Princes!
What, in the eyes of God and of Christians, is the nature, what the character, of the power which you exercise?
What are the bases of the system of social organization which you labour to establish? What measures have you taken to ameliorate the moral and physical condition of the poor?
You call yourselves Christians, and yet you found your authority upon the physical power, and are nothing but successors of Cæsar. You forget that true Christians propose, as the final object of their labours, to annihilate completely the power of the sword—the power of Cæsar, which, by its nature, is essentially transitory.
And is it this power which you have undertaken to give as a basis of social organization? To it alone, according to you, belongs the introduction to all the general ameliorations demanded by the progress of intelligence. To support this monstrous system, you hold two millions of men under arms, you have caused all the tribunals to adopt your principle, and you have obtained from the Catholic, Protestant, and Greek clergy, the loud profession of the heretical doctrine, that the power of Cæsar is the ruling power of Christian society.
In calling back the people to the Christian religion by the symbol of your union, in giving them the enjoyment of a peace, which is for them the first of blessings, you have not, nevertheless, obtained any grateful acknowledgement on their part. Your own personal interest reigns too much in the combinations you present as being of general interest. The supreme European power, which resides in your hands, is far from being a Christian power, as it ought to become. Whenever you act, you display the character and the insignia of physical power—the anti-Christian power.
All the measures, of whatsoever importance, that you have taken since you have become united in the Holy Alliance: all these measures tend of themselves to deteriorate the condition of the poor, not only of the present generation, but even of the generations which succeed it. You have augmented the taxes, you are augmenting them
