*5 cuv' V Cornell IBmrmitg Jitotg THE GIFT OF l/S..,J.A...b..-.o^^ ■-' ■■' tt V-.,-.. ^ .. A. i^s-ooi- zzjilfd ■' DATE DUE 0ct30'4l NoV20'47R WlrOim The evolution of an empire. o.in,an? ^^^4 031 324 191 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924031 3241 91 THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE A BRIEF HISTOBICAL SKETCH OF GEKMANY BY MARY PARMELE NEW YORK WILLIAM BEVERLEY HAEISOlSr, 59 Fifth Avbnub 1892 cornellX A-^s'ooLf ' CoprwQHT, 1892, et PARMELE & CHATFBK. Press of J. J. Mttle i Co. AatoT Place, New Torfe CONTEI^TS. Chapter I. FAOE Indo-European Migrations — Divisions of the Aryan Family into European Races — Laying the Founda- tions of the German Empire , 5 Chattek II. Hermann — Subdivisions of the Teutonic, Race 10 Chapteb III. Ulfila — Migrations of Teutonic Races — Fall of Rome before Alaric — Hunnish Invasion — Modern Europe foreshadowed 13 Chapter IV. Anglo-Saxon Occupation of Britain 19 Chapter V. Teuton Occupation of Gaul— Final Severing of Connec- tion with Roman Empire— Clevis, King of Prance — Merovingian Kings — Pippin — Beginning of Car- lovingian Line 23 CONTENTS. Chapter VL TASa Charlemagne — Separation of France and Germany — Growth of Spiritual Power — Conflict between Pope Gregory VII. and Henry TV. — Entire Supremacy of the Church. . . .. . . . . . ... .......... 27 Chapteb Vll. Europe in the Hands of Three Men— Charles V., Fran- cis I., and Henry VIII. — Indulgences sold by Leo X.— Birth of Protestantism 34 Chapter VIIL Thirty Tears' War — Decay of the German Empire. ... 40 Chapter IX. Napoleon Bonaparte — German Empire Extinct — Waterloo — German States confederated, with Aus- tria at the Head 43 Chapter X. Schleswig-Holstein — Bismarck — ^War with Austria — KSniggtStz 47 Chapter XI. Napoleon UI. — ^War with Prance — Germans in Paris- William crowned Grerman Emperor at Versailles. . 65 Chapter XII. Death of Emperor William — ^Death of Frederick — William H. Emperor — ^His Policy — Situation in Europe 59 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. CHAPTER I. FoTTNDATiow building is neither pictu- resque nor especially interesting, but it is indispensable. However fair the structure is to be, one must first lay the rough-hewn stones upon which it is to rest. It would be much pleasanter in this sketch to dis- play at once the minarets and towers, and stained-glass windows ; but that can only be done when one's castle is in Spain, Would we comprehend the Germany of to-day, we must hold firmly in our minds an epitome of what it has been, and see vividly the devious path of its develop- ment through the ages. The Grerman nation is of ancient lineage, 6 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIEE. and indeed belongs to the royal line of haman descent, the Aryan ; its ancestral roots running back until lost in the heart of Asia, in the mists of antiquity. The home of the Aryan race is shrouded in mystery, as are the impelling causes which sent those successive tides of humanity into Europe. But we know with certainty that when the last great wave spread over Eastern Europe, or Russia, about one thousand years before Christ, the submergence of that continent was complete. Before the coming of the Aryan, the Rhine flowed as now ; the Alps pierced the sky with their glistening peaks as they do to-day ; the Danube, the Rhone, hurried on, as now, toward the sea. Was it all a beautiful, unpeopled solitude waiting in silence for the richly endowed Asiatic to come and possess it ? Par from it. It was teeming with humanity — if, indeed, we may call such the race which modern research and discovery has revealed to us. EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 7 It is only within the last thirty years that anything whatever has been known of prehistoric man ; but now we are able to reconstruct him with probable accuracy. A creature, bestial in appearance and in life; dwelling in caves, which, however, a dawning sense of a higher humanity led him to decorate with carvings of birds and fishes ; but, certain it is, the brain which inhabited that skull was incapable of per- forming the mental processes necessary to the simplest form of civilization ; and life must have been to him simply a thing of fierce appetites and brutal instincts. Such was the being encountered by the Aryan, when he penetrated the mysterious land beyond the confines of Greece and Italy. The extermination, and perhaps, to some extent, assimilation, of this terrible race must have required centuries of brutalizing conflict, and, it is easy to imagine, would have produced Just such men as were the northern barbarians, who for five hundred years terrorized Europe : men insensible to 8 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIBE. . fear, terrible, fierce, but witli fine instincts for civilization — dormant Aryan germs, wMcli quietly developed when brought into contact with a superior race. The earliest Indo-European migration is supposed to have been into Greece and Italy, where was laid the basis for the civilization of the world. The second was probably into Western Europe and the British Isles ; then, after many centuries, the central, and last, and at a time com- paratively recent, into the Eastern portion of the continent. So by the fourth century b.o. three great divisions of the Aryan race occu- pied Europe north of Greece and Italy. The Keltic, the western ; the Teutonic, the central; the Slavonic, the eastern; and these, in turn, had ramified into new subdivisions or tribes. To state it, as in the pedigree of the individual, the Aryan was the founder, the father of the family ; Slav, Teuton, and Kelt the three sons. Gaul and Briton EVOLCTTIOW OP AN EMPIEE. 9 were sons of tlie Kelt; Saxon, Angle, Hel- vetian, etc., sons of the Teuton; and all alike grandchildren of the Aryan ; whom — to carry the illustration farther — we may imagine to have had older children, who long ago had left the paternal home and settled on the Mediterranean coast, under the new family names of Phoenician, Egyp-. tian, and Greek, apparently bearing few marks of kinship to these uncouth younger brothers whom we have found in Europe in this fourth century b.c., but with nevertheless the same cradle, and the same ancestral roots. It is the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family with which we have to do now. The river Rhine flowed between them and their Keltic brothers, and it was by the Keltic Grauls on the west side of this river that they were first called. Grermans, which, in the language of the Kelt, meant simply neighbors. CHAPTER 11. Geeece and Rome were unaware of the existence of the Teuton until about the year 330 b.c., when Pythias, a Greet navi- gator, came home from a voyage to the Bal- tic with terrible tales of the Goths whom he had met. Nearly one century before Christ the inhabitants of Italy were enabled to judge for themselves of the accuracy of the description. Driven from their homes by the inroads of the sea, the Goths poured in a hungry torrent down into the tempt- ing vineyards of Northern Italy. Gigan- tic in statui'e, with long yellow hair, eyes blue but fierce — what wonder that the people thought they were scarcely human, and fled affrighted, leaving them to enjoy the vineyards at their leisure. Accounts of this uncanny host reached EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 11 Rome, whicli soon knew of their breast- plates