the recent proof they had received of their unpopularity and inability to carry on any great enterprize, they obstinately, rashly, and madly endeavoured to prolong the exist ence of their short-lived government by force of arms. Concealing the purport of the king of Prussia's letter from the public, they assumed an appearance of extraordinary vigour, courage, and confidence. They issued long printed proposals for raising a vast patriotic army; a scheme which, like the former project of a grand expedition against the Austrians, came to nothing.

The new emperor, immediately after his coronation, issued a manifesto respecting the Austrian Netherlands at Frankfort, on the 14th of October 1790, fraught with paternal sentiments of affection, and breathing a spirit of moderation, peace, and conciliation. It was

conceived in a milder and more gracious tone than his former declaration, after his arrival at Vienna. His conduct was the reverse of that of Joseph, who carried matters with a high and heavy hand, when he did not apprehend any resistance; but who, when vigorously opposed, put on the appearance of gentleness, and a regard to humanity and justice. Leopold, raised to the throne of the empire, and supported by the three allied powers, could afford to make concessions to the provinces with a good grace, and without seeming to make them from any other motives than those of princely magnanimity and goodness. He engaged in the most solemn manner, "under the obligation of an oath, to be taken at his inauguration, and under the guarantee of the courts of London

the United Provinces, to govern each of his Belgian provinces according to the constitutions, charters, and privileges which were in force during the reign of the late empress. He invites, calls, and summons all his Belgic subjects to acknowledge his lawful authority, and to take an oath of fidelity and allegiance; declaring that he will bury in profound oblivion all the excesses and disorders committed during these late years by a general amnesty, to be published in favour of all who, before the 21st of November next, shall lay down their arms, and put an end to all instigations and attempts against the peaceable exercise of his authority. He declares that, as soon as the cessation of the present troubles shall have afforded an opportunity for his solemn inauguration, successively and separately in the respective provinces, he will receive with pleasure, examine with attention, and treat with confidence, in concert with the states of each of the provinces, all the demands, general and particular, which, without destroying the constitution, shall have some direct reference to the public prosperity. His imperial majesty proceeds in his manifesto to state certain measures to be pursued for ascertaining the wishes of all the classes of the citizens who shall have in the respective provinces an interest really founded on the public good; and also for securing the freedom of suffrage in all elections: and he conjures and entreats them separately, in the name of that oath which they had sworn to their country, which, he says, is as dear to him as it is to them, not to re

pulsc

pulse the hand which he stretches out to them, and which is the hand of an affectionate father,"

A notification of the same terms of reconciliation and peace, dated at the Hague the 14th of Oct., was sent by the mediating powers to the congress. The emperor's manifesto, so well calculated to make good impressions on the minds of the Flemings in general, produced no effect on the conduct of the congress. In a short printed paper, handed about as their answer, they totally denied his claim of any right to the sovereignty of that country derived from his ancestors; and asserted, that though many of them had enjoyed the sovereignty of the Netherlands, they owed it entirely to the free choice of the people, who had a right to choose for their governors whomsoever they pleased.

The same common hatred of the Austrian government that had united so many different and even discordant parties in unity of design and action, in the first movements towards a revolution, re-united, them in some measure, and for some little time, in the present alarming crisis, after they had been disunited by the usual influence of extraordinary success. The democratical party, now including the army, seemed to lose sight of the encroachments of the double aris-, tocracy, while they contemplated the foreign yoke which they had lately thrown off; but to which they were summoned again to submit. The war on the confines of the territories that remained in the possession of the Austrians, was renewed with great animosity, and much blood spilt to no end: and all this, notwithstanding the amic

able and incessant interposition of the allied powers, who represented the futility and cruelty of efforts so wild and extravagant.

In the present contest between the house of Austria and the Netherlands, two provinces remained in obedience to the former, and acted with great vigour against the latter. These provinces were Luxemburgh and Limbourg. They were a great resource to the Austrians, who without them must have been compelled to evacuate the low countries.

The defection, or rather the non-accession of the province of Limbourg to the confederation of the united Belgic states, was 80 highly resented by the Brabanters, that eight hundred of them, in the pride of new sovereignty, in the month of January, set out for the invasion of that country, in order to punish another people for laying claim to the same freedom of mind and conduct which they exercised themselves. The natives of Brabant are generally said to be of a more mercurial disposition than, those of the other provinces, and in their nature to mingle with the phlegm of the Netherlanders the volatility and arrogance of the French. Nothing less was talked. of, after the Austrians were driven from Brussels, than the conquest of the duchy and strong city and fortress of Luxemburgh. And so, rapid is the growth of blind ambition, that distant hints were thrown out of the propriety of re-uniting the French provinces to their old neighbours and coestates, the new Belgic republic.

