constrained to satisfy the demands of the French brigands. In the
Netherlands, the German faction once more rose in open insurrection;
in 1798, the young men, infuriated by the conscription and by their
enrolment into French regiments, flew to arms, and torrents of blood
were shed in the struggle, in which they were unaided by their German
brethren, before they were again reduced to submission. The English
also landed at Ostend, but for the sole purpose of destroying the
sluices of the canal at Bruges.

The French divided the beautiful Rhenish provinces, yielded to them
almost without a blow by Germany, into four departments: First, Roer,
capital Aix-la-Chapelle; besides Cologne and Cleves. Secondly,
Donnersberg, capital Mayence; besides Spires and Zweibrucken. Thirdly,
Saar, capital Treves. Fourthly, Rhine and Moselle, capital Coblentz;
besides Bonn. Each department was subdivided into cantons, each canton
into communes. The department was governed by a perfect, the canton by
a sub-prefect, the commune by a mayor. All distinction of rank,
nobility, and all feudal rights were abolished. Each individual was a
citizen, free and equal. All ecclesiastical establishments were
abandoned to plunder, the churches alone excepted, they being still
granted as places of worship to believers, notwithstanding the
contempt and ridicule into which the clergy had fallen. The
monasteries were closed. The peasantry, more particularly in Treves,
nevertheless, still manifested great attachment to Popery. Guilds and
corporations were also abolished. The introduction of the ancient
German oral law formerly in use throughout the empire, the institution
of trial by jury, which, to the disgrace of Germany, the Rhenish
princes, after the lapse of a thousand years, learned from their
Gallic foe, was a great and signal benefit.