It is only necessary to glance through collections of the pamphlets of the time to see how deep and widely spread this epidemic terror was. From the highest to the lowest, the nation was infected by it; and while ignorant men railed against "the Papists," scholars and divines exhausted their eloquence in holding up Roman Catholicism to reprobation, and in proclaiming that even the oaths of its followers were unworthy of credit. With a bold cunning, Oates, taking advantage of this religious frenzy, raised a fabulous superstructure of treasonable designs on the basis of the inconsiderate utterances of religious enthusiasts. A notable instance of this manufacture of treason is furnished by the charges he made in relation to the celebrated consult of Jesuits on the 24th of April. He had doubtless heard the consult spoken of, and had become acquainted with the date on which it was held; but he was completely ignorant of the objects of the meeting, as well as of the place of assembly. As a matter of fact, the consult took place at St. James's, as James II. subsequently told Sir John Reresby. "There had been," said his Majesty, "a meeting of the Jesuits that day (April 24th). . . . But it was well Dr. Oates knew no better where it was to be; for they met at St. James's, where I then lived, which if Oates had but known, he would have cut out a fine spot of work for me."

In the very qualified sense prescribed by Lord Somers, it may then be assumed that there was something which may be called a plot; and it is beyond question that a consult of Jesuits was held on the day mentioned by Oates. But neither at the time nor since has there been produced any genuine evidence to connect these transactions with treason. The only testimony in this direction is that of Oates

From The Fortnightly Review. THE HERITAGE OF THE HAPSBURGS.

No royal house in Europe can equal the illustrious race of the Hapsburgs in the grandeur and romance of its historic past, the sad mystery of its present, and the vast possibilities of its future. No realm in Europe can vie in interest with the strangely compacted mosaic of nationalities which forms the heritage of that ancient dynasty. The Hapsburgs, who in the time of our Tudor kings ruled not only Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia, but central Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and the Indies, have since then encountered a long series of disasters with noble fortitude; they have learned wisdom in the bitter school of misfortune, and today they hold a firmer place than ever in the affections of the heterogeneous multitudes that own their sway. The tragedy at Meyerling has given rise to a display of grief both touching and real among all the races and peoples of the polyglot empire. In Pesth and throughout Hungary, a hush fell upon a scene of strife which had almost assumed the character of a revolution. In Vienna the demeanor of the many-tongued crowd which flocked from all parts of the empire to witness the obsequies was as though each member of it had lost a dearly loved friend or brother. There was everything in the last sad ceremonial that can kindle the historic imagination or touch the springs of human sympathy; the strange mixture of simplicity and magnificence, recalling alike the greatness and the antiquity of the Hapsburgs, the silence in the gay season of the Carnival, the visible grief and distress of an usually light-hearted population, even the abandonment of etiquette, when at the last moment the desolate father descended into the vaults of the Capuchins, and knelt by the coffin of his only son. "Would that I could have died for thee," exclaimed M. Jokai, the Hungarian poet; and there were few who could not breathe the same wish over the tomb of the gifted young prince, with whom the

brightest hopes of a vast empire have sunk into the grave.

A year has now past, and yet it seems but yesterday that I saw the archduke Rudolph on social occasions in Vienna and Buda-Pesth, his well-proportioned figure shown to advantage by his handsome darkblue uniform, and his bright intellectual face lighted up with the fire of animation as he spoke to his friends with the eager impassioned utterance of one whose thoughts are too many for words. He was one of those who speak, not for the sake of saying something, but because they have something to say; and his flow of ideas seemed almost too rapid for his power of expression, although this was considerable. There were traces of a slight restlessness in his manner, such as one sometimes notices in the case of those whose brain has been overtasked, or who have attempted to burn the lamp of life too brightly; and there can be no doubt that the strain of his multifarious tastes, interests, and duties was too much for his highly strung nervous temperament, with its dash of melancholia derived from his Wittelsbach blood. He was a good soldier, but his tastes were mainly directed to science, art, literature, and especially natural history. Like Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, he was particularly devoted to ornithology. A traveller for the love of knowledge and information, an orator of no mean power, an excellent linguist, speaking all the languages and many of the dialects of the polyglot empire of his house, he had also sought distinction as an author; and together with many eminent Austrian and Hungarian men of letters he labored at the production of the monumental work "Oesterreich-Ungarn in Wort und Bild," for which he both wrote and sketched, in addition to reading and revising all the proof-sheets. A mind so well informed, and with such catholic tastes, could not fail to develop itself in the direction of broad liberality of thought, philanthropy, and a desire for the peaceful improvement of mankind; and it was this progressive tendency which attracted the archduke Rudolph so strongly to the late emperor Frederick, just as it estranged him from the reactionary soldier who now fills the throne of Germany. This estrangement can hardly have been lessened by a conversation which is stated on good authority to have taken place between them within the last year. "I mean," said the German emperor, "to follow the programme of Frederick the Great." "That programme,” replied the VOL. LXVI 3390

LIVING AGE.

descendant of Maria Theresa, "implies the destruction of Austria."

