other countries of Northern Europe, a meeting known as the
CONGRESS OF RASTADT.
If judged merely by the number of states represented, this Congress cannot take rank with the meetings of Munster, Osnabrück and Utrecht; but, nevertheless, it has become famous in the annals of the world through the importance of the political questions discussed at it, as well as by the tragic end of several of its participators. The Assembly at Rastadt, besides, stands as the first international tribunal between revolutionary France and the rest of continental Europe. The fiery drama of 1789, first sneered at by kings and princes, and then combated in the field, was now allowed to plead its own cause at a solemn meeting of legitimate ministers. England had taken the initiative in this diplomatic intercourse with the French Republic, by sending, towards the end of 1796, a plenipotentiary to Paris, to treat for peace with the Directory.
The mission of Lord Malmesbury, however, came to nothing, chiefly on account of the incompleteness of the instructions received previously from the British government; and the noble envoy had the mortification of seeing his passport returned to him with the notice of leaving France within forty-eight hours—“pour demander les pouvoirs suffisans.” This diplomatic failure of England seemed to serve as an immediate lesson to the other great antagonist of the Republic, the Kaiser of Austria. No sooner had Lord Malmesbury quitted his post than Queen Caroline of Naples, “Prime Minister of the House of Hapsburg,” asked and obtained an interview with a pale little man—the commander-in-chief of the French army in Italy—and in a very few hours settled with him the preliminaries of a definite peace at the Castle of Campo Formio. General Bonaparte had received no particular “pouvoirs” from Paris for such a settlement, nor had Queen Caroline from Naples; yet the two came to very definite arrangements regarding the distribution of large portions of territory with millions of inhabitants.
It was only to save the appearances of any wilful encroachment on the final decision of their respective governments that the two negotiators, in a final paragraph, arranged the holding of a little Congress for the ratification of their arrangements, and fixed it to take place within a month at Rastadt, in the Duchy of Baden. Communications to that effect being made to the different states of Germany, they hastened to send their envoys to the appointed place, and before the month was over, the assembly was complete, with the exception of the French ambassadors. These gentlemen, or rather citizens, Messrs. Treilhard and Bonnier d’Arco, regicides both, and the same who had negotiated in a rather haughty manner with Lord Malmesbury a short time before, arrived only about three weeks later; and, as if to show their contempt for the other princely commissioners, took up their quarters at the château of the Margrave, destined for the representatives of the Kaiser and some German sovereigns who had come in propiâ personâ to the Congress.
This breach of good manners, however, seemed to make no impression on the imperial and other commissioners, who, with great politeness, vacated their own apartments, contenting themselves with some narrow rooms in an upper floor. The plenipotentiaries thus present were,—on the part of Austria, Count Francis George von Metternich (father of the Prince Metternich lately deceased, and grandfather of the present Austrian ambassador at Paris), and Count Louis von Cobenzl; on the part of Bavaria, Baron von Rechberg, and Count Preysing; on the part of Saxony, Count Loeben; on the part of Sweden, Count Fersen; on the part of Prussia, Count Goertz and Herr von Dohm; on the part of Denmark, Baron von Rosenkranz; and various other noble envoys, too numerous to mention, from the rest of the German States. Russia also was invited to send a plenipotentiary; but Czar Paul I. refused, using, it is reported, a strong expression regarding the Gallic members of the Congress. The deliberations were opened on the 9th December, 1797, by a short speech of M. Bonnier d’Arco, who, like the Bishop of Bristol at Utrecht, enjoined the commissioners present to do their duty without loss of time. It was also desired by the same speaker, that sittings should only take place when convoked by the ambassadors of the Republic, whose secretary, Baron de Münch, was to keep the protocol and communicate it, at the end of every debate, to the secretaries of the other ambassadors, who were to wait, in all humility, in an adjoining room. The further modes of transacting the work of the Congress were likewise arranged by the Republican commissioners, and were very different from those employed at the meetings of Utrecht and Osnabrück. Certain propositions had to be made in turn by all the commissioners, but the reply to them by the rest of the plenipotentiaries was not to be waited for, but had to be given during the sitting itself in writing, to be entered textually in the protocol. At the end of every sitting, the votes so given were to be summed up by the French commissioner, and to be formed in the shape of an arrêté, under the assistance of the Imperial envoy. This summing up was next to be submitted to a final vote at the following sitting, and the decision so come to was to be the final resolution. It was hoped that by these means, which were somewhat in imitation of the modus followed in the French government councils, the deliberations of the Congress would be greatly accelerated; but the ultimate success in no wise fulfilled this expectation.
But this perhaps was owing not only to the forms employed, but to the manner of their execution. The French plenipotentiaries, at almost every sitting, made use of the most acrimonious language towards their brother commissioners, and not unfrequently, openly insulted them. This was particularly the case on the occasion of the news of the taking of Rome and the deposition of the Pope, arriving at Rastadt,—an event which was celebrated by the envoys of the Directory in long orations during the sittings, to the great disgust of Count Metternich and other pious representatives of Roman Catholic Powers. Under these circumstances, and with the want of mutual goodwill on both sides, there was not much progress made in the negotiations. Still more were