Modern History Sourcebook:
Prince Klemens von Metternich:
Political Confession of Faith, 1820
Prince Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859) was the leading
figure in European government up until 1848. As political master
of the Austrian Empire, he was the architect of an alliance system
among the European powers after Napoleon's defeat - a system which
tried to undo the damage to traditional dynastic politics wroght
by the French revolution.
From Prince Klemens von Metternich. Political Confession
of Faith (1820)
The Source of the Evil
Man's nature is immutable. The first needs of society are and
remain the same, and the differences which they seem to offer
find their explanation in the diversity of influences, acting
on the different races by natural causes, such as the diversity
of climate, barrenness or richness of soil, insular or continental
position, &c. &c. These local differences no doubt produce
effects which extend far beyond purely physical necessities; they
create and determine particular needs in a more elevated sphere;
finally, they determine the laws, and exercise an influence even
on religions.
It is, on the other hand, with institutions as with everything
else. Vague in their origin, they pass through periods of development
and perfection, to arrive in time at their decadence; and, conforming
to the laws of man's nature, they have, like him, their infancy,
their youth, their age of strength and reason, and their age of
decay.
Two elements alone remain in all their strength, and never cease
to exercise their indestructible influence with equal power. These
are the precepts of morality, religious as well as social, and
the necessities created by locality. From the time that men attempt
to swerve from these bases, to become rebels against these sovereign
arbiters of their destinies, society suffers from a malaise which
sooner or later will lead to a state of convulsion. The history
of every country, in relating the consequences of such errors,
contains many pages stained with blood, but we dare to say, without
fear of contradiction, one seeks in vain for an epoch when an
evil of this nature has extended its ravages over such a vast
area as it has done at the present time.
The progress of the human mind has been extremely rapid in the
course of the last three centuries. This progress having been
accelerated more rapidly than the growth of wisdom (the only counterpoise
to passions and to error); a revolution prepared by the false
systems, the fatal errors into which many of the most illustrious
sovereigns of the last half of the eighteenth century fell, has
at last broken out in a country advanced in knowledge, and enervated
by pleasure, in a country inhabited by a people whom one can only
regard as frivolous, from the facility with which they comprehend
and the difficulty they experience in judging calmly.
Having now thrown a rapid glance over the first causes of the
present state of society, it is necessary to point out in a more
particular manner the evil which threatens to deprive it, at one
blow, of the real blessings, the fruits of genuine civilisation,
and to disturb it in the midst of its enjoyments. This evil may
be described in one word - presumption; the natural effect of
the rapid progression of the human mind towards the perfecting
of so many things. This it is which at the present day leads so
many individuals astray, for it has become an almost universal
sentiment....
The causes of the deplorable intensity with which this evil weighs
on society appear to us to be of two kinds....
. . . We will place among the first the feebleness and the inertia
of Governments. It is sufficient to cast a glance on the course
which the Governments followed during the eighteenth century,
to be convinced that not one among them was ignorant of the evil
or of the crisis towards which the social body was tending….
France had the misfortune to produce the greatest number of these
men. It is in her midst that religion and all that she holds sacred,
that morality and authority, and all connected with them, have
been attacked with a steady and systematic animosity, and it is
there that the weapon of ridicule has been used with the most
ease and success. Drag through the mud the name of God and the
powers instituted by His divine decrees, and the revolution will
be prepared! Speak of a social contract, and the revolution is
accomplished! The revolution was already completed in the palaces
of Kings, in the drawing-rooms and boudoirs of certain cities,
while among the great mass of the people it was still only in
a state of preparation. The scenes of horror which accompanied
the first phases of the French Revolution prevented the rapid
propagation of its subversive principles beyond the frontiers
of France, and the wars of conquest which succeeded them gave
to the public mind a direction little favourable to revolutionary
principles. Thus the Jacobin propaganda failed entirely to realise
criminal hopes.
Nevertheless the revolutionary seed had penetrated into every
country and spread more or less. It was greatly developed under
the régime of the military despotism of Bonaparte.
His conquests displaced a number of laws, institutions, and customs;
broke through bonds sacred among all nations, strong enough to
resist time itself; which is more than can be said of certain
benefits conferred by these innovators. From these perturbations
it followed that the revolutionary spirit could in Germany, Italy,
and later on in Spain, easily hide itself under the veil of patriotism…
We are convinced that society can no longer be saved without strong
and vigorous resolutions on the part of the Governments still
free in their opinions and actions. We are also convinced that
this may yet be, if the Governments face the truth, if they free
themselves from all illusion, if they join their ranks and take
their stand on a line of correct, unambiguous, and frankly announced
principles.
By this course the monarchs will fulfil the duties imposed upon
them by Him who, by entrusting them with power, has charged them
to watch over the maintenance of justice, and the rights of all,
to avoid the paths of error, and tread firmly in the way of truth.
Placed beyond the passions which agitate society, it is in days
of trial chiefly that they are called upon to despoil realities
of their false appearances, and to show themselves as they are,
fathers invested with the authority belonging by right to the
heads of families, to prove that, in days of mourning, they know
how to be just, wise, and therefore strong, and that they will
not abandon the people whom they ought to govern to be the sport
of factions, to error and its consequences, which must involve
the loss of society. The moment in which we are putting our thoughts
on paper is one of these critical moments. The crisis is great;
it will be decisive according to the part we take or do not take....
Union between the monarchs is the basis of the policy which must
now be followed to save society from total ruin....
The first principle to be followed by the monarchs, united as
they are by the coincidence of their desires and opinions, should
be that of maintaining the stability of political institutions
against the disorganised excitement which has taken possession
of men's minds- the immutability of principles against the madness
of their interpretation; and respect for laws actually in force
against a desire for their destruction....
Let [the Governments] in these troublous times be more than usually
cautious in attempting real ameliorations, not imperatively claimed
by the needs of the moment, to the end that good itself may not
turn against them - which is the case whenever a Government measure
seems to be inspired by fear.
Let them not confound concessions made to parties with the good
they ought to do for their people, in modifying, according to
their recognised needs, such branches of the administration as
require it.
Let them give minute attention to the financial state of their
kingdoms, so that their people may enjoy, by the reduction of
public burdens, the real, not imaginary, benefits of a state of
peace.
Let them be just, but strong; beneficent, but strict.
Let them maintain religious principles in all their purity, and
not allow the faith to be attacked and morality interpreted according
to the social contract or the visions of foolish sectarians.
Let them suppress Secret Societies, that gangrene of society.
In short, let the great monarchs strengthen their union, and prove
to the world that if it exists, it is beneficent, and ensures
the political peace of Europe: that it is powerful only for the
maintenance of tranquillity at a time when so many attacks are
directed against it; that the principles which they profess are
paterllal and protective, menacing only the disturbers of public
tranquillity....
To every great State determined to survive the storm there still
remain many chances of salvation, and a strong union between the
States on the principles we have announced will overcome the storm
itself.
From Prince Klemens von Metternich, Memoirs of Prince Metternich,
1815-1829, ed. Prince Richard Metternich (New York: Howard
Fertig, 1970; photoreprint of a Scribner and Sons 1881 edition),
Vol. 3, pp. 456-463, 469-471, 473-476.
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(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
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