G E R 



IB'Jt after five years of dlfaftrous warfare, he died deprived 

 nearly of all.liis ftates. Maria Therefa had fufficient in- 

 flaer.ce to place her huiliand on the throne of the empire in 

 I 7^^. Francis I. was acknowledged as emperor of Ger- 

 many by the king of PrulFia at the peace of Drefden, 

 Ijgncd on the 2jtii of December 17+5, and by tlie French, 

 at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 174S. 



The interval of peace which Germany enjoyed was not 

 of long duration. Frederick th* Great of Prudia having 

 difcovered the plots which were formed againft him by the 

 emperor, the eletlior of Saxony, Ruflia and France, and 

 being fublidizi^d by England, occupied Saxony, and refilled 

 the attacl^s of his numerous enemies with alternate fuccefs, 

 for the fpace of feven years. Peace was at length figned 

 once more at Hubertfourgh on the 15th of February 1763. 

 Francis I. died two years after. His fon Jofeph II. who 

 had been declared king of the Romans in 1764, was pro- 

 claimed emperor after his death. His attempt to pofTefs 

 himfelf of part of the dominions of Charles Theodore, the 

 laft eleftor of Bavaria, who died in Decembt?r 1 777, dif- 

 turbed the peace of Germany for a fhort time. No battle 

 of any confequence was fought between the Auftrian and 

 Pruffian armies ; but the fevere winter campaign of the latter 

 cad of 1778, and the beginning of 1779, ha\'iag thinned the 

 ranks of both, the treaty of Tefchen was concluded on the 

 13th of April 1779, and the peace of Wcilphalia appealed to, 

 and confirmed for the laft time. Maria Tlierefa left her he- 

 reditary dominions to her fon Jofeph II. at her death, which 

 happened in 1780. Frederick tlie Great of Pruffia, who 

 was the laft pillar of the Germanic con!;itutiun, died in 1786. 

 Ambitious of imitating the example of his illuftrious oppo- 

 nent, Jofeph II. introduced many falutary reforms in the 

 adminiftration of his dominions, proclaimed an unbounded 

 religious toleration, fupprefied a number of Ui"elefs convents, 

 aboliftied the ufe of the rack in criminal iiiquilltioiis, and 

 extinguifhed the remains of fervitude and villainage which 

 opproffed the peafants of his dominions. But his well-in- 

 tended innovations were too fudden. Difconttnts broke 

 out in the Netherlands, which he vainly attempted to ftifle 

 by force inftead of adopting conciliatory meafures. The 

 rebellion of his Flemifti fubjecls broke his heart. He died 

 childlefs, though he had been married twice ; and his brother 

 Leopold, grand duke of Tufcany, fucceeded him on the 

 impei'ial throne in 1 790. His unfortunate engagement with 

 the king of Pruffia and the eledlor of Saxony, to oppofe 

 the Frerxh revolution with all their might, and to affift the 

 eraio-rants in their attempts to re-enter France by force, 

 haftened the violent meafures of the war party in France, 

 which ultimately led to the extinction of the German empire. 

 He died on the ift of March 1792. His fon Francis II. 

 was raifed to the imperial throne in the middle of July fol- 

 lowirg. He embarked in the confederacy formed againlt 

 France, loft the Auftrian Netherlands, the Brifgau, and all 

 his poiTeflions in Italy, cind was at length obliged to abdicate 

 tlie imperial throne of Gcrmrjiy, and to be contented with 

 the title of emperor of Auiaia. See CoNFEDESATiON of 

 the Rhine. 



The peace of Weftphalia, which had been regarded as 

 the bafis of the political fyilem of Europe, had, in f'aft, fown 

 the fe>ds of the diflbiut!^;! of the German empire, by con- 

 ferring on each prince ar*l ftate of the Gerir.an confederacy 

 the privilege of contrafting alliailces in their own names. 

 Their iriterefts were continually claihing with each other. 

 The irrcfiftible force of revolutionary France has only acce- 

 lerated a dilorganization, which v.ould infaliibiy have taken 

 place, through the rivaiibip of "he .-'\uftrian and PruiTian 

 monarchs, fupported, one by the Catholic, and the other by 



G E R 



the Proteftant ftates. Compofed of fuch difcordant ttiatc, 

 rials, it is rather a matter of furprife that its exiftence as a 

 ftate (hould have been protracted to the length of one thou- 

 fand years. 



