towards Styria and the Tyrol, so as to threaten the French communications; while the Archduke Charles, by retreating towards Bohemia, drew the bulk of their forces to a distance from their only base of operations. In pursuance of these views, which for a few days prevailed at the Imperial headquarters, directions were sent to the Archduke John to "disregard any orders regarding an armistice which did not bear the sign-manual of the Emperor, and to take his instructions from him alone." In the course of the two following days, however, Prince Lichtenstein arrived from the headquarters of the Archduke Charles, and inspired more moderate views. The court, yielding to necessity, and desirous of gaining time to recruit its armies, await the progress of events in Spain and the effect of the long-expected English armament in the north of Germany, gave a reluctant consent; the armistice was signed by the Emperor on the 18th, and the flames of war were quenched in Germany, till they broke out with awful violence three years afterwards on the banks of the Niemen. The Austrian people were not long in receiving a bitter proof of the reality of their subjugation. On the very day after the armistice was concluded, a decree of Napoleon's imposed a war-contribution of 237,800,000 francs (£9,500,000) on the provinces occupied by the French armies, which were not a half of the monarchy; a burden at least as great, considering the relative wealth and value of money in the two countries, as an imposition of fifty millions sterling would be on Great Britain. 72. The battle of Wagram bears a striking resemblance to two of the most memorable that have occurred in ancient or modern times-those of Canna and Waterloo. In all the three, the one party made a grand effort at the centre of his antagonist, and the final issue of each battle was owing to the success or failure of the measures adopted to defeat this central attack, by a united movement against the wings of the enemy. At Cannæ, as already noticed, it was the pushing for ward of the Roman centre, in column, into the middle of the Carthaginian army, followed by the turning of both their flanks by the Numidian cavalry, which brought about their ruin. At Aspern, the defeat of the French on the second day was owing to a similar hazardous advance of the French centre in close column into the middle of the Austrian line, which skilfully receded and brought the French columns into the centre of a converging fire of a prodigious artillery, [ante, Chap. LVII. § 66]. At Waterloo, the final defeat of the French was owing to the steadiness of the English Guards, which in line arrested the advance of the Imperial Guard in column; while the concentric fire of the British batteries, advanced in the close of the day into a kind of semicircle, and the simultaneous charge of a brigade of cavalry on the one side of the attacking mass, and a line of infantry on the other, completed the final destruction of that formidable body. At Wagram the Archduke had, on a still more extended scale, prepared the means of repelling the anticipated central attack of the French in column, and converting it into the cause of total ruin. The batteries and troops in the centre were so disposed, that their awful fire at length arrested Macdonald's intrepid column; Aspern and Essling were captured on one flank; the Archduke John, with thirty thousand fresh troops, was destined to turn the other. To all appearance, the greatest defeat recorded in history awaited the French Emperor; when the tardiness of that prince, and perhaps the want of determined resolution on the part of the Archduke Charles, proved as fatal to the house of Hapsburg as the orders to Grouchy to march on Wavres, instead of the field of battle with Wellington, was to Napoleon himself at Waterloo, and victory was snatched from the grasp of the Austrian eagles when they seemed on the very point of seizing it. 73. The campaign of Aspern and Wagram is the most glorious in the Austrian annals; one of the most memorable examples of patriotic resistance recorded in the history of the world. When we recollect that in the short space of three months were comprised the desperate contest in Bavaria, the victory of Aspern, the war in the Tyrol, the doubtful fight of Wagram, we are at a loss whether to admire most the vital strength of a monarchy which, so soon after the disasters of Ulm and Austerlitz, was capable of such gigantic efforts - the noble spirit which prompted its people so unanimously to make such unheard-of exertions or the firm resolution of its chiefs, who, undismayed by reverses which would have crushed any other government to dust, maintained an undaunted front to the very last. We admire the courage of Darius, who, after the loss of half his provinces, still fought with heroic resolution against the Macedonian conqueror on the field of Arbela; we exult in the firmness of the Roman senate, which, yet bleeding with the slaughter of Cannæ, sent forth legions to Spain, and sold the ground on which Hannibal was encamped, when his standards crowded round the walls of the city; and we anticipate already the voice of ages in awarding the praise of