Crimes of the House of Austria Against Mankind
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
M llii : III ffillH J—I— "IHiI li II M iHH J> > y 'tc. * - o N «*' ^ * V VV '% «. 3, .<"& %& : C E I U E S OF THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA AGAINST MANKIND. PROVED BY EXTRACTS FROM THE HISTORIES OF C02E, SCHILLER, ROBERTSON, GRATTAN, AND SISMONDI, "WITH MRS. M. L. PUTNAM^ HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTION OF HUNGARY, AND ITS RELATIONS WITH AUSTRIA, PUBLISHED IN MAY, 1850. EDITED BY E. Pi "PEABODY. JSWDItDr jBMtiOK- NEW-YORK: G. P. PUTNAM, 10 PARK PLACE 1852. JEM* Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1852, By rodolphe garrique, In the Cleric's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ne\v»Yoi'k. PREFACE SECOND EDITION. This work was first published for the benefit of the Hun- garian Fund, on the understanding (which proved a misun- derstanding), of a certain autograph acknowledgment which failed to arrive at the time expected. Those who had the care of the publication consequently took the liberty, without the leave or knowledge of the Edi- tor, who was absent, to mutilate the correspondence that formed the Preface, making it irrelevant within itself, and insignificant altogether. The Preface is therefore wholly left out in this edition, and an Analytic Index is prefixed; and the stereotypes have passed into the hands of the pre- sent publisher, who republishes it, confident that these im- portant passages of unquestionable history will benefit the Hungarian cause, by showing its necessity and justice, al- though it is impossible to benefit the Hungarian Fund by the proceeds of the work. ANALYTICAL INDEX. Biographical Notices of Rodolphe of Hapsburgh, p. 4; of Albert I., p. 15; Frederic & Leopold, 22; Albert II., 21; Rodolphe & Fre- deric, 31; Albert III. & Leopold II., 32; Albert V., 39; Sigis- mund, 40; Charles V., 51; Ferdinand I., 02; Philip II., 143; Ferdinand II., 79; Leopold I., Emperor, 188; Joseph I., 190; Charles VI., 191; Maria Theresa, 179 & 192; Joseph II., 160,& 192; Leopold II., 193; Francis, 196. Destruction of Constitutional Rights of Austria and Styria, 16; 20; 44. ; Attempted destruction of those of Switzerland, 16 20 ; 32 ; 40 to 48. Destruction of those of Bohemia, 17; 39; 64. Italy and its Conquered Rights, 91 — 110. Netherlands do. do., 136—174. Poland and its Partition, 176—181. Hungary, and the War upon its Constitution, 20; 39; 62; 182—230. ERRATA Rulhire for Rulhtire, pp. 176 & 177. Philip II. for ///., last line of p. 148. ! CRIMES O F THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA AGAINST MANKIND. Frederic Schlegel, in that extraordinary piece of sophistry, called the Philosophy of History, would have it " that the final cause of the Universe was to build up the Romano-Germanic Empire as the Metropolis and bulwark of Christendom." This work, the substance of a course of eighteen lectures, de- livered in Vienna, has little chance of making any great im- pression on mankind; for the genius which in his younger days guided Schlegel in surveying the literatures of the world, and inspired his eloquent account of them, seems naturally enough to have deserted him, when he yoked himself as a drayhorse to the car of despotism and superstition. Nothing short of imperial authority could have compelled any human audience to have endured eighteen lectures of such dark meta- physics ; but this, as we are exultingly told, was abundantly exerted, even by example, for the Imperial family attended in person That " Might makes Right " is a principle asserted not ex- clusively by the House of Austria, or rather by the House of Hapsburgh ; (for we must not entirely absorb Austria in the House of Hapsburgh. Recent events have shown that Austria also has an entity of its own, and that so far as it exists, it has interests antagonistic to those of the reigning family). But the Imperial House makes pretensions which especially challenge mankind to bring it to the bar for righteous judgment. From the day when Rodolph the First wrote to Pope Gregory X. to confirm his election to the Empire, even to the present 1 2 hour, this family has professed to be the elect Servant of the Most High, for the benefit of Mankind. Out of its own mouth shall it be judged. 