No event affecting the Germanic empire took place after this till the French revolution. By it the German states on the left of the Rhine were first overwhelmed : after wards the power of Austria was reduced ; Bavaria, \Vur temberg, and Saxony, raised to the rank of kingdoms, and their territories considerably increased, principally by the annexation of the smaller states. Shortly after the treaty of Presburg, most of the princes in the western and southern divisions of Germany separated themselves from the Germanic body, and formed themselves into a league, under the protection of the Emperor of the French, under the title of the Confederated States of the Rhine. The contracting parties to this confederation were, the Empe ror of the French on the one part, and, on the other, the Kings of Bavaria and Wurtemberg ; the Elector Arch Chancellor, and the Elector of Baden; the Duke of Berg, the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, the Princes of Nas sau, "vVeilbourg, Usingen, Hohenzollern, Hechingen, Sie maringen, Salm Salm, Salm Harberg, Isersbourg, Bris tein, Lichtenstein, the Duke of Aremburg, and the Count of Leyen. By the act of the confederation, all the laws of the empire were abrogated with respect to these states : their common interests were to be discussed in an assembly of the league at Frankfort, divided into two colleges of kings and princes : the members of the confederation to be independent of foreign powers, and not to enter into any kind of service except among themselves ; the Emperor Napoleon to be protector of the alliance ; all the princes, .counts, Re. within the circle of the allied territory to be subject to the confederation ; every continental war in which the Emperor of the French or the confederated states might be engaged, to be common to both ; the con tingents to be as lollows France 200,000 men ; Bavaria 30,000 ; Wurtemberg 12,000 ; Baden 8000 ; Berg 5000 ; Darmstadt 4000 ; Nassau, Hohenzollern, and the others, 4000 ; other German princes were to be admitted into the alliance, when conducive to the common interest. See CONFEDERATION of the Rhine.
By a solemn act, dated at Vienna on the 6th of August 1806, the Emperor of Germany, after adverting to the con sequences of the treaty of Presburg, and to the formation of the confederation of the states of the Rhine, absolved all his German provinces and states of the empire from their reciprocal duties towards the Germanic empire ; and the electors, princes and states, and all that belonged to the empire, from the duties by which they were united to him as their legal chief; at the same time abdicating the impe rial government of the Germanic empire, renouncing the title of Emperor of Germany, and assuming that of Em peror of Austria.
The confederation of the Rhine was dissolved by the overthrow of Bonaparte, when the Emperor of Austria was solicited again to take the title, and exercise the privileges of Emperor of Germany : this, however, he declined. The internal regulation of the Germanic empire, and conse quently every thing that relates to the constitution of the smaller states, and their mutual relation to one another, and to the more powerful princes, it is understood, has been left, by the Congress of Vienna, to a congress of German powers alone, to be assembled for that express purpose.
III. As the most important branches of the statistics of Germany naturally belong to the principal kingdoms which it contains, reference must be had to those kingdoms, un der the articles AUSTRIA, BAVARIA, HANOVER) PRUSSIA, &c. for more full information on this point : here we must
confine ourselves to an outline.
We have already seen, that, in ancient times, the Rhine was reckoned the boundary between Germany and Gaul. During the usurpations of revolutionary France, that limit was renewed ; but, on the restoration of the Bourbons, the boundaries of Germany, with very little exception or dif ference, were fixed as they had existed previously to the Revolution. The exception principally related to that cor ner of Germany in the vicinity of Liege, which was an nexed to the new kingdom of the Netherlands. Germany may therefore still be considered as bounded on the west by France and the Netherlands. After the Rhine has reached the border of the Dutch provinces, an indistinct line between them and Germany runs northward to the mouth of the Ems ; from which point the ocean takes up the northern boundary only interrupted by the Danish pe ninsula, which commences beyond the Duchy of Holstein... The German coast of the Baltic then succeeds, terminating with the extreme point of Pomerania. The eastern boun dary is very indistinct, in consequence of the mixture of the Slavonian with the German tongue and manners, and the annexation of part of Poland to Prussia and Austria. Brandenburg, Silesia, Moravia, the Austrias, and Carniola, down to the Gulf of Venice, lie on the eastern boundary. The southern or Italian boundary, as far as the country of the Grisons, is formed by the Venetian states. The north ern limit of Switzerland is the southern limit of Germany to the borders of France. It lies chiefly between the 46th and 54th degrees of north latitude ; its greatest length is about 600 miles; its breadth rather more than 500.. Its extent is variously reckoned, from 11,124 German square miles, (15 to a degree,) to 12,796 ; but, in the latter mea surement, Silesia is included. The climate is in general temperate, though the winter in the north is sometimes very long and severe. The air is every where salubrious, except in a few inai.shy places towards the North Sea. The northern part is mostly low : the first mountains that occur, on proceeding southwards, are the Hartz in Hano ver ; to the south-cast of these arc the Hesse mountains; towards the Rhine and Mayne there are other scattered ridges. That corner which lies between the upper part of the Rhine and Switzerland, comprising the Black Forest, is throughout a mountainous tract. On the east, the whole of Bohemia is surrounded '.nth mountains, which branch on the east to Moravia, and communicate with the Carpathian mountains. To the south of the Danube are the mountains of Carinthia; and to the west of these the Tyrolese Alps. As might be expected from its extent, there is great variety of soil in Germany. The north-cast is covered with sandy plains and heaths; in the north-west are swamps and marshes. Some of the interior and south-western districts possess a very fertile soil. In ancient times, Germany was covered with forests, of which there are only now detached remains ; the most extensive is the Black Forest. Thu ringia and the Hartz mountains abound in timber ; and the passion for the chace has preserved or created many ex tensive woods in the middle and south.