Page:The Great problems of British statesmanship.djvu/34



As foresight is the essence of statesmanship, it seems opportune to consider the greatest and most difficult problems with which the future Peace Conference will have to deal. This is all the more necessary as some of the questions which will have to be settled may cause differences among the Allies, unless the nations and their statesmen have previously arrived at some understanding as to the great lines on which the settlement should take place. Such a preliminary agreement had unfortunately not been effected when, a hundred years ago, at the Congress of Vienna, the entire map of Europe was recast. Owing to the resulting differences and the return of Napoleon from Elba, the diplomats hastily concluded a treaty which left the greatest and most dangerous problems badly solved or not solved at all. Guided by the principle of legitimacy, they considered the claims of the rulers, but disregarded those of the nations. At the Congress of Vienna, Germany and Italy were cut up, notwithstanding the protests of the German and Italian people. It was only natural that the work done in haste and under pressure by the diplomats at Vienna led to a series of avoidable wars, and especially to the Wars of Nationality of 1859, 1866, and 1870-71, by which a united Italy and a united Germany were evolved.

The nations and their rulers seem fairly agreed as to