88 



Prince Bismarck and his Policy. 



an agreement was made between Saxony and Austria, by 

 which Saxony bound herself not to allow the Prussian go- 

 vernment, for twenty-five years to come, to establish a rail- 

 road connection at lieichenberg, which act was a great 

 commercial disadvantage to Prussia. 



The Iloly Alliance was buried in 1854, during the Cri- 

 mean war; Russia was defeated ; Emperor iTicholas died 

 March 2, 1855 ; Alexander II. made peace. Napoleon 

 was victor. The tone of France against Prussia now be- 

 came somewhat overbearing. Napoleon turned his eyes 

 towards the Rhine, and the French journals discussed the 

 importance of a rectification of the frontier and the treaty 

 of 1815, while at the same time there was a growing inti- 

 macy between France and Russia, which could not be 

 very agreeable to Prussia and aroused trouble in Austria. 



In June, 1855, Bismarck visited the Paris exhibition, 

 and began herewith his intimate relations with the court 

 of France, thenceforth continued to the day of Sedan, and 

 which brought him the repute of being a scholar and im- 

 itator of the policy of Napoleon III. 



On February 25, 1856, the Paris conference came to an 

 end, and Napoleon emerged from it with power and glory, 

 making him the most powerful sovereign in Europe, 

 and, by which, he arrogated to himself the dictation of his 

 commands to the European courts. 



This policy showed itself in his throwing down the 

 gauntlet to those powers, whom he considered as instru- 

 mental in restricting and subduing France in 1815. 



Austria, whose intentions of a hegemony in Europe 

 were too plainly to be seen during the Crimean war, was 

 considered next to Russia, Napoleon's most dangerous 

 neighbor ; hence her influence in her southern , provinces 

 had to be lessened, and an enemy created in her rear, who 

 was bound to Napoleon by ties of gratitude. That state was 

 Italy. 



