ower, now incapable of sinking into
the oppressor, was henceforth restricted to the more modest part of an
ally.

The ambition of the Swedish monarch aspired unquestionably to
establish a power within Germany and to attain a firm footing in the
centre of the empire, which was inconsistent with the liberties of the
Estates. His aim was the imperial crown; and this dignity, supported
by his power and maintained by his energy and activity, would in his
hands be liable to more abuse than had ever been feared from the House
of Austria. Born in a foreign country, educated in the maxims of
arbitrary power, and by principles and enthusiasm a determined enemy
to Popery, he was ill qualified to maintain inviolate the constitution
of the German States, or to respect their liberties. The coercive
homage which Augsburg, with many other cities, was forced to pay to
the Swedish crown, bespoke the conqueror rather than the protector of
the empire; and this town, prouder of the title of a royal city than
of the higher dignity of the freedom of the empire, flattered itself
with the anticipation of becoming the capital of his future kingdom.
His ill-disguised attempts upon the Electorate of Mentz, which he
first intended to bestow upon the Elector of Brandenburg, as the dower
of his daughter Christina, and afterward destined for his chancellor
and friend Oxenstiern, evinced plainly what liberties he was disposed
to take with the constitution of the empire. His allies, the
Protestant princes, had claims on his gratitude, which could be
satisfied only at the expense of their Roman Catholic neighbors, and
particularly of the immediate Ecclesiastical Chapters; and it seems
probable a plan was early formed for dividing the conquered provinces
(after the precedent of the barbarian hordes who overran the German
empire) as a common spoil, among the German and Swedish confederates.
In his treatment of the Elector Palatine, he entirely belied the
magnanimity of the hero, and forgot the sacred character of a
protector. The Palatinate was in his hands, and the obligations both
of justice and honor demanded its full and immediate restoration to
the legitimate sovereign. But, by a subtlety unworthy of a great mind,
and disgraceful to the honorable title of protector of the oppressed,
he eluded that obligation. He treated the Palatinate as a conquest
wrested from the enemy, and thought that this circumstance gave him a
right to deal with it as he pleas