to follow, in order to guarantee Europe from the dangers by which she may still be menaced; for which purpose the BOOK V. Art I.-The high contracting parties reciprocally promise to maintain, in its force and vigour, the treaty signed this day with his Art. II.-The high contracting parties, having engaged in the war which is just terminated, for the purpose of maintaining inviolable the arrangements settled at Paris last year, for the safety and interest of Europe, have judged it advisable to renew the said engagements by the present act, and to confirm them as mutually obligatory, subject to the modifications contained in the treaty signed this day with the plenipotentiaries of his most Ch istian Majesty, and particularly those by which Napoleon Bonaparte and his family, in pursuance of the treaty of the 11th of April, 1814, have been for ever excluded from supreme power in France, which exclusion the contracting powers bind themselves, by the present act, to maintain in full vigour, and, should it be necessary, with the whole of their forces. And as the same revolutionary principles which upheld the last criminal usurpation, might again, under other forms, convulse France, and thereby endanger the repose of other states; under these circumstances, the high contracting parties, solemnly admitting it to be their duty to redouble their watchfulness for the tranquillity and interests of their people, engage, in case so unfortunate an event should again occur, to concert among themselves, and with his most Christian Majesty, the measures which they may judge necessary to be pursued for the safety of their respective states, and for the general tranquillity of Europe. Art. III. The high contracting parties, in agreeing with his most Christian Majesty that a line of military position in France should be occupied by a corps of the allied troops during a certain number of years, had in view to secure, as far as lay in their power, the effect of the stipulations contained in articles one and two of the present treaty, and uniformly disposed to adopt every salutary measure calculated to secure the tranquillity of Europe, by maintaining the order of things re-established in France, they engage, that in case the said body of troops should be attacked, or menaced with an attack, on the part of France, that the said powers should be again obliged to place them.. selves on a war establishment against that power, in order to maintain either of the said stipulations, or to secure and support the great interest to which they relate, each of the high contracting parties shall furnish, without delay, according to the stipulations of the treaty of Chaumont, and especially in pursance of the seventh and eighth articles of this treaty, its full contingent of sixty thousand men, in addition to the forces left in France, or such part of the said contingent as the exigency of the case may require should be put in motion. Art. IV.-If, unfortunately, the forces stipulated in the preceding article should be found insufficient, the high contracting parties will concert together, without loss of time, as to the additional number of troops to be furnished by each for the support of the common cause; and they engage to employ, in case of need, the whole of their forces, in order to bring the war to a speedy and successful termination, reserving to themselves the right to prescribe, by common consent, such conditions of peace as shall hold out to Europe a sufficient gua rantee against the recurrence of a similar calamity. Art. V.-The high contracting parties having agreed to the dispositions laid down in the preceding articles, for the purpose of secur ing the effect of their engagements during the period of the temporary occupation, declare, moreover, that even after the expiration of this measure, the said engagements shall still remain in full force and vigour, for the purpose of carrying into effect such measures as may be deemed necessary for the maintenance of the stipulations contained in the articles one and two of the present act. Art. VI. To facilitate and to secure the execution of the present treaty, and to consolidate the connections which at the present Art. VII. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged within two months, or sooner, if possible. Done at Paris, the 20th of November, A. D. 1815. 1815 NOTE.-Similar treaties were signed on the same day by the plenipotentiaries of his Majesty, with those of the Emperor of Russia, and the King of Prussia, respectively. BOOK V. CHAP. 1815 CHAPTER X. Retrospect of the Epochs of the Wars of the French Revolution from the Rupture of the Treaty of Amiens to the Conclusion of a General Peace-Remarks on the General Treaty of Vienna-Copy of that Treaty. DURING the eventful interval between the breaking out of that tremendous convulX. sion, the French revolution, in 1789, and the final adjustment of the affairs of Europe, at the congress of Vienna, in 1815, a generation of men, and more than a race of sovereigns, have passed away. The first grand division of this important portion of history is formed by the peace of Amiens, and the epochs of the war up to that period have already passed in rapid review.t The interval of peace was of short duration. Mutual confidence, the main ingredient in all compacts between nations, was wanting; and little more than twelve months passed over between the ratification of the treaty of Amiens and the new war by which it was succeeded. For upwards of two years the contest was carried on between France and Great Britain single-handed; and within that period, the consular government in France, which