One thing that had offended many, even among the more privileged observers at the congress, was the way in which ‘souls’ were counted, bundled into units and traded across the negotiating table like cattle. This was widely regarded as ‘a violation of the dignity of man and of the rights of nations’, in the words of Dominique de Pradt, one of the architects of the Bourbon restoration, writing in 1815, and it tainted the work of the congress as a whole in the eyes of many. It was also a great political mistake.
Agreed.
