IX. 1792. although the prophetic eye could discern in it the fatal CHAP. intermixture of religious indifference. The diversified classes of society harmonised with each other in a way hitherto unknown; and whatever might be the peculiarities of particular constitutions, a sweeter blood seemed on the whole to circulate through every member of the political body. The lowest of the people, under governments the 1. most despotic, no longer held their countenances prone to i. 13, 19. the earth, but were taught to erect them, with a becoming xxxiii. 207, sense of their own nature; and the brow of authority, in- 12, 13; stead of an austere frown, wore a more inviting air of xxviii. 169. complacency and amenity.1 1 Lac. viii. 140. Bot. Ann. Reg. 211; xxiv. xxvii. 3, 4; 76. between the But while such was the general character of Europe, there was an important distinction between the national Difference tendency of its northern and southern states, which soon South and produced the most lasting effects on their respective for- the North. tunes. The spirit of the south was in general pacific, that of the north ambitious; the repose of the former bordered on inertness, the energy of the latter on turbulence. The amelioration of the first was slow, and almost imperceptible, flowing chiefly from the energy or benignity of the sovereigns; the improvements of the latter were rapid and violent, taking their origin in the increasing importance of the people. Pleasure was the leading object in the south; glory, military glory, in the north. The difference was perceptible even during the progress of pacific changes; but when war broke out, its effects became of the last importance, and speedily led to the 2 Lac. viii. subjugation of the southern by the northern states of 141.. Europe.2 innovation. The greatest blessings border upon misfortunes; out 77. of calamity often springs the chief improvement of the General human race. To the eye of philosophy it was not diffi- passion for cult to discern that the growing passion for innovation, to which all reform is more or less related, was pregnant with political danger; that the universal toleration which IX. 1791. CHAP. prevailed bordered upon infidelity; and that the disposition to improve, emanating from the purest intention in the higher ranks, was likely to agitate the spirit of democracy in the lower. Such a peril, accordingly, was foreseen and expressed by the contemporary historians; but they did not foresee, nor could human imagination have anticipated, either the terrible effects of that spirit upon 1 Ann. Reg. the passing generation, or the beneficial effects which the storm that swept the world was destined to have upon the future condition of mankind.1 xxviii. 29, 30. 78. State of France lities com menced. The state of France at the period when hostilities first commenced, cannot be better described than in the words when hosti- of the cloquent and philanthropic Abbé Raynal, so long an advocate of liberal institutions, in a letter to the National Assembly:-" Standing on the verge of the grave, on the point of quitting an immense family, for whose happiness I have never ceased to wish, what do I behold around me in this capital? Religious troubles, civil dissension, the consternation of some, the audacity of others, a government the slave of popular tyranny, the sanctuary of the laws violated by lawless men; soldiers without discipline, chiefs without authority, ministers without resources; a king, the first and best friend of his people, deprived of all power, outraged, menaced, a prisoner in his own palace, and the sovereign power transferred to popular clubs, where ignorant and brutal men take upon themselves to decide every political question. Such is the real state of France; few but myself would have the courage to declare it, but I do so, because I feel it to be my duty; because I am bordering on my eightieth year; because no one can accuse me of being a partisan of the ancient regime; because, while I groan over the desolation of the French church, no one can assert that I am a fanatical priest; because, while I regard as the sole means of salvation the re-establishment of the legitimate authority, no one can suppose that I am insensible to the 355, 356. blessings of real freedom."2 When such was the language of the first supporters of the Revolution, it is noways 2 Lac. viii. IX. surprising that the European powers beheld with dismay CHAP. the progress of principles fraught with such calamitous consequences, according to the admission of their own partisans, in the countries where they had commenced. 1 1791. 79. ence to other 1791. Oct. 4, 1791. xxxiv. 1316. 206; xxxiv. The language of the French government towards the people of all other states, was such as to excite the most Menacing language of serious apprehension of the friends of order in every the French civilised country. Not only the orators in the clubs, but with referthe members of the Assembly, openly proclaimed the states. doctrine of fraternisation with the revolutionary party all over the world. The annexation of the states of Avignon and the Venaissin was early marked by Mr Burke as the Sept. 17, indication of an ambitious spirit, for which, ere long, the limits of Europe would not suffice. The seizure of this little state by the French Republic was the more remarkable, that it was the first decided aggression on the part of its rulers upon the adjoining nations, and that it was committed on an independent sovereign, with whom not even the pretence of a quarrel existed, and who was not alleged part. Hist. to have entered into any hostile alliances against that power. Ann. Reg. This was followed up in the same year by the seizure of xxxiii. 