Europe: or, A general survey of the present situation of the principal powers

Front matter

Class __iAlZl Book

GENERAL SURVEY

PRESENT SITUATIOxN OF THE PRINCIPAL POWERS:

Chap. X. — Concluding Reflections . . . 420 PREFATORY LETTER

I FEEL much pleasure, my dear brother, in complying with your request, that I would furnish you with a general sketch of the present political situation of Europe. You are aware of the uncertainty of all speculations of this sort upon contemporary events. At the present moment they are particularly hazardous, on account of the rapidity with which important occurrences of the most opposite character now succeed each other. The history of every following week refutes the statements and anticipations of the one that went before ; and the most intrepid prophets have begun to be weary of the profession. M. de Pradt himself has for some time been silent. Under these circumstances you will not be surprised if my opinions and conjectures are completely contradicted before they reach you. Should they fortunately escape this accident, you will still consider them only as an extended newspaper article, which may very probably lose its interest at the next arrival.

EUROPE: &r

Chapter I

Introductory remarks on the general causes of the present political agitations.

The course of events in Europe since the final fall of Bonaparte has been, I believe, as unexpected, as it is in every point of view remarkable. A variety of circumstances concurred to produce an uncommon uniformity of feeling and interest among the several nations, and the different classes of society, at the period immediately preceding the Congress of Vienna. The national jealousies resulting from the ancient balance of power, and the political feuds connected with the earlier periods of the revolution, had all disappeared under the mtolerable tyranny of Napoleon. The continental sovereigns forgot their habitual enmities, and even the distant stateliness of their ordinary habits of intercourse in this hour of common danger, and acted together with the cordiality and intimacy of personal friends. Liberty

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had long before withdrawn from the banners of France and enlisted under those of her enemies : so that the people entered every where into the views of their governments with enthusiasm, upon the same principles of independence, which sometimes lead them to opposition. France herself, with the exception perhaps of the army, was disposed to regard the allies as deliverers, rather than as enemies. It was an ' era of good feelings,' like that which now exists in the United States ; and which it may be hoped will be of longer duration. The uses of adversity were exhibited in the high minded spirit which directed all the proceedings of the allies among themselves, and in their relations with France at the time of the first invasion. Politicians and sovereigns who had previously submitted with rather an ill grace, if at all, to the common restraints of morals, seemed to have risen all at once to the loftiest heights of chivalry ; and even cool observers began to indulge a hope, that political affairs would wear in future a new aspect. It seemed as if the French revolution, after failing, at least for a time, in its direct attempts to accomplish any considerable good, was destined to reform the world by reaction. "Certainly any person, who at the time of the treaty of Paris had predicted that within six years a general dissatisfaction would grow up between the rulers and the people, in almost all the civilized parts of Europe — that there would be four military revolutions, besides innumerable changes of ministry — and that discord would even throw her apple into the divine assembly of the Holy Alliance — certainly such a person would have been looked upon, to say the least, as a very bold prophet.

These unexpected events are variously explained by different persons and parties, according as they are led by their position in society, their interests, or their opinions, to approve or disapprove them. It is thought by some, and the system has even been countenanced by the public declarations of the three northern powers, that all these violent convulsive movements result from the wild and desperate coalition of a few individuals, leagued together in secret societies, and that by the detection and exemplary punishment of the ringleaders, the public tranquillity may be immediately and permanently restored. It is also stated on official authority, that by certain seizures of persons and papers in the North of Italy a clue has been obtained by which the secrets of the conspiracy will be unravelled : and, if the general idea be correct, it may be presumed that there will soon be no danger of any further revolutions.

But, in reality, it is rather a poor compliment to the stability of thrones and governments to suppose that they can be shaken by the efforts of a few obscure and unprincipled wretches, like Thistlewood and Louvel. In the moral, as in the physical sciences, we must account for effects by supposing causes adequate to their production : and, in good earnest, is it by such a machinery as this, that several important kingdoms can be revolutionised, and a general alarm spread through the whole of Europe ? The very powers, which affect to hold this language, give but slender confirmation of it in their practical measures. Had they been serious in these assertions, should we have seen them holding Congress after Congress, and putting their troops in motion from Kamschatka to the borders of France ? Their language is in fact as inconsistent with itself, as it is with their j)roceedings. While they employ at times the contemptuous tone to which I have alluded, they shew on other occasions that they have a correct perception of the character of the present agitations of Europe ; and regard them in their true light, as a continuation of the great revolutionary movement, which was checked and compressed for a time by the despotism of Bonaparte, but only waited for his fall to begin its march again with a renewed impulse. This being the real state of the case, as no reasonable man can doubt for a moment, it is quite idle to look for the root of the evil in obscure associations and treasonable plots — or in the desperate fanaticism which may have led to the assassination of a poet in one country and a prince in another. These occurrences are symptoms, slight in importance, as to their effect upon the interest at stake, but proving by their atrocity the strength of the principles which are at work ; and those persons who are interested in checking the progress of political information, might think themselves very fortunate, if such obscure and feeble enemies were all they had to contend with.

