Vienna, May 12, 1863.
My Dearest Mother:
Since Easter brought an end to the Lenten entertainments which succeeded the
carnival, there has been absolutely nothing going on in the social world.
To-morrow there is a ceremony at the chapel of the imperial palace, the presentation
of the cardinal's hat by the emperor to our colleague here, the internuncio,
who has just been cardinalized by the Pope. I wish it had taken place
yesterday, for then I might have a topic for my letter, besides having got
through the bore of witnessing it.
There is much talk about war in Europe, but I can hardly
believe it will come to blows. I don't exactly see how France or England is to
get any benefit from the war. The Crimean War was different. Without it, it is
probable that Russia would have got Constantinople, which England, of course,
can never stand. France would like to fight Prussia and get the Rhine
provinces, but England couldn't stand that, nor Austria either, much as she
hates Prussia. So it would seem difficult to get up a war. As for Austria's
going into such a shindy, the idea is ridiculous. To go to war to gain a
province is conceivable; to do so expressly to lose one is not the
disinterested fashion of European potentates. As for the Poles, nothing will
satisfy them but complete independence, and in this object I don't believe that
France or England means to aid them. So there will be guerrilla fighting all
summer. Blood will flow in Poland, and ink in all the European cabinets very
profusely, and the result will be that Russia will end by reducing the Poles to
submission. At least this is the way things look now; but “on the other hand,”
as Editor Clapp used to say, there is such a thing as drift, and kings and
politicians don't govern the world, but move with the current, so that the war
may really come before the summer is over, for the political question (to use
the diplomatic jargon) is quite insoluble, as the diplomatic correspondence has
already proved. There, I have given you politics enough for this little letter,
and now I have only to say how much love we all send to you and the governor. I
hope this summer will bring warmth and comfort and health to you. Give my love
to my little Mary. Our news from America is to April 29, and things look bright
on the Mississippi. I hope to hear good accounts from Hooker, but Virginia
seems a fatal place for us.
Good-by, my dearest mother.
Ever your
affectionate son,
J. L. M.
SOURCE: George William Curtis, editor, The
Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley in Two Volumes, Library Edition,
Volume 2, p. 330-2
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