[Cracow.] But it is alleged that Cracow has long been, and if it remains Independent, will still continue to be the centre of intrigues, having for their object the disturbance of the tranquillity of adjoining Territories; and the question is, in what degree the present Political Condition of Cracow affords facilities for the carrying on of such practices? Now, such intrigues and plots must be carried on either by strangers coming to Cracow, or by the native inhabitants themselves. But no stranger can reach Cracow except by traversing a vast extent of Territory belonging to one or other of the 3 Powers; and it is difficult to imagine that any Polish exile, or any conspirator from any foreign country, could so far elude the vigilance of the police of the Power whose Territory he would have to pass through, as to be able to penetrate to Cracow. The population of Cracow is not large in number, and not only would the arrival of a suspicious stranger among them be quickly known to the Police, but it would be scarcely possible for such stranger, or for any resident inhabitant of the State, long to carry on a correspondence with the people of neighbouring districts, for the purpose of exciting disturbances therein, without such correspondence coming to the knowledge of the Government, and through them to that of the 3 Residents; and such practices being once known, the laws of Cracow would surely afford means to put a stop to them effectually. But if the police regulations of Cracow are not efficient enough to secure the obtaining of such information; and if the laws of Cracow do not give the Government power to prevent such an abuse of the shelter of the Free State, those police regulations might be improved and those laws might be altered; and full security might in these respects be obtained for the 3 Powers without destroying the existence of the State. It is no doubt the duty of Cracow to give the 3 Powers such security; for freedom and independence were given to Cracow for the well-being and happiness of its own people; and not in order to enable that people to create disturbances and confusion in adjoining countries. It appears, then, to Her Majesty's Government that no sufficient proof has yet been given to show that full security might not be afforded to the internal tranquillity of the Territories of [Cracow.] the 3 Powers, without destroying the Separate and Independent existence of the State of Cracow. But Her Majesty's Government must at all events deny the competency of the 3 Powers to decide upon and to execute such a measure, of their own separate authority, and without the concurrence of the other Powers who were parties to the Treaty of Vienna of June, 1815 (No. 27). There is no doubt that the erection of Cracow and its Territory into a Free and Independent State, together with many of the details of its organisation, are matters which were first recorded by the Treaty of the 3rd of May, 1815 (No. 14). But that Treaty merely recorded one part of the various arrangements made by the General Congress of Vienna (No. 27); and it was by Article CXVIII of the General Treaty declared to be an integral part of the arrangements of the Congress of the European Powers, and to have everywhere the same force and value as if it had been inserted word for word in the General Treaty. But besides this the leading stipulations about Cracow which are contained in the Separate Treaty of the 3rd of May (No. 14), concluded between the 3 Powers, are inserted word for word in the General Treaty to which all the Powers are parties, and those stipulations constitute the Articles VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, of that General Treaty. It is demonstrable, therefore, that with whomsoever may have originated the plan of erecting Cracow and its Territory into a Free and Independent State, that plan was carried into effect by stipulations to which all the Powers were equally parties; and consequently it is not competent for 3 of those Powers by their own separate authority to undo that which was established by the common engagements of the whole; and it is manifest that the special duty which the 3 Powers undertook, of protecting the Independence of the State, cannot invest them with any right to overthrow that Independence and to destroy it. For these reasons Her Majesty's Government are of opinion that the execution of the intentions which the 3 Powers have announced, would be a measure justified by no adequate necessity, and would involve a violation of positive stipulations contained in the General Treaty of Vienna (No. 27); and Her Majesty's Government deeply impressed with the conviction that it is above all things important that the engagements of Treaties. should at all times be faithfully observed, most earnestly hope [Cracow.] that means may be devised for guarding the Territories of the 3 Powers against the dangers adverted to in their identic communications, without any breach of the Treaty of 1815 (No. 14). Your Excellency will read this despatch to Prince Metternich, and you will send him officially a copy of it. I am, &c., PALMERSTON. [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 State Papers," vol. xxxv, p. 1093. *For French version, see [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 |