of liberty were every where cut down, and the tri-coloured flags torn in pieces and committed to the flames,

The generals of the French army and the directorial agents, who fled to the army for protection, did not fail to make the fevereft retaliation. A number of villages were given up to fire and word. The infurgents, overpowered in the castle of Duffel, near Malines, around which they had caft a trench, were maffacred, after they had furrendered, without

mercy. A number of executioners followed in the train of the French columns; fcaffolds were erected; and the blood of the unhappy Belgians flowed profufely.

The brave and honeft Belgians, equally obedient to juftice and indignant at injuftice and oppref fion, wearied and worn out, without magazines, artillery, and places of retreat, enclosed between Hol land and France, and left to their fate by Europe, were, in January, 1799, obliged to yield to their mighty conquerors,

CHAP.

Y an article in the treaty of Campo-Formio, it was agreed 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 easily 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 thoufand fquare geographical miles, and to contain a population of twenty eight, or thirty millions of inhabitants. It is bounded on the north, by the river Eider, and the Baltic fea; on the caft, 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 the Danube, the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Weler. In confequence of its extent, and the number, induftry, and wealth of its inhabitants, it would be a very powerful and formidable ftate, and a happy counterpoife and barrier against the ambition of France, if the different territories of which it is compofed, 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, poflefling, for the most part, royal prerogatives, even to the extent of making peace, or war, are influenced only by their own individual interefis. 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 indecision renders it a matter of doubt with fome, whether there be, in reality, any precise and determinate conflitution of Germany at. all, The most probable opinion on, this

fubject

fabject is, that the Germanic conftitution is an extremely limited monarchy. With the exception of the short and stormy period between 1742 and 1745, the imperial dignity has, for many ages, been vested 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 electors. It was neceffary, about the time of the reformation, and fince, that the candidate for the imperial crown should 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 fhould employ its vaft power for the purpose of its own aggrandizement, rather than that of maintaining the rights of the ftates 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 thofe of their co-eflates, 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 kompact

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 itself, the chief of the nation was in poffeffion of full and abfolute fovereignty. Dukes, margraves, counts palatines, and landgraves, were no more than simple 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 pals, 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 obferved, 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 extentive for the public deliberations of all free men in a body, the king aflembled the dukes, margraves, counts palatine, fimple counts, and landgraves to confult together, and with him, ou the affairs of the nation. Thofe

lords

lords were not indeed, ftrictly speaking, the reprefentatives of the people: ftill, however, they might be confidered as fuch: they were always great landed proprietors, who have the cleareft 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 respective 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 magyates of Germany became ftates of the empire.

After Chriftianity made its way into the heart of Germany, a great number of archbiflops, bishops, and abbots appeared on the fame level, and in the fame rank, with the ay chiefs, who, by and by, admitted them into their number in the public convents, not only in confequence of their refpected flations and valuable poffeffions, but because the clergy alone, in thofe days, were verfant in either letters, or the best modes of tranfacting public bufinefs. Thus the ftates of the empire were divided into two orders; the ecclefiattic and the fecular. Among the former, were ranked archbishops, bifhops, and abbots of royal foundations: the abbots of other menafteries 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, fuch proprietors as did not hold them as fiefs of the crown. For a long time there were no other ftates 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 arose 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 the 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 purchafe the rights of fovereigns from the emperor, to form for themfelves republican conftitutions, and to acquire confiderable domains; fometimes by money, fometimes by main force. Occupied, almost wholly, in induftry and commerce, they gave themselves 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 flates, Their wealth too, prefented the

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