1 " Conscious, says Rodolph, in that memorable document, "of my own deficiency, and trembling with astonishment and fear, I hesitated whether I should accept so eminent a station ; until, at length, trusting in Him, who in the high and ineffable de- crees of his Providence, changes as He wills the condition of mortals, adds strength to the feeble and gives eloquence to the simple, I assumed courage sufficient to venture, weak as I am, upon so laborious and difficult an office, hoping that neither the grace of God, nor the favour of His Holy Church, nor your paternal affection will be wanting to me. Turning, therefore, all my thoughts to Him under whose authority we live, and placing all my expectations on you alone, I fall down before the feet of your Holiness, beseeching you, with the most earnest supplications, to favour me with your accustomed kindness in my present undertaking ; and that you will deign by your me- diation with the Most High to support my cause, which I may truly call the cause of the whole German Empire, that He may condescend to direct my steps according to His will, and lead me in the ways of His commandments. That I may be enabled therefore, successfully to perform what is most acceptable to Him and to His Holy Church, may it graciously please your Holiness to crown me with the Imperial Diadem, for I trust I am both able and willing to undertake and accomplish whatever you and the Holy Church shall think proper to impose upon me." Such is the great and solemn pretension. And now in the first place mankind asks, who art thou, Rodolph of Hapsburgh, professing thyself humbly and unwillingly to be taking upon thyself the cares of Empire, out of mere devotion to God and to the human race whom God would lead, as a bridegroom leads his bride to the altar, giving himself to her and for her ? Has then the Christian Charity which is greater than Faith and Hope and "seeketh not her own" marked thy life's conduct up to this time ? And what are the conditions of the compact between thyself and the earthly representative of the Divine Providence ? Are they that thou shalt enquire into the genius and institutions of all the nations that shall be united under thee, with a view to vindicate to every man the liberty wherewith Christ would make him free ; to give scope for the perfect development of every material resource of the countries they inhabit, and of every in- tellectual and moral opportunity that the Past, the Present, and the Future shall present? Thine own words challenge the enquiry ; the pretensions of all thy posterity, ever renewed', repeat the challenge. FrOm the mountains of Switzerland, from the plains of Italy, from the rocks of Catalonia, from ruined and emasculated Bohemia, from partitioned Poland, from long betrayed though ever generous Hungary, even from thine own Tyrol and Styria, and Austria, come up the accusers, and impartial History gives utterance in some small measure to the voice of their manifold accusation. The present volume will principally consist of a series of ex- tracts from different historical works, in which the crimes of the House of Hapsburgh against liberty and law are incidentally related. There seems to be a call, just now, that the testimony of History upon this subject should be laid before the American people. Their heart is touched by the events of the last three years, and it is well that their sensibility should have the sup- port of their reason, enlightened by the truth, that they may not be the victims of every newspaper paragraph which venal partisans of the cause of legitimacy in Europe may have the art to insinuate into the current periodicals ; and which presume upon the common ignorance in this country, of the details of European history, that comes to us at best only through books written more or less in the spirit of monarchy. A history of Europe written from the republican point of view, a history of nations and not of their governors, is the desideratum for the people of these United States. But such a work requires both genius and integrity of soul to conceive, and a vast industry properly to execute, the discovery of the exact truth being in- finitely the greatest part of the labor required. We may only avail ourselves at this moment of such history as is written, and if something of the force of the statement is lost by the frag- mentary nature of our work, on the other hand something will be gained to the argument from the consideration, that the passages brought as witnesses were not written primarily to serve the object to which we direct them. They are largely taken from conservative writings. Archdeacon Coxe gathered his materials in Vienna, and himself states that " to this family Europe owes its preservation," and that it has "formed the great bulwark of political freedom J " To the tissue of violence and rapacity which forms the life of each successive head of the family, he always appends an eulogy, sometimes ludicrously in contrast with the facts he has related, but which is presumptive evidence that he would not make those facts worse than they were. From the first chapter of his History of the House of Austria we extract the origin of the family, with a memoir which elucidates the personal character of the author of the let- ter to the pope, quoted above.