THIRD ESTATETHIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



601 



having occurred in 1720, the Chinese seized the 

 opportunity to obtain an ascendency in the country. 

 In 1793, it was invaded by the Nepaulese, who 

 were, however, repulsed by the Chinese ; and the 

 power of the latter has, since that time, been on 

 the increase. A Chinese functionary is always 

 stationed at the residence of the dalai-lama, who 

 transmits information to, and receives instructions 

 from Pekin. Whether the statement, that there 

 is another lama, called the Bogdo lama, who reigns 

 in Bootan, be correct or not, our imperfect know- 

 ledge of the country does not enable us to decide. 

 A Chinese description of Thibet has been trans- 

 lated into Russian, by the Russian archimandrite 

 Hyacinth, and a German version of the Russian 

 translation has been published at St Petersburg 

 (1828). 



THIRD ESTATE. See Tiers Etat. 

 THIRST; the sensation which attends the 

 desire to drink. During the operations of the 

 animal functions, a great quantity of moisture is 

 consumed, the loss of which must be supplied. 

 Thirst, and the feeling of languor by which it is 

 accompanied, are the voice of nature, calling upon 

 the animal to supply the place of the lost moisture 

 by drinking. The sensation of thirst is not always 

 equally strong ; but it depends partly upon the food 

 and the prevailing temperature. In summer, when 

 the process of perspiration is active, and the con- 

 sumption of moisture consequently great, all animals 

 drink more than in winter. Cold-blooded and 

 inactive animals bear thirst much longer than 

 warm-blooded and lively animals. Madness, and 

 the consequent lassitude and exhaustion, are pro- 

 duced by long and excessive thirst no less than by 

 hunger. Plants also suffer from thirst, and wither 

 under its influence. An outward application of 

 moisture is found to diminish thirst ; and sailors 

 have preserved their lives by bathing in the sea. 

 The vicious habit of frequently drinking, and the 

 desire of tasting some liquids, such as brandy, wine, 

 &c., cause the development of a morbid feeling, 

 which is mistaken for thirst, to which it has a great 

 analogy. 



THIRTY TYRANTS. See Attica, and Pelo- 

 por.nesian War. 



THIRTY YEARS' WAR (from 1618 to 1648). 

 The remote causes of this war are to be found in 

 the reformation of the sixteenth century, and in 

 the "religious peace" of Augsburg, 1555. The 

 Catholics and Protestants in Germany had long 

 viewed each other with equal jealousy: nothing 

 but mutual fear had prevented them from breaking 

 out into open hostilities. By the union of the Pro- 

 testant princes, formed in 1608, in opposition to 

 which the Catholics established their league in 

 1609, the fire already kindled, and smouldering 

 beneath the ashes, received fresh strength, till it 

 at last burst into a flame in Bohemia. Here the 

 Protestant doctrines, which had gradually spread 

 even through the hereditary states of Austria, had 

 obtained greater freedom and privileges by the 

 Majestdtsbrief, an edict extorted from Rodolph II., 

 in 1609. By virtue of this edict, the towns and 

 the nobles had the right of building churches and 

 schools. In the little town of Klostergrab, there- 

 fore, and in Braunau, the Protestant vassals, con- 

 trary to the wishes of their feudal lords, built 

 churches in the reign of Matthias, at whose com- 

 mand the church in Klostergrab was demolished, 

 and that in Braunau was shut up. The Protestants 

 remonstrated with the emperor, but were answered 



with threats. A report was spread that this answer 

 was composed in Prague, and that the emperor knew 

 nothing of it. May 23, when the imperial council 

 were assembed at the castle in Prague, deputies from 

 the Protestant estates crowded into the hall, armed, 

 and demanded whether any of the counsellors had 

 a part in the composition of the imperial ordinance. 

 Two of the counsellors, already odious to the Pro- 

 testants (Von Martinitz and Slawata, with the se- 

 cretary Fabricius), giving sharp answers to the de- 

 puties, were thrown into the dry moat of the castle, 

 but escaped nearly unhurt. The Protestants then 

 took possession of the castle, drove away the Je- 

 suits, who were accused, by the Bohemians, as the 

 authors of the oppressions complained of, and took 

 up arms under the ambitious count of Thurn. The 

 Union sent an auxiliary corps into Bohemia, under 

 the command of the brave Ernest, count of Mans- 

 feld. The emperor gave orders for his army to in- 

 vade Bohemia. In the midst of these troubles 

 Matthias died (March 10, 1619). He was succeeded 

 by Ferdinand II., who was chosen emperor, August 

 28, 1619. The Bohemians, knowing his hostility 

 to Protestantism, had already (August 17) declared 

 his title to the Bohemian crown void, and conferred 

 it upon the palatine, Frederic V., who, after some 

 hesitation, finally accepted it, chiefly through the 

 urgent persuasion of his ambitious wife, the daugh- 

 ter of James I., of England. But the very next 

 year, the great victory of the troops of the League, 

 on the Weissenburg, near Prague (November 3, 

 1620), which was followed by the flight of the new 

 king, put an end to the Bohemian rebellion, and 

 crushed the Protestant cause in that quarter. Fer- 

 dinand now declared Frederic V. under the ban of 

 the empire ; and the ruin of that prince became in- 

 evitable, when, in consequence of the treaty of Ulm 

 (July 3, 1620), the Union was dissolved. The 

 Palatinate was conquered by the Spanish and Bav- 

 arian troops, although count Ernest of Mansfeld, 

 and duke Christian of Brunswick, hastened to its 

 assistance with their troops, who supported them- 

 selves by plunder. But the bestowing of the 

 dignity of elector palatine on Maximilian of Bav 

 aria (1623), a partisan of the emperor, by which 

 the Catholics gained the ascendency in the electora 

 college, and the advance of the Bavarian general 

 Tilly to the frontiers of the circle of Lower Saxony 

 (where he still kept his army, though, in 1624, 

 there was no enemy in the field, deprived the Pro- 

 testants of their churches, drove away the Luther- 

 ans, and committed other acts of violence), at last 

 awakened the Protestant princes of this circle from 

 their slumber. They entered into a confederacy 

 with the king of Denmark, and Christian IV., duke 

 of Holstein. On the other hand, the imperial forces 

 were considerably augmented by the army of Wal- 

 lenstein, afterwards duke of Friedland, raised at 

 his own cost, which marked its course with the 

 most frightful devastation. The king of Denmark 

 was entirely defeated by Tilly, at Lutter, on the 

 Barenberg, in 1626, and, at the disgraceful peace of 

 Liibeck, 1629, compelled to promise that he would 

 never again interfere in the affairs of the German 

 empire. The emperor was now more powerful than 

 ever, and the Protestant cause was in extreme jeo- 

 pardy. A proof of this was the edict of restitution 

 of 1629, by which the Protestants were to give up 

 all the church estates, which they had confiscated 

 since the religious peace of 1555. At this crisis 

 appeared Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, to 

 whom Stralsund had applied for protection, in 1628, 



