THE MAKING OF MODERN EUROPE	389
Congress was the Austrian statesman Metternich.   Few men
have exercised such powerful influence over the destinies of
a continent like this Napoleon of diplomacy.   The mere fact
that Metternich presided over the deliberations of this most
momentous gathering, where almost all the potentates of
Europe were personally present, is sufficient indication of
his importance.   Next to him was Talleyrand the represen-
tative of France who put forward the doctrine of " Legiti-
macy " which formed the sheet-anchor of the Congress. That
assembly was as .reactionary as it was pompous; it was
throughout marked by secret diplomacy and the domination
of the big powers, as by ' an uninterrupted festival of extra-
ordinary brilliance/  It trampled under foot the principles of
nationalism, democracy and liberalism, as dangerous inno-
vations, and reconstructed the map of Europe heedless of
nationality.    France was deprived of all her revolutionary
and  Napoleonic conquests  and  the  reactionary Bourbon
Louis XVIII (brother of Louis XVI who had "forgotten
nothing and could forgive nothing") was foisted upon the
throne of his ancestors; incompatibles like Norway and
Sweden, Holland and Belgium, were bound together irres-
pective of the aspirations of their peoples; likewise the
Machiavellian "Partitions" of Poland were confirmed to
their foreign masters ; Austria was allowed to dominate over
dismembered Italy; and the gains of Great Britain were
guaranteed to that.country. While everyone, with the excep-
tion of France, got something, no one was satisfied.
The first outward manifestation of the spirit of the Con-
gress was the formation of the Quadruple Alliance between
Austria, Prussia, Russia, and England. Its ostensible pur-
pose was the defence of the Settlement; but in reality it
sought to be the bulwark of reactionary " Legitimisin." When
England saw this sinister tendency, which was a negation