one of ardent and vigorous activity, when quiet and lukewarmness are
vexatious and annoying; the other of fatigue and exhaustion; and, when
this reaction has taken place, it is necessary there should be at the
head of affairs, wise and moderate ministers, perhaps even men who are
themselves weary of too active and busy a life. The great European
monarchies enjoy an incontestable advantage over freer but more stormy
governments, in the perpetuity of their system and the lengthened
career of their statesmen. Look at Austria and Russia during the last
thirty-three years; they have been under the unvarying direction of
two ministers, who have alone had the direction of affairs,--Prince
Metternich and Count Nesselrode; and only the death of Prince
Hardenberg has deprived Prussia of his services. This perpetuity of
statesmen is attended with many advantages: it creates a constant
succession of precedents in the cabinet; it permits the conception of a
long series of measures, and allows one idea to be followed and worked
out with perseverance. A young man is selected immediately he has
finished his studies, and placed in the second or third rank among the
_attachés_ of an embassy; he next becomes a minister plenipotentiary;
and, if he rises and distinguishes himself, he obtains a post in the
_chancellerie_; and when, owing to the confidence of his sovereign, or
the force of circumstances, he has once been placed in a superior rank,
he remains there to the end of his life. And what is the result?--a
most serious attention to all transactions, and a most profound
knowledge of business: the political situation, which was originally
the great object of his ambition, now becomes the subject of his
careful study, and, indeed, his whole existence is bound up in it.
England, always intelligent and clear-sighted, has striven to apply a
remedy to the instability of men, by the stability of parties. In that
country there are two schools opposed to each other, the Whigs and the
Tories; and men from their earliest childhood are destined to belong to
one, or other of these vast divisions. The universities of Oxford and
Cambridge receive into their bosom this twofold generation of students,
who apply themselves to the study of the peculiar ideas which divide
these shades of parliamentary opinion, and proceed without hesitation
on the path they have chosen for themselves; and, on quitting the
university, they support in parliament the opinions in which they have
been educated, or which they have adopted. Suppose a young man to be a
Tory, if the Tories are in power he obtains an appointment as one of
the under-secretaries of state, and only resigns it when his party go
out of office; should he be a Whig, and the Whigs are at the head of
affairs, the same thing takes place: every thing is fixed, and proceeds
according to rule in the government; by that means alone it is known
whence people come, and they are equally well acquainted with the
course they are likely to take.
In bringing together the names of Metternich, Nesselrode, and
Hardenberg, I do not pretend to draw an absolute parallel between them;
on the contrary, there exists a strong and well-defined difference.
Metternich and Hardenberg always expressed their own ideas, and were
the representatives of a system, which they followed with the utmost
perseverance, and applied through all the changeful course of events
that occurred in the two great kingdoms committed to their care. They
were statesmen who had taken office with fixed principles, and their
whole life was employed in their developement. For instance, the
self-imposed object of Prince Hardenberg's foreign policy, was the
increase of the national influence of Prussia against Napoleon; and of
his internal government, the reconstruction of the States and of the
Prussian citizen classes. Prince Metternich, in the foreign relations
of the cabinet of Vienna, especially strove to establish his system of
armed mediation, and moral influence produced by means of vast military
establishments; while, to speak the truth, Count Nesselrode has been
nothing more than the upright and intelligent executor of the will of
his sovereign: he was the reflected image of Alexander, the faithful
hand which undertook the execution of his wishes, even of those where
his personal feelings were most concerned. The position of Nesselrode
with regard to the Emperors Alexander and Nicholas, might be compared
to that of the _ministres secrétaires d'état_ under Napoleon; the
influence he exercises results from his long experience, and from
the circumstance of his every-day life being passed in the midst of
politics, which are thus interwoven with all his habits; and this in
itself confers a great degree of power.
