the "diabolica capitula" of his predecessor Louis;* for Joseph suppressed not less than three hundred religious houses; abolished, with the exception of some five or six, the diocesan seminaries; permitted that which the church will never allow, divorce between those who are married in accordance with the canons; robbed the monasteries of their libraries;† and filled with dismay and horror, wherever his sacrilegious hand could reach, every pious community in the empire. Terrible, by his desecration of the sanctuary, he was contemptible even in the beggarly minuteness with which he sought to carry it into effect. Schismatic and heretical in his dealings with the Pope and the Church, he reckoned the candles on the altar, and prescribed the number that should be lighted at each particular service! The pupil of a Jansenist, and a disciple of "the philosophers," he was, in fact, a demonstrator to the nascent atheists of the French Revolution, of how much mischief may be done to the Church of God by any impious man who has at his command a large array of temporal power. The example he afforded was imitated; the tyranny which revolutionizes all things to gratify its own passions or prejudices, taught by the emperor, was practised by the convention, and to him beyond all others to him far more than to Voltaire, or Rousseau, or the Encyclopedists, or to Mirabeau, or Danton, or Marat, are we to trace the worst deeds of the first French revolution. His reforms were their precedents, and in carrying them out, in unfixing men's minds, and in unsettling the established order of * See Annal. Berlin, ad an. 814, in Rer. Gall. et Franc. Script. vol. vii. pp. 85, 86, and that paragraph especially, in p. 86, commencing, "Imperator post paucos dies, patratis a comitatu suo multis deprædationibus." + See a most valuable article on the Bollandists, in Duffy's Irish Catholic Magazine, No. xvii. p. 123. ‡ "Niet alleen vernietigde hy de broederschappen, verminderde hy het getal der feest-dagen en der processien; maer zelfs schreef hy wetten voor op het getal der Missen, op de manier van naer den niddag het lof te doen, en op het getal der keersen, welke in den Godsdienst mogten branden." Smet, De Roomsch-Catholyke Religie in Brabant, p. 302. For a full account of the religious persecution and spoliations of Joseph II, in the Netherlands, see same vol. pp. 301, 328. things, he not only helped to bring his sister to the scaffold, but he taught the world that there are times when insurrection becomes a virtue, and when the rebel's doom may also be a crown of martyrdom; as, for instance, when heretical kings persecute the faith, and compel their subjects, as he did the men of the Low Countries, to choose between their allegiance to their sovereign and their God, and to shake from them the former, in order that they may save themselves from the sin of sch schism. † The decapitation of Marie Antoinette, the defeats of Austerlitz, and of Wagram, the degradation of the marriage of Maria Louisa with an arrant political impostor, were some of the immediate temporal punishments upon the family of "the philosopher and the despot," I who had persecuted the Catholic faith, and who had left to kings and nations alike his evil example and his perverse teaching. The lectures of Joseph's favoured professor, Stoëgerlectures that inculcated principles adverse to those of the Catholic church-have produced their fruits in the university of Vienna, where they were first delivered,'§ and we shall soon see some of their results. We have, however, now stated, as we conceive, sufficient to show, before entering upon a narrative of the events at Vienna in March, the necessity and importance of bearing in mind these two facts; first, that no revolution could have taken place if the emperor had not preferred the lives of his subjects to his own privileges; secondly, that previous to that revolution, and disposing them to it, the minds of many persons in Vienna, as well as in other parts of the * "Ce fut la principale faute de Joseph celle qui le fit passer pour tyrannique aux yeux du public, et il faut convenir que c'est violer en quelque sorte le droit des gens, que de vouloir changer les coutumes consacrees par la proscription et par l'usage, à moins qu on ne le fasse d' accord avec la nation." Life of Joseph ii, by his panegyrist Caraccioli, as quoted by Feller, vol. xi. p. 313. Edit. 1836. † Smet, De Roomsch-Catholyke Religie in Brabant, pp. 326, 327. ‡ "Joseph était philosophe dans ses opinions et despote dans sa conducte." Revue Chronologique de l'Histoire de France, p. 72. ad an. 1790. Smet, de Roomsch-Catholyke Religie &c. pp. 311, 312, Austrian dominions, had been infected with irreligious notions, so that, whilst indulging their own passions, they were strongly inclined to persecute those religious orders, who deny themselves every worldly solace in order that they may the better devote themselves to the salvation of their fellow creatures. Guided by the knowledge of these two facts, we shall be the better able to understand both the progress of events at the Revolution, as well as those which subsequently occurred. An assembly of the states of Lower Austria had been summoned to Vienna by the emperor. The day fixed for its meeting, was the 13th of March, and three days previously, the members of "the Trades' Union," or Operatives' Association" at Vienna, had determined upon presenting an address to the states, begging of them to ask the emperor to make the following concession: first, an immediate publication of the income and expenditure of the state; secondly, a general and periodical assembly of all the nations of the empire, as well as of the various classes and interests through representatives, to whom should be entrusted the voting of taxes, with controul over the finances, and a participation in the making of laws, (Theilnahme an der Gesetzgebung); thirdly, a