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And Addrefs of General Jourdan to his Army, on their Entrance into Germany. Taken into Confideration by the Deputation of the Empire.-. Which recommends to the general Diet the Adoption of Means for a Speedy Peace. The Zeal of the Deputies for Peace, checked by the Imperial Commiffary.-Preludes of War.

Y an article in the treaty of and fixed, that a congrefs fhould be held at Raftadt, compofed folely of the plenipotentiaries of the Germanic empire and of the French republic, for the purpose of concluding a negociation between thofe powers. This congrefs was accordingly opened on the twelfth of December, 1797. That our readers may the more eafily enter into the nature of this affembly, and the character of its deliberations, it may not be improper to recall to their mind, very briefly, an idea of the Germanic conftitution, and of fome of the principal viciffitudes it has undergone, in the lapfe of time, from its origin to the prefent day, when it totters on the verge of diffolution, if not, in fact, already diffolved.

Germany is computed to comprize a furface of twelve thousand fquare geographical miles, and to contain a population of twentyeight, or thirty millions of inhabitants. It is bounded on the north, by the river Eider, and the Baltic fea; on the east, by Pruffia, Poland, Silefia, and Hungary; on the fouth, by the Adriatic fea, Italy, and Switzerland; and, on the weft, by France, the Northern ocean, and the Seven United Provinces, at prefent ftyled the Batavian republic. Germany has not only the advantage of three feas, but alfo for internal navigation, a great number

of rivers, of which the principal are and the Wefer. In confequence of its extent, and the number, induftry, and wealth of its inhabitants, it would be a very powerful and formidable state, and a happy counterpoife and barrier against the ambition of France, if the different territories of which it is composed, were united under one head, with fufficient authority to constitute them one united and compacted government. But, the three hundred states into which it is divided, poffeffing, for the most part, royal prerogatives, even to the extent of making peace or war, are influenced only by their own individual interefts. They abandon the community of which they are members, at the moment of its danger, to all the attacks of adverfe fortune. Though they acknowledge one chief, they are independant of each other, and not attached by any particular or private tie to the common interest: befides this, the powers which they have gradually affumed, are increafed at every new election of an emperor. For this reafon, it is an undecided point among German doctors of laws, whether the conftitution of their country, be monarchical or ariftocratical. This indecifion renders it a matter of doubt with fome, whether there be, in reality, any precife and determinate confiitution of Germany at all. The most probable opinion on this

fubject

fubject is, that the Germanic confitution is an extremely limited monarchy.With the exception of the fhort and ftormy period between 1742 and 1745, the imperial dig. nity has, for many ages, been vefted in the houfe of Auftria. This dignity was not hereditary in that family, but conferred, on fucceffive vacancies of the throne, by way of election.

At the period when the German empire became an elective kingdom, (for it was not fo from the beginning), all the magnates, or moft powerful chiefs, had a fhare in the election. But this privilege paffed infenfibly into the hands of the principal ecclefiaftical and fecular princes, who were called It was neceffary, about the time of the reformation, and fince, that the candidate for the imperial crown fhould be of the Roman catholic religion. Hence the capacity of filling the imperial throne is reduced to a very few houfes of high diftinction: thofe of Auftria, the Palatinate, and Saxony. But, as the imperial election has been almost uniformly carried, for many ages, by the former of thefe, whofe immenfe hereditary dominions has given birth to an apprehenfion, left it should employ its vaft power for the purpose of its own aggrandizement, rather than that of maintaining the rights of the states of the empire, the electors have judged it proper, at every new election, fince that of Charles V. in 1519, to ftipulate for the maintenance of their own prerogatives and those of their co-eftates, by an inftrument, called the Imperial Capitulation. It is a pretty general opinion, that the limitation of the imperial power, had its origin in an origina Icompact

