crown; while others were willing to facrifice their private animofities to what they deemed the good of their country. With refpect to the clergy, a great majority, at least of this order, retaining a bitter rememberance of the late Emperor Jofeph, and not much better fatisfied with fome parts of Leopold's conduct in Tufcany, ranged themselves on the fide of the difcontented. On the other hand, the Proteftants were devoted to the crown, from the circumftances of their fituation. And the peasants, fenfible of the benefits they had derived through Jofeph, and aware that nothing but a fimilar interpofition in their favour on the part of the crown could add to them, or even preserve what they had already obtained, were fincerely and heartily attached to his fucceffor. On the whole, the oppofite parties were not altogether unequally balanced, though the fcale rather inclined to the fide of the malcontents, when an event unexpected, and even unthought of on all hands, turned it decidedly to that of the crown and the royal party. An incredible number of Greeks, Wallachians, Serviotes, and Rofcians, amounting, it is faid, to 4,000,000, declared themfelves to a man firmly attached to the cause of Leopold, and determined to fupport it at all events, and in all cafes. Thus as, on the one hand, the houfe of Auftria had experienced the danger of innovation in matters of religion, fo on the other, they found the advantages of religious toleration. The effect produced by the declaration of fo powerful a body in favour of the King, was immediate. The blow being followed up, and vigorously fupported by the minifters and friends of the crown, above fifty of the malcontents were expelled from the diet, it would feem in a very fummary and defpotic manner, and not to be juftified any more than the expulfions from the National Affembly of France in one day. But the oppofition of the malcontents was quafhed, and even their complaints and murmurs almoft fuppreffed, by the measures just mentioned; and there was an intermediate party in the diet, whose voice had been drowned amidst the fierce and loud contentions of the royalifts on the one hand, and the revolutionifts on the other, but who, now when the fermentation had fubfided, deserved and obtained attention. This was compofed of moderate men and true patriots; being equally inimical to the violence of revolution, and the tyranny of arbitrary power. They were fenfible of the encroachments that had been made on the rights and privileges of the Hungarians. Yet they neither laboured nor even wifhed for an abfolute diffeveration of the kingdom from the dominion of Auftria, after fo long and intimate a connexion between the twe nations, cemented by numberlefties of friendship, affinity, and mu Serviotes, natives of Servia, part of the ancient Myfia. Rafcians, natives of Ralcia, a territory in the north part of Servia, which takes its name from the river Rafcia, and is fubject to Auftria. The inhabitants of Servia, as well as of Wallachia and Moldavia, together with the ancient Dacia, are chiefly Christians of the Greek church. But they anxioufly and eagerly wished for the restoration of their ancient conftitution, in all its parts and all its original purity: and farther, knowing, from long and fad experience, how little reliance was to be placed on the faith of the Auftrian princes; and aware at the fame time of the fpirit of domination that always prevailed in the conduct of the Germans whenever they were entrusted with the exercife of abfolute power, they were extremely defirous, and propofed that their conftitution thus reformed, fhould be fecured by the guarantee of Pruffia, Sweden, and Poland. tual fympathy and benevolence. be celebrated. The place that had been fixed on for that purpose by the Hungarians, was the ancient capital Buda, in preference to Pref burg, the new capital, which the Auftrians had long rendered the actual feat of government, on account of its vicinity to Vienna. As to the newly propofed diploma, Leopold declared that it was his determined refolution not to approve or confirm by oath any other articles than those that had invariably been prefcribed to the King of Hungary by the conftitutions of Charles VI. and Maria Theresa: a refolution in which he was the more unalterably fixed, that he was equally determined religiously to fulfil all the conditions of thofe conftitutions, according to the fpirit and tenor of certain leading articles to which he referred; that after the coronation, he would not refufe to liften to the grievances, the wishes, and the fupplications of his faithful ftates; but after mature deliberation and public difcuffion, adopt on the fubject of thete, fuch refolutions as might be agreeable to the fpirit of the laws and the true interefts of the kingdom. In conclufion, he trufted that the states would co-operate with him with fidelity and zeal, for the attainment of thefe ends; and this the more confidently, that they might be affured that he, on his part, would readily and with pleafure concur with the states in whatever might be conformable to the laws, whatever fhould not be derogatory from the rights of the crown; and, in