The Gennar.s never formed a nation united by the ties of 

 fimilar habits, laws and religion. Thefe differed in almoft 

 every petty principality, and the tie of language, from it« 

 many idioms and different pronunciation, was fo weak, that 

 the national hatred of the inhabitants of the PruflTian domi- 

 nions againft thrffe of the Auflrian ftates was as great as that 

 which prevails between the Englifli and the French. The 

 difference between the Proteftant and CathoHc countries wa» 

 alfo fo confiderable, that \\ hilft farmers in the former en- 

 Uvened their leifure by ftudy, the clergymen in the latter 

 were even ignorant of the (irll four rules of arithmetic. 

 Pahtzfch, a Saxon farmer, who was a fellow of the Royal 

 Society of London, died in 1788, and lix months before his 

 death a clergyman was wanted, in the gazette of Cologne, 

 capable of leaching the rudiments of common arithmetic. 

 The only feature which may be marked as a national one in 

 the Germans of all perfuaiions and places, is the induftry 

 and perfeverance of the middle and lower ranks, and the 

 pride and haughtinefs of the nobihty. As loldicrs, the 

 Germans, when ably commanded, have always fticwn them- 

 felves endowed with fteady courage and perfevering flrength. 

 But the name of German is extindl. Henceforth the tra- 

 veller muft inquire into the peculiar character and dir;)orition 

 of the Auftrian, Pruffian, Saxon, Bavarian, Weftphalian, 

 and tlie inhabitant of Wirtcmbcrg, Baden, Berg, Heffe 

 Darmftadt, NalTau, and the other Imaller ftates of the con- 

 federacy of the Rhine. I. G. Mcufel's Statiftics. Ro- 

 bertfon's Introduction to the Hiftor)- of tlie emperor 

 Charles V. Bufching's Geography. Anc. and Mod. Univi 

 Hift. Gibbon's Decline, &c. of the Roman Empire. 



Germany, Upper and Loiuer, in Ancient Geography, divi- 

 fions of Caul ; which fee. 



Germany, in Geography, a town of America, in Adams' 

 countv, Pennivlvania, containing loi^ inhabitants. 



GERMEN, or Gekm. See Ejibrvo. 



Gerhen, in Botany and Vegetahk Phyftokgy, the rudi- 

 ments of the fruit, confHtutingone of the two ellential parts 

 of the pirtil of a flower, the ftigma being the other ; the ft vie, 

 which ufually elevates the latter, not being indifpenfable, 

 nor always prefent. The Latin word gernun properly 

 means a bud, or fprout (fee Gemma) ; whioh latter, in 

 fcientific language, is now univerlally ufed in its ftead. 

 Linnceus therefore apphed germtn technically, and very 

 happily, to the feed-bud, or origin of the future ofi'spinng, 

 which had as yet no appropriate name. In this he is gene- 

 rally followed, even by the only perfon who conld tfF.itii.ally 

 have contended with him infuch apoiut, thecelehratcdjullieu. 

 Nevertliclefs, G;ertner, alTuniing feme well-founded autho- 

 rity on account of his valuable labours refpetting fruits and 

 feeds, prefers the word bvarium, bonowed from aiiatomilts, 

 for it is not claffical Latin. The only reafon for this inno- 

 vation is, as he is pleafed to exprefs it, that Linnzus "fatit 

 improprio" caib tliis part gcrmen. . The authority of Girtner 

 has unfortunately milled one excellent writer of late to adopt 

 the term ovariuw, to which we objeil, not fo mucli for its 

 want of claffical authority, as it might well be defended on 

 the ground of analogy, but bccaule it is not appiopriate, 

 and is not ufed by Gartner in the original anatomical fenfe, 

 but in a new and arbitrary one. A'egetablcs have no fuch 

 organ as the ovarium of animals. Malpighi, much more 

 correiftly, calls the gernun the uterus ; but this is improper 

 for plants with naked feeds ; whereas germen is apphcable 

 in all cafes to the rudiment of the fruit, whaVever its nature 



may 



