Europe after the Congress of Vie7ina 535 coalition itself, had survived the Peace of Paris. My cor- respondence up to the present time has supplied your Majesty with repeated proofs of this. If the plans which, on arriving here, I found had been formed, had been car- ried into execution, France might have stood alone in Europe without being in good relations with any one single power for half a century to come. All my efforts were directed to the prevention of so great a misfortune, but my most ardent hopes did not reach the height of a complete success. But now, sire, the coalition is dissolved, and forever. Not only does France no longer stand alone in Europe, but your Majesty is already in an alliance such as it seemed that fifty years of negotiation could not have procured for her. France is now in concert with two of the greatest powers and three states of the second order, and will soon be in concert with all the states which are guided by other than revolutionary principles and maxims. Your Majesty will be, in reality, the head and soul of that union, formed for the defense of the principles which your Majesty has been the first to proclaim. So great and happy a change is only to be attributed to that special favor of Providence which was so clearly indi- cated by the restoration of your Majesty to the throne. Under God, the efficient causes of this change have been: My letters to Monsieur de Metternich and Lord Castle- reagh and the impressions which they have produced ; The suggestions which I gave Lord Castlereagh relative to a union with France and of which I gave your Majesty an account in my last letter ; The pains I nave taken to lull his distrust by exhibiting perfect disinterestedness in the name of France ; The peace with America, which, by releasing him from difficulty on that side, has left him more liberty of action and given him greater courage ; Lastly, the pretensions of Russia and Prussia, as set forth in the Russian project of which I have the honor to subjoin a copy; and especially the manner in which those Hostility of the allies toward France. Talleyrand forms an alliance between France, England, Austria, and lesser powers