a word, whatever might contribute to the general well-being. His Apoftolic Majefty was elected King of the Romans on the 30th of September; made his public entry into Frankfort on the 4th of October, and, having A deputation from the diet waited on Leopold, September 5th, 1790, with an invitation, requefting his perfonal prefence at their deliberations, and particularly at the Coronation. They prefented at the fame time, what was called a new diploma, and what we would call in England a charter, containing articles in addition to thofe which it had hitherto been cuftomary for the monarch to fign, to fwear to, and which they requefted and hoped that he would accept. The King returned an anfwer by Count Palfi, the great Chancellor of Hungary, that he had intended that his coronation in that kingdom fhould have preceded that at Frankfort: but that this, by the delays in their own proceedings, had now been rendered impracticable. He would endeavour however to fulfil his purpose refpecting Hungary, by the 15th of November at fartheft. At the fame time he obferved, that the latenefs of the feafon would neceffarily preclude him from proceeding farther in the country than Prefburg: in which city the coronation muft of courte taken 1790. taken the oath to obferve the capi- So naturally and fincerely do tulation, was crowned Emperor mankind fympathize with the on the 9th of the fame month, great, efpecially with fovereign princes, and, above all, with those Leopold, relieved from the weight to whom they ftand in any inteof cares that had hung upon his mind refting relation, and participate in by the convention of Reichenbach, all their joys and forrows, that, nothad by this time had leifure to withstanding all the difputes that look into, and fettle his private had taken place, and the numberand family concerns. He had al- lefs jealoufies which had fo long ready eftablished his fecond fon fubfifted, Leopold was received by Ferdinand in the government of both the states and the people with the Grand Duchy of Tufcany. every mark of enthufiaftic joy: He now determined to cement and the diet embraced with tranfthe union, and to draw the ties port an occafion which immediately of affinity ftill more closely, by offered of teftifying by a fignal means of intermarriages (at all inftance, their loyalty and attachtimes an important object with the ment to their new fovereign. Houfe of Auftria) between his own family and his relations of the Houte of Naples. His two eldest fons, Francis the Hereditary Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, and Ferdinand, the new Grand Duke of Tuscany, were accordingly, foon after the conclufion of the treaty of Reichenback (Auguft 16th) married to the eldest Princeffes, daughters of the King of Naples. And about a month after, the third Arch-Duchefs, daughter of Leopold, was married to the Prince Royal of Naples; that Princefs having firft made a folemn renunciation of all right of fucceffion to any of the poffeflions of the Houfe of Auftria. The King and Queen of the Two Sicilies, with the Princes belonging to the two prolific Houfes of Naples and Vienna, including in the number the Grand Duke of Tufcany, not only heightened by their prefence the fplendor of the coronation, but excited a pleafing fympathy, approbation, and fatiffaction at the patriarchal providence and prudence of the auguft head, and the happiness of fo many branches of the house of Auftria. The King having, according to cuftom, prefented to the diet a lift of four of the first of the Hungarian nobility, out of whom they were to chufe one to be Palatine, an office of the highest dignity and truft, and which conferred the rank of fecond perfon in the kingdom, the states unanimoufly requested the fovereign that he would indulge their wifhes, by granting for their Palatine the Arch-duke Leopold, his fourth fon, who was then present. A requeft fo agreeable was readily granted; and the new Palatine three days after (Nov. 15th, 1790) had the felicity of placing the ancient crown of St. Stephen, fo long a great object of Hungarian veneration, on the head of his father. On this important and affecting occafion, the King and Emperor, prefenting his fon to the nation, faid, "I hope you will never forget that you are my fon : but fhould it ever be your lot, in the execution of your office, to be under an obligation of defending the rights of the nation againít your father, I defire that you will CA thea then forget that you are my fon, and act in ftrict conformity, and fupport of the laws." Then, turning to the diet, he addreffed the great council of the nation in the following words: "This, my beloved fon, I prefent to you as a pledge of my fincere regard for you, that he may act between you and me as a difinterested mediator and promoter of mutual affec tion." The Hungarians, full of the fentiments of generofity and affection, and judging that nothing could be refufed in the preíent feafon of good humour, joy, and feftivity, had renewed before the coronation their application for the new diploma, before mentioned. Leopold however retaining his former firmnefs, had declared that he would not receive the crown