In each State the majority were to decide which religion,
whether Protestant or Catholic, should be established. The Catholics
were all to leave the Protestant States, and assemble in their own. In
like manner the Protestants were to abandon the Catholic kingdoms. This
was the very highest point to which the spirit of toleration had then
attained. All Pagans and Mohammedans were to be driven out of Europe
into Asia. A civil tribunal was to be organized to settle all national
difficulties, so that there should be no more war. There was to be a
standing army belonging to the confederacy, to preserve the peace, and
enforce its decrees, consisting of two hundred and seventy thousand
infantry, fifty thousand cavalry, two hundred cannon, and one hundred
and twenty ships of war.
This plan was by no means so chimerical as at first glance it might seem
to be. The sagacious Sully examined it in all its details, and gave it
his cordial support. The cooeperation of two or three of the leading
powers would have invested the plan with sufficient moral and physical
support to render its success even probable. But the single poniard of
the monk Ravaillac arrested it all.
The Emperor Napoleon I.
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