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matrimony in their armies; and one allows his foldiers, in rotation, to apply their hands to the neceffary occupations of field-labour. Thus we may in time behold hereditary armies; and the countries of Europe may fee a new order of men grow up amongst them, who, from father to fon, inherit manners, principles, and interests, separate and diftinct from thofe of the community at large.

Nor did the increase of thofe armies exceed the conftant attention which was paid to their perfection in military skill, and in the dexterity of military evolution; whilft the abundant provifion for war which was made in their respective ftates kept pace with both. It might indeed have been imagined upon a flight view, that the fudden friendship which fprung up between the two great monarchs in queftion, would have been in fome degree a pledge for the public quiet and fecurity but to thofe of a fhrewder turn, and clofer obfervation, it is probable that their friendship appeared more dangerous than their enmity.

Some particular circumftances perhaps preferved the tranquillity of Germany for a longer fpace of time, than the appear ances of things feemed to indicate, or men in general to expect. The near equipoife of power, military ftrength, and of the means and refources of war, between the houses of Auftria and Brandenburg, might produce, for fome time, and in fome degree, fimilar effects, with those which would have arifen from a ftate of mutual inability. The affairs of Poland, which feemed at firft calculated to scatter firebrands and defolation over every part of the north, produced a directly contrary effect. They not only drew off for fome yearsthe attention of thofe great powers from domeftic, or other matters, and at the fame time occupied the hands of a dangerous and equally great neighbour; but the fhare which they all obtained in the partition of that ancient kingdom, would have feemed well calculated to appease the infupportable cravings of ambition, if long experience had not demonftrated, that the appetite in that diftemper be comes more infatiate, in proportion to the greater quantity of food which is administered to its fupply.

The King of Pruffia feems the only power to whom the independent princes and free cities of Germany can, with any degree of certainty, look up for fuppert

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against the great and increafing ft of the house of Auftria; a hou which the prerogatives, the p powers and undefined claims, app ing to the title and office of Em may now be nearly confidered as pendage. No union of the leffer could now, as heretofore, form a f ent weight to counterbalance in an gree that power, Befides the n imperfection and inftability which neceffarily attend fuch an union, pofing an ill-connected body, number of difunited heads, it woul doubtedly be found greatly deficie the mere article of strength.

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On the other hand, the house of ftria is at present a necessary curb o fuddenly-grown power, and the a tious views, of that of Brandenburg. tween both, the leffer ftates, by a dent and watchful attention to the fervation of that balance of powe Germany, which has fo unaccounta and perhaps fatally, been worn O memory in the general fyftem of Eur may ftill long continue to preserve t independence. A neglect of this po cal principle, will probably occafion of the fcales to preponderate, which the nature of things, muft prove dan ous, if not ruinous, to the independe of the Germanic body.

But if that rage of dominion, and rit of arbitrary power and encroachm which feem at prefent fo generally pre lent in Europe, fhould unite thofe 1 great powers in a common league aga the independency of the other prin and the liberties of the free cities, feems evident, that no force within Empire could preferve the Germanic dy in its prefent form. Poland has forded a recent inftance, that quietn an inability to offer injury or wro with many useful and valuable proper of good neighbourhood, afford no p tection against the luft of power, and rage of ambition; whilft Dantzick p fents an yet living example to the free ties, that the ruft of parchments, and venerable antiquity of immunities, of no better defences against such enemi From what every body has feen, a from a ftate of public affairs, and gene difpofition, which cannot escape comm obfervation, it feems not impoffible, th the greater part of Europe might contin indifferent fpectators of fuch an even Nor does it feem lefs probable, that R

ha, though deftitute of liberty herself, (and perhaps at present incapable of it), would, notwithstanding, be the only power which would interfere in fuch a caufe, and to whom the Germanic body might owe the prefervation of its independence and liberties.

The extinction of the male William Iine of Bavaria in the person of the late Elector, opened a new fcene in the affairs, and may poffibly mark an interefting period in the hiftory, of Germany. At leaft this event has opened the way to claims and pretentions which had not been before generally thought of, and in a great measure withdrawn the veil from political views and defigns of the greatest importance to the Germanic body, and which otherwife might for fome time longer have been referved in darkness.

Maximilian Jofeph, the late Elector ef Bavaria, died, of the small pox, at Munich, on the 30th of December 1777, in the fifty-first year of his age. The death of this prince without iffue, totally extinguished the male Guillelmine or Ludovician line of Bavaria, which had been in poffeffion of that duchy for near five hundred years. This prince was fucceeded, both in the electoral dignity and his domini ns at large, by his general heir, Charles Theodore, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine. The large allodial estates of Bavaria, with several particular territorial acquifitions, which were obtained at different times, and held by different tenures from that of the grand fief, were also open to several claimants, whofe titles were to be difcuffed, and rights legally determined, according to the general laws and conftitutions of the Empire.

