New World.

It would have been well indeed if European monarchs at a later day had
always remembered the warning and rightly estimated its weight. It would
have been well for Louis Napoleon if at the zenith of his imperial
success he had studied that message of President Monroe and properly
interpreted its meaning. Such a course would have prevented him from
making his ill-starred attempt to set up a Mexican Empire by the force of
French arms on the ruins of a subjugated Mexican Republic. It would have
saved him from defeat and disaster, and would have saved the unhappy,
ill-advised, and gallant Maximilian, his puppet emperor, from a tragic
fate. The attempt to retrieve the disgrace of his enforced withdrawal
from Mexico led Louis Napoleon into that policy of the desperate
gambler's last throw which ended in the occupation of Paris and the fall
of the Second Empire.

Meanwhile the policy of Canning had accomplished its purpose. The
Congress of Verona had been an idle piece of business, the sovereigns of
the Holy Alliance had found that their day was done, and the New World
had been successfully called in to redress the balance of the Old.

{46}

CHAPTER LXVI.

THE CLOSE OF CANNING'S CAREER.

[Sidenote: 1820-30--Sir William Knighton]

The King was at first disposed to show some alarm at the bold policy of
Canning. George, to do him justice, was in general a lover of peace,
and for a while he did not see how the declarations of his Foreign
Minister could lead to anything less than an outbreak of war on the
part of the Continental sovereigns, who thus seemed to be challenged to
assert what they believed to be their rights. His doubt and dread took
the form of more or less concealed grumblings against Canning, and
efforts to induce his other ministers to make a common cause with him
against the adventurous Foreign Minister. Canning, however, saw that
the crisis which he had to face was one which makes a bold and resolute
policy, frankly avowed on the part of a strong Government, the best or
the only means of securing peace. He was able, after a while, to
impress his royal master with the justice of his belief, and the King
graciously received the envoy accredited to his Court on behalf of one
of the new American Republics. Then the rest of the work went on
smoothly, the lines of the new policy were laid down, and the
sovereigns of the Holy Alliance did not venture to transgress them.

The King was