5o8 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE NEW HOLY ALLIANCE AND THE OLD. 



By an Edinburgh Reviewer. 



The Edinburgh Revinv, in an article on the peace 

 movement and the Holy Alliancej gives a survey of the 

 mo\ ements which led up to the Hague Conference. 

 The Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire 

 witnessed to the idea of international unit}'. 



WAS QUEEN ELIZABETH SOURCE OF HAGUE 

 CONFERENCE? 



Then Sully, in his Memoirs, attributes to Henry IV. 

 of France — or, rather, in the first instance, to Queen 

 Elizabeth of England — the " grand design of a great 

 Christian Republic embracing all the States of Europe." 

 In this grand design the reviewer finds a curious 

 anticipation of the present Tsar's Rescript. In 17 13, 

 Abbe de St. Pierre published his project of a treaty to 

 make peace perpetual, which was inspired also by the 

 grand design. It is probable that Emperor Alexander 

 of Russia was first made acquainted with the Abbe de 

 St. Pierre's project through his tutor, Cesar de La 

 Harpe, a disciple of Rousseau. It was certainly the 

 Abbe's idea which inspired the remarkable proposals 

 contained in a letter addressed by Alexander on the 

 nth of July, 1804, to his friend Novossiltsov, the 

 Russian Ambassador in London, who was to lay them 

 before Pitt. 



TSAR Alexander's scheme : date 1804. 



There .should be, he urged, a general treaty to form 

 the basis of the relations of the States forming the 

 European Confederation : — 



" Why," asked theTsav, "could one not sul))iiit lo il the posi- 

 tive riyhls of nations, assure the privilege of neutrality, insert 

 the obligation of never beginning war until all the resources 

 which the mediation of a third party could offer have been 

 exhausted. . . . On principles such as these one could proceed 

 to a general pacification and give Ijirth to a league of wliich the 

 stipulations would form, so to speak, a new code of the law of 

 nations, while those who should try to infringe it would risk 

 bringing upon themselves the forces of the new Union." 



Alexander, however, was won over by Napoleon in 

 1807, only to break from him a few jears later. 



the QUAKER GRELl.ET TESTIFYING TO THE TSAR. 



So far the Editihurgli reviewer. He does not refer to 

 one important element in the subsequent development 

 of the Emperor Alexander. In 1813 or 1814, Stephen 

 Grellct, that strange Quaker aide de camp of the Spin! 

 of Peace, records an interview which he had in London 

 with the Emperor Alexander. The Emperor received 

 them, Grellet tells us, very kindly, and made many 

 inquiries about Quakerism. Grellet goes on : — 



We entered fully on the subject of our testimony against 

 war, to which he fully assented. . . . Silence ensued, after 

 which, feeling my heart warmed by the love of Clirist towards 

 him, and under a sense also of tlie peculiar temptations and 

 trials to which his exalted station in the world subjected him, I 

 addressed a few words to him ; his heart apjjcarcd tenderjy and 

 sensibly atfecled ; with tears he took hold of my hand, which he 

 held silently for a while, and then said, " These your words arc 

 a tweet cordial to my soul ; they will long ninain engraven on 

 my hcarl." 



THE tsar's " CONCERN FOR ARIUTRA TION. 



Again Grellet proceeds : — 



The Emperor and his sister, accompanied by C^mnt I.ieven, 

 his Ambassador, came to one of our meetings at Westminster 

 Meeting-house, which proved a good and solemn meeting. The 

 Emperor and Grand Duchess, by their solemn countenances 

 and religious tenderness, gave evidence that they felt it to be so 

 to them. I felt my mind much relieved after this service with 

 these crowned heads, particularly as 1 had a full opportunity to 

 lay before them the enormities of war, and to direct their atten 

 tion to the peaceable spirit of Christ. Alexander especially 

 appeared to feel deeply on the subject, and to be sincere in his 

 desire for the promotion of harmony, love, and peace through- 

 out the world. He told us that his concern had been great, 

 that the several crowned heads might conclude to settle their 

 differences by arbitration and not by the sword. 



TSAR ALEXANDER " CONVERTED " ! 



Returning to the Edinburgh Review, we find that 

 after the Battle of Waterloo, " one of the strangest 

 events in all history occurred ; the ' conversion ' of 

 the Einperor Alexander by the Baroness von Kriidener." 

 On the 4th of June, 1815, the Baroness, who was con- 

 ducting a religious mission among the Bavarian 

 peasants, sought and obtained an interview with 

 Einperor Alexander :^ 



To the Tsar, who had been brooding alone over an open 

 liible, her sudden arrival seemed an answer to his prayers, and 

 for three hours the prophetess preached her strange gospel, 

 while the most powerful man in Europe sat, his face buried in 

 his hands, sobbing like a child, until at last he declared that he 

 had found peace. 



Next day the Baroness joined the Russian head- 

 (juarters, which she accompanied to Heidelberg and 

 J^aris. " In this religious forcing-house there germin- 

 ated and grew to rapid maturity the idea of the Holy 

 Alliance." 



THE " convert's " HOLY ALLIANCE. 



The nitmifesto in which this idea was embodied was 

 signed in the first instance only by the sovereigns of 

 Russia. Austria and Prussia, and was first proclaimed 

 In' the Emperor Alexander at a review of the allied 

 troops held on the Camp des Vertus near Paris, on the 

 26th of September, 1815. In general, it merely staled 

 the determintttion ol the signatory sovereigns to govern 

 henceforward in accordance .with the principles of the 

 Gospel of Christ, and lo regard each other as brothers 

 ;uid their subjects as their children. It was not con- 

 sciously a conspiracy against popular liberty ; indeed, 

 .Mexander himself was soon, to the distraction of 

 Metternich, insisting that the grant of liberal con- 

 stitutions by the princes was the logical outcome of its 

 principles. It represented a revival by the Emperor 

 .Mexander of the idea of a universal union or confedera- 

 tion of Europe, which he had propounded in 1804. The 

 Emperor Alexander's manifesto, first signed by all th<' 

 sovereigns of Europe, excei)t the Prince Regent o! 

 Great liritain, the Pope and the .Sultan, was opposed 

 and abandoned b\ Gretit llrilain in 1822. 



AN ENGINE OF OPPRESSION. 



.\ll(i- 1.S30 Europe broke into two opposed grmips. 

 .he We.-'tern liberal I'owers, Great Britain tiiid France. 