Charles Albert, count Nesselrode, was born at Lisbon in 1770, of
a noble family of German extraction. His father was minister
plenipotentiary in Portugal under Catherine II., and some traditions
exist concerning the cause of this species of exile; there are,
however, always some of these rather sneering, and random legends,
current in the _corps diplomatique_, as if for the purpose of unbending
the brow of official gravity.
Count Nesselrode was still very young at the termination of the
reign of Catherine,--that extraordinary woman, whose character forms
so curious a study, because it perfectly represents the state of
civilisation in Russia; whose political ideas were so masculine, and by
whom the system of Peter the Great had been constantly followed up and
advanced. She appeared to effect an alteration in the influence of the
cabinet of St. Petersburg, which had hitherto been purely oriental, and
to render it more German and central; being the first step towards the
predominance in Southern Europe, which was afterwards the ambition of
her grandson Alexander. Peter the Great had pointed to Constantinople;
but Catherine considered Warsaw the most favourable point, as a
position which might enable the Russian power, at a later period, to
assume in the south the importance which her literary correspondence,
and political despatches were already preparing. It was solely with
this view that she encouraged the spirit of the eighteenth century, and
caressed D'Alembert and Diderot, journalists who were devoted to her
interests. When Voltaire, with his expression of flattering vanity,
wrote to Catherine that light came from the north, he foretold the
consummate ability of the Czarina, which prompted her to make herself
talked of at any price; "because," as she cleverly observed, "by dint
of exalting the Russian name, it will at last be made some account of
in France and in England; we shall no longer be reckoned among the
barbarians; we shall be talked of at Versailles, in London, and at
Madrid; and this, in politics, is indispensable, if we are desirous of
obtaining any ascendancy."
The leading principle of the cabinet of St. Petersburg for the last
hundred years, has been the agglomeration of Poland, and the expulsion
of the Turks, whom they are desirous of driving back as far as the
Black Sea. Poland has fallen; nor was it in the power of any government
to prevent the ruin of that fated country. A strong antipathy, a deep,
unmeasured hatred, exists between the Poles and Russians; they are two
races ready to fall upon each other; two giants, armed at all points,
constantly contending during six centuries. The most unpopular of all
proceedings at Moscow, at Kalouga, at Novogorod, and in the old castles
of the ancient nobility, was the erection of Poland into an independent
kingdom, organised by Alexander,[47] which occasioned murmurs of
dissatisfaction on every side. The other object of Russia, the fall of
Turkey, will also take place sooner or later; it cannot be prevented,
and, if the government will not undertake it, the people will do it
themselves. Saint Sophia is required to crown the patriarchate of the
Greek Church. Of this Europe is well aware; she delays the explosion
until the proper time has arrived, and determines the various shares
beforehand: but to prevent it altogether is beyond her power. And some
day we shall hear that the Russians, with the cross as their banner,
have marched to the succour of their brethren, and that another empire
of Constantine has arisen on the Bosphorus. It is so written in the
book of fate!
[47] _Vide_ art. Pozzo di Borgo.
I am not aware that the Russian cabinet has ever been made the subject
of consideration in France, in the point of view of its great
diplomatic ability. The principal source of its predominance has been
sought in the strength communicated by its armies, and in its absolute
organisation; but they have been mistaken: the truth is, that there is
nothing more persevering, or more deeply reflecting, than the Russian
cabinet; it goes on slowly, without attracting attention by noise or
tumult. During the last century, the Russian population has increased
by eleven millions of souls, who occupy more than five hundred leagues
square of territory, if we include Georgia and the part of Tartary
united to the government of the Crimea; and, independent of these
actual conquests, Russia has acquired an undoubted protectorate over
Moldavia and Wallachia, and such a degree of influence in Persia, that
no other country would now think of disputing it with her: finally,
every one is aware of the position she has obtained at Constantinople,
and also of the efforts made by the whole of Europe to prevent her from
actually accomplishing the vast projects formed by Peter the Great. In
order to arrive at this result, nothing has been neglected by Russia;
neither political protestations, nor appeals to religious feeling,
have been spared. Knowing exactly where to stop, she never ventures
too far in an idea; she waits patiently till the opportunity is ripe;
and, should her system have too much awakened attention, she does not
overstep certain limits, but makes a momentary concession, and then
resumes her projects with admirable consistency. As soon as the proper
season has arrived, and that the obstacles she at first encountered are
overcome, then Russia progresses straight to the accomplishment of her
wishes.
