Madame de Chabannes writes telling me that she is very displeased with the Orléanist party, even more than with the party that is opposed to it. She says that the most acceptable proposals are forthcoming from the Comte de Chambord; that the young Orléanist princes are all in favour of a family compact; that Louis Philippe, who has grown much weaker, is vacillating; that the Queen of the Belgians, under English influence, is hostile; and that the Duchesse d'Orléans, who receives but incomplete information from Paris, will give no definite reply.
Sagan, May 8, 1850.—Lady Westmoreland writes to me from Berlin under yesterday's date: "The castle at Berlin is being prepared for the stay of the princes invited to the Congress; it has been possible to arrange seventeen separate sets of rooms; if these should prove inadequate, the extra princes will be lodged in private houses at the King's expense, but probably not so many as seventeen will come; hitherto the only certainties are the Duke of Coburg, the Duke of Brunswick, the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar, the Grand Duke of Baden, and the two Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg. As for the Elector of Hesse-Cassel, he has sent word that he will come and explain to the King in person why he could enter the restricted union. General von Bülow is starting for Copenhagen to-day; he is commissioned to treat for a separate peace between Prussia and Denmark, and not to touch the questions of the Duchies, or Germany, or mediation; when I say 'treat for' peace, I mean that he should make proposals to this end, as the negotiations are to be carried on here. It has been decided to send a plenipotentiary to Frankfort, and it is supposed that Herr von Manteuffel, the Minister of the Interior, will go. The important question is whether he will appear as the Russian plenipotentiary or as representing the restricted union by himself; in the former case there will be a great retreat on the part of Prussia, and in the latter, Austria will decline to join."
Sagan, May 12, 1850.—Yesterday I had a letter from Berlin of which the following is an extract: "You will see the list of the princes who have arrived, as it is in the Gazette. They are all here except Nassau and Hesse-Darmstadt, but it is not to be supposed that they are all agreed. The Duke of Coburg wished to have a preliminary conference in his own rooms with the other princes before to-day's session at the Castle, whither they were invited by the King to hear a speech and afterwards to dine. The Duke of Coburg was astonished and vexed to find that every prince has his own way of regarding the question, and that they will not submit to his proposals. Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Hesse and Oldenburg declared themselves entirely opposed to the Prussian tactics, and the Duke of Brunswick, though favourable to the Bund,[ [229] has views of his own upon the subject, which are not those of Coburg. Manteuffel is not going to Frankfort, and this question remains unsettled."
M. de Persigny, who has returned from Paris, declares that all parties have gathered to the support of the President, that they propose to take the most energetic measures, and that all danger is passed. Prokesch has been appointed to Constantinople; it is said that his place here will be taken by General Thun.
Sagan, May 13, 1850.—I have received two letters from Berlin, one in German; the following is an extract from it: "The Congress of Princes is proceeding admirably; little business is done, but there is plenty of occupation. Military displays are unending, and are varied by monster dinners, while in the evening there is the opera, The Prophète, parties, and balls. To-day a reception is given by Meyendorff, to-morrow by Redern, on Monday by the Prince and Princess of Prussia, on Tuesday by the Westmorelands, on Wednesday by their Majesties; and then, thank heaven, the conference is closed. The Princess Regent of Waldeck arrived here on Thursday for the great dinner in the White Hall, which was a fresh cause of joy to the spectators. As Princess Regent she has been given precedence of all the princes. The King shows extreme politeness towards his guests: instead of giving his arm to the Queen and leading the way for the other princes, he took in the Princess of Waldeck and the Queen was taken in by the Grand Duke of Baden. The Princess looks very well, is admirably dressed in black on account of her widowhood; but unfortunately, in respect of loftiness of bearing, she in no way yields to General von Neumann and seems even to have borrowed some of his ill-timed affability; I fear that this evening she is likely to become unduly lively at the Meyendorffs' reception, where the support of the Court will be lacking. The ladies will certainly forget the Regent, and will regard her only as a Princess of Waldeck. The Duke of Brunswick was not present at the dinner, as his claim of precedence over the Duke of Coburg was disputed. Yesterday dinners were given by Prince Charles and Prince Albert of Prussia, that the King and Queen might have a breathing-space. In the evening the Opera Hall was magnificent, and the large drawing-room which approaches the royal box was beautifully decorated and illuminated; the boxes for the foreigners had been thrown into the royal box, and proved hardly large enough for the princes and their suites; the audience was so absorbed by the sight of them, that they turned their backs on The Prophète during most of the performance and devoted their attention to the German Union; their interest was naturally increased by the appearance of the King in the large box, where he took the third place by the side of the Princess Regent of Waldeck. The Queen remained alone in her little box, where she was not even in full dress; after the first act the King took the Regent for a few minutes to see the Queen.
