396 



CONGRESS. 



the n.fTair in question to n decision. These prelimi- 

 naries are commonly settled in the diplomatic, way, 

 by the mediating powers, and then the principal con- 

 gress assembles. The plenipotentiaries, when they 

 meet, after mutual greetings, appoint, in a prelimi- 

 nary conference, the day on which the congress is to 

 be opened, and determine the manner in which busi- 

 ness is to be transacted, the forms of negotiation, the 

 order of precedence among the different powers (in 

 Europe, the alphabetical order has been followed since 

 1815; see Ceremonial), and the time of session. The 

 congress opens by the exchange and perusal of cre- 

 dentials among tin- plenipotentiaries, which, in case 

 the negotiating parties have referred to the arbitra- 

 tion of a mediator, are given to him. The envoys of 

 tile contendingposvers then carry on their negotiations 

 directly with each other, or by the intervention of a 

 mediator, either in a common hall, or in their own 

 residences by turns, or, if there is a mediator, in his 

 residence. These negotiations are continued either 

 by writing or by verbal communication, until the com- 

 missioners can agree upon a treaty, or until one of 

 the powers dissolves the congress by recalling its 

 minister. 



The history of thp congresses is a history of European poli- 

 tics. It appears that Henry IV. and Sully, having conceived 

 the project of forming a union of the European states, the mem- 

 bers of which, being equal in power, were tu decide their quar- 

 rels by appeal to a senate, firt thought this manner of negoti- 

 ating advisable. Before the thirty years' war, no formal con- 

 gresses had beeu held in Europe. Tiioseat Roschild in 1568, at 

 Stettin in 1570, and that convoked at the request of the czar 

 John IV., by the pope, at Ki \verova-Ilorka. in 1581, and suc- 

 ceeding years ; that at Stnlbova in 1617, at Viasma in 1634, at 

 Stumdorf in 1635, and at Bromsebro in 1645, which were ter- 

 minated by the treaties of peace, named from the places at 

 which they were held, regarded merely the political relations 

 of the northern states. The history of the European congresses 

 for peace begins, therefore, with those ut Munster and Osna- 

 bruek. The history of congresses may be conveniently divided 

 into three periods : 1. from the foundation of the new European 

 system by the double congress, which was followed by the peace 

 of Westphalia, until the peace of Utrecht (from 1648 to 1713) ; 

 2. from the establishment of the influence of the naval and co- 

 lonial power of the British by the peace of Utrecht, to the con- 

 gress of Vienna (from 1713 to 1815) ; 3. from the (so called) re- 

 ft .ration of the balance of power in Europe, and the establish- 

 ing of the principles of legitimacy, and stability of the ex- 

 isting governments, by the congress of Vienna and the holy 

 alliance, to the present day. In every congress since 1648, 

 some of the most powerful governments have taken the lead of 

 the rest, and have determined, in a certain measure, the course 

 of negotiation, by laying down general principles. Bignon has 

 weighed against each other the interests of the people and of 

 the cabinets, in his work Les Cabinets et les Pennies depuis 

 l8I5,/u7M' a la Fin de 182-2. We will now speak of the more 

 important congresses, according to the order of the three epochs 

 which we have laid down. 



A. From 1648 to 1713. 1. The congress at Munster and Os- 

 nabruck. It is remarkable that the pope (during the thirty 

 years' war the only sovereign, among the princes of Europe, 



indeed send ambassadors to Cologne, who were prepared to ne- 

 gotiate with France and Sweden, under the mediation of the 

 pope ; but, on account of this very mediation, France refused 

 to send commissioners to this congress, but, on the contrary, 

 joined with Sweden in a common negotiation for peace, at 

 Hamburg. The emperor, finally, in a preliminary treaty at 

 Hamburg, in I6H, resolved to negotiate with both powers at 

 Minister and Osnabruck. On account of the dispute between 

 France and Sweden on the subject of rank, and to avoid colli- 

 sion between the Protestant envoys and the nuncio, those two 

 cities were chosen, which France had offered, being only six 

 leagues distant from each other, and it was decided that the 

 two meetings should form but one congress. This great Euro- 

 pean council of peace, was first opened in December, 1644. At 

 Murister, everything was carried on by the mediators, the 

 nuncio of the pope, and the envoy of the republic of Venice: 

 at Osnabruck, the negotiations were direct, and the Latin lan- 

 guage was used. (See Weitphalia, Peace of.) 2. The congress 

 of the Pyrenees. France and Spain continued, until 1659, the 

 war which the peace of Westphalia had ended in Germany. 

 After a preliminary treaty concluded at Paris, May 7, the isle 

 of Pheasant*, in the Bidassoa, on the frontiers of tlie two states, 

 was chosen for a place of meeting ; and cardinal Mazarin and 

 the Spanish minister, don Luis de Haro, from Aug. 13 to Nov. 

 5, 1659, had twenty-five conferences under a tent, in which 

 the former used the Italian and the latter the Spanish language. 

 The peace of the Pyrenees, concluded Nov. 7, secured to France 

 her political superiority : Spain ratified the peace of Minister, 

 and yielded Roussillou, Conflans, and some places in the Ne- 

 tlu-rlaudi, to France, which restored the banished prince of 



Cor.d6 to his honours and estates. Lorraine was also restored 

 to her duke, a Thp congress at Breda, by the mediation of 

 Sweden, ended the war between Grent Britain on the one side, 

 and the Netherlands. France, and Denmark on the other, by 

 the peace of Breda, July 31, 1667, which principally related to 

 their eolonlei in the West Indies, and the toll upon the Sound. 

