IX THE WAK AGAINST RUSSIA. 85
- belligerent Powers.' Finally, the Protocol stip- chap,
ulated that none of the ' four Powers should L ' enter into any definitive arrangement with the ' Imperial Court of Russia which should be at ' variance with the principles declared by the
- Protocol without first deliberating thereon in
- common.'*
On the 20th of April Austria and Prussia con- tracted with each other an offensive and defensive alliance, by which they guaranteed to each other all their respective possessions, so that an attack upon the territory of one should be regarded by the other as an act of hostility against his own territory, and engaged to hold a part of their forces in perfect readiness for war. By the Second Article they declared that they stood ' engaged ' to defend the rights and interests of Germany ' against all and every injury, and to consider
- themselves bound accordingly for the mutual
' repulse of every attack on any part whatso- ' ever of their territories ; likewise, also, in the
- case where one of the two may find himself,
' in understanding with the others, obliged to ' advance actively for the defence of German ' interests.' f By the Additional Article they declared 'that ' the indefinite continuance of the occupation ' of the territories on the Lower Danube, under ' the sovereignty of the Ottoman Porte, by ' imperial Russian troops, M'ould endanger the ' political, moral, and material interests of the • ' Eastern Papers,' part viii. p. 2. f Ibid, part ix. p. 3.
