Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/75

 draw attention to the vicissitudes of the foreign policy of Russia. Forgetting, perhaps, that autocracy was at times far from prevailing there, he may be tempted from one case to deduce and learn all, since in 1762, within seven months—months most momentous to Prussia—the policy of Russia, or policy from Russia, toward Frederick was at first strongly hostile, under Elizabeth, then cordially and melodramatically favourable under Peter III, and finally, on his deposition, discreetly neutral and watchful under Catherine II. Well may one point to the warnings of the French Government to its representatives at Petersburg,a few years later, to watch over the 'convulsive movements' and warring counsels at the Russian court; and a few years later still we have the vivid