With great splendor Leopold entered Presburg, and was crowned King of Hungary on the 10th of November, 1790. Having thus silenced the murmurs in Hungary, and established his authority there, he next turned his attention to the recovery of the Netherlands. The people there, breathing the spirit of French liberty, had, by a simultaneous rising, thrown off the detestable Austrian yoke. Forty-five thousand men were sent to effect their subjugation. On the 20th of November, the army appeared before Brussels. In less than one year all the provinces were again brought under subjection to the Austrian power.

Leopold, thus successful, now turned his attention to France. Maria Antoinette was his sister. He had another sister in the infamous Queen Caroline of Naples. The complaints which came incessantly from Versailles and the Tuilleries filled his ear, touched his affections, and roused his indignation. Twenty-five millions of people had ventured to assert their rights against the intolerable arrogance of the French court. Leopold now gathered his armies to trample those people down, and to replace the scepter of unlimited despotism in the hands of the Bourbons. With sleepless zeal Leopold coöperated with nearly all the monarchs in Europe, in combining a resistless force to crush out from the continent of Europe the spirit of popular liberty. An army of ninety thousand men was raised to coöperate with the French emigrants and all the royalists in France. The king was to escape from Paris, place himself at the head of the emigrants, amounting to more than twenty thousand, rally around his banners all the advocates of the old regime, and then, supported by all the powers of combined Europe, was to march upon Paris, and take a bloody vengeance upon a people who dared to wish to be free. The arrest of Louis XVI. at Varennes deranged this plan. Leopold, alarmed not only by the impending fate of his sister, but lest the principles of popular liberty, extending from France, should undermine his own throne, wrote as follows to the King of England:

"I am persuaded that your majesty is not unacquainted with the unheard of outrage committed by the arrest of the King of France, the queen my sister and the royal family, and that your sentiments accord with mine on an event which, threatening more atrocious consequences, and fixing the seal of illegality on the preceding excesses, concerns the honor and safety of all governments. Resolved to fulfill what I owe to these considerations, and to my duty as chief of the German empire, and sovereign of the Austrian dominions, I propose to your majesty, in the same manner as I have proposed to the Kings of Spain, Prussia and Naples, as well as to the Empress of Russia, to unite with them, in a concert of measures for obtaining the liberty of the king and his family, and setting bounds to the dangerous excesses of the French Revolution."

The British people nobly sympathized with the French in their efforts at emancipation, and the British government dared not then shock the public conscience by assailing the patriots in France. Leopold consequently turned to Frederic William of Prussia, and held a private conference with him at Pilnitz, near Dresden, in Saxony, on the 27th of August, 1791. The Count d'Artois, brother of Louis XVI., and who subsequently ascended the French throne as Charles X., joined them in this conference. In the midst of these agitations and schemes Leopold II. was seized with a malignant dysentery, which was aggravated by a life of shameless debauchery, and died on the 1st of March, 1792, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and after a reign of but two years.

Leopold has the reputation of having been, on the whole, a kind-hearted man, but his court was a harem of unblushing profligacy. His broken-hearted wife was compelled to submit to the degradation of daily intimacy with the mistress of her husband. Upon one only of these mistresses the king lavished two hundred thousand dollars in drafts on the bank of Vienna. The sums thus infamously squandered were wrested from the laboring poor. His son, Francis II., who succeeded him upon the throne, was twenty-two years of age. In most affecting terms the widowed queen entreated her son to avoid those vices of his father which had disgraced the monarchy and embittered her whole life.

The reign of Francis II. was so eventful, and was so intimately blended with the fortunes of the French Revolution, the Consulate and the Empire, that the reader must be referred to works upon those subjects for the continuation of the history. During the wars with Napoleon Austria lost forty-five thousand square miles, and about three and a half millions of inhabitants. But when at length the combined monarchs of Europe triumphed over Napoleon, the monarch of the people's choice, and, in the carnage of Waterloo, swept constitutional liberty from the continent, Austria received again nearly all she had lost.

This powerful empire, as at present constituted, embraces:

Thus the whole Austrian monarchy contains 256,399 square miles, and a population which now probably exceeds forty millions. The standing army of this immense monarchy, in time of peace, consists of 271,400 men, which includes 39,000 horse and 17,790 artillery. In time of war this force can be increased to almost any conceivable amount.

