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Circular of the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian Sovereigns to their respective Missions at Foreign Courts, respecting the affairs of Spain, Portugal, and Naples. Troppau, 8th December, 1820. Short Narrative of the first results of the Conference at Troppau. The Events which occurred on the 8th of March in Spain, on the 2nd of July at Naples, and the Portuguese catastrophe, have naturally led to a feeling of great anxiety and sorrow in all persons who are under the obligation of watching over the tranquility of States, but at the same time revealing to them the necessity of assembling together and deliberating on the means of preventing all the evils which threatened to fall upon Europe. It was natural that these feelings should especially create a lively impression on the Powers which had recently stifled revolution, and which saw it again raising its head. It was... natural that those Powers, in order to battle with it for the third time, should have recourse to the same means which they had adopted with so much success in that memorable struggle which delivered Europe from the yoke which she had endured for 20 years. Everything led to the hope, that that Alliance [which]... had delivered the Continent of Europe from the military tyranny of the Representative of Revolution, would also be in a position to put a curb on a force no less tyrannical and no less detestable, that of Revolution and Crime. Such were the motives and the end of the meeting at Troppau.... The Powers have exercised an undeniable right, in concerting together upon means of safety against those States in which the overthrow of a Government caused by revolution, could only be considered as a dangerous example, which could only result in an hostile attitude against constitutional and legitimate Governments. The exercise of this right became still more urgent, when those who had placed themselves in that position, sought to communicate to neighboring States the misfortune into which they had themselves plunged, and to propagate revolution and confusion around them.... This undeniable fact is the point from which the Allied Courts started.
The Ministers who could be furnished at Troppau with positive instructions
from their Courts, concerted together on the principles of the conduct
on which they were to follow towards those States whose form of Government
had received violent shocks, and on the peaceful or coercive measures which,
in cases where important effects of a salutary influence could be obtained
might recall those States within the bosom of the Alliance. The results
of these deliberations were communicated to the Courts of Paris and London,
in order that on their part they might take
As the Revolution of Naples daily takes deeper root, that no other imperils the tranquility of neighboring States to a danger so certain and so imminent, and that it is not possible to act so immediately and so promptly upon any other, they have come to the conviction of the necessity of preceding according to the above principles, towards the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In order to prepare measures of conciliation for that purpose, the Monarchs assembled at Troppau invited by the King of the Two Sicilies to join them at Laybach, a step the object of which was solely to deliver the will of His Majesty from all external constraint, and to constitute the Monarch mediator between his erring peoples, and the States whose tranquility they threatened. The Allied Monarchs being determined not to recognize a Government created by open revolt, could only negotiate with the person of the King. Their Ministers and Agents at Naples have consequently received the necessary instructions. France and England have been invited to take part in this movement, and it is hoped that they will not refuse to give their assent There is nothing new in the system followed by Austria, Prussia, and Russia; it rests upon the same maxims as those which served as a bases of the Treaties upon which the Alliance of the European States was founded. The intimate Union between the Courts which are in the very heart of this Alliance, can thereby only gain more strength and durability. The Alliance will strengthen itself by the same means which the Powers to which it owes its origins adopted to form it, and which have thus by degrees made it to be adopted by all the others, who have become convinced of its advantages more than ever incontestable. Besides, no other proofs are necessary, than that neither the spirit of conquest, not the pretext of infringing on the Independence of other Governments in their Internal Administration, nor the project of preventingwise alterations freely undertaken, and consistent with the true interests of the peoples, have had any part in the Resolutions of the Powers. They only wish to maintain Peace, and to deliver Europe from the curse of Revolution, and to remove or abridge, as much as in them lies, the evils which result from the violation of all principles of order and morality. To such conditions, the Allied Monarchs think they may hope, as a reward
for their efforts and their care, for the unanimous approval of the world.
From Edward Hertslet, ed., The Map of Europe by Treaty, 4 vols.
(London: Butterworth's, 1875-1891),
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