of iron, their helmets crowned with heads of wild beasts, their white shields glistening in the sun, and, more terrible than all, of their priestesses, clad in white linen, who prophesied and offered human sacrifices to their gods. But the sacrifices did not avail against the legions which the great Consul Marius led against them. The ponderous Goth was not yet a match for the finer skill of the Roman, and the invaders were exter- minated at Aix-la-Chapelle, 102 b.o. The women, in despair, slew first their children and then themselves, a few only surviving to be paraded in chains at the triumph accorded to Maiius on his return to Rome. Such was the first appearance of the Teu- ton in the Eternal City, and the last until five hundred years later, when the condi- tions were changed. At the time of this first invasion of the Goths they had made some progress in political and social organization, though T2 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIEE. of the simplest kind. Predatory in habits, and fierce as the wild beasts of their for- ests, they were, however, romantic in ideals, had a fine sense of the beautiful. They exalted woman, and honored mar- riage and the family relation to an extent beyond any ancient people. When I have said that, added to this, they had a glim- mering sense of human rights in communi- ties and in the State, it will be seen that the German race had the basis of a superior civilization; and when the Christian era dawned, though the world knew it not, a great nation was coming into organic form. At this period, Julius Caesar had made Roman provinces of Gaul and Britain; and now the wave of conquest naturally overflowed the boundary line into the land of the Teuton; and the German, in his barbaric simplicity, stood face to face with that finished human product, the astute, cultivated Roman. For centuries they fought — always on German soil — the legions often repulsed, EVOLUTION OF Aif EMPIRE. 13 yet pressing on and on, until a chain of Roman fortresses stretched from the Rhine to the Baltic, and the people were held — ^not subjugated — ^by Roman power. About the year 100 of our era there arose the first heroic figure in the history of Grermany, when Hermann made a pro- digious but ineffectual attempt to consoli^ date his people and expel the Romans. The colossal statue only recently erected in Grermany, is a tribute to the unhappy hero of eighteen centuries ago. At the time of this attempt the Ger- mans had learned much from the superior civilization by which they were invaded. They were no longer the barbarous race which had trampled down the vineyards of northern Italy two hundred years be- fore. Nor was this lesson in civilization yet over. For five hundred years Teuton and Roman continued the struggle. The one by the process growing wiser, richer in resource, and in supplementing his rude strength with the finer methods of old 14 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. civilizations, becoming a more and more dangerous adversary ; while the other saw himself more and more enfeebled, and, wearied with the conflict, felt decrepitude stealing surely over him. In the year 300 the Teutons had rami- fied into six branches — ^the Burgundians, Thuringians, Franks, Saxous, AUemani, and Goths — all one in race, but each with its own distinct traits and life. The AUe- mani were so called from aller-mannen — all men ; seeming to signify that this tribe was composed of the fragnients of many tribes. Why this tribal name should have become that of the whole German nation is not apparent. Obvicmsly the word AUemagne has this origin, just as Deutsch may be as readily traced to Teuton. But of these six tribes it was the Goths who first adopted Christianity, and took on the forms of a higher civilization. CHAPTER III. As some winged seed is wafted from a fair garden into a dark, distant forest, and there takes root and blossoms, so was tke seed-germ of Christianity caught by the wind of destiny, and carried from Palestine to the heart of pagan Germany, where, strange to say, it found congenial soil. The story is a romantic one. A Chris- tian boy in Asia Minor, while straying on the shores of the Mediterranean, was cap- tured by some Groths, who took their fair- haired prize home to their own land, and named him Ulfila. The boy, with his heart all aflanfie for the religion in which he had been nurt- ured, told his captors the story of Calvary -^of Christ and His gospel of peace and love — and lived to see the terrible sacrifi- cial altars replaced by the Cross. 16 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. The Goths had no alphabet, so UMla ittveated one, and then translated the Bible into their rude speech. Apart of; this translation is now preserved in Swe- den, and is the earliest extant specimen of. the Gothic language. Even to the un- learned observer, this Gothic version of the Lord's Prayer, written by Ulfila more than one thousand five hundred years ago, bears such strong marts of ldnshi,p to the German and. English versions that it can be .easily read by us to-day, and makes us realize how much of the Teuton has min- gled with our own life and speech. The enormous vitality of the. Teutons was. evinced in their restless desire to extend themselves. They were not com- fortable neighbors. The Franks made predatory incursions into Gaul, which tbey finally overran and possessed ; the Alle- mani, into Italy; the Saxons, in the same manner, overran Britain; while the stal- wart Goths addressed their blows to the Koman Empire-r-rthe common foe of aU — EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 17 until 410 Anno Domini, when, for a sec- ond time, Teuton feet trod the streets of Rome, this time not chained to the chariot of a Marius, but conquerors. And when the gates of the Eternal City yielded to the blows of Alaric, the Roman Empire virtually ceased to exist. So this rude people, which in the time of Julius Caesar was buried in the forests of Central Europe, in six hundred years from his time occupied all of Europe, and was beginning to lay the foundations of a new empire upon the fragments of the old. There is not time to tell how the newly Christianized and civilized Goths were now in turn attacked by the Huns, a race vastly more fierce and terrible than they had ever been, who swarmed down upon them suddenly, like the locusts of Egypt, and under the leadership of Attila swept everything before them; then, after leav- ing a track of blood and ashes through Germany, disappearing again over the steppes of Russia, fi'om whence they had 2 18 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIEE. mysteriously come ; a tremendous upturn- ing force, but bearing no relation to the future result more than the plough to the future grain. There had been no repose for Europe yet — ^incessant tribal changes ; a surging mass of humanity pouring from one land into another. The troubled continent was a great, seething caldron, from which was to emerge a new civilization. But soon after this final convulsion of the Hunnish invasion the migrations ceased, and now, about the year 570, the foundations of the present European divisions began to ap- pear. In Britain, subjugated by the Angles and Saxons, we see foreshadowed the Anglo-Saxon England of to-day ; in the country lying east and west of the Khine, France and Grermany begin to be outlined ; while the smaller