The last time I saw the crown-prince was at Abbazia, whither he used to come to visit the crown-princess, who spent some months of last spring in that sunny corner of the Adriatic. The Kronprinspaar would sometimes come to déjeuner in the restaurant of the hotel, seating themselves at one of the ordinary tables with Count Bombelles, the master of their household. The fact that the august guests were never stared at or mobbed speaks much for Austrian good-breeding. The crown-princess would sometimes sit in the public garden listening to the band, and apparently attracting no more attention than an ordinary visitor; and I have often seen her walking alone in the woods or on the roads, the Istrian peasants lifting their hats as they passed by, and apparently feeling no temptation to stare at the imperial lady. How greatly the empress of Austria must have felt the contrast between English and Austrian manners when during her stay at Cromer she found herself compelled to bathe before sunrise in order to escape the molestations of our countrymen! There was, of course, much conversation at Abbazia and elsewhere with regard to the private affairs of the crown-prince, but of this I shall not repeat one word, lest I should throw carrion to the ghouls who batten on the failings of their fellow-creatures. That he ever deliberately meditated suicide, I do not believe; the elaborate attempts which have been made to spread that impression have defeated their object. But any one who knows Vienna is aware that in that city young couples who have been crossed in love often run away to some hotel and commit suicide together, acting upon a sudden impulse. There is now a melancholy interest in the words addressed by the crown-prince to the Congress of Hygiene assembled in Vienna last year under his presidency, in which he dwelt upon the importance of each individual life as a possible means of good to the community, and the duty of prolonging it by all the resources of science. A life of the brightest promise has now been wantonly sacrificed, and for what cause? Nothing more than a paltry love affair! The tragedy deepens when we reflect that opinion on the Continent, and especially in a semi-Oriental State, such as Austria-Hungary, does not regard such matters from the standpoint of what it calls Anglo-Saxon fanaticism. In England a faux pas in private life excludes an able man from a career of usefulness;

in America the unearthing of some such peccadillo in a statesman's domestic his tory brings wealth to the discoverer, if he knows how to sell his treasure, and destruction to his victim. The death of the young prince was more gratuitous, so to speak, than if he had been an Englishman, and a heavy responsibility rests with those to whom his safety was entrusted. But he is gone; and it is time for the slanderers and busybodies to cease from their clamor. Let him rest in peace.

All eyes now turn to the bereaved monarch, who has ruled for forty years with such benefit to his people and such credit to himself. Called upon, when a lad of nineteen, to steer the ship of state already foundering amid the waves of revolution, Francis Joseph I. was compelled to look | on while the troops of a foreign power were shedding the blood of his subjects in his name. Never did a sovereign begin his reign under circumstances of greater difficulty. Though compelled in his youth to adopt a centralizing and reactionary policy, he now presents the rare spectacle of a ruler in whom the load of increasing years and troubles has not engendered a leaning towards Conservatism. Justitia erga omnes nationes est fundamentum Austriæ has ever been his motto, and he has carried out this principle with a rare political insight of which posterity alone will form an adequate judgment. Cedendo vinces: the general who can profit by defeat is the real hero. Notwithstand ing all her disasters and her critical internal condition, Austria-Hungary is stronger to-day than she has been for a hundred years. The feeling of relief and gratitude which has followed the emperor's announcement that he will continue to occupy the throne, and to follow the wellknown principles which have hitherto guided him, shows the extent to which his subjects appreciate his rule. The delicate problems of internal government with which he has to deal are such as to require the utmost sensitiveness of appreciation, a sympathetic treatment, and a spirit of fairness and compromise. If, during the last forty years, the destinies of Austria-Hungary had been entrusted to a man of "brutal frankness" and inflexible will, such as the Iron Chancellor, the horrors of 1849 would have been repeated again and again within her boundaries. However great may be their mutual jeal ousies, the many races of his realm turn to their emperor with a filial! love and veneration. The disappointment which followed his rejection of all gifts and his

discouragement of all displays on the occasion of his jubilee was great; but it gave way to admiration of the simplicity and humanity of his character, when he begged that any memorial of the occasion should take a charitable form; and withdrew to pass the day in retirement with the empress at Miramar. It is such indications of character as this that kindle the affections of a nation. There is scarcely a village throughout the empire in which a tree was not planted in honor of the day, and vast sums were devoted to charitable foundations. The recent great outburst of sympathy is still fresh in our memories. In Hungary, and even in su perstitious Tyrol, the people, in sympathy for their sovereign, compelled such of the priests as were unwilling to do so to celebrate requiem masses; and in Carinthia they threatened the prince-bishop of Laibach with violence if he would not permit the cathedral bells to be tolled. There is much of traditional devotion to the Hapsburgs in this; but still more there is recognition of the emperor's great services to his people and of his amiability of character. "We are one family, one people," were his touching words to one of the deputations which, notwithstanding his great grief, he consented to receive. We are tempted to ask, Can this be the sovereign against whom his whole people were in revolt some forty years ago, the master of Windischgrätz, and Jellachich, and Haynau?

