deed, the war had
destroyed the sentiments which produced it, and political motives
became stronger than religious. Oxenstiern and Richelieu became the
master spirits of the contest, and, in the recesses of their cabinets,
regulated the campaigns of their generals. Battles were lost and won
on both sides, and innumerable intrigues were plotted by interested
statesmen. After all parties had exhausted their resources, and
Germany was deluged with the blood of Spaniards, Hollanders,
Frenchmen, Swedes, besides that of her own sons, the peace of
Westphalia was concluded, (1648,)--the most important treaty in the
history of Europe. All the princes and states of the empire were
reestablished in the lands, rights, and prerogatives which they
enjoyed before the troubles in Bohemia, in 1619. The religious
liberties of the Lutherans and Calvinists were guaranteed, and it was
stipulated that the Imperial Chamber should consist of twenty-four
Protestant members and twenty-six Catholic, and that the emperor
should receive six Protestants into the Aulic Council, the highest
judicial tribunal in the empire. This peace is the foundation of the
whole system of modern European politics, of all modern treaties, of
that which is called the freedom of Germany, and of a sort of balance
of power among all the countries of Western Europe. Dearly was it
purchased, by the perfect exhaustion of national energies, and the
demoralizing sentiments which one of the longest and bloodiest wars in
human history inevitably introduced.

* * * * *

REFERENCES.--Schiller's History of the Thirty Years' War.
Russell's Modern Europe. Coleridge's Translation of
Wallenstein. Kohlrausch's History of Germany. See also a
history of Germany in Dr. Lardner's Cyclopedia. History of
Sweden. Plank on the Political Consequences of the
Reformation. The History of Schiller, however is a classic,
and is exceedingly interesting and beautiful.

CHAPTER XI.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF CARDINALS RICHELIEU AND MAZARIN.

While Germany was rent with civil commotions, and the power of the
emperors was limited by the stand taken against it by the Protestant
princes, France was ruled with an iron hand, and a foundation was laid
for the despotism of Louis XIV. The energetic genius of Cardinal
Richelieu, during the whole period of the thirty years' war, affected
the councils of all the different courts of Europe. H