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ALEXANDER I
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See also: Meanwhile the See also:balance of forces within the European See also:concert had shown a tendency to shift. At the outset the restless activity of the emperor Alexander, his incalculable Alexander See also:idealism, and his hardly veiled ambitions had See also:drawn i of
Austria and Great Britain togetherin common suspicion Russia and of an See also:influence that threatened to be little less disturb- Mettering to the See also:world's See also:peace than that of See also:Napoleon. But nick.
at Aix Metternich had begun to realize that, in the See also:long-run, the See also:system of repression which he held to be essential to the stability of the European, and above all of the See also:Austrian, polity would receive little effective aid from Great Britain, fettered as she was by constitutional forms; while Alexander, alarmed at the See also:discovery of revolutionary plots against his See also:person, had already shown gratifying signs of repentance. The " Jacobin " propaganda of the tsar's agents continued, it is true, especially in See also:Italy; and, in spite of the See also:murder of the dramatist See also:Kotzebue, as a See also:Russian emissary, by the fanatical " Bursche " Karl See also:Sand, Alexander joined with Castlereagh in protesting against the reactionary policy embodied in the See also:Carlsbad Decrees of See also:October 1819. But the murder of the See also:duke of Berri on the 13th of See also:February 1820 completed the Russian autocrat's " See also:conversion." At the congress of Troppau, which met in the autumn of the same year, he was a " changed See also:man," committed henceforth See also:heart and soul to Metternich and his policy. The outcome of this new understanding was the famous Troppau See also:Protocol, congress published to the world on the 19th of See also:November 18zo, and pro. and signed by Austria, Prussia and Russia. The tocot of
immediate occasion of this manifesto was the military Troppau, insurrection, under General See also:Pepe, at See also:Naples, by which 1820. the See also:Spanish constitution of 1812 had been forced on the See also:
peaceful means, or if need be by arms, to bring back the guilty See also:state into the bosom of the Great Alliance."
This was, in effect, an attempt to apply the principle of the Carlsbad Decrees to all the world; and, had the attempt succeeded, all Europe would have been turned into a See also:confederation on the See also:model of that of Germany; for a See also:political alliance, charged with the safeguarding of the territorial settlement defined by treaty, would have been substituted a central See also:diet of the great powers, armed with undefined authority; and the sovereign independence of the nations would have been at an end. To any such principle, and therefore to the protocol in which it was embodied, Great Britain offered an uncompromising opposition. In vain Metternich urged upon Castlereagh that the protocol was but the logical conclusion drawn from premises to which he was already committed; for, if the alliance was to be effective in maintaining peace, it must interfere wherever and whenever peace should be threatened, and therefore to crush See also:internal revolutions which could not but have an See also:external result. The See also:logic was perfect; the proposition that on which every "project of peace " must eventually break. Castlereagh's reply was, in brief, that Great Britain could never admit a principle which she would not in any circumstances allow to be applied in her own case.
The See also:absence of the signatures of Great Britain and France from the Troppau protocol marked the first rift in the alliance,
a rift that was soon to develop into a breach. For the
time, indeed, the crack was " papered over. See also:Castle-
reagh was prepared to leave Austria a See also:free hand to
See also:deal with the risings in Naples and See also:Piedmont, since she had treaty rights in the former case and her interests, as an Italian See also:power, were threatened in both. Great Britain was even represented at the congress which reassembled at Laibach in See also:January 1821, though See also:Lord See also: Metternich, anxious to prove to the Italian Liberals that the tsar was no longer their friend, welcomed the demonstration, and Prussia followed obediently in Austria's See also:wake. " It is clear," wrote Lord Stewart," that a Triple Understanding has been created which binds the parties to carry forward their own views in spite of any difference of See also:opinion which may • exist between them and the two great constitutional governments." (See TROPPAU and LAIBACIS.) But the narrower " Holy Alliance " of the three autocratic monarchies, as opposed to the two western constitutional monarchies, was not in fact destined to take shape effectof till after the See also:Paris revolution of 183o. Several factors revolution in slam. delayed the See also:process, notably the' revolt of the Greeks against the See also:Ottoman See also:rule, and the Spanish question, which latter formed the See also:main subject of discussion at the See also:con- gress of Verona in 1822. In the Eastern Question the interests of Austria and Great Britain were identical; both desired to maintain the integrity of See also:Turkey; both saw that this integrity was in the greatest peril owing to the possible intervention of the Orthodox tsar in favour of his co-religionists in revolt; and both agreed that