law by which might be determined the liberty as well as punished offences of the press; fourthly, publicity of trials, as well as in affairs of the government; fifthly, a law for the regulation of municipalities, by which the interests of agriculture, industry, trade, and commerce, might be represented. Such were the popular demands, and if these were conceded, it was to be expected that the Viennese would be contented. Such, at least, was the promise made when the Address, with some thousands of signatures, was delivered for presentation on the 11th of March. On the 12th, the students of the university held a meeting, in which a petition, containing the same requests, was agreed to. An effort was made to dissuade these young persons from taking any part in politics. It was made in vain, for not only did they persevere in their intention; but, becoming excited by the opposition offered to them, they declared their determination to go in public procession the next day with their petition. At this time there were in Vienna, or bivouacked around its walls, an army of 18,000 men, the very flower, it might be said, of one of the finest armies in the world, a body of men completely devoted to the emperor and his family. These soldiers had been so collected by order of Prince Metternich, who had seen from the first the agitation that prevailed, and who had thus prepared the means of overawing and suppressing it. How his policy was defeated is easily explained. On the morning of the 13th, the soldiers were in marching order, and prepared, as well as willing, to act in any emergency in which their services might be required. The students, however, carried into effect the determination they had expressed. A body of them, numbering in all four thousand youths, marched from the university to the assembly house, and were accompanied by an immense multitude, so that, in a short time, the court of the assembly house, the street in front, as well as all the streets approaching to it, were filled with a dense mass of persons, especially of the working classes. Whilst a deputation of the students proceeded to present the petition, some of their members began addressing the mob outside; and as their speeches were not interrupted, all the streets adjoining were supplied with extemporary orators, so that there were appeals to the passions of the listeners going on at the same time in various streets and squares; and, at last, bolder propositions were made in words than had been expressed in writing. The spirit of the bravest man may be quelled in solitary confinement; but amid the excitement of a sympathising multitude, a craven may assume the demeanour of a hero, and make demands when he has the voices of thousands to echo his sentiments, which he would repudiate if required to give expression to them when alone. And so it happened on this occasion. Those who had approached the assembly of the states to support by their presence the petitions in the Address we have already mentioned, were now heard in accordance with the suggestions of the mob-orators, demanding with loud and tumultuous cries "the liberty of the press, a constitution," "a responsible ministry," a national guard," "liberty of religious worship, of conscience, of instruction," "publicity of government," "abolition of the secret police," and "the removal of Prince Metternich." It was while this tumultuous scene was passing around the assembly house, that the side doors were, as usual, closed, and instantly a cry was raised, that the students' deputation had been made prisoners. The mob were appealed to to rescue them, and in a moment afterwards, the doors and windows were dashed in. The riot was, however, for an instant, quelled by the appearance of Count ColloredoMansfield, who mentioned that the Popular Address had been received by the states, and by them laid before his majesty, who had promised to take its requests into consideration. This declaration was speedily followed by the appearance of the military, in front of the assembly house. They advanced against the mob, and were driving them back, as a compact mass of disciplined men can always force back a large multitude unacquainted with military manœuvres; they were driving them back without using the least violence, when some of the rabble tore down pieces of wood, and flung them at the staff-officers of the Archduke Albrecht. One of the pieces struck the archduke, and either he himself, or some of the officers around him, (for the fact is not positively known which), indignant at the outrage, gave the word to "fire." The order was obeyed, and five men were shot dead on the instant, and amongst these was the student who had first commenced haranguing the multitude. The mob instantly fled. They attempted to collect together in other parts of the townin the Judenplatz, Farbergasse, Jordangasse, and Parisergasse. In the last-named street they erected a barricade; but there, as well as every other place where they endeavoured to make a stand, they were assailed by the military, and with little trouble, and no loss of life, put to flight. These events occurred between ten in the morning, and five in the afternoon, when a proclamation appeared, stating, that "lamentable riots had that day interfered with the deliberations of the states of Lower Austria, that these states had expounded to his majesty what were the prayers of the multitude, and that his majesty, upon the assurance that the public peace would be no further disturbed, had consented to have the Address presented to the states subjected to the examination of a committee, and upon the result of that examination his decision would be pronounced." At this period the fate of the Austrian empire was decided. The city was then occupied by the soldiery. All the public institutions were under their protection; the gates were held by them, and they could have invested the city, |