¥32 
empire, supported by the protestant 
interest, which stood on a parity 
of strength and importance with 
that of the Roman catholic ; it also 
counted among its friends and well- 
wishers, those powers abroad, with 
which Austria was lable to be at 
variance. But the support of the 
most potent of these powers had 
vanished from its ideas, since the 
matrimonial alliance that took place 
between the houses of Bourbon and 
Austria, in the person of the late 
unhappy queen of France. It had 
revived however on the treaty that 
severed Prussia from the coalition, 
and it was secretly held out, by 
France,as the most efficacious temp- 
tation to a court, the aspiring views 
of which required no less mo- 
tives at this period to secure its 
alliance. 
Could the constitution of Ger- 
many have undergone such a 
change, as to place .the Imperial 
diadem on the head of a protestant 
prince, and could the house of 
Brandenburgh have secured its suc- 
cession to this dignity, it was gene- 
rally imagined that Prussia would 
have interested itself in the defence 
of the empire; but the little expec- 
tation it entertained, of being able 
to compass such a point, rendered 
it, in the general opinion, indifferent 
to the preservation of the Germanic 
constitution. Provided the dis- 
memberment of this great body 
should be accompanied with these 
advantages, which the politics of 
Prussia kept in view, it was the 
public persuasion that no oppusition 
would arise from the court of Ber- 
lin, toan alteration, from which it 
would derive such material benefit. 
The smaller states first, and then 
the greater in lower Germany, 
seemed likely to be swallowed up 
‘ 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
piece-meal in a rising Prussian em- 
pire: if this empire itself should 
not be divided, by that partitioning 
policy, which has supplanted the 
law of nations, among the Russians, 
Swedes, and Austrians. 
A conviction of the rapacious 
views of Prussia had greatly aliena- 
ted the attachment of the Germans 
to that power. . The willingness of 
the French, to permit the encroach- 
ments it had in contemplation, sub- 
jected them no less to a diminution 
of that partiality with which they 
bad hitherto been favoured by the 
people of Germany. These had 
hoped, that the dread of this victo- 
rious nation would have so far ope- 
rated in favour of the common 
classes every where, as to have in- 
duced the divers princes, engaged 
in the coalition, to have abated of 
the rigorous exactions from their 
respective subjects, and procured to 
these a milder treatment than if 
their arms had been successful. But 
when they began to feel the weight 
of the contributions demanded by 
the French in the countries of 
which they had taken possession, 
and found that the authority they 
exercised was no less grievous and 
severe, than that of their former 
rulers, their good wishes to the 
French diminished, and they began 
to mistrust those promises of equity 
and moderation, to those who sub- 
mitted to them, which had induced 
such numbers to give them a friend= 
ly reception, and to welcome them 
as their deliverers from oppres- 
sion. 
The mass of the people in the 
numerous distriéts, where con- 
tributions were required by the 
French, had expected that no more 
would have been exacted from these 
than their just proportion; but, 
contrary 
