noting that this habit prevented Romania from joining the ranks of "constitutional states". He preserved his oppositionist stance following the creation in early 1862 of a unified cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister of Romania. In December 1862, he joined Panu, Barbu Bellu and 29 other deputies in signing a letter of protest against Prime Minister Nicolae Crețulescu, which actually criticized the Domnitor. Sturdza was persuaded that Cuza was turning to dictatorial means such as changing governments "with each season" and asking civilians to carry out illegal orders.In February 1863, he asked for Negri, who was Cuza's diplomatic agent and Sturdza's former rival in the princely election, to be prosecuted on such grounds. Also then, he made a point of reminding to the Assembly that the Ad hoc Divans had pressed for union under a foreign-born prince as "the wish of an entire nation." This stance was rejected by deputy Nicolae Rucăreanu, who claimed that "if the nation has voted for a foreign prince, it was because this option was imposed on it by the intelligentsia, and not by its own senses." Sturdza's attack on Cuza was also regarded as tactless by the ultra-liberal "Reds". Their doyen Ion Brătianu suggested that, under the circumstances, Romania could only find herself ruled by "some Moskal or Austrian prince, or by some Turkish pasha". As argued by the anti-boyar journalist Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Sturdza was behaving insincerely, since he was viewing himself as a likely replacement for Cuza. In April 1863, this was also noted by Kogălniceanu, who was at the time serving as head of the national cabinet. He spoke about Sturdza as a man of genius, and implied that for this very reason his attempt to gain the throne needed to be resisted—the implication was that the Beizadea was exceptionally equipped for subverting the Principalities' new liberal order. Late that same month, Petre Mavrogheni began campaigning for a Sturdza cabinet to replace Kogălniceanu's, but the project was fully abandoned in June. The Beizadea expected to be backed by the French Empire, but found himself isolated. France's Foreign Minister, Édouard Drouyn de Lhuys, passed it on to Cuza that he "knew nothing about prince G. Sturdza's political value". These events unfolded in the context of a Polish–Russian civil war, which also rekindled Polish activities in Wallachia and Moldavia. In July 1863, the Bessarabian town of Coștangalia witnessed a skirmish between 400 Polish