cations were falling to decay, and the garrisons defective; and that the shameful manner in which they were loft by the Dutch, in the war of 1741, was a fufficient evidence of their incapacity to maintain and defend the barrier. But that, independent of all complaints with reIpect to the discharge of their truit, the circumftances of things, and the ftate of affairs on all fides, were now fo entirely altered, that none of the causes or motives, which originally operated to the establishment of the barrier, were any longer in exiftence. That France, inftead of being the common enemy, as then, was now the common friend of both parties; that her ambition was no longer dangerous, and if it were, was directed to other objects; that the emperor and fhe were mutually bound, in the ftrictest and dearest ties of alliance, friendship, and blood; and, even admitting the poffibility of any change in this ftate of connections, his territories would at all times be an effectual barrier to Holland, and would afford much greater fecurity to them by being in his hands than in their own.

Much was, however, to be faid on the other fide. The immenfe expence, in blood and in treafure, which Holland, through a long course of fucceffive wars, had endured, for the attainment, the establishment, and the prefervation of this very barrier, was known to all the world. Nor was it to be forgotten, that the emperor owed to the extraordinary exertions of Great Britain and Holland his now holding any territory or poffeffion whatever in the Low Countries. That they had the principal fare, through a long war, and a series of the most glorious fucceffes, in wrefting by

piece-meal from the house of Bour bon, these provinces, thick fown as they then were with the strongest fortreffes in the world, and defended by thofe numerous and veteran armies which had so long been the terror of Europe. That as they were the great leaders in the war, fo they compelled France and Spain, by the peace, to submit to the transfer of the Netherlands to the German line of the house of Austria ; and had fince been the means of fecuring and preferving them to that family. That the fettlement of the barrier was the only return to Holland for all these fervices, and for the immenfe expences she had been at, not only in that part of the war, but in her arduous endeavours to place the ancestor of the prefent emperor upon the throne of Spain. That the proposed measure, befides being a direct breach of treaty, and violation of faith, would be a fhameful dereliction of every sense of past service and obligation; and that the feafon chofen for its accomplishment, under the prefent embarraffed and depreffed itate of the republic, would render it ftill more difgraceful.

Much more might have been faid; but arguments are of little avail, and treaties weak obligations, any longer than the equal ftrength, or mutual convenience of the parties, fhall give weight to the one, or validity to the other. Great Britain, the guardian of the barrier, was now (unfortunately to both) an enemy to Holland.

As an opening to this defign, the emperor had, in the beginning of the year 1781, and fome months before he fet out on his tour, peremptorily demanded from the States General precise accounts of the

revenues

revenues which they had drawn from the barrier, and of the fums which they had expended in the repair or improvement of the fortreffes. This fudden and captious demand, of coming to a fettlement upon fuch old, intricate, and longneglected accounts, and made at fo very peculiar a feafon, feemed to augur very different difpofitions from thofe of friendship or goodwill to the ftates; and probably infpired them with other apprehen. fions befides those which related to the barrier. Circumftanced, indeed, as they were, it may well be fuppofed, that this demand contributed not a little to facilitate their fubfequent compliance with the ceffion of an object, fo long held dear by them, and which involved in it the immediate fecurity of their country. However that was, the bufinefs was foon decided; and it feems probable, that many words were not used in its procefs, for the negociation was scarcely heard of, when, towards the close of the year, the Dutch garrifons and artillery were almost filently withdrawn from the barrier, and the emperor's order for dismantling the fortreffes, and felling the materials, feems to have been the first public annunciation of the event.

Never was a measure of fo much importance, and on which fo much depended, carried into effect more fmoothly; but notwithstanding this facility, it was eafily feen, that the ftates were fully aware of its dangerous tendency, although the unfortunate fituation in which they were involved compelled them to an easy fubmiffion. In fact, a general alarm was spread through the United Provinces and the great number of hands that were directly

employed, and the corresponding meafures adopted, for putting their 'own fortreffes on the frontier, particularly thofe along the Schelde, in an immediate state of defence, fufficiently fhewed, that government was no less affected than the public upon this occafion. Thus was Holland ftripped of its hard-earned and dearly-purchased barrier, and by the revolution of politics laid open to the views of a not lefs àmbitious, and more dangerous, as being a nearer neighbour, than France.

The bufinefs of the barrier was not, however, the only confiderable object which the emperor had at this time in view, and which drew his attention fo much to the affairs of the Netherlands. The rupture between the maritime powers had been the means of transferring from Holland to the Auftrian Netherlands the course of that vaft commerce, which, through the medium of the canals and great German rivers, England carried on with that and otherEastern and Northern continental countries. The benefits which the Netherlands derived from this tranfit of fo great a commerce, were ftill farther increafed by the peculiar circumstances of the naval war in which Great Britain was involved. Attacked, at once, in every part of the world, and nearly overwhelmed by the multitude of her enemies, fhe was under a neceffity of abandoning, in a great measure, the protection of her home commerce, and even, at times, the fovereignty of her own feas, in order that her foreign fleets might be fufficiently powerful to cover her very numerous diftant poffeffions. This new and untoward state of things, reduced the English merchants to difficulties and diftreffes, with re

fpect

ance of a paffion, than even of a ftrong predilection.

