a battle near Parma, in which Mercy, the imperialist general, fell. His successor, Königsegg, had the good fortune to surprise the enemy on the Secchia near Quistello, and to capture the whole of his camp together with five hundred and seventy guns. He was, however, unsuccessful in a subsequent engagement at Guastalla, owing to the want of reinforcements and money. Don Carlos of Spain also went [A. D. 1734] to Sicily and took possession of the whole of the kingdom of Naples.

These circumstances were, as if by miracle, not turned to advantage by France, which would probably have been the case had not Louis XV. preferred mistresses and barbers to military achievements. A truce was concluded, and the former stipulations made by the emperor were accepted. Don Carlos retained possession of Naples; Tuscany and Parma fell to Lorraine, which was bestowed upon Stanislaus Lescinsky, [A. D. 1736,] on whose death it was to revert to France. Stanislaus was named the benefactor of Lorraine; he was a kind-hearted and generous man, who smoked his pipe and was the sincere well-wisher of the people amid whom fate had cast him on his expulsion from the throne of Poland. He died in 1766, and Lorraine became henceforward French. The Lothringians had long and gloriously defended themselves under their ancient dukes against the French. They had been shamefully abandoned by the empire, and, without any blame attaching to them, been made the victims of family policy. They deserved a better fate than that of sinking into the insignificance inseparable from a state half French, half German.

The Genoese had remained true to the emperor, by whom they were supported against the Corsicans, who refused to submit to the republic of Genoa, with a German force under Prince Louis of Wurtemberg,* who, more by gentle measures than by violence, restored tranquillity to Corsica, A. D. 1732. On his departure, the contest was renewed by a German adventurer, Theodore von Neuhof, a Westphalian nobleman, who had been educated by the Jesuits at Münster, whence he had fled on account of a duel to Holland, and, after entering the Spanish service, had visited Africa, been taken prisoner, and had become agent to the dey of Algiers, by whom he was de*Brother to Max. Emanuel, who was taken prisoner at Pultowa, the son of Frederick Charles, Eberhard Louis's uncle and guardian.

spatched at the head of a body of troops to the island of Corsica, for the purpose of liberating the inhabitants from the Genoese yoke. He rendered himself extremely popular and became king of Corsica, A. D. 1736. But, whilst travelling in Europe for the purpose of seeking for a recognition of his authority and for aid, the French landed in Corsica and forced the islanders once more to recognise the supremacy of Genoa. Theodore took refuge in England, where he died a prisoner for debt.*

Prince Eugene had, meanwhile, continued to guard the frontiers of the empire. A thorough German,† ever bent upon the promotion of the glory and welfare of Germany, he beheld her downward course with heart-felt sorrow, of which his letters give abundant and often touching proof. He was misunderstood by all except by his soldiery, who, in those wretched times, were by him inspired with an enthusiasm, and who fought with a spirit worthy of a better age. But the fine army, disciplined by him, was shamefully neglected on the death of its commander. Favourites, men of undoubted incapacity, were appointed to the highest military posts, the number of which was immensely multiplied. There were no fewer than nineteen imperial field-marshals and a still greater number of field-lieutenant-marshals, masters of the ordnance, etc., all of whom were in the receipt of large salaries, were utterly devoid of military knowledge, and refused to recognise each other's authority. The war establishment was reckoned from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty thousand men, but forty thousand alone had been levied and those were allowed to starve. The whole of the pay flowed into the pockets of the superior officers. The military court-council and the field-marshals played into each other's hands, and the officers, from the highest to the lowest, emulated each other in dishonesty and fraud. The emperor, notwithstanding these abuses, deemed it possible, with an army of this description, to make great conquests in Turkey capable of repaying his losses

* On the accession of Jerome, Napoleon's brother, to the throne of Westphalia, it was said, "It is but just that a Corsican nobleman should become king of Westphalia, a Westphalian nobleman having been king of Corsica."

The counts of Savoy boasted of their descent from the ancient Saxon line of Wittekind.

in the West. Count Seckendorf, a Protestant, (the prototype of the chattering oracles and busy speculators, who were, at a later period, looked up to as prodigies in Catholic countries, merely on account of their being Protestants,) was placed at the head of the army, which was also accompanied by Francis of Lorraine as voluntary field-marshal. The Turks, ever accustomed to make the attack, were taken by surprise. Seckendorf [A. D. 1737] took the important fortress of Nissa, but his further operations were so clumsily conducted and the army was in such a state of demoralization that all speedily went wrong. Money and provisions became scarce, then failed altogether; the soldiery murmured; the jealous Catholic generals refused obedience to the Protestant generalissimo. General Doxat yielded Nissa without a blow on the approach of the Turks; an offence for which he afterwards lost his head. Seckendorf, accused by his enemies, was recalled and thrown into prison, and the emperor, like Ferdinand II. in Wallenstein's case, denied the commands, imposed by himself on his general, and threw the whole blame upon him alone. Seckendorf remained a prisoner until the emperor's death.