with the electors. But this was not the cafe. When Germany was feparated from France, to which it had become fubject, to form an empire by itfelf, the chief of the nation was in poffeffion of full and abfolute fovereignty. Dukes, margraves, counts palatines, and landgraves, were no more than fimple officers of the crown, acting in the name and by the authority of the monarch. But, as it was common to beftow on fons the places that had been held by their fathers, and to confer the great offices of ftate on families who had large poffeffions in the territories over which they were appointed to prefide, it came to pafs, in troublesome times, when the monarch could not exercise a ftrict vigilance over them, that they kept their places by a hereditary title, and the officers of the crown became fovereign princes, their power increased, in proportion as the hands were flackened, which united them to the empire, more and more, till at length a feal was put to their authority, by the peace of Weftphalia. It is farther to be oblerved, that neither the kings of France, nor thofe of Germany, their fucceffors, were ever abfolute, fo long as the tribes of Germany were but fmall. The chief confulted the opinion of every free man, without exception. An inherent love of liberty, it is recorded both by Tacitus and Julius Cæfar, was characteristic of the ancient Germans. When the empire became too extenfive for the public deliberations of all free men in a body, the king affembled the dukes, margraves, counts palatine, fimple counts, and landgraves to confult together, and with him, on the affairs of the nation. Thofe

lords

fords were not indeed, firicly speaking, the reprefentatives of the people: ftill, however, they might be confidered as fuch: they were always great landed proprietors, who have the clearest and most unqueftionable intereft in the welfare of the people; and, befides this, it was in conftant ufage with the grandees, before prefenting themfelves at court, to convene the free men of their refpećtive diftricts, in order to receive information of facts, and charge themselves with the reprefentation of their grievances: a cuftom which alfo prevailed, it will readily be recollected, with the ftates-general of France. Thus the magnates of Germany became ftates of the empire.

After Chriftianity made its way into the heart of Germany, a great number of archbishops, bifhops, and abbots appeared on the fame level, and in the fame rank, with the lay chiefs, who, by and by, admitted them into their number in the public convents, not only in confequence of their refpected stations and valuable poffeffions, but because the clergy alone, in thofe days, were verfant in either letters, or the beft modes of tranfa&ting public bufinefs. Thus the ftates of the empire were divided into two orders; the ecclefiaftic and the fecular. Among the former, were ranked archbishops, bishops, and abbots of royal foundations: the abbots of other monafteries did not enjoy the fame privileges. To the order of prelates were joined, the grand-mafter of the teutonic order, and the grandprior of the order of St. John, of Jerufalem. The fecular order was compofed of dukes, counts palatine, landgraves, margraves, fimple counts, and independent proprie

tors of landed eftates: that is, fuck proprietors as did not hold them as fiefs of the crown. For a long time there were no other states of the empire. Thele two orders held their deliberations in common with the chief of the empire, under the fimple defignation of two benches; the ecclefiaftical bench, and the feculat bench. In the lapfe of ages there arofe a third clafs of national reprefentatives. In the reign of Henry, the falconer, a great number of towns were built, both on the frontiers, and in the interior of Germany. Part of these held of dukes and princes, and part immediately of the emperor. The latter were called imperial cities, and their magiftrates were appointed by thê emperor, for the purpose of exercifing, in his name, the rights of fovereignty, and drawing certain revenues for the imperial treafury. They derived profperity from commerce; which enabled them to pur-chafe the rights of fovereigns from the emperor, to form for themselves republican conftitutions, and to acquire confiderable domains; fometimes by money, fometimes by main force. Occupied, almoft, wholly, in induftry and commerce, they gave themfelves but little concern about the affairs of the empire. The particular wars in which they were fometimes engaged, and to which they were always expofed, rendered it difficult to establish a general peace, without fome participation, on their part, in its formation; and their attachment to the emperor, from whom they derived their political privileges, pointed them out as a natural fupport to the imperial power, againft the encroachments of the other ftates. Their wealth too, prefented the

ampleft

ampleft refource, whenever there was a neceffity of impofing public contributions. They were, therefore, invited to appear in the diets of the empire, by reprefentatives, chofen by themselves, out of their own number. But as their interefts did not always co-ingide with thofe of the princes, prelates, and counts, they withdrew from thefe orders, formed a separate college of their own, and communicated the refult of their deliberations to the other two states, in whofe affemblies they prefented themselves only on the moft folemn occafions.