Thus slumbers this vast despotism, in the heart of central Europe, the China of the Christian world. The utmost vigilance is practiced by the government to seclude its subjects, as far as possible, from all intercourse with more free and enlightened nations. The government is in continual dread lest the kingdom should be invaded by those liberal opinions which are circulating in other parts of Europe. The young men are prohibited, by an imperial decree, from leaving Austria to prosecute their studies in foreign universities. "Be careful," said Francis II. to the professors in the university at Labach, "not to teach too much. I do not want learned men in my kingdom; I want good subjects, who will do as I bid them." Some of the wealthy families, anxious to give their children an elevated education, and prohibited from sending them abroad, engaged private tutors from France and England. The government took the alarm, and forbade the employment of any but native teachers. The Bible, the great chart of human liberty, all despots fear and hate. In 1822 a decree was issued by the emperor prohibiting the distribution of the Bible in any part of the Austrian dominions.

The censorship of the press is rigorous in the extreme. No printer in Austria would dare to issue the sheet we now write, and no traveler would be permitted to take this book across the frontier. Twelve public censors are established at Vienna, to whom every book published within the empire, whether original or reprinted, must be referred. No newspaper or magazine is tolerated which does not advocate despotism. Only those items of foreign intelligence are admitted into those papers which the emperor is willing his subjects should know. The freedom of republican America is carefully excluded. The slavery which disgraces our land is ostentatiously exhibited in harrowing descriptions and appalling engravings, as a specimen of the degradation to which republican institutions doom the laboring class.

A few years ago, an English gentleman dined with Prince Metternich, the illustrious prime minister of Austria, in his beautiful castle upon the Rhine. As they stood after dinner at one of the windows of the palace, looking out upon the peasants laboring in the vineyards, Metternich, in the following words, developed his theory of social order:

"Our policy is to extend all possible material happiness to the whole population; to administer the laws patriarchaly; to prevent their tranquility from being disturbed. Is it not delightful to see those people looking so contented, so much in the possession of what makes them comfortable, so well fed, so well clad, so quiet, and so religiously observant of order? If they are injured in persons or property, they have immediate and unexpensive redress before our tribunals, and in that respect, neither I, nor any nobleman in the land, has the smallest advantage over a peasant."

But volcanic fires are heaving beneath the foundations of the Austrian empire, and dreadful will be the day when the eruption shall burst forth.

INDEX.

ADOLPHUS (of Nassau) election of over the Germanic empire, 36.
  summoned to answer charges against him, 37.
  deposed by the diet, 37.
  death of, 37.

ADRIAN assumes the tiara, 114.

ÆNEAS SYLVIUS, remarks of, 72.

AGNES (daughter of Cunegunda) to marry Rhodolph's son, 31.
  engaged in the massacre, 40.
  enters a convent, 41.

AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, coronation of Albert I. at, 88.
  coronation of Charles V. at, 107.
  taken possession of by Rhodolph, 193.
  peace of, 461.

ALBERT (fourth Count of Hapsburg), 17.
  departure of for the holy war, 17.
  address of to his sons, 18.
  death of, 18.
  the favorite captain of Frederic II., 19.

ALBERT I. succeeds his father, 35.
  his character, 35.
  elected Emperor of Germany, 37.
  victor at Gelheim, 37.
  assassination of, 40.

ALBERT III. rules with Otho, 46.
  acquisitions of, 47.

ALBERT IV., succession of, 51.
  improvements projected by, 58.

ALBERT V. declared of age, 59.
  accepted King of Hungary, 62.
  death of, 65.

ALBERT (of Bavaria) declines the throne of Hungary, 66.

ALBERT (Archduke) the candidate of the Catholics, 229.

ALLIANCE of barons to crush Rhodolph of Hapsburg, 21.
  same dissolved, 22.

ALPHONSO (of Castile) candidate for crown of Germany, 23.

ALPHONSO (King of Naples), abdication of, 84.

AMURATH, conquests of, 64.

ANABAPTISTS, rise of the sect of, 115.

ANHALT (Prince of), dispatched with a list of grievances to the emperor, 211.
  address to the emperor, 212.
  ban of the empire declared against, 265.

