The long list of potentates, who met in person or by their representatives at the Hague, looked well in the Gazettes.

The crowd of princely equipages, attended by manycoloured guards and lacqueys, looked well among the lime trees of the Voorhout.

But the very circumstances which made the Congress more splendid than other congresses made the league weaker than other leagues.

The more numerous the allies, the more numerous were the dangers which threatened the alliance.

It was impossible that twenty governments, divided by quarrels about precedence, quarrels about territory, quarrels about trade, quarrels about religion, could long act together in perfect harmony.