But, except in the case of the Italian people and the South German princes, he rarely, if ever, bestowed boons proportionate to the services rendered.

It is very questionable whether he felt more warmly for Irish nationalists than for Copts and Druses.[120] Except in regard to his Italian kindred, none of the nationalist aspirations that were to mould the history of the century touched a responsive chord in his nature.

In this, as in other affairs of state, he held "true policy" to be "nothing else than the calculation of combinations and chances." It was in this spirit that he surveyed the Polish Question.

Arising out of the partitions of that unhappy land by Russia, Austria, and Prussia, it had distracted the repose of Europe scarcely less than the French Revolution; and now the heir to the Revolution, after hewing his way through the weak monarchies of Central Europe, was about to probe this ulcer of Christendom.

As usual, nothing had been done to forestall him.