1. Nancy Mitford, The Nancv Mitford Omnibus, London, 1986, p. 561.

2. See Keith Hamilton and Richard Langhorne, The Practice of Diplomacy, London, 1995, pp. 48 - 49 and 52 – 53.

3. See Hamilton and Langhorne, pp. 71 – 75.

4. See Macchiavelli, Guicciardini. Harold Nicolson, The Evolution of Diplomatic Method, Oxford, 1954, pp. 31 - 35, also commented on the "wolf-like habits" of Italian diplomacy.

5. M. Wight, System of States, London, 1977, p. 53 also p. 141.

6. The classic statement of this is in Philip de Commynes, Mémoires, Paris (n.d.), VI, pp. 198 - 199, ‘’It is not very safe to have ambassadors coming and going so much because they often discuss evil things. But it is necessary to send and receive them...My advice is that it is both politer and safer that they be well treated and (that) wise and trusty servants....attend them. For by this means it is possible to find out who goes to see them and to prevent malcontents from taking them news….For every messenger or ambassador sent to me, I would send two in return, and if the princes become bored with them and say that no more should be sent, I would still send them whenever I had the chance or the means. For no better or safer way is known of sending a spy who has the opportunity to observe and find things out. And if you send two or three people it is impossible to remain on guard so constantly that one or the other cannot have a few words, either secretly or otherwise with someone".

7. See Richard Langhorne, "Current Developments in Diplomacy", Diplomacy and Statecraft, 8, 2, (1997), pp. 1 – 15.

8. See a newspaper article by Metternich justifying rather uncomfortably the summoning of the Congress of Vienna in d’Angeberg (L.J.B. Chodzko) Le Congrès de Vienne et les Traités de 1815, I, pp. 362 – 364.

9. As early as 1805, William Pitt, Prime Minister of England spoke of "all the Calamities inflicted upon Europe since the disastrous era of the French Revolution". Memorandum on the Deliverance and Security of Europe, 19 January, 1805, printed in H.W.V.Temperley and L.M. Penson, The Foundation of British Foreign Policy, CUP, 1938, p. 18.

10. See Rousseau’ s blistering description of this: "Il se forme de temps en temps parmi nous des especes des espèces de diètes generales sous le nom de congrès, où l’on s’assemble pour ne rien dire; où toutes les affaires publiques se traitent en particulier; of l’on delibère en commun si la table sera ronde ou careè, si la salle aura plus ou moins de portes, si un tel plenipotentiare aura la visage ou le dos tournè vers la fenêtre, si tel autre fera deux pouces de chemin de plus ou de moins dans une visite, et sur mille questions de pareille importance, inutilement agitèes depuis trois siècles, et tres dignes assurèment d’occuper les politiques du nôtre. " quoted in E. Satow A Guide to Diplomatic Practice, London, 1922, p. 2.

11. Metternich, Mémoirs, Documents et Ecrits Divers, I, Paris, 1879, pp. 175 – 176.

12. Castlereagh’s own expectations were instructive: "One of the great difficulties which he expected to encounter in the approaching negotiations would arise from the want of an habitual confidential and free intercourse between the Ministers of the Great Powers as a body; and that many pretensions might be modified, asperities removed, and the causes of irritation anticipated and met by bringing the respective parties into unrestricted communications common to them all, and embracing in confidential and united discussions all the great points in which they were severally interested." C.K.Webster The Foreign Policy of Lord Castlereagh, London, 1931, I, p. I99.

13. For the Vienna Congress, see C.K. Webster, The Congress of Vienna, London, 1950.

14. E. Hertslet, The Map of Europe by Treaty, 1814 - 1875, London, 1875, p. 317.