German states are distinctly visible, some of them with geographical divisions almost the same as now. Modem Europe was beginning to crystallize. CHAPTER IV. I CANNOT resist the temptation of say- ing a few words about the Anglo-Saxon occupation of Britain, which, as it virt- ually converted us from Kelts into Teu- tons, is not a digression. From the time of Julius Caesar the island of Britain had been occupied by the Romans, and in consequence had be- come partly civilized and Christianized. Upon the fall of the empire, the Roman legions were withdrawn, and the people, left defenceless, became the prey of their own northern barbarians, the Picts and Scots ; the drama of Southern Eu- rope and the Goths being reenacted, on s^ diminished scale. In the fourth century the Britons implored the Angles and Saxons to come and protect them from these savages. Invited as allies, they came 20 EVOLTTTION OF AIT EMPIEE. as invaders, and Remained as conquerors, implanting their habits, speech, and pagan- ism upon the prostrate island. It was the extermination of this exotic paganism wMcli impelled to those deeds of valor re- cited in the Round Table romances, and which made King Arthur and his knights the theme of* poet and minstrel for cen- turies. But the Saxon had come to stay^, and Teuton and Kelt became merged, much as do the lion and lamb, after the former has dined ! The Teutonic Saxon may be said to have dined on the Keltic Briton, and remained master of the island until the Normans came, six centuries later, and in turn dominated, and made him bear the yoke of servitude. Nor was tHis French-speaking Norman, French at all, except by adoption ; being, in fact, the terrible Northman of two cen- turies before, on account of whose ravages the noble had entrenched himself in Ms strong castle, and the wretched serf had in EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIEE. 21 mortal terror sold himself and all that he possessed, for the protection of its solid walls and nioat; and thus had been laid the foundations of feudalism. He it was who, with long hair reeking with rancid oil, battle-axe, spear, and iron hook— with which to capture human and other prey — had held France in a state of unspeakable terror for centuries, but who had finally settled down as respect- able J?rench citizen in the sea-board prov- ince of Normandy, and in two centuries had made such wonderful improvement in manners, apparel, and speech, that the simple Saxon baron stood abashed before .the splendid refinements of his conquerors. The origin of this mystei^ous Northman is unknown ; but whatever it was, or who- ever he was, he certainly possessed Aryan germs of high potency. So the Saxon had built the solid walls of the racial structure upon a foundation of Britons ; and, though with no thought for beauty, had built well, with strong, 22 EVOLTTTION OF AN EMPIEE. true structural lines. It was the Norman who finished and decorated the structure, but he did not alter one of these lines ; the speech, traits, institutions, and habits of England being at the core Saxon to-day, while there is a decorative surface only of Norman. So when the Englishman calls himself with swelling pride, a Briton, h6 speaks wide of the mark. The Keltic Briton was buried fathoms deep under seven cen- turies of Saxon rule, and then, to make the extinction more complete, was overlaid with this brilliant lacq[uer of Norman sur- face. And if that mixed product, the English people, have any race paternity, it is Teutonic, and herein may lie tlie impos- sibility of making the English and Iiish a homogeneous people— the English Teuton and Irish Kelt being in the nature 6f things antagonistic, the particles refuse to combine chemically, and can only be brought together (to use the language of the chemist) in mechanical mixture. CHAPTER V. At the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England, and for three centuries later, the history of France and Germany were one and the same. The Roman Empire, in its decrepitude, found it a difficult task to retain its do- minion over Gaul, and so enlisted the Franks as allies. Thus was made a breach in the wall between the Kelt and the Teuton, through which in time flowed an irresistible German torrent, intermingling with the former population, and, by virtue of its superio'r strength, spreading itself over the land in permanent dominion ; and when Clovis, their Frankish leader, drove out from Gaul the last remnant of Roman power, in 483 of our era, all con- nection with the expiring empire was sev- ered. The loose confederation of tribes 24 EVOLUTION OF AK EMPIRE. waa gathered by the strong hand of the conquering Frank under one head, and Clovis was proclaimed king, with heredi- tary rights for his children. With this event the doors close upon antiquity, and we are in the path which leads swiftly to modern history. Clovis, the son of Merowig, gave his name to the dynasty thus founded. One of his first acts was the renouncing of paganism, through the influence of his wife, Clotilde, so that from their very birth France and Germany were Christian,, while England lingered for centuries under pagan rule. The grandchildren of Clovis and Clotilde, Siegfried and Brunhilde, were the heroes of the " Niebelungen Lied/' and their adventures inspired not alone the great German €pic, but have lent to the greatest music of modem times its maJestic,^ heroic swing. The real Brunhilde did not immolate herself upon her husband's funeral pile, EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 25 as in the musical romance, but an end more tragic and vastly more terrible was hers. After being tortured for three days, her hair was tied to the tail of a fiery horse, spurs plunged into his sides, and the unhappy qiieen was ground to fragments upon the stones of the Rue St. Honor^, Paris, where this tragedy oc- curred about the year 600 a.d. But the heroic strain in the MerOvingiaii blood soon exhausted itself. The kings became effeminate, luxurious, and, after a time, too indolent even to govern, and finally gave entire control of state affairs to a royal steward, known as "mai/re du palais^'' or major domus, who was indeed king (ife_/(*3toy with authority supreme over the king himself. Pippin was the last of these royal stew- ards. Conscious of his own superior fit- ness, he took the crown from the long, perfumed locks of the last Merovingian, king and placed it upon his own head. What matter that he had no drop of royal 26 EVOLUTION OP AN EMPIRE. blood in his veins ? He held the sceptre with firm hand, by the divine right of ability, leaving it upon his death to his son Karloman, or Charlemagne, who was destined to wield it by divine right of bom conqueror and ruler of men. CHAPTEK VI. This colossal figure stands the one su- preme historical landmark midway between Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte. In looking back, he saw not his equal in history until he beheld Caesar. Nor in looking forward would he have seen an- other until just one thousand years later, when the world seemed to have found another master in Napoleon Bonaparte. In the amplitude of his intelligence, in the splendor of his attributes, and in his seven feet of stature, Charlemagne was every inch a king. He was twenty- nine years old when, by the death of his father. Pippin, he became monarch, and set about his task, which was, to develop a great empire — overturning, conquering, despotic, often cruel, but always with the high purpose of giving to his race a higher 28 EVOI/UTION OF AN EMPIEK ciriiizatioii. In twenty -nine years more this task was accomplished, and a map of the German Empire was a map of Europe. Gn Christmas day, in the year 800, in the Gathedral of St. Peter'^ at Rome, he re- ceived the imperial crown from Pope Leo m., and was greeted with cries of "Life and victory to. Carolus Ma^nsj crowned by God Emperor of the Eomans ; " and at tha:t moment he stood at the head of an empire which included all Christendom. Charlemagne acknowledged the pope who crowned him as his spiritual sover- dgn, while, on the other hand, the pope, bowed before the emperor who ap- pointed him, as his temporal sovereign.