AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL FOR EUROPE. 357 



cedure, as to its functions and executive authority. Its existence, 

 however, is undisputed, and its action and authority has been 

 usefully and vigorously displayed on many occasions, when critical 

 events in Europe called for its interyention. 



This Concert, or Agreement of the Great Powers of Europe, is not 

 a modern institution, for it has a record of great achievements in 

 the settlement of European affairs, and the safeguarding of European 

 interests, reaching back to 1814, commencing with the Coalition of 

 England, Russia, Austria, and Prussia, to rescue Europe from the 

 thraldom and aggressions of France, when she was under the 

 masterful spirit of Napoleon Buonaparte. 



This Union triumphed, we are free to admit, hy force majeure, for 

 it led to the overthrow of Napoleon, his banishment to the rocky 

 Isle of St. Helena ; to the restoration of Louis XVIII. to the Throne 

 of the Bourbons; but, further, it triumphed in diplomacy, for in 

 accordance with the provisions of the Secret Treaty of Alliance, by 

 which no Treaty of Peace with France was to be signed without the 

 consent of the whole of the AlHed Powers, the action of the Alliance 

 led to the adoption of a uniform policy at the Congress in Vienna 

 in 1815, by which Switzerland was guaranteed her independence 

 and neutrality ; Holland and Belgium were created into the United 

 Netherlands under William I. ; the sovereignty of Prussia was re- 

 established under the Hohenzollerns ; Wiirtemburg, Saxony, Bavaria, 

 Hanover, and the other German States were acknowledged as free 

 and independent, yet allied in one confederation ; and Italy was 

 divided into its numerous kingdoms, (one of the worst arrangements 

 of the Treaty of Vienna), Lombardy and Venetia forming part of the 

 Austrian Empire; Piedmont, Genoa, and Sardinia forming the 

 Kingdom of Sardinia under the re-instated House of Savoy ; , 

 Tuscany, Modena, and Parma forming three Dukedoms, subsidiary 

 to Austria; Naples, with Sicily, forming the Kingdom of the two 

 Sicilies. The Pope was made Temporal Prince of a large territory, 

 called the States of the Church, extending from Naples to Tuscany, 

 and the River Po. 



By this international instrument, the Signatory Powers, in effect, 

 declared, that the paramount object in view, was a close and durable 

 alliance, for no isolated or selfish considerations ; that their desire 

 was the security of the general tranquillity ; and, for this end, they 

 avowed their determination to maintain the faithful observance of 

 treaty engagements; their recognition of Public Congress, as 



