questions, to the satisfaction of
its members; why should it not meet periodically, and constitute itself
a supreme international tribunal? The question had only to be asked to
receive the approbation of all concerned. The dreamer, Alexander I., at
once saw the destinies of the world entrusted to a Holy Alliance, which
would rule according to "the sacred principles of the Christian religion";
and even the more practical mind of Castlereagh conceived that a council of
the great powers, "endowed with the efficiency and almost the simplicity of
a single State," was a possibility.

Yet, it is quite clear to-day that, at that time and under those
conditions, the establishment of a permanent and effective Confederation of
Europe would have proved disastrous to the world. The Congress of Vienna
was followed by further congresses in 1818, 1819, 1820, and 1822; and each
succeeding conference revealed to Europe more clearly the true character
of the new authority into whose hands the power was slipping. Certain very
dangerous tendencies became, for example, apparent. The first conference
had assembled to confer the blessings of order upon a continent ravaged by
the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars of France. Hence the Confederation of
Europe started life as a kind of anti-Jacobin society, whose main business
it was to suppress revolution, whether it took the nationalistic or
democratic form. Furthermore, the interference with the internal affairs of
France in 1814 and 1815 tended to establish a precedent for interference
with the internal affairs of any country. The Holy Alliance, therefore,
soon assumed the character of a "Trust" of absolute monarchs, determined
to aid each other when threatened by risings or agitations among their
peoples, and to crush liberal aspirations wherever they were to be found in
other parts of Europe. The popular desire for peace was exploited in the
interests of unpopular government; settlement by conference in regard
to international matters was extended to settlement by a cabal of
irresponsible crowned heads in regard to internal constitutional and
national questions; a clique of despots threatened the liberties of the
world and proposed to back up their decisions by using their armies as
police. One government, however, even in that period of reaction, refused
to lend its countenance to such proceedings. England at first protested and
at length took up an attitude of complete opposition, and it is