^ It was a magnificent, all-embracing! scheme of empire, of which the spiritual head was at Eome, and the temporal at Aix-larCha- pelle. It seemed as if by this dual supremacy Charlemagne had provided for all possible exigencies of human government. He rested content, no doubt thinking he had EVOLUTION OF Alf EMPIKE. 29 embodied a perfect ideal in creating a sys- tem whicli should thus coordinate and em- brace both the spiritual and temporal needs of an empire. Unfortunately, in oi'der to be realized, it needed always the wisest of emperors and best of popes. As soon as his controlling hand was removed unexpected dangers assailed his work. In less than fifty years from his coro- nation, his three grandsons had quarrelled and torn the empire into as many parts, the elder retaining the imperial title. This event, 841 of our era, marks the be« ginning of France and Germany as distinct nationalities; hence it is that both nations claim Charlemagne, whereas he belongs to the French just as Queen Elizabeth does to Americans. In forecasting his plans of empire, it is not probable that danger of conflict be- tween the spiritual and temporal heads ever occurred to Charlemagne. But that is precisely what happened. Even this astute, far-seeing man did not suspect the 30 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIEE. nature of the power with which he forriied this close alliance. His plan of govern- ment made the pope distinctly the creation of the emperor. His creature, and hence subordinate. But there was a tremen- dous principle of growth in that spirit- ual centre ! The first five hundred years after Christ the pope had been simply Bishop of Eome. In the next five hundred years he was nominal head of the whole Church. As the Church was entering upon its third five-hundred-year lease, in the year 1073, the fiery monk Hildebrand, who had now become Pope Gregory VIL, determined it should be supreme in authority over all other powers^a religious empire, ex- isting by Divine right, independent of the fate of nations or will of kings and emper- ors. Henry IV., who was then emperor, indignant at these insolent pretensions, de- posed the pope— this creature of his own appointing, who would override the author- ity of the power which had created him! EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 31 The pope excommunicated the em- peror. Each had done his worst, pope and emperor; and had Henry stood his ground as he might, for he would have had ample support from his people, it would have been a gain of centuries for Europe. But — the ban of excommuni- cation, with its attendant horrors here, and still worse hereafter — it was more than he could bear. Affrighted, trembling, penitent, he crossed the Alps in dead of winter, crept to the castle of Canossa, near Parma, where Hildebrand had taken refuge; and there this successor to Char- lemagne, this ruler of all Christendom, standing barefoot and clad in saqkcloth shirt, humbly begged admittance. The pope's triumph was complete. So he let him shiver for three days in cold and rain before he opened the gates and gave him forgiveness and the kiss of peace. The Church had never scored so tre- mendous a victory. She was supreme over every earthly authority, and the 33 EVOLTTTION- OF AN EMPIRE. hands on the face of time were set back for centuries. Let Gruelph and Ghibelline (tie two political parties representing the adherents of the pope and the emperor) storm and struggle as they might, she need never more be afraid of overstep- ping any humanly constituted bounds. And it was to be no empty panoply of power. The strong hand of priestly authority must have its hold on ev'eiy human conscience and will. She sat and watched complacently as her children drove back the infidel Sara- cens, conscious of her own grovdng strength, and that she was becoming still stronger as those three tidal waves of religious frenzy swept over Europe into the Holy Land. There was no question of supremacy now between temporal and spiritual heads. All the lines of power— all the threads of human destiny — ^led to Rome, and were found at last in the papal hand. But these were halcyon days. There EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 33 was a cloud already on the horizon, the size of a man's hand, and that hand was— Wickliffe's — the hand which had torn the veil of mysteiy from the Bible by trans- lating it into the speech of the common people, the hand which had written words inciting rebellion against church authoiity. . , The clouds grew larger and darker when printing came, disseminating the new heresies. The Bible was broadcast in the hands of the people, who began to yianifest a dangerous tendency to think ! The whole enginery of thumbscrew, rack, and stake was set to work. Tender human flesh shrinks from burning, lacerat- ing, a,nd torture, so the grief s, longings, and^ aspirations of thousands of hearts flowed in streams deep down below the surface, coming to light here and there for brief moments among the followers of Huss, the Albigenses, the "Waldenses, only to be driven back again into silence and despair. CHAPTER VIL Is the early part of the sixteenth cent- ury the fate of Europe was in the hands of three men — Charles V., Emperor of Germany ; Francis L, King of France, and Henry VIE., King of England. Charles was half Fleming and half Spaniard, with the grasping acquisitiveness of the one nation, and the proud, fanatical cruelty of the other. Small of stature, plain in feature, sedate, quiet, crafty, he was play- ing a desperate game with Francis I. for supremacy in Europe. Francis, handsome as an Apollo, accom- plished, fascinating, profligate, was fully his match in ambition. Covering his worst qualities with a gorgeous mantle of generosity and chivalrous sense of honor, he was the insidious corrupter of morals in France; creating a sentiment which EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 35 laughed at virtue and innocence as quali- ties belonging to a lower class of society. Eacli of these men was striving to enlist Henry VIII. upon his side, by appealing to the cruel caprices of that vain, ostenta- tious, arrogant king, who in turn tried to use them for the furthering of his own desires and purposes. It was a sort of triangular game between the three monarchs — a game full of finesse and far-reaching designs. If Charles at- tacked Francis, Henry attacked Charles. While the astute Charles, knowing well the desire of the English king to repudiate Katharine and make Anne Boleyn his queen, whispered seductive promises of the papal chair to Wolsey, who was in turn to establish his own