Gross 21. Februar No. 682. ved that the greatest exaggerations and misapprehensions prevailed on this britannien, subject in Germany. The Agreement signed by him with the Prussian Military 1863. Agent (for Convention he would not call it) had no political character or significance whatever; it was simply an arrangement for the maintenance of security on the borders of the two countries. The insurgents were in the habit of falling on the Custom-house stations and other localities where public funds were deposited. It was necessary that the Agents of Government should be enabled to withdraw with their funds from threatened posts to place of safety, if necessary even on foreign territory. Such a liberty was assured for them; and if they were pursued by the rebels, the latter in their turn would be followed by the Russian troops over the frontier until they fell in with an armed force of Prussians. I asked Prince Gortchakoff whether the Agreement secured to each of the Contracting Parties generally the right of penetrating into the territory of the other in the course of these operations. The Vice-Chancellor replied rather vaguely, and seemed to wish to attach the right of traversing the frontiers particularly to the designs of the insurgents against the revenue stations. He did not offer to show me the Convention; but he said that the Emperor had desired to have it published, and if this had not been done it was owing to objections in another quarter. There was reason to hope that the Agreement might never be carried into effect, for the forces of the revolt were gradually drawing from the Prussian frontier to that of Austria. His Excellency added that the prevailing disorders had given an immense impulse to contraband trade, and that the Minister of Finance was already crying out loudly. I did not continue the conversation. I make it a rule never to originate any discussion on Polish affairs with the Minister. I think it most prudent to await the orders of Her Majesty's Government. &c. Napier. To Earl Russell, London. No. 683. 26. Februar No. 683. GROSSBRITANNIEN. - Botschafter in Wien an den königl. Min. d. Ausw. Unterredung mit dem Grafen Rechberg über den französischen Entwurf zu einer gemeinsamen Note nach Berlin. Vienna, February 26 (received March 2), 1863. (Extract.) Having heard that the Duc de Grammont had communibritannien, cated to Count Rechberg a project of a note to be presented at Berlin on the 1863. affairs of Poland and the policy which had been pursued by Prussia with respect to the present insurrection, I called on his Excellency this afternoon, when he gave me the following account of the French proposition. Count Rechberg asked me first of all if I had no communication to make to him. I replied that your Lordship had not written to me respecting this project, and that the only thing I could tell him was that I received a telegram a few days ago, by which I learned that Her Majesty's Government considered that Austria had acted wisely in declining the Prussian overtures respecting Poland. His Excellency Gross 26. Februar 1863. then proceeded to say that the project of the note transmitted from Paris was drawn No. 683. up in very courteous terms, but that it was impossible for Austria to identify britannien, herself with it, notwithstanding her earnest wish to unite with England and France; that she had refused Prussia to join in the Military Convention concluded with Russia for the suppression of the insurrection in Poland, and had taken a line of her own, of complete independence, which he thought was the best calculated to protect her interests and advance those of the peace of Europe, and while she maintained all her international engagements, she reserved to herself the right of changing her position if it might hereafter become advisable to do so. That by acceding to the proposed identic note, it would be said of Austria that she adopted a policy of non-intervention, which it was her determination not to do. She would maintain, on the contrary, complete liberty of action, and would not bind herself to any general principle such as that implied in the proposed note. His Excellency said that if it was proposed to restore Poland the engagements taken by the Powers in 1815, why should not all the other stipulations of that time be insisted on? ¶ His Excellency has addressed a despatch to Prince Metternich, in which he develops the reasons of the Austrian Cabinet for declining the French proposal. It will be sent to-morrow to Paris, and the same messenger will be the bearer of a copy of it which Count Apponyi will communicate to your Lordship. &c. To Earl Russell, London. Bloomfield. No. 684. GROSSBRITANNIEN. - Botschafter in Berlin anden königl. Min. d. Ausw. Berlin, February 27 (received March 2), 1863. Gross 27. Februar (Extract.) M. de Bismarck having promised last night to give me No. 684. some information on the subject of the Russo-Prussian Convention if I would britannien, call upon him at an early hour this morning, I waited upon his Excellency. 