had been erected upon the ruins of the republic, gave place to the imperial dignity, and Napoleon, under favour of public suffrage, became Emperor of France, to which was soon after added the title of King of Italy. Awakened to a sense of the magnitude of the danger with which French aggrandizement menaced surrounding states, the imperial courts of St. Petersburg and Vienna became parties to a league with England, the avowed object of which was the establishment of an order of things in Europe which might effectually guarantee the security and independence of the different states, and present a solid barrier against future usurpations. This coalition, sharing the fate of those by which it was preceded in the revolutionary wars, was dissolved on the field of Austerlitz, and the peace of Pres burg once more prostrated continental Europe at the feet of the conqueror. In the same year, British prowess annihilated the naval power of France and Spain in the ever-memorable battle of Trafalgar, where Nelson fell in the arms of victory, leaving to his beloved country, as his last legacy, the uncontrolled dominion of the seas. The following year numbered with the dead two of the most distinguished statesmen that ever figured in British history, and left the political arena open to the contentions of those who, during the life of the great leaders, had been satisfied to move in their respective trains. Prussia, with the hopes of retrieving the fallen fortunes of the house of Brandenburg, at the expense of neighbouring states, accepted Hanover from France, and consented to close her ports against Great Britain. But an union dictated by fear, and cemented by cupidity, necessarily proved of short duration, and the discovery that France had offered to the King of England, as the price of peace, the complete restoration of his electoral dominions, induced Frederick William once more to take up arms against his powerful, but treacherous ally. The field of Jena, where the last stake of Prussia was thrown for, witnessed the complete prostration of that kingdom; and the battles of Eylau and Friedland, followed by the treaty Tilsit, produced an imperial union, formed between Napoleon and Alexander on the waters of the Niemen. of The power of the Emperor Napoleon, and the splendour of his reign, had now attained their zenith. Allied by solemn treaties to the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, and Prussia; possessing an extent of dominion in the heart of Europe unknown to his predecessors; and fortified in his power by a confederation of princes *Thirty years is the average duration of human life; within that period a number of human beings equal to the population of the globe enter upon the stage of life, and having played their part, withdraw, by the ordination of their nature, from the scene; and the annexed tablet of the reigning sovereigns of Europe, from 1789 to 1816, will sufficiently indicate that the authority of sovereign princes has, for the last seven and twenty years, been of a duration much more brief than the ordinary life of their fellow men. The medal from which the head of our venerable sovereign was taken, is a centenary medal, struck at the mint, in London, on the 1st of August, 1814, in commemoration of the accession of the house of Brunswick to the throne of Great Britain, and the other heads and devises are accurately copied either from coins or from medals of unquestionable authenticity. + See Vol. I. Book II. p. 375. more numerous than were ever before engaged Austria, whose strength had been broken The terms of this treaty, when promul- Another campaign, accompanied by com the power of France in Germany; and Holland, Italy, and Spain, in the same year, expelled the invaders, and obtained their independence. A third campaign placed the allied armies in possession of the French capital, and transferred the sceptre of Napoleon from Paris to Porto Ferrajo. On the restoration of Louis XVIII. to the throne of his fathers, the principal sove. reigns of Europe, attended by their own ministers, and by plenipotentiaries from other states, assembled at Vienna, to adjust in congress the complicated affairs of Europe. While this august assembly was still sitting, and when expedients were devising for placing the Emperor of Elba in a situation less hazardous to the public tranquillity than that which he then occupied, that extraordinary personage again appeared on the stage of his former greatness, and on debarking from his vessel, with an audacity peculiarly his own, declared the congress to be dissolved! Astonishment and dismay filled all Europe; and the people of France, with a mixed feeling of surprise and returning attachment, suffered him to march at the head of the army, by which he was speedily joined, from the coast to the capital, and once more to possess himself of the throne, which Louis, under the alarm of the general defection, had judged it proper to vacate. One hundred days was the duration of the second reign of Napoleon; and on the field of Waterloo he saw his laurels wither, after a well-fought day, before the skill and energy of the hero of the peninsula, and the vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre. Following in the victorious train of the allied armies, the head of the Bourbon race was once more reinstated on the throne of France, and the political life of Napoleon terminated in the island of St. Helena, In the midst of the din of arms the congress continued its deliberations; and on the 9th of June, some days before the decisive battle in Flanders, a general treaty was signed at Vienna. By this treaty, which