CHAP. sort (for she saw her interests vitally touched, and XXV. her safety threatened), was eager and determined Proofs of this drawn from to take such steps as might be needed for delivering the Principalities. Prussia agreed with her. It was nothing but the impatience and forwardness of France and England which relieved Austria from the necessity of taking the lead; for the wrong which had to be redressed was one from which she of all the great Powers was the most a sufferer; and she had the concurrence of Prussia not only in regard to the existing state of things, but even as to the ulterior objects of the war which her resolve might bring upon Germany. The proofs of all this abound. By the repeated words of responsible statesmen, by despatches, by tions ante- collective notes, by protocols, by solemn treaty of rior to the offensive and defensive alliance against Russia, by transac Queen's Speech. peremptory summons addressed to the Czar, and, finally (so far as concerns Austria), by the application of force, the German Powers disclosed and executed their policy; and the policy which they so disclosed and executed was the same policy as had been avowed by the Western Powers. It has been seen that in that early period of the troubles, when the Czar was but beginning to cross the Pruth, Austria took upon herself to endeavour to form a league for forcing the Czar to relinquish the Principalities; and from that hour down to the time when Nicholas gave way and re-entered his own dominions, her efforts to bring about this end were unceasing and restless. XXV. Of the spirit in which Austria was acting through CHAP. all the early stages of the negotiations, many a proof has been already given. With time her impatience of the Czar's intrusion upon her southern frontier increased and increased. It is true that she did not desire war: she anxiously wished to avoid it. She wished, if it were possible, to achieve the end without war, but to achieve it she was resolved; and if a vestige of the mediating character which had belonged to her in the summer of 1853, or her legitimate anxiety to spare the Czar's personal feelings, was a motive which tended to soften her language, it did not deflect her policy. Count Buol declared that although, in treating with Russia, 'more management of terms was required from Austria than from the Western Powers, the objects sought by all the four Powers were the same, and that they ought to be compassed by a general concordance in * the way of putting them forward.' But even the notion of using a gentler form of expression than the one employed by the Western Powers was quickly abandoned, and Austria found no difficulty in adopting the exact words of the collective Note framed by Lord Clarendon in concert with the French Government. So anxious was Austria to remain on the same ground with the rest of the four Powers, that she came into every term of the firm and wise scheme of action laid down by Lord Clarendon on the 16th of November, and bitterly offended the + Ibid. p. 278. * Eastern Papers,' part vii. p. 231. CHAP. Czar by agreeing, at Lord Clarendon's instance, that XXV. the Porte should not be even asked to accept any condition which it had already rejected, and by affirming the determination of the four Powers to intervene in any settlement of the dispute between Russia and Turkey. * Prussia also gave her unreserved adhesion to the plan of action laid down by Lord Clarendon and to the measures resulting from it. By the Protocol of the 5th of December 1853 † both Austria and Prussia joined with the Western Powers in declaring that the existence of Turkey in the limits assigned to it by existing treaties was one of the necessary conditions of the European equilibrium. By the Protocol of the 13th of January the four Powers recorded their approval of the terms agreed to by the Turkish Government, and resolved to submit them to the Court of St Petersburg. At the very time when the English Government were framing the Speech from the Throne which ostentatiously separated France and England from the rest of the four Powers, the two great Courts of Germany were sending back Count Orloff and Baron Budberg to St Petersburg, not only with a refusal on their part to give any engagement to stand neutral, but with a plain avowal that they intended to remain faithful to the principles which the four Powers had adopted in concert. Prussia told Baron Budberg that she should have to devise means without Russia for maintaining the equilibrium of Europe. *Eastern Papers,' part ii. p. 263. + Ibid. p. 296. XXV. In significant words, the Emperor Francis Joseph CHAP. told Count Orloff that he should have to be guided by the interests and the dignity of his Empire. It is said that, by the tidings which forced him to know that he was alienated from the Austrian Emperor, the Czar was wounded deep. He had conceived a strong affection for Francis Joseph, and wherever he went he carried with him a small statuette which recalled to his mind the features of the youthful Kaiser. It would seem that his affection was of the kind which a loving and yet stern father bears his son, for it was joined with a sense of right to exact a great deference to his will. Nicholas had been strangely slow to believe that Francis Joseph could harbour the thought of opposing him in arms; and when at last the truth was forced upon him, he desired that the marble should be taken from his sight. But he did not, they say, speak in anger. When he had spoken, he covered his face with his hands and was wrung with grief. What we are showing just now is the complete union of opinion which was existing between England and the two great Courts of Germany on the 31st of January 1854, and in order to this we have already referred to a variety of diplomatic transactions coming down to the time in question; but the policy of the Courts of Vienna and Berlin at the close of the month of January is to be inferred, of course, from the transactions which followed this date, as well as from those which preceded it; and therefore it will XXV. CHAP. be convenient to go forward a little in advance of the general progress of the narrative, in order to bring under one view the grounds which support our proposition. Proofs drawn from transac Day by day the joint pressure of the four Powers became more cogent. By the Protocol of the 2d of tions sub- February the four Powers unanimously rejected the sequent to the Queen's Speech. counter-propositions made by Russia. On the 14th of March both Austria and Prussia addressed circulars to the Courts of the German Confederation, in which they pointed out that the interests in question were essentially German interests, and that the active co-operation of Germany might be needed. On the 18th of March the King of Prussia asked his Chamber for an extraordinary credit of thirty million of thalers; and he at the same time declared that he would not swerve from the principles established by the Vienna Conference, and would faithfully protect every member of the Confederation who, at an earlier moment than Prussia, might be called on to draw the sword for the defence of German interests. Nor were these bare words. Austria, it has been already said, was so placed that, whatever dangers she might draw upon her other frontiers, she could act with irresistible pressure upon the invader of the Principalities. On the 6th and 22d of February she reinforced her army on the frontier of Wallachia by 50,000 men, and thus placed the Russian army of occupation completely at her mercy. On the day when she sent that last reinforcement into the Banat, she had grown so impatient of the further |