Catherine, struck with a fatal apoplexy, had descended to the tomb,
and the sceptre passed to the Grand Duke Paul, who had been condemned
to the most profound obscurity, until the moment when he was summoned
from his solitude to the government of forty millions of people. The
gloomy singularity of his character has been exaggerated; he has been
represented as a capricious prince, who would pass suddenly from acts
of savage tyranny to kindness and tender intimacy; but we must remember
that Paul came of the blood of Peter the Great, and being incessantly
surrounded by conspiracies, which threatened both his crown and his
life, he often formed resolutions which flew at once from unreserve
to anger, from confidence to sudden fury. Characters generally spring
from situations, and are what events have made us. Paul had to defend
his life, which had been endangered by many attempts against it; we
must not, therefore, be too hasty in our judgment of this prince, but,
in order to form a fair opinion, we must descend to the depths of the
national character, and view the general situation of her politics.
Europe had received a vehement impulse from the French revolution. The
Grand Duke, who was himself threatened by the spirit of revolt, must
have viewed with but little satisfaction this popular explosion at the
other extremity of Europe; but the distance of Russia, her financial
embarrassments, and the accomplishment of the partition of Poland, did
not permit her to take part in the first coalition against the French
revolution: the Russians did not join the hostile party until the
second Italian war, during the campaign of Suwarof. I will not repeat
the well-known military story; the divisions in the cabinets of Vienna
and St. Petersburg put a stop to the second coalition: but the Russian
regiments had seen Italy; they had touched the soil of Switzerland; for
the first time their breasts had been warmed by the mild rays of the
southern sun; and, like the invaders of the third and fourth centuries,
they recollected during the long wintry nights of their icy clime,
that there were large towns and fair cities in the south of Europe,
that those fertile lands produced delicious fruits, while the smiling
plains were crowned with abundant harvests: these recollections lay
deep in the mind of many a Russian veteran in the years 1813 and 1814,
and from this time forth the cabinet of St. Petersburg took a part in
the interests of southern Europe.
The diplomatic career of Count Nesselrode began at the time of the
embassy of Count Marcoff at Paris, under the Consulate--that wonderful
period when every thing, government, institutions, and political and
social ideas, appeared to have been renewed with the vigour of youth.
The forcible administration of the First Consul easily opened the way
to negotiations with Russia, for whenever a regular power has been
established in France, Europe has never attempted to overturn it. Count
Nesselrode being attached to the embassy in Paris, had the opportunity
of witnessing the magnificent developement of the power and genius of
Buonaparte, then First Consul. Who would have foretold that fifteen
years later, he, as the Chancellor of Alexander, would preside over the
acts relative to the downfall of the Emperor, and sanction the decrees
of the senate of 1814 for the restoration of the House of Bourbon?
Paris, at this early period of the Consulate, was an abode full of
pleasure and enjoyment. The treaty of Amiens had just been concluded,
peace had been obtained through victory, and people were desirous
of amusement and repose; they were emerging from the system of the
Directory, the spirit of good society again raised its head, and
its rules and customs were eagerly sought for, in order to restore
it from its ruins. There was a little court at the Tuileries around
Joséphine; all the ceremonies and etiquette of former times were
collected with avidity; ambassadors alone had liveries, and their
splendid equipages shone with double lustre among the half-republican
assemblage, where there was a long string of hackney-coaches with their
numbers concealed. Napoleon still reserved all his magnificence for
his military festivals; his grand reviews on the Place du Carrousel,
where in the midst of clouds of dust the squadrons of _guides_, and the
grenadiers of the consular guard defiled, as we see them depicted in
the pictures of Isabey.