The present agitations must therefore be regarded as resulting from the same general causes that pro'^ duced the French revolution. It would be superfluous to investigate these causes here in detail. However individual opinions may A^ary as to the effect of particular measures, or accidental circumstances ; — as to the favourable or unfavourable influence of the prominent political characters of the time on the progress of events ; — it is now generally admitted by observing men, that the revolution had been slowly and gradually brouglit about by the changes in the state of society resulting from the progress of industry, wealth and knowledge ; or in one word, of civilization. This change in the state % of society was the real revolution ; and this had been accomplished a long time before the events occurred, to which the name is commonly affixed. The violent explosion was little else than the breaking down of antiquated and obsolete forms, from which the spirit had long since departed : and the assumption of their share in the appearances of power by a portion of society which already possessed it in reality.

The same general circumstances, which existed in France, were also to be found, with different modifications, in almost all the continental countries. In all, with unimportant exceptions, the existing forms of administration had been established at a period when the land constituted the only property ; and when the human cultivators of the soil were intellectually nearly on a level with their brutal fellow labourers. That the military proprietors, who styled themselves nobles, should at that time exercise the whole political power, was a necessary consequence of the existing state of things. It was not quite so natural, that the descendants of these individuals should continue to monopolize all the power at a period when, in consequence of the rise and progress of industry and wealth, another class of proprietors had grown up in the community, generally more intelligent than the landholders, and n

certainly as strongly interested in the proper administration of the public affairs. Had the question in dispute, however, been merely who should administer the government, and had the class of military proprietors conducted the administration with impartiality and ability, it may be doubted whether this monopoly of power would have created any considerable discontent. To administer the public affairs, like all other business, is in itself a care and a labour : and could the mercantile and industrious proprietors have felt a complete certainty that this labour, as far as they were interested in its results, would be performed in the best possible manner, there seems no reason to suppose that they would have felt any strong desire to do it themselves. But in reality it is impossible that they could ever feel this assurance. In public, as in private affairs, no individual willingly places his property wholly beyond his own control and inspection, whatever confidence he may place in the persons whom he employs. Hence the state of things was in itself unnatural : but, independently of this, the mercantile and industrious classes had reason to be satisfied, long before they were important enough to be able to make themselves heard in society, that they should be compelled to endure, not only the necessary inconveniences of this political situation, but all the multiplied and aggravated mischiefs that could possiblj be made to flow from it by the most wanton abuse of power. That they were excluded from the administration of government was a slight grievance. It became of more importance when governments, instead of consulting and promoting their interest, attempted to crush and oppress them by every description of imposition and prohibition, that could be imagined. Indifference itself must have given way to indignation at the revolting injustice displayed by the privileged classes in exempting themselves by their own act from the taxes which they imposed upon the industrious proprietors. Not content with these arrogant and odious assumptions, they pushed their pretensions still farther : and claimed, under the name of nobility, an inherent and essential superiority of blood and race, over their industrious fellow citizens. To live in idleness was to live nobly ; and it was a disgrace and degradation to exercise any description of manual and intellectual labour : and it may be remarked as a proof how strongly the most unjust and absurd opinions fasten themselves upon society by the force of habit, that this prejudice still prevails as strongly as ever in the higher classes of society.

