Page:Constitutional Charter of the Kingdom of Poland, In the Year 1815.pdf/54

 these treaties were concluded immediately after the first success of the allies against Napoleon, they were consequently grounded upon a state of affairs which did not continue, and they cannot be considered as the final determination of the principal powers on general grounds. At the congress of Vienna, when Napoleon was no longer to be found, the fate of the duchy of Warsaw was again taken into consideration, with its bearings upon the state of Europe.

Lord Castlereagh, at that time, demanded, on behalf of England, that Poland should be re-established with all that had formerly belonged to her, and in opposition to the Emperor Alexander, who pleaded for the union of the duchy of Warsaw with Russia, he declared that “it was England’s wish to see some independent power (whether more or less in extent) established in Poland, under a distinct dynasty of its own, and as a separation between the three great Empires of Europe.”

The Emperor of Austria declared, at the same time, that far from consenting to the union of the duchy of Warsaw with Russia, he was disposed to sacrifice some of his own possessions for the sake of the entire re-establishment of Poland as an independent kingdom.

The opinions and wishes of France on this subject were equally clear. Prince Talleyrand expresses himself thus in a note to Prince Metternich, dated December 19, 1814. “Of all the questions to be discussed at this congress, the King would undoubtedly consider the affair of Poland as incomparably the most important to the interests of Europe, if there be any chance (if he could hope that is as much as he wishes) that this nation so worthy of regard by its antiquity, its valour, its misfortune, and the services it has formerly rendered to Europe, might be restored to complete independence. The partition which destroyed its existence as a nation, was the prelude,—in some measure the cause, perhaps,—even to a certain degree an apology, for the subsequent commotions to which Europe was exposed; and when circumstances overpowering the noblest and most generous dispositions in the various