The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-02 00:00:00

THE CONGRESS.

(From the Paris Correspondent of the limes.)
Pamphlets, as I anticipated in my letter of Satur-
day, are beginning to flow in upon us. Three have
appeared on the Congress and the Treaties of 1815.
One only is anonymous ; the others have the name

of the authors on their title-page. The anonymous
one, which is decidedly of the " liner" character, is
for war, and that promptly, if the Powers do not

accept the Congress.

I quote no more than the

concluding passage :
" Let people reflect well. The elected head of a nation of
40 millions of souls does not address himself in vain to the
civilised world. A statesman of the Emperor's genius dis-
dains expedients without grandeur and without frankness,
and does not allow himself to be caught in the toils of an
obsolete diplomacy. If the great Powers will not or cannot
come to an understanding—if they make the Congress im-
possible or powerless—if they shut up, or allow to be shut
peace—if,out of obstinacy
crumbling in pieces, they
must lead to war—then,
uiennp
t,metrahoiennot
ant
that
only
tnpwga path
c‘phvahss
oitcohnwelher
iacodhrs
latertios
war for war, Franca and the Emperor have a decided inte-
rest that it should commence before the impression produced
on the public by the speech of the sth Novemberbe effaced.
War for war ; reason as well as policy requires that it should
be declared in the spring.”..

The title of this warlike production is " L'Empe-
reur Napoleon M. et le Congres."
The faith in the efficacy of the Congress is grow-
ing weaker every day. If any illusion existed after
the Emperor's letter, it is almost entirely dispelled.
There ace, however, a few persons who still seem to
cling to the hope of universal pacification. One of
them is M. Henri Dron, the writer of the second
pamphlet, which bears for title, " L'Europe au
Vingtieme Siecle." M. Dron gives a very compre-
hensive interpretation to the Speech from the Throne.
He takes the political map to pieces; and in 50 pages
of small print constitutes a Europe in a fashion
which only wants the concurrence of its diplomacy
to be perfect. He proposes to dismiss kings, give
unlimited leave of absence to rulers of the inferior
class, and set up ten " potentates with the title of
emperor. When all the princes are sent about their
business, France is to begin by absorbing Belgium,
Holland, and the banks of the Rhine. Germany,
disembarrassed of its kings, dukes, landgraves, and
electors, will have Dresden for its new capital;
while Vienna is to be made the chief seat of the
Greek empire, and Stockholm that of the Scandi

navian. Portugal is to melt into Spain. Russia is
to be cut into two equ•sl parts, one of which is to be
erected into a State under the name of the Empire
of Circassial

The third pamphlet is from the pen of one who
was once but too well known, and who startled the
public some time back by his vindication of the
Papacy—M. P. J. Proudhon. M. Proudhon cannot
produce anything completely unattractive ; and
this, whether he be serious or in jest. To which
of these categories the present little book of 108
pages belongs it is not easy to discover. The title
is a question-_." Si Les Traites du 1815 ont cesse
d'exister ?" to which he says he anxiously awaits
an answer from the Emperor's speaking Ministers.
In the meantime he himself tries to give it such
answers as he can :

"If the Treaties of 1815 no longer exist, there is no
longer any public European law ; the gentlemen of the large
journals have first of all drawn that inference. If the treaties
do not exist, on what does the existence of nations depend ?
Whet o are their guarantees? Without public law Europe
falls into a state of war. Nothing can prevent States from
collision with each other, and what is to become of the small
ones in that shock of the great ? If the Treaties of 1815 are
annulled there are no longer any legal frontiers. Where do
Prussia, Austria, France, Italy, Germany, Russia, and
Sweden end? Whose is the Rhine? Whose the Vistula?
And m hose the Danube, Constantinople, Gibraltar, the
Adriatic? If the Treaties of 1815 are abolished, na:,ionali-
ties about which we hear so touch will, no doubt, appear in
the integrity of their origin. Everywhere the aboriginal
will separate from the stranger. It will be like the Day of
Resurrection, the children of the country on the right and
the others on the left, If the Treaties of 1815 are abrogated,
there will be nothing left but force. The European system,
such, good or bad, as it is established by treaties, is to be re-
constructed. But by what right P By the right of war natu-
rally, since either creation begins with antagonism, and since
by the destruction of the treaties we are made to revert to
the beginning of the world—to the time when force alone
was the law. To arms, then; and remember, my good
people, that to form yourselves into States, the first condi-
tion being to measure themselves, your duty is to fight
heartily with each other ! But what do I say ? If the
Treaties of 1815 exist no longer, let us carry the matter out,
and declare that the Civil Codes no longer exist, that the
Commercial Code is abolished, that the Penal Coda is at an
end, Are there not people who every day violate the laws
as well of person as of property ? Abolish the custom-house
and you have no more smuggling. Abolish property and
you have no more thieves. Abolish capital punishment and
the hangman's occupation is gone, So the infraction of the
laws, the contempt of treaties, should have justly this result
—.if this reasoning be pushed to an extreme—the abolition
of laws and the *annulling of tx eaties I Persons and property
remaining without guarantee, justice without sanction, vio-
lence and crime would prevail and would take their revenge

