[9] "The sum, after long debates, was fixed by the Emperor at ten million guilders."--COXE'S _House of Austria_, vol. ii., p. 583. [10] "Joseph the Second borrowed the language of philosophy, when he wished to suppress the monks of Belgium, and to seize their revenues: but there was seen on him a mask only of philosophy, covering the hideous countenance of a greedy despot: and the people ran to arms. Nothing better than another kind of despotism has been seen in the revolutionary powers."--BRISSOT, _Letter to his Constituents_, 1794. [11] "In 1780, there were 2024 convents in the Austrian dominions: These were diminished to 700, and 36,000 monks and nuns to 2700. Joseph might have applied to his own reforms the remark he afterwards made to General D'Alten, on the reforms of the French:--'The new constitution of France has not been very polite to the high clergy and nobility; and I still doubt much if all these fine things can be carried into execution!'"--COXE, vol. ii., p. 578. [12] "The Pope reached Vienna in February, 1782. He was received with every mark of exterior homage and veneration; but his exhortations and remonstrances were treated with coldness and reserve, and he was so narrowly watched, that the back-door of his apartments was blocked up to prevent him from receiving private visitors. Chagrined with the inflexibility of the Emperor, and mortified by an unmeaning ceremonial, and an affected display of veneration for the Holy See, while it was robbed of its richest possessions, and its most valuable privileges, Pius quitted Vienna at the expiration of a month, equally disgusted and humiliated, after having exhibited himself as a disappointed suppliant at the foot of that throne which had been so often shaken by the thunder of the Vatican."--_Ibid._, p. 632. [13] The charter by which the privileges of the Flemings were settled, had been promulgated on the _entry_ of Philip the Good into Brussels. Hence this name.--See COXE. [14] "Joseph expired at Vienna, in February, 1790, at the age of forty-nine, extenuated by diseases, caused or accelerated in their progress by his own irritability of temper, agitation of mind, and the embarrassment of his affairs."--WRAXALL, vol. i., p. 277. [15] See _Macbeth_, act iv., sc. i. [16] The old French proverb bore,-- "Le roi d'Angleterre, Est le roi d'Enfer."--S. [17] See the Memoirs of the Marchioness De La Rochejaquelein, p. 48. [18] Ségur's Memoirs, vol. i., p. 76. [19] For a curious picture of the life of the French nobles of fifty years since, see the first volume of Madame Genlis's Memoirs. Had there been any more solid pursuits in society than the gay trifles she so pleasantly describes, they could not have escaped so intelligent an observer.--S.