ANN (Princess of Hungary and Bohemia), marriage of to Ferdinand I., 145.

ANNA (of Russia), desire of to secure a harbor for Russia, 400.

ANECDOTES of Rhodolph, 33.
  of Charles V., 144.

APOLOGY of Maximilian, 96.

ASCHHAUSEN, confederacy at, 194.

AUGSBURG, diet of, 24.
  bold speech of the diet at, 102.
  triumphal reception of Maurice at, 133.
  Confession of, 118.

AUGUSTUS II. loses and regains his empire, 382.
  death of, 382.

AULIC COUNCIL, establishment of the, 102.

AUSTRIA, a portion of given as dowry to Hedwige, 25.
  nucleus of the empire of, 27.
  invasion of by John of Bohemia, 49.
  wonderful growth of, 52.
  division of, 72.
  accession of Ladislaus over, 81.
  the house of invested with new dignity, 101.
  becomes a part of Spain, 108.
  the empire of apparently on the eve of dissolution, 286.
  the leading power in Europe, 314.
  dispute as to the succession to the crown of, 352.
  treaty between Spain and, 373.
  Maria Theresa ascends the throne of, 415.
  deplorable state of at that time, 415.
  defeat of by Frederic, 420.
  the proposed division of, 422.
  prosperity of, 444.
  important territory wrested from, 453.
  alliance of with Prussia, 459.
  Joseph II. ascends the throne of, 491.
  situation and character of, 492.
  languages spoken in, 493.
  Leopold ascends the throne of, 500.
  acquisitions of by the battle of Waterloo, 504
  present constitution of, 504.
  doctrines of the government of, 503.
  its future, 506.

AUSTRIANS, triumph of the at Brussels, 340.
  triumph of the at Malplaquet, 341.
  evacuation of Madrid by the, 345.
  prohibited from trading-with Spain, 380.
  the, driven from the Neapolitan States, 388.
  the, defeated at Crotzka, 407.

BADEN, peace of, 359.

BAJAZET, victory achieved by, 64.

BALDER, attack of Rhodolph upon, 22.

BALLOT-BOX, its authority in Poland, 385.

BALNE (Lord), followers of put to death, 40.

BANDITTI, companies of put down by Rhodolph, 32.

BARBARIA, wife of Sigismond, 60.

BARCELONA, capture of by Charles, 354.

BASLE, attack upon the city of, 20.
  demands of the Bishop of upon Rhodolph, 22.
  impious remark of the Bishop of, 23
  aid of the Bishop of to Rhodolph, 29.

BAVARIA (Henry, Duke of), intimidated by Rhodolph, 25.
  marriage of Hedwige to Otho of, 25.
  agrees to carry the edict of Worms into effect, 114.
  his hatred of Wallenstein, 275.
  urged as a candidate for the imperial crown, 279.
  dishonorable despair of, 438.
  death of, 488.

BAVARIA (Charles of), death of, 451.

BAVARIA, Maximilian Joseph ascends the throne of, 451.

BAYARD (Chevalier De), the knight without fear or reproach, 90.

BELGRADE, relief of, 69.
  siege of, 360.
  capture of by Eugene, 363.
  surrendered to the Turks, 408.

BELLEISLE (General), heroic retreat of, 441.

BLENHEIM, massacre at, 334.

BLOODY diet, the, 158.
  theater of Eperies, 325.

BOHEMIA, triumphal march of Rhodolph into, 30.
  the crown of demanded by Albert I., 39.
  revolt in, 89.
  rise of the nobles of against Ferdinand, 127.
  the monarchy of, 154.
  religious conflicts in, 155.
  resistance of to Ferdinand, 156.
  symptoms of the decay of, 160.
  Ferdinand's blow at, 263.
  severity of Ferdinand towards, 270.
  son of Ferdinand crowned king of, 271.
  change of prosperity of during reign of Ferdinand II., 272.
  rise of the Protestants in, 286.
  the Elector of Bavaria crowned king of, 434.
  the Prussians driven from, 450.
  (King of), chosen Emperor of Germany, 431.

BRANDENBURG, reply of the Marquis of to Charles V., 118.

BRITISH MINISTER, letter of the in regard to Maria Theresa, 295.
  letter of the in regard to the affairs in Hungary, 416.

BRUNAU, the Protestant church of, 235.