Such a state of things necessarily established a hostile relation between the industrious classes of thn community and the landed proprietors ; the result of which was of course determined by the progress of events. Had the impulse which gave a spring to commerce and industry been less powerful and active than it was, they must have sunk under the load of so much oppression and contumely ; and Europe would now have been grovelling in the barbarism of the earliest feudal times, or more probably would have fallen still lower in the scale of degradation ; and instead of being, as it is, the light and glory of the world, would have exhibited the sad spectacle of decay and misery that we see in Turkey, Persia, and Morocco. Happily the spirit of improvement was too powerful to be checked : and supposing it, as it has proved to be, sufficiently active to give the industrious classes a constantly augmenting importance in the community, notwithstanding every thing that was done to oppress and insult them, it is evident that the privileged proprietors must have ultimately receded of themselves from their odious pretensions ; or that a period would arrive sooner or later under any circumstances, when the two interests would come into collision. Wealth and knowledge are the ingredients of essential power. When the intelligence and wealth of the industrious classes had risen to an equality with those of the landed proprietors, or privileged orders, they would be in substance, equally powerful ; and it is not in human nature that they should then submit to the degradation and oppression which they had been obliged to endure, when they were a small and insignificant portion of the community. Supposing them even from the force of habit to continue to submit to it at this epoch, a period would soon arrive, in the progress of their increasing influence, when their wealth and intelligence would be far superior to those of the nobles ; as they now are in fact in the civilized parts of Europe. Their final emancipation and the struggle necessary to effect it must therefore be regarded as necessary and inevitable occurrences in the course of events.

Hence the collision of interests, of which so many symptoms have appeared in Europe for the last two or three centuries ; which, if it did not actually cause the Reformation, gave it most of its political importance ; which burst out with such a tremendous explosion in the French Revolution, and is now agitating and convulsing, in greater or less degrees, every part of Christendom, except Russia and the United States, which from precisely opposite causes are entirely exempt from its influence. This collision of interests is not an obscure conspiracy, or an accidental disorder in the political world, but a necessary result of the operation of general principles. The popular cause — the cause of constitutional liberty — is essentially just : and the privileged classes who will finally be the only sufferers from the conflict, are also ultimately responsible for its occurrence : because it was their duty to foresee it, and to guard against it by accommodating of their own accord the forms of administration to the changes in the state of society.

The sovereigns now tell us, it is true, that they are responsible to God and not to man for the discharge of their duty. This the people know : and this is one reason, among others, why they wish to change the existing political forms, and to be governed by rulers, who shall also be responsible to man. But they also know that if the sovereigns are responsible to God for the discharge of their duty, the people are also responsible to God for the performance of theirs : and that it is a part of thi^ duty to protect their persons and rights from violation, whether by brute force, or under the forms of law. The late attempts of the Northern Alliance to make out a case in their favour by introducing this doctrine of the divine right of kings, in its antiquated and exploded shape, is perhaps one of the strongest proofs they have given of their utter incompetence to the task they impose upon themselves of regulating the interests of the civilized world, and of the absolute necessity of the political reformation they are opposing. Improvements in government, they continually urge, should be the work of the rulers themselves. In this way they are effected without convulsion or danger : while, if they are forced upon the rulers from other quarters, however useful in themselves, they are always attended with a greater or less degree of immediate positive evil. This doctrine is admirable : and the people ask for nothing better, than that their rulers would attend to it, and introduce of their own accord the necessary changes. But suppose that the sovereigns, while they publicly admit in all their declarations that the duty of introducing the necessary improvements belongs to them, forget to perform it in practice, and sanction the existence of the most intolerable abuses ; must the nation leave the work undone, because the sovereigns might do it better if they would consent to undertake it ? What if the sovereign himself happens to be strongly interested in the existing abuse ? Is there no appeal for millions of suffering men against the arbitrary and capricious or interested decision of a single person, his minister or mistress ? These are the doctrines of Eastern despotism : and it is honourable to the two most enlightened governments in Europe that they have withdrawn their countenance from an association that avows such disgraceful principles.

In applying strong expressions to the policy adopted by these monarchs, I would not be understood as intending to impute to them or even to their adorers a proportionate degree of personal blame : although it is difficult to consider them as wholly innocent, since we must suppose, that individuals, however much their opinions and feel' ings are of necessity under the operation of circumstances, may still with honest intentions and sufficient inquiry, especially in matters wholly practical like these, make a nearer approach to the truth. Still their views must, generally speaking, be in a great measure the result of their personal position, which, on the other hand, is itself the result of the political situation of the countries they respectively govern. They are the rulers of empires in the lowest state of civilization. Such empires suppose of necessity an arbitrary form of government ; and if the sovereigns, who are called to rule over them, are naturally imbued by their position with arbitrary principles and feelings, the circumstance is not productive of injury, while they confine themselves to the administration of their own dominions. That a despot should hold 3 to the doctrine of despotism is certainly natural ; and that slaves must be ruled with a rod of iron, may perhaps be admitted. The misfortune is, that these powerful despots are placed by circumstances in such a situation, that they have the opportunity of introducing their arbitrary notions, salutary enough perhaps in their effects upon their own barbarous subjects at home, into the concerns of other countries, in different states of civilization, and which ought to be governed upon other principles.

