gland supported Austria against the attacks of
Prussia, and then later supported Prussia against a coalition formed by the
rest of Europe to crush her. Unfortunately neither England nor France had
sufficient strength or courage to prevent the partition of Poland between
Prussia, Russia and Austria, which constituted a fatal violation of the
Balance of Power. Peace did not return to Europe till 1815, when the whole
continent had been driven to combine for the overthrow of Napoleon. At the
Congress of Vienna in that year the "Concert of Europe" was revived, and
for more than thirty years it practically succeeded by means of a series
of international congresses in maintaining a stable and balanced system in
Europe.

But this "Concert of Europe" was the very thing against which the
democratic forces on the continent finally rebelled, for the "Concert" took
the form of the so-called "Holy Alliance" between the rulers of Europe,
whose object was to prevent popular movements from disturbing the neat and
orderly peace which they had created. The system created by the Congress of
Vienna began to break down in 1848. Since then the warlike nationalist and
democratic movements in Europe, followed by the tremendous economic growth
of the European nations, have made it almost impossible to secure any
stable balance of power, though a more or less successful attempt to
establish such a balance in the affairs of south-eastern Europe was made at
the Congress of Berlin in 1878. The two Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907
did little but reveal the mutual fears and suspicions of the European
nations, though many statesmen, especially English and American, laboured
sincerely to make the Hague Conventions the guarantee of a lasting peace.
But it must be observed that the "Balance of Power," which was originally a
distinctly European conception, has now become a world-wide conception. In
order to secure a balance of power between the European States it is no
longer sufficient to settle European frontiers; it is necessary to settle
and, as it were, dovetail into each other the economic interests of the
European countries in Africa, Asia, and the Southern Pacific. It is also
necessary to define the relations of European countries to the States in
North and South America.

What is the conclusion to be drawn from this history? The idea of the
Balance of Power is unsatisfactory. You cannot really "balance" living
forces. Nations are not dead masses