Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: men, while assuring the latter that the Austrian forces would not be employed on the offensive. All the time he was actually keeping the whole Austrian army on a war footing and maintaining an armed neutrality, ready to throw his weight upon whichever side might finally be in a position to bestow the greater benefits upon Austria. Such was the success of his well-laid plans that the intervention of Austria was the decisive factor in the Battle of the Nations (October, 1813) and in the campaign of 1814: Napoleon's power collapsed and Austria became the dominant Power among the victorious allies. Metternich was hailed as the most astute statesman of his age — he hobnobbed with the Russian and Prussian monarchs, he was f£ted by Talleyrand and Louis XVIII, he was given a fulsome welcome on a visit to England, he was named a magnate of the kingdom of Hungary and a count and hereditary prince of the Austrian Empire. THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE The most important problem which confronted European diplomacy, after the restoration of the French Bourbons, was that of general territorial readjustments. Napoleon had badly mutilated the ancient map of Europe, How far could, or should, his victors mend it? To Problems what extent were they justified in rewarding them- selves territorially for their efforts and sacrifices? What punishment should they mete out to his late allies? It was a recognition of the decisive part played by Austria and of the commanding personality of Metternich that Vienna was chosen as the scene of the great international congress convened (September, 1814) for the purpose of answering these questions and of reestablishing the balance of power in Europe. Never had Europe beheld such a galaxy of gold lace and titled dignitaries of t...