Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/120

 112 ARCHDUKE FERDINAND MAXIMILIAN January Eastern question. He thinks too that Austria has troubles enough nearer home, and that it might be wiser to avoid creating new ones at a distance. Up to this point the diplomatic correspondence relating to the project leaves us in almost complete ignorance as to the personal feelings of Maximilian himself in the matter. Their nature, however, forms the subject of Lord Bloomfield's dispatch l no. 97 of 21 February. This reads : I have the honour to inform your Lordship that Count Eechberg, in request- ing me to convey to Her Majesty's Government the thanks of the Arch- duke Ferdinand Maximilian for their proof of confidence in desiring that he might be called to the Greek throne, and the expression of his deep regret to be unable to meet the wishes of Her Majesty's Government, added that His Imperial Highness adopts all the reasons which induced the Emperor to decline the proposal, and had even commented on them more strongly than the Emperor had done. His Excellency said that I could judge of the Archduke's personal feelings on the subject from the observations he had made, that to any one unacquainted with Greece the throne of the Hellenic Kingdom might have many charms, but he had visited the country and studied it, and that not only was his knowledge of it sufficient to deter him from connecting himself with it officially, but that he was astonished King Otho could entertain the thought of returning to Athens, and that His Majesty was not thankful to have left the country for ever. In 1863, then, Maximilian refused the British offer of a throne in Greece. In 1864 he accepted the throne in Mexico erected for him by Napoleon III. Now there have been various theories put forward to account for Napoleon's desire to enthrone Maximi- lian in Mexico. There are those who say that the emperor of the French had on foot a grand scheme for ' the regeneration of the Latin race ', and that his aim in Mexico was to erect a barrier against any further advance by the Anglo-Saxons of the north over the remaining portions of the American continent. Emile Ollivier, 2 however, is confident that Napoleon's impelling motive was his theory of nationalities ; in short, that the emperor of the French was planning to add Venetia to the new Italian kingdom. This was to be brought about by the coronation of Maximilian in Mexico, for then Francis Joseph, in gratitude for the honour done his brother, would in return consent to the cession of Venice to Italy. In view of Ollivier 's theory Russell's comment on Maximilian's refusal to accept the Greek throne is of some interest. He wrote to Lord Bloomfield : 3 I am very sorry Maximilian does not accept. The Greeks would have taken him from France and England, altho' unwillingly, and there would have 1 Foreign Office Lost, 7: 651. 3 Foreign Office List, 356 : 32, 18 February 1863.
 * Ollivier, Uempire liberal, v. 259.