.
+They only gleaned a single sensational expression fallen from those lips
+which have so often pronounced the decree of destiny, the expression
+"that he could not even admit the thought of being hostile to Russia."
+The declaration seemed explicit and reassuring, and like a discreet
+reply to an apprehension which did not dare to show itself openly. The
+incredulous or fretful souls could not, however, desist from observing
+that only ten years before such an assurance given to the empire of the
+czars by a minister of Prussia, would have seemed very superfluous,
+would have even provoked smiles.
+
+Here ends the task which was imposed on us in undertaking this study.
+The meeting of the two chancellors in the capital of Peter the Great, in
+the spring of 1873, was like the epilogue of a common action which has
+lasted ten years, and which has contributed so much to change the face
+of the world. Since this epoch, Europe has known no tempest, although
+occasionally menacing and threatening clouds have not ceased to traverse
+its still obscured horizon. There were even glimmerings and indications
+that the old and fatal agreement between the cabinets of Berlin and St.
+Petersburg was no longer as absolute as in the past, that it admitted
+certain intermissions, or at least certain differences of opinions and
+appreciations. It is thus that the government of the czar refused to
+follow the chancellor of Germany in his Spanish campaign, in his
+feverish adhesion to the presidency of Marshal Serrano, and it did not
+seem doubtful that the personal intervention of Alexander II., strongly
+supported by England in the past year, turned from France an iniquitous
+aggression and a terrible calamity. Since that epoch, also, the adhesion
+of Austria to the official policy of the two Northern states has
+come--we cannot emphasize it too much--either to complete or to
+complicate an association in which it becomes difficult to discover any
+common interests, and which, up to this day at least, has only found
+harmony in silence. The future alone can unveil the importance and the
+virtue of this extolled alliance of three empires, as badly known as it
+is badly conceived, perhaps; but one will scarcely be deceived in
+supposing that to-day, in this double and troubled household, it is M.
+de Bismarck who can think himself the happiest of the three.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[139] _Provincial Correspondence_ of the 1st May, 1873.
+
+[140] Telegram from the czar to King William I. of the 9th December,
+1869. Quite recently, at the last banquet of St. George, the Emperor
+Alexander II. said: "I am happy to be able to state that the close
+alliance between our three empires and our three armies, founded by our
+august predecessors for the defense of the same cause, exists intact at
+the present moment." Official journal of the Russian empire of the 12th
+December, 1875.
+
+[141] Count Tarnowski, "A Visit to Moscow," _Revue de Cracovie_,
+November, 1785.
+
+[142] _Ausder Petersburger Gesellschaft._ The other descriptions are
+taken from the _Journal de St. Petersburg_, and _L'Invalide Russe_ of
+that time.
+
+[143] _Aus der Petersburger Gesellschaft_, vol. ii. p. 89.
+
+[144] Confidential note of M. Magne, 20th July, 1866. _Papers and
+Correspondence of the Imperial Family_, vol. i. p. 241.
+
+[145] The _Golos_, several years ago, advanced these curious statistics,
+the effect of which was profound at the time. The name of Kozlof had a
+moment of celebrity in Russia: hearing it pronounced at the end of a
+long list of purely Teutonic names, at the presentation of the officers
+of a grand army corps, the czarovich cried out, "At last! thank God."
+Fr. J. Celestin, _Russland seit Aufheburg der Leibeigenschaft_, Laibach,
+1875, p. 334.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+
+     LETTER FROM M. BENEDETTI TO THE EDITOR OF THE "REVUE DES DEUX
+     MONDES." REPLY OF M. KLACZKO.
+
+                              PARIS, _24th September_, 1875.
+
+     TO THE EDITOR,--You published in the last number of the
+     "Revue des deux Mondes," an article by M. Klaczko, which
+     forces me to ask you for an opportunity for a short
+     explanation. I surely would not wish to contest with any one
+     the right of estimating the events of which this author has
+     undertaken the anecdotal history, and of judging, as best one
+     can, of the part which I took in them; I call, on the
+     contrary, with all my heart, in my own interest as well as in
+     that of the government which I have had the honor to serve,
+     for the examination and the discussion; for it, as for me, I
+     can only be satisfied with the light which already flashes
+     from it, and with the errors which have been dissipated; but
+     the discussion is serious and useful only if it is loyal, and
+     it is loyal only when recounting fixed and undeniable facts.
+
+     Now, here is what I read in the article of M. Klaczko:
+     "Certainly the ambassador of France at the court of Berlin
+     had, in this year 1866 a very difficult and painful position,
+     we had almost said a pathetic one. He had worked with
+     _ardor_, with _passion_, to bring about this _connubio_ of
+     Italy and Prussia, which seemed to him to be an immense good
+     fortune for the imperial policy, a brilliant victory gained
+     over the old order of things to the profit of the 'new right'
+     and Napoleonic ideas. In the fear, very well founded besides,
+     of seeing this work miscarry and Prussia draw back, if one
+     spoke to it of eventual compensations and preventive
+     engagements, he had not _ceased to dissuade_ his government
+     from any attempt of this kind." Pp. 210, 211. Already, at p.
