Alliance, Holy

Alliance, Holy, a league entered into by the Emperor Alexander of Russia, the Emperor Francis of Austria, and Frederic William, king of Prussia, after the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, consisting of a declaration signed by them personally, that, in accordance with the precepts of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the principles of justice, charity, and peace should be the basis of the internal administration of their empires and of their international. relations; and that the happiness and religious welfare of their subjects should be the great objects they should ever keep in view. It originated with Alexander, who, it is said, imagined that it would introduce a new era of Christian government; but whatever may have been the original intention, it soon became, in the hands of the wily Metternich, an instrument for the support of tyranny and oppression, and laid the foundation of the Congressional system of politics, which, while it professes to have for its object the support of legitimacy, is a horrid conspiracy against the rights and privileges of the people. SEE HOLY ALLIANCE.