Count Andrassy, the Hungarian statesman, endeavoured to convince the Roumanian Government that its chief source of danger lay in Russia and that the interests of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy were centred in a strong Roumania, which would be able to oppose a barrier to the Panslavonic element. After offering his services in the way of smoothing over the difficulties which had arisen between the two States, Count Andrassy expressed the opinion that the best solution of the Eastern Question would be a Confederation of the Eastern nations and the creation of various independent States, "to make the West understand that the question could be solved without the influence and beyond the aspirations of Russia." In reply to a letter of Prince Charles regarding the _entente cordiale_ with Hungary, Prince Bismarck wrote on February 2, 1869, as follows: "I consider it a very fortunate and cleverly managed turn of events that your Highness's relations to the Porte should have improved. I am convinced that if the Porte believes that it has nothing to fear for its possessions from the Roumanian Government, it will be a more useful and perhaps a more sincere friend to your Highness than the majority of the European Powers, who can hardly interfere with your Highness so long as you are on good terms with the Porte. Turkey has much less to fear from a strong government in Roumania which maintains peace and quiet--than from a weak and revolutionary state of affairs in the Principalities. I therefore consider, if your Highness will graciously permit me to give expression to my long and active political experience, that the first requirement of your Highness's policy is the establishment of your authority in the interior, and the maintenance of confidential relations with the Porte. The means by which such relations can be promoted by personal intercourse with influential men in Constantinople will doubtless be known to your Highness's agents there. The maintenance of your Highness's authority at home rests principally upon the maintenance of an absolutely reliable force of a couple of thousand men able to enforce obedience wherever they are assembled. The result of such obedience will then render possible a regular administration and a certain execution of the law. If your Highness achieves this result, the glory and practical success of your Government will be greater and more lasting than any extension of the Roumanian rule in the East could make it. The ideal for Roumania appears to me to be the title _de la Belgique des bouches du Danube_, and for your Highness the glory and the gratitude of Europe such as King Leopold left behind him. The Roumanians, as we judge them from this distance, are neither essentially warlike nor ambitious to rule other nations....