History of Modern Europe 1792-1878
by
C. A. Fyffe
Part 21 out of 21
Principalities or sending its troops beyond the Balkans the alliance was to
be offensive.
[468] Briefwechsel F. Wilhelms mit Bunsen, p. 310. Martin's Prince Consort,
iii. 39. On November 20, after the Turks had begun war, the King of Prussia
wrote thus to Bunsen (the italics, capitals, and exclamations are his own):
"All direct help which England _in unchristian folly!!!!!!_ gives TO
ISLAM AGAINST CHRISTIANS! will have (besides God's avenging judgment [hear!
hear!]) no other effect than to bring what is now Turkish territory at a
somewhat later period under Russian dominion" (Briefwechsel, p. 317). The
reader may think that the insanity to which Frederick William succumbed was
already mastering him; but the above is no rare specimen of his epistolary
style.
[469] The Treaty of alliance between France and England, to which Prussia
was asked to accede, contained, however, a clause pledging the contracting
parties "under no circumstance to seek to obtain from the war any advantage
to themselves."
[470] Eastern Papers, viii. I.
[471] Eastern Papers, xi. 3. Ashley's Palmerston, ii. 60. For the
navigation of the mouths of the Danube, see Diplomatic Study, ii. 39.
Russia, which had been in possession of the mouths of the Danube since the
Treaty of Adrianople, and had undertaken to keep the mouths clear, had
allowed the passage to become blocked and had otherwise prevented traffic
descending, in order to keep the Black Sea trade in its own hands.
[472] See, however, Burgoyne's Letter to the _Times_, August 4, 1868,
in Kinglake, iv. 465. Rousset, Guerre de Crimée, i. 280.
[473] Statements of Raglan, Lucan, Cardigan; Kinglake, v. 108, 402.
[474] On the death of Nicholas, the King of Prussia addressed the following
lecture to the unfortunate Bunsen:--"You little thought that, at the very
moment when you were writing to me, one of the noblest of men, one of the
grandest forms in history, one of the truest hearts, and at the same time
one of the greatest rulers of this narrow world, was called from faith to
sight. I thank God on my knees that He deemed me worthy to be, in the best
sense of the word, his [Nicholas'] friend, and to remain true to him. You,
dear Bunsen, thought differently of him, and you will now painfully confess
this before your conscience, most painfully of all the truth (which all
your letters in these late bad times have unfortunately shown me but too
plainly), that _you hated him_. You hated him, not as a man, but as
the representative of a principle, that of violence. If ever, redeemed like
him through simple faith in Christ's blood, you see him in eternal peace,
then remember what I now write to you: '_You will beg his pardon_.
Even here, my dear friend, may the blessing of repentance be granted to
you."--Briefwechsel, p. 325. Frederick William seems to have forgotten to
send the same pious wishes to the Poles in Siberia.
[475] Parliamentary Papers, 1854-5, vol. 55, p. 1, Dec. 2, 1854. Ashley's
Palmerston, ii. 84.
[476] Eastern Papers, Part 13, 1.
[477] Kinglake, vii. 21. Rousset, ii. 35, 148.
[478] Diplomatic Study, ii. 361. Martin, Prince Consort, iii. 394.
[479] Prussia was admitted when the first Articles had been settled, and it
became necessary to revise the Treaty of July, 1841, of which Prussia had
been one of the signatories.
[480] "In the course of the deliberation, whenever our [Russian]
plenipotentiaries found themselves in the presence of insurmountable
difficulties, they appealed to the personal intervention of this sovereign
[Napoleon], and had only to congratulate themselves on the
result."--Diplomatic Study, ii. 377.
[481] Three pages of promises. Eastern Papers, xvii. One was kept
faithfully. "To accomplish these objects, means shall be sought to profit
by the science, the art, _and the funds_ of Europe." One of the
drollest of the prophecies of that time is the congratulatory address of
the Missionaries to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, _id_. 1882.--"The
Imperial Hatti-sheriff has convinced us that our fond expectations are
likely to be realised. The light will shine upon those who have long sat in
darkness; and blest by social prosperity and religious freedom, the
millions of Turkey will, we trust, be seen ere long sitting peacefully
under their own vine and fig-tree." So they were, and with poor Lord
Stratford's fortune, among others, in their pockets.
[482] All verbatim from the Treaty. Parl. Papers, 1856, vol 61, p. 1.
[483] Martin, Prince Consort, iii. 452. Poole, Stratford, ii. 356.
[484] Berti, Cavour avanti 1848, p. 110. La Rive, Cavour, p. 58. Cavour,
Lettere (ed. Chuala), introd. p. 73.
[485] Cavour, Lettere (Chiala), ii. introd. p. 187. Guerzoni, Garibaldi, i.