the best means of preventing such intervention was to bind the Russian emperor to the European concert by using his devotion to the principles of the Holy Alliance. At Verona, however, the Eastern question was entirely overshadowed by that of See also:Spain, and in this See also:matter the views of Great congress Britain were diametrically opposed to those of the ;2 rona, other powers of the alliance. She shared indeed with France and Austria the strenuous objection to the emperor Alexander's proposal to march 150,000 Russians into Piedmont in order to deal with Jacobinism whether in France or Spain; but she protested equally strenuously against the See also:counter- proposal of France, which was ultimately adopted, that a See also:French See also:army should march into Spain to liberate the. king from his constitutional fetters in the name of Europe. See also:George See also:Canning, carrying on the tradition of Castlereagh, once more protested, through See also:Wellington, as See also:British plenipotentiary at the congress, against the whole principle of intervention; and when, in spite of the British protest, the other powers persisted, the breach of Great Britain with the See also:continental alliance was proclaimed to all the world. When, on the 7th of See also:April 1823, the French army under the duke of See also:Angouleme crossed the Bidassoa, the great experiment of governing Europe through a central See also:committee of the great powers was at an end. (See VERONA, CONGRESS OF; ALEXANDER I.; See also:LONDONDERRY, See also:ROBERT STEWART, 2nd See also:marquess of; CANNING, GEORGE.) Henceforth, though the treaties survived, and with them the principle of the concert on which they were based, " Europe as a See also:diplomatic conception tends to sink into the back- End ofthe ground and to be replaced by the old See also:international "eonfede anarchy of the 18th See also:century. To Canning this develop- ration of ment seemed wholly welcome. He applied to the Europe.'' rivalry of states the Liberal principle of free competition as the See also:sole See also:condition of healthy growth. " See also:Villele is a See also:minister of See also:thirty years ago," he wrote to Bagot on the 3rd of January 1823, " no revolutionary See also:scoundrel: but constitutionally hating England, as See also:Choiseul and See also:Vergennes used to hate us, and so things are getting back to a wholesome state again. Every nation for itself, and See also:God for us all." But the essential difference between the rivalries of the 18th and 19th centuries was in the conception of the " nation." To Canning, as to the diplomatists of the congress of Vienna, " nation " was synonymous with " state, " and See also:national boundaries were those defined by the treaties, which Canning was as See also:bent on preserving as any of his reactionary contemporaries. The conception of the divine right of every See also:nationality to readjust political frontiers to suit its own ideals was as See also:foreign to him as to Metternich. Yet this principle of nationality, which was destined during the loth century to See also:wreck the political structure consecrated at Vienna, and to leave to the succeeding See also:age a See also:host of unsolved and insoluble problems, found in Canning its earliest See also:champion in the higher See also:councils of Europe. The recognition of the independence of the See also:South See also:American republics and of the belligerent rights of the See also:Greek insurgents were both in the first instance motived by the particular interests of Great Britain; but they were none the less hailed as concessions to the principles of nationality, to which they gave an impetus which was destined to continue till the See also:face of Europe had been transformed. This in fact constitutes the main significance for Europe of the See also:War of Greek Independence, which lasted from the first rising of the Greeks in the Motea in 1821 till the Europe See also:signature of the treaty of See also:London on the 7th of May and the 183 2 (see GREEK INDEPENDENCE, WAR OF; TURKEY: revolt of History). Its actual outcome, so far as the political See also:Greece. structure of Europe was concerned, was but to add an insignificant See also:kingdom to the European states system. But its moral effect was immense. The sacrosanctity of the status quo had been violated, and violated with the active aid of three of the powers of the continental alliance: Russia, France and Great Britain. Metternich was right when he said that, in principle, there was no difference between the Greek insurgents and any other " rebels against legitimate authority," and the Liberals of all Europe, forced into inactivity by the Austrian See also:police system, hailed in the Greeks the champions of their own cause. Philhelienisn, beyond its proper See also:enthusiasm, served as a convenient See also:veil for agitations that had little concern with Greece. Other forces making for political change were simultaneously at See also:work. The peace `secured by the concert of the powers had given free See also:play to the See also:mechanical and See also:industrial innovations Economic that heralded the marvellous economic revolution of progress; the coming age; See also:wealth increased rapidly, and with it rise of the the influence and the ambition of the See also:middle classes. middle The revolution of July 1830, which established the classes. See also:bourgeois See also:monarchy in France, marked their first See also:triumph. In
First rift In the alliance.
