Congress of Verona Laibach

LAIBACH, CONGRESS OF; VERONA, CONGRESS OF.) The English Policy of Non-intervention.—The policy of the English government was in direct opposition to that of the other great Powers. In 1818, at Aix-la-Chapelle, Castlereagh re pudiated the idea of a consolidated alliance which would compel each State to maintain the succession and would defend the Government and internal administration of every state against attack, on the ground that "such an alliance would pre-suppose a collective Government capable of constraining all kings and na tions to one code." In 182o Castlereagh declined to adhere to the declaration of Troppau which in his view amounted to an invitation to all the states to submit to the jurisdiction of the alliance. On the occasion of French intervention in Spain (1823), Canning declared that the "alliance had been formed against the military domination of France and not for the purpose of governing the world or of superintending the internal affairs of other states" ; he protested against the "system of policing Europe" and added that England "should insist on the right of nations to choose for themselves the form of government that they judged best." Thus to the principle of intervention Canning op posed non-intervention and to the ancient right of legitimate mon archies the new right of nationalities. It is true that by "nations:' he meant only the State within the territorial limits established by the treaties of 1815, and it never occurred to him to recognize a right in any State to adjust its frontiers in accordance with national sentiment. Nevertheless, his formula—the right of nationalities—was to be a factor in the complete transformation of the map of Europe. (See LONDONDERRY, SECOND MARQUESS OF; CANNING, GEORGE.) Weakened by the attitude of England, the European concert was broken up by revolutionary crises that arose in two coun tries which had not been affected by the settlement of 1815: the Spanish colonies in America and the Ottoman empire. The government of the United States set the example by recognizing the independence of the republics founded by the colonists who had revolted against Spain. (See MONROE DOCTRINE.) Canning refused to be a party to this recognition while at the same time he declared that any attempt at intervention on the part of France in America would be looked upon as a casus belli; and, in 1824, in order to open Spanish-America to British commerce, he recognized the new American republics as independent states in opposition to other Powers who wished to support the king of Spain. But the policy of intervention finally came to grief in the Greek revolt. The Ottoman empire had never been a party to the treaties of Vienna, and Europe had not guaranteed its territory ; moreover, the tsar Alexander disliked the idea of forc ing Christians to submit again to the yoke of the Infidel. Public opinion throughout Europe was aroused to enthusiasm on behalf of the Greeks. At first the European Governments remained neutral, but, in 1823 Canning recognized the belligerency of the Greeks. A conference summoned by Alexander offered the sultan the mediation of the Powers (1825), but without success. Nich olas I., newly on the Russian throne, entered into an agreement with England to put an end to the anarchy in Greece by an intervention to which France was also a party (1827) ; and the unexpected result of this policy was the battle of Navarino which led to war between Russia and Turkey, the invasion of Turkey by the Russians in 1829 and the establishment of a small Greek kingdom.

The Crisis of 1830.

The 15 years that had elapsed since 1815 had been for the internal policy of Europe a period of repression and silence in the autocratic monarchies and of torpor in the two constitutional monarchies. In England these years were occupied by agitation for reforms and in France by discussions in the chambers. But economic prosperity brought to the fore new Liberal leaders who were ready to take office in England and France and who had formulated the theory of parliamentary government, in which the sovereign power of a constitutional monarch is transmitted to an assembly by the intermediary of responsible ministers.

The crisis began in France in the conflict between Charles X. and the chamber, and led to a Parisian insurrection against the Bourbons under cover of the tricolour. The revolution of 183o ended in the accession of Louis Philippe who summoned the middle classes to power and accepted parliamentary government. Belgium, following the example of France, also had a revolution, the result being the creation of the kingdom of Belgium ; and the same example led in Switzerland to an agitation that brought the Radicals to power in many cantons. The crisis which arose out of the agitation for electoral reform gave the British govern ment into the hands of the Liberal party, who finally introduced into British political life their system of responsible govern ment.

Europe was thus divided between two opposing groups, of which the one was led by the parliamentary monarchies of France and England, and the other by the three autocratic monarchies. Each of these groups sought to interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbours in order to support therein the political system which it practised itself. Thus England and France recognized the Belgian kingdom and in 1831 defended it against the army of the king of the Netherlands ; they also aided the supporters of con stitutional monarchy in Portugal and in Spain. Austria, on the other hand, dispatched an army to destroy the Provisional Gov ernments that had been established in the Italian duchies and the Romagna, and, in agreement with Prussia, repressed liberal and democratic agitation in the small German States; while the tsar in 1831 crushed with a heavy hand the nationalist rising of the Poles.

