СНАР. XIV. the difference in the value of money, equal to at least fifteen hundred millions in this country! Nothing more is re1815. quired to explain the warm enthusiasm which this system excited in the nation which profited by this plunder, and the universal exasperation it produced among those who suffered under it.* 88. The fearful interlude of the return of Napoleon made Final treaty no change, to the honour of the Allies be it said, in the terms on which the treaty of Vienna, as agreed to at the of Vienna. June 9. * "Précis des Contributions, Requisitions, &c., levées, depuis le commencement de la Révolution jusqu'au Consulat de Buonaparte, par les Français dans les Pays étrangers, tirées des Mémoires et Proclamations Officiales. Territoires divers entre la Moselle, la Meuse, et le Rhin, 111,280,000 -Castlereagh Correspondence, x. 411, 412.† "Jusqu'à la paix de Campo-Formio et l'expédition en Egypte cette somme immense est entrée en France en bon métal réel, dont la moitie est possédée par les maréchaux, généraux, &c., l'autre moitié par les ministres, &c." XIV. 1815. Congress, was concluded. It was finally signed on the 9th CHAP. June, and its conditions, apart from some insignificant details, were the same as those which had been arranged before Lord Castlereagh left Vienna in the middle of February. The share of Saxony falling to Prussia was reduced to a territory containing 800,000 souls. The remainder, with its beautiful capital, remained with the King of Saxony. Prussia's territories on the left bank of the Rhine were augmented to 1,100,000 souls; and she ceded to Hanover on the right bank some 250,000 souls. Norway remained annexed to Sweden, and the Grand-duchy of Warsaw (without the Duchy of Posen, which was annexed to Prussia) was erected into a separate kingdom with a representative government, of which the Emperor of Russia was King. Austria ceded all her claims to the Low Countries to Holland, with whom they were incorporated into a separate kingdom, under the title of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was settled on the Prince of Orange. Austria regained all her possessions in Italy, including Lombardy, as far as the Ticino, and the whole Venetian territories ceded to her by Napoleon at the treaty of Campo-Formio in 1797. The Swiss territories were augmented by the Valais, Geneva with its territories, and the principality of Neufchatel, which formed so many new cantons. The German Confederation was established, and the most minute regulations for its defence adopted. Genoa was united to Piedmont, the Grand - duke of Tuscany restored to his dominions, Parma secured to the Empress Marie Louise, and the entire kingdom of the two Sicilies restored to their ancient kings. New regulations were made for the free navigation of the Rhine and other great rivers in Germany, and the much coveted declaration against the slave trade introduced into the treaty and rendered part of the Its leading provisions had been previously determined in separate treaties between Russia, Prussia, and Austria, on the 21st April; between Prussia and Saxony on the 18th May; and between Holland and the four Allied Powers on the 31st May. XIV. 1815. 1 See Trea 21, May 18 and 31, 1815; Congrès de Vienne, vi. 123-130; CHAP. public law of Europe. The only matter of real regret, so far as Great Britain was concerned, was that the noble island of Java, itself a kingdom, now yielding £2,500,000 ties, April revenue, was restored to Holland. It is impossible to defend this imprudent piece of generosity; but it was part of the magnanimous policy of Lord Castlereagh, who was above all selfish considerations for himself or his Schoell, xi. country, and was desirous of upholding that moral influence which, in the midst of the general scramble for the Parl. Deb. spoils of the French Empire, had been enjoyed by this country, from being in the rare position of having everything to give and nothing to ask.1 257, 294; and Genl. Treaty in xxxii. 72, 114. 89. in the plain Sept. 10. Sir Charles (now Lord) Stewart, came to Paris with Review of the Allied sovereigns after the occupation of that capithe Russians tal by the Allied forces, and took an active part both of Vertus. in the military pageants and diplomatic negotiations by which that memorable period was distinguished. Among the former was the great review of the Russian army 160,000 strong, of whom 28,000 were cavalry, with 540 guns. Such a scene had never before been seen in Europe, and perhaps will never be seen again. The Duke of Wellington and Sir Henry Hardinge were present, besides Lord Stewart and the Emperors of Russia and Austria, King of Prussia, and all the lesser potentates of Germany, with Prince Schwartzenberg, and nearly the whole Allied generals. Many ladies of high rank graced the spectacle, among whom, from England, were Ladies Castlereagh, Combermere, Grantham, Mrs Arbuthnot, Miss Fitzclarence, and many others. The review was magnificent in the very highest degree, and fortunately we possess a description of it by Lord Stewart, written at the moment with that graphic power for which he was so remarkable.