+     206, in a note, M. Klaczko had said: "M. Drouyn de Lhuys, who
+     had already obtained from Austria the cession, in any case,
+     of Venetia, insisted at this moment more strongly than ever,
+     that they should also take pledges in advance from Prussia,
+     'the most formidable, the most active of the parties.' M.
+     Benedetti _did not cease to oppose_ such a proceeding,
+     fearing that Prussia would renounce in this case all idea of
+     war against Austria."
+
+     Now, these allegations have no meaning, or they signify that
+     I was the real inspirer, if not the negotiator, without the
+     knowledge of my government, of the treaty of alliance
+     concluded in 1866 between Prussia and Italy; that I,
+     moreover, turned, by incessant efforts, M. Drouyn de Lhuys
+     from his intention of demanding of the Berlin government,
+     before the war against Austria, the pledges eventually
+     necessary for the security of France.
+
+     M. Klaczko neither corroborates these assertions by any known
+     fact, nor by the extract from an official document; he gives
+     no proof of them in any degree or in any way.
+
+     As to what concerns the Prusso-Italian treaty, he was
+     informed, however, since he continually quotes the
+     publication which I made in 1871, under the title, "My
+     Mission in Prussia," that I repudiated any participation in
+     this act; he knew that I had claimed to have shown it, and it
+     is not sufficient to contradict me; in such a case it is
+     necessary to prove the contrary, to establish that, far from
+     having remained ignorant, as I maintained, of the accord
+     between Prussia and Italy, I had been the principal
+     instigator of it.
+
+     It is of importance to me that the readers of the "Revue des
+     deux Mondes" be enlightened; they have seen the article of M.
+     Klaczko, it is just to place under their eyes some words only
+     from the dispatches which I published.... I wrote on the 14th
+     March, 1866: "The early arrival of an Italian officer,
+     General Govone, is announced, who comes to Berlin charged
+     with an important mission; this news ... has caused
+     considerable emotion. If it is confirmed, one will not fail
+     to believe that Prussia and Italy are negotiating a treaty of
+     alliance."
+
+     The third day after, I added: "General Govone arrived day
+     before yesterday at Berlin. According to Count Bismarck and
+     the Italian minister, he is charged with a military mission,
+     and his journey will have simply for its object the study of
+     the perfection arrived at in the instruments of war."
+
+     Two days later, I was in a position to inform my government
+     exactly, and I said: "I wrote you, announcing the arrival of
+     General Govone, that, according to M. de Bismarck and the
+     Italian minister, this envoy of the cabinet of Florence was
+     simply charged with studying the military condition of
+     Prussia. Forgetting, without doubt, what he had told me on
+     this point, M. de Bismarck informed me yesterday that General
+     Govone was authorized to conclude arrangements with the
+     Prussian government. The communications which he has made to
+     the president of the council substantiate this." In closing
+     this dispatch, I added: "The legation of Italy observes
+     toward me absolute reserve. I do not know whether to regret
+     it. The confidences of M. de Bismarck, which I cannot,
+     however, decline, already place me in a sufficiently delicate
+     position."
+
+     At last, on the 27th March, when the plenipotentiaries had
+     already held several conferences, I wrote to M. Drouyn de
+     Lhuys: "(M. de Bismarck) has spoken to me of his conferences
+     with General Govone and the Italian minister, ... and I am so
+     much the better in a position to inform you that M. de
+     Barral, Italian minister, _has_ AT LAST _decided on his part
+     not to hide from me entirely his proceedings and the
+     intentions of his government_."
+
+     One of two things, either M. Klaczko admits that my
+     correspondence was sincere, or he supposes that it was drawn
+     up with the design of dissimulating my conduct and the part
+     which I clandestinely took in the negotiation. In the first
+     case, no one will conceive how he can pretend that I labored
+     _with ardor and with passion to bring about this connubio of
+     Italy and Prussia_. In the second hypothesis matters are
+     changed, and I shall expect that M. Klaczko will be explained
+     as far as he goes by the expression of my opinion.
+
+     For the moment, I will invoke the only testimony that no one
+     can suspect, that of the Italian plenipotentiary. The
+     correspondence of General Govone was published after his
+     death and subsequently to "My Mission in Prussia," through
+     the efforts of General La Marmora, who has omitted nothing.
+     In this correspondence, where all is told in detail, my name
+     is quoted twice, the first time in a telegram of the 28th
+     March, twelve days after the arrival of the Italian
+     plenipotentiary at Berlin, and here is what he says as
+     regards me: "I think that I ought to announce to you that the
+     president (M. de Bismarck) keeps M. Benedetti exactly
+     advised."
+
+     In the letter in which my name appears for the second and
+     last time, dated the 6th April, on the very eve of the
+     signing of the treaty (the dates are valuable, and it is well
+     to retain them), General Govone mentions a visit which he
+     paid me, the first since his arrival at Berlin; and what did
+     I say to him concerning these negotiations? I quote
+     literally: "Yesterday, after my visit to M. de Bismarck, I
+     saw M. Benedetti; he thought that it was preferable for us to
+     sign no treaty, but only to have a project all discussed and
+     ready to sign when the mobilization of Prussia should be
+     achieved."
+
+     Do these two extracts, Mr. Editor, authorize the belief that
+     I was the confidant and the counselor of the Italian envoy?
