With regard to Sweden I cannot say much. The French influence is
struggling with her independence; and they who consider the manner in
which the ambassador of that power was treated not long since at Paris,
and the manner in which the father of the present King of Sweden
(himself the victim of regicide principles and passions) would have
looked on the present assassins of France, will not be very prompt to
believe that the young King of Sweden has made this kind of requisition
to the King of Great Britain, and has given this kind of auspice of his
new government.
I speak last of the most important of all. It certainly was not the late
Empress of Russia at whose instance we have given this pledge. It is not
the new Emperor, the inheritor of so much glory, and placed in a
situation of so much delicacy and difficulty for the preservation of
that inheritance, who calls on England, the natural ally of his
dominions, to deprive herself of her power of action, and to bind
herself to France. France at no time, and in none of its fashions, least
of all in its last, has been ever looked upon as the friend either of
Russia or of Great Britain. Everything good, I trust, is to be expected
from this prince,--whatever may be without authority given out of an
influence over his mind possessed by that only potentate from whom he
has anything to apprehend or with whom he has much even to discuss.
This sovereign knows, I have no doubt, and feels, on what sort of bottom
is to be laid the foundation of a Russian throne.
Pages:
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448