412. Manin, the Ex-President of Venice, now in exile, declared from this
time for the House of Savoy. Garibaldi did the same.
[486] Cavour, Lettere (Chiala), ii. introd. pp. 289, 324; iii. introd. p.
i. Bianchi, Diplomazia, vii. 1, Mazade, Cavour, p. 187, Massari, La
Marmora, p. 204.
[487] "In mezzo alle piu angosciose crisi politiche, esclamava nelle
solitudine delle sue stanze; 'Perisca il mio nome, perisca la mia fama,
purche l'Italia sia,'" Artom (Cavour's secretary), Cavour in Parlameuto:
introd. p. 46.
[488] La Farina Epistolaria, ii. 56, 81, 137, 426. The interview with
Garibaldi; Cavour, Letiere, id. introd. p. 297. Garibaldi, Epistolario, i.
55.
[489] Cavour, Lettere (Chiala), iii. introd. p. 32. Bianchi, Diplomazia,
viii. II. The statement of Napoleon III. to Lord Cowley, in Martin Prince
Consort, v. 31, that there was no Treaty, is untrue.
[490] Bianchi, Politique de Cavour, p. 328, where is Cavour's indignant
letter to Napoleon. The last paragraph of this seems to convey a veiled
threat to publish the secret negotiations.
[491] Cavour, Lettere, iii. introd. p. 115; iii. 29. Bianchi, Politique de
Cavour, p. 333. Bianchi, Diplomazia, vii. 61. Massari, Cavour, p. 314.
Parliamentary Papers, 1859, xxxii. 204, 262. Mérimée, Lettres à Panizzi, i.
21. Martin, Prince Consort, iv. 427.
[492] La Farina, Epistolaria, ii. 172. Parliamentary Papers, 1859, xxxiii.
391, 470.
[493] Cavour, Lettere, iii. introd. 212, iii. 107. Bianchi, Politique de
Cavour, p. 319. Bianchi, Diplomazia, viii. 145, 198. Massari, Vittorio
Emanuele, ii. 32. Kossuth, Memories p. 394. Parl. Pap. 1859, xxxii. 63,
1860, lxviii. 7. La Farina Epist, ii. 190. Ollivier, L'Église et l'État,
ii. 452.
[494] Arrivabene, Italy under Victor Emmanuel, i. 268.
[495] Cavour, Lettere, iii. introd. 301. Bianchi, viii. 180. Garibaldi,
Epist., i. 79. Guerzoni, i. 491. Reuchlin, iv. 410.
[496] Cavour, Lettere, iv. introd. 20. Bianchi, Politique, p. 354. Bianchi,
Diplomazia, viii. 256. Parliamentary Papers, 1860, lxvii. 203; lxviii. 53.
[497] Cavour in Parlamento, p. 536.
[498] Garibaldi, Epist., i. 97. Persano, Diario, i. 14. Le Farina, Epist.,
ii. 324. Guerzoni, ii. 23. Parliamentary Papers, 1860, lxviii. 2. Mundy,
H.M.S. _Hannibal_ at Palermo, p. 133.
[499] Cavour, Lettere, iii. introd. 269. La Farina, Epist., ii. 336.
Bianchi, Politique, p. 366. Persano, Diario, i. 50, 72, 96.
[500] Bianchi, Politique, p. 377. Persano, ii. p. 1-102. Persano sent his
Diary in MS. to Azeglio, and asked his advice on publishing it. Azeglio
referred to Cavour's saying, "If we did for ourselves what we are doing for
Italy, we should be sad blackguards," and begged Persano to let his secrets
be secrets, saying that since the partition of Poland no confession of such
"colossal blackguardism" had been published by any public man.
[501] Bianchi, Politique, p. 383. Persano, iii. 61. Bianchi, Diplomazia,
viii. 337, Garibaldi, Epist., i. 127.
[502] "Le Roi répondit tout court: 'C'est impossible.'" Cavour to his
ambassador at London, Nov. 16, in Bianchi, Politique, p. 386. La Farina,
Epist., ii. 438. Persano, iv. 44, Guerzoni, ii. 212.
[503] Cavour in Parlamento, p. 630. Azeglio, Correspondance Politique, p.
180. La Rive, p. 313. Berti, Cavour avanti 1848, p. 302.
[504] "Le comte le reconnu, lui serra la main et dit: 'Frate, frate, libera
chiesa in libero stato' Ce furent ses dernières paroles." Account of the
death of Cavour by his niece, Countess Alfieri, in La Rive, Cavour, p. 319.
[505] Berichte uber der Militair etat, p. 669. Schulthess, Europaischer
Geschichts Kalender, 1862, p. 122.
[506] Poschinger, Preussen im Bundestag ii. 69, 97; iv. 178. Hahn,
Bismarck, i. 608.
