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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW

For AUGUST, 1755.

ART. IX. Annals of the Empire from the Reign of Charlemaigne. By the Author of The Age of Lewis XIV. 2 vols. 12mo. 6s. Millar.

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ous.

HIS work carries with it genuine marks of its being the production of M. de Voltaire; whofe character is fo well known, and so well established in the literary world, that to add any thing on that head would be fuperfluThe general defign of his prefent performance, we shall lay before our readers, in the words of an advertisement prefixed to it. These short annals contain all the principal events fince the renewal of the empire of the west. Here we fee five or fix kingdoms vaffals to that empire, that long quarrel between the emperors and popes, that of Rome with both, and that obftinate struggle of the feodal right against the fupreme power. Here we fee how Rome, that was fo ⚫ often on the brink of being fubdued, escaped a foreign yoke; and in what manner that government which fubfifts in Germany was established. It is at once the hiftory of the empire and the church, the detail of Germany and Italy. Germany gave birth to that religion, which hath withdrawn fo many states from the jurifdiction of the Roman church. The fame country is become the bulwark of Christianity against the Ottomans: fo that what we call the empire, is, fince the time of Charlemagne, the greatest theatre of Europe.

A large account of this work may be seen in the 7th volume of the Review, p. 116, and 161.

VOL. XIII.

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To the first volume is prefixed a catalogue of the emperors, with the year of their birth, acceffion, and death, together with the names of their wives and children. Oppofite to this is, a lift of the popes, moftly characterized by • the principal actions of their lives, and marked with the year of their exaltation; fo that the reader may, with one glance of the eye, confult this table, without going in fearch of the fragments of this lift at the head of the reign of each emperor. • To the fecond volume is likewise prefixed * a column of all the electors: but a catalogue of the kings of Europe and the • Ottoman emperors, which is so easily found every where else, would have too much augmented the bulk of the work, which was intended to be equally concife and complete.'

The concifenefs of our annalist must be evident to every one who confiders, that the transactions of near a thousand years, tranfactions whereby almoft every ftate in Europe was occafionally affected, are comprized within the compass of two small volumes: but notwithstanding his brevity, he has avoided that fterility generally attending compendiums, by enlivening his performance with frequent obfervations, as poignant as they are pertinent; and, to the inquifitive reader, thefe annals will ferve for an entertaining chronological index to a more diffuse history.-We give the following fhort extract, relating to a period remarkably active, particularly interesting to the empire, and within present memory, as a fample of M. de Voltaire's manner in the execution of this work; and which, we apprehend, will alfo fuffice to account for our not attempting any abstract of it; as it will scarce be expected, that we should think of epitomizing fo contracted an epitome.

"Of Germany, in the time of the emperor Joseph.

The emperor Jofeph was unanimously chofen king of the Romans, by all the electors, when only twelve years old, in the year 1690; an evident proof of the authority of his father Leopold; a proof of the great fecurity the electors were in with refpect to their rights, which they would not have facrificed; a proof of the firm agreement between all the states

*Poffibly this column of the electors might be prefixed to the fecond volume in the French edition, but it ftands fubjoined in the Englif verfion now before us. We with this was the only inaccuracy to be met with in this tranflation; but, in truth, the whole seems carelefly and poorly executed: there are not only very many typographical errors, but inftances occur, wherein even the fenfe of the riginal is manifeftly perverted.

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of Germany, and their chief; which the power of Lewis XIV. had cemented more ftrongly than ever.

In his capitulation he promises to obferve the treaty of Weftphalia, in every thing, but where the advantage of France

is concerned.

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The reign of Jofeph was ftill happier than that of Leopold. The money of the English and Dutch, the fuccefs of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough, make him "every where victorious, and his good fortune makes him ⚫ almost abfolute. He begins by putting under the ban of the · empire, in confequence of his own authority, the electors

of Bavaria and Cologne, because they were the partizans of • France, and he feizes on their dominions. He gives the ⚫ higher Palatinate to that branch of the Palatine which had loft it under Ferdinand II. † and at the peace of Raftadt, and of Baden, he afterwards reftores it to the Bavarian • branch.

He acts in reality like a Roman emperor in Italy. He • confifcates the Mantuan for his own ufe; he at first takes the Milanefe for himfelf, which he afterwards gives to the archduke his brother; but he keeps the towns and revenues of it, by dividing from this country, Alexandria, Valenza, and Lomelina, in favour of the Duke of Savoy, on whom, to fecure him in his intereft, he beftows the inveftiture of Monferrat. He plunders the Duke of Mirandola, and gives his poffeffions to the Duke of Modena. Charles V. had not • been more abfolute in Italy; nor had Clement VII. been more alarmed than was now Clement XI. Jofeph goes to deprive him of the dutchy of Ferrara, in order to restore it to the • house of Modena, from which the pope had taken it.