The Elector Palatine, at the time of his acceffion to the Bavarian dominions, was newly entered into the fifty-fourth year of his age; and having no iffue, the large poffeffions of the double electorate, with the dignity appertaining to one, were in the expectation of his apparent heir, the Duke of Deuxponts, who was the neareft relation in the male Palatine line. The prefent Elector is much celebrated for the liberality of his fentiments and difpofition; for his affection to learning and the fine arts; and for that happy fate of freedom and ease, in which men of genius of all kinds, and of all countries, have for many years, amidst the hofpitality and pleafures of his elegant

court at Manheim, forgotten all the inequalities of fortune and condition. The particular circumftances of fituation, the temper and difpofition we have defcribed, with the habits of life confequent of them, will ferve to explain fome parts of his fubsequent conduct, and account for that flexibility with which he feemed to facrifice his rights to the love of ease, and defire of tranquillity.

As the courfe of the fucceffion to Bavaria had been fettled for ages, was known to every body, and had been even prepared for by the late prince, the Elector found no difficulty in taking poffeffion of that duchy with the Upper Palatinate, and of receiving the willing ho mage of his new fubjects. But before he could feel his new fituation, he unexpectedly found, that he had a rival of fuch fuperior power and greatness to encounter, that all competition on his fide would not only be futile, but that the difparity was fo great, as to render all appearance of oppofition even ridiculous. He had fcarcely arrived in his new capital of Munich, before the Auftrian troops, who had been evidently stationed on the frontiers for the purpofe, and only waiting for an account of the event of the late Elector's death, poured on all fides into the Lower Bavaria, and feized upon every place they came to. In the mean time, another strong body advanced on the fide of Egra to the Upper Palatinate, where the regency in vain pleaded the laws of the Empire, and the rights of fovereignty, against the entrance of foreign troops.

We have obferved, that it was not in the character of this prince to enter willingly into the animofity of conteft. He accordingly fubmitted to the neceffity of the times, with a facility for which he has been blamed, as committing an act which was injurious to his heirs, as well as to himself. He has fince juftified his conduct, on the ground of that neceffity which he ftates to be invincible, in a letter to his kinfman and heir-apparent, the Duke of Deuxponts. He could yet have no knowledge of what fupport he might receive, or indeed whether he would be at all fupported. He faw, that inftead of lofing a part by compromife, a fruitlefs oppofition to the court of Vienna would infure the loss of the whole fucceffion. But that was not the only ftake that was at hazard. He was threaten ed with an army of 60,000 men, though

he was not able to refift the force which was already feizing his territories. If things were carried to the utmost extremity, the lofs of his old dominions might fpeedily follow the lofs of his new; and life would be spent before he could have a hope of redrefs. At any rate, he knew that no act of his could in any degree injure the rights of his fucceffors; that a more favourable opportunity than the prefent might occur for establishing them; and that, unless the conftitution of the Empire, and the Germanic fyftem, were entirely overthrown, fuch a violence muft fooner or later be redreffed.

A convention was accordingly concluded, and ratified, before the middle of January, between the court of Vienna and the Elector, by which the latter gave up the better half of his new poffeffions, and left claims open which might have swallowed a great part of the remainder. The articles of this convention were indeed of an extraordinary nature; and it may be doubted, whether any public inftrument has appeared for many years, which carries in its own face more glaring marks of violence and compulfion. In a word, it bore a complexion of fuch a caft, as if it had never been intended to come under any other cognisance than that of the contracting parties.

By thefe articles, the Elector acknowledges the claims and pretenfions of the house of Auftria upon the Lower Bavaria, without knowing the titles, or feeing the documents, upon which thefe claims were founded. It is true, it was fuppofed in the treaty, that these material articles were to be afterwards produced; but we alfo find the Elector, long after, under a neceffity of applying to the diet of the Empire to obtain that fatisfaction. He agrees, that they shall take poffeffion of all the eftates which compofed the patrimony of Duke John of the line of Straubingen, who died early in the fifteenth century; and that they shall alfo be intitled to all thofe diftricts to which Duke John had even any doubtful claim. These articles, which contain claims founded on fo remote and doubt ful a period, and which must neceffarily refer to many facts and circumftances, which, at this distance of time, it must be equally difficult, if not impoffible, either to afcertain or difprove, were accompanied with no fpecification, either

of the poffeffions which Duke John actually held, or of those to which it was fupposed he might have claims.