The luxurious splendour of the embassies cast over every thing
belonging to the legation, an aristocratic gloss which turned the heads
of this generation; and this may explain the success in female society
enjoyed by various members of the _corps diplomatique_ at this period,
and the close and tender intimacies which were afterwards so useful to
Prince Metternich in his diplomatic _surveillances_. Young Nesselrode,
like all Russians, spoke French with the greatest fluency, and without
the decided accent, which all Prince Metternich's talents are unable
to correct. He had his share of the dissipation of the new court,
where some young women, as if astonished at their own position, forgot
themselves, and forgot also that they had the gravest and most serious
head in the world as their chief. I can hardly say wherefore, but
nothing has given me a more contemptible idea of society in the time of
the Consulate, than the perusal of some memoirs that have been written
in apology for it; beside the wonders achieved by one man, how mean and
wretched appear the tricks and narrow intrigues of those around him!
The Russian legation was at that time obliged to concern itself, with
one of the most important questions of maritime rights, and of the
law of nations. The treaty of Amiens, which never could have been any
thing more than a truce between France and England, was broken by both
parties at once; and it is an invidious question to inquire which of
these two governments, was guilty of the first infringement of the
treaty: the peace fell to the ground because it was only a momentary
repose for two cabinets unable to live in peace with each other, on
account of their gigantic ambition. As soon as war was declared between
France and England, Napoleon was naturally desirous of carrying on
hostilities in a vigorous manner, and for that purpose he endeavoured
to secure the co-operation of some of the continental powers. Paul, who
was as ardent in his admiration as in his hatred, had conceived a high
esteem for the First Consul, and Buonaparte, taking advantage of this
feeling, requested him again to put in force, for the benefit of the
neutral powers, the principle of the liberty of the sea; a principle
completely opposed to the ideas and interests of England, for the
British government never would admit that the flag should protect the
merchandise. A squadron appeared in the Sound, to act simultaneously
against Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, who had adhered to the principle
of armed neutrality. The legation at Paris, under the direction of
Count Marcoff, based the treaty on the rights of the neutral nations,
being the developement of a grand maritime idea renewed by Louis XVI.
A change, however, soon took place, for, as if stricken by a
thunderbolt, Paul fell a victim to a conspiracy. The mysterious horrors
of that awful night have been recorded in history. The mild and
romantic Alexander was placed on the throne of his father, who appeared
almost immediately inclined to proceed to warlike measures against
France and Napoleon; and accordingly the influence exercised by England
over the cabinet of St. Petersburg was very considerable. The Russian
legation quitted Paris, and as it had lately exhibited great activity
in obtaining information that was not favourable to the ideas of
Napoleon, Count Marcoff was on the point of being arrested, and there
was a good deal of hesitation whether he should receive his passports.
These acts of violence were a habit of Napoleon, for even the barrier
opposed by the law of nations to his will was displeasing to him, and
he was always on the eve of breaking through it.
The part played since this period by Count Nesselrode, and the
importance of the negotiations between Russia and France, render
it necessary to explain the organisation of the highest class of
the _corps diplomatique_, as it exists in the Russian empire. The
Emperor being the supreme head of the army, of the government, and
of the church, all the authorities depend upon him, and consequently
he reserves to himself the entire direction of what is called the
_Chancellerie_. This _chancellerie_ appoints agents, who, under the
title of ministers or ambassadors, represent officially their sovereign
at foreign courts; it also exercises much activity and vigilance, and
keeps a watch upon the ambassadors, who are often compelled to collect
the most minute information--a proceeding not at all in keeping with
their elevated rank, for the shades are almost imperceptible between
what is allowable, and what is forbidden in diplomatic affairs; and,
as I have before stated, this ambiguous situation often induced the
Emperor Napoleon to be almost violent in his measures against the
Russian ambassadors, when he found they obtained statements of the
military establishments, and secret conventions, so as to become
masters of the most carefully guarded secrets of the cabinet.
