People

Whetherthe Federation would in any Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 13:55:54 +0000
The Act of Federation,[245] which was signed on the 8th of June, created a Federal Diet, forbadethe members of the League to enter into alliances against the commoninterest, and declared that in each State, Constitutions should beestablished. But it left the various Sovereigns virtually independent ofthe League; it gave the nomination of members of the Diet to theGovernments absolutely, without a vestige of popular election; and itcontained no provision for enforcing in any individual State, whose rulermight choose to disregard it, the principle of constitutional rule. Whetherthe Federation would in any degree have protected Germany in case of attackby France or Russia is matter for conjecture, since a long period of peacefollowed the year 1815; but so far was it from securing liberty to theMinor States, that in the hands of Metternich the Diet, impotent for everyother purpose, became an instrument for the persecution of liberal opinionand for the suppression of the freedom of the press.

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Standing on the boundary-linebetween two Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:09:51 +0000
German affairs, as usual, were the last to be settled at the Congress; whenthese were at length disposed of, the Congress embodied the entire mass ofits resolutions in one great Final Act [246] of a hundred and twenty-onearticles, which was signed a few days before the battle of Waterloo wasfought. This Act, together with the second Treaty of Paris, formed thepublic law with which Europe emerged from the warfare of a quarter of acentury, and entered upon a period which proved, even more than it wasexpected to prove, one of long-lasting peace. Standing on the boundary-linebetween two ages, the legislation of Vienna forms a landmark in history.

Autor of the post: Undefined

To inquire whether theCongress accomplished Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:24:29 +0000
The provisions of the Congress have sometimes been criticised as if thatbody had been an assemblage of philosophers, bent only on advancing thecourse of human progress, and endowed with the power of subduing theselfish impulses of every Government in Europe. As a matter of fact theCongress was an arena where national and dynastic interests struggled forsatisfaction by every means short of actual war. To inquire whether theCongress accomplished all that it was possible to accomplish for Europe isto inquire whether Governments at that moment forgot all their ownambitions and opportunities, and thought only of the welfare of mankind.

Autor of the post: Undefined

The union of Holland Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 14:43:25 +0000
Russia would not have given up Poland without war; Austria would not havegiven up Lombardy and Venice without war. The only measures of 1814-15 inwhich the common interest was really the dominant motive were those adoptedeither with the view of strengthening the States immediately exposed toattack by France, or in the hope of sparing France itself the occasion fornew conflicts. The union of Holland and Belgium, and the annexation of theGenoese Republic to Sardinia, were the means adopted for the former end;for the latter, the relinquishment of all claims to Alsace and Lorraine.

Autor of the post: Undefined

The tranquillity of WesternEurope was Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:03:04 +0000
These were the measures in which the statesmen of 1814-15 acted with theirhands free, and by these their foresight may fairly be judged. Of the unionof Belgium to Holland it is not too much to say that, although planned byPitt, and treasured by every succeeding Ministry as one of his wisestschemes, it was wholly useless and inexpedient. The tranquillity of WesternEurope was preserved during fifteen years, not by yoking togetherdiscordant nationalities, but by the general desire to avoid war; and assoon as France seriously demanded the liberation of Belgium from Holland,it had to be granted.

Autor of the post: Undefined

It was intended tostrengthen Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:21:46 +0000
Nor can it be believed that the addition of thehostile and discontented population of Genoa to the kingdom of Piedmontwould have saved that monarchy from invasion if war had again arisen. Theannexation of Genoa was indeed fruitful of results, but not of resultswhich Pitt and his successors had anticipated. It was intended tostrengthen the House of Savoy for the purpose of resistance to France:[247] it did strengthen the House of Savoy, but as the champion of Italyagainst Austria.

Autor of the post: Undefined

But if the policy of 1814-15 Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:38:05 +0000
It was intended to withdraw the busy trading city Genoafrom the influences of French democracy: in reality it brought a strongelement of innovation into the Piedmontese State itself, giving, on the onehand, a bolder and more national spirit to its Government, and, on theother hand, elevating to the ideal of a united Italy those who, like theGenoese Mazzini, were now no longer born to be the citizens of a freeRepublic. In sacrificing the ancient liberty of Genoa, the Congress itselfunwittingly began the series of changes which was to refute the famoussaying of Metternich, that Italy was but a geographical expression.But if the policy of 1814-15 in the affairs of Belgium and Piedmont onlyproves how little an average collection of statesmen can see into thefuture, the policy which, in spite of Waterloo, left France in possessionof an undiminished territory, does no discredit to the foresight, as itcertainly does the highest honour to the justice and forbearance ofWellington, whose counsels then turned the scale.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Hardenberg, when hisarguments for annexation Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 15:56:08 +0000
The wisdom of theresolution has indeed been frequently impugned. German statesmen held then,and have held ever since, that the opportunity of disarming France once forall of its weapons of attack was wantonly thrown away. Hardenberg, when hisarguments for annexation of the frontier-fortresses were set aside,predicted that streams of blood would hereafter flow for the conquest ofAlsace and Lorraine, [248] and his prediction has been fulfilled.

Autor of the post: Undefined

It is impossible to deny Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:09:13 +0000
Yet noone perhaps would have been more astonished than Hardenberg himself, couldhe have known that fifty-five years of peace between France and Prussiawould precede the next great struggle. When the same period of peace shallhave followed the acquisition of Metz and Strasburg by Prussia, it will betime to condemn the settlement of 1815 as containing the germ of futurewars; till then, the effects of that settlement in maintaining peace areentitled to recognition. It is impossible to deny that the Allies, inleaving to France the whole of its territory in 1815, avoided inflictingthe most galling of all tokens of defeat upon a spirited and still mostpowerful nation.

Autor of the post: Undefined

Thrice at least in the next Post Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 16:19:45 +0000
The loss of Belgium and the frontier of the Rhine waskeenly enough felt for thirty years to come, and made no insignificant partof the French people ready at any moment to rush into war; how much greaterthe power of the war-cry, how hopeless the task of restraint, if to theother motives for war there had been added the liberation of two of themost valued provinces of France. Without this the danger was great enough.Thrice at least in the next thirty years the balance seemed to be turningagainst the continuance of peace.

Autor of the post: Undefined

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