His armies poffeffing Naples in the name of the archduke his brother, and Bologna, Ferrara, and part of Romagnia, ⚫ in his own name, already threatned Rome. It was certainly the pope's intereft that there fhould be a balance in Italy; <but this balance victory had deftroyed. All the princes were • fummoned, and all poffeflors of fiefs, to produce their titles. • The Duke of Parma, who held at that time of the holy see, ⚫ had but fifteen days allowed him to do homage to the emperor. At Rome was diftributed a manifefto, attacking the temporal power of the pope, and annulling all the donations which the emperors had made without the concurrence of the empire. It is certain, that if by this manifefto they

He became emperor in 1705.

The fon-in-law of our King James I.

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fubjected the pope to the emperor, they alfo rendered the emperors dependent upon the imperial decrees of the Germanic body: but reafons and arms are at one time used, which at another are rejected; and all they endeavoured at prefent, was having fome title to rule in Italy as cheaply as they could.

All the princes were aftonifhed. It was fcarcely to be expected, that thirty-four cardinals fhould have the boldness. and generofity to do that which neither Venice, Florence, Genoa, nor Parma, dared to undertake. They raised a little army at their own expence; one laying down 100,000 • crowns, another 24,000, this fending 100 horse, and that < 50 foot. The peasants were armed, but the fole confequence of this undertaking was, their fubmitting, fword in hand, to the terms prefcribed by Jofeph. The pope was • obliged to difband his army; to preferve no more than 5000 men in the ecclefiaftical state; to fubfift the imperial troops; to abandon to them Comacchio; and to acknowledge the archduke Charles king of Spain. In 1709 he deprives the Duke of Savoy of the Vigenevafque and the fiefs of Langue, yet does not that prince dare to quit his party.

Jofeph dies, aged 33, in the year 1711, amidst all bis profperity.'

These annals conclude with the following remarks:

A philofophical reader, after having run through this long train of emperors, might reflect, that among them all Frederick III. only paffed 75 years, as Lewis XIV. only, among the kings of France. Whilft among the popes we fee numbers of lives ftretched beyond 84. Not that the laws of nature in general ⚫ make life longer in Italy than in Germany and France, but because popes are generally more abftemious than either emperors or kings of France.

The duration of the reigns of the emperors, which have paffed in review before us, ferves to confirm the rule which • Newton has laid down for the reformation of antient chronology. He fuppofes the generations of fovereigns of old to make out, one with another, twenty-one years each; and • indeed the fifty emperors from Charlemaigne to Charles VII. †, forming a period of near a thousand years, admits each of

[Abftemious] We apprehend our author here means, before they arrive at their plenitude of ecclefiattical power; for afterwards, we have many instances of their indulging luxury to the greatest excefs. The late emperor, who died in 1740.

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them to have reigned about twenty years. We can reduce the Newtonian rule ftill more in ftates fubject to frequent ⚫ revolutions. Without going higher than the Roman empire, we fhall find, in the space of 500 years, about ninety reigns; that is from Cæfar to Auguftulus.

Another important reflection occurs, and that is, that there feems to be fcarcely one emperor, from the time of Charlemagne, who may be faid to have been happy. The luftre of Charles V. eclipfes that of all his predeceffors, yet he, wearied with continual checks in life, and tired with the ⚫ plagues of fuch a compounded adminiftration, rather than difgufted with the nothingness of grandeur, fecludes a premature • old age in an obfcure retreat.

"We have not long fince feen an emperor mafter of the moft refpectable qualities, fuftain the most violent turns of ⚫ fortune, while nature conducts him to the grave, even in the prime of life, by the moft cruel diforders.

This hiftory is fcarcely any more than a vaft scene of weakneffes, faults, crimes, and misfortunes; among which ⚫ we find fome virtues and fome fucceffes; as fertile vallies are ⚫ often seen among chains of rocks and precipices. This is likewife the cafe with other histories.'

Two epiftles accompany thefe annals: with them, as they feem to contain fome literary anecdotes, not unworthy of regard, we fhall clofe this article.-It may be remembered, that in our account of another work * afcribed to this ingenious author, we took notice of its having been openly difclaimed by Mr. Voltaire: the firit of the above mentioned epiftles is intended to explain in what manner that performance was obtruded on the public. It is inferted at the beginning of the first volume, and is entitled, A letter from Mr. de V. to Mr. de profeffor of history.

‹ Sir,

You must have perceived, that the pretended univerfal history, printed at the Hague, and faid to be carried down to Charles V. tho' it contains lefs than the title promises, by < more than a whole century, was not originally intended to fee the light. It is no other than a crude collection made in the course of old ftudies, in which I was engaged about fifteen years ago, with a person of a most respectable character, ⚫ far tranfcending her fex and the age in which the lived, whofe

The General Hiftory and State of Europe, &c. of which an account may be feen in the 10th volume of the Review, page 197. G 3

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