Moravia he had concentrated his army. To this formidable engine he was indebted for all his political as well as military distinction, and he was determined to keep it in that commanding situation, by which he might not only secure what he had gained, but complete the yet undeveloped plans of his ambition. In the heart of Germany he fixed its station: hence, if any blush of shame for her degradation should kindle on the cheek of Prussia; if Austria should attempt to escape from that depres-, sion wherein she had been plunged, in which, however, amidst all her losses, she had preserved her honour; if in the territories of either power the emperor of Russia should see reason to expect a theatre for those formidable hos ilities which he wanted only an opportunity for displaying;-from this commanding eminence Bonaparte could discern and anticipate their movements. Here he could exercise his eagle eye, and was ready to crush with his talons the first offspring of the hostile mind. But Austria, with all her exertions, was little inclined to engage again in the contest; and although not calmly contented with her situation, she felt it preferable to irretrievable ruin. She seemed in deed destined to verify the declaration of Bonaparte,-that, in his arrangements with that power, posterity would never be able to reproach him with the want of foresight; and, having not reached the ultimate point of her depression by the treaty of Presburg, she was afterwards induced or compelled to sign an abdication of her German imperial title. In the month of August this abdication took place. In a proclamation by the emperor of this date, he stated, that, even

had the slightest hope remained after the treaty of Presburg of such an alteration of affairs, as might have permitted the execution of his various imperial duties, the convention lately ratified at Paris, relative to the separation of several considerable states of the empire, and their peculiar confcderation, would have utterly and for ever extinguished it. His principles and duty therefore required of him the abdication of a crown which was valued by him only while he enjoyed the confidence of the German states, and could perform the duties which were connected with it. But the charge of chief of the empire having ceased by this new confederation, the ties by which he was attached to the states of Germany were completely dissolved. He was acquitted of his obligations; he resigned the imperial crown: and he absolved all the electors, princes, states and magistrates, from all those obligations by which they had been united to himself by the laws of the Germanic constitution.

The confederation of the Rhine, to which his imperial majesty referred in this curious and humiliating document, was ratified on the 12th of July. This important paper, which by a few lines of the pen, supported, however, by the power of the sword, subverted the complicated establishment of ages, commences with observing that their majesties the emperor of the French, and the kings of Bavaria and Wurtemburg, the archchancellor, the elector of Baden, the duke of Berg, (the emperor's brother-inlaw Marat,) together with the landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, and various other princes, dukes and counts, whose names are enumerated, being desirous to secure

the

the peace of Southern Germany, which experience had long since proved could derive no guarantee from the existing constitution, had appointed certain plenipotentiaries to effect arrangements, from which this guarantee would naturally and decidedly result. In consequence of the dispositions which they had agreed on, and which were ratified, the states of the contracting parties were to be for ever separated from the Germanic body, and united by a particular act, called the Confederated States of the Empire. The affairs of this confederation were to be discussed in a congress which should sit at Frankfort, divided into two colleges, respectively of kings and princes, where all disputes should be settled that might arise among the members, who could in no case enter into the service of any other power than the confederation, nor alienate to any other power their sovereignty or territory. The elector archchancellor was to preside in this congress under the title of prince primate, having the city and territory of Frankfort under his complete sovereignty, and on the demise of any prince primate the right of naming a successor should attach to the emperor of France, who was to be proclaimed protector of the confederation. Various cessions and exchanges between the several members of the federation are specified, and very considerable additions of territory were made to many of them, to which they had no other right than what arose from the power of the union. With respect to each member, the limits are minutely set down of his territory and authority, in which the sovereignty of the imperial knightdoms in each state is included. In the event of a continental

war, which should involve either the emperor of France or any individual of the union, all parties should make a common cause, and, in case of preparations for war against one of the parties, his minister should be authorised to demand of the congress a general arming of the confederation. The congress should regulate the proportion of assistance to the emergency of the case, and the summons of the emperor to the parties should be the signal for their taking the field.

The fallen fortunes of the house of Austria, thus stripped of its honours, and compelled to shelter its most distinguished title of empe ror in its hereditary states, where, as if by a prophetic anticipation, it had secured an asylum, presents an impressive picture to the imagination. It was a spectacle of

no

common interest, to observe the descendant of imperial chiefs through a long series of generations, degraded into a renunciation of his dignity in behalf of a man, who, by his talents and his sword, was enabled to trample on the necks of sovereigns; and by whom family honours, and political establish-' ments, which had endured for centuries, were swept away in promiscuous ruin.

Most of the members of the new confederation, in consequence of their accession to it, found their dominions compacted or extended. The princes, counts, and other members of the ancient establishment, who are not named in the act of confederation, and whose possessions joined or were included in those of the princes whose names were attached to it, lost their ter ritorial sovereignty. The right of maintaining troops, the right of holding tribunals, of raising re

venue, of appointing diplomatic agents, which constitute the chief characteristics of dominion, was transferred to this selection of potentates. A great number of administrations and jurisdictions was thus for ever extinguished. Personages who had kept splendid courts, supported guards, and exhibited in the college of the empire, and their own dominions, the magnificence of princely revenue, were now suppressed, and the former associates of the splendour attached to the chief of the empire, when high occasions called for a concentration of the dignities of Germany, now participated in his humiliation. All reverses of this description in the fortunes of irdividuals will inevitably, in the m.m of comprehensive and enlightened humanity, excite sentiments of commiseration. But with respect to the inhabitants of Germany, the benefits which may result from the subversion of its cunbrous constitution may easily be supposed great. Its tardy deliberations and complicated forms, which were calculated to repress all useful enthusiasm, and to procrastinate action till energy was impaired, and the opportunity for action was passed, will be superseded by regulations less inconsistent with promptitude and vigour. A security will now be presented to the smaller states of the confederation, in the vigilance and resources of their imperial guardian, who will suffer no infractions, at least beyond his own, to pass unnoticed and unavenged. The substitution of a few despotisms, in the room of many, will certainly not long be deplored by the mass of German population. It is perhaps difficult to paint, in colours stronger than the case would jus

4

tify, the arrogance of the great, and the depression of the little, the rapacity and impoverishment, the pride and abjectness, which were the consequences of that minute subdivision of sovereignty, which existed under the ancient constitution of the empire. To support a pageantry of state, which, to those who had seen the splendors of a powerful and opulent monarchy, would appear deserving of every expression of ridicule or contempt; the territories of these petty sovereigns were exposed to every oppression that inventive poverty could suggest. The extortion of revenue was a summary of the cares of government. The acquisition of that property from the people which ought to be employed in the means of its security, in the elevation of its sentiments, the development of its resources, the improve ment of its valuable establishments, and thus increasing the sympathies which should ever exist between power and subjection, was applied to exhibit as strikingly as possible the contrast of princely splendor and plebeian poverty, and in cherishing that pride and servility which, in these miserable states, too often prevailed over every better feeling, absorbing all the benevolence of authority, all the dignity of submission, and every impulse of manly character. At the funeral of institutions such as these, few tears can be shed by the genuine friends of mankind, who will rather rejoice that the mitigated despotism of a few individuals has supplanted that aristocracy of German potentates, which, with some illustrious exceptions, fettered the energies of the human mind, and whose haughtiness and avarice involved their subjects, whom they considered as the more

valuable