346

LETTER TO BARON STOCKMAR.

1858

'I send you, to-day, warm from my heart, a happy New Year, which I hope will reach you just at the right time. May the coming year turn out in every way to your satisfaction! That we have met twice of late, though unhappily for so short a time, was a great comfort to my heart; may the coming year in this respect throw that which is past into the shade! I trust you hold your purpose of going to Berlin at the critical moment, and that you will not brood over it too long, and so overstay the event. Clark is to start from here on the 10th.

'The news from Berlin continues good; even in regard to politics, I am hopeful of a quiet consolidation of the more liberal government. People all round naturally try to make the Prince nervous, but I hope he will not suffer himself to be misled. I have again written to him by the last courier and expressed my conviction that he ought to regard the more stirring life, which will and must show itself in a freely elected Chamber, not as a symptom of disease, but as a sign of vital power, and rejoice at its existence. . . .8

'Our son Alfred writes from Malta, and has by this time sailed for Tunis and Algiers. He is received everywhere with great cordiality; in Malta with 'reverence and loyalty,' according to the Governor's report. The Prince of Wales will start on his Italian tour upon the 10th. He is now very hard at work.

'Windsor Castle, 29th December, 1858.'

ante.

The letter to which the Prince refers will be found printed p. 327 et seq.

CHAPTER XC.

THE bitter feeling which, as we have seen, had long subsisted between France and Austria was so well known, that the only question among political observers was, by which of these Powers the rupture would first be declared. Hitherto their mutual complaints and recriminations had been known only to the European Powers through the secret and confidential despatches of their Ambassadors; but now the attention of Europe was openly called to the critical climax at which these had arrived by a few significant words addressed by the Emperor Napoleon to M. Hübner, the Austrian Ambassador at Paris, on 1st January, 1859. M. Hübner had waited on the Emperor with his diplomatic colleagues to present the personal congratulations which were customary on that day. I regret,' the Emperor said to him in the hearing of those present, that the relations between our two Governments are not more satisfactory; but I beg you to assure the Emperor that they in no respect alter my feelings of friendship to himself.'

The words were slight in themselves, and such as in ordinary times would have been classed with those ebullitions of an imperious temper, of which the annals of despotic sovereigns contain many records. But it was not thus they were interpreted, either by those who heard them, or by the

It was truly said of them by Lord Granville in the Debate on the Address (3rd of February): 'These words might have meant everything, or they might have meant nothing at all.'

348

SPEECH OF FRENCH EMPEROR

1859

anxious thousands in every capital in Europe, to which they were flashed by telegraph as soon as they were spoken. Everywhere they were regarded as the first mutterings of the thundercloud, which had long been seen to be gatheringthe prelude to the conflict for which France and Austria had for months been concentrating their resources. Simple as the words were, they were sufficient to shake Europe from side to side. Austria read in them a note of open defiance. Germany thought the time had come to look to the security of her Rhenish provinces. England, disquieted at the prospect of the question of the distribution of European territory being again thrown open, recalled the vehement language of the first Napoleon to Lord Whitworth on 1st February, 1803, when he had determined on a rupture of the Peace of Amiens, as a close parallel, both in tone and purpose, to the Emperor's address to M. Hübner. In the Italian Duchies and the Roman States the Emperor's language excited the wildest hopes of a speedy deliverance. Throughout Piedmont, however, the prospect which it opened of a war, for which the country was ill prepared, was regarded with anything but enthusiasm. The King of Sardinia and even Count Cavour were taken by surprise, for although they knew, as no one else could, how much the Emperor's words implied, they had not anticipated so early a declaration on the part of their ally. Il paraît que l'Empereur veut aller en avant,' the latter remarked with a smile, when he was informed of the words by which M. Hübner and his diplomatic colleagues had been so rudely startled.

The rashness, which alternated with reserve in the actions of the Emperor of the French, had in this instance, as he soon found, carried him somewhat prematurely into an open indication of his purposes. France was not disposed to enter upon a crusade of which the advantages to herself were by no means apparent. The operations of trade and commerce

1859

TO THE AUSTRIAN AMBASSADOR.

349

were instantly affected, and the funds fell with a rapidity which appalled investors, and baffled the sagacity of the most skilful operators on the Bourse. Prussia, pressed by the French Ambassador at Berlin to say whether she would be neutral, in the event of any complication arising, had answered in decided terms, that whatever nation first disturbed the peace of the world must not expect her sympathy or goodwill. England, though she would have rejoiced to see Italy emancipated by the united efforts of her own people from the thraldom of Austria and the potentates who leant upon Austria to uphold them in their misrule, spoke in much the same terms. Her publicists and statesmen distrusted a programme in which France and Russia, two absolutely despotic Powers, were to play the liberators of a country which, to be regenerated, must enjoy independence and be entrusted with the responsibilities of free institutions. Accordingly, instead of the sympathy from England, on which the Emperor had counted, it was at once made clear that he had only evoked a settled distrust and a resolve to hold herself free to act as the general interests of Europe might dictate.

The Emperor was not slow to discover the mistake he had made. Ostentatious civilities were shown within the next few days to M. Hübner, and a paragraph was inserted on the 7th of January in the Moniteur, referring to the alarming rumours by which public opinion had been recently agitated, and declaring that there was nothing in France's diplomatic relations to warrant the fears to which these rumours tended to give rise. But these assurances had no effect in allaying the general feeling of disquiet. The French funds continued to fall under the apprehension of an European war, and the Emperor could not but be aware,2 that this apprehension,

2 Péreire told the Fmperor that his speech to Hübner would cost France a milliard. Added to the King of Sardinia's speech and Prince Napoleon's

350

ADDRESS OF KING OF SARDINIA.

1859

strengthened as it must soon be by the announcement of the intended marriage of Prince Napoleon to the Princess Clothilde, would probably throw the finance of the country into most serious confusion.

While things were in this state, the prevailing alarm was augmented by the Address of King Victor Emmanuel in opening the Sardinian Chambers on the 10th of January, the terms of which, it was well known, had been settled with the Emperor of the French :-

'Our country,' said the King, 'small in territory, has acquired credit in the councils of Europe, because it is great through the idea it represents and the sympathies it inspires. This position is not exempt from perils, since, while we respect treaties, we are not insensible to the cry of suffering (grido di dolore) which reaches us from so many parts of Italy.'

Respect for treaties, it was felt, was not likely to stand long in the way, should the occasion arise for answering to this cry of suffering.' By all Italians the words were construed as an answer to their cry for help, which they now felt sure would very soon be enforced by French and Pied

montese cannon.

She

Austria was in no temper to take calmly the provocations thus openly given to her by Piedmont and France. had all along declined to recognise the right of France to interfere in Italian affairs, and had therefore refused more than once to combine with her in any effort to bring about reforms in the governments of the Duchies or the Papal States, which might have restored them, at least for a time, to tranquillity and contentment. She was pledged by treaty to support the sovereigns of those States against any hostile movement, either from within or from without. Her resources were already strained to the uttermost by the

marriage, it is more likely to cost two.'-Lord Cowley to Lord Malmesbury, 11th January, 1859.