with the court of Vienna, afforded the only lafting and folid fecurities which the houfe of Auftria could have for retaining her poffeffions in the Netherlands. The rupture between England and Holland, the change of political fyftem in the latter, the loffes fuftained by both in the late ruinous war, and the confequent weakness which they produced, all tended in their feveral degrees to weaken these fecurities. By the advantage which the emperor took of the diftrefs and danger of Holland, in the deftruction of the barrier, they were totally diffolved and done away; by that act he irremediably cut off every fhadow of fecurity from his own tenure, which muft ever after be held at the mercy of France; and he thereby likewife compelled the republic to throw herfelf entirely, and without referve, into the arms of that power, than which there could be nothing more directly contrary to his real interefts. By his ftill purfuing the blow farther against the republic, and aiming it now at her very vitals, he was forcing and precipitating France into the execution of a defign, which he had ever at heart, but which the ties between the two fovereigns might probably have prevented during their refpective lives. For, notwithstanding the great power of the emperor, the vastnefs of his military force, and the undoubted excellency of his armies, they lay at too great a diftance from the fcene of action, and France lies too much in their way, to enable him to carry on a war upon any degree of equality againft that power in the Low Countries; even fuppofing Holland to be entirely out of the queftion, or to be confidered only as a cypher. His armies muft pafs, in feparate and far-divided columns, fatigued and worn down by the length and difficulties of their march, along 200 miles of the French frontier, and liable at every step to be cut off, before they could reach the object of their destination; while the provinces in contention, being entirely defenceless, and embraced on every fide by France with the ftrongeft holds in the world, would be overrun and poffeffed by her troops in a week. Such was the doubtful and critical ftate of public affairs at the clofe of the year 1784. CHAP. CHA P. VIII. Unexpected fource of jealoufy and difcord opened in Germany. Scheme for the exchange of Bavaria for the Auftrian Netherlands. Seafon ill chofen for fuch a meafure. Emprefs of Ruffia writes to the Prince of Deux Ponts upon the fubject; who peremptorily refuses a compliance, and acquaints the court of Berlin with the propofal. King of Pruffia remonftrates with the court of Petersburgh on the fubject: Empress's answer. Conduct of the courts of Vienna and Munich. States of Bavaria alarmed. Satisfaction given by the elector not deemed fufficiently explicit. Great diffatisfaction excited in Hungary by the late Schemes of reform. Rebellion of the peasants in the mountainous borders of Transylvania and Walachia. Savage cruelties committed on the nobility. Peafants defeated, reduced, and Horiah, their mock king, publicly executed. Vigilance of the Pruffian monarch, and efficacious measures pursued by him, for preventing any innovation in the Germanic conftitution and fyftem of policy. Treaty of union and confederation, for maintaining the indivifibility of the empire, and the rights of the Germanic body, in general and particular, figned at Berlin on the 23d of July 1785; the principal parties being the King of Pruffia, the elector of Brunswick Lunenburgh, and the elector of Saxony.. Meajures purfued by the court of Vienna to prevent or to counteract the new league prove ineffective. King of Pruffia's expofition of the causes and motives which led to the new German confederation, generally approved by the neighbouring powers. The appearances of immediate war in Germany feem to be fuperfeded by a more moderate difpofition, and the queftions upon the exchange of Bavaria are fuffered to die away without farther explanation or difcuffion. The ftorm of war being diverted from the Low Countries, by the great importance of the political queftions which unexpectedly arofe and were agitated in Germany, the republic of Holland thereby gained time to provide the more effectually for the worst that might happen, as avell as for endeavouring to ward off the evil entirely by an accommodation. Negociations refumed at Paris, under the auspices of M. de Vergennes. Dutch deputies received at Vienna by the emperor. Speech and anfwer. Definitive treaty of peace between the emperor and the republic of Holland concluded under the mediation and guarantee of France. Principal ftipulations of the treaty. Treaty of alliance and friendship between France and Holland, finally ratified on the 25th of December 1785. Account of the Spanish expedition against Algiers in the year 1784; and the caufes which prevented its infertion in the bufinefs of that year. IT T was in the height of the conteft about the Schelde, when the public attention was fully engroffed, and the emperor's mind