unconquerable resolution to the Russian nation, which, undeterred by the carnage of Borodino, burned the ancient capital of the empire rather than permit it to become the resting place of its enemies, and, when pierced to the heart, still stretched forth its mighty arms from Finland to the Danube to envelop and crush the invader. But, without underrating these glorious examples of patriotic resistance, it may safely be affirmed that none of them will bear a comparison with that exhibited by Austria in this memorable campaign. proved fatal to the strength of the monarchy; France, during its republican fervour, was nearly overthrown by the charge of fifteen hundred Prussian hussars on the plains of Champagne [ante, Chap. x. § 23], and twice saw its strength totally paralysed by the fall of its capital in 1814 and 1815; Russia survived the capture of Moscow only by the aid of a rigorous climate and the overwhelming force of its Scythian cavalry. Austria is the only state recorded in history which, without any such advantages, fought Two desperate battles in defence of its independence AFTER its capital had fallen? To this glorious and unique distinction the Imperial annals may justly lay claim; and those who affect to condemn its institutions, and despise its national character, would do well to examine the annals of the world for a similar instance of patriotic resolution, and search their own hearts for the feelings and the devotion requisite for its repetition.* 75. In truth, the invincible tenacity with which both the Austrian nobility and people maintained the conflict, under circumstances of adversity which, in every other instance recorded in history, had subdued the minds of men, affords at once a decisive refutation of the opinion so industriously propagated and heedlessly received in this country, as to the despotic and oppressive nature of the Imperial rule, and the most memorable example of the capability of an aristocratic form of government to impart to the community under its direction a degree of consistency and resolution of which mankind under no other circumstances are capable. It was not general misery which caused the Tyrolese to start unanimously to arms at the call of the Austrian trumpet, and combat the invader with stone balls discharged from * A third instance of similar unconquerable resolution was exhibited by this noble 74. Other empires have almost invariably succumbed upon the capture of the capital. Carthage was crushed by the storm of its metropolis by Scipio Africanus; Rome sank at once with the fall of the Eternal City before the Gothic trumpet; with the conquest people in the course of the desperate revoluof Constantinople the lower empire tionary struggle in 1848, when Vienna was perished; the seizure of Berlin by the regained from the arms of the rebels by the allies, in the days of the great Frede- heroism of Jellachich and Windischgratz. rick, was but a transient incursion-history exhibits, of the indelible stamp of Another instance, among the many which its lasting occupation by Napoleon national character. larch-trees bored into the form of cannon: it was not oppressive rule which called forth the sublime devotion of Aspern and Wagram. No people ever were so often defeated as the Austrians were during the course of the revolutionary war; but none rose with such vigour from the ground, or exhibited in such vivid colours the power of moral principle to withstand the shocks of fortune; to compensate, by firmness of purpose, the superior intellectual acquisitions of other states; and communicate to men that unconquerable resolution which brings them in the end victorious through the severest earthly trials. 76. The aspect of Austria proper, especially in its mountainous regions, confirms and explains this extraordinary phenomenon. In no other country, perhaps, is so uncommon a degree of wellbeing to be seen among the peasantry; nowhere are the fruits of the earth divided in apparently such equitable proportions between the landlord and the cultivator; nowhere does ease and contentment prevail so universally in the dwellings of the poor. When it is recollected that this general prosperity prevails in a country where the taxation is so light as to be almost imperceptible by the great body of the people, and where the proportion of persons instructed is, on an average of the whole empire, equal to that in any state of similar dimensions in Europe, and as high in some provinces as the best-educated nations of the world,* it must be admitted that the philanthropist has much cause to linger with satisfaction on its contemplation. It is on a different class, on the middle class and the aspiring children of the burghers, that the restrictions of the Imperial sway are hereafter destined to hang heavy; but at this period no heartburnings arose from the exclu * One in fifteen of the population over the whole empire attend the elementary schools; in some provinces, as Upper Austria, the Tyrol, and Bohemia, the proportion is as high as 1 in 11. In Switzerland, it is now 1 in 10; in Ireland, 1 in 9; in Scotland, 1 in 11; in France, 1 in 17; in Prussia, 1 in 10; in Spain, 1 in 350; în Poland, 1 in 100; in Russia, 1 in 794. MOREAU, Statistiques de la Grande Bretagne, ii. 333, 334. sions to which they were subject, and one only passion, that of ardent devotion to their country, animated all classes of the people. 