the English ministry crossed the border-line of perfidy in its proceedings with Bonaparte. But in such instances the English people, considering the character and principles of the foe with whom they had to deal, found little difficulty in framing a justification for such a course.

In other respects the policy of Great Britain was more honorable, more commendable. As a rule, she stood stoutly to her time-honored principle of non-interference in the affairs of other States. Nor did she, after Waterloo, notwithstanding her anger and heat of blood, at any time assent to the project of the dismemberment and partition of France. And what is of much more importance, she declined, though strongly urged to such a course, to become a party to that unholy Holy Alliance, whereby her chief partners in the last great struggle with Napoleon now proposed to direct the destinies of Europe. It may be profitable to the reader in this connection to elucidate in brief the genesis and character of the so-called Holy Alliance.

Madame the Baroness Krudener was a Russian princess, born in Riga, an adventuress in her palmy days, and a mystic when her palmy days were over. From the age of thirteen she traveled through the principal cities of Europe. Her wealth was great, her accomplishments many. At length princes and kings became her playfellows, and, in some sense, her toys. After 1803 she resided mostly in Paris. Afterwards she returned to Riga, and devoted herself to religious mysticism. Again at Paris, in 1814, we find her in her salon, receiving the visits of monarchs. She became a prophetess-the Cassandra of the modern Ilium. She foretold the vicissitudes of the last year of the Napoleonic regime. Alexander of Russia met her at Heilbronn a month before Waterloo, and became infatuated with her and her doctrines. Henceforth, for several years, she moved the Czar according to the impulse of her reverie and purpose. Strange that this woman should have contributed so novel a chapter to the history of modern Europe as that recorded in the pages of the Holy Alliance!

It was on the 26th of September, 1815, that the league so-called was made. The parties to the compact were Alexander 1., of Russia; Emperor Francis, of Austria; and Frederick William III., of Prussia. To the Alliance, however, nearly all the other Powers, except Rome, England, and France, soon acceded. It is said that its terms were arranged for the most part by Alexander, acting under the immediate inspiration of Madame Krudener. The Czar was then in Paris, and was in almost constant companionship with her. The Alliance aspired to be no less than a new basis for the political order and conduct, not only of Europe, but of the world. The compact assumed to be the application, and we might say the codification and real presence, of the principles of Christianity considered as a means and method of political action. Henceforth, civil government was to be a distinctly religious affair, Christian in all its sanction and proceedings. The States of Europe were to conduct their affairs on the basis of Christian amity and fellowship; and we, the hereditary princes of Christendom, are to be the patriarchs and fathers of the people. It might be difficult to know to what extent the royal figure-heads who completed and signed the Alliance were self-deceived in respect to the nature and inevitable tendencies of their agreement. But the whole philosophical meaning and purport of the compact might well be summed up on the one dreadful word-despotism.

The three monarchs signed the Alliance in September of 1815. But the contents of the agreement were not known to Europe until the 2d of February, 1816, when the paper was published in full in the Frankfort Journal. One of the special features of the instrument was that by which all members of the Bonaparte family were to be forever excluded, not only from the throne of France, but from all the sovereignties of Europe. The monarchs were very sincere in their project, as we shall hereafter see, in their conduct towards the republican and revolutionary movements of 1820-24. The Republicans of Naples and Piedmont, of Spain, and of France herself, shall feel, in full force, the results of the scheme contrived by Krudener and Alexander. Not until the latter has been called to his account-not until fifteen years have passed