Europe -- Politics and government -- 1815-1848; France -- Foreign relations -- Great Britain
French sympathy for the Poles was so keen that, in July, Talleyrand
was again instructed to invite the English government to join with
France in proposing "a mediation in the bloody struggle raging in
Poland." Palmerston, in reply, appears to have suggested that the
French government should set forth its views upon the matter in
writing. Talleyrand, accordingly, transmitted this request and,
at the same time, begged Sébastiani to remember, when framing his
proposals, that "he was dealing with cold-blooded people and that
it would be well therefore to avoid the use of emotional language."
But, on July 22, Palmerston informed him that the Cabinet could not
entertain the suggestion of addressing to Russia any demand for a
cessation of hostilities, nor was he able to report better success
when, in September, whilst the Belgian difficulty was at its height,
he was once more directed to approach the British government upon the
subject of Poland. "No party in the Parliament," he wrote, "was in
favour of intervention, and the newspapers merely spoke of the Poles
in sympathetic language."[166] Heytesbury, who at St. Petersburg was
in a position to judge correctly of the national resentment which
any attempt at foreign interference in Polish affairs would create,
strove to convince his government of the unwisdom of impairing the
good relations of Russia and England by raising a question in which
no British interests were involved. Remonstrances, he was prepared to
admit, might effect an improvement in the condition of the people of
the Kingdom of Poland. But, even under these circumstances, the sum of
human misery, which the rebellion must entail, would not be lessened,
inasmuch as the revolted Russo-Polish provinces, not included in the
Kingdom, would be treated with increased severity.[167]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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