[507] Hahn, Fürst Bismarck, i. 66. This work is a collection of documents,
speeches, and letters not only by Bismarck himself but on all the principal
matters in which Bismarck was concerned. It is perhaps, from the German
point of view, the most important repertory of authorities for the period
1862-1885.
[508] Sammlung der Staatsacten Oesterreichs (1861), pp. 2, 33. Drei Jahre
Verfassungstreit, p. 107.
[509] Sammlung der Staatsacten, p. 89. Der Ungarische Reichstag 1861, pp.
3, 194, 238. Arnold Forster, Life of Deák, p. 141.
[510] Celestin, Russland, p. 3. Leroy-Beaulieu, L'Empire des Tsars, i. 400.
Homme d'État Russe, p. 73. Wallace, Russia, p. 485.
[511] Raczynski, Mémoires sur la Pologne, p. 14. B. and F. State Papers,
1862-63, p. 769.
[512] Leroy-Beaulieu, Homme d'État Russe, p. 259.
[513] Hahn, i. 112. Verhandl des Preuss, Abgeord. über Polen, p. 45.
[514] Parliamentary Papers, 1864, vol. lxiv. pp. 28, 263. Hahn, Bismarck,
i. 165.
[515] From Rechberg's despatch of Feb 28, 1863 (in Hahn, i. 84), apparently
quoting actual words uttered by Bismarck. Bismarck's account of the
conversation (id. 80) tones it down to a demand that Austria should not
encroach on Prussia's recognised joint-leadership in Germany.
[516] B. and F. State Papers, 1863-4, p. 173. Beust, Erinnerungen, i. 136.
[517] Bismarck's note of July 29th, 1870, in Hahn, i. 506, describing
Napoleon's Belgian project, which dated from the time when he was himself
ambassador at Paris in 1862, gives this as the explanation of Napoleon's
policy in 1864. The Commercial Treaty with Prussia and friendly personal
relations with Bismarck also influenced Napoleon's views. See Bismarck's
speech of Feb. 21st, 1879, on this subject, in Hahn, iii. 599.
[518] Hahn, Bismarck, i. 271, 318. Oesterreichs Kämpfe in 1866, i. 8.
[519] B. and F. State Papers, 1864-65, p. 460.
[520] La Marmora, Un po più di luce, pp. 109, 146, Jacini, Due Anni, p.
154. Hahn, i. 377. In the first draft of the Treaty Italy was required to
declare war not only on Austria but on all German Governments which should
join it. King William, who had still some compunction in calling in Italian
arms against the Fatherland, struck out these words.
[521] La Marmora, Un po piú di luce, p. 204. Hahn, i. 402.
[522] Hahn, Bismarck, i. 425. Hahn, Zwei Jahre, p. 60. Oesterreichs Kämpfe,
i. 30.
[523] Discours de Napoleon III., p. 456. On May 11th, Nigra, Italian
ambassador at Paris, reported that Napoleon's ideas on the objects to be
attained by a Congress were as follows:--Venetia to Italy, Silesia to
Austria; the Danish Duchies and other territory in North Germany to
Prussia; the establishment of several small States on the Rhine under
French protection; the dispossessed German princes to be compensated in
Roumania. La Marmora, p. 228. Napoleon III. was pursuing in a somewhat
altered form the old German policy of the Republic and the Empire--namely,
the balancing of Austria and Prussia against one another, and the
establishment of a French protectorate over the group of secondary States.
[524] Oesterreichs Kämpfe, ii. 341. Prussian Staff, Campaign of 1866
(Hozier), p. 167.
[525] Hahn, i. 476. Benedetti, Ma Mission en Prusse, p. 186. Reuchlin, v.
457. Massari, La Marmora, p. 350.
[526] Hahn, i. 501, 505.
[527] Benedetti, p. 191. Hahn, i. 508; ii. 328, 635. See also La Marmora's
Un po più di luce, p. 242, and his Segreti di Stato, p. 274. Govone's
despatches strongly confirm the view that Bismarck was more than a mere
passive listener to French schemes for the acquisition of Belgium. That he
originated the plan is not probable; that he encouraged it seems to me
quite certain, unless various French and Italian documents unconnected with
one another are forgeries from beginning to end. On the outbreak of the war
of 1870 Bismarck published the text of the draft-treaty discussed in 1866
providing for an offensive and defensive alliance between France and
Prussia, and the seizure of Belgium by France. The draft was in Benedetti's
handwriting, and written on paper of the French Embassy. Benedetti stated
in answer that he had made the draft at Bismarck's dictation. This might
seem very unlikely were it not known that the draft of the Treaty between
Prussia and Italy in 1866 was actually so written down by Barral, the
Italian Ambassador, at Bismarck's dictation.