A more extraordinary article (if posfible) ftill remained. It was agreed, that if the Elector fhould claim any particular diftrict which he wished to retain, as not belonging to the Duke John, the proof of the negative should rest upon himself. Thus, befides a renunciation of the better part of his new dominions, the task was impofed upon him, of proving his title to, and justifying the limits of the remainder, againft unknown claims, which might extend to any part, or to the whole, of his poffeffions. In the same fpirit, he acknowledged the rights of the court of Vienna to the county of Cham, and to fuch parts of the Upper Palatinate as had been fiefs of the kingdom of Bohemia: An undefined claim, which might take in any part or the whole of that country. Other claims were recog nifed, with refpect to the principality of Mindelheim, and to various other poffeffions, both fiefs and allodial estates. In a word, an inftrument under the name of a convention or treaty, was concluded, which feemed to leave nothing as a matter of right or certainty to one of the contracting parties, but to throw him entirely on the grace, moderation, or favour, of the other. Such are fome of the confequences, whether in public or private life, of living in the neighbourhood of the great and powerful.

It could fcarcely be fuppofed, and probably was not expected, that in fuch a republic as that of the Germanic body, the proceedings of the court of Vienna could pafs without difcuffion, if not opposition. The dismemberment and spoil of two great electorates, including a number of adventitious poffeffions, and involving many foreign claims and titles, and this done without any attention to the ufual forms established in fuch cafes, without waiting for any legal fanction or determination, and without taking the fenfe of their co-eftates, the hereditary confervators and judges of all rights, and more particularly thofe of fucceffion, could not fail of seriously alarming all the princes of the Empire. Their tenures were all involved in the darkness, uncertainty, and frequent violence, of early ages; their titles were to be fought for amidst all the rubbish of ancient jurifprudence, ftill more perplexed and confounded by local ufages, particular conventions,

conventions, and family- fettlements, which it would be now found difficult, if not impoffible, to trace; and all the rights of a family, excepting those derived from prescription, which were now hewn to afford no fecurity, might depend upon a single record, buried in fome unknown repofitory, and in vain fought for, until its difcovery perhaps became felefs. Nor were the claims upon which thefe proceedings were founded, by any means, even in the most favourable point of view, of that clear nature, which might ferve to palliate any irregularity or violence in the proceedings. Befides this general effect, the Duke of Deuxponts, and the Electoral house of Saxony, were deeply and materially fected in their respective interefts by thefe transactions; as the Dukes of Mecklenburg alfo were, but in a leffer degree. The Electress-dowager of SaTony, as only fifter, and as the nearest relation and heir of the late Elector of Bavaria, claimed a fole, and what was reprefented as an indisputable right in the fucceffion to all the allodial 'eftates in that duchy. Though this claim took in very confiderable territorial poffeffions, it was rendered of ftill greater importance, by its comprehenfion of the purchafe-money which had been paid by the House of Bavaria, for the Upper Palatinate. For that territory was maintained to be in actual mortgage to her for the thirteen millions of florins which Maximilian had paid for it to the House of Auftria; the money being not only to be specifically confidered as an allodium, but its being alfo fettled by the contract of fale with Ferdinand II. in the year 1628, that it should be reimburfed to the allodial heirs. As this princefs ceded all her right in the allodial eftates, to her fon, the prefent E. ledor of Saxony, he of courfe became the acting party upon that claim in this conteft. The claims of the princes of Mecklenburg, which were probably founded upon the rights of fucceffion to a feparate fief, diftinct from the familyCompacts of the Palatine line, were confned to the landgraviate of Luchtenburg.

The Prince of Deuxponts loft no time in protefting against the prefent proceedings, as well as against the late convention between the court of Vienna and the new Elector of Bavaria; and in calling upon the princes and flates that

compose the diet, both in their original character, and as guarantees of the treaty of Weftphalia, to interfere in the prefervation of his rights. Though the ge neral voice of the Empire feems, fo far as it could be known, to be on this fide of the queftion; yet it would have been little heard, and lefs attended to, had not one louder, and more aweful, than the reft united, in fome degree commanded regard.

The King of Pruffia, who has a jealous eye upon every thing which may aggrandize the Houfe of Austria, and having no common intereft, as in the cafe of the partition of Poland, to tolerate ftrong acts in favour of that House, undertook the fupport of the princes who fuppofed themselves injured, and the defence of the rights of the Germanic body. His public acts and memorials, whether at Vienna or Ratisbon, were, however, tempered with the greatest moderation, and bore every appearance of refpect and deference, as well to the head of the Empire, as to his auguft mother, whilft any hope of an amicable accommodation of the conteft feemed to remain.

