People

The time indeed camewhen Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:33:12 +0000
An offensive alliance between France andRussia was within view when the Bourbon monarchy fell; the first years ofLouis Philippe all but saw the revolutionary party plunge France into warfor Belgium and for Italy; ten years later the dismissal of a Ministryalone prevented the outbreak of hostilities on the distant affairs ofSyria. Had Alsace and Lorraine at this time been in the hands of disunitedGermany, it is hard to believe that the Bourbon dynasty would not haveaverted, or sought to avert, its fall by a popular war, or that the victoryof Louis Philippe over the war-party, difficult even when there was noFrench soil to reconquer, would have been possible. The time indeed camewhen a new Bonaparte turned to enterprises of aggression the resourceswhich Europe had left unimpaired to his country; but to assume that thecessions proposed in 1815 would have made France unable to move, with orwithout allies, half a century afterwards, is to make a confident guess ina doubtful matter; and, with Germany in the condition in which it remainedafter 1815, it is at least as likely that the annexation of Alsace andLorraine would have led to the early reconquest of the Rhenish provinces byFrance, or to a war between Austria and Prussia, as that it would haveprolonged the period of European peace beyond that distant limit which itactually reached.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Since the triumph of Wiberforce's cause Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:51:16 +0000
Among the subjects which were pressed upon the Congress of Vienna there wasone in which the pursuit of national interests and calculations of policybore no part, the abolition of the African slave-trade. The British people,who, after twenty years of combat in the cause of Europe, had earned sogood a right to ask something of their allies, probably attached a deeperimportance to this question than to any in the whole range of Europeanaffairs, with the single exception of the personal overthrow of Napoleon.Since the triumph of Wiberforce's cause in the Parliament of 1807, and theextinction of English slave-traffic, the anger with which the nation viewedthis detestable cruelty, too long tolerated by itself, had become more andmore vehement and widespread.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Talleyrand, with far different insight, but Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:02:02 +0000
By the year 1814 the utterances of publicopinion were so loud and urgent that the Government, though free fromenthusiasm itself, was forced to place the international prohibition of theslave-trade in the front rank of its demands. There were politicians on theContinent credulous enough to believe that this outcry of the heart and theconscience of the nation was but a piece of commercial hypocrisy.Talleyrand, with far different insight, but not with more sympathy, spokeof the state of the English people as one of frenzy.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Portugal had beenrestrained by treaty Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:21:24 +0000
[249] Something hadalready been effected at foreign courts. Sweden had been led to prohibitslave-traffic in 1813, Holland in the following year. Portugal had beenrestrained by treaty from trading north of the line.

Autor of the post: Undefined

It might be true Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:40:46 +0000
France had pledgeditself in the first Treaty of Paris to abolish the commerce within fiveyears. Spain alone remained unfettered, and it was indeed intolerable thatthe English slavers should have been forced to abandon their execrablegains only that they should fall into the hands of the subjects of KingFerdinand. It might be true that the Spanish colonies required a largersupply of slaves than they possessed; but Spain had at any rate not theexcuse that it was asked to surrender an old and profitable branch ofcommerce.

Autor of the post: Undefined

[250] As for the French Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:00:09 +0000
It was solely through the abolition of the English slave-tradethat Spain possessed any slave-trade whatever. Before the year 1807 noSpanish ship had been seen on the coast of Africa for a century, except onein 1798 fitted out by Godoy. [250] As for the French trade, that had beenextinguished by the capture of Senegal and Goree; and along the twothousand miles of coast from Cape Blanco to Cape Formosa a legitimatecommerce with the natives was gradually springing up in place of thedesolating traffic in flesh and blood.

Autor of the post: Undefined

France, while claiming a short Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:14:11 +0000
It was hoped by the English peoplethat Castlereagh would succeed in obtaining a universal and immediateprohibition of the slave-trade by all the Powers assembled at Vienna. TheMinister was not wanting in perseverance, but he failed to achieve thisresult. France, while claiming a short delay elsewhere, professed itselfwilling, like Portugal, to abolish at once the traffic north of the line;but the Government on which England had perhaps the greatest claim, that ofSpain, absolutely refused to accept this restriction, or to bind itself toa final prohibition before the end of eight years.

Autor of the post: Undefined

The project dropped Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:30:17 +0000
Castlereagh thenproposed that a Council of Ambassadors at London and Paris should becharged with the international duty of expediting the close of theslave-trade; the measure which he had in view being the punishment ofslave-dealing States by a general exclusion of their exports. Against thisSpain and Portugal made a formal protest, treating the threat as almostequivalent to one of war. The project dropped, and the Minister of Englandhad to content himself with obtaining from the Congress a solemncondemnation of the slave-trade, as contrary to the principles ofcivilisation and human right (Feb, 1815).

Autor of the post: Undefined

This was accomplished Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:41:09 +0000
The work was carried a step further by Napoleon's return from Elba.Napoleon understood the impatience of the English people, and believed thathe could make no higher bid for its friendship than by abandoning thereserves made by Talleyrand at the Congress, and abolishing the Frenchslave-trade at once and for all. This was accomplished; and the Bourbonally of England, on his second restoration could not undo what had beendone by the usurper.

Autor of the post: Undefined

This wastrue, but it was Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 18:54:34 +0000
Spain and Portugal alone continued to pursue-theformer country without restriction, the latter on the south of the line-acommerce branded by the united voice of Europe as infamous. The Governmentsof these countries alleged in their justification that Great Britain itselfhad resisted the passing of the prohibitory law until its colonies were farbetter supplied with slaves than those of its rivals now were. This wastrue, but it was not the whole truth.

Autor of the post: Undefined

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