+     Do they not confirm, on the contrary, from point to point the
+     sincerity of my correspondence? In what has M. Klaczko
+     sought, where has he seen that I labored for the accord
+     between Italy and Prussia? Should he not have told us before
+     making such a grave assertion? Does he think to reproach me
+     for having endeavored to keep myself informed as to what was
+     passing, and for having instructed my government exactly?
+
+     As to the assertion of M. Klaczko, twice repeated in his
+     article, that I did not cease, before the war, to dissuade M.
+     Drouyn de Lhuys from speaking at Berlin of eventual
+     compensations and preventive engagements, from fear of seeing
+     Prussia give up the combat with Austria, I will reply by the
+     following extract from a letter which M. Drouyn de Lhuys
+     himself addressed to me on the 31st March, during the
+     negotiation opened between the two cabinets of Berlin and
+     Florence: "I have read with pleasure," said he to me, "the
+     private letters which you have written to me during the
+     present month. I beg leave to express to you all my thanks
+     for them. If I have received them without replying
+     immediately, it was because I had nothing to modify _in the
+     instructions_ which I have given you on different occasions.
+     We are still of the same opinions. While recognizing the
+     gravity of the new crisis in which we participate, we see, in
+     the contention which presents itself to-day, no sufficient
+     motive for us to depart from our attitude of neutrality. We
+     have explained ourselves frankly to the court of Prussia.
+     When we have been asked by the cabinet of Vienna, we have
+     firmly declared to it, that we wish to remain neutral,
+     although it has observed to us that our neutrality was more
+     favorable to Prussia than to Austria. _We await, then, the
+     armed conflict_, if it must break out, in the attitude in
+     which we really are. The king himself has acknowledged that
+     the present circumstances do not offer the bases of accord
+     that his majesty desires. The course of events, the nature
+     and the bearing of the interests which are involved, and the
+     dimensions which the war will take, as well as the questions
+     which it will give rise to, will _then_ determine the
+     elements of the understanding which can exist between Prussia
+     and us."
+
+     In this same letter, the whole of which can be read on page
+     77 of "My Mission in Prussia," M. Drouyn de Lhuys wished
+     moreover to indicate to me the consideration which obliged us
+     to observe a reserved attitude in view of the efforts made by
+     Prussia, and by Italy, to act in concert, and he added at the
+     close: "That is the whole truth concerning our opinions. I
+     approve, however, completely of your attitude and your
+     language, and I trust that you will continue to keep me
+     equally well informed of all the details of this crisis."
+
+     Would M. Drouyn de Lhuys have acknowledged the receipt of my
+     correspondence in these terms, if it was intended to deter
+     him from any plan of contracting eventual engagements with
+     Prussia, if there had existed between the minister and the
+     ambassador the disagreement the whole responsibility of which
+     M. Klaczko wishes to throw on me? I dwell no longer on this
+     subject, leaving to the penetration of your readers the task
+     of seeing things more clearly; I only wish you to remark
+     that, if M. Klaczko, as I suppose, has seen that letter
+     before writing his article, it becomes impossible to explain
+     the errors of it.
+
+     I regret to say, however, that I should have to criticise
+     almost all his work, if I wished to correct the defective
+     parts of it; but I do not intend to abuse my right of reply,
+     and I will go no farther. I will rectify, however, another
+     error on account of its particular importance. Replying to a
+     telegraphic question of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, I wrote him on
+     the 8th June, 1866, that no one in Prussia, from the king to
+     the most humble of his subjects, with the exception of M. de
+     Bismarck, would consent, in my opinion, to abandon to us any
+     part of the German territory on the Rhine. After having
+     quoted an extract from my dispatch, M. Klaczko adds: "And
+     this is the same diplomat who had so well appreciated the
+     situation before the campaign of Bohemia, it is the same
+     ambassador _who now undertakes_ to present to M. de Bismarck
+     the demands of the cabinet of the Tuileries, who went so far
+     as to submit to him, on the 5th August, a plan of a secret
+     treaty implying the abandonment to France of the whole left
+     bank of the Rhine, without excepting the great fortress of
+     Mayence!"
+
+     M. Klaczko mistakes. I did not take upon myself to make this
+     communication, and his allegation, deprived, moreover, of all
+     proof, astonishes me the more as he could have seen in "My
+     Mission in Prussia," that affairs were not conducted in that
+     manner; that, on the contrary, while pointing out the serious
+     and new difficulties which seemed to oppose this project, I
+     demanded time to previously go to Paris to confer with the
+     government, and that I was _ordered_ to proceed. Did I do
+     well or badly in obeying? That is another question; but M.
+     Klaczko should all the more abstain from presenting this
+     incident in such a manner as to emphasize the consequences of
+     it, which have been grave and gloomy, as he is careful to
+     remember.
+
+     If it is thus that M. Klaczko understands the duties of the
+     historian, I can only express my surprise at it. He,
+     doubtless, did not perceive that party spirit and personal
+     sympathies have suggestions which loyalty disavows. I regret
+     it for a publicist who had accustomed the readers of the
+     "Revue des deux Mondes" to better prepared and more
+     impartially written studies. As far as I am concerned, you
+     will understand, Mr. Editor, that I could not sanction by my
+     silence assertions so destitute of foundation, and that M.
