[p. 564]
|564| France, when it was taken seriously, was soon determined otherwise; Bonaparte, on the other hand, made the republic of San Marino a present of a couple of cannon, because there was there no relation of which anything serious was to be made, other than an occasion to fill the mouth with the name of a respect for republics.
The republic of Geneva has vanished; the Batavian, Helvetic, Cisalpine and Ligurian republics, on the other hand, have their independence and tranquillity and, if one likes, neutrality guaranteed by a strong garrison.
Such are the relations which more powerful states form with weaker states according to the true difference of their strength.
The relations of Austria with Germany date from ancient times, and they would have to turn out quite differently if Austria laid aside the imperial crown and then, now entirely as a great sovereign power, entered into treaties of protection and guarantee with its neighbours, especially if it [let] it come to the test in times of need; in this advantage Austria stands far behind, in that Austria’s relations are old [ones], whereas Brandenburg in peace need enter into no determinate relations, but in time of war can make conditions for those who are in need and weak and turn to it. Since nowadays everything is to be calculated, the conditions can be made 10 per cent less than those one fears from the enemy, or, because the enemy in general is something so indeterminate and one fears everything from him, every determinate condition seems less than the indeterminate one to be feared. One knows there, after all, the extent of one’s loss, and this is already a great reassurance.
Formerly it was the popular opinion in the regions of the Rhine that, since of one state a part within the line of demarcation, the other outside it, stood under public and private contributions of the French, [when] the estates of the realm of both parts were now to come together for common settlement
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