CHAP. XIV. 1815. as Buonaparte, and that he had hitherto committed no overt acts which gave the Allies the right to hold themselves disengaged from the treaty, although they were in possession of abundant secret information of his hostile designs and preparations. Matters were in this state of suspense, awaiting the decision of the British Cabinet on the question whether he was to retain his throne or not, when he took a rash and premature step which at once furnished the Allies with a fair pretext for breaking with him. Having heard of the serious divisions between the Allied Powers on the question of Saxony, and being well informed by the Duc de Campo-Chiaro, his minister at the Congress, of the hostile designs which France and Austria were forming against him, he deemed it best at once to throw off the mask, and take advantage of what appeared to him the inevitable approaching rupture between the Powers assembled at Vienna to obtain, in return for promised support, a distinct guarantee of his throne. He accordingly sent to the Duc de Campo-Chiaro a note to be laid before the Congress recapitulating all his grievances, 1 Duke of real or imaginary, against the assembled sovereigns: conWellington cluding with a demand for a categorical answer to the tlereagh, question whether he was at peace or at war with the two 1815, MS.; houses of Bourbon; and intimating that, if obliged to dexviii. 617. fend himself, he would require to make a passage through several Italian states by force.1 to Lord Cas Feb. 9, and Thiers, 73. Steps of the Allies against him. Unfortunately for Murat this note, which had been written by him in consequence of information received six weeks before as to the divisions of the Allied Powers, arrived at Vienna at a time when they were all adjusted, and they were only waiting for a decent pretext for putting the last stroke to their arrangements by dethroning him. The information they had received, and letters they had intercepted, left no room for doubt as to what he was designing against them, and fully justified an immediate declaration of war. They were not slow in availing themselves of the pretext for doing so, which Murat's ill-advised XIV. 1815. step afforded them.* When the Duc de Campo-Chiaro CHAP. received this note, he saw at once how inopportune it would be to present it at present, and took it to M. de Metternich, offering, at the same time, to withhold its formal presentation. Metternich, however, rejoiced at finding the imprudence at length committed, for which he had been long anxiously looking, deemed it too important to be passed over, and communicated it to Lord Castlereagh, who had not yet set out, and the Duke of Wellington and M. de Talleyrand. They agreed that it should be treated as a virtual declaration of war, and answered by the concentration of 150,000 Austrian troops in Northern Italy. Orders to this effect were immediately despatched, and the assem-1 Thiers, bling of the troops was already commenced when the intel- 619. ligence arrived of the landing of Napoleon from Elba.1 xviii. 618, A very curious negotiation took place between France 74. negotiation riage be Houses of and Russia in the latter stages of the Congress of Vienna, Abortive which, although not immediately connected with Lord for a mar Castlereagh or his brother Sir Charles (now Lord) Stewart, tween the deserves a place in any memoirs relating to the period. Russia and This was a proposal on the part of the Emperor Alexander France. of the hand of his sister, the Grand-duchess Anne, for the Duke de Berri, the heir-presumptive of the French monarchy. The Empress Dowager of Russia, who had very great influence in the counsels of the Czar, was strongly set on this alliance, which both promised to gratify her family pride by a connection with the most ancient reigning family in Europe, and to increase the influence and augment the strength of both empires. Count Pozzo di Borgo also, who was moved by the same views, gave the project the whole benefit of his able support. It, however, "Il n'avait fallu qu'attendre pour avoir un prétexte spécieux de se déclarer libre de tous les engagements contractés envers cet infortuné. Du reste les lettres saisies sur Lord Oxford, dont nous avons raconté l'arrestation, et d'autres papiers interceptés prouvaient suffisamment que Murat avait la main dans tous les troubles qui se préparaient en Italie. On avait donc de puissantes raisons à faire valoir auprès de ceux qui hésiteraient encore à se tenir pour dégagés.”— THIERS, Xviii. 617. СНАР. came to nothing. The difficulty ostensibly put forward was the difference of religion, regarding which the Czar 1815. proposed the compromise that she should leave Russia, still belonging to the Greek Church, with liberty to become Catholic, if she was afterwards so inclined. It is probable that this would have been agreed to on the part of Louis XVIII. had not political considerations intervened to prevent it; but M. de Talleyrand, who held strongly by the secret treaty of 3d January, with Austria and France, gave it his most decided opposition, and, in a secret conference with Alexander, broke it off just before the Congress separated, upon the ostensible ground that, in the estimation of Louis XVIII., the difference of religion was an insurmountable objection. The Czar was deeply hurt by this refusal, as he had been by a similar result of a like proposal made by Ferdinand VII. for his sister, and which broke off on the same ground. It is not a little remarkable that, within a few years, a proposal of marriage between Napoleon and the Grand-duchess of Russia, and another between a similar princess and the Bourbon family, should both have terminated in refusals mortifying to the house of Romanzoff.