METTERNICH KLEMENS VON: (1773-1859) Prince of Metternich. State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire 1821-48. A very ...

METTERNICH KLEMENS VON: (1773-1859) Prince of Metternich. State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire 1821-48. A very fine A.L.S., Metternich,

METTERNICH KLEMENS VON: (1773-1859) Prince of Metternich. State Chancellor of the Austrian Empire 1821-48. A very fine A.L.S., Metternich, nine pages, 4to, Florence, 28^th June 1819, to a Baron, in French. Metternich, in a letter marked Confidential, discusses at length Ioannis Kapodistrias as well the political climate in Germany and Europe, in part, ‘By the two letters that I am sending you herewith (no longer present) you will see the request I have made to meet M. de Capodistrias. I was sure in writing to him that he would shun an interview and the matter is quite simple. I know this Minister thoroughly; I know his character and his principles. As to character he is frank and fundamentally loyal. If he is fond of petty intrigue, this fact is directly linked with Greek habits. He is a Corfiot, and he does not have enough backbone to have been able to overcome a tendency common to all his compatriots. His principles are those of the fullest democracy. He lives only in his principles and for carrying them into effect. A great propensity to false philosophy; confusion in ideas as the necessary result of his favourite studies, form the most pronounced nuance of his democracy. He is at the same time, good natured as he is, a great ideologist, a protector of democracy, a philanthropist, Minister of an Autocracy, Poland’s Reformer, protector of the liberation of the Greeks and of the civilisation of Bessarabia. Not that much is needed to be exposed to a great derangement of the mind and especially to an endless war of ideas. I admit, less would drive me crazy. The present situation in Europe does not convince M. de C……he desires the emancipation of the peoples through gentleness and wisdom. He must criticise excessive disturbances for him to behave as a gentle and wise reformer. He wants, in short, the impossible. As a good servant of his Prince, he would never permit himself to go counter to the line of conduct which His Highness has laid down for his Minister…..But for this to be the case, he must find himself placed amidst of things; now, M. de C. is far from Saint Petersburg; he has hardly followed the events and developments these last six months; he must fear, therefore, that he does not find himself placed vis-à-vis myself on an equal footing. Besides, he hates Austria as an immense obstacle to the triumph of democracy in Europe; only England he hates more than Austria…..You can be sure that today he must find himself in opposition to all the views and ideas of M. de Pozzo. He finds no explanation for the situation in Paris, because his heart would carry him to Benjamin Constant and his feeling of duty keeps him on the line which His Highness sets for his Envoy to Paris…..Your Excellency is informed by my official communications about my travel plans. I am going to Carlsbad…..to meet some German businessmen with the intention of discussing with them means for saving this interesting part of Europe from a violent crisis. The evil is today more active in Germany than in France and you would not be surprised about it, if you admit that each German state – and there are 21 small and big ones – commits in turn the same mistakes and worse ones yet than the French government. I still hope that my stay in Carlsbad will be crowned with success; if that should not be the case, I do not see what can save Germany from a total upheaval. To facilitate things for the disturbers, the King of Wurttemburg has just convened his States for mid-July. I will try again for a pact, despite our most energetic remonstrances and the calculations which he is in a position to make with mathematical certainty that in his new assembly he can count on only a 12^th of the votes. The world is crazy, my dear Baron, and the fate of the small number of individuals who are not to be envied. To put an end to sanity, a political imbroglio among the big power is all it takes. It would even suffice to lead to the explosion of simple appearances of a misunderstanding. So you see how reserved my route is; not that I do not feel the presence and the reality of the evils, but because I am convinced that with a single imprudence I would perhaps be the author of the greatest disasters. Do not believe, however, that I have the equally strong conviction that with all the wisdom in the conduct of Austria we will manage to prevent them; but since I find myself placed between two untoward alternatives, I consider it my duty to choose among them the one which offers me the least chance of misfortune and which permits reason to carry out on its part what can be subjected to its influence’. In concluding Metternich provides his correspondent with a last piece of advice on their meeting with Kapodistrias, ‘Tell him that you are informed by me directly about all the regrets I experienced in not having met him. Speak to him frankly the language of union and of the confidence between the two Courts, and conduct yourself toward him as if he were called to contribute immensely to the common good’. A letter of exceptional content vividly illustrating the main rivalry in European diplomacy following the Congress of Vienna. VG

 

Ioannis Kapodistrias (1776-1831) Greek statesman who served as Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire 1816-22. Considered the founder of the modern Greek state, Kapodistrias was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece in 1827.

 

During his tenure as Foreign Minister of Russia, Kapodistrias’s ideas came to represent a progressive alternative to Metternich’s aims of Austrian domination of European affairs. Metternich felt so threatened by Kapodistrias that he sought to undermine his position in the Russian court by rumour and innuendo, of which the present letter is a fine example.