1863. His Excellency had also promised to ascertain from the Russian Minister whether he had any objection to the text of the Convention being communicated to me. Our conversation began by my inquiring whether he was prepared to communicate the Convention to me, and by his replying that he could not do so without M. d'Oubril's consent, but that he would read its provisions to me after explaining the circumstances which had led to its being entered into. ¶ He said, when the insurrection broke out, the Prussian Government had reason to believe that the Russian troops in Poland did not exceed 60,000 men, though represented to amount to 100,000; and it was, therefore, thought advisable to send an officer to Warsaw to ascertain how far the military authorities possessed the means of suppressing the insurrection, and to enter into such arrangements with them as might be expedient for preserving tranquillity in the Prussian frontier districts, where great alarm had existed before the arrival of Gross 27. Februar 1863. No. 684. the troops which had been since sent there for the protection of the inhabitants. britannien, M. de Rauch, therefore, an officer known to the Grand Duke Constantine, had been sent to Warsaw for this purpose. It was deemed advisable to send another officer through St. Petersburgh to Warsaw, who, after concert with the Russian Government could communicate more efficiently with the authorities at Warsaw. General Alvensleben had, therefore, been sent to St. Petersburgh, and on his arrival there the Russian Government had proposed that the two Governments should enter into the Convention which was subsequently signed by him and Prince Gortchakoff, but which, as no ratifications of it had yet been exchanged, could still only be regarded as a proposed Convention, and as such could not be communicated to a foreign Minister. Having made these preliminary observations, M. de Bismarck read to me from a German text, which he translated into French, what he represented to be the contents of the Convention. He said it was of an informal character, was not divided into Articles, and was to the following effect: That disturbances having broken out in the kingdom of Poland which might endanger property and tranquillity in the frontier Provinces of Prussia, it was agreed between the two Governments that the troops of either should be authorized, on the requisition of the military authorities of the other, to cross the frontier, and, in case of necessity, should be permitted to pursue insurgents into the territory of the other; and it was further stipulated that either of the Contracting Parties should at any time be at liberty to terminate this Agreement. Its other clauses, M. de Bismarck said, provided that officers should reside at the respective head-quarters of the two Governments, in order to carry on the correspondence which would be necessary between them. The Convention, therefore, was not only incomplete from no ratifications having been exchanged, but as its existence also depended on the will of either of the Contracting Parties, it could not be considered a binding engagement. &c. To Earl Russell, London. No. 685. Buchanan. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Min. d. Ausw. an den kön. Botschafter in St. Peters- burg. Polens. Foreign Office, March 2, 1863. No. 685. Gross My Lord, Her Majesty's Government view with the deepest conbritannien, cern the state of things now existing in the Kingdom of Poland. They see 2. März 1863. there, on the one side, a large mass of the population in open insurrection against the Government; and, on the other, a vast military force employed in putting that insurrection down. The natural and probable result of such a contest must be expected to be the success of the military forces. But that success, if it is to be achieved by a series of bloody conflicts, must be attended by a lamentable effusion of blood, by a deplorable sacrifice of life, by wide Gross 2. März 1863. spread desolation, and by impoverishment and ruin, which it would take a long No. 685. course of years to repair. Moreover, the acts of violence and destruction on britannien, both sides, which are sure to accompany such a struggle, must engender mutual hatreds and resentments, which will embitter, for generations to come, the relations between the Russian Government and the Polish race. Yet, however much Her Majesty's Government might lament the existence of such a miserable state of things in a foreign country, they would not, perhaps, deem it expedient to give formal expression to their sentiments, were it not that there are peculiarities in the present state of things in Poland which take them out of the usual and ordinary condition of such affairs. The Kingdom of Poland was constituted, and placed in connection with the Russian Empire by the Treaty of 1815, to which Great Britain was a Contracting Party. The present disastrous state of things is to be traced to the fact that Poland is not in the condition in