e services of Canning which compelled
the King at last to yield and invite Canning back to his old place. The
Congress of Verona was in fact a reassembling of the Holy Alliance for
the purpose of taking once more into consideration the disturbed state of
Europe, and laying down once more the lines of the only policy which,
according to the judgment of the despotic {40} sovereigns and their
ministers, could restore peace to the Continent. The disturbances arose
simply from the fact that some of the European populations were rising up
against the policy of the Holy Alliance, and were agitating for the
principles of constitutional government. The immediate and ostensible
object for the summoning of the Congress was the fact that Greece had
been trying to throw off the yoke of Turkey, and that the leading members
of the Holy Alliance believed it was their business and their right to
say what was to be done with Greece, and whether or not it was for their
convenience that she should be held in perpetual bondage.

[Sidenote: 1822-27--England and the Congress of Verona]

But there were troubles also in Spain, because the Spanish sovereign had
been giving way to the desire of his people for a system of
constitutional government and for the recognition of the principle that a
people has something to do with the making as well as with the obeying of
laws. The restored Bourbon Government in France declared that it saw
dangers to its own rights and its own security in these concessions to
popular demand, made in a country which was only divided from French
territory by the barrier of the Pyrenees. It was intimated in the
clearest manner that the Bourbon Government of France would be prepared,
if necessary, to undertake armed intervention in the affairs of Spain in
order to prevent the Spaniards from thus setting a bad example to the
subjects of the Bourbon dynasty. Then the condition of Poland was giving
some alarm to the despotic monarchs of the Continent everywhere; for, if
Poland were to rise and were allowed to assert its liberty, who could
tell on what soil, sacred to despotism, other rebellious movements might
not also break out. Therefore, the monarchs of the Holy Alliance were
much perturbed, and came to the conclusion that, as the Congress of
Vienna had not succeeded in enforcing all its edicts, the only wise thing
would be to call together another Congress, to be held this time at
Verona, and there go over all the