influence over his royal master by bringing about the marriage with Anne, upon which the king's heart was set, and then be rewarded by securing Henry's promise of neutrality for Charles, in his designs of over-reaching Francis — and after that, the road to Kome 36 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. for the aspiring cardinal would be a straight one ! It was an intricate diplomatic net- work, in which the thread of Henry's desire for the fair Anne was mingled with Wolsey's desire for preferment, and both interlaced with the ambitious, far-reaching purposes of the other two monarchs. All these events were very absorbing, and while they were splendidly gilding the surface of Europe in the first half of the sixteenth century, it seemed a small matter that an obscure monk was denouncing the pope and defying the power of the Catho- lic Church. Little did Charles suspect that when his victories and edicts were for- gotten, the words of the insolent heretic would still be echoing down the ages. A few years later, and the Apollo-like beauty and false heart of Francis I. were dissolving in the grave — Henry VIH. had gone to another world, to meet his reward — and his wives — and Charles V. was sadly counting his beads in the monastery of St. EVOLUTION OF AK EMPIRE. 37 Jerome, at Yuste, reflecting upon the van- ity of human ambitions — but the murmur of protest from the unknown monk had become a roar — the rivulet had swollen into a threatening torrent. As it is the invisible forces that are the most powerful in nature,_so it is the obscure and least ob- served events that have accomplished the most tremendous revolutions in human affairs. In the year 1517, when it had not yet occurred to Henry's sensitive conscience that his marriage with Katharine, his brother's widow, was illegal, and while Charles V., that sedate young man, who "looked so modest, and soared so high," was revolving plans for the extension of his empire. Pope Leo X., the pious Vicar of Christ upon earth, and elegant patron of Michael Angelo and Raphael, found his income all too small for his mag- nificent tastes. It does not seem to have occurred to him that his tastes were too •costly for his income; he simply recog- 38 EVOLUTION OF XN EMPIRE. nized that sometliing must be done, and at once, to fill his empty purse. But what should it be? A simple and ingenious ex- pedient solved the perplexing problem. He would issue a proclamation to his " loving, faithful children," that he would grant absolution for aU sorts of crimes, the prices graduated to suit the enormity of the offence. We have not seen the proclama- tion, but doubt not it was in most caressing Latin, for can anything exceed the velvety softness of the gloves worn on the hands which sign papal decrees ? Simple lying and slander were cheap; perjury and sins against chastity more costly; while the use of the stiletto, of poison, and the hired assassin could be enjoyed only by the richest. It worked well. In the hopeful words of a pious dignitary, "as soon as the money chinks in the coffer, the soul springs out of pur- gatory." Who could resist such promise ? Money flowed in swollen streams into the thirsty coffers, many even paying in ad- EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 39 vance for crimes they intended to com- mit ! Martin Luther was the one man who dared to stand up and denounce this tax upon crime, this papal trade in vice. The people had at last found a voice and a leader. Protestantism sprang into existence without the slow process of growth. It had long been maturing in silence and darlaiess, and at the trumpet tones of Luther, declared itself a power upon the earth. Here was a revolt beyond the reach of thumbscrew and stake ! You could not burn a million people ! CHAPTER VIIL The Churcli gathered herself for one supreme effort to stem this fatal tide^ which was loosening her foundations. Just one hundred years from the birth of Protestantism, pope and emperor, put- ting their spiritual and temporal heads to- gether, planned a crusade against twenty- five million Protestants. The desultory war against the new heresy had been ineffectual. As it was stamped out in one place, it blazed up afresh in others. Now it should be, at whatever cost, exterminated in the Grer- man Empire. Thus was initiated what is known as the " Thirty Years' War," the most desolat- ing in history. Generations came and went while it raged fierce and furious— eight EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE, 41 million slain, and twelve million surviving to meet horrors worse than death. Cattle exterminated, food exhausted, the uncul- tivated fields drenched with blood and tears — a vast graveyard, in which were the mouldering corpses of eight million slaughtered people, one-third of the pop- ulation of the empire ! Earth was kneaded' into bread ; men found dead with their mouths filled with grass; and there are frightful stories of human beings hunted down, like deer, for food. The spirit of the people was broken. Germany had been set back two hundred years. And for what? Not to accomplish any high purpose, not even from mistakfen Christian zeal, but simply to carry out the despotic resolve of the Catholic Church to rule the minds and consciences of all men through its popes and priesthood. It was the old battle commenced six centuries be- fore. Had Henry not gone to Canossa in 1073, there bad been no Thirty Years' War in 1618! 42 EVOLUTION OF ATT EMPIEE. The empire of Charlemagne virtually perished during this struggle, the Haps- burgs wearing its empty ornaments and trappings for a couple of centuries more, imaginary rulers of an imaginary empire, the reality and substance of which had departed. There was a flickering of the dying splendor when Maria Theresa was em- press (mother of the unfortunate Marie Antoinette), and impressed her own strong, brilliant personality upon her empire and age — an age rendered memorable also by the great Frederick, who brought Prussia from obscurity to be ranked with the great powers, and thus rekindled national pride and renewed the hopes of Germany. CHAPTER IX. "When the nineteenth century dawned, a new and striking figure had appeared in Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte had arisen with a bound from obscurity in Corsica to supreme authority in France, and with audacious display of power wielded by genius, hurled his battalions across the face of Europe. He seemed the embodiment of some new and irresistible force. Kingdoms melted before him, and kings and princes vied with each other in doing his bidding quickly, as he tore down old political divisions, and, as it were, etched a new map of Europe with his sword; distributing thrones as boys do marbles, until there was not an uncrowned head in his own or his wife's family, or scarcely among his intimate friends. He made his brother Joseph king 44 EVOLtTTIOJSr OP AN EMPIRE. of Spain; Bernadotte, Ms friend, king of Sweden ; Mm'at, his brother-in-law, ting of Naples. Created the kingdom of Hol- land and gave it to his brother Louis ; and another kingdom of Westphalia, which he gave to his brother Jerome. Appointed Eugene Beauharnais, his stepson, viceroy of Italy. Married Hortense, his step- daughter, to Louis, King of Holland ; and Stephanie, Empress Josephine's niece, to the Grand Duke of Baden. It will be observed that when there were not enough thrones to go around, he simply created a kingdom ! Certainly, with all his faults, no one can accuse him of not having provided well for his family ! At a touch from this Man of Destiny, the shadowy fabric of the Grerman Empire crumbled to dust. Just one thousand years from the crowning of its first em- peror Charlemagne, its last, Francis II., laid down his arms and his sceptre before Napoleon, and with them the proud title of "Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire," EV0LUTI02f OF AN EMPIRE. 