 4. The congress at Aix-la-Chapellc, under the mediation of 

 the pope, ended the war between France and Spain (occasioned 

 hy the claim of Lous XIV. to a part of the Spanish Nether- 

 lands), by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, May a, KiiiH, accord, 

 ing to the terms of which France retained the places which ii 

 had conquered in the Spanish Netherlands, but restored 

 Franche-Comte to Spain. 5. In the war between Louis XIV. 

 and the Netherlands, from 167* to 1678, a congress WHS first 

 opened at Cologne, in 1673, but was dissolved in the following 

 year, because the imperial ambassador had arbitrarily seized 

 the elector of Cologne, and sent him from that city to Vienna. 

 The liritish ambassadors (among whom was the famous Sir 

 WiUiain Temple) and the papal envoy then carried on, as me- 

 diators, the negotiations for peace between France, Spain, the 

 Netherlands, the German emperor, Sweden, Denmark, Bran- 

 denburg, and sumo small states, at the congress of Nimeguen, 

 from 1676 to the conc'usion of the pence of Nimeguen, in 



1678, which consisted of several separate treaties of peace : 

 between France and the Netherlands ; between France and 

 Spain; between France, Sweden, and the German empire, in 



1679, of which the peace with Brandenburg, at St Gerinain-eii- 

 Laye, and that with Denmark at Fontainebleau and Lunrt, to- 

 gether with that of Nimeguen, between Sweden and Holland, 

 were the immediate consequences. Thus French diplomacy, 

 by dividing the allies, obtained tlie victory at this congress, 

 and secured, fora long time, the political superiority of Louis 

 XIV. 6. The taking of Strasburg, which happened during the 

 peace of 1681, aud the re-union system of Louis, caused the 

 great alliance of the Hague (of which William III. was the 

 soul) against the pretensions aud usurpations of France. Swe- 

 den and Holland first united ; then !h emperor, Spain, and 

 some German circles joined the league, to support the peace 

 of Westphalia and of Nimeguen ; and as the emperor was al- 

 ready engaged in a war against the Turks, recourse was had to 

 negotiation rather than to arms. This was the object of the 

 famous congress of Frankfort, in 1681, which was broken off by 

 the French, in December, 1682, but was afterwards continued 

 at Ratisbon, and ended by a truce of twenty years with France, 

 in 1684. But in vain did the European powers seek, by alli- 

 ances with each other, and particularly by the great league of 

 Augsburg (association), in 1686, effected by the stadiholder of 

 Holland, William III., to put limits to the ambition of Louis, 

 for, in heptemher, 1688, the French armies invaded the coun . 

 tries on the Rhine. This, and the expulsion of the house oi 

 Stuart from the throne of Britain by William III., in Novem- 

 ber, 1688, was the cause of a war <.f nine years. 7. Designs on 

 the Spanish succession induced Louis, though victorious, to at- 

 tempt to divide the allies by separate treaties, and, not succeed- 

 ing in this, he sought the mediation of Sweden ; by means o< 

 which a congress was convened at Ryswick, a castle near the 

 Hague, in May, 1697. The negotiations were carried on (round 

 a circular table, in the hall of conference, which prevented all 

 disputes about precedency) on the principles of the peace of 

 Westphalia and that of Nimeguen. But the French, by sepa- 

 rate treaties with the allies, obtained the direction of the nego- 

 tiation, and their skilful diplomacy obliged the German empire 

 to accept the conditions determined upon by France with Spain, 

 Great Britain, and the Netherlands. The peace of Ryswick 

 was signed by the naval powers, Sept. 20, and by the emperor, 

 Oct. 30, 1697. To this period belong certain other congresses, 

 in which the political relations of the.northern powers towards 

 Poland and the Porte were settled. 8. The most famous is 

 that which took place at Oliva, a monastery near Daiitzic, in 

 May, 1660, where France mediated a peace between Sweden 

 and Poland, and to which the German emperor, the elector of 

 Brandenburg, the Duke of Courland, and other inferior princes, 

 sent ministers. The plenipotentiaries of the Dutch republic, 

 of Denmark, and of Spain were IK t admitted. The peace of 

 Oliva, May 3, 1660, confirmed the political superiority of Swe- 

 den in the north, secured to it the possession of Livonia, and 

 established the sovereignty of Prussia. At the same time, Bri- 

 tain, Holland, and France mediated the peace of Copenhagen, 

 concluded May 27, 1660, between Sweden and Denmark. The 

 negotiations at Oliva were finally completed by the peace be- 

 tween Sweden arid Russia, at Cardis, July 1, 1661. 9. Particu- 

 lar congresses were convened to settle certain disputes between 

 Poland and Kussia : at Radzyn in 1670, at Moscow in 1678, at 

 Radzyn and Audrussov in 1684, which resulted in the definitive 

 peace at Moscow, in 1686, by which the power of Poland, 

 which the treaty of Oliva had already shaken, received a se- 

 cond blow. The boundaries between Russia arid Poland re- 

 mained, until 1772, such as they had been fixed by this peace. 

 10. The congress at Altona, in 1687, where the German em- 

 peror and the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg mediated 

 in the disputes between Denmark and the house ol Holstein 

 Gottorp, terminated, after Great Britain and the states-general 

 had also been called in as mediators, in the peace of Altona, 111 

 1689, by which the duke of Hnlstein regained his territories 

 with full sovereignty. 11. To this period belong, also the 

 conferences at Carlowitz in 1698, where a Turkish sultan first 

 learnt to employ the forms of European diplomacy, accepting 

 the mediation of Great Britain and Holland. In this congress, 

 his first dragoman, Mavrocordato, exhibited a specimen of the 

 diplomatic talents of the Greek nation, settling all questions of 

 rank by a round table. In 1699, he concluded with the German 

 emperor, Poland, Venice, and Russia, at Carlowitz, the treaties 

 of peace, or truces, by which bounds were first set to the 



