TROPPAU, CONGRESS OF

This article appears in Volume V27, Page 307 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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TROPPAU, CONGRESS OF , a conference of the allied sovereigns or their representatives to discuss a concerted policy with regard to the questions raised by the revolution in Naples of July 182o. At this congress, which met on the loth of October182o, the emperor Alexander I. of Russia and Francis I. of Austria were present in person; King Frederick William III. of Prussia was represented by the crown prince (afterwards Frederick William IV.). The three eastern powers were further represented by the ministers responsible for their foreign policy: Austria by Prince Metternich, Russia by

Count

COUNT (Lat. comes, gen. comitis, Fr. comte, Ital. conte, Span. conde)

Capo d'Istria, Prussia by Prince -Iardenberg.

Great

GREAT

Britain, on the other hand, which objected on principle to the suggested concerted action against the Neapolitan Liberals, sent no plenipotentiary, but was represented by Lord Stewart,

ambassador

AMBASSADOR (also EMBASSADOR, the form sometimes still used in America; from the Fr. ambassadeur, with which compare Ital. ambasciatore and Span. embajador, all variants of the Med. Lat. ambassiator, ambassiator, ambasator, &c., derived from Med. Lat. amba

in Vienna. France, too, though her policy was less clearly defined, had given no plenary powers to her representatives. Thus from the very first was emphasized that division within the concert of the powers which the outcome of the congress was to make patent.
The characteristic note of this congress was its intimate and informal nature; the determining fact at the outset was Metternich's discovery that he had no longer anything to fear from the " Jacobinism " of the emperor Alexander. In a three hours' conversation over a cup of tea at the little inn he had heard the tsar's

confession

CONFESSION (Lat. confessio, from confiteor, acknowledge, confess)

and promise of amendment: " Aujourd'hui je deplore tout ce que j'ai dit et fait entre les annees 1814 et 1818 . . . Dites-moi ce que

vous

VOUS

voulez de moi. Je le ferai " (Metternich to Esterhazy, Oct. 24, 1820, F. O. Austria Dona. Sep.-Dec. Mao). His failure to convert Castlereagh to his views was now of secondary importance; the " free " powers being in accord, it was safe to ignore the opinions of

Great

GREAT

Britain and France, whose governments, what-ever their goodwill, were fettered by constitutional forms.
In a

series

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

of conferencesto which the representatives of Great Britain and France were not admitted, on the excuse that they were only empowered to " report," not to " decide "was

drawn

DRAWN

up the famous preliminary protocol signed by Austria, Russia and Prussia on the 19th of November. The main pronouncement of the "Troppau Protocol " is as follows: " States, which have undergone a

change

CHANGE (derived through the Fr. from the Late Lat. cambium, cambiare, to barter; the ultimate derivation is probably from the root which appears in the Gr. 冠 urmu', to bend)

of government due to revolution, the result of which threaten other states, ipso facto cease to be members of the European. Alliance, and remain excluded from it until their situation gives guarantees for legal order and stability. If, owing to such alterations, immediate danger threatens other states the powers bind themselves, by peaceful means, or if need be, by arms, to bring back the guilty state into the bosom of the Great Alliance."
No effort was made by the powers to give immediate effect to the principles enunciated in the protocol; and after its promulgation the conferences were adjourned, it being decided to resume them at

Laibach

LAIBACH (Slovenian, Ljubljana)

in the following January
(see

LAIBACH

LAIBACH (Slovenian, Ljubljana)

).
For authorities see the bibliography to ch. i. " The Congresses," by W. Alison Phillips, in the

Cambridge

Mod. Hist. x. 787.

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