45 assumed on that Christmas day, in the Cathedral of St. Peter's, in the year 800. When Napoleon married Marie Louise, daughter of this deposed monarch who had occupied the throne of the Caesars, his dream of universal empire seemed realized. The continent of Europe was actually under his feet. History had only twice before witnessed such a display of power, and contained only three men as colossal in triumphs — Alexander, Julius Caesar, and Charlemagne. But it was the mantle of these last two that he felt he was destined to wear, the glittering pinnacles of the great Roman Empire being ever before his romantic ambition. Hence, when the longed-for son was bom he called him King of Rome. And why should he not ? Was not his mother daughter of a line of emperors leading back to Charlemagne, first emperor of the Holy Eoman Empire ? But with the first reverse, this artifi- cially created empire trembled upon its 46 EVOLtTTlON OF AW EMPIEE. foundations, and upon his defeat at Water- loo, 1815, one thousand years from the death of Charlemagne, the whole fabric fell apart into fragniettta. The" crowns rolled off the heads of Joseph, Jerome, Louis, and the rest of them. ' The «' magical creation passed away like a vision of the night. Europe rallied from the spell which this Corsican magician had thrown over her, and while he lay chained to the rock at St. Helena, the vulture of regret eating his heart away, Metternich, prime minister of Austria, was restoring order to Germany. A confederation of states was formed, with Austria as its chief, each to be repre- sented at a general Diet, held at Frankfort ; and for fifty years such was the condition of Germany. Prussia, fallen from her high position under Frederick the Great, sink- ing lower and lower in the scale of nations, dominated by Austria, powerless to resent insult, her people helpless and hopeless, looking only to final disintegration and ab- sorption into the powerful states about hfer. CHAPTER X. We have now reached a period with which readers of to-day have more or less personal familiarity. This hour of deep depression in Germany was the one which comes before the dawn. The Schleswig-Holstein episode was a complicated, tiresome tangle, even while it was enacting, and now is to most people only another name for a rusty German key with which Pandora's box was opened for Europe just twenty-five years ago. But it was a pivotal incident, and must be understood in order to make clear the rapid succession of events following, of which it was the first link in the chain. The two adjacent dukedoms of Schles- wig and Holstein, which constitute a sort of natm'al bridge about one hundred and fifty miles long and fifty miles wide, 48 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. between Denmark and Prussia, are, by the way, the land of nativity for the Anglo-Saxon race, the Angles having in- habited Schleswig, and the Saxons Hol- stein, at the time they so kindly protected the Britons from the Picts and Scots ! So it is probable that every member of this Anglo-Saxon family has ancestral roots running back to that fertile strip of past- ure land, which was geographically and, at a later day, historically so important. At the time we are now considering, it had for many years been under the Dan- ish protectorate, the King of Denmark being, by virtue of his position, also Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, just as the German Emperor is now King of Prussia by virtue of his imperial oflSce. But this little people were by no means merged mth the Danish by this arrange- ment ; on the contrary, they preserved very jealously their own traits and ances- tral traditions. Among these, was the exclusion of women from the royal succes- EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 49 sion — ^the Salic law, framed by their Frank ancestors centuries before on the banks of the river Saale, being part of their consti- tution. Hence, when King Frederick VI I. of Denmark died in 1862 without male heir, and King Christian IX. became king, the people of the two dukedoms hotly refused to recognize him as their lawful ruler, but claimed their right of reversion to Duke Frederick VIII., who was in the direct male line of succession. Had the Salic law prevailed m Den- mark, this Duke Frederick (father of the present young Empress of Germany) would now (1890) be King of Denmark instead of Christian IX. But it did not exist, so Christian, father of the Empress of Russia — of the Princess of Wales— and of King George of Greece — became, in 1862, lawful King of Denmark, with rights unimpaired by female descent. This was the beginning of changes des- tined to alter the face of Europe. SchlesAvig-Holstein revolted against be- 50 EVOLTITION OF AN EMPIBE. ing held by a ruler who, according to her constitution, was not the terminal of the royal line, and insisted upon bestowing herself upon the German Duke Frederick VIII. Denmark naturally resisted this anti-Christian revolt. Salic law or no Salic law, the dukedoms were hers, and should stay. And, indeed, they were a charming pastoral possession, a morsel which must have sorely tempted the Ger- man appetite to be invited to take. But in those days Prussia's big brother, Aus- tria, had not alone to be considted, but placated. This was the- more bitter be- cause of having once tasted the sweets of national greatness under Frederick; and now even little Denmark dare defy and insult her ! And was not this crown, which King William had received from his dead brother in 1857, but a badge of brilliant servitude, after all, to Francis Joseph, who was his chief ? However, in this instance the big brother, for reasons of his own, thought EVOLTTTION OF AN EMPIRE. 61 well of the cession of the twin dukedoms to Prussia, and they would have been quickly absorbed into the Grerman "Diet" had not the Great Powers (who since the Napoleonic episode had been very alert in such matters) grimly said, "Hands off!" It was just at this crisis, in 1862, that Bismarck, having been appointed to the office of Prime Minister of Prussia, came from the courts of St. Petersburg and Paris, where he had been ambassador, and commenced his series of brilliant games upon the European chess-board. King Christian of Denmark, pleased with his success in retaining the refractory states, determined to go still farther ; that is, to adopt a new constitution separating these Siamese twins, which should, in fact, detach Schleswig from Holstein, in- corporating it permanently with Denmark. This was in direct violation of the treaty with the Great Powers made in London, 1852, and afforded the needed pretext for war. 53 EVOLUTION" OF AN EMPIRE. The moment and the man had arrived. Bismarck, with the intuition of a good player, saw his opportunity, pushed up the pawn, Schleswig-Holstein, and said, " Check to your king." The Prussian and Austrian troops poured into