LEOPOLD IL, Holy Roman emperor, was born on the 5th of May 1747. After the death of his father, the emperor Francis I., in 1765, lie became grand-duke of Tuscany, a country which he ruled for twenty-five years in a thoroughly enlightened spirit. Earlier thou his brother, Joseph II., he saw the necessity of ecclesiastical reform, but he effected with moderation and good sense the changes which he considered advisable. Agriculture, industry, and commerce he encouraged in accordance with the ideas of his age, and Tuscany owed to him a well-conceived criminal code. He had even prepared a scheme for instituting representative government in Tuscany when, in 1790, he satceeded Joseph II. in the hereditary lands of the house of Hapsburg and in the empire. Joseph, with all his good intentions, had left his hereditary states iu much confusion ; and vigour and prudence were essential for the re-establishment of order. The chief difficulty was in the Netherlands, which were disinclined to respond to Leopold's advances. He despatched an army against them, and it entered Brussels on the 3d of December 1791. The country was then at his mercy ; but he acted with great discretion, restoring certain ancient rights which Joseph, in his zeal for improvement, had withdrawn. In Hungary, too, the emperor succeeded in calming popular excitement ; and on the 4th of August 1791 the treaty of Sistova was signed, bringing to an end the unlucky war which Joseph had waged with the Turks. The violence of the French Revolutionists produced a bad effect on the internal policy of Leopold, who supposed that it was necessary, not only to introduce a secret police, but to limit the freedom of the press. The same influences led him to conciliate Prussia, which had been always on its guard against Austria since the establishment of the Confederation of Princes by Frederick the Great. On the 27th of August 1791 the emperor and the king of Prussia met at Pilluitz ; and it was agreed that they should act together for the deliverance of Louis XVI. of France. In pursuance of this understanding a defensive and offensive treaty of alliance between Austria and Prussia was concluded on the 7th of February 1792 ; but the emperor's schemes were suddenly broken by death. He died on the 1st of March 1792, and was succeeded by his son, the emperor Francis II.