77. But the example of Austria in 1809 has afforded another and still more interesting lesson to mankind. That country had at that period no pretensions to intellectual superiority. Commerce, manufactures, and the mechanical arts, had made little progress over its surface; literature was in its infancy; science flourished only in a few favoured spots, under the fostering care of Imperial patronage; poetry, history, philosophy, were to the great mass of the inhabitants almost unknown. It had long and painfully felt the consequences of this inferiority in the bloody contests it had been compelled to maintain with the democratic energy and scientific ability of the French Revolution. How, then, did it happen that a state, so little qualified by intellectual superiority to contend with the gigantic powers of wickedness, should have stood forth with such unparalleled lustre in the contest; should have resisted alone, with such heroic bravery, the military force of half of Europe, guided by consummate ability and trained by unparalleled conquests; and, for the first time since the commencement of the struggle, made the scales hang even between the conservative and revolutionary principles? Simply because she possessed a pure, virtuous, and single-minded people; because, whatever the corrup tions of the capital may have been, the heart of the nation was untainted; because an indulgent rule had attached the nobility to their sovereign, and experienced benefits the peasantry to their landlords; because patriotism was there established upon its only durable basis, a sense of moral obligation and the force of religious duty. 78. And in this respect France, in the time of her adversity, exhibited a memorable contrast to Austria in the hour of her national trial. When the evil days fell upon her, when the barrier of the Rhine was forced, and hostile standards approached the gates of Paris, the boasted virtues of republican * * 79. These considerations, in a certain degree, lift up the veil which conceals from mortal eyes the ultimate designs of Providence in the wars which so often desolate the world. If we compare Austria as she was in 1793 with Austria in 1809, we seem not merely to be dealing with a different people, but with a different age of the world. In the first era is to be seen nothing but selfishness and vacillation in the national councils, lukewarmness and indifference in the public feeling, irresolution and disgrace in military events. But it is well for nations not less than individuals to be in affliction. Turn to the same nation in 1809, and behold her undaunted in the cabinet, unconquered in the field; glowing in every quarter with patriotism, teeming in every direction with energy; firm in her faith, generous in her resolutions; ism disappeared; the brilliant energy | pierced to the heart by the son of Hoof military courage was found unequal deirah, "the ocean-vault fell in, and to the shock. Province after province all were crushed." sank without performing one deed worthy of remembrance: city after city surrendered without leaving one trace on the page of history. No French Saragossa proved that patriotism can supply the want of rainparts; no revolutionary La Vendée, that the civic virtues can dispense with Chris tian enthusiasm ; no second Tyrol, that even imperial strength could fail against the "might that slumbers in a peasant's arm." The strength of the Empire was in the army alone: with the fall of its capital, the power of the Revolution was at an end: the marshals and generals, true to the real idol of worldly | adoration, ranged themselves on the side of success. The conqueror of a hundred fights was left almost alone by the creatures of his bounty; and, as with the sorcerers who crowded round the statue of Eblis, when the idol was “The galleries and saloons," says Caul-maintaining unshaken constancy to her aincourt, which adjoined the apartment of principles amidst unheard-of disasters, the Emperor at Fontainebleau (in April 1814) fidelity to her sovereign amidst unwere deserted. The marshals had carried bounded temptations. This is indeed with them their brilliant staffs: the wind of regeneration, this is true national glory, adversity had blown, and the glittering crowd had vanished. That solitude thrilled the heart. purchased in the only school of real The redoubted chief who so lately had never improvement, the paths of suffering. moved except surrounded by a magnificent 80. How many centuries of national cortège, the great monarch who had seen kings at his feet, is now only a simple in-existence did Austria go through before dividual, disinherited even of the interest this mighty change was effected; how and care of his friends! All was desolate, all many national sins did she expiate; was solitary in that splendid palace. I felt what a gleam of glory, not merely in the necessity of withdrawing the Emperor imperial but in human annals has she from so fearful a torture. Have you got everything ready for my departure? Yes, left! She is to reappear in the contest Sire!' 