THE FRENCH ENTENTE
20th May 1857.
Sir,—I have the honour to inform your Royal Highness that I have had a very long and interesting conversation with M. de Persigny to-day. He told me of the different Utopias which the Emperor had in his head, of His Majesty's conviction that England, France, and Russia ought between them to régler les affaires de l'Europe, of the peu de cas which he made of Austria or any other Power, and of the various little complaints which His Majesty thought he had against Her Majesty's Government, and which had been magnified into importance by the malevolence or the stupidity of the persons who had more or less the ear of the Emperor.[16]
M. de Persigny told me also that in a conversation with the Emperor at which he had taken care that Count Walewski should be present, he had solemnly warned the Emperor of the danger he would incur if he swerved the least from the path of his true interest which was the English Alliance, that all the Sovereigns who were flattering and cajoling him for their own purposes looked down upon him as an adventurer, and no more believed in the stability of his throne, or the duration of his dynasty, than they did in any other events of which extreme improbability was the character; whereas the English, who never condescended to flatter or cajole anybody, but who looked to the interests of England, were attached to the French Alliance and to the Sovereign of France because peaceful relations with that country were of the utmost importance to England. France was the only country in Europe that could do England harm, and on the other hand England was the only country that could injure France—the late war with Russia had not the slightest effect upon France except costing her money, but a war with England would set every party in France into activity each with its own peculiar objects, but all of them against the existing order of things—l'ordre social serait bouleversé and the Empire might perish in the convulsion.
THE EMPEROR'S VISIT
The result of this and other conversations appears to be an earnest desire of the Emperor to come to England on a private visit to the Queen, if possible at Osborne, and at any time that might be convenient to Her Majesty. M. de Persigny describes him as being intent upon this project, and as attaching the utmost importance to it in order to éclairer his own ideas, to guide his policy, and to prevent by personal communication with the Queen, your Royal Highness, and Her Majesty's Government the dissidences and mésintelligences which the Emperor thinks will arise from the want of such communications.
I fear that such a visit would not be very agreeable to Her Majesty, but in the Emperor's present frame of mind, and his evident alarm lest it should be thought that the Alliance has been in any way ébranlée, I cannot entertain a doubt that much good might be done, or, at all events, that much mischief might be averted by the Emperor being allowed to pay his respects to Her Majesty in the manner he proposes.
I have discussed the matter after the Cabinet this evening with Lord Palmerston, who takes entirely the same view of the matter as I have taken the liberty of expressing to your Royal Highness. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Sir, your Royal Highness's most faithful and devoted Servant,
Clarendon.
[Footnote 16:] A difference had arisen as to the future of the Principalities—France, Sardinia, and Russia favouring their union, while England, Austria, and Turkey held that a single state, so formed, might become too Russian in its sympathies.