+     Klaczko has forced me to protest in spite of my very sincere
+     desire to avoid any polemics, and to maintain a reserve from
+     which it is painful for me to depart. This letter, however,
+     has no other object, and while asking you to insert it in the
+     next number of the "Revue," I beg you to accept the assurance
+     of my highest regard.
+
+                                                  BENEDETTI.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+M. Benedetti's letter was communicated to M. Julian Klaczko, who
+returned it to us with the following observations:--
+
+     M. le Comte Benedetti confounds two very different
+     negotiations which have been spoken of in our work, as well
+     as the two very distinct estimations of which they have been
+     the object on our part. It was only in the affair concerning
+     the treaty on Belgium, in the month of August, 1866, that the
+     conduct of M. Benedetti toward his minister seemed incorrect
+     to us; we have not passed the same judgment on his attitude
+     in the months of March and April of the same year, as regards
+     the secret treaty negotiated between M. de Bismarck and
+     General Govone; still less have we reproached him with having
+     been the inspirer of this treaty _without the knowledge of
+     his government_. We have only affirmed that his dispatches at
+     that time were of a nature to deter the French government
+     from any attempt at a prior engagement with Prussia in view
+     of the eventualities of the war.
+
+     M. Benedetti in truth did not cease to represent the court of
+     Berlin as inaccessible to any overture of this sort. Even on
+     the 8th June, 1866, on the eve of the war, he wrote: "The
+     apprehensions which France inspires everywhere in Germany
+     still exist, and they will reawaken unanimously and violently
+     at the slightest indication which could reveal our intention
+     to extend ourselves toward the East.... The king, like the
+     most humble of his subjects, would not listen at this moment
+     to the possibility of a sacrifice (on the Rhine). The crown
+     prince, profoundly sensible of the dangers of the policy of
+     which he is the witness, declared, not long ago, to one of my
+     colleagues, with extreme vivacity, that he preferred war to
+     the cession of the little county of Glatz." ("My Mission in
+     Prussia," pp. 171-172). In his other reports, as well as
+     throughout his whole book, M. Benedetti always returns to
+     this circumstance, that he never "encouraged hopes" on this
+     side, and that he "sufficiently indicated that one would not
+     obtain in any case, with the consent of Prussia, territorial
+     concessions on the frontier of the East." ("My Mission," p.
+     176).
+
+     That was, however, not the sentiment of the Italian
+     negotiators at the court of Berlin. M. de Barral, in a
+     telegram addressed the 6th May to General La Marmora, thus
+     expressed himself: "They are busily occupied with
+     negotiations, we are assured, which are taking place between
+     France and Austria to indemnify Italy, and which will have
+     gone as far as the line of the Rhine to France. To the
+     observation which I made on the danger of such an offer by a
+     German Power, Bismarck replied to me by shrugging his
+     shoulders, indicating very clearly that, should the case
+     occur, he would not recoil from this means of
+     aggrandizement!" On his side, General Govone, in his very
+     minute report of the 7th May, relates the same incident in a
+     fuller and much more explicit manner. "M. de Bismarck wishes
+     to know the intentions and desires of the emperor; he has
+     spoken of them to M. de Barral; he told him to try to learn
+     something about them through M. Nigra; he has even given them
+     cause to believe that he will be disposed to abandon to him
+     the banks of the Rhine, having been informed by his agents
+     that the emperor was negotiating with Austria, and that
+     Austria would cede to him, so he believes, Venetia, and would
+     even invite him to take possession of the left bank of the
+     Rhine." M. de Barral, to whom he spoke, cried out: "But
+     Austria should not thus compromise itself with Germany while
+     sacrificing countries which belong to the confederation!" M.
+     de Bismarck made a gesture which seemed to say: "I too would
+     cede them." Lastly, in his report of the 3d June, five days
+     before the dispatch of M. Benedetti concerning "the king and
+     the most humble of his subjects," General Govone quotes the
+     following reply of M. de Bismarck to his demand whether one
+     could not find "some geographical line" to indemnify France?
+     "There will be the Mosel (said M. de Bismarck). I am, he
+     added, much less German than Prussian, and I would have no
+     difficulty in conceding to France the cession of all the
+     country between the Mosel and the Rhine: the Palatinate,
+     Oldenburg, a part of the Prussian territory, etc. But the
+     king will have great scruples, and can only decide in a
+     supreme moment when it is a question of losing or winning
+     all. At any rate, to bring the mind of the king to any
+     arrangement with France, it will be necessary to know the
+     minimum (_il limite minimo_) of the pretensions of this
+     Power." (La Marmora, "Un pó più di luce," p. 211, 221, 275).
+
+     Thus the Italian negotiators differed notably from M.
