The Diplomatists of Europe

by M. Capefigue

In bringing together the names of Metternich, Nesselrode, and Hardenberg, I do not pretend to draw an absolute parallel between them; on the contrary, there exists a strong and well-defined difference. Metternich and Hardenberg always expressed their own ideas, and were the representatives of a system, which they followed with the utmost perseverance, and applied through all the changeful course of events that occurred in the two great kingdoms committed to their care. They were statesmen who had taken office with fixed principles, and their whole life was employed in their developement. For instance, the self-imposed object of Prince Hardenberg's foreign policy, was the increase of the national influence of Prussia against Napoleon; and of his internal government, the reconstruction of the States and of the Prussian citizen classes. Prince Metternich, in the foreign relations of the cabinet of Vienna, especially strove to establish his system of armed mediation, and moral influence produced by means of vast military establishments; while, to speak the truth, Count Nesselrode has been nothing more than the upright and intelligent executor of the will of his sovereign: he was the reflected image of Alexander, the faithful hand which undertook the execution of his wishes, even of those where his personal feelings were most concerned. The position of Nesselrode with regard to the Emperors Alexander and Nicholas, might be compared to that of the ministres secrétaires d'état under Napoleon; the influence he exercises results from his long experience, and from the circumstance of his every-day life being passed in the midst of politics, which are thus interwoven with all his habits; and this in itself confers a great degree of power.

Charles Albert, count Nesselrode, was born at Lisbon in 1770, of a noble family of German extraction. His father was minister plenipotentiary in Portugal under Catherine II., and some traditions exist concerning the cause of this species of exile; there are, however, always some of these rather sneering, and random legends, current in the corps diplomatique, as if for the purpose of unbending the brow of official gravity.

Count Nesselrode was still very young at the termination of the reign of Catherine,—that extraordinary woman, whose character forms so curious a study, because it perfectly represents the state of civilisation in Russia; whose political ideas were so masculine, and by whom the system of Peter the Great had been constantly followed up and advanced. She appeared to effect an alteration in the influence of the cabinet of St. Petersburg, which had hitherto been purely oriental, and to render it more German and central; being the first step towards the predominance in Southern Europe, which was afterwards the ambition of her grandson Alexander. Peter the Great had pointed to Constantinople; but Catherine considered Warsaw the most favourable point, as a position which might enable the Russian power, at a later period, to assume in the south the importance which her literary correspondence, and political despatches were already preparing. It was solely with this view that she encouraged the spirit of the eighteenth century, and caressed D'Alembert and Diderot, journalists who were devoted to her interests. When Voltaire, with his expression of flattering vanity, wrote to Catherine that light came from the north, he foretold the consummate ability of the Czarina, which prompted her to make herself talked of at any price; "because," as she cleverly observed, "by dint of exalting the Russian name, it will at last be made some account of in France and in England; we shall no longer be reckoned among the barbarians; we shall be talked of at Versailles, in London, and at Madrid; and this, in politics, is indispensable, if we are desirous of obtaining any ascendancy."

The leading principle of the cabinet of St. Petersburg for the last hundred years, has been the agglomeration of Poland, and the expulsion of the Turks, whom they are desirous of driving back as far as the Black Sea. Poland has fallen; nor was it in the power of any government to prevent the ruin of that fated country. A strong antipathy, a deep, unmeasured hatred, exists between the Poles and Russians; they are two races ready to fall upon each other; two giants, armed at all points, constantly contending during six centuries. The most unpopular of all proceedings at Moscow, at Kalouga, at Novogorod, and in the old castles of the ancient nobility, was the erection of Poland into an independent kingdom, organised by Alexander,[47] which occasioned murmurs of dissatisfaction on every side. The other object of Russia, the fall of Turkey, will also take place sooner or later; it cannot be prevented, and, if the government will not undertake it, the people will do it themselves. Saint Sophia is required to crown the patriarchate of the Greek Church. Of this Europe is well aware; she delays the explosion until the proper time has arrived, and determines the various shares beforehand: but to prevent it altogether is beyond her power. And some day we shall hear that the Russians, with the cross as their banner, have marched to the succour of their brethren, and that another empire of Constantine has arisen on the Bosphorus. It is so written in the book of fate!

I am not aware that the Russian cabinet has ever been made the subject of consideration in France, in the point of view of its great diplomatic ability. The principal source of its predominance has been sought in the strength communicated by its armies, and in its absolute organisation; but they have been mistaken: the truth is, that there is nothing more persevering, or more deeply reflecting, than the Russian cabinet; it goes on slowly, without attracting attention by noise or tumult. During the last century, the Russian population has increased by eleven millions of souls, who occupy more than five hundred leagues square of territory, if we include Georgia and the part of Tartary united to the government of the Crimea; and, independent of these actual conquests, Russia has acquired an undoubted protectorate over Moldavia and Wallachia, and such a degree of influence in Persia, that no other country would now think of disputing it with her: finally, every one is aware of the position she has obtained at Constantinople, and also of the efforts made by the whole of Europe to prevent her from actually accomplishing the vast projects formed by Peter the Great. In order to arrive at this result, nothing has been neglected by Russia; neither political protestations, nor appeals to religious feeling, have been spared. Knowing exactly where to stop, she never ventures too far in an idea; she waits patiently till the opportunity is ripe; and, should her system have too much awakened attention, she does not overstep certain limits, but makes a momentary concession, and then resumes her projects with admirable consistency. As soon as the proper season has arrived, and that the obstacles she at first encountered are overcome, then Russia progresses straight to the accomplishment of her wishes.

