Unification of Germany and Italy 585 feeling or desire for revenge ; we ought rather to reserve the possibility of becoming friends again with our adversary of the moment, and in any case to regard the Austrian state as a piece on the European chessboard and the renewal of friendly relations as a move open to us. If Austria were severely injured, she would become the ally of France and of every other opponent of ours ; she would even sacrifice her anti-Russian interests for the sake of revenge on Prussia. On the other hand, I could not see any guarantee for us in the future of the countries constituting the Austrian mon- archy, in case the latter were split up by risings of the Hun- garians and Slavs or made permanently dependent on those peoples. What would be substituted for that portion of Europe which the Austrian state had hitherto occupied from Tyrol to Bukowina ? Fresh formations on this surface could only be of a permanently revolutionary nature. Ger- man Austria we could neither wholly nor partly make use of. The acquisition of provinces like Austrian Silesia and por- tions of Bohemia could not strengthen the Prussian state ; it would not lead to an amalgamation of German Austria with Prussia, and Vienna could not be governed from Berlin as a mere dependency. . . . To all this the king raised no objection, but declared the actual terms as inadequate, without however definitely formulating his own demands. Only so much was clear, that his claims had grown considerably since July 4. He said that the chief culprit could not be allowed to escape unpunished, and that, justice once satisfied, we could let the misled backsliders off more easily; and he insisted on the cessions of territory from Austria which I have already mentioned. I replied that we were not there to sit in judgment, but to pursue the German policy. Austria's conflict and rivalry with us was no more culpable than ours with her ; our task was the establishment or foundation of German national unity under the leadership of the king of Prussia. Passing on to the German states, the king spoke of vari- ous acquisitions by cutting down the territories of all our Bismarck's reasons for treating Austria leniently Prussia has nothing to gain from destroying the Austrian power.
