A CENTURY OF DIPLOMACY.*
Yvzs GUYOT has been moved by "the resurrection of an old eaytb "—the League of Nations—to examine afresh the history of European relations since the Tsar Alexander I. thought to eresite h new earth by founding the Holy Alliance. His lurid narrative Of the principal episodes and his caustic comments are Well Worth beading. The history of the lait hundred years it full cif Warning ter those who think that the there establishment of an international I:organization will usher in the Golden Age. We may, Of dowse, Ignore all past experience, and assume that after this war mankind will diecard for ever the racial rivalries, commercial jealousies, and territorial ainbitions which have caused so much trouble. M. Yves Guyot does not feel able to thake so large an assumption. He Cherishes the hope that dynastic interests as a cause of European disputee'reay be eliminated, but he fears that statesmen and peoples trill misunderstand one another in the future as in the past. His account of our Entente Cordiale with France under Louis Philippe, for example, shows how the two countries, whose interests were really identical, drifted apart through the mistakes of their Govern- inente and the personal quarrels of Guizot and Thiens, and Aberdeen and Palmerston. We devoutly trust that such things will nbt happen again, but the episode shows that allies, like husbands and Wives, do not always agree : "Alliances are only likely to be main- tained on condition that their objects are restricted as far as poseible and clearly defined; and that the Causes of caiarrel are eliminated, thus exemplifying the political Utility of Free Trade." The authdr discusses at length the treaties of 1815, ending the long Napoleonic Wars, and shows hOW it was Telleyrand who insisted that Prussia ithould accept the Rhine provinces instead of annexing the whale Of Saxony, as she wished to do. That forgotten episode is one of history's little ironies. Talleyrand thought that he had done a Clever thing in keeping Prussia Apart from Austria, wheressi he had in fact given Prance a Most dangerous neighbour and had istrengthened Prussia's hold ovsr Central Clerinany.
One of the most significant sections of the book iis devoted rto "France and the Pope." It reminds us ncit merely of the Con- tagion which Clericalism brought into Napoleon III.'s fcireign policy, but also of the Anglophobia which has prevailed at the Vatican for two generations. M. Yves Guyot quotes from an important Roman Catholic Work, published in Paris in 1900 with Papal approval, the following curious 'statement: -" Mazzini admitted that the capture of Rome was organized by international Freemasonry; aided by Protestant England. The House of Savoy was orilk stalking-horse; the national interest, kir the initiated, was a mere pretext." The author attributes to the Clerical Party, even More than to the Protectionists, the chief peit in bygone anti-British movements in France, and he suspects the Jesuits of having inspired the Fashoda Expedition. He is on firm ground, at any rate, When
he recalls the violently hostile attitude of the Papal organ, the _
• Les Otothrtfts de la Per. i.reudere Pattie, "I Indrill Cu raise." he
Ives Guyot. Paris Alcan. [8 fr. 60 c.] . aeserratore Romano, at the outset of the Boer War in 1899. This newspaper said :— " Lord Palmerston and Gladstone looked to the unity of Italy and, while destroying the temporal power of the Pope, tried to destroy his spiritual power. The destruction of the Pope's tem- poral power was ordered in the interests of the English and of Anglicanism ; but the last word has not been said by Providence and by history. The grave events that are imminent will show once again that attacks on the liberty of the Church and the Pope never go unpunished, and that sooner or later they yield triumphs for both Pope and Church."
The Vatican was counting on European intervention, under the direction of the German Emperor, but France declined to take part in any such scheme. M. Yves Guyot reminds us of the singular incident of 1904 which compelled the French Government to with- draw their Ambassador from the Vatican. The King of Italy had visited President Loubet in Paris, and the President was to pay him a return visit in Rome. The Pope at once protested against such a" grave insult," the Vatican's real object being to revive the old coolness between France and Italy, and thus to strengthen the Triple Alliance. The French Government declined to be brow- beaten in this way, disregarded the Papal protest, and abolished the French Embassy to the Vatican. " Our diplomacy must be secular," says M. Yves Guyot, with very good reason. As we have often pointed out, the Vatican cannot be numbered among the friends of the Allies.
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