[He suppresses the religious orders.]

the established notions of his subjects, or to subvert any of those establishments, which, either in themselves or by habitual associations, cherish sentiments of piety, the surest sources of both the private and public virtues which exalt a people. If he was a deist, he did not apprehend that his subjects would be the fitter without religion for either defending or improving his dominions. Like many others of no great talents, Joseph considered indifference to religion as a source of distinction; he was ostentatious in infidelity, and wished it, under the name of liberality, to spread through his territories. One measure which he adopted, was certainly in itself equitable; he disclaimed all dependence in secular affairs on the pope of Rome: he justly deemed it totally inconsistent with the rights and dignity of an independent sovereign, to acknowledge subordination to a foreign priest. The emperor greatly increased toleration in the various parts of his dominions, and in general extended religious liberty to Jews and all other sects and denominations. So far his policy appeared wise and liberal; but counsels and acts right in themselves, may be wrong as part of a general system. The emperor was a reforming projector, and in the ardour of his zeal for change very far exceeded expediency: the suppression of the religious orders and confiscation of their property, were the principal objects of his innovating plans. In 1782, he issued imperial decrees for suppressing monasteries, convents, and every species of religious fraternities or sisterhoods, and took possession of all their lands and moveables. A commission was established for the administration of the sequestered estates and effects, which were so considerable, that the most moderate calculators supposed that the emperor could gain four or five millions sterling by. the reform.* Annual stipends were allotted for the maintenance of the reformed abbots, abbesses, canons, canonesses, monks, and nuns, which were in some degree proportioned to their respective rank and condition; but it was heavily complained, that the portions were so scantily measured, as to be shamefully inadequate to the purpose. A reform, involving in it such an extensive robbery, was by no means applauded by distinguishing and wise men, as consistent with either justice or sound policy. The spoliation rendered the whole measure more particularly odious than it otherwise might have been; and whatever means were at home employed to stifle complaint, they could not restrain the censure of foreigners upon the conduct of this prince. Many conceived that his object was to plunder the church; that the pillage (instead of being applied to any useful or benevolent purpose) was intended merely for the support of his ambitious projects; and that he had concerted with Russia, plans of mutual co-operation, in order to aggrandize both powers. The situation of maritime Europe had afforded to the Austrian Netherlands mer

* The celebrated Mirabeau makes the following observations upon these changes: The internal revolutions which the emperor has effected in his dominions have been greatly applauded; but what a number of objections might be brought against these eulogiums; at least, the panegyrists of Joseph the Second ought to tell us what justice they find in driving a citizen from the profession which he has embraced, under the sanction of the laws. I will tell them plainly, that there is as much injustice in expelling a friar, or a nun, from their retreat, as in turning a private individual out of his house. Despise the friars as much as you will, but do not persecute them; above all, do not rob them; for we ought not either to persecute or rob any man, from the avowed atheist down to the most credulous capuchin.

VOL. VIII.-3

[His schemes for naval and commercial aggrandizement.]

cantile benefit, which inspired Joseph with the hopes of acquiring naval and commercial importance. The war that pervaded western Europe had transferred from Holland to Austrian Flanders and Brabant that immense trade, which, through the canals and great German rivers, England carried on with the eastern and northern countries of the continent. The benefits which the Netherlands derived from this transit of so great a commerce, were still farther increased, by the peculiar circumstances of the naval war in which Britain was involved; attacked at once in every part of the world, England was frequently under the necessity of abandoning the protection of her European commerce, that her foreign fleets might be sufficiently powerful to cover her very numerous distant possessions; and British merchants were obliged to use foreign vessels for the conveyance of their goods. From the operation of these causes, Ostend became a general mart of all the neutral as well as belligerent states and such an influx of trade was carried into that city and port, that even early in the war it reached a degree of opulence and commercial importance, which it never before enjoyed, or was expected to attain. The spirit of mercantile adventure was rapidly diffused through the Austrian Low Countries; the desire and hope of acquiring immense riches universally operated: Brussels itself, notwithstanding the habitual ease and love of pleasure incident to its situation, and the long residence of a court, could not escape the infection; and many of its inhabitants, who had never before engaged in commerce of any kind, now laid out all their ready money in building ships. The citizens of Antwerp regretted the loss of their former trade, riches, and splendour; and conceived hopes of the possible recovery of those valuable advantages. Indeed, the spirit now excited was so prevalent, that the states of the Netherlands presented a memorial to the emperor, requesting that he would take measures for the re-establishment of that port. Meanwhile the growing opulence of Ostend was immense; the limits of the city became too narrow for its inhabitants, and the buildings were not sufficient to cover the immense quantities of merchandise of which it was become the temporary depository: traders and speculators continually arrived to participate such benefits, and rapidly rising population was in proportion to the sudden flow of riches. Elated with unexpected prosperity, the inhabitants little regarded the circumstance in which it originated, and forgot that, as the cause was transitory, the effect was not likely to be permanent. Such was the state of affairs and sentiments in the Netherlands when the emperor arrived in June, 1781, at Ostend: struck with the flourishing condition in which he found this port, impressed with the exulting hopes of the inhabitants, and devoid of that comprehensive sagacity which could distinguish between special and general causes, with the precipitancy of superficial reasoners, he concluded that the prosperity which was then prevalent must always last. In his tour through the Netherlands he bestowed the greatest attention upon merchants, and every object connected with merchandise. Arrived at Antwerp, he in his conduct exhibited views of interfering in the navigation of the Scheldt. He went down that river in a boat, as far as to the first of those Dutch forts, which had been erected to guard the passage, and to secure to the states the exclusive command of the river; he had the depth of the channel ascertained in several places, and he strictly examined all the obstructions of art and nature which tended to impede its navigation. Joseph