fuppofed to be entirely occupied by that momentous fubject, that the world was aftonished by the opening of a new source of jealoufy and difcord in Germany. What rendered this new business entirely unaccountable was, that it not only feemed in its nature, principle, and defign, to run directly counter to all the measures which that prince had hitherto purfued, and was ftill, with no lefs apparent eagerness and determination termination pursuing, with refpect to Holland and the Schelde, but at once fhut out all the avowed and imputed views, from which the conteft was fuppofed to originate. This new fubject of alarm and contention was no lefs, than the propofed or fuppofed exchange of an antient and great electorate in the heart of Germany, for the Auftrian Netherlands; those very Netherlands upon whofe account the emperor feemed at the time on the point of encountering all the hazards of a war, whofe confequences (as had been well obferved, and ftrongly urged by the court of Versailles) could not be calculated. We have formerly given a full account of the immediate measures pursued by the court of Vienna upon the death of the late elector of Bavaria, to feize and annex to the Auftrian dominion a great part of that electorate; together with thofe loofe and undefined claims then laid and kept open with refpect to the remainder, which feemed evidently calculated, when the proper feafon arrived, to be extended to and to embrace the whole of that extenfive dominion *. The Pruffian monarch became, upon that great and very critical occafion, the diftinguished and fuccefsful guardian and protector of the rights of the German princes, and the liberties of the Germanic body in general. The war which he then undertook, though not illuminated by thofe dazzling actions which captivate the imagination, yet confidered in its motives, with the difintereftednefs which marked his whole conduct, through the progress and conclufion of the conteft, may poffibly ferve to crown him with more unfading laurels, than the moft fplendid acts, and the most glorious victories of his youth. The peace concluded at Tefchen, on the 13th of May 1779 †, fo effectually annulled the claims and pretenfions of the House of Auftria upon the dominions of Bavaria, that it might be fuppofed to have cut off the poffibility of any future difcuffion or contest upon that subject. But though the neceffity of appa rently relinquishing the defiga was then predominant, yet the object prefented fo irrefiftible a temptation, that the defire of its acquifition could not be foregone. And as the fame great obftacles still remained to the obtaining of it by force, other means were to be tried, and measures of another nature pursued. Ambition and vanity feldom grow old, and the lure of a crown was fuppofed to have been fuccefsfully held out to the elector palatine, in order to induce him to an exchange of the Dutchy of Bavaria, including all thofe appendages which were left and confirmed to it by the treaty of Tefchen, for the Auftrian Netherlands, which were to be conftituted a kingdom, under the revived denomination of Auftrafia. Nothing could certainly have been more advantageous to the houfe of Auftria, or more confonant to its views of fupreme greatnefs, than this exchange. For, exclufive of the precarious tenure by which the Low Countries were held, and which was now perhaps more fenfibly felt than at any former time, the acceffion of fo large and confiderably a country *See Ann. Regifter, vol. xxi. for the year 1778. Hift. Article, p. 1 to 35. as as Bavaria, rendered ftill more important by its peculiar fituation, befides rounding and completing the Auftrian dominions, would have confolidated fuch a great and compacted body of power, as nothing afterwards in the empire, confidering the divifion and general weakness of its ftates, could be fuppofed able in any degree to counterpoize. On the other hand it would feem, that nothing less than the paffion of filling a throne, for however thort a time, and the empty gratification of leaving a name enrolled in the mouldering catalogues of forgotten kings, could have induced the elector, at his time of life, and without children, to enter into a measure fo difagreeable to his fubjects, fo dangerous to his co-eftates of the empire, and fo unjust to his apparent heirs and prefumptive fucceffors, as the dominion which he was to obtain bore no adequate proportion in the great objects of extent, number of inhabitants, importance, or fecurity, to the country which he was to give in exchange. No feason, however, could well be chofen, that was lefs favourable to the carrying of fuch a measure into execution, than the prefent. The attention of Europe was already much roused by the northern alliance, and by a fucceffion of meafures or projects which were fupposed to have arifen from it; fo that the more diftant as well as the nearer powers began now to entertain no fmall jealoufy of the conduct and views of these two great empires, whofe union