nobles remonstrated in a tone of characteristic haughtiness; demanded the confirmation of their rights, the permission to resume their national dress, and the revival of their native language in the acts and records of the kingdom. A domestic feud, occasioned by his unwise attempt to secure for his nephew, the Archduke Francis, the succession to the imperial throne, in preference to Leopold, his own brother, and father of Francis, deprived him of the confidence, council, and friendship, of his brother; while his mind was further troubled by apprehension of a war with Prussia. For CHAP. LXVIII. Feb. 1790. a time, he appeared to sink under these accumulated misfortunes; he neither formed magazines, nor made the necessary augmentations of the army; equally unable to avert, and unwilling to encounter, the danger, he displayed the extremes of anxiety, alarm, and irresolution. But as the storm approached, his mind regained a portion of its pristine activity, and he commenced preparations for hostilities. He felt also the His concession. necessity of conciliating his subjects, to frustrate the designs of Prussia, which were founded on their growing disaffection; and yielded to the irresistible conviction, that nothing less than a total change of measures could preserve his tottering throne. He accordingly revoked many of his unpopular edicts, and prepared to rescind many others; he re-established the provincial states, and exhorted them to employ their authority in support of law and good order. He received the haughty demands of the Hungarians with condescen sion and complacency, restored their constitution as it existed at his accession, promised to solemnize the ceremony of his coronation early in the ensuing year, and, as an earnest of his intentions, sent back the crown of Saint Stephen. The rapture with which it was received proved the precipitation and folly of wantonly shocking the feelings of a people so susceptible of national prejudice, and so awake to national honour. Triumphal arches were erected in its passage; at Buda, exulting multitudes crowded the cathedral, to welcome the precious palladium of their national CHAP LXVIII. 1790. Death of the Feb. 20th. Accession of Intrigues of splendour and freedom; it was placed in the chapel of the palace, and guarded by two magistrates with drawn sabres; the city was illuminated, and the streets resounded with songs of joy and exultation. But Joseph did not live to witness the effects of his tardy wisdom. Aware of the approach of death, yet retaining his wonted activity, without his characteristic irritability, he employed his last days in issuing prudent and patriotic directions to his generals and counsellors. His death was accelerated by that of his beloved niece Elizabeth, the consort of his favourite nephew Francis, whose dissolution was also occasioned by her anxiety for him, while in a state of advanced pregnancy. He expired with great composure, in full profession of the faith of a Christian. Most gloomy and depressing was the aspect of public affairs at the accession of the new sovereign, Leopold the Second. An exhausted treasury and an extensive war, uncertain friends, and manifest enemies crowded on his observation. The apparent loss of the Low-countries was rendered more distressing by the declared resolution of the Hungarians to sever themselves from his dominion. A land tax, unconstitutionally imposed, formed the ground of their complaint; their discontent was inflamed by the haughty manner in which Joseph had repelled their remonstrances; and the nobles seemed to have caught the spirit of the times, when they resolved that, the late Emperor not having been crowned, no succession could be derived to Leopold through him, and added that they did not want an Austrian king. These sentiments, as well as the troubles in Brabant, were known to be fostered and aided by Prussia, who, jealous of the aggrandizement intended to accrue to the house of Austria from the spoils of Turkey, had strengthened her connexion with England and the maritime states, and was endeavouring also to increase her power by obtaining from Poland the dominion of Dantzic and Thorn, in exchange for a less valuable territory. In consequence of treaties judiciously framed, and the gene ral position of public affairs, she could rely on the co-operation of England and Holland, whose impulse would be obeyed by Sweden and Poland. To encounter all these difficulties, Leopold had no resource but in himself. Russia was too deeply engaged in war with the Porte, and in projects on Poland, to risk a disagreement with Prussia and the maritime powers; and France, if she had been inclined, was really unable to afford assistance; indeed, considering the system which prevailed, the quiescence of that power was highly favourable to any regular government, or to any sovereign opposed by his people. Nor were any great expectations formed of the new Emperor. He had governed Tuscany with vigour and prudence; but it was not believed that he was equal to the mighty and extended dominion which had fallen to him, or that it was within the compass of his faculties to compress the factions and allay the discords which rendered his throne insecure. Violence on his part would be resisted with every probability of success, and a conciliatory course was likely to be considered as a mere specimen of Italian policy. CHAP. LXVIII. 