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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 129
LETTER XXXVII.
: Vienna.
TO-MORROW I leave this place; I fhall ftay fome time at Prague, where I ex-
pect to hear from you.
It is now evident what the Emperor was about during his mother’s life-time. All
the ftrangers who are here, are aftonifhed at the fhort time in which one of the greateft
and moft total revolutions has been effected ; a fure fign that it was thought of long
before, and all the materials: prepared. The nobility and clergy are every day more
convinced that it will go harder and harder with them: but they make no refiltance ;
for both orders are entirely difarmed. Notwithftanding their great riches, the nobility
are enfeebled by their effeminacy and diffipation, and the clergy have a fnake in their
own bofoms which will {ting them to death. This fnake is philofophy ; which, under
the femblance of theology, has glided even to the epifcopal chair. Molt of the younger
ecclefiaftics are infe€ted by the poifon of this {make in the univerfities. They all know
that there is a Febronius in the world, and fome of them are only acquainted with him
as a heretic ; yet as the arguments of the cowl have a much greater effect upon them
than the arguments of their profeflors, and as the court is evidently friendly to him,
they are not unwilling to be reconciled to their old enemies. The Bellarminifts, who
poflefs all the great benefices, ftill make, it is true, the greater number; but if once
they are in danger of lofing their cures, or the twenty-five thoufand advocates in the
imperial dominions, who have long been ready with arguments, are ordered to charge,
they will no doubt make very little refiftance. :
I do not believe there is a fingle man of underftanding in the army, who does not
moft thoroughly approve the Emperor’s new regulations. This part of the adminif-
tration of the country has been in his hands a confiderable time ; and it carries marks
in every part of it, of having been fo. Amongft all the Imperial officers | was acquainted
with, I did not meet with one, of a certain age, who did not poffefs a certain fund of
philofophy. During my ftay here, I found them by far the belt company in the place ;
and, with the permiflion of the Profeflors, Doétors, andother Literati, muft think them by
far the moft enlightened people in the Auftrian dominions. I will anfwer for finding
many corporals in the Imperial army who have more fenfe than nine out of ten of the
literati. ‘There has long been a freedom of thinking and reafoning in the army, which
is a {trong contra{t to what obtains elfewhere, and does the Emperor the utmoft ho-
nour. Every regiment has a library to itfelf, and the officers find means to procure
every good book, however prohibited it may be. The King of Pruffia has no longer
Pope be-Jalved and be-confecrated generals, as he ufed to call Daun, to contend with.
Even amongft the common foldiers you may obferve a kind of natural logic, which is
the confequence of the way in which they are managed, and which you may trace in
their tents, in their manoeuvres, in their tables, and in every thing that belongs to
them. ‘There is not a veftige left of the bigotry which heretofore made the Imperial
army fo confpicuous. What indeed will the black troop undertake again{t a corps con-
ducted as thisis? The Emperor will not find the fame facility ia reforming the ad-
miniftratioa of civil and criminal juftice, as he will meet with in reforming the church.
‘There is ftill a formidable darknels over all this part of legiflation, The detects, part-
ly owing to the laws themfelves, and the forms of adminiltering juftice, and partly
increafed through the ftupidity, pedantry, diffolutenefs, felfithaefs, and want of pa-
triotifm of the fervants of the court, have long been felt. The late Emprefs endea-
VOL. VI. s voured
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