What a singular policy that must be which leads to such
consequ.nces." _ _

It the Treaties of 1815 no longer exist, of course it
is intended to remodel the political map of Eurape.
" What, then, he asks, " will be the maxima and minima
of the Powers in population and territory ? Shall Germany
preserve all her circles, or shall she form only one ? Is Europe
to be composed of 200 Stares, or only a dozen ? Are these
States to be equal between each other, and in this case how
is it meant to reconcile equality with nationality ? Or is the

principle of nationality, without regard to equilibrium, to be
preferred ; and, if so, how are limits to be fixed ? What is
meant by nationalities ? Are there as many as races ? Is the
characteristic of worship and language to be taken with race?
Is the form of Government to have any weight in the mat-
ter ? Do you consider as making part of a nationality th e
fractions of foreign nationalities which it has assimilated to
itself ? What cmstitutes race ? What is the influente of

religion and language? Now, really, if a little chance, or
a little even of the arbitrary is to slip into the acts of the
future, what reproach can be made to the Congress of
Vienna ? . The Treaties of 1815 have ceased t o
exist. You have, therefore, another pact to prop ose to
Europe—a new law, more rational, more complete, more
efficacious, and more intelligible. You appeal to a Congress,
and the Powers have already received their letters of convo-
cation. Most assuredly there is not one ameng us French-
men who would not be proud of the honour to be conferred
on our country in receiving within our capital an assembly
so august. But that is not the question. I ask if these
Sovereigns, as the Imperial speech calls them, shall be
really proper plenipotentiaries? What shall be their com-
petency? Shall they be bearers of a commission? For, in
truth, with the exception of the Emperor of Russia, whose
authority rests on the patriarchal principle, and the Emperor
of the French, whom the nation allows to do nearly what h
pleases, there are no longer abealtito rulers in Europe. A 1 1
have seen their prerogative more or less modified by the
new constitutional regime. Bow, then, shall these high
functionaries,,who of themselves have not the right to raise
a farthing of tax in their countries, have the right of treat-
ing of their possession, and readjusting the map of Europe ?
Victor Emmanuel incurred universal blame in 1809 for
bartering against Lombardy, which Napoleon 111. handed to
him, populations to whom he Was bound by patriotic and
patrimonial ties. Are we going, under pretence of revising
the treaties of 1815, to renew the scandals of them ? Is it so
certain that the nations will not consent, as in 1815, to let
themselves be given as property to the first that bide for
thorn ? And, if they do not consent, if they refuse their
ratifization, of what use, I ptaY, Is the convention of the
Sovereigns ? All's well that ends well.' I loge to believe, as
l willingly hope that the future Congress, that this Araphie-
tyonic Council of Europe, speaking in the name of law and
of the liberality of nations, voting by a majority of suffrages,
acting eoveteignly, will be animated by the most generous
feelings ; that it will impose pacific institutions on the
world, silence the ambitious, and constrain the refractory.
But it may be otherwise. It may be that the Sovereigns
shall meet in Paris, as in 1823 at Verona, to erect barriers
against the`revolution,' and that under pretence of inter •
national order they shall form a league against the liberties
of the world. What reason have we to believe that the new
law of nations, amended by a majority of Sovereigns more
or less well-meaning, shall be more favourable to civilization
than that of 1815 ? You say you hops it will ; but I prefer
the certainty of it; and without the certainty I see no
necessity to run after a new law, or to raise up an authority
which may be changed from night to morning into a counter
revolution."
From the foregoing it will be seen that M.
Proudhon is not favourable to the notion of a
Congress for the remodelling of Europe,