Gross 12. Februar 1863. dealt with according to usage. I asked Count Rechberg what was the nature No. 677. of a Military Convention said to have been concluded between Russia and Prussia britannien, concerning the affairs of Poland. He replied that he was not in possession of the details of it, but he supposed its main object was to facilitate the passage of Russian troops through Prussia into Poland, and to establish a common course of action in face of the insurrection. He added that on hearing of this Convention, he had telegraphed to Count Thun at St. Petersburgh to discourage any communication on the subject to Vienna; that Galicia was comparatively tranquil; and that unless the Polish insurrection assumed greater dimensions, the Austrian Government would consider the general understanding which existed between the two Imperial Governments sufficient for present purposes. ¶ His Excellency then remarked that the concentration along the Polish frontier of three Prussian corps d'armée, about 60,000 men n, was a much larger force than could be necessary. He was happy to think that Count Mensdorff had but 12,000 men in Galicia, that he was told to apply for any amount of reinforcement he might require, and that he had answered that the force at his disposal was ample, that the rural population were quiet, and that up to the present moment he saw no cause for serious alarm. To Earl Russell, London. Bloomfield. No. 678. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Botschafter in Berlin an d. königl. Min. d. Ausw. betreffen d. Berlin, February 14 (received February 16), 1863. Gross 14. Februar 1863. My Lord, I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that General No. 678. Alvensleben, who is now in Warsaw, having arrived there two days ago from britannien, St. Petersburgh, has concluded a Military Convention with the Russian Government, according to which the two Governments will reciprocally afford facilities to each other for the suppression of the insurrectionary movements which have lately taken place in Poland, and which may be expected to follow in the Polish Provinces of Prussia. As far as I have been able to learn, it has been agreed that the Commanders-in-chief of the two Governments will keep each other informed of the movements of the troops under their orders; that if the troops of the one Government should retire before the insurgents into the territory of the other, they will be allowed to retain their arms, and to recross the frontier as soon as they may be in a position to do so, and that the troops of either Government will be at liberty to pursue insurgents into the territory of the other. The Prussian railways are also to be placed at the disposal of the Russian military authorities for the transport of troops through Prussian territory from one part of the Kingdom of Poland to another. The Government further contemplate, in case of necessity, to give military assistance to the Russian Gross 14. Februar 1863. No. 678. Government for the suppression of the insurrection in the kingdom; but I am britannien, told that no engagement has yet been entered into with respect to the nature or extent of such assistance. In the meanwhile, however, four corps of the Prussian army are concentrating on the frontiers, under the command of General Waldersee, whose head-quarters are at Posen, and the reserves of two of these corps and of a division of a third have been ordered to join their regiments. As yet no disturbances of importance have occurred in the Grand Duchy, and it is believed that the Chiefs of the insurrection do not intend that any movement shall take place there or in Galicia, unless some important successes shall be obtained in the kingdom. In the neighbourhood of Thorn, however, and in the old Polish Provinces of Prussia, where the conspiracy is possibly less general and not so well organized, and its members are therefore less subject to discipline, some disturbances have occurred. From the information which has reached the Prussian Government, the whole kingdom, with the exception of the large towns held by the Russian troops, appears to be in a state of revolt. ¶ I have, &c. To Earl Russell, London. Andrew Buchanan. No. 679. GROSSBRITANNIEN. Min. d. Ausw. an d. kön. Botschafter in Paris. — Eine Unterredung mit dem französischen Botschafter über die preussischrussische Convention betr. Foreign Office, February 21, 1863. No. 679. My Lord, The French Ambassador has just called upon me to say britannien, that the Government of the Emperor, although not in possession of the text of 1863. the Convention between Russia and Prussia, know enough of its purport to 21. Februar They consider form an opinion unfavourable to the prudence and opportuneness of that Con- To Earl Cowley, Paris. Russell. GROSSBRITANNIEN. No. 680. Botschafter in St. Petersburg an d. kön. Min. d. Aus w. Die Unterzeichnung der preuss.-russ. Convention betr. St. Petersburgh, February 10 (received February 24), 1863. Gross 10. Februar My Lord, I regret that I omitted, by yesterday's messenger, to No. 680. report to your Lordship the arrival at this place of General Alvensleben, a britannien, Prussian officer charged with the duty of concerting measures for the repression 1863. of the Polish insurrection, which, in one case at least, has crossed the borders of the Grand Duchy of Posen. I learn that General Alvensleben has signed an Engagement or Convention with the Russian military authorities, by which the Imperial forces are permitted to proceed against fugitive insurgents across the Prussian boundary. A similar freedom is stipulated for the Prussian army on the territory of Russia. I have, &c. To Earl Russell, London. Napier. No. 681. GROSSBRITANNIEN. - Botschafterin Berlin an d. kön. Min. d. Ausw. redung mit Herrn v. Bismarck über die Convention. Unter Berlin, February 21 (received February 24), 1863. Gross 21. Februar 1863. (Extract.) With reference to your Lordship's despatch of the 18th No. 681. instant, instructing me to endeavour to procure a copy of the Military Convention britannien, lately concluded between Prussia and Russia, I have the honour to inform you that M. de Bismarck says he will communicate the Convention to me as soon as he shall receive the consent of Russia to its being made public. In a conversation which I had with him yesterday, I observed that, with a view to the interest of Prussia, the least possible delay should take place in the publication of the Convention, if it only contains the provisions which he represents it to do; for it is now generally believed that Prussia has entered into arrangements with Russia for mutually assisting each other in repressing all popular movements within their respective territories, and this suspicion has created a most unfavourable feeling towards Prussia throughout Western Europe. His Excellency replied that a portion of the English and French Press, hostile to Prussia, and the whole Press of Denmark and Austria, had seized upon the Convention to calumniate Prussia; but whoever would consider the circumstances