embraced in one common transaction the various results of the negociations of the congress, nearly the whole of the smaller states of Europe, as well as some of the larger, were cast in a new mould. The numerous changes which the successive rulers of France had introduced into the old continental system of territorial arrangement, were abrogated, and other changes, scarcely less important, were effected, for the purpose of giving to the different states of Europe a just equilibrium, and a proper share of political power. The hope that Poland would be erected into an independent kingdom, governed by its own laws, and ruled by a sovereign free from foreign controul, expired with the promulgation of the BOOK V. CHAP. X. 1815 BOOK V. CHAP. X. 1815 saw, with a few exceptions, was, by the provisions of this treaty, irrevocably united to the Russian empire, and the Emperor Alexander assumed with his other titles that of Czar King of Poland; but in order to soothe the wounded feelings of the Poles, a promise was held out, that the respective Polish subjects of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, should obtain representative governments and national institutions. The Emperor Napoleon, in the plenitude of his power, wishing to remain master of the west of Europe, exerted his utmost influence to drive back Russia, and to place her frontier not merely beyond the Vistula, but behind the Niemen. For this purpose the duchy of Warsaw was erected, and the Poles were amused with the expectation that they were destined once more to become a nation. A very different policy actuated the proceedings of the congress of Vienna; by the accession of the duchy of Warsaw Russia was permitted to plant herself on the borders of East Prussia, to touch the frontiers of Austria, and to establish herself in the centre of Europe. The apprehensions entertained of French ascendancy during the reign of Bonaparte, was, without doubt, well grounded, but the danger to neighbouring states from the continually increasing power of Russia, when at any future time the sceptre of the czars may be swayed by an ambitious sovereign, though more remote, is not less substantial. The cessions made to Prussia by Saxony, Austria, and Hanover, have swelled the dominions of Frederick William to an extent unknown in Prussian history, and the acquisitions she has now to boast, had placed Prussia in the first rank of European states. The territories ceded by Austria and Hanover were voluntary transfers, made by mutual consent, and were unattended by any difficulty either on the part of the sovereigns or of their people; but in the duchy of Saxony the case was widely different; the king, whose paternal sway had endeared him to his subjects by all the ties of an ardent loyalty, made the surrender demanded of him with extreme reluctance, and the Saxon people passed under the Prussian yoke with a feeling towards their new sovereign amounting almost to detestation. The annexation of the ancient united provinces of the Netherlands to the late Belgic provinces, serve to create a new kingdom in Europe, under the sovereignty of his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange Nassau, King of the Netherlands, and will revive an union which existed in former times with reciprocal advantage. The territories acquired by Austria from the treaty of Vienna, extend over the Tyrol and the northern part of Italy, and contribute to restore the dilapidated dominion of the head of the Germanic body to their ancient splendour and extent. The system of policy which suggested the propriety of equalizing the dominions of the greater powers of Europe, and consolidating and uniting the smaller states, led to the determination to suffer the dominions of the ancient republic of Genoa to merge into the kingdom of Sardinia. And it was in pursuance of these arrangements that Hanover was erected into a kingdom; and that the Vallais, the territory of Geneva, and the principality of Neufchatel, were united to Switzerland. In perusing the articles of this voluminous treaty, with which, like the congress of Vienna, we shall, for the present, close our historical labours, it will be observed that a very laudable desire has existed on the part of the allied powers to extend the privileges, and secure the liberty, of the people. The guarantees respecting a representative form of government, the institution of trial by jury, and the provisions for the liberty of the press, will rank among this number; and if any cause of regret exists upon these points, it will arise from the consideration that these salutary provisions are not general, and that they do not form a distinct and prominent feature of the treaty. In one respect, however, all Europe must be inclined to applaud, not only the general principles, but also the particular provisions of the treaty of Vienna; and when perfect liberty of conscience, and a complete equality of rights, to christians of all religious denominations, are proclaimed, it is fair to infer, that sovereigns, as well as their subjects, are advancing in the knowledge and love of just and liberal sentiments on religious liberty. In all ages, and in all countries, despotism has been greatly supported by religious intolerance; but-now, when the shackles of superstition and bigotry are beginning to burst under the expansion of royal intellect, political intolerance must gradually subside, and sovereigns will acknowledge, with the enlightened Fenelon, that the principal object of society is the general hap piness, and that the people do not exist for a few individuals, but that rulers exist for the people. |