90 CAUSES INVOLVING FRANCE AND ENGLAND dUA?. VIII. From first to last Austria and Prussia never swerv- ed from their resolve to secure the Czar's relinquish- ment of the Principali- ties. that their interests were parting them from the great maritime States of the West ; for in one and the same week they were relieved from the griev- ance which was their motive for action, and de- prived of all hope of support from the Western Powers ; but it is certain that from the moment when the Czar first seized the Principalities to that in which he recrossed the I*ruth, the deter- mination of Austria to put an end to the intru- sion was never languid, and was always increas- ing in force. It is certain, also, that up to the time when the relinquishment of the Principali- ties began, there was no defection on the part of Prussia ; * and that the minor States of Germany, fully alive to the importance of a struggle which promised to free the great outlet of the Danube from Pussian dominion, were resolved to support Austria and Prussia with the troops of the Con- federation.f
- Prussia began to liang back, it seems, on about the 2l8t
of July ('Eastern Papers,' part xi. p. 1) ; and this was ex- actly the time when her interests counselled her to do so ; for by that day she knew that the deliverance of the Principali- ties was secured and iu process of execution, and had also, no doubt, learned of the deterniination of the Western Powers to move their forces to the Crimea, thereby uncovering Germany. -Austria, with similar motives for separation, was less inclined to part from the Western Powers. See her Note of the 8th August ISiii, and the various diplomatic transactions in which she took part down to the close of the war. + 20th July 1854. The relinquishnuMit of the Principalities virtually began on the 2Gth of June — the day when the siege of Silistria was raised — and before the end of July the Russian forces had quitted the capital of "Wallaohia. On the 2d of August they repassed the Pruth.
