ron Hager[296] by one of his secret agents during the Congress of
Vienna: "Public opinion continues to be unfavorable to the Congress. On
all sides one hears it said that there is no harmony, that they are no
longer solicitous about the re-establishment of order and justice, but
are bent only on forcing one another's hands, each one grabbing as much
as he can.... It is said that the Congress will end because it must, but
that it will leave things more entangled than it found them.... The
peoples, who in consequence of the success, the sincerity, and the
noble-mindedness of this superb coalition had conceived such esteem for
their leaders and such attachment to them, and now perceive how they
have forgotten what they solemnly promised--justice, order, peace
founded on the equilibrium and legitimacy of their possessions--will end
by losing their affection and withdrawing their confidence in their
principles and their promises."

Those words, written a hundred and five years ago, might have been
penned any day since the month of February, 1919.

The leading motive of the policy pursued by the Supreme Council and
embodied in the Treaty was aptly described at the time as the systematic
protection of France against Germany. Hence the creation of the powerful
barrier states, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Jugoslavia, Greater Rumania, and
Greater Greece. French nationalists pleaded for further precautions more
comprehensive still. Their contention was that France's economic,
strategic, financial, and territorial welfare being the cornerstone of
the future European edifice, every measure proposed at the Conference,
whether national or general, should be considered and shaped in
accordance with that, and consequently that no possibility should be
accorded to Germany of rising again to a commanding position because, if
she once recovered her ascendancy in any domain whatsoever, Europe would
inevitably be thrust anew into the horrors of war. Territorially,
therefore, the dismemberment of Germany was obligatory; the annexation
of the Saar Valley, together with its six hundred thousand Teuton
inhabitants, was necessary to France, and either the annexation of the
left bank of the Rhine or its transformation into a detached state to be
occupied and administered by the French until Germany pays the last
farthing of the indemnity. Further, Austria must be deprived of the
right of determining her own mode of existence and constrained to
abandon