Independent of these people, who are officially accredited, the Czar
despatches aides-de-camp, without any positive commission except that
of travelling, or perhaps being the bearers of some complimentary
message; and these officers examine into every thing and send reports,
not only regarding the government and the population they are
deputed to inspect, but even concerning the Russian agents. To recall
an example: under the Emperor Napoleon, in 1811, the aide-de-camp
Czernitcheff made two or three journeys to Paris, ostensibly to
compliment the Emperor, and to carry him autograph letters from the
Czar; and then he returned to Russia with a statement of all the
military strength of the country, which had been given him by an
_employé_ in the war-office--information that was of the greatest
possible service to Russia in the defence of 1812. In addition to all
this, when the Czar takes the field a great number of general officers
unite diplomatic missions and services, to their military titles;
as, for instance, Count Pozzo di Borgo, as we have before observed,
attended at the same time to the strategic operations, and to the
arrangements in the cabinets, which might secure their developement.
When England, who was the first to follow this plan, granted subsidies
to a power, she always sent a commissioner with each army to follow the
campaign.
Count Nesselrode was early attached as a councillor to the private
_chancellerie_ of the Czar, who soon discovered him to possess
a faithful disposition, great and solid erudition, a serious
understanding, and a spirit of ready obedience that would willingly
support his sovereign will. Count Nesselrode took especial pains to
please Alexander, whose mind was too full of his own ideas to bear any
impulse that was not given by himself. At the time of his departure
for the interview at Erfurt, it was evident that three ideas in
particular possessed the minds of the members of the cabinet of St.
Petersburg. The one, entirely Russian, observed with feelings of grief
and humiliation, the alliance between Alexander and the head of the
French government; a strong dislike was felt by the old Muscovites
to the greatness of the new empire; the noble Sclavonian detested
the proud and arrogant _parvenus_. They did not wish for an open
rupture with France, but the engagements entered into by the treaty of
Erfurt, the intimacy between the two crowns, which had been formed by
the fascinations of Napoleon--all this, I say, was a source of great
displeasure to the old aristocracy, to the successors of those Boyards
who claimed the feudal government of the Russian provinces.
The second school of this diplomacy was in some degree Greek and
Oriental. Napoleon had been desirous of satisfying some of the projects
of Russia by the treaty of Erfurt; and as he was then dividing
the world with Alexander, he conceded to him the full and entire
realisation of the plans of Catherine, agreeing that Constantinople
should be his in a few years, Ispahan and Persia in the course of
time; they even spoke of the independence of Greece, and consequently
of the possibility of an insurrection among the Hellenic and Syrian
population. Napoleon had long revolved these projects in his mind; in
fact, had not the general of the army of Egypt already had an idea of
appealing to the Christian profession, as a means of rousing the Copts
and Syrians against their Ottoman masters? Some maxims of liberty were
to be attached to the Greek school of diplomacy, and they were brought
forward some years afterwards at the congress of Vienna by Count Capo
d'Istria.
The third diplomatic school, which was to a certain degree founded by
Count Nesselrode, consisted in taking a middle course between the two
former systems. The young Count had never been devoted to the plans
proposed at Erfurt, and he did not for a moment allow himself to be
carried away by the gigantic projects then determined upon in a moment
of enthusiasm; he did not identify himself either with the Greek or the
German school, nor even entirely with the Muscovite, in its repugnance
for Napoleon. What Alexander particularly remarked was, the perfect
obedience of his minister to all his wishes, though he sometimes strove
to infuse a little moderation into his decisions, when their tendency
was too abrupt or positive to be advisable in political affairs.
Nesselrode always executed the orders of his sovereign, but in so doing
he tempered the expressions of enthusiastic mysticism which often
characterised the politics of the Czar; he did not attempt to give an
impulse, but he endeavoured to prevent the will of his master from
going too far.