[Dismantles the fortresses of the Netherlands.]

had also farther objects in view, which he thought the situation of Holland, weakened by her impolitic war with her natural ally, would enable him to accomplish.

At the conclusion of the succession war, as many readers must know, the principal fortresses of the Austrian Netherlands were deposited in the hands of the Dutch, for the mutual benefit and security of the court of Vienna and themselves; and while they formed a powerful barrier to cover the territories of the states, they were to be garrisoned and defended by them, and thus serve to obviate the danger apprehended from the power and ambition of France. During the weakness of Austria in the beginning of Maria Teresa's reign, she derived considerable advantages from this treaty; but now that he was become so powerful, the emperor thought himself fully competent to protect and defend his own dominions, and, being master of great armies, he conceived that he did not want fortresses to impede the progress of an enemy. Thinking it derogatory to his own honour, as well as to the dignity and power of the empire, that a great number of his principal cities and fortresses should be garrisoned, and at his own expense, he proposed to resume the barrier. To justify the intended measure, he stated that, in the last war between Austria and France, the Dutch had shown themselves incapable of maintaining the fortresses; that, besides, the state of affairs was now so entirely altered, that none of the causes or motives which originally operated to the establishment of the barrier, any longer existed. France, instead of being the common enemy, as then, was now the common friend of both parties; her ambition was no longer dangerous, and if it were, was directed to other objects; the emperor and she were mutually bound in the strictest and dearest ties of friendship and blood. On the side of Holland, it was alleged that Austria was indebted to Britain and the states-general for the possession of the Low Countries; and that, as these were the great leaders in the succession war, they compelled France and Spain to cede the Netherlands to Austria. The settlement of the barrier was the only compensation to Holland for all these services, and her immense expenses of blood and treasure to place the grandfather of the present emperor on the throne of Spain. Besides, being a direct breach of treaty and violation of faith, the proposed measure would be a shameful dereliction of every sense of past service and obligation; and the season chosen for its accomplishment, under the present embarrassed and depressed state of the republic, would render it still more disgraceful. These arguments, however strong, were of little avail against the power of Joseph; and the Dutch were compelled to yield. The emperor dismantled the fortresses; and thus Holland, through her folly in going to war with England, was stripped of her barrier, for which she had often and vigorously fought. Her most valuable resources being exhausted by war, that unhappy country had the additional calamity of being torn asunder by factions; peace had neither restored vigour and unanimity at home, nor reputation and importance abroad: on the contrary, their civil dissensions were every day increasing in magnitude and virulence. The faction hostile to the stadtholder, and connected with France, was now become so strong, that no sufficient counterpoise remained in the state, to restrain the excess and violence incident to the predominance of political parties. The emperor made various claims upon the Dutch frontiers, and did not want pretexts that gave a plausible colouring to meditated injustice.

[He proposes to open the Scheldt. Resisted by the Dutch.]

