appeared that men were dissatisfied with the old stiff and cold religious formality, and were longing for a vernal season of spiritual life. Even in the papal communion was something of this description perceivable, among the Mystics, Quietists, Piatists, and some other classes of Roman Catholics; and in the Greek church, those who were called the people of the ancient faith, were In the Rea contrast to the dominant system. formed church appeared the Methodists; and in the German Protestant church, the Pietists and Herrnhuters. The opposition, and, in some instances, the persecution, which those parties had to experience from the dominant churches, preserved them from lukewarmness and inaction. And there was a beneficial reaction which they imperceptibly wrought upon the parties that opposed them; and whether in arousing to emulation those from whom they were shut out, as in the case of the Methodists, or by working like leaven among those in whose external connexion they remained, as did the Pietists, its importance was still the same, and preserved the visible church from more general and fatal laxity.

XII.FREDERIC II. OF PRUSSIA, AND MARIA THE RESA.

WITH the year 1740 commenced a new and important period of history. The male line of the house of Hapsburg, having given to Germany sixteen successive emperors, had now become The throne of Prussia was filled by

extinct.

Frederic II., who raised his kingdom to become the second German power, and put all Europe in motion by his wars; while, by his patronage of French education, he laid Germany open to a flood of infidelity. In the same year the throne of the apostate western church was mounted by Benedict XIV., who was the first that, of his own accord, began to see that the period for unlimited papal dominion over crowns and consciences was gone by; a fact to which his successors have become wilfully blind. The mock sun of superstition had long passed its meridian, and the darkness of infidelity had very considerably succeeded it. Faith had generally governed the Christian world till the rise of the Papacy; with this was superstition all along predominant; the authority of the latter declining with that of the former, was preceded by infidelity: and whenever superstition and bigotry shall regain ascendancy, and become allied with infidelity, then will there indeed be suffering days for Christendom.

Charles vi. had purchased, at a dear rate, the recognition of the pragmatic sanction: but the policy of this period no longer partook of the simpler and more honest principles of former ages; it was now governed by mere self-interest. That emperor had no sooner departed this life, on the 20th of October, 1740, than ambition was displayed in all quarters to obtain a share of his dominions. Frederic II., who had substantial claims to some Silesian principalities, invaded Silesia before the end of that year; for his thrifty father had left him an army of seventy thousand well-disciplined men, and plenty of

Maria

money. He defeated the Austrians near Mollwitz; and as Bavaria, Saxony, Spain, and France had joined him with the same ambitious views, a large part of Austria, together with Bohemia, was reduced to their dominion, and the partition of Austria among themselves was now resolved on. The elector of Bavaria was made king of Bohemia, and even emperor of Germany, in 1745, with the title of Charles VII. Theresa, the daughter and heiress of the late emperor Charles VI., applied to her faithful Hungarians, and, with their aid, she expelled the allied enemy from Austria and Bohemia. Moreover, George II., of England, brought an army to her assistance, drove the French out of Germany, and induced Frederic 11. to make peace. The Austrian troops marched into Bavaria, and occupied the whole country; the emperor Charles VII. fled to Frankfort, and died in that same year, 1745, at Münich. His son was obliged to recognize the pragmatic sanction; and Francis of Lorraine, who had married Maria Theresa, was chosen emperor, by the name of Francis 1. Meanwhile, Frederic II. had invaded Bohemia a second time, and had gained one victory after another; likewise, a French army, under marshal Saxe, had successfully opposed the power of Austria in the Netherlands. Peace, however, was effected with Frederic, in 1745, at Dresden; and even France acceded, in 1748, to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, after the empress Elizabeth of Russia had sent a Russian force into Germany to the assistance of Maria Theresa. Silesia was, by this treaty, given up to Prussia;

and Parma and Placentia to Spain. Thus terminated the war about the Austrian succession.

How changeable politics at that time were, is evident from the seven years' war that not long afterwards broke out. Maria Theresa, who employed the interval of peace in effecting wise and beneficial arrangements for the domestic government of her states, had still looked all along with no little dissatisfaction at the wresting of Silesia from her dominions, and had watched for an opportunity of recovering it. Eight years had hardly passed since the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, when preparations were again on foot for another war. In the former contest for Silesia, the king of England had rendered her important help; but now he became her enemy, by taking part with Prussia. The former hostile alliance had been designed for the partition of Austria itself; but now Austria, Russia, Saxony, and France, united for the partition of Prussia. The cause of this alienation on the part of England, and of her unwise interference in continental warfare, was a quarrel with France respecting the North American colonies; as also the design of obtaining a protection for Hanover against France. Brunswick, likewise, and Hesse, took the side of Frederic. The latter did not wait till he should be attacked, but marched his troops into Saxony by surprise, took Dresden, and made the Saxon army prisoners, A.D. 1756. brought a declaration of war against him from the electoral princes themselves, and Frederic was now menaced with danger on every side. Victory and defeat went on, alternating on both

This

sides during the succeeding years, in which Frederic lost the hard fought battle of Kunnersdorf, 1759, and his condition was by every one considered desperate, till he was again successful in the battles of Liegnitz and Torgau. Frederic's entire self-possession, his wise improvement of circumstances that were overlooked by others, and his quickness of discernment and penetration, allowed him not to despond in the most critical situations, but always prompted him to some means of relief. Indeed, it was God who upheld and still prospered him; because, had Prussia fallen, the main support of Protestantism in Germany had fallen with it; and because this monarch was destined to bear a conspicuous part in the great political movements of Europe during many years to come. The unexpected death of the Russian empress Elizabeth, in 1762, is an instance of this; for from that time circumstances changed very considerably in favour of Prussia. Her successor, Peter III., immediately made peace; and the other powers, being weary of the impoverishing war, followed his example. Unimportant as appeared the first occasion of the war, nearly all Europe had become more or less involved in it; and it was one consequence of the new politics, that nearly every war affected all Europe; a consequence to which the undue concern to preserve the balance of power had not a little contributed. While in Germany, Austrian, Russian, and French armies were conflicting with the Prussians and the English, France and England were also prosecuting the war in their American colonies,