Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

By an edict of the Emperor lately issued, Vassalage is totally abolished in Hungary, and the very name of it ordered to be no longer used. Every man has liberty to marry, to learn any art, to work for himself, to sell, mortgage, exchange, and alienate his property, only sending to his Lord the accustomed fees; in short, every vassal in Hungary is restored to the full and perfect enjoyment of personal freedom, without the least restriction whatever. In the edict issued on this occasion, his Imperial Majesty has this liberal sentiment: "I not only (says he) would unshackle the mind from a base superstition which enervates it, but I wish to direct its active powers to national services. Let the gloomy Priest be driven from his cloister, to benefit society with his talents; and let the most unenlightened Religious, who were fettered by bigotry, look abroad upon the face of the day. Artisans, manufacturers and farmers benefit a state, while a multitude of religious drones encumber and oppress it."