390 



EUROPEAN CONGRESS. 



one of the memorable events in the recent his- 

 tory of Europe. The Emperor made to his 

 fellow sovereigns of Europe the startling an- 

 nouncement, that in his opinion the entire 

 European state system was resting on a de- 

 cayed foundation, and that unless a new and 

 more durable edifice be erected, the whole 

 fabric must become a heap of ruins. He there- 

 fore proposed the assembling of a Congress 

 which was to undertake the arduous task of 

 solving all the great European complications, 

 and, in particular, the redress of the grievances 

 of the oppressed nationalities. The Emperor 

 expressed himself as follows : 



Russia has already declared that conferences in which 

 all the other Questions now agitating Europe should be 

 debated, would in no wise wound her dignity. Let us 

 note and act upon that declaration. Let it serve us to 

 extinguish, once for all, the fermentings of discord, 

 which are ready to burst out on all sides, and out of 

 the very maladies of Europe, agitated everywhere by 

 the elements of dissolution, let a new era of order and 

 of peace be born. Has not the moment come for re- 

 constructing on new bases the edifice shaken by time 

 and destroyed bit by bit by revolutions ? Is it not 

 urgent to recognize, by our conventions, that which 

 the peace of the world demands ? The treaties of 

 1815 have ceased to exist. The force of things has 

 overthrown . them, or tends to overthrow them. Al- 

 most everywhere they have been violated ; in Greece, 

 in Belgium, in France, in Italy, and Germany on the 

 Danube is endeavoring to change them. England has 

 generously modified them by the cession of the Ionian 

 Islands, and Russia tramples them under foot in War- 

 saw. In the midst of these excessive violations of the 

 fundamental European pact, ardent passions have been 

 excited, and in the South, as in the North, powerful 

 interests demand a solution. What, then, more legiti- 

 mate or more sensible than to invite the powers of Eu- 

 rope to a congress, in which self-interest (amour propre) 

 and resistance would disappear before a supreme ar- 

 bitration. What more conformable to the ideas of the 

 epoch, to the will of the greater number, than to speak 

 to the conscience and reason of the statesmen of every 

 country and say to them, Have not the prejudices 

 and rancor which divide us lasted long enough? 

 Shall the jealous rivalry of the great Powers unceas- 

 ingly impede the progress of civilization ? Are we 

 still to maintain mutual distrust by exaggerated arma- 

 ments ? Must our most precious resources be indefi- 

 nitely exhausted in a vain display of force ? Must we 

 eternally maintain a condition of things which is 

 neither peace with its security nor war with its chances 

 of success ? Let us no longer attach a fictitious im- 

 portance to the subversive spirit of extreme parties 

 by opposing ourselves on narrow calculations to the 

 legitimate aspirations of peoples. Let us have the 

 courage to substitute for a sickly and precarious con- 

 dition of things a situation solid and regular, even 

 should it cost us sacrifices. Let us assemble without 

 preconceived systems, without exclusive ambition, 

 animated alone by the thought of establishing an 

 order of things founded for the future on the well- 

 understood interests of sovereigns and peoples. This 

 appeal, I am happy to believe, will be listened to by 

 all. A refusal would suggest the existence of secret 

 projects which shun the light. But even should the 

 proposal be not unanimously agreed to, it would pro- 

 duce the immense advantage of having pointed out to 

 Europe where the danger lies, and where the safety. 

 Two paths are open the one conducts to progress by 

 conciliation and peace ; the other, sooner or later, leads 

 fatally to war, from obstinacy in maintaining a course 

 which is sinking beneath the feet. 



The great significance of this language lies 

 in the fact that the demands thus made upon 



the college of European princes are the same 

 which the progressive and revolutionary party 

 of Europe have been for a long time making, 

 and which the princes have hitherto rejected 

 as an abominable political heresy. The demo- 

 crats of Europe generally demand that the en- 

 tire map of Europe be reconstructed on the ba- 

 sis of the principles of popular sovereignty, and 

 of the right of every live nationality to an in- 

 dependent existence. The princes, on the con- 

 trary, refused to make any concessions to these 

 claims, and, in opposition, confined themselves 

 to plead the rights conferred upon them by the 

 treaty of 1815. The speech of Louis Napoleon 

 is the first announcement on the part of one 

 of the great powers of Europe, that the de- 

 mands of the progressive party of Europe can 

 no longer be successfully resisted. The pro- 

 posed -Congress had not been convoked at 

 the close of the year 1863, but had led 

 to an interesting diplomatic correspondence, 

 which is of lasting importance in the history 

 of our times, as it reveals the views of the 

 several European governments on one of the 

 greatest problems of the age the reconstruc- 

 tion of the map of Europe. 



The proposition of the Emperor for a con- 

 gress was at once followed, on his part, by an 

 autograph letter addressed to the leading sov- 

 ereigns (altogether fifteen in number), urging 

 the same views and showing, in the spirit of 

 the speech, that only by such means can war 

 be prevented, and the general stability of so- 

 ciety firmly and satisfactorily established. The 

 following is a specimen of these letters : 



Most nigh and Most JHustrious Sovereigns, Princes and 

 free Towns which constitute the nigh German Confed- 

 eration : 



In presence of the events which every day arise and 

 become urgent, I deem it indispensable to express my- 

 self without reserve to the sovereigns to whom the 

 destiny of nations is confided. 



Whenever severe shocks have shaken the bases and 

 displaced the limits of States solemn transactions have 

 taken place to arrange the new elements, and to con- 

 secrate by revision the accomplished transformations. 

 Such was the object of the treaty of Westphalia in the 

 seventeenth century, and of the negotiations at Vienna 

 in 1815. It is on this latter foundation that now re- 

 poses the political edifice of Europe ; and yet, as you 

 are aware, it is crumbling away on all sides. 



If the situation of the different countries be atten- 

 tively considered, it is impossible not to admit that 

 the treaties of Vienna upon almost all points are 'de- 

 stroyed, modified, misunderstood, or menaced ; hence, 

 duties without rule, rights without title, and preten- 

 sions without restraint. The danger is so much the 

 more formidable because the improvements brought 

 about by civilization, which has bound nations together 

 by the identity of material interests, would render war 

 more destructive. 



This is a subject for serious reflection ; let us not 

 wait before deciding on our course for sudden and ir- 

 resistible events to disturb our judgment and carry us 

 away despite ourselves in opposite directions. 



I therefore propose to you to regulate the present 

 and secure the future in a Congress. 



Called to the throne by Providence and the will of 

 the French people, but trained in the school of adver- 

 sity, I am perhaps bound less than any other to ignore 

 the rights of the sovereigns and the legitimate aspi- 

 rations of nations. 