But of all his claims, the most distressing to Holland were the claims upon the city and country of Maestricht, the entire and free navigation of the Scheldt from Antwerp to the sea, and a free and uninterrupted commerce to the factories of Holland in both the East and West Indies. The Dutch alleged, that the emperor claimed all the benefits which were derived from their colonies in the New World, and their conquests and settlements in the East, being the fruits of much hard adventure, great risk, and advance of treasure, of numberless treaties and negotiations, and of many severe wars through the course of near two centuries. The rights of the republic, and particularly her exclusive sovereignty of the Scheldt, had been confirmed and guaranteed to her by all the treaties which secure the political existence of Europe. The claim upon Maestricht was founded upon obsolete pretences; important as the place was, however, it was only a matter of secondary consideration, and altogether subordinate to the Scheldt. The assertion of the emperor was founded on what he called the natural rights of countries to the navigation and benefit of a river which ran through his territories; whereas the possession of Holland rested on positive and specific compact. A recurrence to the original rights of man, the Dutch justly contended, would destroy those social agreements between individuals and political conventions, which constitute and secure all private and public property. Such a principle, practically admitted, would unloose every bond that unites mankind, throw them into a state of nature, and render the world a chaos of confusion and disorder. However just these arguments were, the emperor paid no regard to reasoning so opposite to his ambitious views. He saw in several concessions the fears of the Dutch, and trusted that their dread of his power would make them desist from the maintenance of their own rights. The moral principle, indeed, of his conduct was very simple: the Dutch are weak, I am strong; I intend to rob them of their property, and they will be afraid to resist. In this belief, he tried the experiment, by equipping two vessels, of which one was to proceed down the Scheldt from Antwerp to the sea, and the other up the river from the sea, on its course from Ostend to that city. The captain of the former of these was furnished with written orders from the emperor, commanding him to proceed in the brig Louis, from Antwerp along the Scheldt into the sea, and expressly forbidding him and his crew to submit to any detention, or to any examination whatever from ships belonging to the republic, which he might meet in the river, or in any manner acknowledge their authority. The imperial ship passed the Lilu and some other forts without examination, but falling in with a Dutch cutter that sent a boat with an officer to the vessel from Antwerp, the imperial captain told the Dutchman, THAT HE WAS ON HIS PASSAGE TO THE SEA; and that his instructions forbid his holding any parley whatever with the officers or ships of the United Provinces. The cutter now coming up to the brig, the imperialist quoted the instructions of his master, and refused to give any further satisfaction, persevering to sail towards the sea. The commander of the cutter entreated, threatened, and employed every means to induce the other to desist from conduct which would necessarily bring the affair to a crisis; but finding his efforts unavailing, he determined to prevent such an unjust and insolent usurpation. He fired first powder without ball, but at length poured a broadside, and threatened with the next discharge to sink his opponent,

[They prepare for war. Catharine advocates the cause of the emperor.]

if he continued refractory: the imperialist seeing it was in vain to contend, relinquished his object. The ship from Ostend was no less disappointed in the expectations of getting undisputed up the river. The emperor pretended to consider this spirited defence of their own right, as an aggression on the part of the Dutch. The imperial ambassador was recalled from the Hague, and an army of sixty thousand men was under orders and in preparation for marching from the Austrian hereditary dominions to the Netherlands. The troops which were already there, amounted to about sixteen thousand men; great trains of artillery, and all the other apparatus of war were in motion. Exhausted as they were by the war with England, the Dutch made very vigorous preparations; they employed agents to hire troops from Germany; and at home they exerted themselves in recruiting the troops, strengthening the frontiers, and putting the posts and garrisons in the best posture of defence. They prepared for the last refuge which the nature of their country peculiarly afforded, and resolved to open the dykes and lay the Flat Countries under water. While they were thus making provisions for hostility, they endeavoured to appease Joseph by reasonable and equitable expostulation; though they were very far from being disposed, they said, to go to war with the emperor, they were bound by all the laws of nature, of nations, of justice, and of reason, not to permit a violation of their dearest and most incontrovertible rights.

Russia was at this time closely connected with the emperor, and though she had lately sought the alliance of Holland, and made the republic the tool of her ambition in the armed neutrality, she now warmly and openly seconded the pretensions of Joseph. Catharine, in a letter to the king of Frussia roundly asserted that the Dutch were in the wrong, and the emperor equally just, moderate, and disinterested. The amount of her reasoning was, that the law of nature gave the Austrian Netherlands the exclusive right of the navigation of the Scheldt, and that the Dutch, in quoting specific treaties to support their claims, manifested an avidity which was notorious and blamable in every respect. Nothing well founded (she said, in the conclusion of her letter) can be alleged in favour of Holland; therefore she merits no assistance from any foreign power. The consequences which these republicans are drawing upon themselves by their obstinacy, must be submitted to the moderation of the emperor alone: I am firmly resolved to assist his pretensions with all my land and sea forces, and with as much efficacy as if the welfare of my own empire was in agitation. I hope that this declaration of my sentiments will meet with the success which our reciprocal friendship deserves, and which has never been interrupted.* These maxims of imperial ethics were not more contrary to the moral judgment of impartial individuals clearly apprehending and fairly estimating right and wrong, than the imperial politics of both the sovereigns were to the obvious interests of neighbouring potentates. The king of Prussia, it was foreseen, would not be an idle spectator of such an accession accruing to his rival. France, for her own security, would protect Holland against so formidable a neighbour, and was not without farther inducements to oppose the emperor, even should actual hostilities be the consequence. To the arms of France the rich provinces of the Low Coun

See translation of this letter in the State Papers, 1784, page 352.