BRUNSWICK, marriage of Charles VI. to Elizabeth Christina of, 164.

BRUSSELS, diet at, 139.

BUDA taken by the Turks, 147.

BULL (see Pope).

BURGHERS prevented from attending Protestant worship, 188.

BURGUNDY (Duke of), ambition of the, 77.

BURGUNDY (Mary of), marriage of by proxy, 79.
  death of, 79.

CÆSAR BORGIA, plans for, 89.

CALENDAR, the Julian and Gregorian, 192.

CAMPEGIO, a legate from the Pope to, 114.

CAPISTRUN, JOHN, rousing eloquence of, 69.

CARDINAL KLESES, counselor to the king, 241.
  abduction of, 242.

CARINTHIA, dukedom of, 48.

CARLOS crowned as Charles III., 388.

CARLOVITZ, treaty of, 326.

CASSAU captured by Botskoi, 198.

CASTLE (Hawk's), situation of, 17.
  (Oeltingen), the dowry of Gertrude of Hohenburg, 19.

CATHARINE II. ascends the throne of Russia, 480.
  cooperates with Austria. 481.
  desire of to acquire Constantinople, 495.
  grand excursion of, 496.
  places Count Poniatowski on the throne of Poland, 484.

CATHERINE BORA, marriage of to Luther, 114.

CHANCELLOR OF SAXONY, reading of the Confession of Augsburg by, 118.
  reply of to the emperor, 118.

CHARLES OF BOHEMIA, succession of to the kingdom of Austria, 47.
  death of, 47.

CHARLES EMANUEL (King of Sardinia) character of, 386.

CHARLES GUSTAVUS succeeds Christina, Queen of Sweden, 302.
  his invasion of Poland, 303.
  energy of, 305.

CHARLES (Prince), defeat of by Frederic, 254.

CHARLES (Prince of Lorraine) marriage of, 447.

CHARLES II., the throne of Spain held by, 328.
  sends embassage to the pope, 329.
  induced to bequeath the crown to France, 330.
  death of, 331.

CHARLES III. crowned King of Spain, 332.
  army of routed, 340.
  arrival of at Barcelona, 342.
  desperate condition of, 344.
  flight of, 346.
  description of his appearance, 353.
  dilatoriness of, 355.
  crowned king, 356.
  Carlos crowned as, 388.
  (See also Charles VI.)

CHARLES V. (of Spain) inherits the Austrian States, 106.
  petitions to, 106.
  required to sign a constitution, 108.
  ambition of, 109.
  apologetic declaration of, 112.
  refusal of to violate his safe conduct, 112.
  attempts of to bribe Luther, 113.
  determination of to suppress religious agitation, 115.
  interview of with the pope at Bologna, 117.
  call of for the diet at Augsburg, 117.
  intolerance of, 119.
  appeal of to the Protestants for aid, 122.
  in violation of his pledge, turns against the Protestants, 122.
  secret treaty of with the King of France, 123.
  treaty of with the Turks, 123.
  forces secured by against the Protestants, 124.
  alarm of at the preparations of the Protestants, 125.
  preparations of to enforce the Council of Trent, 125.
  march of to Ingolstadt, 126.
  flight of to Landshut, 126.
  triumph of over the Protestants, 126.
  conquers the Elector of Saxony, 128.
  revenge of towards the Elector of Saxony, 128.
  march to Wittemberg, 128.
  visit to the grave of Luther, 129.
  attempts of to settle the religious differences, 129.
  attempt of to establish the inquisition in Burgundy, 129.
  power of over the pope, 130.
  calls a diet at Augsburg. 130.
  failure of to accomplish the election of Philip, 131.
  confounded at the success of the Protestants. 133.
  flight of from Maurice, 133.
  unconquerable will of, 135.
  urged to yield, 136.
  fortune deserting, 137.
  extraordinary despondency of, 138.
  abdication of in favor of Philip, his son, 139.
  enters the convent of St. Justus, 141.
  convent life of, 141.
  death of, 143.
  anecdotes of, 144.
  attempt of to abdicate the elective crown of Germany to Ferdinand, 160.

