Chapter 817: Compromise Between Britain and France
London, Whitehall.
The continuous tapping sound on the table made people feel upset, which well reflected John Russell's state of mind at this time. He didn't know what the British intelligence department was doing.
Vienna's fast communication network has not been built for so many years, but the news from Paris can be sent to London within one day.
You should know that with the density of railways in Austria and the German Confederation at that time, it would take less than five days to take a train from Vienna to Rotterdam and then a boat to London.
But the intelligence agency of the British Empire took a full five days, which made John Russell have to start doubting its professionalism.
However, this is the unprofessionalism of the new prime minister. The two reviews alone take two days before the intelligence transmission, plus the change of cars and waiting for the boat on the road, three days is already very fast.
However, this also reflects from the side that Britain still does not pay enough attention to Austria, its opponent, and it cares much more about its old opponent.
Just like the way intelligence is transmitted, the intelligence from Vienna to London must be reviewed layer by layer, and even important intelligence such as Austria's sending troops to Switzerland must be confirmed according to the process first.
But the news from Paris can go through the wartime mechanism, only make preliminary confirmation and bypass those complicated review and confirmation processes, and send the intelligence to the Prime Minister's office first.
There is another thing that makes John Russell very depressed, that is, it was obviously a stalemate two weeks ago, how come the war is over suddenly and everyone starts to divide the spoils?
What the hell is the German Confederation? Shouldn't this be a problem between Austria and France? How come Austria, the German Confederation, and Sardinia suddenly joined forces to fight against France?
Palmerston was very annoyed that his script was tampered with, but no matter what, the feud between France and Austria was settled.
John Russell was very dissatisfied, but France was obviously weaker than the Tripartite Alliance at this time, and Louis Philippe was not a very decisive person. Did Britain have to be a pawn for the French?
That was of course impossible. Palmerston's suggestion at this time was:
"We should send people to Vienna to thank the countries for their efforts for European peace. This will reduce the resistance to our diplomacy in the future."
John Russell rolled his eyes at his foreign minister. It was hard for him to imagine that there was such a shameless person in the world, and this person was sitting next to him.
But this is indeed in line with Britain's diplomatic strategy at this time. After all, Russia is Britain's biggest enemy, followed by France. As for Austria, which soaks in the Adriatic Sea all day, it is not yet in the eyes of the British.
When it comes to the so-called German Confederation, he wants to laugh. It would be strange if such an alliance of dozens of countries really has combat effectiveness.
As for Switzerland's allies? Sorry, my British Empire only makes friends with the victors.
In contrast, Louis Philippe made a great determination to agree to the Vienna Agreement. In fact, France is not short of brave warriors and war advocates.
The Napoleonists are firm war advocates. They are eager to regain power, and the best way is war.
But at this time, France's finances are on the verge of bankruptcy, and the continuous consumption of domestic and foreign wars has made the military force stretched to the limit.
Moreover, the Orleans faction led by Louis Philippe did not want to see the military take power, let alone the return of the Napoleon family.
The Legitimists were in great chaos. Some wanted to instigate Louis Philippe to go to war, and then take the opportunity to push the Count of Chambord to power.
Some wanted to avoid war, because going to war at this time was not good for France. The war might not only fail to help the Count of Chambord to power, but also repeat the mistakes of the French Revolution.
Some people wanted to go to war because they could not sell the goods they had hoarded, and some people did not want to go to war because they still had a lot of business abroad.
In the end, Louis Philippe chose peace because the enemy was too powerful and the domestic rebels were too arrogant.
The workers formed secret societies, and pamphlets of various social thoughts were everywhere, which even attracted two great men to watch. However, the speaker was not a black man, but a group of famous sociologists in history.
The Legitimists, the Church, and Pius IX were linked together, which was disgusting for Louis Philippe. It was disgusting.
Louis Philippe personally appointed 77 bishops in the hope of diluting the influence of the church, but this force could not eliminate the influence that the church had established for thousands of years at one time.
Instead, the church and the orthodox came together firmly, and Pius IX took the opportunity to collect debts and demanded that France pay the tithes owed for many years.
The Orleans faction was also unstable internally. For example, the Barrot faction hoped that Louis Philippe would be in a situation where he could rule but not govern.
In addition to those who publicly expressed their hope that the king would hand over power, there were also a lot of small factions with their own thoughts. Louis Philippe had changed 17 cabinets in his 18 years in office, and the degree of turmoil was evident.
The "Democrats" and Republicans also stepped onto the historical stage at this time. There were also many factions in the army. Personal factions were more common than political factions.
For example, the fence-sitters headed by Prime Minister Soult did not want to offend anyone, but at the same time they firmly defended their own interests.
Domestic workers' strikes and peasant uprisings also occurred from time to time, and the chaos in the colonies was even more terrible.
However, Louis Philippe felt that the situation could still be barely controlled at this moment, but if war broke out again, it would be hard to say what would happen. He did not want to take any risks, not even once.
The two states had a lot of land, which was better than the one in Belgium, at least he didn't lose any troops. Moreover, Louis Philippe felt that he had discovered a talent, Charles Duchat, a grassroots general.
The former felt that he could use the latter to divide and disintegrate the Bonapartist faction, and the latter also felt that the former would be his biggest stepping stone.
As a result, the Vienna Conference in 1847 was successfully held and achieved gratifying results, making a huge contribution to the peace in Europe.
The five major powers all sent people to participate. Except for Britain and France, the heads of state of various countries gathered together, which was the first grand occasion after the Vienna Conference in 1815.
From then on, Switzerland disappeared from the map, and most of the participating countries obtained new territories. Even if they did not obtain land, they had money as a consolation prize.
Franz sat in the Eagle Castle in a daze. Historically, Austria had tried to regain its ancestral land three times, but all ended in failure.
In the end, in order to prevent the Dragon's Rise from being turned into a public toilet by the Swiss, the Habsburg family had to pay Switzerland for repair funds every year to protect this long-standing building.
Franz had been to the Eagle Castle in later generations. It was an inconspicuous small castle built in the mountains. However, it had become a ruin at this time. Frei Holose's last order was to burn down the Eagle Castle.
If Franz had not wanted to take it back, this small castle would have been preserved as a monument until the 21st century.
But the reality is that his enemies are so shameless that they either attack their own people or take out their anger on a building that will not move.
So when Franz learned that Frei Holose did not die by self-immolation, but chose to escape midway, Franz had some special ideas.