The campaign of 1738 was opened by Koenigsegg, who, unexpectedly penetrating into the country, was successful at Kornia, but was left without reinforcements and speedily recalled. He was replaced by Wallis, who blindly obeyed the senseless orders of the military court-council, and, taking up a most unfavourable position, placed himself in the power of the Turks, who, commanded by French officers, among others by Bonneval, who had been raised to the dignity of pacha, crushed him by their superior numbers at Kruska. He lost twenty thousand men, and retreated in dismay, leaving Belgrade, whither he could have retired in perfect safety, behind him. General Schmettau hurried to Vienna and offered to defend Belgrade, but exhorted to speedy measures. The emperor, however, trusted neither him nor Koenigsegg, in fact, no one who discovered energy or a love of honour. Schmettau was commissioned to bear to General Succow, an officer utterly incompetent to fill the office, his confirmation in the command of Belgrade. Wallis received full power to negotiate terms and instantly offered to yield Belgrade, a step to which necessity alone could have induced the emperor to accede. Immediately after this, the emperor

sent a second ambassador, Neipperg, who, ignorant of the negotiations entered into by Wallis, refused to sacrifice Belgrade, and was, consequently, treated with every mark of indignity by the Turks, who spat in his face, supposing him to be a spy. Bound in chains, in momentary expectation of death, Neipperg also lost his presence of mind, offered to yield Belgrade, and, through the mediation of the French ambassador, the Marquis de Villeneuve, to whom Russia had also given carte blanche on this occasion, concluded the scandalous peace of Belgrade, by which Belgrade, Servia, and Wallachia were once more delivered up to Turkey. Succow, notwithstanding Schmettau's remonstrances, yielded Belgrade, [A. D. 1739,] before the ratification of the treaty at Vienna. Wallis and Neipperg suffered a short imprisonment, but were, on account of their connexion with the aristocracy, at that period omnipotent, shortly restored to favour and reinstated in their offices. Schmettau entered the Prussian service.

The house of Habsburg became extinct in 1749. Charles conduced, even in a greater degree than his father, to stamp the Austrians, more especially the Viennese, with the character by which they are, even at the present day, distinguished. The Austrians were formerly noted for their chivalric spirit and still more so for their constitutional liberty. During the unhappy struggle for liberty of conscience their character became deeply tragical and parallel in dignity to that of any other nation ennobled by misfortune, but, during the reign of Charles VI., it took a thoughtlessly good-humoured, frivolous, almost burlesque tone. The memory of their ancestors' rights had faded away, the horrid butchery was forgotten; the education of the Jesuits had, in the third generation, eradicated every serious thought, had habituated the people to blind obedience, whilst they amused them, like children, with spiritual comedies, to which the great comedy, acted by the court, was a fitting accompaniment. The person of the monarch was, it is true, strictly guarded by Spanish etiquette, but his innumerable crowd of attendants, fattening in idleness and luxury, ere long infected the whole nation with their licence and love of gaiety. The court of Vienna was entirely on a Spanish footing; the palace, the pleasure-grounds, the Prater, an imitation of the Prado at Madrid, the ceremonies, even the dress, notwithstanding the ill accordance be

tween the great Spanish hat and drooping feathers and the short mantle with the allonge peruke lately introduced by the French. The emperor was beheld with distant awe as a being superior to the rest of mankind; he was, even in privacy, surrounded by pomp and circumstance; his name could not be uttered without a genuflection. He was surrounded by a court consisting of no fewer than forty thousand individuals, all of whom aided in the consumption of the public revenue. The six offices filled by the lord chief steward, the lord chief chamberlain, the lord chief marshal, the lord chicf equerry, the lord chief master of the chase, and the lord chief master of the falcons, each of whom superintended an immensely numerous royal household, took precedence. There were, for instance, two hundred and twenty-six chamberlains. Then followed twelve offices of state, the privy council, (the highest government office,) the military council, the imperial council, three councils of finance, (the court of conference, the exchequer, and board of revenues,) a chief court of justice, (into which the provincial government of Lower Austria had been converted,) and five especial governments for Spain, the Netherlands, Hungary, Transylvania, and Bohemia, all of which resided at Vienna. There were, besides these, the embassies, a prodigious number, every count, prelate, baron, and city of the empire having, at that period, an agent at Vienna. The whole of the year was unalterably prearranged, every court fête predetermined. Then came a succession of church festivals, with solemn processions, festivals of the knights of the golden fleece, and those of the ladies of the order of the cross, instituted [A. D. 1688] by Eleonora, the consort of Ferdinand III., etc.; tasteless family fêtes, with fire-works, senseless allegories, and speeches in an unheard-of bombastical style, imitated from the half-oriental one of Spain. The machinery of this world of wonder was managed by the prime minister, Count Sinzendorf, an execrable statesman but-an admirable cook. was fed from the imperial kitchens and cellars. Tokay were daily reckoned for softening the empress's parrots; twelve quarts of the best wine for the empress's night-draught, and twelve buckets of wine for her daily bath.

Half Vienna Two casks of bread for the

The people were reduced to the lowest grade of servility. The Lower Austrian Estates, on the occasion of taking the