At the very opening of the conferences, Sir Sidney Smith had submitted to the supreme tribunal of Europe the declaration of his august client. The moment seemed well chosen. Justice, reparation, legitimacy, were religiously invoked watchwords in Vienna. In appealing to the conscience of sovereigns, the deposed monarch brought their own arguments to bear upon them. In his note, Gustavus-Adolphus reminded them that he had been deposed only by the influence of Napoleon, with whom he had declined all relationship, especially since the death of the Duc d’Enghien. He furthermore pointed out that the Swedish nation, in excluding him from the throne, had only yielded to a political necessity and to the threats of the great Powers; that at the moment of his abdication he was a prisoner; that since then he had always refused to renounce the rights of his son; that he felt confident of this prince, when he arrived at his majority, proving himself worthy of his birth, of the Swedish nation, and of his illustrious forefathers; and that, finally, he did not claim the throne on his own account. In politics, however, the most logical arguments are not always the most valid ones. The days and months went by without there being the slightest question of restoring his sceptre to the deposed monarch. Practically sent away without having produced the least impression as far as his embassy was concerned, Sidney Smith was, however, not at all discouraged. ‘If, contrary to all possibility, I fail with this august tribunal,’ he said, ‘I’ll bring it without the slightest fear before the tribunal of my own country. As long as we have a Parliament in England, there will be a court of justice for the whole of Europe. I’ll ask why a legitimate king comes to be deprived of his rights; I’ll ask to know the reason of the most relentless enemy of Bonaparte falling a victim to his intrigues; of the abandoning to misfortune of the man who was the first to attack the Colossus with all the ardour of a knight of olden times. Do not people know that Napoleon never forgave Gustavus for having reproached him with the murder of the Duc d’Enghien, and for having sent back to the King of Prussia the Order of the Black Eagle, which he, Gustavus, declined to wear in common with Bonaparte?