208 WELLINGTON AND THE April intention of sending dispatches to Madrid, a measure which in itself was expected to lead up to the withdrawal of the allies' legations, were the two main contributions made by the Congress of Verona towards the solution of the Spanish problem. Welling- ton protested against both these contributions.^ He refused to sign the treaty, arguing that it would merely endanger the lives of the Spanish royal family. He further stated that Great Britain could not concur in the policy of sending dispatches to Madrid, and that the exertions of his government must be limited to allaying the ferment which they were likely to produce. These protests filled the congress with dismay, for they were in fact a formal repudiation of all its transactions. And they occasioned the more surprise, because although Wellington did not assist at the conferences, he certainly made but little objec- tion to what was done at them. Only quite recently he had promised to use all his influence to obtain some form of co-opera- tion between the British minister at Madrid and the rest of his colleagues.^ The thought of British isolation in Spain filled him, so he said, with dismay.^ After such manifestations of sympathy and goodwill his protests of 19 and 20 November came as a painful surprise. And the allies were no less astonished at his explanation. ' For these protests ', so Wellington told Metternich, ' were of no importance. He scarcely knew what was in them, and they had been suggested to him by others.' ^ This explanation appears to have been accepted. For it is a remarkable thing that these papers were allowed to pass unchallenged. Such was not the original intention. The allies told Wellington that they would reply to them,* but if these replies were written no record of them survives. And Boisle- comte expressly states that they were never written. And if we would understand the reason let us glance for a moment at what took place on 20 November, at the final big conference on Spanish affairs. With a view to concealing the differences between
- WeUington protested at first verbally and then later in two official minutes,
dated 19 and 20 November respectively.
- Arch. Nat., France, Boislecomte 720 : ' Le due de Wellington n'avait pas assist^
aux demieres conferences lorsqu'on lui en avait communique confidentiellement le r^ultat, il avait promis de faire ses efiForts pour que M. A'Court se rapprochat autant qu'il lui serait possible de la conduite des Ministres ses collogues k Madrid.' Cp. Villele, Memoires, iii. 223, Montmorency's dispatch of 19 November.
- Arch. Nat., France, Boislecomte 720: 'Lord Wellington disait au contraire
" y avoir un dtat d'isolement dont il se sentait effraye ".'
- Arch. Nat., France, Boislecomte 720 : ' On fut done tres surpris, apres la mani-
festation de sentimens aussi conciliaux, de voir paraitre deux pieces qui etaient une protestation formelle contre tout ce qui sYtait fait au Congres. On ne le fut pas moins d'apprendre I'explication qu'il en donna au Prince de Metternich : " que ces pieces n' etaient qu'un papier sans importance ; qu'il savait a peine ce qu'il y avait dedans et que c' Etaient oes Messieurs qui les lui avaient dictees." '
- Wellington, Suppl Desp. ii. 591, dispatch of 26 November.