The Eastern Question.

The Eastern Question (q.v.) brought Russia and England into opposition ; for while Russia sought to obtain the paramountcy at Constantinople and to open the Dardanelles, the British Government believed that any at tempt on the complete independence of the Ottoman empire would threaten the route to India. A Turkish internal crisis in 1832 brought the question to the front, for when the sultan, who was alarmed by the victory won by Mohammed Ali (q.v.), the pasha of Egypt, appealed for help to the tsar, the latter dispatched an army and a fleet to defend Constantinople : in the following year the sultan signed a treaty with Russia undertaking to close the Straits to the navies of other powers, thus creating a Russian protectorate in disguise.

The sovereigns of Austria, Russia and Prussia strengthened their entente at the interview at Munchengratz followed by the secret treaty of Berlin (Sept.–Oct. 1833). In view of the dangers with which the order established in Europe by international law and the treaties of 1815 were threatened, they declared themselves unanimously resolved to re-affirm their conservatism as the unalterable basis of their policy, and added that every inde pendent sovereign has the right, in cases as well of trouble within his kingdom as of dangers threatened from without, to call to his aid any other independent sovereign. This amounted to a solemn affirmation of the doctrine of intervention. Hence forth the Powers who had formed the concert of Europe were grouped into two opposing camps. Supported by a hardy public opinion in Great Britain, Palmerston led the Liberal States while Nicholas, proud of his military strength, supplanted the aged and weakened Metternich in the command of the Absolutists.

The Quadruple Alliance.

Spain and Portugal were in the throes of a war of succession between two queens who were minors, Maria of Portugal and Isabella of Spain, and their uncles, Miguel of Portugal and Don Carlos of Spain, both supporters of absolute monarchy. The Liberals took the part of the young queens and the British Government intervened in their behalf. Palmerston induced Portugal and Spain to ally themselves with England and he could not deny to France the entry into this quadruple alliance (1834) ; and in both countries the civil wars ended in the establishment of constitutional monarchies under the protection of England and France although the Carlists and Miguelists had the moral support of the Allies of Munchengratz.

The Eastern Question in 1840.

It was, however, difficult to maintain an entente between England and France, seeing that the respective Governments had to reckon with the national vanity of a sensitive public, excited by memories of the old established rivalry between the two nations. Louis Philippe, on his part, wishing to be admitted into the "family of sovereigns" sought to make friends with the Continental monarchies. In Greece, Spain and Portugal, the British and French Governments each supported one of two opposing parties. The rupture could no longer be concealed when a new crisis was provoked by the Eastern Question. Mohammed Ali (q.v.), attacked by the sultan, once more occupied Asia Minor in 1839; and the Powers deter mined to intervene. But the British and French Governments were unable to agree upon the conditions to be imposed on the belligerents. The French people were enthusiastic supporters of Mohammed Ali whom they looked upon as a protégé of France. Palmerston secretly negotiated with the three other great Powers and concluded with them and the sultan the Convention of London in 1840, which delivered an ultimatum to Mohammed Ali, and France found herself isolated before a coalition of the allies of 1815. The Eastern Question had created a European crisis and Nationalist passions awoke in the middle classes and the literary world. In France there was talk of destroying the treaties of 1815 and reconquering the Rhine frontier to which the German reply was an anti-French agitation for a defence of the "German Rhine." The crisis terminated in the submission of Mohammed and in the Straits Convention (1841) by which the sultan undertook to close the straits to warships. The Rus sian minister, Nesselrode, congratulated himself on having re-established "the federative system of the European States on its old basis." (See also EASTERN QUESTION.) France and England.—The entente between France and England was officially re-established by the Conservative Gov ernment of Peel. This was the entente cordiale to which expres sion was given by an exchange of visits between Queen Victoria and Louis Philippe . Nevertheless the two nations continued to disagree, as was shown by the opposition of the chamber in the affair of the right of search and in the affair of the payment of an indemnity to the missionary Pritchard, at Tahiti, and by the British protests against the project of a Franco-Belgian customs union. In 1845 France and Great Britain made common cause in attempting to settle the question of the marriage of Queen Isabella of Spain and her sister the Infanta Louise. But the French and English ambassadors at Madrid, who were personal rivals, worked in a sense contrary to the instructions of their Governments. Palmerston, who had re turned to the Foreign Office in 1846, complicated the question by a protest against the arbitrary Government of the Queen Regent, Christina. Louis Philippe, however, who was aiming at securing the succession to the Spanish throne for his descendants, ignored the convention of 1845 by which he had promised not to permit the marriage of his son to the infanta until the queen had been married to a Spanish Bourbon, and an heir born to the throne. The marriage of the Duc du Montpensier with the infanta was celebrated on the same day as that of the queen, and thereupon Palmerston broke off the entente with France. (See SPAIN.) Liberalism and Nationalism.—Embroiled with England, Louis Philippe made common cause with the absolute monarchies. England remained isolated. Palmerston took upon himself the role of protector of Liberalism in Europe. He sent Lord Minto on a special mission to encourage the Italian princes to under take reforms in their States against the wish of the Austrian Government. For long he engaged in negotiations with the great Powers who wished to intervene in Switzerland in support of the Catholic league or Sonderbund, in its conflict with the Federa tion, and thus gained time to enable the Federal Government to end the war by destroying the Sonderbund. (See SWITZERLAND.) During the long peace new parties arose in Europe in oppo sition to the existing political, national, social and ecclesiastical systems. Their agitation prepared a way for a radical change in the conditions of national life. As early as 1817 a struggle had commenced in England between the Radicals, who demanded universal suffrage, and the supporters of the existing electoral system, by which the right to vote was denied to all save the privileged classes. The first victory of this campaign, which became general throughout Europe, was won by the Radicals in some cantons in Switzerland, in 1830. Shortly after the Parisian insurgents, who had conquered the Bourbons, revived the repub lican traditions of 1793, and attempted, by means of insurrections, to overthrow hereditary monarchy and establish a republic. These aspirations towards political equality, which usually displayed themselves under the guise of republicanism were collectively described by the vague term "democracy." Their supporters were to be found, above all, among the youth of the great cities, and these were organized into an international party by the Italian, Mazzini (q.v.). He established a secret society called Young Europe, which was divided into national sections and had for its object the establishment everywhere of democratic republics.