+     Benedetti in their opinion on this very grave point; in all
+     the confidential and evidently sincere relations which they
+     had with their own government, they considered a territorial
+     and previous arrangement between France and Prussia as a very
+     difficult thing, without doubt, but not impossible. We have
+     not discussed in our work the question whether it was General
+     Govone or M. Benedetti who had judged the situation best; we
+     have not even mentioned this divergence of opinions: we have
+     only asked how M. Benedetti could have believed that after
+     Sadowa and Nikolsburg he would find Prussia accessible to
+     arrangements which it had not wished to accept before its
+     immense victories and in the midst of an extremely perilous
+     crisis? How could he have undertaken on this 5th August[146]
+     to demand of M. de Bismarck for France all the left bank of
+     the Rhine without excepting the great fortress of Mayence,
+     when on the 8th June he was persuaded that one could not
+     obtain from Prussia even a territory of the value of the
+     county of Glatz? We have given the only possible explanation
+     of this contradiction, the only one, we dare affirm, which
+     has presented itself to the minds of all those who have
+     studied these events. Before the campaign of Bohemia, we
+     said, M. Benedetti did not think it possible to obtain
+     territorial concessions from Prussia, and had shown all the
+     more plainly the difficulties of such a demand which he
+     feared to see Prussia refuse and thus render its _connubio_
+     with Italy abortive, if they insisted prematurely, too firmly
+     on the point of compensations. He desired rather to count on
+     the military events to procure advantages for his country,
+     on "the necessities to which the war might reduce the
+     Prussian government" ("My Mission," p. 172), for he did not
+     expect any more than the most ordinary of mortals the
+     startling blow of Sadowa. After Sadowa he was dismayed at the
+     success of the Hohenzollern; patriotic anguish for France
+     succeeded in his heart to the generous sympathies for Italy,
+     and, as he himself says, "in view of the important
+     acquisitions of Prussia he was of the opinion that a
+     territorial remodeling was henceforward necessary for the
+     security of France." ("My Mission," p. 177). This remodeling
+     he had _at first_ hoped to find on the Rhine, "provided that
+     the language of his government was firm and its attitude
+     resolute" (p. 178); he had then sought it on the Meuse and
+     the Escaut, and had allowed himself to be drawn into that
+     secret negotiation on Belgium which was to be so fatal to
+     France.
+
+     It was probably not the _patriotic anguish_ attributed by us
+     to M. Benedetti on the day after Sadowa, that could have
+     wounded his feelings. Could it be the Italian sympathies with
+     which we have credited him that awakened his
+     susceptibilities? But the pronounced liking for the country
+     and the cause of M. de Cavour has been the principal and
+     marked characteristic of the political life of the former
+     ambassador of France to the court of Berlin; in sight, and
+     with the knowledge, of every one, M. Benedetti has always
+     been reckoned among the most distinguished members of a party
+     which had great influence in the councils of the second
+     empire, a party which considered Italian unity as the most
+     glorious work of the reign, the most useful for France, and,
+     in its eyes, the _connubio_ of Italy and Prussia seemed an
+     immense good fortune for the imperial policy, a brilliant
+     victory gained over the old order of things, to the profit of
+     the "new right" and Napoleonic ideas! The diplomatic career
+     of M. Benedetti, even presents in this respect a character
+     of unity and indivisibility which will arouse the eternal
+     admiration of all Italian patriots. In 1860 he had negotiated
+     and brought to a successful end the treaty on Savoy and Nice,
+     in exchange for which the imperial government tore up the
+     treaty of Zurich, and sanctioned implicitly the annexations
+     of Tuscany and Emilia. In 1861 he was made minister
+     plenipotentiary of France to Turin, as if to console Italy
+     for the recent death of M. de Cavour, to reëstablish in any
+     case beyond the Alps the friendly relations which the
+     invasion of the kingdom of Naples had for a moment strongly
+     compromised. In the summer of the following year (August,
+     1862), the harmony between France and Italy was again
+     troubled in consequence of Aspromonte, and of the circular of
+     General Durando, of the 10th September, which demanded the
+     evacuation of Rome. M. Thouvenel was then obliged to leave
+     the Hotel of the Quai d'Orsay, giving place to M. Drouyn de
+     Lhuys; and M. Benedetti, as well as his colleague of Rome, M.
+     de La Valette, hastened to give his resignation, in order to
+     mark with _éclat_ his disapprobation as regarded a system
+     become less favorable to the aspirations of Italy. He did not
+     reënter the career until two years later, the 7th October,
+     1864, after the convention of the 15th September had given
+     satisfaction to the wishes of the cabinet of Turin concerning
+     Rome, also after M. de Bismarck had passed by Paris and had
+     placed there the first beacons of the great combination
+     against Austria. The post at Berlin was then raised to an
+     embassy, and M. Benedetti became the holder of it. His former
+     colleague of Rome, M. de La Valette, did not delay to sit in
+     the councils of the empire, and at the same moment General La
+     Marmora, well known for his _Prussomania_, undertook the
+     direction of affairs at Turin. And from the beginning of the
+     year 1865, M. de Bismarck engaged in his first campaign
+     against Austria concerning the Duchies, and made his first
+     proceedings at Florence to combine an understanding with
+     Italy. The _connubio_ was not definitely consummated until
+     April, 1866, under the eyes of M. Benedetti.
+
+     No one that we know (and we less than any one) has reproached
+     M. Benedetti with having favored this _connubio without the
+     knowledge of his government_; but M. Benedetti will doubtless
+     not pretend that this understanding between Italy and Prussia
+     did not have all his sympathies. General Govone had no
+     confidences for him at Berlin, perhaps; it was M. Benedetti,
+     on the contrary, who made the Italian negotiator precious
+     confidences,--that one among others, "that M. de Bismarck was
+     a sort of _maniac_, whom he (Benedetti) knew and had
+     _followed_ for nearly fifteen years."[147] He had advised
+     him, also, "not to sign any treaty, but only to have a
+     project thoroughly discussed and ready to sign when the
+     mobilization of Prussia should be achieved." Would M.