The river Meuse was a fortunate barrier between the people of Bra

bant

attempts to raise the supplies they had demanded, began to think it necessary to secure their own safety in time, by accepting the proffers that had been made to them by the emperor, and to be guaranteed by the three allied powers. Many pro positions were made on the part of those who were the most zealous opposers of the Austrian government, and who, could they have been seconded and supported, would have encountered any hazards, in order to prevent its restoration. Those, however, who had been most active in the late transactions, apprehended that the severity which had so long characterised the Austrian councils would not include them in this act of oblivion: the benefit of which might possibly be much restricted in the actual application, when once the authority of the court of Vienna should be again completely

re-established and secured.

In this state of the public mind, the congress assembled on the 5th of November. The principal or ders of the community, on so serious an occasion were admitted. The president made an animated speech to the whole of the assembly on the subject of the imperial manifesto; requesting their formal declaration, whether they would accept or reject it? To this it was replied by one of the heads of the people, who spoke in the name of the rest, that having drawn their swords in defence of their liberty, they would not sheath them till it was obtained; and would not, therefore, pay any regard to the invitations of the emperor, to return under his government." These words being spoken, the manifesto was laid on the table, and the pre

sident of the congress, together with the spokesman of the people, ran their swords into it as a sign of defiance. This daring deed was intended to revive the spirits of the people, and proportionably to discourage an invasion by the Austrians. Another ceremony, of a still more singular nature was practised for the same end. At another, and one of the last meetings of congress, Van Eupen entered the assembly, dressed in his official vestments, and holding a crucifix in his hand. This he placed in a chair of state, and kneeling before it, protested in the most solemn manner that he would never pay allegiance to the emperor or house of Austria. But neither this nor the former ceremony produced the effect for which they were both intended. It was not until the very eve of the day appointed for their submission, that they came to any specific determination. A proposal was then made, that the Archduke Charles, third son of the emperor, should be acknowledged sovereign of the Netherlands: the succession to remain in his family, but not to re. vert to any branch of the house of Austria possessing the sovereignty of any other country. This plan of reconciliation, which was wisely calculated for the independence and prosperity of the Flemings, and did not seem too humiliating to the house of Austria, was probably suggested by a precedent in their own history.

After a long contest between the Seven Provinces and their sove. reign, Philip 2nd of Austria, the sovereignty of the low countries was formally transfered to the arch. dukes Albert and Isabella. Had such an offer been made to the

emperor

emperor while the confederacy was yet in its strength, and the moment he succeeded to his hereditary dominions, perhaps considering the difficulties with which he was then surrounded, he would have then accepted it. But the season for such a compromise was past. The imperial troops were now arrived, and in such force as to preclude all hopes of successful resistance. The new arrangement proposed was, however, carried to the Austrian head-quarters: but it was not only rejected as inadmissible in the present situation of affairs; but intimation was made to the chiefs of the confederates, that if the terms of the imperial manifesto were not complied with in their full extent, the Emperor's Generals would carry their orders into execution. Even in this extremity of fortune, such was the obstinacy and rashness of Congress, and such their repugnancy to the resignation of sovereign power, that they would not probably have relinquished it without a desperate and fatal strug gle, if they could have found any considerable number of their countrymen mad enough to take up arms in their favour.

But General Bender, after a continued series of successes in various skirmishes, and carrying every thing before him on the frontiers, penetrated into Brabant, and advanced towards Brussels. He sent a message to the Congress, assigning a short number of days on which they were to determine on the question, whether they would accede to the conditions proposed by the mediating powers? Assuring them at the same time, and confirming it by an oath, "that if, at the expiration of that term they obliged him to

draw on his boots, he would not take them off again until he had chaced them out of the Netherlands." The time expired. The Congress was silent. The General drew on his boots, and marched rapidly for Brussels. This city surrendered to the Austrians on the 2d of December. Its example was followed by all the other cities of Brabant and Flanders: and the whole of the provinces submitted again to the government of the Austrians.

The members of the Congress and of the war department, and all who had been most active in the revolution, consulted their safety by flight. Some escaped to Holland, some to France, and others to Germany.

The success of the Austrian cause was used with great moderation. General Bender maintained the strictest military discipline among his troops, and protected both the persons and the properties of all men from military violence: and by a convention between the ministers of the Emperor and those of the allied powers executed at the Hague on the 10th of December 1790, the Belgic provinces were not only restored to the rights and privileges which they enjoyed antecedently to the death of the late emperor, but obtained several advantages, tending to render them more secure in the enjoyment of their ancient constitution. Among other articles for securing the liberties of the people, there was one prohibiting in a special manner the levying of armies or taxes, or the establishment of laws without the consent of the states: as also, the employment of the soldiery against the civil subject, unless in support of the laws, and at

the