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50 RUSSIAN-BULGARIAN RELATIONS [chap. iv.
champion; so that they often were approved of by our
Foreign Office, where he had left a few fervent friends
and some devoted admirers. But one must allow that,
in order to have his support, every cause had to bear
the stamp of very orthodox Slavophilism, i.e. of hostility
to Austria and devotion to Russia.
Very intelligent, as I said before, gifted with a
wonderful memory, and having read and studied much,
Hartwig had two flaws in his reasoning powers which
sometimes obscured his judgment and hampered his
actions. In the first place, he had too much confidence
in the might of his own pen, when writing minutes,
dispatches, etc.; his career had endued him with the
soul of the publicist and brilliant official writer. With
him, an apt syllogism often took the place of the
inexorable logic of facts. Secondly, this man, so near
the zenith of his career, had framed for himself a
political system which was absolutely arbitrary,
ingenuous even : Hartwig firmly believed—and said so
openly—that it was quite possible for Russia to remain
on the best terms with Germany, whilst striving to outdo
Austria in every possible way. In St. Petersburg he
had always endeavoured to be friendly towards the
German Embassy; in his two posts as Minister, he
maintained the best possible relations with his German
colleagues. Officially the Germans did the same, but in
their heart of hearts they did not like him ; they saw in
him a fanatic and a muddler, and suspected him of
duplicity. I have always wondered how a man of
Hartwig’s intellectual worth could fail to see that in
Berlin for years they had thoroughly espoused the
Austrian cause in the East; that they had made it their
own ; that they were driving Austria towards Salonika
whilst they were taking possession more and more of
Constantinople. To come to a friendly agreement with
Austria which should contain nothing disadvantageous
to Germany—that might be contemplated as a merely
opportunist and temporary policy! But to attempt to
cement a true friendship either with Germany to the
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