[Cracow.]

has become, whether they should reconstruct a non-existing Government, or entirely alter the condition of existence of Cracow and its Territory; and they say that they have preferred the latter course, and have determined that Cracow shall revert to Austria, to which Power it belonged before 1809, and that it shall henceforward form a part of the Austrian Dominions.

Her Majesty's Government have received this communication. with deep regret and with much surprise. The communications which of late have been had with the Representatives of the 3 Powers at this Court had led Her Majesty's Government to expect that some proposal would be made by the 3 Powers for some modification of the Political Condition in which the Treaty of Vienna has placed the Free State of Cracow, with a view the better to secure the Territories of the 3 Powers from risk of disturbance by plots which might be formed in Cracow; but Her Majesty's Government were not prepared for such a communication as that which they have now received; and Her Majesty's Government feel themselves bound to Protest against the execution of the intention which has thus been announced.

Her Majesty's Government will first consider the grounds upon which the proposed measure is sought to be justified, and secondly, the right which the 3 Powers claim to themselves to carry it into execution of their own authority.

After the events of 1830 and 1836, it is to be remarked that the 3 Powers had recourse to measures which they thought sufficient for the security of their respective Dominions, and those events can scarcely be quoted now as affording grounds for fresh measures of severity against Cracow; and with respect to the inroad made by the people of Cracow into the Gallician Territory about a twelvemonth ago, and the alleged dissolution of the Government of Cracow by its own act, Her Majesty's Government would observe, that if General Collin, who was invited into Cracow by the Government of that State for the maintenance of order, had not suddenly withdrawn his troops, it is probable that no inroad would have been made by the people of Cracow into Gallicia; and as that General carried away with him all the constituted authorities of the City, and left the City and State in a condition of administrative anarchy, it can hardly be said that the dissolution of the Government was the act of the people of Cracow themselves.

[Cracow.]

But it is alleged that Cracow has long been, and if it remains Independent, will still continue to be the centre of intrigues, having for their object the disturbance of the tranquillity of adjoining Territories; and the question is, in what degree the present Political Condition of Cracow affords facilities for the carrying on of such practices?

Now, such intrigues and plots must be carried on either by strangers coming to Cracow, or by the native inhabitants themselves.

But no stranger can reach Cracow except by traversing a vast extent of Territory belonging to one or other of the 3 Powers; and it is difficult to imagine that any Polish exile, or any conspirator from any foreign country, could so far elude the vigilance of the police of the Power whose Territory he would have to pass through, as to be able to penetrate to Cracow.

The population of Cracow is not large in number, and not only would the arrival of a suspicious stranger among them be quickly known to the Police, but it would be scarcely possible for such stranger, or for any resident inhabitant of the State, long to carry on a correspondence with the people of neighbouring districts, for the purpose of exciting disturbances therein, without such correspondence coming to the knowledge of the Government, and through them to that of the 3 Residents; and such practices being once known, the laws of Cracow would surely afford means to put a stop to them effectually. But if the police regulations of Cracow are not efficient enough to secure the obtaining of such information; and if the laws of Cracow do not give the Government power to prevent such an abuse of the shelter of the Free State, those police regulations might be improved and those laws might be altered; and full security might in these respects be obtained for the 3 Powers without destroying the existence of the State.

It is no doubt the duty of Cracow to give the 3 Powers such security; for freedom and independence were given to Cracow for the well-being and happiness of its own people; and not in order to enable that people to create disturbances and confusion in adjoining countries.

It appears, then, to Her Majesty's Government that no sufficient proof has yet been given to show that full security might not be afforded to the internal tranquillity of the Territories of

[Cracow.]

the 3 Powers, without destroying the Separate and Independent existence of the State of Cracow.

But Her Majesty's Government must at all events deny the competency of the 3 Powers to decide upon and to execute such a measure, of their own separate authority, and without the concurrence of the other Powers who were parties to the Treaty of Vienna of June, 1815 (No. 27).

There is no doubt that the erection of Cracow and its Territory into a Free and Independent State, together with many of the details of its organisation, are matters which were first recorded by the Treaty of the 3rd of May, 1815 (No. 14). But that Treaty merely recorded one part of the various arrangements made by the General Congress of Vienna (No. 27); and it was by Article CXVIII of the General Treaty declared to be an integral part of the arrangements of the Congress of the European Powers, and to have everywhere the same force and value as if it had been inserted word for word in the General Treaty.

But besides this the leading stipulations about Cracow which are contained in the Separate Treaty of the 3rd of May (No. 14), concluded between the 3 Powers, are inserted word for word in the General Treaty to which all the Powers are parties, and those stipulations constitute the Articles VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, of that General Treaty.

It is demonstrable, therefore, that with whomsoever may have originated the plan of erecting Cracow and its Territory into a Free and Independent State, that plan was carried into effect by stipulations to which all the Powers were equally parties; and consequently it is not competent for 3 of those Powers by their own separate authority to undo that which was established by the common engagements of the whole; and it is manifest that the special duty which the 3 Powers undertook, of protecting the Independence of the State, cannot invest them with any right to overthrow that Independence and to destroy it.

For these reasons Her Majesty's Government are of opinion that the execution of the intentions which the 3 Powers have announced, would be a measure justified by no adequate necessity, and would involve a violation of positive stipulations con◄ tained in the General Treaty of Vienna (No. 27); and Her Majesty's Government deeply impressed with the conviction that it is above all things important that the engagements of Treaties should at all times be faithfully observed, most earnestly hope

[Cracow.]

that means may be devised for guarding the Territories of the 3 Powers against the dangers adverted to in their identic communications, without any breach of the Treaty of 1815 (No. 14).

Your Excellency will read this despatch to Prince Metternich, and you will send him officially a copy of it. I am, &c.,

PALMERSTON.

[Cracow.]

No. 204.-FRENCH PROTEST against the Suppression of the Republic of Cracow.-Paris, 3rd December, 1846.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.*)

M. le Comte, Paris, 3rd December, 1846. THE Chargé d'Affaires of Austria came to me on the 18th of last month, for the purpose of communicating despatches from Prince Metternich, dated the 6th, announcing to the King's Government that the incorporation of the City and Territory of Cracow with the Austrian Empire had been resolved upon by the Courts of Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburgh, and explaining the motives of their determination. I send you herewith a copy of the same. The Minister of Prussia and the Chargé d'Affaires of Russia made on the 20th an exactly similar communication to me. I have submitted the same to the King in Council. It has occasioned a profound and painful surprise to the King's Government. We had received in February and March last, as well as in 1836 and in 1838, the assurance that the occupation of Cracow by the troops of the 3 Powers was a purely military and not a political measure, enjoined by necessity, and which would cease with such necessity. It is now said that a temporary occupation does not suffice, and that the measure which has been adopted by the 3 Courts is indispensible for the purpose of definitively guaranteeing within their States the order and tranquillity which had unceasingly been disturbed by conspiracies and insurrections, of which Cracow had become the permanent focus. But in order that the suppression of the small State of Cracow should really put an end to these disturbances, it must be shown that its independent existence was the only or at least the principal cause of those disturbances. This supposition cannot be admitted. The ferment of the ancient Polish provinces, so often revived, arises from a more general and a more potent cause. It is that the scattered members of a great State, violently destroyed, still The Treaties which sanction agitate themselves and still rise up.

such deeds do not all at once cause the anguish and the social wounds which thence result to disappear. Time, justice, constantly active kindness, prolonged good government, can alone

For French version, see "State Papers," vol. xxxv, p. 1093.