* The Duke of Wellington, Sir Lowrie "On the arrival of the sovereigns at the spot fixed upon for them, the ensign was unfurled, and a salvo of guns announced their presence. The whole Russian army there assembled was seen drawn up in three lines, extending as far as the eye could reach. The sun glittered on their arms, and on the drawn sabres of the cavalry, to a distance that almost appeared imaginary. The eye CHAP. XIV. 1815. Cole, Sir Henry Hardinge, and several other generals came to Lord Stewart's in the evening full of admiration at the spectacle they had just witnessed. "Well, Charles," said the Duke, “you and I never saw such a sight before, and never shall again; the precision of the movements of those troops was more like the arrangements of a theatre than those of such an army. I never saw anything like it. But still I think my little army would move round 1 Lond. 334, them in any direction while they were effecting a single 335. change,❞—an opinion in which all around him concurred.1 90. reigu artists in Rome to A very interesting memoir was presented to Lord Castlereagh while the negotiations for a final settlement were Memoir pending at Paris, praying for the restitution of all the from foworks of art carried off by the French during their con- Lord Castlequests in Italy to the Eternal City. It was signed by reagh. Thorwaldsen, Gmelin, De Potter, Keller, Irvine, and twenty-eight other foreign artists of eminence then residing at Rome; and, although not subscribed by Canova, who, being an Italian by birth, was excluded from the category, it received his warmest and most effective support. It proceeded on the ground that the carrying off of these had scarcely time to comprehend so vast a spectacle, when a single gun fired from the height on which we stood was the signal for three hurrahs from the troops. Even at this distant day these hurrahs sound freshly in my ears, as they came less and less loudly from the divisions of ten thousand, each as they stood in the lines. A second gun gave the signal for a general salute. The cannon and musketry began at once, and the fire ran along the three extended lines, showing more distinctly than anything else could have done, the vast space they occupied, by the distant flashes and retiring sound of the musketry. We rode down the hill, and the Russians broke from their lines into grand columns of regiments, and no one but a soldier can conceive the beauty of this grand simultaneous change. A spot was then fixed on for these masses to march by the sovereigns; and the Emperor of Russia, putting himself at the head of the leading regiments, thus formed in column, marched past and saluted the Emperor of Austria and King of Prussia; then placing himself by their side, saw the rest of the army march by. The whole of the day was only sufficient to give time for a re-formation into line and an opening of ranks, along which the cavalcade of monarchs and their immense suite rode. The Emperor of Russia appeared greatly occupied with the Duke of Wellington (who was then our ambassador at Paris), as if anxious for his opinion of what was passing before them, and his whole attention was given to him when not taken up with his fair companions who rode on both his flanks. Thus closed this day, never to be forgotten by those who witnessed the grand military display it presented."-MARQUESS LONDONDERRY, War in Germany, 1813-1814, 334, 335. CHAP. XIV. monuments of art was a piece of barbarity on the part of the French generals, of which even their own artists, who profited by it, had been ashamed; that Rome had become, in process of ages, a sort of refuge for the fine arts, where their professors, of whatever nation or tongue, met on terms of amity and peace-where the passions and divisions of the world were unfelt, and the love of the ideal had come to supersede the attractions of the real; and that it would be a lasting injury to the arts, and with them to the progress of civilisation, if the immortal monuments of genius which had been carried away were not restored to their sacred emporium, but suffered to remain in far distant lands, whither they had been carried by the arms of conquest, and deposited among a people little qualified to profit by them.* Lord Castlereagh * "Rome a été considéré depuis une longue série d'années comme le centre des arts et comme leur meilleure école. Les Français eux-mêmes, apres avoir ramassé de tout côté ce que les arts offrent de plus précieux, et après l'avoir entassé dans leur capitale, n'ont pu cependant se dispenser d'envoyer leurs élèves pensionnaires du Gouvernement à Rome, persuadés que ce n'est que là qu'ils pouvaient atteindre à la perfection. Plusieurs artistes Française ont partagé l'amertume que la transplantation de ces objets, quasi indigènes à Rome sur un sol étranger, a causée au reste de l'Europe. Ils ont élevé publiquement leur voix contre une barbarie, usitée, il est vrai, sous les anciens Romains, mais qu'alors déjà Cicéron foudroyait de son éloquence. Ajoutons encore que les artistes les plus fameux actuellement en France datent leur perfection d'un tems antérieur à cette rapine, et que la plupart d'entre eux a étudié à Rome. "Cette cité éternelle, par un concours de circonstances unique dans l'histoire du monde, est devenue la capitale des arts pour tous les peuples. La nature et les arts s'y prêtent les mains pour leur perfectionnement mutuel. Tout ce qui entoure ses habitans coopère à élever l'imagination et le cœur, à former le goût de l'amateur, à renforcer le génie créateur de l'artiste. Ce dernier, libre des entraves qui compriment son essor ailleurs et surtout en France, par l'esprit de système et de mode, et l'égarent par l'appât d'un succès du moment vers une manière fausse et mesquine, saisit ici la nature avec originalité, et n'aspire qu'à ce qui dans les arts est le seul vrai et le seul immuable. "C'est à Rome qu'un saint recueillement, et une simplicité de vie vraiment patriarchale, en sauvant l'artiste des distractions, du tumulte de Paris, lui assurent une jouissance pûre et tranquille des arts. Aussi n'existe-t-il ici que pour eux. Tout autre intérêt s'évanouit, si ce n'est celui de l'émulation avec les grands modèles qu'il a journellement et à chaque pas sous ses yeux, et avec cette foule d'artistes de toutes les nations qui s'élancent avec lui dans la même carrière. "Mais ce n'est pas l'artiste seul qui profitera de cette restitution des monumens antiques au siège central des arts. L'amateur y gagnera également. Ce qu'il étoit forcé naguères de considérer sous des rapports et sous des entours peu favorables, il le vera rétabli sur son sol classique et primitif, dans un cadre |