, Leopold, reigned in Tuscany
till, on the death of his elder brother on the 24th of December, 1789,
he was in his turn also called to ascend the imperial throne.
Thereupon the second son of Leopold became grand-duke in 1789, and
reigned as Ferdinand III. till 1824, when, on the 18th of June, his
son succeeded him as Leopold II. Now, though the sovereignty of
Tuscany was thus entirely and definitively separated from that of
Austria, all these princes were of the blood-royal of Austria, and
might in the course of Nature have succeeded to the imperial throne.
For this reason they were held, though only dukes of Tuscany, to be
entitled to the style and title "imperial and royal," according to the
custom of the House of Austria; and thus every grimy little
tobacco-shop and lottery-office in Tuscany, in the days when I first
knew it, in 1841, styled itself "imperial and royal."

The Tuscans had been greatly discontented when the arrangements of the
great powers of Europe, entered into without a moment's thought as to
the wishes of the population of the grand duchy on the subject, had
decided that they were to be ruled over by a German prince of whom
they knew absolutely nothing. It was not that the later Medici had
been popular, or either respected or beloved. The misgovernment of
especially the last two of the Medicean line had reduced the country
to the lowest possible social, moral and economical condition. But yet
the change from the known to the utterly unknown was unwelcome to the
people. They feared they knew not what changes and innovations in
their old easy-going if downward-tending ways. But Providence, in the
shape of the ambitions and intrigues of the great powers, had better
things in store for them than they dreamed of. The princes of the
Lorraine dynasty so ruled as not only quickly to gain the respect and
affection of their subjects, but gradually to render Tuscany by far
the most civilized and prosperous portion of Italy. The first three
princes of the Lorraine line were enlightened men, far in advance not
only of the generality of their own subjects, but of their
contemporaries in general. They were conscientious rulers, earnestly
desirous of ameliorating the condition of the people they were called
on to govern. Of the last of the line the same cannot in its entirety
be said. A portion of the eulogy deserved by his predecessors may be
awarded to him unquestionably. He was, I fully believe, a good and
cons