"The speech addressed to the Princes by the King is said to have been most dignified. He begged them to consider whether they could follow in loyalty and faithfulness the path which he had taken, adding that if they were of a different opinion, they need only follow another road and diverge from himself, in which case he would feel no vindictiveness; but if they preferred to follow him they must march loyally wherever he carried his flag. Yesterday evening in a session of the Ministers, differences, disputes and quarrels were only too obvious: the Administrative Council was present to listen; Hassenpflug immediately protested against their presence, and eventually it was necessary to close the session almost as soon as it had begun. The result was an interchange of letters in anything but polite tone between Brandenburg and Hassenpflug, but no session; in short, the first attempt at a session made an end of the union."
The other letter is from Lady Westmoreland: "The Princes met in private in the rooms of the Duke of Coburg, who is anxious to take the lead and would like to dominate the rest: offence has already been taken in consequence, by the Duke of Brunswick in particular. The Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who is represented by his eldest son and the Elector of Hesse-Cassel, speaking for himself and for the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, declared their inability to consent to any act which might bring about a Prussian Union, until the Frankfort Assembly had decided the great question which is there under discussion; all the other Princes declared themselves devoted to the Union and to the Prussian policy; they were, however, far from unanimous among themselves, and while they made the same profession of faith, every one wished to interpret it in a different manner; some were anxious to attack the political question in the reply to be presented to the King's speech the next morning, but it was decided only to send a polite and formal reply. Yesterday the Ministers of the Princes held their first meeting and discussed their course of action. To their great astonishment they saw Herr von Radowitz arrive with all the members of the Verwaltungsrat.[ [230] Thereupon the Minister of Hesse, who is violently opposed to all Prussian tactics, as you know, rose and declared that these gentlemen had no concern with the discussions of the Princes' Ministers who could not possibly continue a frank discussion in the presence of men whose acts they would probably have to criticise, and the acts of Herr von Radowitz more than any others: he is then said to have declared that he was there to support the friends of the Union, and that were it not for him the Prussian Government would probably yield beneath the attacks of the hostile Princes; a fine compliment, you see, to Herr von Brandenburg and his Cabinet. The result was great confusion and an interruption of the session before anything had been settled. Such has been the beginning of the Congress. There were some interesting episodes: the Duke of Oldenburg and his son in particular are such enthusiastic partisans of Radowitz and Gagern, &c., that the father delivered some remarks before the meeting of the princes which were generally regarded as far too emphatic. The next day his son happened to be at the house of Meyendorff and delivered so unseemly a tirade against Austria, that Meyendorff was forced to take him to task. The King saw each of the princes separately upon their arrival. He listened very patiently to everything that the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz said to him and replied, to the great astonishment of the latter, that he was quite of his opinion, especially with reference to the proposal that nothing should be done until the result of the Frankfort Assembly was known. I am afraid he may have told every prince that he shared his opinions. In any case nothing will be decided by his opinion, whatever that may be."
Sagan, May 5, 1850.—Letters received give me details concerning Claremont, precisely coinciding with what I already knew: no overtures or suitable measures may be expected from a family which will never pardon the elder branch for becoming its victim, when the younger branch has usurped the rights of the legitimate orphan. As the elder branch has no reason for self-reproach with regard to the Orléans family, it is much more conciliatory and more ready to hold out the hand than the other branch is to offer the little finger. Only great souls or minds of a really high stamp can pardon those whom they have injured.
The entertainment at the Opera at Berlin seems to have been magnificent, but at the supper, by some inconceivable carelessness, no one remembered M. de Persigny: in a fury he left the theatre-hall where the invitations had been sent round. The next day an aide-de-camp was sent to him with apologies.
The Prince of Prussia and the Duke of Wellington will be godfathers to Queen Victoria's last son,[ [231] who is to be called Arthur William Patrick, the last name being a compliment to Ireland.