The great results achieved by the emperor Francis Joseph serve to emphasize the unique position of the Hapsburgs as a link between so many discordant nationalities, and throw a light upon the infinite possibilities of the future of the dynasty. A crisis has now occurred to which there is only one parallel in the history of the monarchy. In 1740 the emperor Charles VI. died, leaving an only daughter, the empress Maria Theresa. He had moved heaven and earth to obtain the assent of the European powers to the Pragmatic Sanction, which he had framed to secure his daughter's succession. A number of rival claimants arose, and the empress fled for refuge with her infant, afterwards Joseph II, to Pressburg, where the Hungarian Diet was assembled. Here the historic scene occurred when the Magyar magnates drew their swords and vowed to die for their "king" Maria Theresa. A million lives were sacrificed in the wars which followed. It is hardly possible that the present crisis could involve any such consequences, but the situation is never

theless full of serious import. The internal condition of the empire is such that a rare and almost impossible combination of qualities will be requisite for the future occupant of the Hapsburg throne.

The Pragmatic Sanction, though framed to legalize the accession of Maria Theresa, excludes the present emperor's daughters and his grandchild by postponing the succession of females to that of males in the family of Charles VI. The emperor's next brother, the unfortunate Archduke Maximilian, whom Napoleon III. beguiled to a tragic fate in Mexico, would now, were he living, be the next heir. There are two surviving brothers, the archdukes Karl Ludwig and Ludwig Victor; and the former now becomes heir-presumptive, though he is understood to have renounced his claims in favor of his son. He is a general in the cavalry, and a good officer, but he has principally devoted himself to the patronage of art, science, trade, and commerce, and has been president of various industrial exhibitions held in Vienna. He has always been subject to Ultramontane influences, and his family has been brought up under ecclesiastical control. His eldest daughter, though only nineteen, is already abbess of a convent of noble ladies at Prague. His eldest son, the archduke Franz Ferdinand, who has inherited the patrimony of the Modena branch of the family, resigns his vast estates to his brother, the archduke Otto, in order to qualify himself to succeed to the still greater heritage of his imperial ancestors. He is a young man of inoffensive character, delicate, and subject to epileptic fits. Whether he will prove himself equal to the great position which has suddenly devolved upon him can only be revealed by time; but the state of his health makes it not improbable that the archduke Otto will eventually become heir to the throne. The numerous escapades of this eccentric and headstrong young prince have tried even the tolerance of Austrian society, and have been such as to render the contingency of his succession a subject of deep concern to the emperor, though it may be that, as in the case of our own Henry V., a plenteous crop of royal virtues may arise from an abundant sowing of wild oats. It is said at Vienna that complications may still arise in case the archduke Otto should contest his brother's competency to resign the Modena inheritance, which at present disqualifies him from accepting the position of heir-presumptive. The elaborate ceremonies which attended the inaugura

tion of a memorial to Maria Theresa last summer gave rise to persistent rumors that an attempt was being made to accustom the public mind to the idea of another empress-queen. It is useless to speculate what might have occurred in the future if the crown-prince had lived. An attempt to alter the succession would have involved a family quarrel; but this would have been the least part of the danger. An amendment of the Pragmatic Sanction would have had to be submitted to the various diets and parliaments of the empire, and many of them would probably have seized the opportunity to demand concessions, or by taking different sides might have given an opening to foreign intrigues for the dismemberment of the empire.

Wherever we look dark storm-clouds are gathering thickly round the monarchy. The dangers from without are great, the dangers from within are still greater; and it is only the centripetal force set in motion by the former which counteracts the process of internal disintegration. AustriaHungary is compelled to maintain military armament altogether disproportionate to her economical resources. Her financial condition is alarming; she supports a load of taxation so overwhelming that it paralyzes her recuperative power; her fiscal arrangements, in which the protective system is carried to its utmost extent, are in a disorganized condition, being at best but a compromise between the warring interests of industrial Austria and agricultural Hungary; she is carrying on a war of tariffs with Roumania, and her customs arrangements with Germany and Italy are anything but satisfactory. Her deficits are increasing year by year; in fact she can no longer afford to hold the position of a great power. Meanwhile Russian plots in the Balkan States and the accumulation of Russian troops on the Galician frontier still continue, and force her to take precautionary measures and increase her military expenditure. The intolerable strain may soon compel her to throw down the gauntlet once for all to her gigantic neighbor. If she does so it will be at her own risk, for the League of Peace is strictly defensive, and Prince Bismarck will not help her in the Balkans. Lastly, she has to grapple with the discontent of her own non-German and non-Hungarian populations, not to speak of the excitable Magyars, and to assure herself that she can count on the loyalty of her seventeen millions of Slav subjects before entering into a contest with a great Slav empire.