82 DEFEAT OF CHARLES ALBERT. 1848 would at that time have been rejected with scorn, flushed as the national party were with their first successes in the Lombard campaign, and believing, as they did, that these were but the prelude to a conclusive triumph. It was doubtful, too, whether the King of Sardinia could at that time have ventured to entertain it, without endangering his hold upon his own subjects. Such at least was the conclusion at which the English Cabinet arrived, and they therefore declined to negotiate between the parties, as there appeared to be no reasonable probability that the Italians would agree to the terms proposed. As the summer advanced, and the King of Sardinia found that he was left to fight the battle of Italian independence without the hearty co-operation in men and means which had been promised to him by the Milanese and others, there can be no doubt that he would willingly have concluded a peace on the basis of the surrender of Lombardy by Austria. But Austria would not negotiate with him, and those with whom she was disposed to treat as mediators declined to interfere unless Venetia were surrendered along with Lombardy. Her pacific overtures therefore fell to the ground. Soon afterwards the tide of fortune turned in her favour. On the 22nd of July Charles Albert sustained a serious defeat at Custozza. This was followed by another, still more serious, at Somma Campagna on the 26th. By the 27th his whole forces had fallen back beyond the line of the Mincio. The 3rd of August saw him enter Milan with the remnant of his army, where, after being exposed for three days to the angry recriminations of the revolutionary party, whose own remissness in sending forward money and supplies to his troops had contributed mainly to the disastrous issue of the campaign, he was compelled to quit the city on one side as the Austrian troops entered it upon the other. 1848 LETTER BY BARON STOCKMAR. 83 Baron Stockmar to the Prince. '15th July, 1848. 'Archduke John was installed two days since. . . . This event, as was natural, has for some days had so far a tranquillising effect, as the mass of the public thinks that some advance has been made towards the speedy fulfilment of the generally cherished expectations. For this fulfilment actual deeds are necessary. If the Reichsverweser is able to operate in that way, then he may soon become a considerable power; if, on the other hand, he be doomed by circumstances or evil luck to inactivity, no matter of how brief duration, the prestige of his office will very speedily sink to a mere shadow.. 'I also am of opinion, that Russia's policy will be a waiting one, cautious and looking far ahead, because such a policy is absolutely essential for the interests both of Russia and the Emperor. Nicholas will hardly go to war, until he is either forced by us into it, or until the odds are in favour of doing so with success. Germany will certainly not be drawn forthwith into a war; but this is the utmost that can be predicted on this point, for I anticipate no real remedy from the armistice in Denmark. In that quarter Holstein has merely chipped the eggs, but not kneaded them into the cake. They have had recourse to half measures, which have had the effect of placing them half on a revolutionary and half on a legal footing, where they still are. Out of such elements peace cannot come. The old eggs will of course soon grow stale, and when they have become unfit for use, a new cake will be kneaded, which either the Danes will cook after their own fashion, or the Schleswig-Holsteiners after the fashion of a revolution effected by their declaring themselves wholly independent of the Danish dynasty. 84 BARON STOCKMAR 1848 A peace between Austria and Italy on the basis of Venice remaining part of the Austrian Empire will only be a protracted armistice. "Your Royal Highness asks what impression the events of Paris have made upon us? Very different ones, I should say, at different places. In Frankfort we are too much taken up with ourselves, to have much sensibility to impressions from without. We are consequently just as mad as we were,-if possible, even madder. As it is here, so in all likelihood will it be in Vienna, Berlin, and Breslau. On the other hand, these events will have made a deeper and juster impression in the North, along the coast, in the Hanse Towns, in Hanover,-in places which have from the first been more cool and calm, than in the South, and which up to this time, in consequence of the burdens and losses of the war with Denmark, have become still more cool and calm. "Your Royal Highness justly remarks, that our revolutionary fever is specifically French, something like a certain epidemic fever, which is specifically Hungarian, and only to be caught on Hungarian soil. And this French radicalism, with which we are tainted, is just what weighs so heavily upon my heart. When, some years ago, I used to discuss politics with Bunsen, he used constantly to think, that if I had my way, I would Anglicise Germany too much. His common expression was,-"But everything must be done in a true German spirit, and in accordance and harmony with the German nature." But German nature is apt to be sluggish, and not to move till it is too late. Bunsen's truly German dreams were outstripped by the course of events, and the moderate reformers woke up to find the field in possession of a revolution on the French model and themselves nowhere. A revolution, however, which is based upon the maxims of radicalism, must of necessity renounce all principles of justice, and we may, therefore, find excuses for the way we are 1848 ON STATE OF GERMANY. 85 going on just now, but justify it on rational grounds we never can. 'Your Royal Highness is of opinion, that the military will ultimately be the instrument by which order and peace will be restored to Germany. That brute force and lawlessness will ultimately be in turn put under constraint by material force, there can indeed be no doubt. But how far the initial attempts to enforce this constraint will be successful, how far they may be even possible, at the present moment especially, is hard to say. Discipline, as it has hitherto existed among German troops, is no longer intact. How is it possible, that the social movement, which has affected all ranks, should have failed to infect the army as well? The South German troops are all more or less touched by the social epidemic. Even the Prussians, in certain regiments, have not escaped it. . . . 'From the first attempt to restore order and law by means of the troops, I therefore expect no decisive results; nay, I rather fear it will only increase the anarchy and confusion, and may even lead to civil war. Generally, I foresee grave events within the next few weeks, for the parties (Governments and National Assembly) are ranged in a manner face to face, and in such a way that there is no alternative but peaceful union or hostile separation.' CHAPTER XXVIII. It was a pleasure to the Prince to be recalled for a time from the study of the great but saddening political problems which were being worked out abroad and at home to topics, always favourites with him, which dealt purely with the advancement of the arts of peace, and with what Bacon has called 'the relief of man's estate.' Such were those to be discussed at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, to be held at York upon the 13th of July, where he had agreed to pay an old debt,' as he told the meeting, by being present. He had been for upwards of six years a Governor of the Society. His appearance on this occasion called forth a display of loyalty more demonstrative than usual, and he charmed his audience by a speech at once graceful, compact, suggestive, and playful. In the few words in which he proposed the success of the Society he seemed to have spoken what other men would have taken long to say. What the Society proposed to do and what it had done was put in a way, too, which must have persuaded even those enthusiasts to whom high-farming and the improvement of stock are the great business of life, that the speaker was inspired by a knowledge and a zeal no whit inferior to their own. When he told his large audience what we agriculturists of England' had in view, this identification of himself with their pursuits sent a thrill of pleasure through the meeting, which broke out into loud acclamations. This and a naïve avowal at the close that he had himself experienced the pleasures and the little pangs' |