as a palladium. At the entrance No paffion gains so much strength by indulgence as the love of power, or extended dominion; it is not, like other defires, confined by any bounds of nature; and all that tranfgreffes these is interminable. Each new conqueft prefents to the conqueror a new object of ambition his extended frontier extends his rapacity; while he thinks not fo much of what he poffeffes as that which, lying without the line of his dominions, feems to defy and infult his authority. But, if ever this paffion was natural in any prince, it was truly fo in Jofeph II. The ancient pretenfions of the empire and of his own family, were conftantly recalled to his mind by paffing scenes, as well as by history. He was by nature active and ardent; and, as he was neither devoted, like Rodolphus, to science, nor, like fome of his other predeceffors on the imperial throne, to pleasure and diffipation, the activity and ardour of his mind were naturally turned towards the aggrandizement of the House of Auftria:-and in this career he was ftimulated at once, by indignation at the injuftice of his formidable neighbour, the laft plunderer of the Auftrians, and by an emulation of his renown. The first acts of his reigr feemed to indicate a paffion for true glory. Whatever might promote industry of every kind throughout his dominions, became an object of his attention. He fhewed himself a determined foe to indolence, religious intolerance, bigotry, and fuperftition: and, if he feized on the poffeffions of a great number of convents, this facrilege was eafily forgiven, as the difpoffeffed monks and nuns re lands, that these were not different in their nature from those that are daily adopted by other abfolute princes; but that being particularly levelled at the ecclefiaftical fyftem, fo powerfully prevalent in that country, the clergy became his enemies of courfe; and that through their influence, the enmity of that order was diffufed among all the other claffes of the people. On the other hand, it is alfo to be obferved, that if bigotry and religious prejudices be evils, the confequences arifing from premature and violent endeavours to fupprefs them are alfo evils; and in the prefent ftate of the world, the former evils are lefs to be dreaded than the latter. Prejudices are to be prudently managed, not haftily eradicated; and when fo managed, they are, in many inftances, not evils, but advantages. But however great his public offences, the private virtues of Jofeph were many. For benevolence, condefcenfion, and kind-heartednefs in the ordinary concerns and occurrences of life, he was confpicuoufly noted; nor was he lefs amiable and engaging in his familiar intercourfe; in which he was remarkable for laying afide the Sovereign and affuming the moft winning affability. He was patient of labour and fatigue, and in all things rémarkably temperate. ceived a provifion for life; and as, with the facred spoils, and the returns of a growing commerce in populous and plentiful countries, he maintained one of the best difciplined, and in every respect the fineft armies in Europe, for the purpofe, as was imagined, of defending his widely scattered dominions; or, perhaps of recovering the territories and the natural rights that had been unjustly wrested from his family. But it foon appeared that he was equally deftitute of prudence, vigour, and a regard to juftice. His efforts for opening the navigation of the Scheldt could fcarcely be confidered as either unjuft or impolitic; but his encroachments on the privileges of his Flemish and other fubjects, his rapacity for money, his attempts on Bavaria *, his rath and reflets innovations, and his inaufpicious interferences in the conduct of the war against the Turks, abundantly proved that a fpirit of enterprize and lively parts are engines of evil and not of good, when uncontrolled by rectitude of intention and foundness of judgment. He exhibited in his character the strangest mixture of qualities apparently inconfiftent; indecifion with precipitation, obftinacy with a temper the most variable and inconftant, and the utmost openness and benignity both of countenance and manners, with diffimulation, duplicity, and want of faith. In a word, according to the profound maxim oft he acred fcriptures, being "double-minded and deceitful, he was unftable in all his ways." It is, however, to be obferved of the arbitrary measures which he pursued in the Nether Leopold (the fecond of that name) who now afcended the throne of the vaft dominions of Auftria, was in many refpects the reverse of his deceafed brother. He was reserved, grave, and faturnine, Though his gallantries were not lefs general or notorious than thofe of any of his • Made without the approbation and against the advice of his mother, with whom he was conjoined