History of Europe from the Commencement of the French Revolution in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons in 1815 Volume 4 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 Excerpt: ...liberum veto, internal feuds, and external weakness, could not be restored, if the slightest regard was felt either for the general balance of power in Europe or the welfare of that gallant, but distracted people, was evident to all. But what to do with Poland, in the powerful and now victorious monarchies by which it was surrounded, all of whom, it might be foreseen, would be anxious to share its spoils, was not so apparent. In a private conversation with Sir Charles Stewart at this period, the Emperor Alexander openly announced those views, in regard to the annexation of the Grand-duchy of Warsaw to his dominions, which subsequently occasioned such difficulty at the Congress of Vienna. He stated that his moral feelings, and every principle of justice and right, called upon him to use his power to restore such a constitution to Poland as would secure the happiness of so noble and great a people; that the abandonment of seven millions of his Lithuanian subjects for the attainment of such an object, if he had no guarantee for the advantage he was thence to derive for Russia, would be more than his imperial crown was worth; and that the only way of reconciling these objects was by uniting the Lithuanian provinces with the Grand-duchy of Warsaw, under such a constitutional administration as Russia might appoint. He communicated, at the same time, the same project to Prince Metternich. Thus early did the habitual ambition of that great power show itself in the European Congress; and so clearly, according to the usual course of human affairs, were future difficulty and embarrassment arising out of the very magnitude of present successes.t The instructions of Napoleon to his plenipoNopo'en'- in-tentiary, Caulaincourt, were of a Mructiom to very different ten...