[Cracow.]

No. 204.-FRENCH PROTEST against the Suppression of the Republic of Cracow.-Paris, 3rd December, 1846.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.*)

M. le Comte, Paris, 3rd December, 1846. THE Chargé d'Affaires of Austria came to me on the 18th of last month, for the purpose of communicating despatches from Prince Metternich, dated the 6th, announcing to the King's Government that the incorporation of the City and Territory of Cracow with the Austrian Empire had been resolved upon by the Courts of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburgh, and explaining the motives of their determination. I send you herewith a copy of the same. The Minister of Prussia and the Chargé d'Affaires of Russia made on the 20th an exactly similar communication to me. I have submitted the same to the King in Council. It has occasioned a profound and painful surprise to the King's Government. We had received in February and March last, as well as in 1836 and in 1838, the assurance that the occupation of Cracow by the troops of the 3 Powers was a purely military and not a political measure, enjoined by necessity, and which would cease with such necessity. It is now said that a temporary occupation does not suffice, and that the measure which has been adopted by the 3 Courts is indispensible for the purpose of definitively guaranteeing within their States the order and tranquillity which had unceasingly been disturbed by conspiracies and insurrections, of which Cracow had become the permanent focus. But in order that the suppression of the small State of Cracow should really put an end to these disturbances, it must be shown that its independent existence was the only or at least the principal cause of those disturbances. This supposition cannot be admitted. The ferment of the ancient Polish provinces, so often revived, arises from a more general and a more potent cause. It is that the scattered members of a great State, violently destroyed, still agitate themselves and still rise up. The Treaties which sanction such deeds do not all at once cause the anguish and the social wounds which thence result to disappear. Time, justice, constantly active kindness, prolonged good government, can alone

For French version, see "State Papers," vol. xxxv,

p.

1093.

[Cracow.]

accomplish this, for these are the only means which the civilization of Europe in these days renders possible and practical. Thus thought the Sovereigns and the Statesmen who were assembled at the Congress of Vienna. They wished, at the very moment when United Europe afforded its sanction to the division of Poland, to give to the Polish Nation and to the conscience of Europe, disturbed by this division, a certain moral satisfaction. They at the same time opened to their Polish subjects the prospect of the improvement of the institutions and of the internal government of the country. Serious disturbances may interrupt the course of this policy, at once wise and generous, but cannot cause it to be entirely abandoned and abolished. Nothing compromises power more than to declare itself unable to carry into effect, even slowly and in the course of time, its own promises and the hopes it has itself held out. The destruction of the small State of Cracow may deprive the spirit of conspiracy and of Polish Insurrection of some means of action, but it may also keep alive and even irritate the feelings which cause these deplorable attempts to arise and so perseveringly to recur. And at the same time it causes the influences which might prevent them to lose a great portion of their authority. It weakens everywhere in Europe, with respect to this painful question, the principle of order and conservatism, to the advancement of blind passions and violent designs.

The Article IX of the Treaty of Vienna (No. 27) imposed upon the Republic of Cracow the obligation of expelling disturbers from its territory, and the 3 Protecting Powers had without doubt the right to require that this obligation should be fulfilled. But was there no other means for attaining this object than to abolish the Independence of this little State, and even to suppress it. The narrow limits of the Republic, the immense force of the 3 Great Powers in whose States it is inclosed, the rights of protection conferred on those same Powers by Article VI of the Treaty, all lead to the conclusion, that measures framed with care, and vigilantly watched over in their execution, would have sufficed effectually to counteract the evil, without adopting those extreme measures which, while they suppress some dangers, frequently create others, and often much more serious ones.

