LAIR Active Reading: The Congress of Vienna (October 10)

1. "The Congress of Vienna: Metternich's Conservative Order" by Tom Richey

2. Excerpt from the Protocol of the Congress of Vienna, 1815:

"The objects to be treated in the Congress will be classed in two series:
1. The first will include the general arrangement of the affairs of Europe, territorial divisions, fixation of boundaries, the definite fate of the countries provisionally occupied and administered by the Allied Powers, and other questions of a general interest, such as that of the slave trade.
2. The second will be consecrated to the establishment of the political bases of the federative pact of Germany.
The preparatory work of the two classes will be confided to two committees, of which one,- composed of the plenipotentiaries of will be charged with the part relative to general questions, and the other, composed of the plenipotentiaries of with that relative to the organization of Germany.
The six cabinets desire that the plenipotentiaries of the other powers make known to the first committee and those of the states of Germany to the second, the propositions and the views of their governments, and when as a consequence of these communications the committee charged with the general affairs will have drawn up its plan and taken cognizance of that which the other committee will have formed for the establishment of the political bases of the federative system of Germany, the six cabinets will hasten to carry to the sanction of the Congress the result of their deliberations." 

3. Preamble to the Treaty of Paris, (1814):

"In the name of the most Holy and Undivided Trinity. His majesty the King of the united Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and his allies, on the one part; and his majesty the King of France and of Navarre, on the other part; animated by an equal desire to terminate the long agitations of Europe, and the sufferings of mankind, by a permanent peace, founded upon a just repartition of force between its states, and containing in its stipulations the pledge of its durability, and his Britannic majesty, together with his allies, being unwilling to require of France, now that, replaced under the paternal government of her kings, she offers the assurance of security and stability to Europe, the conditions and guarantees which they had with regret demanded from her former government, their said majesties have named plenipotentiaries to discuss, settle, and sign a treaty of peace and amity"

4. Letter from Charles de Talleyrand, Prince of Bénévent, to King Louis XVIII of France, 1815:

"This project was clearly intended to render the four powers who call themselves allied, absolute masters of all the operations of the Congress, since, supposing the six principal powers were to constitute themselves judges of the questions relative to the composition of the congress, to the questions which it -as to regulate, to the procedure to be followed in order to regulate them, to the order in which they will be regulated, and were to name alone and without control the committees which were to prepare everything. France and Spain, even supposing they agreed on all questions, would be always only two against four."