Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4Menzel, Wolfgang
History
Germany from the Earliest Period, Volume 4
Menzel, Wolfgang
Germany -- History
bribed not by gold alone; a considerable number of ladies gained great
notoriety by their liaison with the insolent republican, from whom
they received nothing, the object for which they sued being sold by
him sometimes even two or three times. Momus, a satirical production
of this period, relates numerous instances of crime and folly that are
perfectly incredible. The avarice manifested by the French throughout
the whole of the negotiations was only surpassed by the brutality of
their language and behavior. Roberjot, Bonnier, and Jean de Bry, the
dregs of the French nation, treated the whole of the German empire on
this occasion _en canaille_, and, while picking the pockets of the
Germans, were studiously coarse and brutal; still the trifling
opposition they encountered, and the total want of spirit in the
representatives of the great German empire, whom it must, in fact,
have struck them as ridiculous to see thus humbled at their feet,
forms an ample excuse for their demeanor.
Gustavus Adolphus IV., who mounted the throne of Sweden in 1796,
distinguished himself at that time among the Estates of the empire,
when Duke of Pomerania and Prince of Rugen, by his solemn protest
against the depredations committed by France, and by his summons to
every member of the German empire to take the field against their
common foe. Hesse-Cassel was also remarkable for the warlike demeanor
and decidedly anti-Gallic feeling of her population; and Wurtemberg,
for being the first of the German states that gave the example of
making concessions more in accordance with the spirit of the times. By
the abolition of ancient abuses alone could the princes meet the
threats used on every occasion by the French at Rastadt to
revolutionize the people unless their demands were fully complied
with. In Wurtemberg, the duke, Charles, had been succeeded, A.D. 1793,
by his brother, Louis Eugène, who banished license from his court,
but, a foe to enlightenment, closed the Charles college, placed monks
around his person, was extremely bigoted, and a zealous but impotent
friend to France. He expired, A.D. 1795, and was succeeded by the
third brother, Frederick Eugène, who had been during his youth a canon
at Salzburg, but afterward became a general in the Prussian service,
married a princess of Brandenburg, and educated his children in the
Protestant faith in order to assimilate the religion of the reigning
family with that of the people. His mild government terminated in
1797. Frederick, his talented son and successor, mainly frustrated the
projected establishment of a Swabian republic, which was strongly
supported by the French, by his treatment of the provincial Estates,
the modification of the rights of chase, etc., on which occasion he
took the following oath: "I repeat the solemn vow, ever to hold the
constitution of this country sacred and to make the weal of my
subjects the aim of my life." He nevertheless appears, by the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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