[Alliance.] No. 244.-TREATY OF ALLIANCE, Offensive and 1. Mutual Guarantee of their German and nou-German States. Signed at 2. Preservation of Rights and Interests of Germany. Special Agreement to be concluded respecting Mutual Protection of Territory in certain eventualities. 3. Armed Force to be kept on War Footing, to act in case of necessity. 4. Governments of Germanic Confederation* to be invited to accede to Alliance. 5. High Contracting Parties not to conclude a separate Alliance with other Powers. 6. Ratifications. Additional Article. Aggression on Territories of the Contracting Parties to be repelled by Military Forces of the other. Cases in which Offensive Advance only shall be made. Ratifications. (Translation.†) His Majesty the Emperor of Austria and His Majesty the King of Prussia, impressed with the deepest regret at the failure of the efforts which they had made up to the present time to prevent the War between Russia, on the one part, and Turkey, France, and Great Britain on the other; Faithful to the moral engagements which they contracted in signing the Protocols of Vienna; In presence of the ever-increasing developments made, on both sides, by military measures, and the dangers arising therefrom to the Peace of Europe; Convinced of the high mission which, on the approach of a disastrous future, and in the interest of European well-being, is imposed on Germany, closely united to their respective States; Have resolved to conclude, for so long as the War, which has just broken out between Russia, on the one part, and Turkey, Great Britain, and France, on the other, shall last, an Offensive Acceded to by Germanic Confederation on the 24th July, 1854. For French version, see "State Papers, vol. xliv," p. 84. [Alliance.] and Defensive Alliance, and have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries to that effect, namely: His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, Baron Henry de Hess, his Actual Intimate Councillor, &c.; and Count Frederic de ThunHohenstein, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the King of Prussia, &c.; And His Majesty the King of Prussia, Baron Othon Theodor Manteuffel, his President of the Council of Ministers and his Minister for Foreign Affairs, &c. ; Who, after having exchanged their Full Powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles : ARTS. I to VI. (See Table.) Done at Berlin, 20th April, 1854. (L.S.) HENRY BON. DE HESS. (L.S.) F. THUN. (L.S.) BON. OTH. THEODOR MANTEUFFEL. ADDITIONAL ARTICLE. (Translation.) ACCORDING to the conditions of Article II of the Treaty concluded this day between His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Austria and His Majesty the King of Prussia for the establishment of an Offensive and Defensive Alliance, a more intimate understanding with respect to the eventuality when an active advance of one of the High Contracting Parties may impose on the other the obligation of a mutual Protection of the Territory of both, was to form the subject of a Special Agreement to be considered as an integral part of the Treaty. Their Majesties have not been able to divest themselves of the consideration that the indefinite continuance of the Occupation of the Territories on the Lower Danube, under the Sovereignty of the Ottoman Porte, by Imperial Russian troops, would endanger the political, moral, and material interests of the whole German Confederation, as also of their own States, and the more so in proportion as Russia extends her warlike operations on Turkish Territory. The Courts of Austria and Prussia are united in the desire to avoid every participation in the War which has broken out [Alliance.] between Russia, on the one hand, and Turkey, France, and Great Britain, on the other, and at the same time to contribute to the restoration of general Peace. They more especially consider the Declarations lately made at Berlin by the Court of St. Petersburgh, to be an important element of pacification, the failure of the practical influence of which they would view with regret. According to these Declarations, Russia appears to regard the original motive for the Occupation of the Principalities as removed by the concessions now granted to the Christian subjects of the Porte, which offer the prospect of realisation. They therefore hope that the replies awaited from the Cabinet of Russia to the Prussian propositions, transmitted on the 8th, will offer to them the necessary Guarantee for an early withdrawal of the Russian troops. In the event that this hope should be illusory, the Plenipotentiaries named, on the part of His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, Freiherr Baron von Hess and Count Thun, and on the part of His Majesty the King of Prussia, Baron Manteuffel, have drawn up the following more detailed Agreement with respect to the eventuality alluded to in the above-mentioned Article II of the Treaty of Alliance of this day: Aggression on Territories of one of the Contracting Parties to be repelled by Military Forces of the other. SINGLE ARTICLE.-The Imperial Austrian Government will also on their side address a communication to the Imperial Russian Court with the object of obtaining from the Emperor of Russia the necessary orders that an immediate stop should be put to the further advance of his Armies upon the Turkish Territory, as also to request of His Imperial Majesty sufficient Guarantees for the prompt Evacuation of the Danubian Principalities; and the Prussian Government will again in the most emphatic manner, support these communications with reference to their proposals already sent to St. Petersburgh. Should the answer of the Russian Court to these steps of the Cabinets of Vienna and Berlin-contrary to expectation-not be of a nature to give them entire satisfaction upon the two points afore-mentioned, the measures to be taken by one of the Contracting Parties for their attainment, according to the terms of Article II of the Offensive * A Turkish Firman upon this subject was issued in June, 1853. See also Firman of 18th February, 1856, and General Treaty of Peace of 30th March, 1856 (Art. IX). [Alliance.] and Defensive Alliance signed on this day, will be on the understanding that every hostile attack on the Territory of one of the Contracting Parties is to be repelled with all the Military Forces at the disposal of the other. Cases in which Offensive Advance only shall be made. But a mutual Offensive Advance is stipulated for only in the event of the incorporation of the Principalities, or in the event of an attack on or passage of the Balkan by Russia. Ratifications. The present Convention shall be submitted for the Ratification of the High Sovereigns simultaneously with the abovementioned Treaty. Done at Berlin, the 20th April, 1854. (L.S.) HESS. (L.S.) THUN. (L.S.) MANTEUFFEL. [War against Russia. Great Britain, France, and Turkey.] No. 245.-RUSSIAN MANIFESTO relative to the War with Great Britain, France, and Turkey. St. Petersburgh, 11th April, 1854. 23rd (Translation.*) By the Grace of God, We, Nicolas I, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, King of Poland, &c. To all our Faithful Subjects make known: From the very beginning of our Dispute with the Turkish Government, we solemnly announced to our Faithful Subjects that a feeling of justice had alone induced us to re-establish the injured Rights of Orthodox Christians, subjects of the Ottoman Porte. We have not sought, we do not seek, to make conquests, or to exercise in Turkey any supremacy whatever which was of such a nature as to exceed the influence belonging to Russia by virtue of existing Treaties. At the onset we met with mistrust, soon after with secret hostility on the part of the Governments of France and England, who strove to mislead the Porte, by misinterpreting our intentions. At last, England and France now throw off the mask, consider our differences with Turkey as but a secondary question, and no more dissemble that their common aim is to weaken Russia, to snatch from her a part of her Possessions, and to make our Country fall from the powerful position to which the hand of the Almighty had elevated her. Is orthodox Russia to fear such threats? Ready to confound the audacity of the enemy, shall she deviate from the sacred aim assigned to her by Divine Providence? No! Russia has not forgotten God! It is not for worldly interests that she has taken up arms; she fights for the Christian Faith, for the defence of her co-religionists oppressed by implacable enemies. Let the whole Christian world know, then, that the opinion of the Sovereign of Russia is the opinion which animates and inspires the whole family of the Russian People-that orthodox For French version, see "State Papers," vol. xlvi, p. 382. |