Page:Paul Samuel Reinsch - Secret Diplomacy, How Far Can It Be Eliminated? - 1922.djvu/61



It was consistent with the character and tem- per of the Congress of Vienna that there flowed in it innumerable currents and counter-currents of intrigue. In January, 1815, the representa- tives of England, France and Austria agreed upon a secret treaty of alliance, directed against Rus- sia and Prussia. When Napoleon returned from Elba he found this document and showed it to the Russian Minister before tearing it up.

The first half of the nineteenth century was dominated by the principles that had prevailed at Vienna. In the details of diplomatic intercourse, indirection, bribery and deceit continue to prevail although in a less flamboyant fashion than in the eighteenth century. As the principle of nation- alism comes more clearly to emerge, the secrecy of diplomatic methods is distinguished from the secrecy of diplomatic policy with increasing con- demnation of the latter; a greater sense of re- sponsibility to the nation as a whole begins to show itself, and the traditional resources of di- plomacy are no longer quite adequate.

Nevertheless, the diplomatic literature of the age still looks upon diplomacy as essentially a tactical pursuit, conditioned by the continuous enmity of states. The French writer, Garden, in his Traite de diplomatic, gives the following