XXV.

continuance of the Russians in the Principalities CHAP. that she actually pressed France and England to summon Russia to quit the Principalities under pain of a declaration of war, and undertook to support their summons.* Prussia was approving; and on the 25th Baron Manteuffel wrote to Count Arnim at Vienna on the subject of the more decided policy 'which it was supposed the Austrian Government 'was about to adopt in the affairs of the East, and expressed the satisfaction of the Prussian Government at the interests of Germany on the Danube being likely to be so warmly espoused.'† On the 2d of March the French Emperor had so little doubt of the concurrence of Austria and Germany, that he announced it in his Speech from the Throne. 'Germany,' said he, has recovered her independence, ' and has looked freely to see whither her true inAustria especially, who cannot see

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terests led her.

' with indifference the events going on, will join our alliance, and will thus come to confirm the morality and justice of the war which we undertake. We go ' to Constantinople with Germany.'

On the 20th of March the four Powers were so well. agreed that, when Greece sought to make a diversion in favour of Russia, the representatives of Austria, Prussia, France, and England, all joined in a collective Note, which called upon the Greek Government, in terms approaching menace, to give way to the demands of the Porte. On the very day which followed the English declaration of war, the Emperor *Eastern Papers,' part vii. p. 53. + Ibid. p. 64.

XXV.

*

CHAP. of Austria appointed the Archduke Albert to the command of the forces on the frontier of Wallachia, and at the same time the Third Army' was put upon the war footing. A little later the Emperor of Austria ordered a new levy of 95,000 men for the defence of his frontiers. Later still, but within one day of the time when France and England were making their alliance, Austria and Prussia joined with France and England in a Protocol, which not only recorded the fact that the hostile step then just taken by France and England was 'supported by 'Austria and Prussia as being founded in right,' but went on to declare that at that solemn moment the 'Governments of the four Powers remained united in their object of maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, of which the fact of the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities is and will remain one of the essential conditions;' and that the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire is and remains the sine qua non condition of every 'transaction having for its object the re-establishment of peace between the belligerent Powers.' Finally, the Protocol stipulated that none of the 'four Powers should enter into any definitive arrangement with the Imperial Court of Russia which should be at variance with the principles declared by the Protocol without first deliberating thereon in common.'

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On the 20th of April Austria and Prussia con

* May 15.

+ April 9, 1854. Eastern Papers,' part viii. P. 2.

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XXV.

tracted with each other an offensive and defensive CHAP. alliance, by which they guaranteed to each other all their respective possessions, so that an attack upon the territory of one should be regarded by the other as an act of hostility against his own territory, and engaged to hold a part of their forces in perfect readiness for war. By the Second Article they declared that they stood engaged to defend the rights and interests of Germany against all and every injury, and to consider themselves bound accordingly for the mutual repulse of every attack on any part whatsoever of their territories; likewise, also, in the case where one of the two may find himself, in understanding with the others, obliged to advance actively for the defence of German interests.'* By the Additional Article they declared that the indefinite continuance of the occupation of the territories on the Lower Danube, under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Porte, by imperial Russian troops, 'would endanger the political, moral, and material interests of the whole German Confederation as ' also of their own States, and the more so as Russia 'extends her warlike operations on Turkish territory;' and then went on to stipulate that the Austrian Government should address a communication to the Russian Court, with the object of obtaining from the Emperor of Russia the necessary orders for putting an immediate stop to the further advance of his armies upon the Turkish territory, as also to request of His Imperial * Eastern Papers,' part ix. p. 3.

XXV.

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CHAP. Majesty sufficient guarantees for the prompt eva'cuation of the Danubian Principalities, and that 'the Prussian Government should again, in the most energetic manner, support these communications.' Finally, the high contracting parties agreed that, ‘if, contrary to expectation, the answer of the Russian Court should not be of a nature to give them entire satisfaction, the measures to be taken by one of the contracting parties, according to the terms of Ar'ticle II. signed on that day, would be on the understanding that every hostile attack on the territory ' of one of the contracting parties should be repelled ' with all the military forces at the disposal of the ' other.'*

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Of the intent and the meaning of this treaty, and the use which Austria and Prussia were about to make of it, no doubt could exist. Failing the peremptory summons which was to be addressed to Russia, the forces of Austria alone were to execute the easy task of expelling the troops of the Czar from the Principalities; and in order to withstand the vengeance which this step might provoke, Austria and Prussia together stood leagued.

By the Protocol of the 23d of May, the four Powers declared that both the Anglo-French treaty and the Austro-Prussian treaty bound the parties, in the relative situations to which they applied, to secure the same common object—namely, the evacuation of the Principalities and the integrity of the Ottoman Empire.' +

*Eastern Papers,' part x.

+ Ibid. part ix. p. 1.

Now the mind and the solemn determination of CHAP. XXV. Austria and Prussia being such as are shown by the Protocol of the 9th and the treaty of the 20th April, where was there such a difference of opinionwhere was there even such a shadow of a difference -as to justify the Western States in pushing forward and separating themselves from the rest of the four Powers? The avowed principles and objects of the four Powers were exactly the same. If they had acted together, the very weight of their power would have given them an almost judicial authority, and would have enabled them to enforce the cause of right without wounding the pride of the disturber, and without inflicting war upon Europe.

Was Austria backward? Was she so little prone to action that it was necessary for the Western Powers to move to the front and fight her battles for her? The reverse is the truth. The Western Powers, indeed, were more impatient than Germany was to go through the forms which were necessary for bringing themselves legally into a state of war, but for action of a serious kind they were not yet ready. Whilst they were only preparing, Austria was applying force. On the 3d of June, with the full support of Prussia, she summoned the Emperor Nicholas to evacuate the Principalities. Her summons was the summons of a Power having an army on the edge of the province into which the Russian forces had been rashly extended. Such a summons was a mandate. The Czar could not disobey it. He could not stand in Wallachia when he was called 2 F

VOL. I.