dispassionately and impartially would easily satisfy himself that the Prussian Government had done no more than was necessary for the maintenance of tranquillity, and the protection of the population on a frontier which was 1,500 miles in length. With respect to the English Press, I said, if he would look back into the files of the „Times," he would find that there was no feeling of hostility to Prussia in England, and that if the language of the Press had Gross 21. Februar No. 681. within a late period ceased to be that of sympathy and approval, he must seek britannien, some other cause for the change than unfriendly feelings in England towards the 1863. Prussian nation. He then went on to explain to me that the insurrection in Russian-Poland had been principally promoted by the smaller gentry, who all had dependents attached to their houses and farms, whom they easily induced to take part in enterprises against the Government; and who, when they had thus raised a small band of armed men, forced the peasantry to join them; and it was to prevent the proceedings of these persons being extended into the Polish provinces of Prussia, or a similar course being followed by the small landed proprietors and gentry of these provinces, that the Convention had been entered into, while it was hoped that by energetic action on the part of the authorities, the commerce of Prussia, with the interior of Poland, might be protected from the depredations of Russian-Polish insurgents hovering on the frontier. The Government had, in the first place, he said, entered into the Convention as a necessary measure of defence, but they also saw in it a legitimate means of protecting the interests of Prussian traders with Poland. I replied that those were the common-place arguments used by all Governments intervening in the affairs of other States, and they would have been equally applicable if Her Majesty's Government had interfered in the American civil war on the pretence that it was necessary to secure Canada against future aggression, and to protect British commerce and industry against the evils to which the war was certain to subject them; but it would be difficult for his Excellency to prove that what was unnecessary in Galicia was unavoidable in Prussia. To this he answered that the massacre of 1,000 of the gentry by the peasantry in Galicia in 1848, had greatly diminished the probability of any insurrectionary movements there, as the dangerous class of the population had been nearly exterminated, and neither the great nobles nor the peasantry were disposed to incur risks and make sacrifices for the restoration of Polish nationality. ¶ He said that the number of troops concentrated on the frontier has been greatly exaggerated; for, though some of the Reserves had been called out, none of the corps had been placed on a war footing, either with respect to men, horses, or guns; and after providing garrisons for the towns and fortresses, the troops at the disposal of General Werder could only enable him to station 12,000 men on the Northern, and 8,000 on the Silesian frontier, for service in the field, which was a very moderate force for the duty to be performed. He said also that the Prussian commanding officers had orders not to act on Russian territory beyond a day's march from the frontier, and that Russian troops would only cross the frontier while in actual conflict with armed insurgents. He explained further, that the principal advantage which Prussia gained from the Convention was, that bands could not be collected on the frontier for the invasion of the Prussian territories, or if insurgents in these territories were driven across the frontier they could not be rallied or reinforced in the kingdom, for a renewed attack on the Prussian troops; and in answer to an inquiry which I made of him with respect to Russian insurgents who might be captured in Prussia, he said they would be given up to the Russian authorities, in conformity with the stipulations of Conventions Gross 21. Februar 1863. of long standing, which had been renewed in 1857. He said these Conventions No. 681. had been suspended in 1853, but that the number of Russian deserters and other britannien, persons crossing the frontier illegally, from criminal or other causes, became so great an inconvenience that it had been found necessary to renew the Conventions in the interest of public order in the frontier districts. He said that portions of the frontier of many miles in extent could only be watched, according to present arrangements, by a single battalion, and that a brigade would be stationed in the North to the east of Gumbinnen to protect a haras of 1,000 horses kept near the frontier for the use of the various breeding establishments through Eastern Prussia. ¶ During our conversation on this subject, it appeared to me that M. de Bismarck was greatly annoyed at the reprobation with which the Convention has been received in Prussia and in Europe, and with the distrust of the Prussian Government to which it has given rise; and though on previous occasions he always spoke of the probability of the Russian army in Poland proving too weak to suppress the insurrection, he yesterday represented the principal forces of the insurgents to have been already defeated and dispersed, and those remaining in arms to consist merely of small scattered bands of men who are afraid to return to their homes, but who, though unable to offer any serious resistance to regular troops, might keep up for some time a state of brigandage in Poland, similar to that prevailing in the Neapolitan Provinces of the Kingdom of Italy. M. de Thiele, the Under-Secretary of State, represents the Convention to refer solely to the action of the military authorities on the frontier; and as I have said to him that M. de Bismarck had spoken to me of the possibility of Prussia taking active measures in the interior of the kingdom for the suppression of the insurrection, he answered he could not say what M. de Bismarck's intentions might be, and whether he contemplated entering into another Convention with Russia; but that he could assure me the Convention which had been actually signed contained no provisions for such an eventuality. ¶ I unterstand also from the Austrian Minister that M. de Thiele has held the same language to him. It is not, however, to be forgotten that the Feudal party with whom M. de Bismarck is acting are most anxious for a close union with Russia, in the hope that the alliance of the three Northern Powers, which was broken up by the Crimean war, may be eventually re-established. &c. To Earl Russell, London. Andrew Buchanan. No. 682. GROSSBRITANNIEN. - Botschafter in St. Petersburg an den königl. Min. d. -- Uebereinkunft betr. St. Petersburgh, February 21 (received March 2), 1863. (Extract.) Prince Gortchakoff spoke to me spontaneously this morning No. 682. concerning the recent engagement between the Russian and Prussian Govern- britannien, ments for the suppression of the revolt in Poland. The Vice-Chancellor obser- 1863, Gross 21. Februar |