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EUROPE, &c.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY REFLECTIONS.

THE HE course of events in Europe since the final fall of Bonaparte has been as unexpected as it is

in

every point of view remarkable. A variety of circumstances concurred to produce an uncommon uniformity of feeling and interest among the several nations, and the different classes of society, at the period immediately preceding the Congress of Vienna. The national jealousies, resulting from the ancient balance of power, and the political feuds connected with the earlier periods of the Revolution, had all disappeared under the intolerable tyranny of Napoleon. The continental sovereigns forgot their habitual enmities, and even the distant stateliness of their ordinary habits of intercourse, in this hour of common danger; and acted together with the cordiality and intimacy

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of personal friends.

Liberty had long before withdrawn from the banners of France, and enlisted under those of her enemies; so that the people entered every where into the views of their governments, with enthusiasm, upon the same principles of independence which sometimes lead them to opposition. France herself, with the exception perhaps of the army, was disposed to regard the allies as deliverers, rather than as enemies. It was an era of good feelings, like that which now exists in the United States; and which it may be hoped will be of longer duration. The uses of adversity were exhibited in the high-minded spirit which directed all the proceedings of the allies among themselves, and in their relation with France at the time of the first invasion. Politicians and sovereigns who had previously submitted with rather an ill grace, if at all, to the common restraints of morality, seemed to have risen, all at once, to the loftiest heights of chivalry; and even cool observers began to indulge a hope, that political affairs would wear in future a new aspect. It seemed, as if the French revolution, after failing, at least for a time, in its direct attempts to accomplish any considerable good, was destined to reform the world by re-action. Certainly any person who, at the time of the treaty of Paris, had predicted that within six years a general dissatisfaction would grow up between the rulers and the people, in almost all the civilised

parts of Europe; that there would be four military revolutions, besides innumerable changes of ministry; and, that discord would even throw her apple into the divine assembly of the Holy Alliance; certainly such a person would have been looked upon, to say the least, as a very bold prophet.

These unexpected events are variously explained by different persons and parties, according as they are led by their position in society, their interests, or their opinions to approve or disapprove them. It is thought by some, and the system has even been countenanced by the public declarations of the three northern powers, that all these violent convulsive movements result from the wild and desperate coalition of a few individuals, leagued together in secret societies; and that by the detection and exemplary punishment of the ringleaders, the public tranquillity may be immediately and permanently restored. It is also stated, on official authority, that by certain seizures of persons and papers in the north of Italy, a clue has been obtained, by which the secrets of the conspiracy will be unravelled; and if the general idea be correct, it may be presumed that there will soon be no danger of any further revolutions.

But, in reality, it is rather a poor compliment to the stability of thrones and governments to suppose that they can be shaken by the efforts of a few obscure and unprincipled wretches like This

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