Re: Act of Settlement and restoration of "Papist" government in 1815

On Aug 30, 11:06 pm, Dom <DR...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In view of the ongoing discussions about the Act of Settlement and the
provisions that prohibit "Papists" from ascending to the British
throne, I would like to ask the following question:

If the "Protestants" and the "Orthodox" were (and apparently continue
to be) so concerned about "Papists," how come Castlereagh, and
especially Czar Alexander I, imposed the restoration, against the will
of the people, of "Papist" government at the Congress of Vienna in
1815? How is that for hypocricy?

The Congress of Vienna was mainly concerned with restoring peace and
stability to Europe in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. I don't think
they were very concerned with religious loyalties. Most of the
religious rivalries took place in the 1500's and 1600's. By the 1800's
political, economic, and nationalistic issues were more of a cause for
rivalry than religion. Napoleon had been defeated and the Treaty of
Paris had restored the absolutist Bourbons in France. (The restored
Bourbons were probably more concerned about maintaining "absolutism"
than "Papism" by that time. The Bourbons weren't especially popular
and there was a lot of residual support for Napoleon among the French
populace. The terms imposed on France by the Congress of Vienna were
favorable and mild rather than punitive (they were hoping to placate
the French people and make them more accepting of the Bourbons). This
was quite a change from the past, when victorious nations imposed
harsh terms on defeated nations, usually taking territory away from
them.

Some of the good points of the Congress of Vienna were that it set a
precedent for nations to work together to compromise and achieve
goals, and to maintain peace and stability, instead of strong
victorious nations punishing weaker defeated nations (as was almost
always the case in the past).

The bad thing about the Congress of Vienna was that by restoring peace
and stability it intentionally restored autocracy and suppressed
liberty. Many of the Congress of Vienna nations were large multi-
ethnic empires, and they didn't want any ideals of democracy or self-
determination for minority peoples (especially Poles and other Slavs)
to become widespread within their empires. The ideals of liberty,
equality, fraternity spread by the French Revolution (and ironically
by Napoleon) were considered a threat to peace, stability, and
autocracy.

.

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