which the stipulations of that Treaty require that it should be placed. Neither is ¶ Poland in the condition in which it was placed by the Emperor Alexander I, by whom that Treaty was made. ¶ During his reign a National Diet sat at Warsaw, and the Poles of the Kingdom of Poland enjoyed privileges fitted to secure their political welfare. Since 1832, however, a state of uneasiness and discontent has been succeeded from time to time by violent commotion and a useless effusion of blood. Her Majesty's Government are aware that the immediate cause of the present insurrection was the conscription lately enforced upon the Polish population; but that measure itself is understood to have been levelled at the deeply-rooted discontent prevailing among the Poles in consequence of the political condition of the Kingdom of Poland. The proprietors of land and the middle classes in the towns bore that condition with impatience; and if the peasantry were not equally disaffected they gave little support or strength to the Russian Government. Great Britain, therefore, as a Party to the Treaty of 1815, and as a Power deeply interested in the tranquillity of Europe, deems itself entitled to express its opinion upon the events now taking place, and is anxious to do so in the most friendly spirit towards Russia, and with a sincere desire to promote the interest of all the parties concerned. Why should not His Imperial Majesty, whose benevolence is generally and cheerfully acknowledged, put an end at once to this bloody conflict by proclaiming mercifully an immediate and unconditional amnesty to his revolted Polish subjects, and at the same time announce his intention to replace without delay his Kingdom of Poland in possession of the political and civil privileges which were granted to it by the Emperor Alexander I, in execution of the stipulations of the Treaty of 1815? If this were done, a National Diet and a National Administration would, in all probability, content the Poles, and satisfy European opinion. ¶You will read this despatch to Prince Gortchakoff, and give him a copy of it. ¶ I am, &c To Lord Napier, St. Petersburgh. Russell. Staatsarchiv IV. 1863. 23 GROSSBRITANNIEN. No. 686. - Min. d. Ausw. an d. königl. Botschafter in Berlin. Missbilligung der preussisch-russischen Convention. Foreign Office, March 2, 1863. No. 686. 2. März Sir, The Convention which has been concluded between Russia britannien, and Prussia, relating to the affairs of Poland, has caused considerable uneasiness 1863. in this country. The Powers of Europe were disposed to be neutral in the contest between the Russian Government and the Polish insurgents. ¶ Prussia has departed from this course. My inquiries, as well as a despatch from Lord Napier, have led me to believe that the Convention contains, 1. An agreement that Russian troops, upon crossing the frontier of Prussia, shall not be disarmed, as would be required according to international usage, but shall be allowed to retain their arms, and to remain, and to act as an armed body in Prussian territory. 2. A permission for Russian troops to pursue and capture Polish insurgents on Prussian territory. Count Bernstorff defended this Convention, and declared that it was not an engagement invoking intervention in the contest between Russia and the Poles. But it is clear that if Russian troops are to be at liberty to follow and attack the Polish insurgents in Prussian territory, the Prussian Government makes itself a party to the war now raging in Poland. If Great Britain were to allow a Federal ship-of-war to attack a Confederate ship in British waters, Great Britain would become a party to the war between the Federal Government of the United States and the Confederate. It is obvious that by this Convention Prussia engages to become a party in the war against the Poles without any apparent necessity for so doing. For Her Majesty's Government have not heard that any disaffection prevails in the Polish provinces of Prussia. It is but too probable that this Convention will irritate the Polish subjects of Prussia, tend to excite disaffection where it has not hitherto existed, and thus extend the insurrection. Upon viewing this Convention in all its aspects, therefore, Her Majesty's Government are forced to arrive at the conclusion that it is an act of intervention which is not justified by necessity; which will tend to alienate the affections of the Polish subjects of the King of Prussia; and which, indirectly, gives support and countenance to the arbitrary conscription of Warsaw. You will read this despatch to M. Bismarck, and you will ask for a copy of the Convention between Prussia and Russia. It is possible that the Governments of Prussia and Russia, aware of the objections to which this Convention is liable, and seeing the ill consequences it may produce, may be disposed to cancel it, or to put an end to its operation. In that case you will inform me what steps have been taken with that view. ¶ I am, &c. Sir A. Buchanan, etc., Berlin. Russell. |