Although it is clearly the interest as well as the duty of the privileged classes in Europe, upon a large and correct view of their position, to accommodate the existing forms of government by their own voluntary act to the altered state of society, still as immediate interest generally predominates in determining human actions, such sacrifices could not have been anticipated as probable. Hence the period when the wealth and importance of the industrious classes should have risen to such a height as to give them reasonable hopes of success in an open conflict with the privileged orders was naturally to be looked to as the Age of Revolutions : and this is the period in which we live. The approach of it was not sudden and unexpected. It did not burst upon the world in thunder without affording time for preparation to meet the shock. Those who have suffered, and are still to suffer by it, had sufficient warning ; and if the understanding of the governments had been on a level with the intelligence of the age, they had ample leisure and opportunity to take all the necessary precautions for preventing the impending danger. Through the whole of the last century, there prevailed among the reflecting men in France, not a vague conjecture, but a settled conviction, which may be now found repeatedly expressed in a thousadid passages of their writings, that the existing institutions could not stand. Rousseau applies the remark to the thrones of Europe in general ; and every day's experience bears witness to his sagacity.

But anticipations of this description attract no attention in the quarter where they might be useful, till the crisis arrives. It is thus with Great Britain at the present day. The coolest and most sagacious political philosopher, that perhaps ever appeared in Europe — a Tory in principle — pointed out more than half a century ago an approaching crisis in the financial affairs of that country. This crisis has come on more slowly than he anticipated, and the period at which he predicted that it would arrive has already passed. Still the principles on which his calculation are grounded were not conjectural, but of an exact and mathematical certainty. His views have been assented to and confirmed by almost all subsequent inquirers who have attended to the subject. It has been perceived that the delay has not been owing to the incorrectness of the principles on which the prediction was founded — that the danger is still as certain as ever, unless something is done to prevent it — and that the crisis will be only the more dreadful when it arrives, from the slowness of its advances. Does the British Government attend to these predictions, and employ itself while it is time in taking the proper precautionary measures ? Not at all. They content themselves with sneering at pretended prophets, and affirming that as things have gone very well thus far, they must of necessity continue to proceed in the same way forever. The infatuation of the French Government was precisely of the same description, or possibly still more profound ; for the individuals composing it, plunged as they were in the lowest depths of debauchery, were probably quite unconscious that any sinister predictions existed.

The present age — the age of Revolutions — will doubtless be recorded in history as one of the most remarkable epochs in the progress of society, and it may be hoped will be productive of the most important and beneficial results. It is an age distinguished for great personal talent and activity — for daring enterprises sometimes defeated but often successful — for a prodigious development of every description of power, intellectual, physical and moral. It is also of necessity an age of confusion and disorder — of violence, and I may add of much positive guilt. The virtues, if they exist at all, must exist as habitual traits of character ; and an age of great commotion is not favourable to the preservation of permanent habits of any kind, in the individuals who are placed by character or circumstances within the sphere of its influence. The Christian world — I may say — the globe itself, (for the movement seems to be extending very rapidly beyond the bounds of Christendom,) is rocked to its centre by a great convulsion. Empires that bear the name of colonies have shaken or are now shaking off the shackles of dependence. In America alone eight or ten powerful nations are bursting at once into new forms of existence. In the old world reformation and transformation are every where the watch words ; and the bayonet the universal instrument for obtaining new advantages or securing the old. There never was a period in history when Europe exhibited any thing like the array of military and naval force, which has beea habitually on foot for the last thirty years.

