APPENDIX to the CHRONICLE. 411 



of the success he has just obtained 

 in Finland — yet he is but half 

 satisfied with general Buxhowden, 

 and he means to replace him. The 

 reply of the English government 

 deprives him of almost all hope of 

 a speedy peace— yet he thinks that 

 it is of importance alv/ays to keep 

 a door open for negotiation, and 

 afterwards, whatever be the success 

 of it, to go forward— he has given 

 an example of this in his reply to 

 Prince Kourakin, who had given 

 him an account of the little success 

 he had in demanding of the court 

 of Vienna the acknowledgment of 

 Joseph the first. M. De Roman- 

 zoff read me this letter of the empe- 

 ror to Prince Kourakin — I think 

 your majesty will be satisfied with 

 it. The emperor of Russia is asto- 

 nished at the refusal of Austria, 

 under the pretext on which it is 

 founded. Austria wishes first to 

 know the result of the conferences 

 of Erfurth. 



" ' It is by disobliging,' says the 

 emperor, ' that she pretends to 

 merit complaisance ? Why is she 

 uneasy at what has been signed at 

 Erfurth ? Far from having wished 

 to injure the interests of Austria, 

 there was stipulated there the in- 

 tegrity of that monarchy.' (This 

 assertion is evidently a viistake of 

 the emperor's, who had not the 

 treaty before him, an error occa- 

 sioned probably by the recollection 

 of some conversations with your 

 majesty.) • Tl»us whilst I am oc- 

 cupied with her interests,' continues 

 the emperor, < she replies by a re- 

 fusal to accede to the demand I 

 had made of iier, and in seeming 

 to seek my friendship, she evinces 

 to me her distrust of my conduct 

 at Erfurth.' — The emperor accuses 

 Austria of contradictions in all her 



conduct, and in the language of 

 M. de Metternich, M. de Stadion, 

 and M. Vincent, he says that the 

 acknowledgment demanded of her 

 was but the eifect of the manage- 

 ment which it was wished to show 

 her, in thus dispensing with the de- 

 mand of a categorical declaration 

 upon the prodigious increase of her 

 military force. He does not see 

 what is the object which she is pur- 

 suing ; and after having observed, 

 that when king Joseph shall be at 

 Madrid, the refusal of Austria to 

 acknowledge him will only be an 

 act of ridicule, he declares, that 

 if she has formed the senseless pro- 

 ject of framing a new coalition, by 

 leaguing herself with England,Tur- 

 key, and the Spanish insurgents, he 

 is in a condition to oppose it, and 

 that, united with the emperor Na- 

 poleon, he could easily break that 

 new league, which would be to 

 Austria the cause of disasters, if 

 not of total ruin. 



" Such is the reply of the em- 

 peror Alexander to prince Koura- 

 kin ; it was to be sent, to the Rus- 

 sian charge d'affairs at Vienna, who 

 has orders to communicate it to M. 

 de Stadion. The charge d'af- 

 faires has lately written to M. Kou- 

 rakin; it appears that this dispatch 

 of the emperor's had not reached 

 him, though it is dated the 8th No- 

 vember. 



<« I could have wished that M. 

 de Romanzofi" would have left me 

 a copy, but I soon perceived that 

 he was desirous of presentingit him- 

 self to your majesty, and that he 

 was in hopes of your speedy re- 

 turn. That hope was too sweet to 

 every Frenchman, as well as to M. 

 de RomanzofF (who respects and 

 admires your majesty almost as 

 much as a Frenchman), for me to 



weaken 



