454 GERMANY. 



The deaths of those illustrious personages were followed by great 

 consequences. The British ministry of George III were solicitous 

 to put an end to the war, and the new emperor of Russia recalled 

 his armies. His Prussian majesty was, notwithstanding, so very 

 much reduced by his losses, that the empress-queen, probably, would 

 have completed his destruction, had it not been for the prudent reluc- 

 tance of the other German princes to annihilate the house of Bran- 

 denburg. At first the empress-queen rejected all terms proposed to 

 her, and ordered 30.000 men to be added to her armies. The visible 

 unwillingness of her generals to execute her orders, and the suc- 

 cesses obtained by his Prussian majesty, at last prevailed upon her 

 to agree to an armistice, which was soon followed by the treaty of 

 Hubertsberg, February 15, 1763, which again secured to his Prussian 

 majesty the possession of Silesia. 



Upon the death of the emperor, the husband of Maria Theresa, in 

 1765, her son Joseph, who had been crowned king of the Romans in 

 1764, succeeded him in the empire. Soon after his accession, he dis- 

 covered great activity and ambition. He joined in the dismember- 

 ment of Poland, with Russia and Prussia. He paid a visit incognito, 

 and with moderate attendants, to Rome, and the principal courts of 

 Italy ; and had a personal interview with his Prussian majesty, though 

 this did not prevent hostilities from being commenced between Aus- 

 tria and Prussia, on account of the succession to the electorate of 

 Bavaria. The Austrian claims on this occasion were very unjust ; 

 but, in the support of them, while the contest continued, the emperor 

 displayed great military skill. Though vast armies were brought 

 into the field on both sides, no action happened of much importance 

 and an accommodation at length took place. The emperor after- 

 wards demanded of the Dutch the free navigation of the Scheldt, but 

 in this he likewise failed. He endeavoured, however, to promote the 

 happiness of his subjects; granted a most liberal religious toleration, 

 and suppressed most of the religious orders of both sexes, as being 

 utterly useless, and even pernicious to society; and in 1783, by an 

 edict, abolished the remains of servitude and villainage, and fixed 

 also the fees of the lawyers at a moderate amount) granting them a 

 pension in lieu. He also abolished the use of torture in his heredi- 

 tary dominions, and removed many of the grievances under which the 

 peasants and common people laboured. He was a prince who mixed 

 with his subjects with an ease and affability which are very uncom- 

 mon in persons of his rank. He loved the conversation of ingenious 

 men, and appeared solicitous to cultivate knowledge. 



Peter-Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany, succeeded his- brother 

 Joseph II, and engaged the public praise by repeated instances of 

 moderation and solid principles. His former management of his 

 Italian sovereignty, which was prudent and beneficent, showed that ■> 

 he aspired to more just reputation than can be acquired by the mere 

 splendors of royalty. One of the bishops of Hungary having refused 

 his license to a catholic subject to marry a protestant woman, the 

 emperor dismissed him from his see but pardoned him afterwards, 

 upon concession, and desired the bishop to exhort his brethren to 

 comply with the imperial ordonnances, else no favour should be 

 shown. 



The French revolution now attracted the attention of the powers 

 of Europe. A conference was held at Pilnitz, between the emperor, 