The wars of the Reformation shrink into skirmishes, by the side of these Titanian campaigns. Even the multitudinous and tumukuous hosts of the Crusaders are of small account, when we see a single monarch maintaining a peace establishment of more than eight hundred thousand disciplined troops. In such times energy rather than moral virtue is the dominant quality. The wise and good are slow to engage in these violent enterprises, always hoping that the expected advantage may be obtained at less cost from the gentler operations of nature. They look with distrust and apprehension upon revolutions, however just the principles and however probable the ultimate benefit. While they are waiting, the ardent and ambitious rush forward and commence the work. If cooler and more thoughtful spirits lend some assistance at first, they are soon thrown out in the race ; and the effort for improvement degenerates into a conflict of personal interests and passions. In this desperate struggle the peaceful pursuits of the people are interrupted, the purest blood flows in torrents, and the happiness of one or two generations is almost wholly sacrificed. Such is but too often the general aspect of a revolution. I mention it, because in expressing a favourable opinion of the principles and probable results of the present effofts for political reform, I would not be understood to approve of revolutions in general, or in particular of all the late movements in various quarters that pass under this name in their details. The best friends of liberty have always looked with distrust on revolutions ; though sometimes compelled to resort to them as a refuge from still greater evils. The happiest revolutions, says Rousseau, would he dearly purchased by the blood of a single individual : — an exaggerated expression of a just and humane idea. It is a rare occurrence indeed, and can only happen by a most singular blessing of Providence, when, as in our revolution, the wisesfe and the best men in the nation take the lead from the beginning, and retain it steadily through the whole. The people, who had the good sense and the virtue to submit to such authority in times when established forms and accustomed restraints had lost their influence, proved themselves to be worthy of independence. And it is not the least advantage of the happy institutions, which they have bequeathed to us, that political reforms may be introduced whenever they appear expedient, without even the apprehension of violence.

Without dwelling any longer on these general principles, which at this day would probably present but little novelty, were there even opportunity here for the discussion ; I shall confine myself to a few deductions from them in regard to the present state of Europe in general, and shall then proceed to offer some more particular remarks upon the situation of the most important members composing this great political body.

Admitting then, what it has not been my object to prove, but merely to state, that the spirit of political improvement now at work throughout the world is the necessary and natural result of the progress of civilization, that is, of industry, wealth and knowledge — it is easy to calculate with sufficient probability the respective strength of the interests which it brings into collision, and which we see in various countries engaged, in one form or another, in actual conflict. The points at issue between the parties to these struggles are treated very often as matters of opinion and abstract right. For the present purpose I lay these considerations entirely out of the case, although in the course of my remarks I may perhaps have occasion to touch slightly upon some of the controverted questions. I lay them out of the case, not only because opinions of all parties are in general determined by their interests, but because, whether right or wrong, it is not in the character of their opinions that the strength or weakness of their cause is to be found. We may venture to hope perhaps that at one time or another — in this world or the next — the right side will always be the strongest. At present this is not uniformly the case : and in order to judge of the strength of a party or opinion it is necessary to ascertain, not whether it is right or wrong, but what amount of interest is connected with it, and what opposed to it : how large and important a portion of society finds advantage respectively in promoting or defeating its general objects.

Now it may be taken for granted as a clear proposition, that the whole body of society is interested in the progress of civilization. The happiness of all classes is alike promoted by the augmentation of industry in its several branches of agriculture, commerce and manufactures ; by the additional comforts and enjoyments which it distributes through the community in various proportions but in greater or less degrees to all, and by the progress of knowledge, which, however at times misapplied, always tends, in its general results, to the public good. Admitting then that political improvement is one of the objects to be effected in the progress of civilization, the interest promoted by it is the interest of the whole society ; and the property and intelligence of the society at large, are consequently in 4 a general view of the subject enlisted every where in its support.

Who then is opposed to it ? What interest sustains the opposite party in these difficult and disastrous struggles? The answer is familiar. The interest in question is the interest connected with such existing institutions, as are injurious to the general good and would be destroyed by the progress of political improvement. Those who derive personal advantages from these institutions naturally oppose every thing, however generally beneficial, which tends to overthrow them, on the same principles, which led the worthy silversmiths of Ephesus in ancient times to resist the progress of Christianity. They had not inquired into its evidences or reflected much upon its general influence ; they only knew that it would ruin the craft, by which they had their wealth. If then we regard the whole of Europe as forming one body politic, divided into parties in regard to the great question of political reformation now so violently agitated, there will be found on one side the whole mass of population, not interested in the support of existing institutions injurious to the public welfare ; and on the other the individuals deriving personal benefit from these institutions, with all that part of the population, which is under their influence.