Si 



and polic}', to difi\ise a love of expense and parade, a 

 taste for luxury, festivity and pleasurable indulgence, among 

 their nobles and courtiers. By this means, they endeavour 

 to increase the influence of the crown, by rendering its 

 favours of more value. While they involve their nobles in 

 debt, to render them dependent; they try to exhilarate 

 their minds, to make them forget their complaints and 

 grievances, and forego their rights and claims. By engag- 

 ing them in frivolous amusements, and attaching them to 

 pleasures, they banish the thoughts of ambition, and all 

 care of rising in the state, except through the favour of 

 the court and the sovereign. The spirit of dissipation, gal- 

 lantry and amusement, diverts the attention of the power- 

 ful subjects, dispels gloomy and malign thoughts, and dis- 

 sipates ambitious projects, which might threaten the re-» 

 pose of government. The court, and seat of power, be- 

 ing rendered agreeable, by the various pleasures they af- 

 ford, and the splendor they exhibit: a race of poweiful 

 and haughty nobles are allured to a distance, from their 

 strong and ancient castles ; where, surrounded by nurne- 

 rous bands of their warlike and faithful retainers and de- 

 pendants, they were used to resist the will, and despise 

 the resentment of their sovereign: they are led to commit 

 their persons into the hands of the monarch, in a state 

 like that of hostages. It is said, that the court of Vienna* 

 practises this pohcy at pjesent, to ensure the dependency 



G 2 of 



* See Townson's Travels in Hungary. 