Denmark, and in a few short weeks the blooming isthmus had ceased to be Danish, and had become Grerman. Austria generously said, "We will di- vide the prize. Schleswig shall be Prus- sian, and Holstein Austrian." Could anything be more odious to the Prussian ? The long arm of Austrian tyranny stretching way over their land, up to their northern seaboard ! It might almost better have become Danish. But " all things come to him who waits," and — Bismarck waited. In the diplomatic adjustments which followed it was an easy matter to quarrel over the prize, and once more the needed pretext was at hand. Bismarck again pushed up his useful little pawn, and said EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 53 "check," but this time to the Emperor of Austria. Ah ! here was a game worth watching. Europe and America, too, were willing to let their morning coffee get cold in studying the moves. Francis Joseph did not see as far into the game as his astute adversary, whose keen eye was fo- cused at long range upon a renewed and consolidated Germany. The conflict was short (only seven weeks), but the preparation had been long and thorough. The 3d of July will long be remembered by Germany. King Will- iam was there ; the Crown Prince was there, now become " Unser Fritz " by his superb military achievements, the ideal prince and soldier of modern Europe; and Koniggratz, like Waterloo, decided the game. Francis Joseph was check- mated. Germany was the head of its own nation. Its servitude to Austria existed no more. What wonder that the people were glad, or that Unser Fritz became their idol, and Bismarck their demigod ! 54 EVOLUTION OP AN EMPIEE. The dismembered parts were soon, under a new constitution, consolidated into a national union, which was Prot- estant and Prussian, and forever sep- arated from all that was Catholic and Austrian. In . five short years what a change ! Truly, blood and iron had proved a wonderful tonic ! And what of poor little Schlesmg- Holstein, that land of our race nativity ? If she had indulged in any innocent ex- pectation of benefit from such brilliant espousal of her cause, such hope must have been rudely dispelled when she found herself between these upper and nether millstones, and she must have re- alized that she had been only the humble hinge upon which the door of opportunity had swung open for Germany. CHAPTER XI. The rest can be briefly told. Napoleon III., in brand new splendor, was watching these events from Paris. He had an un- comfortable sense that everything was too new and fine. There is nothing like the smoke of the battlefield to simulate the delightfully mellow tone which, in its finest perfection, comes only from age. To humiliate this newly reconstructed Germany would give just the needed touch to his prestige, and as no slightest pretext for war could be found, one was tnade to order, in the shape of a pretended affront to the French ambassador by the kindly old King William, while peace- fully sunning himself at Ems. The question at issue was of the candi- dature of a Hohenzollem to the vacant throne of Spain. Finding this was unpop- 56 EVOLUTION OF A:^ EMPIRE. iilar, the name was promptly withdrawn by Prussia, and there the incident would naturally have ended. But Bernadetti, French ambassador to Germany, had in- structions to press the matter offensively upon the king, who, recognizing an in- tended impertinence, turned on his heel and left him. The telegraph swiftly bore the news that the ambassador had been publicly insulted by the King of Prussia. The French heart was industriously fired, and the leaven worked well. The insolent Grerraans nixist be taught that the great French Empire was not to be insulted with impunity. Did not the beautiful empress herself buckle the sword upon the emperor, and even upon the boy Prince Imperial, who should go and wit- ness for himself his father's triumphs, and receive an object lesson, as it were, in avenging insult to the imperial dignity, which Avould one day be in his keeping ? The miserable end came quickly ! EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 67 In less than one month the emperor was a prisoner, and in seven months his empire was swept out of existence ; the Germans were in Paris — and King William, Unser Fritz, Bismarck, and Von Moltke were quartered at Versailles. Here it was that the dramatic climax was reached when King Ludwig II. of Bavaria, in the name of the rest of the German States, laid their united allegiance at the feet of King William of Prussia, as the head of the Gennan Empire, begging him to assume the crown of Charlemagne, which should be hereditary in his family ! Poor, mad suicide though he was, for this act Ludwig's memory should be forever enshrined in the German heart, for he cer- tainly first suggested, and then carried to completion, this splendid consummation, apparently indifferent to the fact that his own kingly dignity would be abridged. Adoring the picturesque and dramatic as he did, perhaps it seemed to this royal spendthrift not too much to pay a kingdom 68 EVOLUTIOlir OF AN EMPIEE. for the privilege of acting in one scene so imposing and dramatic ! So, in January, 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors in the palace of Versailles, King WiUiam assumed the title of "Empefor of Germany " — a Germany richer by two French provinces and an enormous indem- nity from the conquered state ; great in prestige and under the best of emperors and greatest of prime ministers, augment- ing hourly in all that constitutes power in a state. In less than one decade— not yet ten years from Bismarck's return to Berlin — a new Gerasiany had arisen from the fragments of the old, a Germany so great and powerful she was likely to forget the degradation and humiliation of only a quarter of a century ago. CHAPTER XII. Whek that kingly old man, Emperor William, sank at last under the weight of years, the crown so brilliantly won at Versailles in 1871 rested on the head of Unser Fritz — no longer in the flush of victorious youth, but a poor, stricken man. The tardy honors had come too late. In vain he struggled agaiiist the inevitable, striving to inaugurate the beneficent policy which had been the dream of his life. Unhappy Frederick ! His death-chamber seemed the playground for every hateful human passion, and the Furies to have made it their abode, as his unfulfilled life slipped away from his loosening grasp ! At last it was ended. The untarnished soul and the tortured body parted com- pany, and William II. reigned in his stead. The sensibilities of the world had been shocked by the unfilial conduct of this 60 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. youth, and it was with little respect that he was seen restlessly flitting from one court to another, displaying his imperial trappings like a child witli new toys. People laughed to think they had ever been afraid of this aimless boy. Upon one point only was he relentless. Man or newspaper breathing faintest whisper of praise for the dead Frederick came swift under the political guillotine ! Did he wish to efface his father's memory from the hearts of his people ? Would he really, if he could, tear that brief, sad chapter from his nation's history? It seemed so. Europe watched him much as one does a headlong boy, who, with the confidence born of vanity and ignorance, plays with deadly weapons, and imperils his own and his neighbors' safety. The peace of the continent lay more than ever in the hand of Bismarck, who alone had power to restrain this dangerous young ruler. But when William 11. posed as the friend of the workingman and ally of EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. 