+     Benedetti seek to persuade that by this advice he had wished
+     to hinder the _connubio_? No, assuredly, by such advice M.
+     Benedetti told General Govone to act only in earnest. It was
+     good counsel that he gave him. Now one does not give good
+     counsel for an affair which one wishes to see go under.
+     Moreover, it was not the Italians that it was necessary to
+     render favorable to the _connubio_; they inclined to it
+     naturally: the important part was to gain over the court of
+     Berlin, to triumph over its scruples, to reassure it, above
+     all, as to the intentions of France. "I think that I should
+     announce to you," the Italian negotiator telegraphed on the
+     28th March to General La Marmora, "that the president (M. de
+     Bismarck) keeps M. Benedetti exactly informed."[148] M. de
+     Bismarck would certainly not have thought of keeping M.
+     Benedetti so exactly informed, if he had credited him with an
+     aversion or even a lukewarmness for the Italian marriage.
+     Then, as since, in France as well as abroad, in the eyes of
+     the publicists as well as in the eyes of his own chiefs (as
+     we are going to prove immediately), the former ambassador of
+     France to the court of Berlin has always passed for the agent
+     of the imperial government who wished most ardently for the
+     success of the Italo-Prussian combination, and the book, "My
+     Mission in Prussia," has not succeeded at all in shaking a
+     conviction which we do not fear to call general.
+
+     We would never have thought of intruding in such an important
+     debate our obscure person and our humble writings; but, since
+     M. Benedetti has kindly wished to recognize in the works
+     previously published by us in the "Revue des deux Mondes,"
+     "studies better prepared and more impartially written," we
+     feel less hesitation in quoting one of those pages which we
+     consecrated even here seven years ago to that pathetic
+     episode of contemporaneous history. Speaking in our
+     "Preliminaries of Sadowa," of the treaty negotiated between
+     M. de Bismarck and General Govone in the spring of 1866, we
+     expressed ourselves as follows: "There was only one strong
+     mind like M. de Bismarck to enter into a compact with this
+     secretary of the dreaded kingdom who assisted his colleague
+     the Count de Barral; in the depths M. Benedetti appeared from
+     time to time. In this respect, we involuntarily stretch our
+     hand toward that volume of Machiavelli; we are seized with a
+     desire to re-read a chapter from the "Legazioni." How happy
+     he would have been, the great Florentine, to contemplate his
+     three compatriots fighting with a _barbarian_! At Paris, one
+     only saw (in this treaty) the single, prodigious fact of a
+     pact concluded between a monarch by the grace of God, and a
+     king of the national will, and one went into ecstacies over
+     the skill of M. Benedetti. There was only one diplomat of the
+     new school who could perform such a miracle!" Lastly, at the
+     beginning of the same study, in relating the circumstances
+     which in 1864 had brought on the political stage those
+     formerly disgraced by the affair Durando, we said: "Without
+     doubt it cost M. Drouyn de Lhuys something to accept as a
+     colleague M. de La Valette, who made no secret of his desire
+     to take his department from him; it cost him still more,
+     probably, to allow such an open adversary as M. Benedetti to
+     be imposed on him as principal agent. Two years later, after
+     Sadowa, and on the day when he gave up his portfolio, the
+     same minister was yet to countersign another decree which
+     raised M. Benedetti to the dignity of the grand cross. Who
+     knows, however, whether, in the mind of M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
+     this second signature was not destined to avenge somewhat the
+     first? In truth, perhaps that was a peculiar trait of mind, a
+     Parthian trait, to distinguish so highly an agent for having
+     only too well served a policy the responsibility of which he
+     not the less repudiated."[149]
+
+     Did the former chiefs of the ex-ambassador of France to the
+     court of Berlin judge otherwise of it? M. Benedetti himself
+     furnishes us on this point with valuable testimony, which we
+     will take care not to neglect. He says ("My Mission," p. 148)
+     that in January, 1870, M. Daru, then minister of foreign
+     affairs, had made, in a letter, allusion to the events of
+     1866, in terms which could not but strongly affect the
+     ambassador: "The territorial state of Prussia," M. Daru had
+     written him, "results from events which _perhaps_ it has not
+     depended on you to bring about." Thus, even four years after
+     Sadowa, they did not cease to attribute to M. Benedetti, to
+     the bureaux of the Quai d'Orsay, a notable part in these
+     gloomy events. The ambassador found it opportune to enlighten
+     his new chief on "the _rôle_ which he played in this
+     circumstance," by a private letter dated the 27th January,
+     1870. "I am not ignorant," we read there, "of all that has
+     been said on this point; but, by a feeling which you will
+     appreciate, I do not doubt, I have never thought of declining
+     the share of responsibility which has been cast on me, and,
+     for this purpose, to set at right the errors too easily
+     gathered by a badly informed public." He affirmed, therefore,
+     that he was then "an active, correct, foreseeing informer,"
+     and he appeals to his correspondence deposited in the
+     archives of foreign affairs. "I should add that I never, _and
+     in none of the missions which I have fulfilled_, have
+     undertaken other correspondences than those whose marks exist
+     in the department, or in the hands of your predecessors, and
+     that I never had, _in all the epochs of my career_, other
+     orders to execute than those that have been given me directly
+     through them." ("My Mission," pp. 148-149). Yet that is not
+     sufficient for M. Benedetti, and in publishing this letter he
+     accompanies it (p. 150) with a triumphant commentary: "I have
+     affirmed a fixed and indubitable fact in mentioning, in my
+     letter (to M. Daru), that I did not have the honor, _on any
+     occasion_ (these words are underlined by M. Benedetti
+     himself), to sustain a direct and confidential correspondence
+     with the emperor. He has deigned to grant me his confidence,
+     and occasionally to testify to me his satisfaction; he has
+     never ceased to transmit to me his orders by the mediation of
+     his minister of foreign affairs, with whom I have exclusively
+     corresponded. No one will suppose, I think, that I would
+     affirm this in such absolute terms as I have in writing to M.