[528] Regelung der Verhältnisse, p. 4. Ausgleich mit Ungarn, p. 9.
[529] Hungary retained a Ministry of National Defence for its Reserve
Forces, and a Finance Ministry for its own separate finance. Thus the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs was the only one of the three common Ministries
which covered the entire range of a department.
[530] They had indeed been discovered by French agents in Germany. Rothan,
L'Affaire du Luxembourg, p. 74.
[531] Hahn, i. 658. Rothan, Luxembourg, p. 246. Correspondenzen des K.K.
Minist. des Aüssern, 1868, p. 24. Parl. Pap., 1867, vol. lxxiv., p. 427.
[532] Sorel, Histoire Diplomatique, i. 38. But see the controversy between
Beust and Gramont in _Le Temps_, Jan. 11-16, 1873.
[533] Rothan, La France en 1867, ii. 316. Reuchlin, v. 547. Two historical
expressions belong to Mentana: the "Never," of M. Rouher, and "The
Chassepots have done wonders," of General Failly.
[534] Sorel, i. 40. Hahn, i. 720. Immediately after Mentana, on Nov. 17,
1867, Mazzini wrote to Bismarck and to the Prussian ambassador at Florence,
Count Usedom, stating that Napoleon had resolved to make war on Prussia and
had proposed an alliance to Victor Emmanuel, who had accepted it for the
price of Rome. Mazzini offered to employ revolutionary means to frustrate
this plan, and asked for money and arms. Bismarck showed caution, but did
not altogether disregard the communication. Politica Segreta Italiana, p.
339.
[535] Benedetti, Ma Mission, p. 319, July 7. Gramont, La France et la
Prusse, p. 61.
[536] Sorel, Histoire Diplomatique, i. 197.
[537] Hahn, ii. 69. Sorel, i. 236.
[538] Prince Napoleon, in Revue des Deux Mondes, April 1, 1878; Gramont, in
Revue de France, April 17, 1878. (Signed Andreas Memor.) Ollivier, L'Eglise
et l'Ètat, ii. 473. Sorel, i. 245.
[539] Der Deutsch Französische Krieg, 1870-71 (Prussian General Staff), i.
72.
[540] Bazaine, L'Armée du Rhin, p. 74.
[541] Papiers Sécrets du Second Empire (1875), pp. 33, 240.
[542] Diary of the Emperor Frederick, Sept. 3.
[543] Favre's circular alleged that the King of Prussia had declared that
he made war not on France but on the Imperial Dynasty. King William had
never stated anything of the kind. His proclamation on entering France, to
which Favre appears to have referred, merely said that the war was to he
waged against the French army, and not against the inhabitants, who, so
long as they kept quiet, would not be molested.
[544] Deutsch-Französiche Krieg, vol. III., p. 104. Bazaine, p. 166. Procès
de Bazaine, vol. ii., p. 219. Regnier, p. 20. Hahn, ii., 171.
[545] Hahn, ii. 216. Valfrey, Diplomatie du Gouvernement de la Défense
Nationale, ii. 51. Hertsier, Map of Europe, iii. 1912, 1954.
[546] Parl. Pap. 1876, vol. lxxxiv., pp. 74, 96.
[547] Parl. Pap. 1876, vol. lxxxiv., p. 183.
[548] Parl. Pap. 1877, vol. xc., p. 143.
[549] Parl. Deb. July 10, 1876, verbatim.
[550] See Burke's speech on the Russian armament, March 29, 1791, and the
passage on "the barbarous anarchic despotism" of Turkey in his Reflections
on the French Revolution, p. 150, Clar. edit. Burke lived and died in
Beaconsfield, and his grave is there. There seems, however, to be no
evidence for the story that he was about to receive a peerage with the
title of Beaconsfield, when the death of his son broke all his hopes.
[551] Parl. Pap. 1877, vol. xc., p. 642; 1878, vol. lxxxi., p. 679.
[552] Parl. Pap. 1877, vol. lxxxix., p. 135.
[553] Parl. Pap. 1878, vol. lxxxi., pp. 661, 725. Parl. Deb., vol.
ccxxxvii.
[554] The Treaty, with Maps, is in Parl. Pap. 1878, vol. lxxxiii. p. 239.
[555] Parl. Pap. 1878, vl. lxxxii., p. 3. _Globe_, May 31, 1878. Hahn,
iii. 116.
[Transcriber's Note: (1) Footnotes have been numbered and collected at the
end of the work. (2) Sidenotes have been placed in brackets prior to the
paragraph in which they occur. (3) In a few places (all in the footnotes)
the text in our print copy was illegible and has been marked with a [***].
(4) The spelling in the print copy was not always consistent. Irregular
words in the original (e.g., "ascendent," "Christain," and "Würtemburg")
have been retained whenever possible.]
Back to Full Books
|