t of Tuscany, Napoleon looked on
while the allies quarrelled at this Congress of Vienna. Prussia
claimed the right to annex Saxony; Russia demanded Poland, and against
them were leagued England, Austria, and France, France represented by
the Mephistophelian Talleyrand, who strove merely to stir the discord
into another war. In the midst of their deliberations word came that
the wolf was in the fold again. Napoleon was riding to Paris, through
hysterical crowds of French men and women, eager for another throw
against the world, if their Little Corporal were there to shake the
dice for them. He had another throw and lost. The French Revolution in
1789, followed by the insurrection of all Europe against that strange
gypsy child of the Revolution, Napoleon, from 1807-1815, ended at last
at Waterloo. This lover, who won whole nations as other men win a maid
or two; this ruler, who had popes for handmaidens and gave kingdoms as
tips, who dictated to kings preferably from the palaces of their own
capitals; this fortunate demon of a man, who had escaped even Mlle.
Montausier, was safely disposed of at Saint Helena, and the ordinary
ways of mortals had their place in the world again.

The Congress of Vienna reassembled, and the readjustment of the map of
Europe began over again. Prussia is given back what had been taken
away from her. A German confederation was formed in 1815 to resist
encroachments, but with no definite political idea, and its diet, to
which Prussia, Austria, and the other smaller states sent
representatives, became the laughing-stock of Europe. Jealous
bickerings and insistence upon silly formalities paralyzed
legislation. Lawyers and others who presented their claims before this
assembly from 1806-1816 were paid in 1843! The liquidation of the
debts of the Thirty Years' War was made after two hundred years, in
1850! The laws for the military forces were finally agreed upon in
1821, and put in force in 1840!

There were three principal forms of government among these states:
first, Absolutist, where the ruler and his officials governed without
reference to the people, as in Prussia and Austria; second, those who
organized assemblies (Landslaende), where no promises were made to the
people, but where the nobles and notables were called together for
consultation; and third, a sort of constitutional monarchy with a
written constitution and elected representatives, but with the ruler
none the less supreme. One o