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spondence of the cabinets with one another. The Holy AlHance was not an institution for the suppres- sion of the rights of the nations, for the promotion of absolutism, or for any kind of tyranny. It was solely an emanation of the pietistic feelings of the Emperor Alexander, and the application of the principles of Christianity to polities". This quotation gives the true statement in regard to the facts of the case, as well as in regard to the personal factor in the founding of the alliance, which was the transitory pietistic feeling of the tsar at that time. The vigorous reawakening of the religious sense had called forth, especially in . connexion with the revival of Christian thinking, many confused and obscure manifestations of a mysti- cal and spiritualistic kind that were reactionary in tendency. From June, 1815, the tsar had come under the sway of one of these mystical and reactionary tendencies, through the influence of the Baroness von Kriidener, a lady of German-Russian descent who was a religious visionary. Without striving to exert polit- ical power, she seems, nevertheless, to have imbued Alexander with the idea that princes must once more rule according to the dictates of religion and under religious form. While the lady was intent wholly on arousing religious ideals, Alexander at once gave a political cast to the suggestion when he endeavoured to formulate it and, with this end in view, drew up the treaty on which the Holy Alliance is based. His de- mand was not welcome to statesmen of practical mind like Metternich and the Prussians, but they did not consider it necessary to decline the proposal. They struck out merely what was most objectionable to them, and by degrees Metternich quietly replaced the entire alliance by the purely political alliance of 20 November, 1815, between Austria, Prussia, Russia and England, by the Treaty of Aachen of 18 October, 1818, and the agreements made at the Congresses of Troppau (1820), Laibach (1821), and Verona (1822). Nevertheless the expression "Period of the Holy Alliance" for European politics of the years 1815-23, that is, for the era when Metternich's influence was at its height, has some justification. A brief general review of events will prove this. But the term should not be taken too literally; moreover, it must be admitted that history, in characterizing a period, is more apt to adopt an easily-found and strik- ing expression than an exact one. During the years 1814-15, a number of treaties were concluded between the various countries of Europe. In this series of compacts the Holy Alliance forms merely one link and m a practical sense the most unimportant one; it was also the only treaty which was religious in char- acter. All these treaties have, however, one trait in common. They revive the conception of a centralized Europe, in which the rights of the individual states seem to be limited by the duties which each state has in regard to the whole body of states. The signatories announced the end of the war that had been carried on since the era of the Thirty Years War by those grasp- ing powers and interests, which took only into consid- eration the ratio status. They further asserted that all just political demands were satisfied, that the great Powers were " saturated ", and on the strength of this, they introduced into international law the conception of a common European responsibility, the application of which was to be secured by agreement of the great Powers as cases arose. This common responsibility was to be used for the liberal promotion of all econo- mic, intellectual, and social life, but political liberal- ism was to be suppressed or held in check in order to reserve the administration of public affairs to the governments as specially ordained thereto. The renewal of the common responsiliility of the European states, and of the scheme of administration involved therein, may be regarded as the most characteristic work of Metternich. The desire for this joint responsibility had grad-

ually developed from the ideas of the Austrian policy of the eighteenth century, and had been already ex- pressed in the instructive papers of Kaunitz written in his old age. It was now formulated and made a reality by Austria's greatest statesman. Between the eras of Kaunitz and Metternich, however, had ap- peared the revival of religious feeling in Europe. The minds of men turned once more to Christianity and the Church. Involuntarily the course of Euro- pean thought, even that of the most cool-headed statesmen, became again subordinate to the cate- gories of Christian thinking. Little as Metternich was personally inclined to base his political views on religion, he did not fail to oljserve that his idea of a common responsibility of the nations and liis inclina- tion to peace bore a resemblance to the loftiest medieval ideals of the Christian unity of nations and of a common civilization. He had even an exag- gerated itlea of this resemblance, as had many of his contemporaries. In consequence of this over-esti- mation, however (for in truth his ideas were rooted in rationalism), he allowed these views to appear, if only for a moment, in the words of the Holy .\lliance as the proper "application of the principles of Chris- tianity to politics". From his non-resistance to the tsar, his contemporaries inferred that the alliance proclaimed a return to the times in which the papacy and the Church claimed and exercised the right of guiding the respublica Christiana. It is in this way that historical events are twisted and confused by the imagination, both of the individual and of the mul- titude. The Holy Alliance became a bugbear repre- senting reaction, while in reality, like everything that even distantly harmonized with Christianity, it was of advantage to Europe, and assured to it peace for a generation, and an extraordinary development of civilization.

MuHLENBECK, Elude 8ur les origines de la Sainte-. Alliance; .ius Mettrrnichs nachgelassenen Papieren (Vienna, 1880-84), I; WoREL, VEuTope et la Revolution francai/ie, I; Goyau. L'Alle- magne religieuse: Le catholicisme, I: Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire grn>'rale du IVsii'cle a nos jours, X, 63-64: Alison, History of Europe.

Martin Spahn.

Holy Childhood, Association of the, a children's association for the benefit of foreign missions. Twenty years after the foundation of the Society for the Prop- agation of the Faith (1843) Charles de Forbin-Janson, Bishop of Nancy, France, established the Society of the Holy Childhood (Association de la Sainte Enfance). Its end is twofold: first, to rally around the Infant Jesus our little Christian children from their tender years, so that with increasing age and strength, and in imitation of Jesus their Master, they may practise true Christian charity with a view to their own perfection; second, that by the practice of charity and enduring liberality those same little Christian children may co-operate in saving from death and sin the many thousands of children that in pagan countries like China are neglected by their parents and cast away to die unbaptized. The further object of the association is to procure baptism for those abandoned little ones, and, should they live, to make of them craftsmen, teachers, doctors, or priests, who in turn will spread the blessings of the Christian religion amongst their countrymen.

Children may become members of the association immediately after baptism, and may continue in mem- bership for the remainder of their lives, but at the age of twenty-one, in order to still share in the in- dulgences, it is necessary to become also a member of the Lyons Association for the Propagation of the Faith.

In order to be a member of the Association of the Holy Childhood, it is necessary to give a monthly contribution of one cent, or a yearly contribution of twelve cents, and to recite daily a " Hail Mary" with the addition, " Holy Virgin Mary, pray for us and for