It was at all events the incontestible right of all the Powers that were parties to the Treaty of Vienna, to take a part in the deliberations and the decisions of which the Republic of Cracow

[Cracow.]

might be the object. Prince Metternich states in his despatch of the 6th of November, that the 3 Courts had created of themselves, on the 3rd of May, 1815 (No. 14), the small State of Cracow, and that they had subsequently presented to the Congress of Vienna for registration the Convention concluded between themselves. The Government of the King is unable to admit an assertion so foreign to the principles and even to the language of the great transactions which constitute the public law of Europe. Independent Powers who negotiate on a footing of perfect equality, and deliberate on common interests, are never called upon to register decisions and acts adopted without their participation. As regards Cracow and Poland reminiscences and public documents attest that prolonged uncertainties, lengthy discussions between the Representatives of all the Powers at the Congress of Vienna, preceded the conclusion of that Special Treaty of the 3rd of May (No. 14), which it is now said regulated the interests of the 3 Powers co-participators in the division of Poland, without any concurrence of the other Powers of Europe. The text even of the Treaty of Vienna shows that the fate of Poland was settled by a European deliberation. It is of Poland that that Treaty first treats, as of the most important of the general questions upon which it had to decide. Articles I, II, III, IV, and V define the portion which each of the co-participating Powers was to have of the Territory of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Articles VI, VII, VIII, and IX constitute the Republic of Cracow. There is not the slightest difference between these Articles and those which give to Prussia a portion of the dominions of the King of Saxony. The foundation of the Republic of Cracow is placed on the same line as the stipulations which formed other States, created Kingdoms, recognised the Free Cities of Germany, created the Germanic Confederation. Only two Articles of the General Treaty of the 9th of June (No. 27), Articles X and CXVIII, make mention of the Special Treaty concluded on the 3rd May between the 3 Powers (No. 14), and they declare that the arrangements contained in that Treaty shall have "the same force and value as if they had been textually inserted in the General Act." Most assuredly, these words, adopted and signed by all Europe, far from rendering the existence of the Republic of Cracow more precarious, were intended to give to it much stronger and more authentic guarantees.

The King's Government only exercises, therefore, a manifest

[Cracow.]

right, and at the same time performs an imperious duty, in protesting solemnly against the Suppression of the Republic of Cracow, an act positively at variance with the letter as well as with the meaning of the Treaty of Vienna of the 9th of June, 1815 (No. 27). After the long protracted and fearful agitation which shook Europe so profoundly, it was, by the respect for Treaties and for all the rights which they recognised, that the order of Europe has been established and maintains itself. No Power can free itself from those Treaties without at the same time freeing others. France has not given the example of such an attempt on the policy of conservatism and peace. France has not forgotten what painful sacrifices were imposed on her by the Treaties of 1815. She might rejoice at an act which would authorise her, by a just reciprocity, never henceforth to consult anything but a provident estimate of her own interests. And yet it is she who summons the Powers who derived from those Treaties the principal advantages, faithfully to observe them! It is she who, above all, is occupied with the maintenance of acquired rights and with the respect due to the Independence of States!

I direct you to communicate to Prince Metternich this despatch, and to give him a copy of the same.

Receive, &c.,

GUIZOT.

[Pacification of Portugal.]

No. 205.-PROTOCOL of Conference between Great Britain, France, Portugal and Spain, relative to Measures to be taken for the Pacification of Portugal. London, 21st May, 1847.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.*)

Present:

The Plenipotentiaries of Spain; of France; of Great Britain; and of Portugal.

THE Plenipotentiaries of Spain, of France, of Great Britain, and of Portugal, having met in conference on the invitation of the Plenipotentiary of Portugal:

The Portuguese Plenipotentiary stated that he had learnt by advices which he had this day received from his Government, that the efforts made at Oporto by Colonel Wylde and the Marquis d'España, to put an end to the Civil War in Portugal, upon the conditions which those officers were authorised by the Queen of Portugal to make known to the Junta, had failed; and he added, that as the Queen of Portugal had offered those conditions in accordance with the advice of her Allies, he was now commanded by Her Most Faithful Majesty to renew the application which Her Most Faithful Majesty had previously made to those of Her Allies who had been parties to the Treaty of the 22nd April, 1834 (No. 171), for assistance to enable her to effect the Pacification of her Dominions.

The Baron Moncorvo further stated that the conditions which had thus been communicated to the Junta of Oporto by Her Most Faithful Majesty's authority, were:

1st. A full and general Amnesty for all political offences committed since the beginning of October last, and an immediate recall of all persons who, since that time, have been sent out of Portugal for political reasons.

2nd. An immediate revocation of all the Decrees which have been issued since the beginning of October last, and which infringe upon, or conflict with, the established Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom.

*For French Version see "State Papers," vol. xxxv, p. 1110.