in the government. B 4 predeceffors deceffors of the House of Medicis, yet he was not diverted by any love of pleasure from a close and fuccefsful application to polite literature, and even fome branches of fcience, nor from a fteady attention to the affairs of Tufcany; by the administration of which, particularly the amelioration of its laws, he had juftly obtained great celebrity in every part of Europe. Though the death of the late Emperor had been fo long foreseen, and that he had fent off feveral dispatches, in order to expedite the departure of Leopold from Florence, it was near three weeks after that event before he and his eldest son Francis arrived at Vienna; whither they were foon followed by a numerous family of princes and princeffes, their children. The fituation in which Leopold found himself was fingularly arduous: he was an object of jealoufy to a great part of the independent ftates of Europe; he was in the greatest danger of lofing his election for King of the Romans, and confequently the power and dignity annexed to the title of Emperor, which, with little interruption, had been enjoyed by his family for fo many ages; and he was entangled in contents with his own fubjects. The Hungarians, recollecting the fervices which they had rendered to the Houfe of Auftria, particularly the late Emprefs, Maria Therefa, when reduced to the laft diftrefs, beheld with indignation the innovations brought about by her fon the Emperor Jofeph. He had removed the regalia of the kingdom to Vienna, and fubftituted the German language for the Latin, that had been invariably used be fore in all public tranfactions, This laft offence appeared the more intolerable that the late Emprefs, their favourite Queen, had always addreffed them in that language. The conceffions of the Emperor Jofeph, already mentioned, made under weaknefs, pain, and the terror of approaching death, were infufficient to remove the impreffion that had been made by a continued fyftem of defpotifm on that brave and generous, but high fpirited, fierce, and resentful nation. Their hereditary hatred to the Germans, whom they confidered as ufurpers, and the fcourge of their nation, together with their abhorrence of German laws, government, manners, and, in a word, every thing that was German, had in a very great degree been foftened and worn away by the long and lenient reign of Maria Therefa. But her fucceffor, by his baneful activity and rage for innovation, not only revived all their ancient animofities, but gave them a keener edge than they had before poffeffed. Their pride and fenfe of injury were naturally heightened by a confcioufnefs of poffeffing, at this time, the means of enforcing their claims. The levies that had been made in Hungary for the field, and for the purpofe of guarding the country during the Turkish war, were very great. This army, from time to time carefully recruited, as it was a conftant feminary from whence to replace thofe that were flain or difabled in the acting armies, amounted or might be railed to not less than 150,000 effective men. It was reported that several of the great palatines and principal nobility, had it ferioufly in contemplation to emancipate their country from from the Austrian yoke; and that a place at Florence, which appeared fo dangerous, that a proclamation was iffued by the regency, granting a full restoration of all that had been fuppreft. plan was actually concerted for that purpose. This report certainly derives not a little credibility from the memorial (noticed in a former volume) which the Porte iffued early in the war, offering its utmost afliftance to the Hungarians, for the recovery of their ancient independence and rank among nations, with the most liberal offers of perpetual alliance and friendship, after that object fhould be accomplished. It is not to be prefumed that the Divan would have made or thought of making fuch offers to the Hungarians, if they had not been informed of a combination and concert among the principal men, as well as acquainted with the general temper of the people. The Emperor Jofeph had also carried his unfortunate fpirit of change and innovation into the ftates of Milan; where he not only abolished certain convents, but made fundry alterations in the Milanefe laws and conftitution; a violence which had ever fince rankled in their minds, and excited the strongest averfion to his perfon and government. Nor was it the adverfity fpringing from his brother's innovations that Leopold had to encounter only; the troublefome confequences of his own began now to appear, tho' made with a hand cautious and gentle. He had ventured to fupprefs certain religious inftitutions and cuftoms in Tufcany which he deemed improper and abfurd, and injurious to the cause of religion. The people, however, thought