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 1815 a secret treaty of defensive alliance was signed between France, Austria and Great Britain. For some time affairs hung in the balance, but Alexander could not mistake the tone of his opponents. Gradually a compromise was arranged, and by the end of the month all danger was past. Eventually Austria and Prussia retained most of their Polish dominions, and the latter power only received about two-fifths of Saxony. The rest of Poland was incorporated as a separate kingdom in the Russian dominions with a promise of a constitution of its own. Talleyrand had rescued France from its humiliating position, and set it as an equal by the side of the allies. Henceforward he made no effort for the rights of the whole congress.

Meanwhile other affairs had been progressing more harmoniously under the direction of special committees, which included representatives of the powers specially interested. Switzerland was given a constitution which led it in the direction of its later federalism. In Italy Austria retained her hold on Lombardy and Venetia, Genoa was assigned to the kingdom of Sardinia, while Parma went to Marie Louise, the legitimate heir. Carlo Ludivico, having to be content with the reversion after her death, the congress meanwhile assigning Lucca to him as a duchy; the claims of the young Napoleon to succeed his mother in Parma were only destroyed by the efforts of France and England. The other petty monarchs were restored, and Murat's rash attempt, after Napoleon's return from Elba, to make himself king of united Italy, gave back Naples to the Bourbons, an event which would have been brought about in any case in the course of the next few years (see ). Holland was confirmed in the possession of Belgium and Luxemburg, Limburg and Liége were added to her dominions. Sweden, who had sacrificed Finland to Russia, obtained Norway.

German affairs, however, proved too complicated for complete solution. It was difficult enough to decide the claims of the states in the scramble for territory. Eventually, however, by methods of compromise, this was adjusted fairly satisfactorily. The greater states gained largely, especially Prussia, who was given large accessions of territory on the Rhine, partly as a compensation for her disappointment in the matter of Saxony, partly that she might act as a bulwark against France. Some disputes between Baden and Bavaria remained unsettled, and many questions arising out of the new federal constitution of Germany, which had been hurriedly patched together under the influence of the news of Napoleon's return, had to be postponed for further discussion and were not settled until the Final Act agreed upon by the conference of German statesmen at Vienna in 1821.

Other more general objects, such as the free navigation of international rivers and the regulation of the rights of precedence among diplomatists (see ), were managed with much address. Castlereagh's great efforts were rewarded by a declaration that the slave trade was to be abolished, though each power was left free to fix such a date as was most convenient to itself. The Final Act, embodying all the separate treaties, was signed on the 9th of June 1815, a few days before the battle of Waterloo.

Before the work of the congress was completed Napoleon was again at Paris, and the closing stages were hurried and ill-considered. One negotiation of supreme importance was cut short for this reason. Castlereagh had left Vienna with the hope that the powers would solemnly guarantee their territorial settlement and promise to make collective war on whoever dared to disturb it. This guarantee was to include the Ottoman dominions, in whose interests, indeed, it had been brought forward. Alexander made no objection provided that the Porte would submit all outstanding claims to arbitration. The distance of Constantinople from Vienna and the obstinacy of the sultan would probably have prevented a settlement, but the return of Napoleon rendered all such proposals almost absurd, and the scheme was dropped.

Thus the congress of Vienna failed to institute any new system for securing the stability of the European polity, nor did it recognize those new forces of liberty and nationality which had really caused Napoleon's downfall. Following the tradition of all preceding congresses, it was mainly a scramble for territory and power. Territories were distributed among the powers with no consideration for the feelings of their inhabitants, and in general the right of the strongest prevailed. For this reason it has often met with a condemnation that has perhaps been unmerited. It is true that the map of Europe shows to-day but little trace of its influence; but much of its work was determined by conditions over which statesmen had little control. Europe was not ready for the recognition of nationality and liberalism. What it wanted most of all was peace, and by establishing something like a territorial equilibrium the congress did much to win that breathing space which was the cardinal need of all.

.—The treaties and acts of the congress may be consulted in J. L. Klüber, Acten des Wiener Congresses (9 vols.); Comte d'Angeberg, Le Congrès de Vienne (4 vols.). British and Foreign State Papers, vol. ii., gives some of the documents in English, and the Final Act is found in many collections. For the diplomacy, Wellington's Supplementary Despatches, vols. ix. and x.; Castlereagh's Letters and Despatches, vol. x.; Talleyrand's Memoirs, vols. ii. and iii.; the works of Gentz (see ) and the Memoirs of Hardenberg and Czartoryski are very useful. Other records left by contemporaries are those of Münster, D. D. de Pradt, J. de Maistre and Gagern. The comte A. de La Garde-Chambonas, Souvenirs du congrès de Vienne (ed. with introduction and note by Comte Fleury, Paris, 1901), gives an interesting picture of the congress from its personal and social side. Of later works a great many historians both of the Napoleonic era and of the 19th century include chapters on the congress; Sorel, L'Europe et la Révolution française, vol. viii., and the various volumes of the Staaten-Geschichte der Neuesten Zeit give much information. In English the best account is that by Dr A. W. Ward in chs. xix. and xxi. of vol. ix. of the Cambridge Modern History (1906), which gives also a fairly complete bibliography, pp. 867–875. There is also a list of authorities in Lavisse and Rambaud's Histoire Générale, vol. x.

VIENNE, a river of central, a left-hand tributary of the Loire, watering the departments of Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Charente, Vienne and Indre-et-Loire. Length, 219 m.; area of basin, 8286 sq. m. Rising on the plateau of Millevaches 14 m. N.W. of Ussel (department of Corrèze) at a height of 2789 ft., the Vienne flows westward, between the highlands of Limousin on the south and the plateau of Gentioux and the Blond mountains on the north. The first large town on its banks is Limoges (Haute-Vienne), below its confluence with the Taurion: in this part of its course the river supplies motive power to paper-mills and other factories. The river next reaches St Junien, below which it turns abruptly northwards to Confolens (Charente). Flowing through a picturesque and now wider valley, and passing in its course the churches and châteaux of Chauvigny, the river proceeds to the confluence of the Clain just above Châtellerault. Below that town it receives the Creuse (rising on the plateau of Millevaches and reaching the Vienne after a course of 159 m.), and turns north-west, uniting with the Loire below the historic town of Chinon. There is little river-traffic on the Vienne, and that only below its confluence with the Creuse (30 m.).

 VIENNE, a department of west-central, formed in 1790 out of Poitou (four-fifths of its present area), Touraine (one-seventh) and Berry, and bounded by Deux-Sèvres on the W., Charente on the S., Haute-Vienne on the S.E., Indre on the E., Indre-et-Loire on the N.E. and N., and Maine-et-Loire on the N.W. Pop. (1906) 333,621. Area, 2719 sq. m. The river Vienne, which gives its name to the department, with its tributaries the Creuse (subtributary the Gartempe) on the east and the Clain on the west, flows from south to north. The general slope of the department is in the same direction, the highest point (764 ft.) being in the south-east and the lowest (115 ft.) at the junction of the Vienne and the Creuse. In the south the Charente, on the north-west the Dive, and in the west some streams belonging to the basin of the Sèvre-Niortaise drain small portions of the department. The average temperature is 54° F. The prevailing winds are from the south-west and west. The annual rainfall is 24 in. 