THE CONGRESS OF 1850.
A CORRESPONDENT of the Times, who writes on "the common sense of the Hungarian question," throws out a hint that it may be desirable to have "a Congress of review or revisal of the trea- ties or Vienna and Paris," in a manner that suggests the proba- bility- of such a Congress. He writes with a weight and con- centration of matter that imply mastery of his subject, not in the style of one hackneyed in journalizing ; and his contributions are put forth by the Leading Journal with a prominency that indi- cates accredited authority : all this looks as if he were suggesting what he knows to be probable.
"A Congress of review or revisal of the treaties of Vienna and Paris " is a suggestion which we are bound to approve, inasmuch as it was perhaps first made in our own pages. The step could hardly fail to be useful ; the degree of its value must depend in a great measure upon the spirit in which it should be un- dertaken. That it should be entered upon in the spirit of the Congress of 1815 is scarcely possible : even among the most courteous and least advanced of diplomatists, the "right divine " would provoke a smile ; and in the conduct of business the day when an international council could limit itself solely to the in- terests of princes has quite passed. But, of all politicians, the class which has made least progress is perhaps that of diplomatists : the secrecy with which the discussions must be conducted is a great screen for excluding the wholesome ventilation of public opinion ; and therefore everything will rest upon the spirit which prevails among the persons selected to assist in such a Congress and the drift of their instructions.
Not only should the spirit presiding over the council be dif- ferent from that of 1815, but to perform the allotted task effec- tually it ought in one respect to be wholly new. It will not suffice merely to look beyond the interests of princes ; it will not suffice to attempt some compromise between the claims of princes and the rights of peoples : it will be necessary to take as the basis of any new settlement the actual condition of all parties—the new state of knowledge among peoples, the new relations of Europe in respect of commerce and intercourse, the altered state of Eu- ropean police. The Congress of 1815 sat under the conviction that the Revolution of 1789 had been put down : the Congress of 1850 will know better ; the Revolution survived the Restoration. Steam-boats, railroads, and the increase of population, have made all Europe conterminous, and have destroyed the strength of frontier-cordons for such nations as will not maintain their de- fences on a war scale. Public opinion has so greatly and perma- nently changed in a large portion of Europe, that states which expect a cooperation in the strict enforcement of a political sur- veillance over revolutionaries will be more and more disappointed. The conduct of the English officials in excluding the Italian re- fugees from Malta, is rather a disgrace to the present Ministry of England than any true sign of retrograde opinion in this country. The Congress of 1850 will have to handle a wholly altered state of affairs,—one in which power is no longer concentrated in go- vernments, in which all operations are more rapid, and peoples know a vast deal more of what is done to them. It follows, that such a council must not only do more than look to the claims of princes—it must also look to something beyond mere geographical fittings, by which territories have been "given " to this or that prince, the people as little regarded as the rats in a house that passes Irom seller to purchaser. Some account must be made of the people, their will and genius. In 1850, the members of a Congress will know a great deal better than they did in 1815, that no " settlement" of the kind can be final—it will be no ultimate allotment of Europe ; and the duration of any new settlement would be endangered, not se- cured, by the presumption that finality would be more possible now than it was then. It is at this point that we see the interests of peoples and princes unite. The best and surest mode of obtain- ing durability for the new settlement would be, to make such ar- rangements and combinations as should promise in their own working a chance of continuance.
The settlement of 1815 has already been so completely broken up, that practically the office of the Congress of 1850 would be one not of demolition but of reconstruction. Some special revisions have already been effected, and two are particularly instructive. The settlement has been disturbed in order to carry out a further partition of Poland : if we may trust the professions of the Rus- inon Autocrat, the incessant movements of his Polish subjects, and their share in the armed movement of Hungary, have forced him into the field with an immense army. On the other hand, the disruption of a compulsory union of two states with very dis- cordant sentiments, Holland and Belgium, has had such a happy influence, that in the midst of the European anarchy, surrounded by revolution and war, both those countries have been remarkable for quiet. The arrangement of 1830 has stood a fiery ordl which no treaty-guarantees have enabled the settlements of 18 to endure in any part of Europe. A Congress had formerly been suggested to settle the Itatin question; the writer in the Times treats more especially of Hungary and Austria, but incidentally alludes to Italy and. Germany ; Schles- wig-Holstein awaits appeal to a competent tribunal ; the profete- alone of Russia invite a formal recognition of her disclaimer in respect of encroachment ; the internal state of France might be very materially and beneficially influenced by such an au- thoritative expression of the opinions prevalent among the Euro- pean powers, and the ideas which the leading French statesmen could not fail to catch from that inspiration. The thing wanted, therefore, is a Congress for the settlement of Europe according to the present understanding of policy and justice. The diplomatist in the Times speaks of consolidating Austria on the basis of Stadion's federative constitution; and to that end he would cast off Lombardy, because of its utter alienation from Austria. But what of Venice?? That ancient republic he as- sumes to be divided between hostility to Austria and a counter- acting influence : there is no proof of any such influence. But, he says, Venice is " marked out by nature as the commercial em- porium of Tyrol and Southern Germany." What then ? If the Venetians are averse from the Austrian rule, why seize their port as a gift to Southern Germany ? why renew the ratification of Napoleon's shameful betrayal of Venice to Austria? If, indeed, a party does exist in Venice favourable to Austria, or if one fa- vourable to a federal connexion can be created, the geographical fitting might not be amiss : but to reannex Venice to Austria as a conquered province, is to plant in the consolidated empire the seeds of a new revolt.
An objection has been taken, that England would enter the international council too late, as the intervention would have come much better months ago ; which is indeed too true. But ini those days it was " only" journalists that foresaw the expe- diency of an European Congress ; statesmen had not yet had the idea sufficiently drummed into them. However, the mischief of delay is not so bad as it seems, since other parties to the state of Europe are equally " too late" : Austria, which has tried force, and won by proxy a suicidal victory, would have been much wiser to invite a Congress in 1848 ; the Pope is an exile from his reconquered city ; France has no plan ; and the revolutionists of Europe generally are "too late," because they have suffered their battle to be fought out. Each party may say, " Brothers, we are all in the wrong." But indeed, it is never too late to settle dis- order on the substantial basis of real strength and true justice.
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