The final act, which included all these agreements in one great instrument, signed on June 9, 1815, by the "eight" (except Spain, who refused as a protest against the Italian settlement) was after wards acceded to by all the other Powers, and was the most corn prehensive treaty which Europe had ever possessed.
As a result the lines laid down by the Congress of Vienna lasted, except for one or two changes, for over 4o years. The statesmen had successfully worked out their principle of a balance of power. But the idea of nationality had been almost entirely ignored—necessarily so because it was not yet ready for ex pression. Territories had been bartered about without much refer ence to the wishes of their inhabitants. Until an even greater settlement took place it was customary for historians to condemn the statesmen of Vienna. It is now realised how difficult their task was, and the fact that they secured for Europe a period of peace, which was its cardinal need, is fully recognized. But the statesmen failed to give to international relations any organ by which their work could be adapted to the new forces of the 19th century, and it was ultimately doomed to destruction.
Comte d'Angeberg (J. L. Chodzko), Le Congres de Vienne (1863) ; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. ii., gives some of the documents in English, and the final act is found in many collections. For the diplomacy, Duke of Wellington, Supplementary Despatches, vols. ix. and x. (1858-72) ; Viscount Castlereagh, Memoirs and Correspondence (ed. C. W. Vane; 12 vols. ; C. M. de Talleyrand-Perigord, Memoirs, vols. ii. and iii. (1891) ; the works of F. von Gentz ; A. de la Garde-Chambonas, Souvenirs du Congres de Vienne, ed., with intro duction and note, Comte Fleury (19oI), gives an interesting picture of the congress from its personal and social side ; A. Fournier, Die Geheimpolizei auf dem Wiener Congress (i913) ; M. H. Weil, Les dessous du Congres de Vienne (1917) ; C. K. Webster, The Congress of Vienna (1919), which was written for the information of the Paris Conference, gives a bibliography. See also British Diplomacy (1813 15), ed. C. K. Webster (1921) ; Cambridge Modern History, vol. ix., ch. xix. and xxi., with bibliography (1902) ; Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy (ed. A. W. Ward and G. P. Gooch, vol. i., 1922).