Excerpt from Modern Europe, 1815-1899, Vol. 8 The statesmen assembled at Vienna were themselves, indeed, under no illusion in the matter. For them the period just closed had been no more than an interlude, unpleasantly interrupting the legitimate development of the diplomatic comedy; and they were prepared, in all gaiety of heart, to resume the parts which they had filled before the Corsican interloper had thrust himself in and held the stage. The magniloquent phrases were but addressed to the gallery; intended only 'to tranquillise the peoples, and to give to the solemn reunion an air of dignity and grandeur.' The true object of the Congress was, after all, only, in accordance with a principle hallowed by immemorial tradition, 'to divide among the conquerors the spoil of the conquered.' And from this moral and political obliquity of vision, doubtless, it comes that Europe, instead of finding a permanent settlement on a foundation as firm as far - sighted and disinterested statesman ship could make it, has for nigh on a century, amid wars and rumours of war, been destroying piecemeal the political edifice which, at Vienna, monarchs and ministers patched together in the intervals of a round of gaiety which seemed, even to So cynical an observer as Talleyrand, to mock the misery of a world bled white by twenty years of war. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.