In The Time Of Leopold The Factious Nobility Were Kept In Check, And The
Industrious Classes, Mercantile And Agricultural, Encouraged.
The peasantry
were, and are, the most affluent in Europe; and this is no small incitement
to the industry that prevails.
On the elevation of Leopold to the throne of
the Caesars, the present Grand Duke succeeded in Tuscany; and he followed
the same system that Leopold did, and was equally beloved by his subjects.
Tuscany was the only country in Italy that did not desire a change at the
period of the French conquest, and the only state wherein the French were
not hailed as deliverers. The Tuscans exhibited a very honorable spirit on
the occasion of Buonaparte's visit to the Grand Duke in 1797. They went
together to the Theatre della Pergola, and on their entering into the Grand
Ducal box, the Grand Duke was hailed with cries of Viva il Nostro
Sovrano: now this proof of attachment at a period when Buonaparte was
all-mighty in Italy, when the Grand Duke was but an inferior personage, at
a time too when it was doubtful whether or not he would be dethroned, and
in the very presence of the mighty conqueror, reflects great honor and
credit on the Tuscan character. Buonaparte was much struck at this proof of
disinterested attachment on the part of the Florentines towards their
Sovereign, and told the Grand Duke very ingenuously that he had received
orders to revolutionize the country, from the French Directory; but that as
he perceived the people were so happy, and the Prince so beloved, he could
not and would not attempt to make any change.
The applause given to the Grand Duke at this critical period is so much the
more creditable to the Florentines as they in general receive their Prince,
on his presenting himself at the theatre, with no other ceremonial than
rising once and bowing. There is no fulsome God save the King repeated
even to nausea, as at the English theatres. In fact none of the Italians
pay that servile adulation to their Sovereigns that the French and English
do.
The changes projected in Italy at the treaty of Luneville by Napoleon then
first Consul, and his further views on Italy, induced him at length to
eject an Austrian Prince from the sovereignty of a country which he
intended to annex to the French Empire. The Grand Duke was indemnified with
a principality in Germany, where he remained until the downfall of Napoleon
in 1814; subsequent arrangements again restored him to the sway of the land
he loved so well, and he returned to Florence as if he had only been absent
on a tour, finding scarcely any change in the laws and customs and habits
of the country; for tho' Tuscany was first erected into a Kingdom by the
title of Etruria, and afterwards annexed to the French Empire, the
institutions and laws laid down by Leopold and followed strictly by his
successor were preserved; very little innovation took place, and the few
innovations that were effected were decided ameliorations; for the Emperor
Napoleon had too much tact not to preserve and protect the good he found,
tho' he abolished all old abuses.
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