'My poor Caulaincourt, you discharge for European freedom; but she is to here the functions of grand-marshal: could you have conceived it? Berthier has gone off reappear as a conqueror, invested with without even bidding me adieu!'-What, irresistible strength, arrayed in impenSire!' exclaimed I-Berthier also, the crea- etrable panoply. She shared the gloture of your bounty!'-' Berthier,' replied ries of Leipsic with Russia and Prussia; the Emperor, was born a courtier: you will soon see my vice-constable a mendicant for but the heroism of Aspern, the conemployment from the Bourbons. I feel hu- stancy of Wagram, are her own. Manmiliated, that the men whom I have raised kind have little concern with the mere so high in the eyes of Europe should have sunk so low! What have they made of that conquest of one nation by another: atmosphere of glory in which they appeared it is the triumph of virtue over misenveloped in the eyes of the stranger? What fortune, of duty over selfishness, of must the sovereigns think of all these men religion over infidelity, which is the made illustrious by my reign?"" Such was the fidelity and gratitude of the Revolution; real patrimony of the human race. The its genius, its intellect, its glory! Contrast heroic constancy, the generous fidelity this with Austria after Aspern-with the de- of all classes in Austria at the close of votion of Wagram, and the heroism of the the contest, was placed by Providence Tyrol. See CAULAINCOURT'S Memoirs, ii. 109, 111. in bright contrast to the treachery and selfishness of the French Revolution- | lence of moral feeling, and to show ists, as if to demonstrate the inability of that even the conquerors of the world the greatest intellectual acquisitions to were unequal to a crisis which religion communicate that elevation to the cha- had rendered of easy endurance to the racter which springs from the preva- shepherds of the Alps. CHAPTER LX. WALCHEREN EXPEDITION-PEACE OF VIENNA-SECOND WAR IN THE TYROLDETHRONEMENT OF THE POPE. formation, it numbered two hundred thousand inhabitants within its walls, and engrossed the whole trade of these beautiful provinces. Its noble harbour, capable of containing a thousand vessels; its extensive ramparts and citadel, among the strongest in Europe; its splendid cathedral, exceeding even St Paul's in elevation;* its magnificent quays, bordering a river five hundred yards in breadth, which a sev 1. NATURE has formed the Scheldt to commercial community. Their terribe the rival of the Thames. Of equal tory was the richest, the best peopled, magnitude and depth with its renowned the most adorned by cities in Christencompetitor, flowing through a country dom; and the fine arts, arising in the excelling even the midland counties of wane of ancient opulence, could already England in wealth and resources, ad- boast the immortal works of Teniers, joining cities long superior to any in Rubens, and Vandyke, when the school Europe in arts and commerce: the of England had as yet hardly emerged artery at once of Flanders and Holland, from the obscurity of infant years. of Brabant and Luxemburg, it is fitted to 2. ANTWERP, the key of this great be the great medium of communication estuary, gradually rose with the inbetween the fertile fields and rich ma-creasing commerce of the Low Counnufacturing towns of the Low Countries tries, until, at the period of the Reand the other maritime states of the world. If it is not equally celebrated as the Thames in history or romance; if all the vessels of the ocean do not crowd its quays, and its merchants are not sought by the princes of the earth; if it does not give law to all the quarters of the globe, and boast a colonial empire on which the sun never sets, it is not because Nature has denied it the physical advantages conducive to such exalted destinies, but because the jeal-enty-four gun ship might navigate with ousies and perverseness of man have in great part marred her choicest gifts. Flanders was a great and highly civilised manufacturing state, when England was still struggling between the coarse plenty of Anglo-Saxon rudeness and the insulting oppression of Norman chivalry; even in the days of Edward III. and the Black Prince, the Brewer of Ghent was the esteemed ally of princes, and the political passions of our times had been warmed into being by the long-established prosperity of a * It is four hundred and fifty-one feet high; the roof of the cathedral is three hundred and sixty feet from the pavement; but more even than for these gigantic proportions it is fitted to arrest the traveller's admiration as containing the masterpieces of Rubens, the Taking Down from and Elevating on the Cross. Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observed, that whoever had not seen the great works quate idea either of the genius of that great of Rubens at Antwerp, could form no adeartist or of the power of art. The paintings in the Museum, especially those by Rubens viii. 618; REYNOLDS' Tour in Flanders-Works, and Vandyke, are inimitable.-MALTE BRUN, ii. 264, 300; and Personal Observation. |