The Earl of Malmesbury to Queen Victoria

POLICY OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON

15th May 1859.

The Earl of Malmesbury presents his humble duty to the Queen, and has the honour to inform your Majesty that Count de Persigny called on him yesterday. He passed an hour in attempting to prove what it seems he really believes himself—that the Emperor had no plan or even intention to make war in Italy; that His Imperial Majesty was drawn into it step by step by M. de Cavour, who finally menaced to publish his most confidential correspondence, etc.; that his army was totally unprepared, and is now in a very imperfect state, and that he himself was overcome with surprise and fear when he learnt in the middle of last month that the Austrians had 120,000 men on the Ticino. The Emperor, however, now believes that he will easily gain a couple of victories, and that when he has rejeté les Autrichiens dans leur tanière (by which he means their great fortresses), he will return to govern at Paris, and leave a Marshal to carry on the sieges and the war. M. de Persigny's letters of appointment are not yet signed, and must go to Italy to be so. He stated that a week ago he was named Minister of Foreign Affairs, and that Fould, Walewski, and others were to be dismissed, but that two days before the Emperor's departure Madame Walewska and the Empress had on their knees obtained a reprieve, and that M. de Persigny was ordered to come here sans raisonner...

Footnote 36: Who had been re-appointed to London, where Marshal Pélissier, Duc de Malakhoff, had replaced him in 1858. See ante, p. 276. Both Malakhoff and Walewski were out of sympathy with the Emperor's present policy.

Footnote 37: Sir James Hudson, in a letter written at Turin on the 28th of February, and shown to Queen Victoria, described an interview with Cavour, who, in answer to the direct question, "Do you mean to attack Austria?" replied that the Italian question was becoming so complex that it was impossible to say what might happen. Sir J. Hudson added that he had learned confidentially that the understanding on the same subject between Cavour and the Emperor Napoleon was complete, and that it had been expressed thus: "Non seulement nous prendrons la première occasion de faire la guerre à l'Autriche, mais nous chercherons un prétexte."

Footnote 38: Achille Fould, a Jewish banker, was a colleague of Walewski, though not a loyal one, in the French Government.

Footnote 39: Madame Walewska was a Florentine by birth, descended on her mother's side from the princely family of Poniatowski.