* The only question which remained to resolve was that "M. de Talleyrand s'était appliqué à éviter toute explication sur le mari. age projeté, tant qu'il restait quelque chose à faire à Vienne. Cependant à la veille de la séparation générale il fut obligé de sortir de cette réserve. Alexandre en effet dans un dernier entretien lui dit avec une indifférence qui n'était qu'affectée: On me demande ma sœur, je ne veux pas disposer de sa main sans m'expliquer définitivement avec la cour de France, qui avait paru la désirer. Ma mère verrait ce mariage avec plaisir, pour moi je le trouverais fort honorable, mais je voudrais être fixé. J'ai fait des refus, et,' ajouta-t-il en souriant, avec un ton d'humilité qui lui coûtait peu, 'j'en ai essuyé aussi. Ferdinand VII. m'a demandé ma sœur, mais apprenant qu'elle était Grecque, il a retiré sa demande.' M. de Talleyrand, souriant à son tour, et sans montrer plus d'embarras que son auguste interlocuteur, lui répondit: La conduite de Sa Majesté Catholique doit vous révéler les embarras de Sa Majesté TrèsChrétienne.' Puis tournant en plaisanterie ce grave sujet, il fit entendre au Czar que le très-pieux Louis XVIII. se montrait inflexible sur la question de religion. Alexandre n'insista pas, et ne parut attacher aucune importance à une affaire qui pourtant ne laissa pas de le blesser profondément, car la Cour de Russie tenait beaucoup au mariage de la Grande-duchesse Anne avec M. le Duc de Berry."-THIERS, Xviii. 624, 625, 1815. 75. question. of Parma; but it was beset with difficulties of no ordinary CHAP. kind. On the one hand, it was difficult to find an answer XIV. to the warm instances of France and Spain, the ministers of which contended that, amidst the general restoration of Resolution the ancient sovereigns, the illustrious house of Parma should of the Parma not be alone excepted. On the other hand, Alexander had, by the treaty of 11th April, stipulated that this duchy should be settled on the Empress Marie Louise, in liferent, and her son, the King of Rome, in fee; and not only did the known regard of the Czar to his personal honour render it certain that he would insist on the obligation being implemented, but it was not less certain that Austria, now interested in the question, would warmly support the same side. To escape the dilemma Metternich at first proposed that the Legations should be given to Marie Louise in exchange for Parma, which was to revert to the ancient family; but this project was rendered abortive by the determination of the Pope not to consent to the alienation of any part of the patrimony of St Peter. Metternich next proposed that Parma should be restored to the Queen of Etruria, and the principality of Lucca to Marie Louise, with a pension, one-half to be borne by France, and the other half by Austria; but, at her death, the principality, instead of descending to the King of Rome, to revert to the house of Tuscany. This arrangement was acquiesced in by the Cabinets of Paris and Madrid, but it broke down from the decided resistance of Marie Louise to parting with her own dowry, or the patrimony stipulated for her son. The Powers concerned were at a loss how to solve this difficulty, but at length a solution was found in the personal weight of Lord Castlereagh with Louis XVIII. That nobleman was to pass through Paris on his way back 1 Lord Casfrom Vienna to London,' and it was concerted between tlereagh to Metternich and him, without the privity of Talleyrand, pool, Feb.17, that a compromise should be proposed by the British and Thiers, Minister to Louis XVIII. to the effect that the Duchy of 621. Parma should in the mean time be settled on Marie Louise, VOL. II. 2 P Lord Liver 1815, MS.; xviii. 620, CHAP. and at her death revert to the Queen of Etruria, who was then to give up Lucca to the Grand-duke of Tuscany. XIV. 1815. 76. His return through Paris. Lord Castlereagh left Vienna on the 15th February, having before his departure had long conferences with the to London other plenipotentiaries, at which all the remaining points were adjusted. On this occasion he delivered to the Allied sovereigns the beautiful medals which the Prince Regent had ordered to be struck off in honour of the Congress. He reached Paris on the 23d, and immediately commenced the delicate negotiation concerning Parma, with which he was charged. He experienced at first some difficulty in consequence of the anxiety of the Bourbon family to exclude any of the Napoleon dynasty from a legitimate throne; but they soon yielded to the mingled firmness and suavity of the British diplomatist; and the compromise proposed was agreed to without change by the French Government. From Paris he continued his March 3. journey to Calais, and landed at Dover on the 3d March amidst the loud acclamations of an immense crowd of spectators. They might well be proud of their minister: he had conducted to a prosperous issue the most terrible war in which the country had ever been engaged, and concluded it by the most glorious peace which its statesmen had ever signed. He brought with him not only secure independence and glory to his country, but the acquisition of all the objects for which the war had been undertaken. Malta, the Ionian Islands, the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, Trinidad, Demerara, the Bahama Isles, and many others, formed the trophies of a contest in which all that was abandoned by the victors was owing to their moderation in the hour of triumph. The London journals, on his arrival the next day in the metropolis, were loud in praise-not less loud than deserved -of the ability with which he had executed the important and delicate mission with which he had been charged.* "Never perhaps was man charged with a more delicate and more important mission, or possessed more advantages for executing it. With consummate |