The semi-weekly messenger., 1907-09-03

pra2TndLlc SANCTION, aSSenteQ 10 Dy
nearly all the leading powers of Eu-
rope, in which he diverted the success
ion to the throne to his daughter,
Maria Theresa. But it looked an easy
thing to break in pieces the huge fab
ric of an empire in the hands of Weak
woman.
The first to violate the faith of the
pragmStic sanction was Frederick the
Great, whose father not long before
had left to him the kingdom of Prus-
sia, with 10000 men, the best discip-
lined army in Europe, to preserve that
Kingdom. Reviewing some old claim
TO lower Silesia, Frederick invaded
the territory of Maria Theresa, and
the storm of war burst on her head
with the suddenness of a tropical hur-
ricane.
An historian has sard that nothing
has contributed so much TO the ad-
vantage and aggrandizement Of the
house of Hapsburg as it's fair daugh-
ters, who have married into nearly all
the principal courts of Europe; and it
is an old saying that Austria is more
successful in the court of Venus than
on the field of Mars" Maria Theresa
was young, beautiful and high-spIr-
ited and there is no fairer picture in
all history than her appeal, with her
infant son in her arms, to her Hun
garian mobiles, who crowded about her
dacbipo
"MOriamur nOstrO pro vege Maria,"
(Hungarians, when excited, always
speak French and call their ruler
king" though she was a woman
England did not draw any sword in
defense of the distressed princess, but
furnished her with money, which was
very welcome 1t is astonishing how
often through history England is found
holding the purse-strings. John Bull"
is as brave as lion, but when he is
fighting for other people he generally
prefers to fight with his pocketbook.
Maria Theresa was terribly scourged
by Frederick the Great for a while;
but, before the Seven FEARS War end
ed, he was seriously thinking of TAX
Ing the poison that he always carried
under the flaps of his waistcoat, and
he was saved from destruction only
by the death of Elizabeth Petrona,
Czarine Of Russia, and the ally of Ma
ria Theresa, and the accession to the
throne of Car Peter, who withdrew his
army from the support of the Austrian
Empress. The dark stain on the char
acter Of Maria Theresa was her conniv-
ance in the Infamous partition of
Poland
He son, Joseph II, who succeeded
her, was carefully educated, polished,
cultured, generous-hearted, dearly low
ing his people, and laboring cease
lessly for their welfare He delighted
to throw off the trammels OF the court
and mingle in a democratic way with
his subjects. He planned many exten-
slVe reforms: but although he was q
faVorite with such encyclopedias as
DurVarge, he was a visionary and a
dreamer, and wanting in force of char
acter
Austria during the French Revolution:
and the Royalists long cherished the
hope that he had both the power and
the will to preserve the monarchy of
France from ruin and save the life of
his sister, Maria Antionette, another
OF the fair women of the house of
Hapsburg, consort of Louis XVI.
About the time that this unfortun-
ate queens head fell under the gull
lotine, Austria was hard pressed to save
herself from obstruction by this same
French revolution.
During the last ten years of the
eighteenth and the first ten years of
the nineteenth centuries Austria 'trod
the wine press of the cruelest humili-
alton of all it's history. It's court was
and is now one Of the most aristOcrat-
ic in Europe, and was made the sport
and prey of the ''Corsican upstart,''
Napoleon Bonaparte From the time
that he took the command of the army
of Italy, to his campaign of 1912, he
was the "black beast" of Austria,
stripping her of her possessions, hum
bling her pride, debating terms to her
Aulic Council, and twice invading her
capital with the sword of the conquer
or. At last, after divorcing Beauhar-
mais, he demanded in marriage
princess of that proud house of haps-
burg, Maria Louisa, daughter of Fran
els H.
The reign of the Austrian Emperor,
who has just celebrated his birthday,
has been one of comparative peace and
quiet, though it has not been exempt
from the cares that beset all earthly
crowns. Before he was thirty years
old Francis Joseph was subjected to
much tribulation and vexation of spir
hx-N +ho,, &c