Principle of nationality.
countries less economically advanced, e.g. Germany and Italy, the attempt to follow French example ended in failure; but the revolt of the Belgians, for reasons partly economic and
partly national, against the domination of the Dutch, Revolu- resulted in the See also:establishment of the See also:independent king-
!ions of
18?0, dom of See also:Belgium-the first actual breach in the terri-
torial settlement of 1815. In Great Britain the agitation of the disfranchised middle classes, which' seemed to threaten a violent revolution, ended in 1832 in the passing of the Reform See also:Bill and their See also:admission to political power. (See FRANCE; GERMANY; ITALY; BELGIUM; See also:ENGLISH HISTORY.)
The easy success of the revolutions in the See also:west of Europe had been due, not to any reluctance of the reactionary powers to interfere on the basis of the old agreements, but to their preoccupation with the national' revolt in See also:Poland (q.v.). In view of this, and of the attitude of Great Britain, they had to recognize the See also:title of See also: In the Greek question the two powers had acted cordially in concert; and this See also:good understanding even the French See also:conquest of See also:Algiers in 183o, which laid the foundations of the French empire in See also:Africa, had not availed to shatter; for the eyes of the Tory See also:ministry were still fixed on France as the potential See also:focus of revolutionary propaganda, and any over-See also:sea possessions she might acquire were, in Wellington's opinion, so many hostages for her good behaviour given to British sea-power. The results of the July revolution in Paris were accepted by Great Britain so soon as it became clear that Louis Philippe stood for peace and not for revolutionary aggression; the armed intervention of France in favour of the Belgians in See also:August 1831 was stopped by the firm See also:language of See also:Palmerston; the French occupation of See also:Ancona, as a countermove to Austrian aggressions in Italy, was accepted as " an incident of the balance of power "; and the intention of the king of the French to abide by the treaties, which became clearer with the consolidation of his power at See also:home, paved the way for that entente between the two Liberal powers which lasted until 1840. The cleavage between the fundamental principles of the two See also:groups of autocratic and constitutional powers was not only The con- apparent in their general attitude towards constitustitutional tional and national movements, but affected also the v. the position taken up by them during the crisis of the autocratic Eastern question evoked by the revolt of Mehemet powers. Ali, pasha of Egypt, a crisis by which between 1839 and 1841 all other diplomatic issues were overshadowed. (See MEHEMET ALI.) During the Greek revolt the efforts of Austria had been directed to preventing a Russian attack upon Turkey; these efforts had failed, and Metternich's worst fears seemed to he realized when the Russo-See also:Turkish See also:campaigns of 1828--29 issued in the treaty of See also:Adrianople (See also:September 14, 1829) The and the apparently See also:complete vassalage of the See also:sultan to Eastern the tsar. But when, in 1832, Sultan Mahmud appealed question; in his despair to the emperor See also:Nicholas to See also:save him Mehemet from ruin at the hands of the See also:Egyptian rebels, and, as the result, the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi (July 8, 1833) seemed to See also:place definitely in the hands of Russia the keys of the See also:Black Sea, it was See also:left to France and Great Britain to give See also:voice to the protest of Europe. Austria, alarmed by the revolutionary movements of 1830, accepted the fact of Russian preponderance at See also:Constantinople, rather than See also:risk a breach with the autocrat who was now the main See also:pillar of the Holy Alliance. The emperor Nicholas, for his See also:part, was equally prepared to surrender some of his ambitions in the See also:East for the See also:sake of the common cause, the more so since to Russian statesmen the See also:maintenance of Turkey in a condition of weakness and dependence now seemed preferable to any attempt to break it up..! The result of these dispositions was the See also:convention of Munchen- i cboas onveof rt- gratz (September 18,1833) between Russia, Austria and Munchen. Prussia, by which the three powers undertook to gratz and guarantee the integrity of the Ottoman empire. In Be?3' rlin. the following See also:month a secret convention was signed at 18 See also:Berlin between the same powers (October 15), reaffirming the right of the powers to intervene in the internal affairs of !a friendly state at the See also:request of its legitimate sovereign, a right with which no third power :would be allowed to interfere, such interference to be regarded by the throe powers as an See also:act of hostility directed against all of them. This reconstitution of the " Holy Alliance " on a narrower basis was the work of the emperor Nicholas, whose masterful See also:personality had by this time quite overshadowed the The Tsar influence of Metternich in the councils of the autocratic Nicholas i powers. There was no formal breach of the See