On the contrary, the court of Vienna was rather fupercilious in her manner, and affumed a high, haughty, and decifive tone. She knew her own rights; was the proper judge of them; and fhewed little difpofition to give any fatiffaction to others on the fubject. On the whole, though she did not entirely neglect to give answers to the ftrong memorials made against her, yet she was charged with placing rather more reliance on her power than her arguments.

In the firft formal anfwer which was laid before the diet, April 10. 1778, to a memorial of the Pruffian minifter, the fubject of contest was treated merely as a private arrangement between the court of Vienna and the Elector Palatine, in which no other ftate was concerned : The latter having acknowledged the claims of the former, an amicable accommodation, relative to the settlement and divifion of Bavaria, accordingly took place; which afforded no just ground for the interference of any third power, in a bufinefs which only properly concerned the contracting parties: That as this tranfaction did not bear the leaft fhadow of difmembering a prince of the Empire by force, as had been reprefented by the Elector of Brandenburg, but

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was founded on juft pretenfions and a friendly agreement; his Imperial Majefty did not think himfelf any ways accountable to any prince of the Empire for the measures he had purfued. It concluded, in this early state of the controverfy, with a declaration, that the Emperor being thoroughly fatisfied of the juftice of the caufe in which he had imbarked, was determined to perfevere in the measures which he had adopted, and to fupport his pretenfions by arms. It does not appear that the court of Vienna was more disposed to admit the nature or foundation of its claims to the cognifance of the diet. These were communicated only to the public through the letters-patent which that court iffued for taking poffeffion of the refpec. tive territories in queftion; or through the medium of the anonymous publications in fupport or juftification of its conduct, which were circulated at Vienna and Ratisbon; and which were ac cordingly liable to any interpretation or difavowal that might be thought neceffary.

On the very day after the delivery of that memorial, which stated the friendly nature of the agreement between the courts of Vienna and Munich; another was presented from the latter to the diet, complaining of the late feizure of about twenty additional districts by the Auftrians, and ftating the Elector's right to thofe places. The will of the late Elector of Bavaria was also laid before the diet, which afforded the fulleft conviction, that that prince, not only confidered the fucceffion to his dominions to be as fully and inherently established in the Palatine line, as the warmeft oppofers of the present measures could poffibly fuggeft, but that his inclinations alfo went along with the courfe of defcent; in confirmation of which he adopted a measure, which he perhaps was not legally enabled to do, by devifing all the allodial eftates of Bavaria to the prefent Elector. He also bound him and his heirs for ever, to maintain a conftant army of 10,000 effective men in that electorate; a clause which would have been equally futile and impracticable under the circumftances of the present subftraction of territory.

The King of Pruffia was not lefs fervent in his direct reprefentations to the court of Vienna, in favour of the Palatine line, and the other claimants of the

Bavarian fucceffion, than he was induftrious in refuting its pretenfions, and laying open the dangerous tendency of the prefent measures before the diet of the Empire. That court feemed, however, determined on its measures, and both refolved and prepared to fupport them at all events,

In answer to the preffing folicitations of that monarch, for withdrawing the Auftrian troops out of the territories of Bavaria, and submitting the different claims upon that fucceffion to a legal inquiry and decifion, according to the laws and conftitution of the Empire; his minifter at Vienna received the following declaration, in the beginning of April, from the Imperial court.

"That they would no longer continue difcuffing their own rights :- That they would not defift from keeping poffeffion of territories legally acquired: That justice should be rendered to all who had the leaft pretenfions to it, but that her Imperial Majefty would never admit, that a prince of the Empire fhould arrogate to himself the authority of judge or tutor in his co-principalities, or to contest about their rights: That the court of Vienna knew how to defend, and even to attack him who durft prefume to do it :- That notwithstanding they fhould adopt every admissible means which could be judged proper, to maintain the general tranquillity.'

This anfwer, which can fcarcely be confidered as less than tantamount to a declaration of war, was not, however, fufficient to overcome that guard and caution by which his Pruffian Majefty feems to have particularly regulated his conduct in this whole bufinefs. He ftill remonftrated, and ftill fought for explana tion. At length the court of Vienna yielded to fome general juftification of her conduct, and expofition of her intentions, in a memorial delivered by Prince Kaunitz to the Pruffian minifter on the 7th of May.

The principal ground of juftification taken in this piece was, that the Elector Palatine had no complaint of that court; and that the Prince of Deuxponts had no right to interfere in the bufinefs, during the existence of the prefent line in poffeffion. It was faid, that her Imperial Majefty did not oppose the pretenfions of the Elector of Saxony, or the Dukes of Mecklenburg; and a defire or inten tion was held out, that all the claims

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