otherwife, and took advantage of his abfence, immediately to make loud complaints of their fuppreffion, and to infift on their being restored. An infurrection took But the bitter fruits of precipitate innovation appeared most, where they were moft to be regretted, in the fertile, populous, and rich provinces of the Netherlands. At no period to which history extends, do we find the mouths and wideft channels of the Danube to have been like thofe of the Rhine, the feats of arts and commerce. The contest between the Austrians and Ottomans was extremely uncertain in its iffue. But in the moft profperous event, conquests in Servia and Bulgaria, or other places on the defolated borders of Turkey, would be too dearly purchafed, if they were to be made only at the expence of lofing what yet remained to the Auftrian race of the ancient and noble inheritance of Burgundy. Amidst the vaft and various difficulties with which Leopold was environed, one mode of extrication only lay before him; and this was to operate on the minds both of foreign powers and of the different nations over whom he was to fway the fceptre, by all the prudent arts of conciliation. The political balance of Europe was now in the fame ftate nearly in which it was in 1757, when the fame Prince Kaunitz, who was the great minifter of the Emperor Jofeph, was alfo the minifter of his illuftrious mother the late Empress Queen; and when the late Lord Chatham, then Mr. Pitt, began to fteer the helm of the British government. Prince Kaunitz was ftill in the higheft credit with the Auf trian court; and Lord Chatham's fon, in regard to continental politics, purfued the plan of which his father had traced the outlines. The fpirit of Prince Kaunitz's counfels to the court of Vienna was, that then only would the Auftrian power be firmly eftablifhed and duly extended when France, on the one hand, and Ruffia, on the other, fhould be drawn over from the enemies, and become the friends and allies of the Imperialists. Kaunitz was fent ambaffador to France, and, by addrefs and perfeverance overcame her animofity againft the Auftrians, by directing it into new channels of ambition. An alliance between the courts of Versailles and Vienna was afterwards drawn clofer by the marriage of the Dauphin with the Arch-duchefs Maria Antionetta. On the other fide, the Empreis Elizabeth of Ruffia was engaged in a confederacy with thofe great powers by the arts of the handfome Count Lynar, ambaffador from the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland, the enemy of Pruffia, and of courfe the friend of Auftria! All the world knows the refult of this fituation of affairs. England and Pruffia broke a confederacy formed for the deftruction of the liberties of Europe. The fame fpi. rit of combination that actuated the two imperial courts at that time, animated them at the prefent period; and though the court of Verfailles was now embroiled in domeftic contefts and commotions, its intimate connexion and alliance with the Houfe of Auftria, could not be regarded without a certain degree of apprehenfion. France, from the time of Richelieu, and Mazarine, the minister of Lewis XIV. had uniformly pursued fchemes of ambition. Profperity inflamed, but adverfity never wholly extinguished her defire of conqueft. Even in the prefent period, when disordered finances and internal diffentions had begun to call her attention to new regulations and the re-establishment of concord, fhe was at great pains to fofter, by her intrigues, the jealoufy of the great commercial houfes in Holland against England, to inflame the burgo-masters and the nobility with an animofity against the Prince of Orange; and formed a deep plan for an attack on the British fettlements in Afia, by the united fleets and arms of France, Spain, and the United Provinces; which was happily defeated, by the vigilance, prudence, and addrefs of the Governor General*. However particular arrange. ments in fuch great alliances might be concerted, this was certain, fince the partition of Poland and fubjugation of Corfica, that the rights of nations were no longer held facred; and that to fubdue and fhare in the divifion of infe rior and neighbouring ftates, was the leading principle of their union. The Emperor Jofeph, for the confolidation of his dominions, endeavoured to acquire the Electorate of Bavaria, firft by arms, and then by a voluntary exchange of that state, for the fovereignty of the Nether lands. In both thefe projects he was defeated; yet, French troops being ready in great numbers to pour into the Netherlands, he continued to menace the liberties of the Flemings in a tone of an arbitrary and unlimited fovereign; fa that, fufpicions were not wanting that an understanding, on fome * See Memoirs of the Marquis de Bouillé, page 41. principle |