CHARLES VI. (see also Charles III. for previous information),
  limitations imposed on the power of, 356.
  desertion of by his allies, 357.
  addition of Wallachia and Servia to the dominion of, 364.
  marriage of, 364.
  his alteration of the compact established by Leopold, 364.
  power of, 365.
  involved in duplicity, 377.
  insult to, 380.
  ambition of to secure the throne of Spain for his daughters, 382.
  the loss of Lombardy felt by, 387.
  attempt of to force assistance from France, 390.
  his first acknowledgment of the people, in his letter to Count Kinsky, 391.
  interference of in Poland, 393.
  sends Strickland to London to overthrow the cabinet, 391.
  troubles of in Italy, 394.
  distraction of, 396.
  proposal of for a settlement with France, 397.
  humbled by loss of empire. 398.
  a scrupulous Romanist, 400.
  removal of all the Protestants from the army, 404.
  fears of for the safety of Maria Theresa, 406.
  anguish of at the surrender of Belgrade, 411.
  letter of to the Queen of Russia, 412.
  death of, 414.

CHARLES VII., death of, 451.

CHARLES VIII. informed of the league against him, 88.
  death of, 89.

CHARLES XII. joins the Austrian party, 335.
  death of, 368.
  conquests of, 382.

CHAZLEAU, battle of, 435.

CHRISTIANA, the succession of Sweden conferred upon, 280.
  abdicates in favor of Charles Gustavus, 302.

CHRISTIAN IV. (of Denmark), leader of the Protestants, declares war, 267.
  conquered by Ferdinand, 268.

CHURCH, exactions of the, 102.

CILLI, influence of Count over Ladislaus, 68.
  driven from the empire, 68.

CLEMENT VII. succeeds Adrian as pope, 116.

CLEVES, duchy of put in sequestration, 213.

COLOGNE, the Archbishop of joins the Protestants, 124.
  deposition of the Archbishop of, 126.

CONDUCT, Luther presented with a safe, 110.

CONFESSION OF AUGSBURG, 118.
  reading of, 119.

CONGRESS at Rothenburg, 226.
  at Hanau, 445.
  at Prague, 1618, and letter of to Matthias, 236.
  of electors at Frankfort, 35.

CONSPIRACY against Albert, 36.
  formed by Albert against Adolphus, 37.

CONSTANTINOPLE, capture of by the Turks, 64.

CONSTITUTION, Charles V. required to sign a, 108.

COUNCIL of Trent, 124.
  of Trent in 1562, 164.
  of State convened in Spain, 331.

CREMNITZ, resistance of, 148.

CREMONIA to be disposed of as plunder, 89.

CROATIA invaded by the Turks, 195.

CROTZKA. battle of, 407.

CRUSADE against the Turks, 64.

CUNEGUNDA (wife of Ottocar), her taunts, 27.
  offer of to place Bohemia under the protection of Rhodolph, 31.

DANUBE, position of Austria on the, 25.

DAUN (Count), honors of at his victory, 473.

DENMARK, the King of obliged to yield to Charles Gustavus, 306.

DIEPOLD thrown from the palace by the mob, 328.

DIET, command of the of Augsburg to Ottocar, 14.
  at Augsburg, 118.
  at Augsburg, 130.
  at Brussels. 139.
  at Lubec, 269.
  at Prague, in 1547, 158.
  at Prague, 179.
  the Protestant at Prague, 209.
  decrees of the, 210.
  at Passau, 137.
  its agreement as to the rights of the Protestants, 138.
  at Pilgram, 66.
  at Presburg, accusation of Leopold by the, 309.
  at Ratisbon, 179.
  at Spires, 116.
  at Stetzim, 349.
  demands of, 350.
  at Worms, 86.
  refusal of the at Worms to cooperate with Maximilian, 96.
  at Znaim, 61.
  power of the Hungarian, 308.

DOCTRINE of the three parties, 190.
  ancient and modern, contention about shadowy points of, 255.

DRESDEN, treaty of, 458.

ERNEST, death of, 202.

ELEONORA (wife of Leopold), her character, 335.
  marriage of, 336.
  her death, 337.

ELFSNABEN, a fleet assembled at by Gustavus Adolphus, 281,

ELIZABETH (wife of Philip V.), ambition of, 371.
  demands of on Charles VI., 372.

ELIZABETH (of Russia), death of, 479.

EMERIO TEKELI invested with the Hungarian forces, 319.

