POLAND. 



755 



sions of the insurgents, and to thwart the 

 calculations which they found upon an active 

 intervention in favor of their exaggerated 

 aspirations. Thus they would bring nearer 

 the moment when the Emperor of Russia could 

 execute and develop the reformatory measures 

 which he designs to adopt for Poland. 



His reply to France agrees in substance with 

 the one addressed to England. It emphatically 

 insists on the moral solidarity of the great 

 Powers in presence of the evident action of the 

 revolutionary elements of all countries concen- 

 trating at present in Poland, stating that this 

 gives the question a European character. 

 Prince Gortschakoff says that Russia is the 

 more compelled to call the attention of the 

 French Government to this fact, since one of 

 the principal focuses of the agitation which 

 exists is Paris itself. The Polish emigrants, 

 profiting by their social relations, have organ- 

 ized a vast conspiracy, destined to mislead 

 public opinion in France by a system of mis- 

 representation and calumny, and to keep alive 

 disorder in the Kingdom of Poland by assisting 

 it with material by the terror of a secret com- 

 mittee, and, above all, by propagating the con- 

 viction that active foreign intervention will 

 take place in favor of the most senseless aspi- 

 rations of the insurrection. " "We have pleas- 

 ure," says Prince Gortschakoff, in conclusion, 

 "in believing that the French Government will 

 not permit its name to be abused for the advan- 

 tage of the revolution in Poland and in Europe." 



The reply to Austria, dated July 15th, did not 

 present any new points of importance. In the 

 concluding passage of this despatch, Prince 

 Gortschakoff says : " As to the substance of 

 our propositions, we believe that if appreciated 

 in the spirit which has dictated them, and if 

 honestly applied, they may lead to a rational 

 and practical solution which would at once 

 give satisfaction to the rights and interests of 

 the three neighboring Powers, to the stipula- 

 tions of the treaty of 1815, on which the gen- 

 eral equilibrium reposes, to the reasonable 

 wishes of the Poles, and the solicitude which 

 Europe has manifested on behalf of the tran- 

 quillity of these countries. We can therefore 

 only regret the different impression which the 

 directions addressed by Count Rechberg to the 

 Austrian embassadors at London and Paris 

 lead us to anticipate." The publication of the 

 Russian note in the official Vienna journal was 

 accompanied with the remark, that immediately 

 after the receipt of the Russian reply, a note 

 was addressed to the Austrian embassadors at 

 the Courts of London and Paris, that Austria 

 would not separate herself from the alliance, 

 and she would not negotiate separately with 

 Russia, as demanded by the latter. The Aus- 

 trian Government was of the opinion that the 

 note of Prince Gortschakoff might be inter- 

 preted as indicating some secret negotiations 

 between the Courts of Vienna and St. Peters- 

 burg; and Count Rechberg, in a note to the 

 Austrian Minister at St. Petersburg, dated July 



19th, called the attention of Prince Gortecha- 

 koff to this point. In reply, Prince Gortscha- 

 koff, in a note of July 27th, expressed surprise 

 to find that Count Rechberg had hinted the 

 possibility of Russia entertaining a reservation. 

 He then proceeds : " If this view of -the subject 

 has been put forward by Count Rechberg from 

 a desire to remove all idea of a separate agree- 

 ment, which might be judged incompatible 

 with the engagement contracted by Austria 

 with the point of departure by which she con- 

 nects her measures, let us hasten to bear wit- 

 ness that no agreement whatever has taken 

 place between her and ourselves upon the 

 subject of the late overtures. "We have deduced 

 no approbation from the Austrian note of the 

 18th June, and have anticipated her refusal of 

 a conference between Russia, Prussia, and 

 Austria. We have not dreamt of establishing 

 any assimilation between Galicia and Poland ; 

 but tradition, precedents, and the assistance 

 received by the insurgents from Galicia, attest 

 their common interests, and show the necessity 

 of an understanding between the three North- 

 ern Courts. The proposition for a conference 

 was conceived in a friendly spirit, in conformity 

 with the relations and interests of the two 

 Courts, and we should regret any different in- 

 terpretation." The despatch terminates with 

 an expression of Prince Gortschukoff 's regret 

 that the note of Count Rechberg presages a 

 different impression. 



England and France declared the reply of 

 Russia to be entirely unsatisfactory, and M. 

 Drouyn de 1'Huys, in a new note, designated 

 it as a refusal to grant the six points. Prince 

 Gortschakoff protested against this view. In 

 another despatch, addressed to the Russian 

 embassador at Paris, he says that the greater 

 part of the measures indicated in the six 

 points had been granted, but that, far from 

 pacifying the kingdom, they were the start- 

 ing point of the insurrection. The agitators 

 made reforms a pretext for raising the coun- 

 try. Having conceived the hope of complete 

 independence by the aid of foreign inter- 

 vention, they could not appear satisfied with 

 the liberal institutions, the basis of which was 

 being carried out by the Government. Prince 

 Gortschakoff further deprecates any intention 

 to represent the French Government as an 

 accomplice of the revolutionary party. " We 

 adhere," he says, " to our observations concern- 

 ing the suspension of hostilities. It is neces- 

 sary that the rebels should lay down their arms 

 or the Government abdicate all authority. It 

 is impossible to otherwise understand the ques- 

 tion of dignity and public order. Our despatch 

 contained neither irony nor provocation, but a 

 feeling of wounded dignity might have mani- 

 fested itself in the expression of our ideas." 



Earl Russell replied again to Prince Gort- 

 schakoff in a note of August llth. He insists 

 that the Russian Government, not the Poles, 

 bears the chief responsibility for a continuation 

 of the war. " Her Majesty's Government have 



