BALANCE OF POWER. 



73 



sociate the two branches of the house of Bour- 

 bon, and although the Treaty of Utrecht was 

 obnoxious to England, the peace of Europe 

 -.cured for thirty years. 



Until about the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century, Russia was substantially ignored by 

 the European family of states. France, Spain, 

 S we Jen, Austria, and Holland, with occasional 

 intervention on the part of Great Britain, had 

 preserved such an equilibrium as seemed good 

 to them, and none of the smaller states had 

 been arbitrarily absorbed by their more power- 

 ful neighbors. During these years. Peter and 

 Catherine of Russia had developed the re- 

 sources of their empire, and Frederick It had 

 raised Prussia from a subordinate to an inde- 

 pendent place. Conquests of the great mari- 

 time powers had extended colonization to Asia 

 and India. The United States of America had 

 secured independence, and Poland had been 

 forcibly partitioned by Russia, Austria, and 

 Prussia. The partition of Poland (1772) was 

 but the first of a series of events that cul- 

 minated in the French Revolution. It was the 

 first deliberate and gross violation-of the sys- 

 tem of treaties based upon that of Westphalia, 

 and with the French Revolution all pretense of 

 preserving the balance of power on its old 

 lines was abandoned. Small states were over- 

 powered and annexed, and Europe saw her an- 

 cient boundaries shifted to meet the new con- 

 ditions. 



To thoughtful observers, like the Chevalier 

 Gentz, and to the leading statesmen of the 

 period, including those of Great Britain, the 

 temporary nature of then existing conditions 

 seemed evident. The meteoric career of Na- 

 poleon, even when he might almost have writ- 

 ten himself the ruler of Europe, did not mis- 

 lead these master-minds. They steadily held 

 that lasting peace could be regained only 

 through the restoration of national rights, and 

 that this could only be effected by combining 

 against the common enemy. After many dis- 

 couraging failures, a coalition was at last 

 formed, resulting in the overthrow of Na- 

 poleon. 



The Congress of Vienna met in November, 

 1814. and remained in session until June, 1815. 

 Here, for the first time, the most powerful and 

 distinguished of living sovereigns and states- 

 men met, prepared to make mutual conces- 

 sions, with a view to a lasting peace. Even 

 France, whose ambition had plunged Europe 

 into prolonged war. was admitted an equal to 

 the council. M. Talleyrand representing her 

 interests. In the then existing condition of 

 European affairs, certain relics of medieval- 

 ism survived, and certain provisions that after- 

 ward proved insupportable were embodied in 

 the treaty. 



The fact that all the contracting parties 

 were more or less dissatisfied with the results 

 of its deliberations, goes far to show that self- 

 ish interests were in general overruled. In 

 point of fact, the treaties then signed were ob- 



served in the main for the better part of half 

 a century. They survived the revolution of 

 1848, and though modified in some quarters, 

 and even abrogated in others, they may be said 

 to have survived in many of their main feat- 

 ures until the great German wars of 1866 and 

 1870. 



At Vienna, in 1815, the first international 

 constitution was framed, defining the bound- 

 aries of European states, all the contract- 

 ing parties agreeing thereto, guaranteeing the 

 independence of the small principalities and 

 free cities, as well as incorporating in its pro- 

 visions the Constitution of the German Confed- 

 eration. Every state in Europe had the right 

 to appeal to the rest in case of infringement, 

 and it seemed, for a time, as though the foun- 

 dations had been laid for permanent peace. In 

 the course of time several appeals were made 

 to the high contracting parties, and many in- 

 ternational disagreements were averted by the 

 wise measures adopted in conferences con- 

 vened under the provisions of the treaty. 

 Thus was inaugurated the nearest approach to 

 an actual balance of power, and during the 

 long period of general peace that followed, 

 the European world certainly made rapid prog- 

 ress in the direction of universal amity. 



But with advancing years, complications 

 were developed; there were wheel's within 

 wheels. Such compacts can only be main- 

 tained while all parties are measurably satis- 

 fied with the working of the system, and the 

 northern powers formed what was known as a 

 Holy Alliance among themselves, otherwise an 

 alliance offensive and defensive, unifying their 

 interests and binding themselves to act to- 

 gether in all emergencies. It was held, and 

 not without reason, that under the Treaty of 

 Vienna, the allied powers could interfere arbi- 

 trarily in the internal affairs of states, on the 

 ground that the peace of Europe was endan- 

 gered thereby. Conferences were hel'J at Aix- 

 la-Chapeile (1818), Carlsbad (1819), and 

 Troppeau (1820), and restrictive measures 

 were adopted, which were obnoxious to some 

 of the treaty powers. At Verona, in 1822, the 

 Duke of Wellington, as the representative of 

 Great Britain, declared that his Government 

 could no longer countenance the actions of an 

 alliance that interfered so intimately with the 

 internal affairs of individual states. England 

 preferred isolation to any such tyrannical com- 

 bination. Thus was inaugurated the princi- 

 ple of non-intervention, on the strength of 

 which England, in 1852, declined to act with 

 Prussia in preventing the Napoleonic restora- 

 tion in France. On the same ground, England 

 joined France in protesting against the inva- 

 sion of Schleswig, and opposed alone the an- 

 nexation to France of Savoy and Nice. The 

 traditions of Vienna were thus gradually ig- 

 nored, and had become practically a dead let- 

 ter when, in 1863, Napoleon III proposed a 

 new congress for the readjustment of the bal- 

 ance of power. The proposition was rejected, 