ENGLAND, assistance of against the Turks, 94.
  supports the house of Austria against France, 332.
  curious contradictory conduct of, 346.
  pledge of to support the Pragmatic Sanction, 380.
  supports Austria to check France, 428.
  determines to support Maria Theresa, 436.
  prodigality of, 447.
  war declared against by France, 448.
  purchases the aid of Poland, 452.
  private arrangement of with Prussia, 457.
  remonstrated with for its treatment of the queen, 463.
  alliance of with Prussia, 466.
  a subsidy voted Prussia by, 475.
  alarmed at the strides of Austria and Russia, 499.

EPERIES, tribunal at, 324.

ERNEST, conquests of, 59.

EUGENE (Prince) commands the Austrian army, 332.
  his heroic capture of Belgrade, 363.
  his disapproval of the war, 389.
  death of, 398.
  funeral honors of. 399.

EUROPE, condition of the different powers of, 269.

EXCOMMUNICATION of the Venetians, 97.

FAMILY of Rhodolph, 25.
  the three daughters of the imperial, 364.

FERDINAND (of Austria) invested with the government of the Austrian States, 113.
  determines to arrest Protestantism, 114.
  assumes some impartiality, 116.
  chosen King of the Romans, 120.
  Bohemia and Hungary added to his kingdom, 146.
  demands the restitution of Belgrade, 146.
  his siege of Buda, 153.
  tribute of to the Turks, 153.
  his attempts to weaken the power of the Hungarian nobles, 155.
  conditions of his pardon of the Hungarian nobles, 157.
  his punishment of the revolters, 158.
  his establishment of the Jesuits in Bohemia, 158.
  his inconsistencies, 158.
  obtains the crown of Germany, 161.
  opposed by the pope, 162.
  elected Emperor of Germany, 233.
  character of, 234.
  rich spoils of, 273.
  he assembles a diet at Eatisbon, 275.
  perplexity of in regard to the demands of the diet, 277.

FERDINAND (King of Arragon) furnishes supplies for the war against the Venetians, 95.

FERDINAND (of Naples), flight of to Ischia, 85.

FERDINAND (King of the Romans)
  crowned at Ratisbon, 302.
  his death, 302.

FERDINAND I.
  illustrious birth of, 145.
  marriage of, 145.
  efforts of to unite Protestants and Catholics, 164.
  attempts of to prevent the spread of Protestantism, 167.
  the founder of the Austrian empire, 168.
  death of, 168.

FERDINAND II.
  manifesto of, 240.
  abduction of Cardinal Kleses by, 242.
  troops of defeated by the Protestants, 243.
  refers the complaints of the Protestants to arbitration, 343.
  unpopularity of with the Catholics, 247.
  unexpected rescue of, 249.
  elected King of Germany, 250.
  concludes an alliance with Maximilian, 254.
  secures the coöperation of the Elector of Saxony and Louis XIII., 256.
  subdues Austria, 257.
  barbarity of the troops of, 258.
  vengeance of, 263.
  meeting at Ratisbon to approve the acts of, 265.
  victories of, 268.
  capture of the duchies of Mecklenburg, 268.
  seizes Pomerania, 268.
  revokes all concessions to the Protestants, 270.
  son of crowned King of Bohemia, 271.
  manifesto of against Gustavus Adolphus, 283.
  decorous appreciation of to the memory of Gustavus Adolphus, 296.
  outwitted by a Capuchin friar, 279.
  succeeds in securing the election of his son Ferdinand, 299.
  his death, 299.

FERDINAND III.
  ascends the throne, 245.
  his proposal for a truce with Prague, 246.
  desire of for peace, 300.
  succeeds in securing the election of his son as Ferdinand King of the Romans, 302.
  death of, 303.

FLEURY (Cardinal), ascendancy of over Louis XV., 378.

FLORENCE threatened by Louis XII., 90.

FRANCE
  influence of in wresting sacrifices from the emperor, 279.
  the dominant power, 315.
  fraud by which obtained possession of Spain, 331.
  condition of under Louis XIV., 357.
  refusal of to engage in the Polish war, 390.
  design of to deprive Maria Theresa of her kingdom, 428.
  declares war against England, 448.
  alliance of effected with Austria. 467.