ABSTRACT
Elba Friedrich von Gentz was an acute observer of the politics of his time, serious yet cynical, venal and at the same time sincere: one of those men of great ability whose waywardness and idle humours keep them from the highest responsibilities and the noblest employments. He seems to have been proud of his memorandum, for he noted in his journal: 'Compose une des plus belles pieces de ma vie'. The formulae of the Holy Alliance were revealed to the sovereigns of Europe in September 1815. Two months later the Powers whose armies had defeated Napoleon concluded their work of pacification in language nearer to the idealism of the Tsar than to the realism of Gentz. The hopes of the European liberals may seem childish in their extravagant simplicity. Even before the signature of the second peace of Paris the Tsar Alexander had invited his brother sovereigns to form a Holy Alliance of Christian princes.