Catherine, struck with a fatal apoplexy, had descended to the tomb, and the sceptre passed to the Grand Duke Paul, who had been condemned to the most profound obscurity, until the moment when he was summoned from his solitude to the government of forty millions of people. The gloomy singularity of his character has been exaggerated; he has been represented as a capricious prince, who would pass suddenly from acts of savage tyranny to kindness and tender intimacy; but we must remember that Paul came of the blood of Peter the Great, and being incessantly surrounded by conspiracies, which threatened both his crown and his life, he often formed resolutions which flew at once from unreserve to anger, from confidence to sudden fury. Characters generally spring from situations, and are what events have made us. Paul had to defend his life, which had been endangered by many attempts against it; we must not, therefore, be too hasty in our judgment of this prince, but, in order to form a fair opinion, we must descend to the depths of the national character, and view the general situation of her politics.

Europe had received a vehement impulse from the French revolution. The Grand Duke, who was himself threatened by the spirit of revolt, must have viewed with but little satisfaction this popular explosion at the other extremity of Europe; but the distance of Russia, her financial embarrassments, and the accomplishment of the partition of Poland, did not permit her to take part in the first coalition against the French revolution: the Russians did not join the hostile party until the second Italian war, during the campaign of Suwarof. I will not repeat the well-known military story; the divisions in the cabinets of Vienna and St. Petersburg put a stop to the second coalition: but the Russian regiments had seen Italy; they had touched the soil of Switzerland; for the first time their breasts had been warmed by the mild rays of the southern sun; and, like the invaders of the third and fourth centuries, they recollected during the long wintry nights of their icy clime, that there were large towns and fair cities in the south of Europe, that those fertile lands produced delicious fruits, while the smiling plains were crowned with abundant harvests: these recollections lay deep in the mind of many a Russian veteran in the years 1813 and 1814, and from this time forth the cabinet of St. Petersburg took a part in the interests of southern Europe.

The diplomatic career of Count Nesselrode began at the time of the embassy of Count Marcoff at Paris, under the Consulate—that wonderful period when every thing, government, institutions, and political and social ideas, appeared to have been renewed with the vigour of youth. The forcible administration of the First Consul easily opened the way to negotiations with Russia, for whenever a regular power has been established in France, Europe has never attempted to overturn it. Count Nesselrode being attached to the embassy in Paris, had the opportunity of witnessing the magnificent developement of the power and genius of Buonaparte, then First Consul. Who would have foretold that fifteen years later, he, as the Chancellor of Alexander, would preside over the acts relative to the downfall of the Emperor, and sanction the decrees of the senate of 1814 for the restoration of the House of Bourbon?

Paris, at this early period of the Consulate, was an abode full of pleasure and enjoyment. The treaty of Amiens had just been concluded, peace had been obtained through victory, and people were desirous of amusement and repose; they were emerging from the system of the Directory, the spirit of good society again raised its head, and its rules and customs were eagerly sought for, in order to restore it from its ruins. There was a little court at the Tuileries around Joséphine; all the ceremonies and etiquette of former times were collected with avidity; ambassadors alone had liveries, and their splendid equipages shone with double lustre among the half-republican assemblage, where there was a long string of hackney-coaches with their numbers concealed. Napoleon still reserved all his magnificence for his military festivals; his grand reviews on the Place du Carrousel, where in the midst of clouds of dust the squadrons of guides, and the grenadiers of the consular guard defiled, as we see them depicted in the pictures of Isabey.

The luxurious splendour of the embassies cast over every thing belonging to the legation, an aristocratic gloss which turned the heads of this generation; and this may explain the success in female society enjoyed by various members of the corps diplomatique at this period, and the close and tender intimacies which were afterwards so useful to Prince Metternich in his diplomatic surveillances. Young Nesselrode, like all Russians, spoke French with the greatest fluency, and without the decided accent, which all Prince Metternich's talents are unable to correct. He had his share of the dissipation of the new court, where some young women, as if astonished at their own position, forgot themselves, and forgot also that they had the gravest and most serious head in the world as their chief. I can hardly say wherefore, but nothing has given me a more contemptible idea of society in the time of the Consulate, than the perusal of some memoirs that have been written in apology for it; beside the wonders achieved by one man, how mean and wretched appear the tricks and narrow intrigues of those around him!