During a period of confiderable length, it was the policy of the more powerful among the princes, to retain, by all means, the prelates and counts, as a part of their own body, that they might not lean too much towards the fide of the emperor. But it was not long before new and particular interefts occafioned a feparation in this college. The chief among the princes fecular, and ecclefiaftic, by degrees, affumed the privilege of electing the emperor. At first, they met together for concerting whom they fhould propofe, and recommend to the other princes affembled in the diet of the empire, 'who generally gave their voices in favour of the candidate fo propofed, and always, if the chief princes were unanimous in their recommendation. But it was not till the fifteenth century, that the chief princes affumed a formal, abfolute, and exclufive right of election. During this period, the ftates of the empire came to be divided into three colleges, the Electoral College, the College of Princes, and the College of the Free or Imperial Cities. The members of the ecclefiaftical college were criginally feven; three

ecclefiaftic, and four fecular. The former owed their dignity to the antiquity of their epifcopal fees, and, to the office of arch-chancellors, which they performed at the imperial court, and which gave them the management of all fuch public affairs as were tranfacted, by means of letters, or writing. The elector of Mentz, was arch-chancellor for Germany; the elector of Treves, for the Gauls, or kingdom of Lorraine, when it became a part of the empire; and the elector of Cologne, for the kingdom of Lombardy, when that country too, became fubject to the fovereign power of the German empire. Subfequent changes in France, and in Italy, did not deprive the two latter princes of their electoral dignity and privileges. The fecular princes of the electoral college were the fovereign princes of Bohemia, the palatinate of Saxony, and Brandenburg, who, in like manner, owed their electoral dignity to the great officers of ftate, which they held at the imperial court. The elector palatine having accepted the crown of Bohemia, in 1618, was overcome by the emperor Ferdinard H. put to the bar of the empire, ftripped of his hereditary territories, and the electoral dignity conferred by the emperor on his ally, the duke of Bavaria. This dignity was conferred to the dake, by the peace of Weftphalia: but, by the fame treaty, an eighth electorfhip was created, in favour of the prince palatine, who was nominated arch-treaturer of the empire, on the ground, that it was indifpenfably neceflary that every elector fhould hold fome great office of State under the imperial crown. As the two houfes of the palatinate and

Bavaria

Bavaria were both of them branches the ceffion of Alface to the French,

of the fame ftem, and as it was foreseen that, in the courfe of time, the once might probably fall into the other, by hereditary fucceffion, it was ftipulated, that the electorfhip laft created fhould, from that time, be difcontinued. On the re-union of the two branches of the palatine family, in 1777, the number of electors would have been, accordingly, reduced to the primitive number of seven, if at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the electoral dignity had not been conferred, by the emperor, on the ducal houfe of Brunswick Lunenburg, or Hanover. The college of princes is compofed of a hundred voices, or votes: of which fome are parted, or fhared among different perfons, and, in some instances, even whole bodies. For example, the whole of the prelates have but two votes, the whole of the counts only four. Hence a divifion of the voices into viriles and curiales; the former thofe of individuals, the latter those of whole claffes or bodies.

The imperial and free cities, which form the third college of the ftates of the empire, are all of them conftituted on republican plans of government; being mixtures of democracies and aristocracies, or rather ariftocracies more or lefs moderate. The city of Nuremberg alone is wholly ariftocratical. Of the free cities of Germany, there are only four, which, at the prefent day, retain their ancient profperity and confideration. Frankfort-onthe-Maine, and the three Hanfeatic towns of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburgh. Neremberg, Ulm, Augiburg, and others, have fallen from their ancient fplendour. The number of the imperial cities, by

and, in one or two cafes, the encroachments of powerful princes, has been reduced from fixty-two, to about fifty. They are divided into two benches, that of the Rhine, and that of Swabia.

Betides the political divifion of the ftates of the empire into three colleges, it was divided, geographically, into ten circles, or regions, fhaped into a kind of particular counties, by the hand of nature; before Belgium, or the circle of Burgundy, was ceded to France, by the treaty of Campo-Formio, foon to be ratified by another pacification. The members of these circles, meet from time to time, to deliberate on their common interefts. In former times, when the German ftates and princes were actuated, more than at prefent, by public fpirit and a love of their country, affemblies of the circles were frequent, and of great importance. In proportion as particular interefts and views prevailed over thofe of the community, the meetings of the circles have become irregular, ill attended, broken up haftily by pitful difputes about precedency, where the members were numerous, or difcouraged and overborne by fome preponderating power, when few. Every circle has its director, or prefident, charged with the general police and maintenance of the public tranquillity, as well as with the execution, of all imperial decrees within their circles. In the affem blies of the circles, there is no difference between voices viriles, and voices curiales. The vote of the fmalleft count, or prelate, is equi valent to that of the greateft princes, even electors not excepted. And

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