The Sun.
London, England, 1834-03-17 00:00:00

[ SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Congress now assembled in the Austrian I
capital does not seem to us to have engaged the
full share of attention to which it is entitled.
Had each of the leading military Governments
which have for some time been taking part in
the conferences of Vienna meditated no objects
beyond those comprehended within the domestic
interests and administration of their respective
countries, there could have been no occasion for
these cumbrous and expensive congregations of
diplomacy at a distant Court. The resident
Ambassadors might have answered all the ends
of receiving and transmitting intelligence of an
ordinary character, and maintaining the usual
relations of chartered espionnage between states
calling themselves " friendly." All unaccustomed
meetings between Governments, thrbugh extra-
ordinary organs, such as Cabinet Ministers, &c.,
betoken an intermeddling of each separate
state so represented, with one or more of its
neighbours, and oftentimes of neighbours not
present in the assembly by which their
tranquillity and welfare are to be more or less
affected. Every European congress, since the
overthrow of Bonaparte (we believe there have
been four of them), was the cradle of some
attack upon the rights of independent nations.
The parent congress of all, that of Vienna in
1814-15, may be quoted as an example, yet
unequalled, of shameless hypocrisy and oppres-
sion ; the herded conquerors, like beasts of prey,
dislocating kingdoms and devouring nations,
and revelling in the spoils of the fresh-won battle.
But the deceitfulness of the measures which
were there adopted forms a blot in the reputa-
tion of the Powers concerned more indelible
than their audacious injustice. The people, the
brave and good German people, were still in
arms, and eager to see converted to their own
lasting benefit that universal spirit of national
pride and independence which had roused
them like one man for the expulsion of
Bonaparte from their soil, and that pervading
passion for free institutions which had grown
up with the other sentiment, and had perhaps
been first inspired by witnessing the glori-
ous and successful struggle of the only free
nation in this hemisphere, with him who
had for years reduced the several military
tyrants of the continent to the same condi-
tion with their own abject slaves. " The powers"
at Vienna, therefore, in the year 1815, durst
not all at once disappoint and exasperate the
brave people through whose devoted heroism
they had recovered their crowns. They told
their subjects, " You have done all for us—for
you we shall, in return, establish institutions
required by the age." To the feeble inha-
bitants of the smaller states the word of promise
was kept with sorre regard to decency. Though
promised to. all, that all might for the moment
be kept in good humour, it was fulfilled only on
behalf of the inferior states, as Bavaria, Wir-
temberg, Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Baden ; seeing
that in them freedom might be watched and
frowned upon with impunity by their formidable
neighbours, and if superintendence and dis-
countenance should not suffice, why, as
an ultimate cure, that then the nuisance
of liberty might be put down without
much risk of failure. It is clear from the
history of the last fifteen years, that German
freedom in the smaller states has forfeited
whatever tolerance it once enjoyed from the
mighty Potentates whose business has been to
observe its tendencies and movements. The
French and Belgic revolutions, and now we may
perhaps subjoin the Spanish, have invited the
popular sympathies everywhere, and aggravated,
in even a superfluous degree, the fears of all
who have made the " monarchical principle"
their standard. Low murmurs of displeasure
have been heard now and then, the forerunners
of more awful indications. The Vienna Con- i
gress of the present year has met, we have rea-
son to believe, more specifically for purposes
hostile to the free States of Germany than for
any other definite end. Their own dominions
are, they apprehend, too near the fire, and a
spark from it may throw them into general com•
bustion. Prussia knows something more than
the name of liberty, and her active and
spirited population, are preparing quietly to
take advantage of events which a very few
years must realize. The nobles of Bohemia
and Hungary, would be not unwilling to
shake off the yoke of a single despot, and
to fix their own supremacy on the neck of a
multitude as yet by far too ignorant and pros-
trate to contend for its fair share of political or
civil privileges. The north of Italy will soon
be ripe for resurrection ; and if the mind of
France could now be excited to warlike action
for any given cause, it would be for the release
of Poland, herself yet burning with the rage of
national suffering, and with the unappeasable
thirst of revenge. Yet, if we except the solitary
case of Poland, there appears to us nothing
which ought to raise the jealousy or suspicion
of absolute courts upon the Continent, as to the
near approach of danger from the spirit of li-
berty. As for Carbonarism, " the march of
democracy," and so forth, the usual phrases
put forth by Russia as bughaars to the abso-
lute German governments, we attach no fur-
ther importance to them than for the influence
they may exercise over the Austrian and Prus•
sian cabinets. The designs of Russia are fixed
upon the east of Europe, and she wishes to divert
Ale attention of neighbouring powers from her own
selfish objects, to chimeras in which she takes no
real interest. There is nothing which threatens
an immediate opening of the long foreseen war
of opinion eastward of the Rhine, at least there
is nothing of an aggressive nature to be dreaded
from the friends of liberty. But the Vienna
Congress are not satisfied of this. The Met-
ternichs, and other dextrous though short-
sighted courtiers, have prepared, if we mistake
not, some blow against the representative go•
vernments of Germany. They are not content
that the stream should flow placidly and inoffen-
sively onwards, in the channels too which they
had themselves cut out,—they are for damming
it up ; and assuredly, if they do, it will over-
flow its banks and drown them. If anything
could now produce the mischief of popular ex-
citement and universal sympathy by which the
" Powers" would persuade political societies that
they are about to be destroyed, it would be an
,ttempt to put down by force the enjoyment
of their civil rights by the minor German
nations. It is a different thing—it is in a
different temper that men look forward to an ac-
quisition they have never yet made, from that
WO they suffer the loss of a good in their
aectla itr pps session. If, therefore, the congress
- •
:>‘::,--sit-oAas,seilly contemplate what they fancy to be
a ford.sti4o against the freedom of debate, or
- freedoiii" of the press, or any other of the
constitutional advantages which have hitherto
been enjoyed by the smaller states of Germany—
:4-4 ‘.11:7the11:: policy
.be to determine by experiment