THE PROTOCOL
Carlton Gardens, 23rd June 1850.
My dear John Russell,—The Queen has entirely misconceived the object and effect of the proposed Protocol. It does not "decide upon the fate of Holstein," nor is it "an attack upon Germany." In fact, the Protocol is to decide nothing; it is to be merely a record of the wishes and opinions of the Power whose representatives are to sign it....19
How does any part of this decide the fate of Holstein or attack Germany?
Is not the Queen requiring that I should be Minister, not indeed for Austria, Russia, or France, but for the Germanic Confederation? Why should we take up the cudgels for Germany, when we are inviting Austria and Prussia, the two leading powers of Germany, and who would of course put in a claim for the Confederation if they thought it necessary, which, however, for the reasons above stated, they surely would not?...
As to my having agreed with Sweden, Russia, Denmark, and France before communicating with Prussia and Austria, that is not the course which things have taken. Brunnow proposed the Protocol to me, and I have been in discussion with him about it. It is he who has communicated it to the French Ambassador, to Reventlow, and to Rehausen; I sent it privately several weeks ago to Westmorland, that he might show it confidentially to Schleinitz, but telling Westmorland that it was not a thing settled, but only a proposal by Russia, and that, at all events, some part of the wording would be altered. I have no doubt that Brunnow has also shown it to Koller; but I could not send it officially to Berlin or Vienna till Brunnow had agreed to such a wording as I could recommend the Government to adopt, nor until I received the Queen's sanction to do so.
The only thing that occurs to me as practicable would be to say to Austria and Prussia that if, in signing the Protocol, they could add that they signed also in the name of the Confederation, we should be glad to have the additional weight of that authority, but that could not be made a sine quâ non, any more than the signature of Austria and Prussia themselves, for I think that the Protocol ought to be signed by as many of the proposed Powers as may choose to agree to it, bearing always in mind that it is only a record of opinions and wishes, and does not decide or pretend to decide anything practically. Yours sincerely,
Palmerston.
Footnote 19: The Protocol was to record the desirability of the following points:—(1) that the several states which constituted the Danish Monarchy should remain united, and that the Danish Crown should be settled in such manner that it should go with the Duchy of Holstein; (2) that the signatory Powers, when the peace should have been concluded, should concert measures for the purpose of giving to the results an additional pledge of stability, by a general European acknowledgment.