on any other conditions than thofe on which it had been accepted by his mother; and that, in his opinion, the honour annexed to it would be tarnished if it was to be made the fubject of a bargain. But on the day fucceeding the coronation, when all hopes of conceffions had vanished, he granted them every favourable condition, and every fecurity for the future, which they could with reafon and propriety defire. Thus, by an uniform fteadinefs and dignity of conduct, teinpered with the moft feafonable and prudent acts of condefcenfion, Leopold at once maintained the authority of his government, and gained the affection, confidence, and refpect of the Hungarian nation. In the fame train of thinking and acting, Leopold, after this, recollecting either a tranfient promife, or hopes he had given in fome fhape or other, restored to the states of the Milanefe their ancient conftitution and laws, and reinstated them in the full poffeffion of all their rights, privileges, and immunities, of which they had been violently deprived by the late Emperor. About the fame time he determined to grant fome mark of favour to the Jews; though the privileges conferred on them by Jofeph left but little need or room for any amelioration of their condition. Leopold decreed, that in all his hereditary dominions, fuch Jews as had received a fuitable education, and had acquired the neceffary measure of knowledge, fhould be allowed to take academical degrees in the lay-faculties, and to act as advocates: and in the latter quality, to plead the cause of either Jews or Chriftians indifferently. In confequence of this permiffion, Raphael Joel, a Jew, having undergone an examination, and given fatisfactory proofs of his qualifications, was early in 1794 admitted to the degree of Doctor in the civil law, by the university of Prague. At the fame time that Leopold was thus happily employed in the arrangement of his political, perfonal, and domeftic concerns in Our English readers may, efpecially in the prefent juncture, remark a ftriking refemblance between the national character and political circumstances of the Hungarians and a neighbouring and kindred nation, connected with Britain by many ties of origin, various intercourfe, and mutual fympathies, interefts, and good offices: hofpitable, generous, and brave; eafily led, but hard to be driven; of lively rather than lafting paffions; very fufceptible of refentment, but more fufceptible of gratitude; and quickly forgetting paft injuries in the contemplation of prefent, or recollection of recent acts of kindne's. The parallel will be readily continued by the moral obferver, and extended with equal juftnefs to political fituations and relations, external and internal, Germany, were Germany, Hungary, and Italy, Bucharest, or Siftovia in Wallachia, measures were taken and negotiations carried on with equal fuccefs; for the establishment of a peace with the Ottoman Porte, and the recovery of the Auftrian dominions in the Netherlands. An armiftice, under the administration of Count Lodi, the Pruffian minifter, was concluded on the 20th of September, between the Prince of Saxe Cobourg, on the part of the court of Vienna and the Grand Vizier, in his camp of Siliftria, a town in Bulgaria, fituated near the Banks of the Danube, on that of the Ottomans. Its duration was to be limited to nine months; during which time the territories of the Turks and Auftrians were to remain mutually unmolested, and not to be entered by the oppofite parties: and a congrefs was to be held for a final fettlement of the articles of peace between the two powers, at A diplomatic and very common phrafe, importing "the state in which things were before the war." CHAP. II. Progrefs of the Spirit of Freedom. Modified by the different Characters of Nations. Singular Combination of a Spirit of Liberty with Ariftocratical Pride and Religous Bigotry. Political Conftitution of the Auftrian Netherlands. Analogous to that of England. Arbitrary Government of the Emperor. Difcontents of the People. Suppreffion of Monafteries. Subverfion of the Conftitution. Imprifon-. ments and Emigrations. Emigrants from Brabant affemble at Breda. Sequestation of all the Abbeys of Brabant. Efforts for the Prevention of Infurrection. Confpiracy against the Auftrian Government difcovered. Attempt to check Emigration in vain. Declaration of the States of Brabant from Breda. Letter froin the Cardinal Archbishop of Malines to the Pope refpecting the Conduct of the Emperor, and State of the Country. Infurrections. Valour and Success of the Infurgents. Engagement at Turnhout, and at Tirlemont. Action between the Auftrians and Patriots in the open Field. The Patriots become Matters of the Town and Citadel of Ghent, Relaxation of Difcipline in the Auftrian Armies. Advantages arifing to the Patriots from the Reduction of Ghent. The Emperor endeavours to reconcile the Provinces to his Government by fair Promifes. Daring Attempt of a Band of Patriots in the Capital of Brabant. Succeeds. The Auftrians driven out of Bruffels. Rejoicings at Brufjels. The States affume the Reins of Government. Confederation between the States of Brabant and thofe of Flanders. |