von Krüdener, an admirable representative of the religious sickliness of
the age. "I have immense things to say to him," she said, referring to the
Emperor, "the Lord alone can prepare his heart to receive them." She had,
indeed, many things to say to him, but her influence was evanescent and
his Imperial heart was hardened eventually to quite different issues.


METTERNICH

Absolutely at the other extreme was a man like Metternich, trained in the
old school of politics, wily with the wiliness of a practised diplomatic
training, naturally impatient of speculative dreamers, thoroughly
practical in the only sense in which he understood the term, that is to
say, determined to preserve Austrian supremacy. To a reactionary of this
kind the Holy Alliance represented nothing but words. He knew, with the
cynicism bred of long experience of mankind, that the rivalries and
jealousies between different states would prevent their union in any
common purpose, and in the long run the intensity with which he pursued
his objects, narrow and limited as it was, prevailed over the large and
vague generosity of Alexander's nature. To the same type belonged both
Talleyrand and Richelieu, who concentrated themselves on the single task
of winning back for France her older position in the European
commonwealth--a laudable aim for patriots to espouse, but one which was
not likely to help the cause of the Holy Alliance.


CASTLEREAGH AND CANNING

Half-way between these two extremes of unpractical idealists and extremely
practical but narrow-minded reactionaries come the English statesmen,