EXCLUDING PKUSSIA. 317 conditions as there stated must be recast in the chap. xir way they proposed. Accordingly in a Memoran- L_ dum of the 28th of December 1854, communi- cated to Prince Gortchakoff by the Plenipoten- tiaries of Austria, France, and Great Britain, the Allies newly formulated their Four Conditions; but reserved to themselves a power to insist upon any other conditions that might afterwards seem to be required by the general interests of Europe. It must be owned that this peremptory demand on the part of the Allies was exasperating, if not unfair, and the Russian negotiators appealed for guidance to St Petersburg ; but — whether really craving for peace, or for some other reason deter- mined to let the Conference meet — the Czar at once fully acceded to the new formulation re- quired by the Allies, and Prince Gortchakoff announced the decision at a meeting held for the purpose on the 7th of January 1855. Great efforts were made by Russia and the small German States to obtain the admission of Prussia to the now approaching Conferences ; but the Allies would only consent to these prayers upon condition that Prussia should engage to take part in the war if the negotiations for peace should fail. The king would give no such pledge ; and ac- Exclusion cordingly, to the horror and indignation of his from the relatives, and of numbers whose interests were ences." closely bound up with his monarchy, he remained excluded from the Conferences.* His realm
- For the diatribes levelled against him by his friends and
