I hope soon to be in trim for my journey—am perhaps already so. My wife and the physicians conjure me to go south—to Heidelberg or Switzerland. I long for Petersburg, that I may at last live quietly in my own house.
Petersburg, 16th June, 1860.
We are pretty well at present, and I am much better than if I were in Germany without being wanted. Rest and the comforts of domestic life are doing their best. It is 24° in the shade,[43] but always cool nights. Business proceeds, thanks to so delightful a Minister as Gortschakoff, without annoyance—in short, cela va bien, pourvu que cela dure. Our relations here are excellent, no matter what the newspapers may fable about it.
The Augsburger people and Company are still afraid lest I should become Minister, and think they can prevent it by abusing me and my Franco-Russian ideas. It is a great honor to be dreaded by the enemies of Prussia. My political flirtations in the spring, at the Court, and with the Ministry, have, furthermore, been so accurately sifted that they are well aware of what the state of the case is, and how I am believed to find precisely in the national aspirations powers of resistance and strength. If I am written down a devil, it is a Teutonic one, and no Gallic fiend. ——’s lie factory might attack me much more to the purpose on other grounds than on Bonapartism, if they wish to make an impression at our Court, as among the Augsburgers.
St. Petersburg, 22d August, 1860.
I am quite excluded from home politics, for with the exception of newspapers, I only receive official statements, which do not give me the groundwork of things. According to these, we have promised nothing definite at Teplitz, but have made our support of Austria dependent upon that practical demonstration of her good-will towards us in German politics; when this has been done, she may reckon on our gratitude. I should be very content with this; and if we only see the Vienna soap in a lather, we should be glad to return the service. Certainly the indirect accounts we receive from other courts sound otherwise. According to these, if true, though we have not concluded any guarantee treaty, we have, at any rate, bound ourselves verbally to assist Austria, under all circumstances, should she be attacked by France in Italy. Should Austria find it necessary to act on the offensive, our consent would be requisite, if our co-operation is to be anticipated. This version appears more unprejudiced than it would, in fact, be. Austria having security that we should fight for Venice, she will know how to provoke the attack of France—it has been asserted that since Teplitz, Austria has come out boldly and defiantly in Italy. Viennese politics, since the Garibaldian expedition, desire to make things in Italy as bad as they can be, in order that if Napoleon himself should find it necessary to declare against the Italian Revolution, movements should commence on all sides and former conditions be assimilatively restored. This reckoning with and upon Napoleon may be very deceptive, and it would seem as if, since Teplitz, it has been given up, and there were hopes of attaining results by opposing Napoleon. The restless, passionate character of Austrian politics endangers peace in both ways. What will the Chamber say to Teplitz—to the organization of the army? All sensible men will naturally agree with Government as to the latter. But the influence of foreign politics can first be estimated, when it is known what the meaning of Teplitz really is. A well-informed but somewhat Bonapartist correspondent writes to me from Berlin, “We were prettily taken in at Teplitz by Viennese good-humor; sold, for nothing, not even a mess of pottage.” God grant that he errs in this! In speaking of the Bonapartists, it occurs to me that some kind of general rumors reach me, that the press, National Verein, Magdeburger, Ostpreussische Zeitung, carry on a systematic war of calumny against me. I am said to have openly supported Russo-French pretensions respecting a cession of the Rhine province, on the condition of compensation nearer home; I am a second Borries, and so on. I will pay a thousand Fredericks-d’or to the person who will prove to me that any such Russo-French propositions have ever been brought to my knowledge by any one. In the whole period of my German residence I never advised any thing else than that we should rely on our own strength, and in the case of war, upon the aid of the national forces of Germany. These foolish geese of the German press do not see that in attacking me they are losing the better part of their own efforts. I am informed that the fountain-head of these attacks was the Court of Coburg, in a writer who has personal spite against me. Were I an Austrian statesman, or a German Prince and Austrian reactionist, like the Duke of Meiningen, our Kreuzzeitung would have protected me as it has him; the mendacity of these assaults is unknown to some of our political friends. As I am, however, an old member of their party, entertaining particular ideas upon certain points, well known to him to his misfortune, I may be slandered to their hearts’ content. I hear of the whole affair principally from the officious advocacy of the Elberfeld Zeitung, which is sent to me. There is nothing like inquisitors among themselves, and friends, who long have partaken of the same cup, are more unjust than foes. I am satisfied. One ought not to rely on men, and I am thankful for every breath which draws me inward.
Stolpmünde, 18th Sept., 1861.