also:Grand and See also:Pal Alliance; the " treaties " remained in force; but the merston. French revolution of 1830 had produced a See also:practical disruption which was every See also:day accentuated by the attitude of the British government under the influence of Palmerston. For Palmerston had now become f` the firebrand of Europe," openly proclaiming his contempt for international See also:law and equally openly posing as the See also:protector of " oppressed nationalities." - " If these two powers (France and England)," wrote the tsar to King Frederick William of Prussia, " have the courage to profess lrthdly See also:rebellion and the overturn of all stability, we ought to have the right and the courage to support Divine right." This deep cleavage of principles was immediately exhibited in the attitude of the powers towards the troubles in the Spanish peninsula. In September 1833 See also: The fears roused by the Reform Act of 1832 had been belied by its results; the conservative See also:temper of the British electorate had restored to Great Britain the See also:prestige of a legitimate power; and the See also:pledge of the tsar's renewed confidence and See also:goodwill was the visit of the See also:cesarevich (afterwards the emperor Alexander II.) to the English See also:court in Breach of 1839. This was not without its effect on the public Anglo- sentiment; but the triumph of the tsar's See also:diplomacy French was due to fresh complications in the Eastern question, "entente" due to the renewed effort of Sultan Mahmud to crush 1 the hated See also:viceroy of Egypt. These events will be found outlined in the See also:article MEHEMET ALL Here it will suffice to say that the convention of London of the 15th of July 184o, signed by Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia without calling France into counsel, marked the definite breach of the Anglo-French entente, a breach which was but imperfectly healed by the Straits' Convention signed by all the powers on the 13th of July 1841. The Straits' Convention was hailed by See also:Count See also:Nesselrode, the Russian foreign secretary, as having re-established " the federa- Great tive system of the European states on its old basis." Britain This was true, in so far as it created yet another and precedent for the concerted action of the European France. powers, and once more consecrated the right of " Europe " to decide in common on questions of first-See also:rate inter-national importance. But the divergence of interests and principles within the concert were too great to be healed by the I national See also:movement, declared war against Austria. Against a settlement of a single issue, however important, and this See also:diver- movement so widespread and apparently inspired by a common gence increased as events moved towards the revolutionary purpose the governments were powerless. The collapse of the outbreaks of 1848. When, in 1846, the independent See also:republic Austrian See also:administration, of which the inherent rottenness was now of See also:Cracow was suppressed by agreement of the three autocratic revealed, involved that of those reactionary powers which had powers, on the ground that it had become a dangerous centre of leaned upon it. One by one they accepted what seemed to be revolutionary agitation, it was Great Britain and France that the inevitable; even See also:Pope See also:Pius IX. sent troops to fight under protested against an arbitrary infraction of the treaties by the I the banner of St See also:Peter for the Italian cause; while in Berlin very governments which had laid the greatest stress upon their Frederick William IV., wrapped in the See also:gold and black See also:colours of sanctity. The entente between the two Liberal powers had been I imperial Germany, posed as the See also:leader of " the glorious See also:German patched up after the See also:closure of the Egyptian Question; it was revolution." When, on the 18th of May, the See also:parliament of cemented by visits of Queen See also:Victoria and the See also:prince See also:consort to See also:United Germany was opened at Frankfort, it seemed as though the See also:Chateau d'Eu (1843 and 1845), and of King Louis Philippe See also:pan-German dreams were on the See also:threshold of realization; while to See also:Windsor (1844); and it survived, in spite of several causes of in Italy, See also:early in the same month, See also:Lombardy, See also:Modena, See also:Parma See also:friction, notably the crisis in See also:Morocco (q.v.), until 1846, when the affair of the Spanish Marriages brought it to a somewhat dramatic conclusion. The attempt to secure the See also:succession to the Spanish throne for his descendants by pressing on the See also:marriage of the duke of See also:Montpensier with the infanta Luisa, before that of The "Feb- his authority was based. In 1847 he joined with the ruary Re- three autocratic powers in supporting the clerical and volution," reactionary Sonderbund in See also:Switzerland, in See also:defiance of 1848. the protests of Great Britain and the attitude of the See also:majority of Frenchmen. Wheh, in February 1848, the revolution See also:broke out in Paris, the bourgeois monarchy, utterly discredited, See also:fell without a struggle (see FRANCE and Louis PHILIPPE).
