1920 CONGRESS OF VERONA, 1822 203 absence, and to what extent does he influence the collective decision from outside ? To the first question Montmorency and Boislecomte provide the answer. They tell us that Wellington felt so much embarrassment at being continually obliged to protest against the proceedings of the allies that he determined to take no further part in their formal discussions.^ But if during these three weeks Wellington disappears from the conferences, his influence upon their deliberations is never more apparent. The other four powers, it is true, had made up their minds to act without him if they could not carry him with them, but they were not insensible to the disadvantage which any such course would entail. Wellington's protests had shown how hopeless was the task of attempting a reconciliation between his instructions and their intentions. On 30 October he had protested against any interference on the part of France. On 1 November he had protested against any interference on the part of the allies. He had in this way brought the proceedings of the congress to a standstill, and it became clear that unless the alliance were to split asunder, or unless the allies were prepared to abandon all hope of British co-operation, the continental powers would be compelled to introduce substantial modifications into their programme. Metternich was not the man to believe that the resources of diplomacy could ever be exhausted, and the tsar had a personal interest in the preservation of the alliance which he believed to be his own creation. Austria and Russia now begin to draw together, and they drew together upon the assumption that they need not yet despair of British co-operation, and that even if Great Britain was not of a mind to assist in the overthrow of the existing institutions in Spain, she might at any rate be brought to connive secretly at their fall.^ All the powers
- Arch. Nat., France, Boislecomte 720 : ' lis s'abstinrent egalement par la suite de
paraitre aux reunions qui eurent lieu relativement aux affaires d'Espagne, ayant declare qu'ils ne pourraient s'y presenter que pour aj outer a leurs protestations precedentes des protestations nouvelles et plus formelles encore . . .' ; also Villele, Memoires, iii. 179, 1904. In his dispatch of 5 November Montmorency wrote : ' Le due de Wellington avait temoigne a plusieurs reprises aux chefs de cabinet I'embarras et le regret qu'il eprouvait d'etre oblige, surtout dans les conferences generales, d'op- poser a chaque instant une sorte de protestation ou de denegation centre les principes enonces par les Allies.' Compare his dispatch of 19 November : ' Le tout vient d'etre communique aujourd'hui dans une conversation confidentielle au due de Wellington en I'absence duquel nous avions travaille, comme je vous I'ai mande, pour menager son propre embarras ' (Villele, Memoires, iii. 223). Wellington admitted his absence : ' The ministers of the four Powers have had two or three meetings, to consider of the terms of the communication to be made to Spain. ... It is impossible for me to know all that passed at these meetings ' (dispatch of 12 November, Wellington, Suppl. Deap. i. 632).
- Villele, Memoires, iii. 164-5, Montmorency's dispatch of 28 October : ' M. de
Metternich persiste a esperer qu'on pourra I'amener, sinon a entrer dans les vues com- munes, du moins a marcher d cote et jamais contre.' Cf. Londonderry's memoranda, nos. 2, 3, and 4, of 2, 3, and 4 November (Wellington, Suppl. Desp. i. 485-7, 510).
