I did, indeed, at once perceive this long-standing and deep-rooted abuse, which was present in practically every department, but hard as I fought against it, all my efforts were vain, and the situation at the time forbade me from forcibly remedying it at once.
Most of these Ministers had acquired great prestige, at home and abroad, in my father’s day, and their long service and their own merits had brought them much experience and had also won them the respect and confidence of the public. I needed their experience, and most of them were Ministers of long standing, of undeniable merit, and honorable men. I could not do without them in those critical days without making matters worse still, and was consequently unable to rid myself at once of their excessive ascendancy, so that I had perforce to leave matters as they then stood, until times should become easier.
This brings me to
Section II
viz., to the abuses in the Government of Austria which had gradually crept in under my predecessors.
Seeing that piety is that basic principle in virtue whereof a Prince may hope to receive God’s blessing, which my forbears had also most diligently pursued to the immortal glory of their memories – and so visibly was God’s grace and His mighty support manifested in the extreme dangers which threatened the Monarchy with ruin, that the greater the danger, the more marvelous was the help that came from God, and I myself manifestly owe to it my whole salvation, and have further perceived, in the many quite extraordinary tribulations which pressed on me, how, trusting faithfully in Divine Providence I was in no wise left unaided – I cannot therefore do otherwise than enjoin my successors, for their good, to follow most carefully the example of their forbears, and consequently on every occasion, above all else and at all times to set their whole confidence on God and on the hope of His mighty support, and in all things to keep a pure and uncorrupt mind.
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