The revolution in Paris was not the cause of the political upheaval which in the year 1848 convulsed Europe from See also:Ireland to the See also:banks of the See also:Danube; it had indeed been pre- Revolution ceded by the triumph of Liberalism in Switzerland, of 1848
by successful revolutions in Naples and See also:Palermo, and outside by the See also: But it was soon clear that the unanimity was the democracy; externally, dynastic ambition. But in en- i more apparent than real. The victory of the democratic forces had deavouring to win the goodwill of the reactionary powers he only been too easy, too seemingly overwhelming; the establishment succeeded in losing that of the classes of his own See also:people on which of the constitutional principle in the main centres of See also:autocracy seemed to make common action against the powers of reaction of secondary importance, and free play was allowed to the racial and national antagonisms that had been See also:present from the first. The See also:battle of German, as well as of Italian, See also:liberty was being fought out on the plains of Lombardy; yet the German democrats, whether in Vienna or Frankfort, hailed the victories of the See also:veteran See also:Radetzky as triumphs of Germanism. In Bohemia the and See also:Piacenza declared by plebiscites for See also:incorporation in the See also:north Italian kingdom, See also:Venice following suit on the 4th of See also:June. A profound modification of the European states system seemed inevitable. That, in the event, the revolutions of 1848 left the territorial settlement of Vienna intact, was due in the main to the marvellous revolution was wrecked on the rivalry of German and Czech; and when the Hungarians See also:drew the See also:sword against Austria, the imperial government was reinforced by the hatred of the See also:southern Slays for their Magyar task-masters. Thus, from the See also:chaos of warring races, the old order began slowly to reappear. So early as the 15th of June 1848 Prince Victory of See also:Windischgratz had restored order in See also:Prague and re-the con- ceived the thanks of the Frankfort parliament; on servative the 25th of July Radetzky's victory at See also:Custozza set forces. free the imperialist army in Italy; on the 4th of September See also:Jellachich, See also:ban of Croatia, invaded Hungary in the name of the united empire; on the 1st of November Windischgratz entered democratic Vienna. The alliance of the army and the Slav races had won the victory over German democracy. The combating of Hungarian nationalism proved a longer and a harder task; but the Austrian victory of Kapolna (February 26-27, 1849) encouraged See also:Schwarzenberg to dissolve the rump of the Reichsrath at See also:Kremsier and proclaim a new constitution for the whole empire, including Hungary. The Magyar victories that followed issued in the. See also:proclamation, on the 14th of April, of the independence of Hungary. But though the Austrian arms had not been strong enough to crush the Hungarian revolt, they had proved at least the vitality of the conservative principle. The emperor Nicholas I. of Russia had watched in disgusted silence the weak spirit of concession with which the revolutions had been everywhere met; so long as the sovereigns seemed to forget their divine See also:mission he had held rigorously aloof, and had only broken silence to congratulate Windischgratz on his See also:capture of Vienna and Schwarzenberg on his reassertion of vigorous principles. Now, however, that Divine Right was in arms against the forces of disorder, he was prepared to listen to the See also:prayer of the emperor See also:Francis See also:Joseph for assistance against the Hungarian rebels. The engagements of 1833 were remembered; and in the brotherly spirit of the Holy Alliance, Hungary was subdued by Russian armies and handed over, without quid pro quo, to her legitimate king. See also:Gorgei's See also:capitulation of V ilagos (August 14, 1849) cleared the ground for the complete restoration of the system destroyed by the March revolutions of the year before. The refusal of Frederick William IV. of Prussia to accept the imperial See also:crown (April 21, 1849) had already advertised the failure of the constitutional and unionist movement in Germany; and Prussia, her military prestige re-stored, stood once more face to face with Austria in rivalry for the hegemony of Germany. In the diplomatic contest that followed Prussia was worsted, her claims to an independent supremacy in the north were defeated, and the convention of See also:Olmutz (November 29, 1850) restored the status quo of the Confederation as established in 1815. Within three years of the great upheaval of 1848 the forces of revolution seemed everywhere to have been subdued, the states system of Europe to have been re-established on the Napoleon basis of the treaties of Vienna. In reality, however, lu. and Europe. this restoration was only on the See also:surface; the cracks in the structure of the European system had—to use See also:Bismarck's phrase applied to another occasion—only been " papered over "; and soon ominous rents revealed the fact that the forces that had threatened it with sudden ruin were still at work. One fateful breach in the treaties had, indeed, been accepted as beyond repair; when the dust of the revolutionary turmoil was at length laid a See also:Bonaparte was once more firmly seated on the throne of France. The emperor Nicholas, watching from the See also:calm of Russia, had realized all that the recognition of