+     Daru, my immediate chief, if I had not been fully
+     authorized."
+
+     Unfortunately some pages beyond (p. 194), M. Benedetti is
+     forced to acknowledge that, in his negotiation concerning the
+     secret treaty on Belgium, he exchanged a correspondence which
+     did not pass through the department for foreign affairs, and
+     which the directing minister of this department did not know
+     of. "I thought it fitting," we read there, "to address to the
+     minister of state, M. Rouher, the letter in which I announced
+     my interview with M. de Bismarck, and which accompanied the
+     plan of the treaty relating to Belgium. M. Rouher did not lay
+     before the ministry, not having then undertaken the direction
+     of it, the correspondence which during several days I
+     exchanged with him." It is true that, in order to palliate
+     this very grave irregularity, M. Benedetti pretends that M.
+     Drouyn de Lhuys had offered his resignation toward the middle
+     of August: "At this moment there was no minister of foreign
+     affairs;" but we have proved to him that M. Drouyn de Lhuys
+     did not lose his portfolio until the 1st September, 1866. Up
+     to that date, M. Drouyn de Lhuys had not ceased to direct the
+     department, with the desire of remaining there, and of
+     preventing the complete abandonment of the traditional French
+     policy. The ambassador himself quotes in his book several
+     dispatches exchanged with him on grave questions, up to the
+     date of the 21st and 25th August (pages 204 and 223); but M.
+     Benedetti thought _proper_ to be silent to his immediate
+     chief concerning the negotiation on the subject of the treaty
+     on Belgium, and only to inform the minister of state. This
+     negotiation not only had its beginning, but also its end (it
+     was broken off by M. de Bismarck the 29th August), _during
+     the ministry of M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and without his
+     knowledge_. This was then _one occasion_ when M. Benedetti
+     did not exclusively correspond with the minister of foreign
+     affairs! There was then _one epoch in the career_ of M.
+     Benedetti when he received orders which did not pass through
+     the Quai d'Orsay! And how suppose of the honorable M. Daru
+     that what had happened in the month of August, 1866, could
+     have also taken place in the months of March and April of the
+     same year?
+
+     M. Benedetti completely ignores in his protest this incident
+     of the treaty concerning Belgium; it is, however, the
+     culminating point, in fact the only grave point of the
+     debate, and the only one concerning which we allowed
+     ourselves to reproach him with having acted _without the
+     knowledge_, not of his government, but _of his minister_.
+     Would M. Benedetti perhaps find that this is an anecdotal
+     incident, incompatible with the dignity of history? He had in
+     fact first tried, in his letter published in the "Moniteur,"
+     the 29th July, 1870, to give to this deplorable event an
+     entirely anecdotal turn, to assign to the compromising
+     document a, so to say, spontaneous generation; he would have
+     wished to give only an exact account of the ideas of M. de
+     Bismarck, and "consented to transcribe them in a manner under
+     his dictation." He could not long persist in such trifling;
+     he had to avow in his book that he had entered on a veritable
+     negotiation, and M. de Bismarck has since then taken
+     malicious pleasure in casting light on the different phases
+     of this negotiation, by different extracts taken from the
+     papers of Cerçay and published in the "Moniteur prussien," in
+     reply to the book of M. Benedetti. "During my long career,"
+     says M. Benedetti, in the preface of his book (p. 4), "I have
+     been charged only on three different occasions with opening
+     negotiations having a fixed object, and leaving me with an
+     initiative part proportionate to the responsibility." He
+     enumerates these three negotiations and proves that he
+     conducted them all to a good end, but he takes good care not
+     to include in the number his negotiations on Belgium, in
+     which he was given an initiative part, and in which we will
+     also give him his proportional part of the responsibility.
+
+     We will also leave him the tone of his polemics; it is like
+     his diplomacy, _sui generis_, and we can say with M. de
+     Bismarck: "M. Benedetti is too clever for us."
+
+                                             JULIAN KLACZKO.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE MISSION EXTRAORDINARY OF MR. FOX.