appeared to be fo ftrictly cemented, that they were scarcely to be confidered in any other point of view than that of acting under the fame common influence of defign, and under the impulfe of the fame common intereft in every thing. In fuch a difpofition and ftate of circumftances, it was scarcely reasonable to expect, that an innovation in the conftitution of the Germanic body, as well as in the general fyftem of European policy, could by any means pafs unquestioned; or indeed that the attempt would not be attended with much difficulty and danger. The negociation upon this intended barter was conducted with fuch extreme clofenefs and fecrecy, that no fufpicion of the defign was entertained, even by those who were the moft immediately interested in, and would be the most deeply affected by the measure, until the treaty was fuppofed to be already far advanced, if not abfolutely concluded. This bufinefs was likewife attended with the peculiar circumftance of its existence having been in the firft inftance abfolutely denied, and never after fully acknowledged, by the contracting parties themselves. A letter from the emprefs of Ruffia to the duke of Deuxponts, tending to induce him to an acquiefcence in, if not a confirmation of, the proposed scheme of exchange or barter, was the first intelligence which that prince, the prefumptive heir and fucceffor to the elector palatine in all his eftates, dominions, and titles, received, that any fuch defign was in agitation. This letter was probably received about the clofe of the year 1784, as the king of Pruffia was informed of the whole affair by the duke, who claimed his interference and protection as guarantee of the treaty of Tefchen, early in the following month of January. In whatever terms the duke's anfwer answer was conveyed, it was fo ill taken by the court of Petersburgh, that the refufal was probably very peremptory. The king of Pruffia immediately remonftrated ftrongly with that court upon the fubject, as having been a mediator of the peace at Tefchen, and being a guarantee to the treaty. The emprefs, in her anfwer, declared, that he had conceived this project to be the only fure means of preventing a war: that upon this ground the very seriously wifhed for its being carried into immediate execution: that these fentiments had indeed dictated the letter written by her to the duke of Deuxponts, inviting him, in the most friendly manner, to come into the fcheme; but finding herself ill requited for her good offices, fo far as could be judged from the answer which the received from the duke, which is of a tenor that the neither can nor fhall give any reply to, he had dropped all farther concern in the bufinefs; and the empress declares to the king, that he has no intentions to enforce the execution of this project, excepting that the parties more immediately concerned fhould fully agree to it. But, previous to this developement of the bufinefs by the emprefs of Ruffia, both the courts of Munich and Vienna had thought it neceffary publicly to contradict the reports which were spread upon the fubject, and to affert, that they were unfounded; and though the expreffions were loofe and general, they were evidently intended to convey an idea that no such defign had exifted. The ftates of Bavaria were fo exceedingly alarmed at the report, that the elector thought it neceffary to give them fome fatif faction on the fubject. He affured them, in a written document, dated on the 13th of February 1785, that the reports fpread of a pretended treaty between him and the imperial court, relative to an exchange of country, were without foundation; that the convention between him and that court, which had been lately ratified, related only to the adjustment of limits; and that he had already ordered an extract of that treaty, fo far as it concerned the provincial ftates, to be communicated to them. Though this anfwer feemed to afford fome temporary fatisfaction, yet it was foon confidered as not being fufficiently explicit; a general apprehenfion and alarm was spread among the people; and the order of burghers joined the nobles in the most preffing folicitations to the elector for a farther and clearer explanation. The difcontents excited upon this occafion ferved to renew with additional force thofe old animofi-, ties which, through a long course of mutual injuries and cruel wars, had for ages fubfifted between the inhabitants of Bavaria and the Palatinate. This ill temper became fo prevalent, that all the powers of difcipline and defpotifm were scarcely fufficient to prevent the Bavarian and electoral troops from proceeding to the most dangerous extremities. It was even faid to have pervaded the elector's palace and court; and it was reported, that the very grooms could not be prevented from coming to blows in his ftables. While the emperor, by a course of policy not very explicable, nor feemingly well connected, was ftrowing the feeds of foreign jealousy and commotion; the multifarious |