Berlin, January 24, 1850.—Apparently Radowitz has arrived here and is less energetic in urging the King to concessions than had been feared: he also seems to have brought many letters from Gagern to influential members of the Chambers, urging them to obey the King for the reason that their refusal would probably endanger the whole constitutional edifice of Germany. Next week will bring us a final solution.
Berlin, January 25, 1850.—Yesterday evening I went to a concert at Charlottenburg where hardly any one listened to the music, as all present were preoccupied with the probable events of to-day. The parliamentary battle is opened this morning.
I hear from a good source that M. de Persigny is secretly intimate with a somewhat disreputable band of politicians, and that as he cannot find a welcome in any salon, he spends his time with a circle by no means suitable for one in his official position, either from ill-temper or from boredom or from instinct. In this way he has been carrying on a series of petty intrigues for some time. His proposals are being considered and he is given hopes of success; but no serious negotiations are begun with an official and with a Government, neither of whom can be taken seriously.
Berlin, January 26, 1850.—Yesterday evening at a ball given by Count Arnim-Boitzenburg, the Meyendorffs told me that M. de Persigny had paid them a long visit the evening before and had explained to them his Bonapartist and Imperialist theories, asserting that they alone aroused popularity in France. By way of proof he concluded with the statement that in the villages of France whole families could be found on their knees before the picture of the Emperor Napoleon, asking for the return of the Empire. This is a most audacious invention. He came up to me at this ball and asked after my daughter, saying that he had had the honour of making her acquaintance at the house of M. de Falloux, with whom he asserts that he has been intimate for the last eighteen years.[ [218]
Berlin, January 27, 1850.—Yesterday at eleven o'clock in the evening the debate upon the royal message was not concluded. There was every prospect that Arnim's amendment would be adopted. He proposes to postpone for two years the law concerning the organisation of the Chamber of Peers and to make this Chamber in any case composed solely of life members and not hereditary: this two-fold concession would make the measure entirely illusory and would merely confirm the uncertain nature of the provisional arrangements. It is sad, serious, and fatal.
The Austrian Minister Prokesch, after being snow-bound for six days, and the Prince of Leiningen, the brother of Queen Victoria, have arrived from Vienna. The former is staying at Berlin and the latter proceeding to Frankfort-on-Main; both are delighted with the young Emperor. They say that if Prussia is not loved at Vienna, England is particularly hated and France entirely disregarded.
The real leader of the Austrian army is the young Emperor, and his chief of the staff, General von Hess, is his clever instructor. All the orders to the troops and all military measures proceed directly from the Emperor without any intervention or counter-signature on the part of the Ministry. This is a fact of some importance. Leiningen was also greatly struck by the attitude of Prince Felix Schwarzenberg; he spoke of him as the firmest and even the boldest Minister to be found anywhere.
Berlin, January 28, 1850.—Arnim's amendment passed by a small majority which it would not have had if fifteen Poles had not abstained from voting. The paragraph in the royal message referring to the fidei commissum was rejected because several deputies on the Right went away, as they were hungry and sleepy! This fact will show the kind of parliamentary customs that prevail. The Ministry, who merely wished to patch the matter up, has been satisfied, but is so no longer. The King expresses himself as displeased, but I am afraid that he will eventually swear to this deplorable Constitution, as soon as the first Chamber sanctions the work of the second.
Some one tells me from Paris that he has seen M. Guizot and found him in no way exasperated or disappointed, but calm and firm. In speaking of the feeling in the Assembly and in what is still called society, he says that people are not sufficiently uneasy, but too depressed.
Berlin, January 29, 1850.—A person who recently came from Vienna told me that Prince Schwarzenberg was steadily pursuing a proposal for a commercial treaty with the Italian States, to the great wrath of Lord Palmerston. The Vienna Cabinet declares that as long as England entrusts her diplomacy to this Minister, it will disregard English representations upon continental matters and go its own way. The chief point of dissatisfaction at Vienna is the Pope with his weakness and vacillation; and Rome has thus become the most disquieting point in Italy. Here people are gloomy and uneasy, and their minds are occupied with the numerous intrigues of recent days which produced the vote of the day before yesterday. A curious fact is that Count Arnim-Boitzenburg now tells any one who will listen, that the famous amendment is not his but was arranged by Radowitz and that he has merely lent his name to it. The fifteen Polish deputies say that the reason they abstained from voting was because the Government has promised them unheard-of concessions for the Grand Duchy of Posen if they refrained from voting on this very amendment which the Cabinet declared the evening before that it would never admit. Other deputies have been persuaded by references to the wish and desires of the King. The King declares that he has been misrepresented; in short, it is an abominable and disgraceful state of confusion. The Left are highly delighted. This deplorable comedy is, in my opinion, the last stroke which will overthrow the tottering edifice; when no one has any confidence in his neighbour, and when no one knows upon what to rely or where to find sincerity and firmness, people soon lose the courage of their opinions, remain as though paralysed, and even lose the instinct of personal defence. Thus they slowly descend towards the abyss which yawns to receive its prey.