de of laws.
He ordered the German language alone to be used in public documents and
offices; declared the Roman Catholic religion to be dominant. There were
two thousand convents in Austria. He reduced them to seven hundred, and
cut down the number of thirty-two thousand idle monks to twenty-seven
hundred; and nobly issued an edict of toleration, granting to all
members of Protestant churches the free exercise of their religion. All
Christians, of every denomination, were declared to be equally eligible
to any offices in the State.

These enlightened innovations roused the terror and rage of bigoted
Rome. Pope Pius VI. was so much alarmed that he took a journey to
Vienna, that he might personally remonstrate with the emperor. But
Joseph was inflexible, and the Pope returned to Rome chagrined and
humiliated that he had acted the part of a suppliant in vain.

The serfs were all emancipated from feudal vassalage, and thus, in an
hour, the slavery under which the peasants had groaned for ages was
abolished. He established universities, academies and public schools;
encouraged literature and science in every way, and took from the
priests their office of censorship of the press, an office which they
had long held. To encourage domestic manufactures he imposed a very
heavy duty upon all articles of foreign manufacture. New roads were
constructed at what was called enormous expense, and yet at expense
which was as nothing compared with the cost of a single battle.

Joseph, soon after his coronation, made a visit to his sister Maria
Antoinette in France, where he was received with the most profuse
hospitality, and the bonds of friendship between the two courts were
much strengthened. The ambition for territorial aggrandizement seems to
have been an hereditary disease of the Austrian monarchs. Joseph was
very anxious to attach Bavaria to his realms. Proceeding with great
caution he first secured, by diplomatic skill, the non-intervention of
France and Russia. England was too much engaged in the war of the
American Revolution to interfere. He raised an army of eighty thousand
men to crush any opposition, and then informed the Duke of Bavaria that
he must exchange his dominions for the Austrian Netherlands. He
requested the duke to give him an answer in eight days, but declared
peremptorily that in case he manifested any reluctance, the emperor
would be under the painful necessity of compelling him to make the
exchange.

The