4] ANNUAL REGISTER, 18I6. 



principles wliith had dictated 

 it. 



Politicians were much at a loss 

 to eonceire the occasion and pur- 

 pose of a treaty, at the same time 

 so serious and so indefinite, wliich 

 apjjearcd to hind the subscribers 

 to nothintj more than to act upon 

 those general principles which, as 

 (Christian jirinccs, they had always 

 held fortli as the rule of their con- 

 duct. It was understood ihal 

 its innnediate cause was an im- 

 pression made upon the mind of 

 the emperor Alexander, whose pe- 

 culiar zeal in the project was dis- 

 })layed by a manifesto issued on 

 Christmas day, and signed by his 

 own hand, in which he made 

 public the engagement which the 

 three jiowers had entered into, 

 and which he interpreted to be a 

 reciprocal league of peace and 

 amity upon Christian principles 

 for the general good. 



Mr. Brougham prefficed his mo- 

 tion with reasons why he thought 

 it material that incjuiry should be 

 made respecting the above treaty ; 

 instancing the circimistances of 

 its having been contracted by 

 three powers, om* allies, without 

 our j)articipation ; of its having 

 received the signatures of the 

 sovereigns themselves, whereas 

 all other treaties had been ratifi- 

 ed by the medium of diphimatic 

 agents ; of being apparently un- 

 called for, since tlie attachment of 

 the contracting powers to the 

 Christian icligion iiad never been 

 questioned. lie adverted to the 

 union of the same powers for the 

 partition of Poland, on which oc- 

 casion the empress ('atharine had 

 employed in iier proclamntions 

 language similar to that of the 

 treaty, ilc coucluded by moving 



an address to the Prince Regent, 

 that he would be pleased to give 

 directions that a copy of the treaty 

 should be laid before the House. 



Lord Castlereagh, who had pre- 

 vio\isly admitted the authenticity 

 of tlie document mo\ ed for, after 

 adducing, from tlie result of the 

 preceding union of these sove- 

 reigns, arguments against regard- 

 ing them with suspicion, inform- 

 ed the hon. gentleman, that in- 

 stead of any secrecy in their pro- 

 ceedings on the present occasion, 

 the emperor of Russia had com- 

 municated to him a draft of the 

 purposed treaty, he believed, be- 

 fore it had been connnunicated to 

 the other sovereigns ; and that 

 after its signature, a joint letter 

 had been addressed by them to 

 the Prince Regent, stating the 

 grounds on which it had been 

 concluded, and an.\iously desiring 

 his accession to it : — that his 

 ]{oyal Highness in reply had ex- 

 pressed his satisfaction at the na- 

 ture of the treaty, iuid his assur- 

 ance that the British government 

 would not be the one least dis- 

 posed to act up to its principles. 

 His lordship then went into a 

 panegyric of the emjicror of Rus- 

 sia ; and finally characterised the 

 motion as wholly inmecessary, 

 and of dangerous tendency if the 

 confederacy could be shaken by 

 attempts to degrade the sovereigns 

 of Europe by unfounded imputa- 

 tions. 



On a di\ ision of the House, the 

 motion was rejected by a majority 

 of 104 to 30. 



The public opinion concerning 

 this extraordinary treaty, seems to 

 have corresponded with that ex- 

 ]>rcssed by tlie hon. Mr. Bcnnet 

 in his speech ; " tb;it the only 



motive 