Upon his arrival at Offend, in the beginning of June 1781, this prince fhewed every mark of the greateft poffible attention to the people and place, and every degree of favour and regard to the merchants. He fummoned a committee of those who were esteemed among the principal, and the best informed of the latter. Of these were fome English gentlemen of high confideration for their mercantile knowledge and abilities; and after holding a conference with them, he defired their feparate opinions in writing, as to the best means which could be devised and adopted for the improvement, enlargement, and benefit of 'commerce, not only with respect to that port in particular, but to the Low Countries in general.

Every moment of the emperor's fhort refidence at Oftend was diftinguished by particular favours and benefits; nor were thefe difcontinued during his ftay in the Netherlands. He declared their port to be free: and in order to fupply the defect of nature, by enlarging their accommodation for fhipping, he gave directions for the conftruction of a confiderable. bason, at his own expence. To render thefe favours more complete, and to gratify the wants or wishes of the inhabitants in every refpect, as the fituation of Oftend, in a deep morafs, cramped them no lefs on the land fide for room to answer the purposes of building, than they were on the other, through the narrowness of their harbour, for thofe of trade, the emperor determined to obviate that difficulty likewife. He accordingly granted them liberty to cover the old ramparts and works

of the town with buildings; which afforded an enlargement fufficient, at leaft, to fupply their prefent wants. At the fame time, his encouragement to foreign fettlers, in the commercial line, was highly munificent and liberal. He allowed the free exercife of their religion, and places of public worship to the proteftants of all denominations at Oftend. He invited people of all countries and perfuafions thither to fettle, to erect warehouses, and to carry on merchandize. He granted them the land on which they built in perpetuity, fubject only to a nominal small rent, as an acknowledgment that it was held from him. The erection of several new freets, and a fquare, was accordingly carried on with great rapidity; the hurry of building interfered with that of commerce, and crowds of people thronged in from every quarter.

Short though the stay was which this prince made in the Low Countries, it was fufficient to excite the admiration, and, in the higheft degree, to acquire the affection of his fubjects. The free audience, without ftate, difficulty in the approach, guards, or witneffes, which he afforded to all manner of perfons who defired it, gained equally the hearts of those who applied, and of all who heard of their reception; while the patience with which he heard, examined, and fifted into, their often tedious complaints and involved relations, was no lefs aftonishing than his affability was captivating to the people.

It did not escape observation, either in Holland or Flanders, that when this prince was at Antwerp, he went down the Schelde in a boat, as far as to the first of those Dutch

forts,

forts, which have been erected to guard the paffage, and to fecure to the ftates the exclufive navigation of that river; that he had the depth of the channel taken in feveral places; and that he strictly examined all thofe obftructions of art and nature which tended to impede its navigation, and to shut up the port of that city. From thence he paffed into Holland, and among other places particularly vifited Rotterdam.

An opinion had for fome time prevailed with feveral perfons in England, that means might have been fuccefsfully used for renewing the ancient ties of friendship with the house of Auftria, and for drawing this prince into fuch a fyftematic league of alliance (founded as well upon general political principles, as upon immediate and mutual interefts, and calculated to extend to future contingencies) as might be fufficient effectually to counteract that moft dangerous combination of the houfe of Bourbon, fupported by Holland and America; which, though confined in its direct object to the ruin or total annihilation of the British empire, would, if fuccefsful in that, provè no less dangerous to the reft of Europe, The near approach of the emperor, at this time, to England, along with the particular favour which he thewed to the English, induced the warm partizans of this notion to imagine, that it was among the principal objects of his journey: but when the duke of Gloucester was feen to depart fuddenly for Ofend, in order to vifit this prince, that, and the long conference which took place between them at Bruges, occafioned numbers, who had paid but little regard to the original opinion, to imagine, that fomething

of the fort was now really in agitation. The event, however, did not juftify any of thefe expectations; and, as no fruits of the conference have appeared, and that the duke of Gloucester returned immediately afterwards to England, it may well be fuppofed, that the meeting between these princes was merely a matter of perfonal attention and courtesy. It was, indeed, not the leaft among the many heavy misfortunes which, through that period, hung fo heavily over England, that her government, whether it proceeded from an overweening confidence in native ftrength, or from whatever other fatal error of policy, feemed for feveral years to have totally turned its back upon the reft of Europe; and, lofing the due national weight and influence in the general political fyftem, most unaccountably neglected all useful continental friendships, connections, and alliances.

The emperor did not return to Vienna until about the middle of Auguft, 1781. He foon after refumed his ecclefiaftical reforms; but as that year and the following were likewife the great season for civil regulation, we shall, before we enter upon that fubject, bring together, in one point of view, fuch of those measures as tended moft to the benefit of different claffes, orders, or communities of the people, or were remarkable for their liberality and munificence.

Of these, the first in order of time, as well as in importance, was the toleration granted to the proteftants. A general outline of the nature and extent of this plan, with a promife of its being speedily perfected and promulgated, was published, by authority, in the Vienna

papers.