+
+On Monday, the 16th April (according to the Russian calendar, the 4th),
+1866, an attempt was made on the life of Alexander II., Emperor of
+Russia. The would-be assassin was a Russian named Dmitry Karakozoff, a
+member of the order of the Nihilists. The rescuer of the Czar was a
+newly-emancipated serf, Ossip Ivanovitch Komissaroff by name. The facts
+of the attempted assassination are as follows: In the morning of that
+day Komissaroff started for the chapel built by Peter the Great on an
+island in the Neva. The bridge between the main bank and the island had,
+however, been removed, and he therefore turned toward the palace quay.
+On approaching the Summer Garden he joined the crowd of people waiting
+to see the Emperor pass. While trying to secure a favorable position,
+Komissaroff was attracted by a stranger who was attempting to force his
+way to the front, and who kept his right hand constantly in his coat
+pocket.
+
+When the Emperor appeared, the man beside Komissaroff drew a pistol and
+aimed it at his Majesty. He stood so near that the shot would
+undoubtedly have proved fatal, had not Komissaroff struck up his arm
+and caused the weapon to be discharged in the air. Karakozoff was
+seized, and after trial, was executed on the 15th September. Komissaroff
+was made a nobleman, and had gifts and orders showered on him by the
+score. Mr. Clay, our minister to Russia, delivered a congratulatory
+address to the Emperor at a special audience, and the Emperor returned
+his thanks to the President and the people of the United States.
+
+In the mean time, Congress, remembering that Russia had given our nation
+its warmest sympathies and aid in our hour of peril, introduced a joint
+resolution, relative to the attempted assassination of the Emperor of
+Russia. The resolution was approved by President Johnson, and it was
+then resolved to send a special envoy in a national vessel to carry to
+the Emperor of Russia the congratulations at his providential escape.
+For this delicate mission the Hon. Gustavus Vasa Fox, the Assistant
+Secretary of the Navy, was chosen. At his own request it was determined
+to send him in a monitor, a class of vessel which had never crossed the
+Atlantic, but in whose seaworthiness Mr. Fox trusted implicitly. For
+this purpose the _Miantonomoh_, a two-turret monitor, to be accompanied
+by two wooden men-of-war, was selected. On June 5, 1866, Mr. Fox left
+St. John, N. B., for Queenstown, arriving there on June 16th. Mr. Fox
+then left the _Miantonomoh_, and made short trips through England,
+Ireland, and France. He rejoined the squadron at Copenhagen on Saturday,
+July 21st, and after having been hospitably entertained by the king,
+left on August 1st for Cronstadt. He arrived there on August 5th, and on
+the following day he went to St. Petersburg and paid his respects to Mr.
+Clay, the United States Minister there. On the 8th the mission was
+received at Peterhof by the Emperor, assisted by Prince Gortchakof. Mr.
+Fox addressed the Emperor, who replied to him through Prince
+Gortchakof. On August 9th his Majesty visited the ships at Cronstadt.
+
+For more than a month a series of dinners and balls were given in honor
+of the mission, and Mr. Fox's progress throughout the country was a
+perfect ovation. He was made honorary citizen of all the large cities;
+he received delegations of peasants, and was honored with rich presents
+from the Emperor. The tact and eminent social qualities which he
+displayed, made this altogether unique mission successful, and greatly
+strengthened the warm ties which exist between the two countries. It
+will be seen that M. Klaczko erroneously calls Mr. Fox "assistant
+secretary of state."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[146] We have said: "How could he undertake to present to M. de Bismarck
+the _demands of the cabinet of the Tuileries_?" and M. Benedetti sees in
+the word undertake the insinuation of an initiative. We have, however,
+very explicitly said, _The demands of the cabinet of the Tuileries_, and
+we immediately added M. Benedetti's own expressions: "_I have provoked
+nothing_, still less have I guaranteed the success; I have only allowed
+myself to _hope_ for it." None of our readers could mistake the meaning
+of our words, nor, above all, see therein the insinuation which M.
+Benedetti gratuitously credits us with.
+
+[147] "_Del Conte Bismarck dice (M. de Benedetti) che è un diplomatico
+per così dire_ MANIACO; _che da quindici anni che to conosce e lo_
+SEGUE."--Report of General Govone, 6th April, 1866. La Marmora, p. 139.
+
+[148] La Marmora, p. 110.
+
+[149] See the _Revue_ of the 15th September, and the 1st October, 1868.
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Obvious spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected.
+
+Both clear-sighted and clearsighted, re-formed and reformed, Lauenberg
+and Lauenburg, and Leipsic and Leipzig, were used equally in this text
+and were retained. Herzegovania and Herzegovina were also retained.
+
+Changes were made to the original as follows:
+
+    "Wurtemberg" to "Würtemberg."
+
+    "Hôtel" to more frequent "Hotel."
+
+    "Moskova" to more frequent "Moscova."
+
+    "Over-excited" to more frequent unhyphenated uses, "overexcited."
+
+    P. 122, Chapter III, Section heading "I." which is implied but not
+    present in the original was added.
+
+    P. 181, "hotbed" to more frequent "hot-bed."
+
+    P. 243, single occurrence of "Slavic" changed to much more frequent
+    "Sclavic"(22).
+
+    P. 258, "Obrénovitch" standardized to "Obrenovitch."
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO CHANCELLORS***
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