1790. Prudent and Leopold. March 17th. Leopold soon evinced a character and talents which dissipated all the fears of his friends, and conciliatory crushed the expectations of his enemies. In his pro- conduct of gress to Vienna, he won many hearts by the affability with which he received deputations who came to state grievances, and the frank and sensible manner in which he promised redress. On his arrival at Vienna, he restored some regulations at court, which, to the great dissatisfaction of the nobility, had been abolished by his predecessor; and, while he received most kindly all deputations charged with complaints, urged the parties to persist in the application of appropriate remedies, and expressed his anxious desire to establish the happiness and prosperity of all his subjects on a permanent basis. Such conduct removed apprehensions and gave rise to presages of a wise and benevolent reign. He quiets His earliest efforts were to compose the discontents in the hereditary countries, to recover the Netherlands, troubles and CHAP. LXVIII. 1790. settles disputes. Affairs of to secure a speedy and honourable peace with the Turks, to effect a reconciliation with Prussia, and to obtain the imperial crown. By a negotiation with Prussia, in which he made his equity, good faith, and firmness equally apparent, he succeeded in gaining the promise of Frederick William to support his claims to the empire. By a convention, signed at Reichenbach, he obtained an armistice with the Turks, on condition that a negotiation for peace should be opened under the mediation of the maritime powers, on the basis of the status quo, and to give an equivalent to Prussia, should he obtain any advantage or acquisition from the Porte. He also engaged not to assist Russia, should the attempts to conclude a peace between her and the Porte fail of success; and he consented to restore to the Netherlands their ancient constitution and privileges, under the guaranty of the three allied powers. On the signature of this convention, the two armies withdrew from the frontiers: and, by the intervention of Prussia, an armistice was concluded with the Porte for nine months. A congress of plenipotentiaries from Austria, Turkey, and the mediating powers, was soon afterward assembled at Szistova, which seemed at first to promise great facilities to a final arrangement; but soon jarring interests and unforeseen combinations occasioned delay, and gave rise to protracted discussions. Hungary was quieted by reasonable concessions; and, with the support of Prussia, Leopold was elected and crowned Emperor of Germany*. In the transactions which agitated Europe, France did not, for the present, interfere actively, either by arms or by subsidies; but her influence was felt through the more effectual medium of public opinion. Sovereigns were affected by the diffusion of principles and the operation of examples, which, taking from them the surest source of authority, prevented their firm reliance on the affection and obe Principally from Coxe's House of Austria, vol. ii. cc. 51, 52. See also Mémoires tirées des Papiers d'un Homme d'Etat, tom. i. p. 87; Ségur, Histoire de Frédéric Guillaume II. tom. ii. c. 8. dience of their subjects. The people too, influenced by high sounding dogmas and fascinated by boastful pretensions, gratified with the example of greatness depressed, authority defied, learning despised, and establishments invaded, longed to try new experiments in the constitution of government, law, and religion. CHAP. LXVIII. 1790. State of the In the National Assembly, the aim constantly pursued was to annihilate the authority of the crown, the National rights of the nobility, and the existence of the clergy; Assembly. to make the property of all these classes a prey to any party which, under the appellation of the nation, and by means of the populace of Paris, should gain ascendancy. Nor were there left any means of restraining them, while uncontrolled by any superior body, holding their king a prisoner, emancipating the army from all obligations of fidelity, and making loyalty a crime*. the Jacobin It would be a mistake to say that even the National Assembly governed France. That assembly was ruled Influence of by the mob of Paris, and that mob was convoked, club. sustained, impelled, by the association called the Jacobin club. At the first meeting of the States-general, an union of some members and their friends was formed, under the title of the Breton club, because many of its original founders came from the province of Brittany. It increased in numbers daily; measures of government and all constitutional questions were unsparingly discussed; popular grievances were detailed and amplified, and the hatred of the nation was directed toward the King, the Queen, the princes of the blood, the nobility, the clergy, and all other bodies and individuals, as suited the interest, the malice, or the caprice of the popular advocates. Soon after the removal of the King to Paris, this club obtained possession of the building which had been the abode of a suppressed body of Franciscan monks, or Jacobins; they styled themselves the friends of liberty sitting at the hall of the Jacobins, and afterward, more shortly, Jacobins. They had affiliated corresponding societies, receiving instructions and impulse from them in all See Life of Gouverneur Morris, vol. ii. p. 88. |