In countries in which the sentiment of nationalism was wounded by the political system the agitation for unity or autonomy became more intense through alliance with democratic agitation. Victorious in Belgium in 1830, crushed in Poland, Italy and Germany, it reappeared in Hungary in the union between the Magyar nobles and the democratic orator Kossuth (q.v.) ; in Germany after 1840, with the connivance of the princes; in Italy, under the form of the Risorgimento, with the protection of the sovereigns of Sardinia and Tuscany; in Bohemia, under the leadership of Professor Phalacky; and in Croatia under the inspiration of the journalist, Gay.

The industrial revolution, which began in England in the i8th century with the growth of great industries, had brought to life, in countries where industry was highly developed, a new class of workers who had no security within the established order of society. They lived from day to day as propertyless wage-earners unattached to the soil. Philanthropists and philosophers in Eng land and France had drafted plans of reforms which, about 1830, came to be known as "Socialism." Their doctrines were dis seminated in England among the workmen in the great indus tries by the agitation promulgated by Robert Owen (q.v.) and in Chartism (q.v.). In France they attracted the republican secret societies who, in the tradition of Babeuf, reverted to the name of Communism and adopted a new revolutionary emblem, the red flag, which was destined to become the banner of inter national revolution. Socialism won converts among the German workers living in France who subsequently spread it among the workers of western Germany. The creation of the Socialist ideal had already been achieved in 1848 by the common efforts of Englishmen and Frenchmen. The latter had made their con tribution mainly in the criticism of existing social institutions : ownership, inheritance, commercial competition, and by theories such as the right to work, social democracy, anarchism, the emancipation of the proletariat and progressive taxation. The English contributed practical methods of reform such as trade unions, co-operative societies, congresses of delegates, the general strike, and a labour party based on class warfare. Karl Marx, a German Jew, who was first a refugee in France and then in England, reduced this mass of theories and ideas to a scientific system which he and Frederick Engels gave to the world in the "manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848) terminating with an appeal for the union of revolutionary workmen throughout the world.

The traditional policy of the Catholic clergy had been to keep on good terms with the secular government for the sake of mutual support. About 183o there grew up in Ireland, France and Bel gium a party of "Catholic Liberals" which was condemned by the pope. In the Catholic cantons of Switzerland there arose a demo cratic Catholic party which recognized the supremacy of the Pope over the secular power.