Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/211

Rh METTERNICH 201 of Prussian writers, because he did not work for German unity, is to ignore the existence of such a thing as state- policy. Judged by the ordinary standards of practical statesmanship, not by the philosophy of history, Metternich s action in 1813 and 1814 was that of a very superior man ; and the qualities of calmness and dexterity which he displayed would have given an infinitely greater effectiveness to the life of his great rival Stein, who in patriotic and moral enthusiasm was so far above him. The second part of Metternich s career, which extends from 1815 to 1848, is that of a leader of European conser vatism. . It is difficult to describe his attitude towards almost all the great questions which were now arising as any but one of absolute blindness and infatuation. He acknowledged that exceptional circumstances in the past had made it possible for England&quot; to exist under a constitution ; he knew that France would not surrender the Charta given to it by King Louis XVIII.; but in all other great states he maintained that there were no alter natives but absolute monarchical government and moral anarchy. His denunciations of liberals and reformers everywhere and at all times are perfectly childish ; and in many instances his hatred of change led him into errors of judgment not surpassed in the annals of political folly. When Napoleon fell, there was a prospect of the introduction of constitutional government throughout a great part of Europe. King Frederick William, stimulat ing the efforts of the Prussian people against France by the hopes of liberty, had definitely promised them a constitu tion and a general assembly. The czar had determined to introduce parliamentary life into the kingdom of Poland, and even hoped to extend it, after some interval, to Russia. The Federal Act drawn up for Germany at the congress of Vienna declared that in every state within the German league a constitution should be established. Against this liberal movement of the age Metternich resolutely set his face. Though wide general causes were at work, the personal influence of the Austrian statesman had no small share in prolonging the existence of autocratic government, and in developing that antagonism between the peoples and their rulers which culminated in the revolutions of 1848. The nature of the Austrian state, composed of so many heterogeneous provinces and nationalities, no doubt made it natural for its representative to defend and exalt the principle of personal sovereignty, on which alone the unity of Austria was based ; the relation of Austria to Italy rendered the growth of the sentiment of nationality a real source of danger to the house of Hapsburg ; but Metternich s abhorrence of constitutional and popular ideas was more than the outcome of a calculating policy. He was not a man of much faith, but one belief he held with all the force of religious conviction, namely, the belief that his own task and mission in the world was to uphold established authority. All efforts to alter the form or to broaden the basis of government he classed under the same head, as works of the spirit of revolution ; and in one of his most earnest writings he places side by side, as instances of evil sought for its own sake, the action of the secret societies in Germany, the Carbonaria of Italy, and the attempts of the English to carry the Reform Bill. Working on prin ciples like these, and without the shadow of a doubt in his own wisdom, Metternich naturally proved a great power at a time when the sovereigns who had inclined to constitu tional ideas began to feel the difficulties in the way of putting them into practice. Metternich s advice, tendered with every grace of manner and with the most winning and persuasive art, was indeed not hard for rulers to accept, for he simply recommended them to give up nothing that they had got. It was at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) that the retrograde tendency, which was now suc ceeding to the hopes of 1815, first gained expression. An agitation among the students at the German universities had caused some scandal in the previous year, and secret societies had just been discovered in Russia. Metternich plied the king of Prussia with arguments for withholding the national representation which he had promised to his people, and stimulated the misgivings which were arising in the mind of the czar, hitherto the champion of European liberalism. A few months later the murder of Alexander s German agent, Kotzebue, by a fanatical student gave Metternich an excellent pretext for organizing a crusade against German liberty. A conference of ministers was held at Carlsbad. The king of Prussia allowed his representative to follow Metternich s lead. The resistance of the constitutional minor states proved of no avail ; and a series of resolutions was passed which made an end of the freedom of the press throughout Germany, and subjected the teaching and the discipline of the universities to officers of state. A commis sion was established at Mainz to investigate the conspiracies which Metternich alleged to have been formed for the over throw of all existing governments, and for the creation of a German republic, one and indivisible. In the following year new articles were added by Metternich s direction to the original Federal Act, the most important being one that forbade the creation in any German state of an assembly representing the community at large, and enforced the system of representation by separate estates or orders, each possessed of certain limited definite rights, and all alike subordinate to the supremacy of the crown. Metternich would gladly have made an end of the parliamentary con stitutions which had already come into being in Bavaria and the southern states ; but he was unable to attack them openly, and had to confine himself to the advocacy of strict monarchical principles through his representatives at these courts. With regard to Prussia, however, he was completely successful. The king of Prussia broke his promise of establishing a national representation, and satisfied his conscience by creating certain powerless pro vincial diets, exactly as Metternich had recommended him. Throughout Germany at large a system of repression was carried out against the advocates of constitutional right. The press was silenced ; societies were dissolved ; prosecu tions became more and more common. While Metternich imagined himself to be stifling the spirit of discontent, he was in fact driving it into more secret and more violent courses, and convincing eager men that the regeneration of Germany must be sought not in the reform but in the overthrow of governments. Meanwhile revolution broke out in Spain and Italy. Ferdinand of Spain, who had restored despotism, was com pelled, in March 1820, to accept the constitution of 1812 which he had subverted. The same constitution was accepted a few months later by Ferdinand of Naples. Spain was outside Metternich s range, but his hand fell heavily upon Naples. A congress of the great powers was held at Troppau in October 1820. Metternich, who was president, as he had been at Vienna, and continued to be in later congresses, completely won over the czar to his own views. Resolutions in favour of an intervention, if neces sary by force of arms, against the Neapolitan liberal Govern ment were adopted by Austria, Russia, and Prussia, though England and France held aloof. The congress was then adjourned to Laibach in Carniola, whither Ferdinand of Naples was summoned, in order that he might mediate between the powers and his people, and induce the latter to give up a constitution which offended the three northern courts. Ferdinand s journey and mediation were an impos ture as regarded the Neapolitans; he pretended that he went to negotiate on behalf of his people, when in fact his intention was exactly the same as Metternich s, namely, to XVI. 26