Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/66

 He never developed a systematic and energetic action in finance, in the management of the affairs of the interior, or of war, but limited his participation in administrative affairs to an attendance of the meetings of the privy council. He followed strictly the decisions of his council-board, and especially the opinion of his confidential counsellor, Eggenberg; he decided nothing independently. He justified later his pliant course by saying that he would rather have his ministers bear the responsibility of weighty transactions than burden his conscience by acting for himself. What further time he had at his disposal he devoted to the pleasures of the chase, of which he was passionately fond, gave at least three to four days of each week to this noble diversion, and no demands of business, though ever so pressing, could keep him from it. In addition to the chase, which cost him very considerable sums, he, in common with all the Hapsburgs, loved music, and, like Maximilian II., appropriated large amounts in obtaining eminent artists. In pursuing these private pleasures, he paid no regard to the limited incomes and financial embarrassment of his lands. He was even more lavish in rewarding the labors of his confidential servants. If large sums fell into his hands, he could not keep them twenty-four hours, and either gave these away unasked, or allowed them to be begged from him, thus acting in defiance of the public needs. His expensive mode of life and his extravagant gifts reveal the secret of his sinking, notwithstanding the wholesale confiscations which fell into his hands, ever more deeply into financial distress, and of his being unable, not only in Bohemia, but also in Germany, to maintain the results of the victories which, in the beginning, he achieved.

In one branch, however, of his governmental action he