199, Porentruy, part of the dominions of the Bishop of Bâle, a 39. German prelate noways subject to the French government.1 The French Revolution surprised the European powers 80. in their usual state of smothered jealousy or open hostility Mutual jeato each other. Catherine of Russia was occupied with the Euroher ambitious projects in the south-east of Europe, and pean powers her ascendancy at the courts of Berlin and Vienna was period. so great that no serious opposition was to be apprehended from their hostility. France had shortly before signed a commercial treaty with Great Britain, which was considered Sept. 28, as admitting on the part of the latter the ascendancy of her naval rival, and seriously impaired her influence on the continent of Europe; while Frederick the Great had recently before his death concluded the convention of Berlin, for the protection of Bavaria and the lesser powers from the 1785. ambition of the House of Austria.2 But the death of that 80. great monarch, which took place in August 1786, was an lousies of at this 1786. Jan. 22, 2 Cap. i. 72, IX. CHAP. irreparable loss to the diplomacy of Europe at the very time when, from the commencement of new and unheardof dangers, his sagacity was most required. 1788. 81. of Prussia after the death of His successor, Frederick William, though distinguished Diplomacy for personal valour, and not destitute of penetration and good sense, was too indolent and voluptuous to be qualiFrederick fied to follow out the active thread of negotiation which the Great. his predecessor had held. Hertzberg became, after the death of the late monarch, the soul of the Prussian cabinet, and his whole object was to provide a counterpoise to the enormous preponderance of the two imperial courts, which had recently become still more formidable from the intimate union that prevailed between Catherine and Joseph II. This alliance had been cemented by their common ambitious designs on Turkey, and had been ostentatiously proclaimed to Europe during a voyage which the two potentates made together on the Volga, to the Crimea, and shores of the Black Sea. A treaty with France promised no satisfactory result in the distracted state to which that kingdom was now reduced. In these circumstances, an alliance of Great Britain, Prussia, and Holland, appeared the only means of providing for the balance of power in Europe; and under the influence of Mr Pitt, a convention was concluded at Loo between these three powers, which again established the preponderance of England on the Continent, and long preserved Martens, the independence of Northern Germany. Thus, at the 172. very time that the most appalling dangers were about to arise to the liberties of Europe from the revolutionary ambition of France on its western side, the views of its statesmen were turned to another quarter; and were solely directed to prevent the aggrandisement of the military monarchies, which seemed on the point of swallowing up its eastern dynasties.2 June 13, 1788. Trait. v. 2 Hard. i. 62, 63. Passionately desirous of military renown, Joseph II. addressed, early in 1788, a confidential letter to Frederick William, in which he openly avowed his designs on IX. 82. Turkey, and justified them by the practice of the Turks CHAP. themselves, and of all the European powers in similar circumstances.* Though flattered by this mark of con- 1790. fidence, the Prussian cabinet was not blinded to the Designs of danger which menaced Europe from the approaching Austria on dismemberment of Turkey, so rapidly following the partition of Poland. Meanwhile the united forces of Austria and Russia made great progress; the throne of Constantinople seemed shaken to its foundation. Oczakoff had fallen, and with it the bravest defenders of the Turkish power; the Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Suwarroff successively defeated large bodies of Osmanlis at Fochzani and Martinesti, while Belgrade, the bulwark of Transylvania, yielded to the scientific measures of Marshal Laudohn. The Russians, on the shores of the Black Sea, had completely routed Hassan Pasha at Tobak, and, after a long siege, made themselves masters of Bender ; while the Austrians, no less successful, reduced Bucharest, and spread themselves over all the northern shores of the Danube. Orsova had fallen; and the united imperial armies, two hundred and fifty thousand strong, 1 Ann. Reg. stretching over a line four hundred miles in length, xxxi. 182, already, in the spring of 1790, menaced Giurgevo and xxxiii. 1,18. Widdin, and threatened speedy destruction to the Otto- 84. man empire.1 Seriously alarmed at the dangers which evidently The *"The sword is drawn," said he, "and it shall not be restored to the scabbard till I have regained all that has been wrested by the Osmanlis from my house. My enterprise against Turkey has no other object but to regain the possessions which time and misfortunes have detached from my crown. Turks consider it as an invariable maxim to seize the first convenient opportunity of regaining the possessions which they have lost. The House of Brandenburg has risen to its present pitch of glory by adopting the same principles. Your uncle wrested Silesia from my mother at a moment when, surrounded by enemies, she had no other support but her native grandeur of mind and the love of her people. During a century of losses, Austria has made no proportionate acquisition; for the larger portion of Poland, on the last partition, fell to Prussia. I hope these reasons will appear sufficient to justify me in declining the intervention of your Majesty; and that you will not oppose my endeavours to Germanise some hundreds of thousands of Orientals."HARD. i. 65, 66. 200; and Hard. i. 68, |