61 the socialist, the absurdity and the unex- pectedness were amusing. What did he care for industrial problems and the con- dition of the laboring classes ? The idea uppermost in his restless brain was that he was a predestined hero, not fitted for the rble of a Merovingian king, with a mawe du palais. He would be the artificer of his own policy, and be enrolled among the great sovereigns of history. There were rumors of dissension with his chancellor, whom finally he removed, and said practically, "VMat, dest moir There was nothing now to restrain his T^estless" vagaries, and a catastrophe seemed at hand. This is the way it looked a few months ago. But writing current history is much like drawing pictures upon the sand, which the incoming* tide effaces. The man who had long held the des- tinies of Europe in his hand sat in the retirement of Schonhausen, complacently smoking and waiting for the catastrophe, and the recall which would surely come. 62 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. But he -^as not needed. "Was the Zeit Geist penetrating the iron-encrusted empire? William had forgotten his toys and was inaugurating reforms — industrial, educa- tional, social, which touched the lowest stratum of his people. We cannot yet forget those visits to San Eemo, the cruel intriguing over hia father's death-bed; but greatness lies in the path he has taken. His intelligence, quicker than his sympathies, sees, perhaps, that the forces of the future are industrial, not militant. His hand has grown less nervous, but steadier in its gi'asp, more human in its touch. The figure is filling out in stronger lines, with unexpected promise that it may become heroic. He was not a pleasant youth, not a nice boy; but we can forgive much to a sovereign who desires to bring about a general disarmament of Europe ! The early chapters of his biography will never be pleasant reading, but we will not linger over them if the concluding ones tell EVOLTJTIOir OF AN EMPIRE. 63 of a Germany brought into line with the world's highest and best development. Europe to-day is like a field closely packed with explosives, with a plentiful sprinkling throughout the mass of that giant powder, nihilism. People step care- fully, lest they jar the hostile elements, and "let loose the dogs of war." The slight- est change in position of the little package marked Bulgaria, and it may be too late. This province, which ten or twelve years ago was set up by the Great Powers with an autonomy of its own, lying athwart the coveted pathway to the Mediterra- nean, has, like Schleswig-Holstein, great- ness thrust upon it. The plaything of diplomacy, with only a semblance of self- government, its r6le in European politics is both tragic and comic. Its king must await not alone confirmation by Turkey, but ratification by the Great Powers, and little care they who ascends its slippery little throne, except as he will further or obstruct the private political ends of 64 EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. each ; and Russia, ttinking only of ex- pansion toward the sea, is" especially pa- ternal toward the forlorn little state. While this diplomatic game is enacting, there is a pause. Is it the huah which pre- cedes the storm ? All eyes are fixed upon the Russian bear, cautiously and stealthily prowling toward the south aiid east. — Austria hun- grily watches the Balkan provinces, over which the paw of the bear already hovers. — Italy, with hate and suspicion, has eyes riveted upon her hereditary enemy, Aus- tria. — France, never for a moment forget- ting Alsace and Lorraine, watches her opportunity with Germany, and draws into closer affinity with Russia. — England, with gaze fixed upon an open pathway to India, suspects them all — and Germany, conscious that disaster is always imminent while the French thirst for revenge, and the Russian thirst for the waters of the Mediteri-anean are unabated, strengthens her defences and sleeps with hand upon her sword. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. This little work is offered as the first of a series of brief outline historical sketches, in. which the author will endeavor to eliminate as much as possible the non-essential facts, and to present to the student a single continuous thread of events, which may be easily retained in the memory, and which shall intelligibly connect the present with the past. . The multiplicity of details, without such or- derly frame-work whereon to place them, leaves the mind in pitiable confusion, and discourages the most ambitious and industrious scholar ; whereas, if one first grasps firmly a simple outline, it will be a pleasure to bring the results of future reading and study into proper relations of time and events. In a word, the method of the teacher and the artist should be the same : first an outline, suggested rather than drawn ; then a gradual elaboration of the design, until finally the minute details crown the completed work ; but never at any stage should one lose sight of this in its entirety. The student is recommended, after a careful examination of this outline History of Germany, to write a series of papers containing each not less than loo words, upon the themes given in the following list, concluding with a concise historical sketch of Germany, in which the subjects treated in the previous papers shall, so far as possible, have brief mention. If this plan be carefully carried out, it will form a valuable collection of essays upon related subjects, and one will have learned more in writing them, than in much reading of the works of others. M. P. LIST OF SUBJECTS. 1. The Aryan Race and the Indo-European Migrations. 2. Traces of Prehistoric Man. 3. Conquest of Gaul and Britain by Julius Caesar. 4. Hermann. — Ulfila. 5. Hunnish Invasion. 6. Anglo-Saxon Occupation of Britain. 7. Monarchy Established in Gaul. 8. Charlemagne. 9. Conflict between Henry IV. and Pope Greg- ory, 1073. ID. Guelphs and Ghibellines. 11. Wickliffe. 12. Charles V. — Francis I. — Henry VIII. 13. Martin Luther and Pope Leo X. 14. Thirty Years War. 15. Napoleon Bonaparte. 1 6. Schleswig-Holstein — Salic Law. 17. Bismarck. 1 8. Napoleon 111. 19. Franco-Prussian War. 20. Emperor William I. 21. Emperor Frederic. 22. Emperor William II. 23. Historical Sketch of Germany. BOOKS OF REFERENCE. General History. Fisher's Universal History. $2.40. Myer's Medieval and Modern. $1.50. Sheldon's General History. $1.60. Freeman's Historical Geography, Europe. (2 vols.) $12.00. < Germany Proper. Kolrausch's Germany. $2.50. Menzel's Germany. Bohn edition. 3 vols. $3.00. Bryce's Holy Roman Empire. $1.00. Lelifi^ Germany. (Student's edition.) $1.50. Simes' Germany. (Freeman's edition.) 80 cts. Carlyle's Frederick the Great, pf^^^c We are indebted to Prof. Nicholas Murray Butler; of Columbia College, New York, for the above list. Should these books be inac- cessible, however, a good encyclopedia may be used, while the Historical and Literary Chart, " Who ? When ? and What ? " will be found an efficient aid in systematizing the confusing his- torical details in the six centuries of which it treats. M. P.