In the year 1781, the Emperor Joseph the Second came to Brussels, in order to indulge his paternal feelings as a Monarch with the contemplation and view of his Subjects, and also to be inaugurated; and perhaps upon no occasion that has ever occurred in the most volatile Nation, was there greater joy more universally expressed. For some time before his arrival, the whole Country was in motion; and, even with them, domestic industry stopped its usual persevering pace, suspended in the eager, anxious expectation of his arrival. Every thing in the birth, education, natural disposition and person of the young Emperor, united to impress his Subjects with the most exalted opinion of his goodness, and to inspire all ranks of people with the most fortunate presages of a wise and beneficent government. Nor did he disappoint them: his conduct, when among them, is handed over to remembrance, by a variety of acts of benevolence and condescension, which shewed that the grandeur of the Monarch had not made him forget the nature of the Man, and that his heart was better fitted for the mild, domestic enjoyments of a Subject, than the stern and unbending hardihood fit for a King: for I am perfectly of opinion with the celebrated Junius, that there are virtues in a private Man which are vices in a King; and that the Monarch of a Country, in order to preserve respect, should avoid familiarity, and keep his person sacred from too general observation. Shakspeare has put into the mouth of his Henry the Fourth, a beautiful expression on this subject, well worth the attention of Kings——
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common hackney’d in the eyes of men,
Opinion, that did help me to the Crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder’d at:
That men would tell their children, This is he.”