shown more anxiety to join the army than to continue his studies in which his priestly instructors had quite failed to interest him. Although on the death of his father, when he was in his twenty-fourth year, Joseph was appointed Emperor and co-Regent with his mother, yet he was allowed no real share in the administration; and for sixteen years he continued his education, not by the study of books but by observation, travel, and intercourse with men of all ranks, from the peasant upwards. Frequently travelling incognito he learned much that he could not otherwise have ascertained of the real state of the different classes of his subjects, and acquired great popularity by the frankness of his manner and many acts of kindness which from time to time were traced to his hands. Maria Theresa died in 1780, and Joseph, then in his fortieth year, entered upon the full discharge of his imperial duties.
Throughout the Empire the feudal system generally prevailed, vesting all power in the nobility and clergy, and holding the people in a state of vassalage, if not of serfdom. Joseph’s aim appears to have been to abolish feudal oppression and annihilate superstition. This end he hoped to attain by converting the Empire into one family directly under the imperial control, freed from all distinctions of religions, languages, and manners. As he proceeded to work out this scheme, it was seen to be paternal government with a vengeance, and as he acted as his own general and minister, every department of the State centering in himself, he soon, by violent and arbitrary acts, raised discontent on every side, so that on his early death, which occurred when he had reigned but ten years, he was regretted by few.[1]
- ↑ Joseph issued to the schools a politico-moral catechism, which among other extraordinary and incongruous precepts contained the following:—“Thou shalt forbear all occasions of dispute relative to matters of faith, and thou shalt according to the true principle of Christianity affectionately and kindly treat those who are not of thy communion.
“Thou shalt not hold in thy house any private assembly for devotion.“Thou shalt not transport out of the land hares’ skin and hares’ ‘fur.’“Thou shalt not keep any useless dogs.“Thou shalt not plant tobacco without permission of thy lord.”