this fact would involve; he had proposed to set in See also:motion the somewhat rusty machinery of the Grand Alliance, but the other autocratic powers were in no case to support a legitimist crusade, and when Napoleon in 1852 assumed the title of emperor, all Europe recognized his right to do so, even Nicholas being See also:fain to content himself with refusing to treat the parvenu monarch as his " brother," and to admit his See also:style of " third " Napoleon, which seemed to imply a dynastic claim. Napoleon, indeed, was accepted by the powers, as he was wel-coined by the French people, as the " saviour of society " from the newly revealed perils of the social revolution. For new and ominous forces had made their See also:appearance since the revolution of 183o had established the middle classes in power. The industrial development had proceeded in the west of Europe with astonishing rapidity, with its resulting concentra- tion of vast populations in factories and factory cities; Rise of r socialism. and this " See also:proletariat," excluded from any voice in the government, and exposed in accordance with the prevailing economic theories of doctrinaire Liberalism to the horrors of unrestricted competition, had begun to organize itself in a movement, of which the catchword was " the right to work " and the banner the red See also:flag of the socialist See also:commune. The reign of Charles X. had been the reductio ad absurdum of the principle of See also:legitimacy; that of Louis Philippe had discredited for ever government based solely on the bourgeoisie; the socialistic experiments of 1848 in Paris had collapsed amid the anarchy and bloodshed of the June days. At this opportune moment Louis Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed to the French people the " See also:Napoleonic See also:Idea " as conceived by " The himself. The great Napoleon had been the incarnation idea" onic of the Revolution, had " sprung armed from the Revolution, like See also:Minerva from the head of See also:Jupiter "; he had ruled because to him the people, by whom the Revolution had been made, had delegated the See also:duty of representing, protecting and guiding it. Of this idea Louis Napoleon conceived himself to be the heir; and when by a See also:double See also:plebiscite the French nation had established him in supreme power, first as See also:president for See also:life (1851), then as emperor (1852), he was able to claim that he represented the people in a far more immediate sense than could be asserted of the See also:chance majority of any representative See also:assembly. It was clear that, sooner or later, Napoleon III. would prove a disturbing force in Europe. His title to rule was that he represented France; it followed therefore that he must be Bconomio hostile to " the treaties," by which the traditional revolu- aspirations of France, e.g. for her " natural boundaries " tion In of See also:Rhine, See also:Alps and See also:Pyrenees, were restrained. He Europe• reigned as " emperor of the French "; it followed that he represented that principle of nationality which the treaties ignored. He could not afford—as Metternich had said of Ferdinand of Naples—" to treat his throne as an See also:arm-See also:chair "; and any activity he might display would be almost certainly at the expense of the established order. At the outset, indeed, it was his policy to pose as its custodian. To conciliate the French clericals he supported the pope against the Italian Liberals; but otherwise he proclaimed aloud his devotion to the arts of peace. A See also:period of rapid material expansion succeeded the unrest of the revolutionary years; See also:engineers and men of See also:science were quickly producing a change in all the material conditions of life, greater than could have been effected by any political revolution; especially the face of Europe was gradually being covered with a network of See also:railways, which it was hoped would draw the European nations not only materially but morally closer together. The first universal See also:exhibition, opened under the auspices of the prince consort at London in 1851, was intended to advertise and consecrate the See also:dawn of a new era of international peace and goodwill. The Crystal See also:Palace at See also:Sydenham, once hailed as the " See also:bright Koh-i-nur of the West," remains the See also:dismal See also:monument of a hope so soon to be belied by the hard logic of events. For no period since 1815 has been so occupied with wars and the rumours of war as the twenty years that followed the opening of this great See also:temple of peace. One question, that of the ultimate destination of the duchies of See also:Schleswig and See also:Holstein, which threatened the tranquillity of the West, was temporarily settled by the conference of London in 1852 (see SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION). The But about the same time anxious watchers noticed crlmeaa War. on the political See also:horizon in the East a See also:cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, that threatened a serious See also:storm. At first this was no more than a See also:quarrel between Greek and Latin monks about the custody of certain holy places and things in See also:Palestine. Prussia and Austria. Convention of Olm atz, 1850. It soon, however, became clear that behind these insignificant combatants loomed the figures of the emperors of Russia and France. The motives that induced Napoleon to take up the
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