The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-04

is abbreviated from the Berlin StdGtS-AflzeG-
ger as regards its facts, which may be con-
sidered therefore, as officially authenticated.
The first of the Hohenzollern family honors
are traced originally to the attachment of a
certain Count Frederick Won Zollern to the
Emperor Frederick 1. He was rewarded with
the hand of the daughter and heiress of the
Burggrave Count of the Citv) of Nurem-
burg in 1880, and in 1892 was publicly in
stalled into the Burggravate, an important
imperial dignity, which continued In his
family for six succeeding generations. The
Burggraves did constant good service
to the Emperors, and we're usually
in their confidence; and the Emperor
Sigismund took into his especial
trust a Buregrave Frederick of his time,
making him his chief associate in his magnif-
cent plans fer restoring the full power of the
Roman Empire and the dignity of its head.
Part of this design was to be carried out by
the elevation of his friend to the kingship of
Rome. This was never carried out but by
way of preparing the way for such dignity
the Emperor made the Burggrave the Mar
quisate of Brandenburg, with the rank of
Elector, in 1415, and Frederick l. the first
Elector, was solemnly invested with the digni-
ties of his office in May, 1417. The House of
Zollern, or Hohenzollern as it now came to be
called, was thus transplanted from South to
North Germany solely by Imperial favor,
and became the chief guardian of the
empire against Sclavonic aggression.
This charge was abundantly justified,
as all readers of modern history
know. True, the part played by the Hohen-
zolerns in the Thirty Years War was not
very brilliant or honorable. But by pacific
means or warlike exertions they maintained
their border land constantly intact, and fire.
quently enlarged the marquisate, until, 261
years after the exaltation of his family to the
Electorate, Frederick III plased the royal
crown on his own head in the palace at Ko-
nigsberg, and declared himself King of Prus.
sia on the 18th of January, 17O1 We nesd
not repeat here how the kingdom has grown
into the empire, for to do so thoroughly
would be to write the whole his
tory of Europe for the last 10
years. Of course all this growth has been
under the law of self-defense. The Prussiaus
are very moderate race, given chiefly to
culture, and may be trusted never to go to
war unless wantonly provoked Aud we live,
as every one can see plainly, in a very pacific
age. Still, this steady, unstayed absorbing
growth suggests some unpleasant reflections
for the nelghbors of the new Empire, when
they remember that it may by-and-by prove
to be the legal heir, with all the legal claims,
of the old Empire of Germany, to whose
chiefs the ancestors of the Hohenzollerns
owed their first steps of greatness.
Really, fact is stranger than fiction. 1t
is reasonable opinion held by many that the
Second Empire in France owed it's existence
to the legend of the First Napoleon, as it was
told in the skilful pages of M. Theirs. The
First Napoleon exhausted France, and brought
kis conquerors to take possession of Paris.
But that is not all. During the most brilliant
period of the First Emperor, France was in
ternally in great distress-without commerce
and exhausted by the destruction of men and
the want of money. Had the tale been told
not by such a one-sided rhetorician as Theirs,
and decorated by such poet as Berauger, but
truthfully by such an historian aa M. Lanfrey,
Louis Napoleon would never have dreamed
his dream, his empire would never have come
into existence. He did, however, dream his
dream, his empire came into existence, and
endured for nearly twenty years, and during
its continuance France enjoyed an amount of
material prosperity and a growth of COM
merce, manufactures, and wealth to which
her past history had furnished no parallel.
Not many months have passed since the EN-
peror made an appeal to the French people
in effect requiring an answer to the question
whether they were so far satisfied with
his government as to desire that he should
not be controlled without an appeal to them.
Between seven and eight million Frenchmen
by their votes in effect approved his rule,
the negative votes being comparatively few.
Sadowa was fought, Prussia grew great, and
Germany was consolidating into mighty
power NJ. Theirs said France ought
not to have permitted another
people to grow great. France
was great, and ought to be great, and that
the greatness of a neighbor was detraction
from her greatness, and therefore ought not
to have been permitted, and ought not to be
| endured. This view, maintained and propa-
! gated by M. Theirs, was indirectly a cause
| perhaps the cause-of the war which has
created the German Empire, and has proved
so disastrous to France. With the exception,
possibly, of the destruction brought upon the
Confederate States of America by the seces-
sion war, modern history records no case of
such collapse of power, of such calamities
as this war has brought upon France. The
blame, the whole blame, of this collapse, of
these calamities is laid upon the late Empe-
ror. No man in France dare whisper a word
in his favor. And the man to whom all
France with equal unanimity resorts to
govern the country, TO obtain peace, and to
restore the prosperity of France, is NJ Theirs.
1t is not proposed to censure or even to COM
ment on these facts; but surely they are
str ange, very strange!
The question whether Prussia is to be
absorbed into Germany or Germany is TO be
merely an aggrandized Prussia is now the
subject Of warm discussion in the Prussian
press. The Neus PreuSSische Zeit4ng, which
represents the conservative party, or thick
and-thin supporters of the Government,
adopts the latter view. ''The imperial
crown, it SAYS, ''has been conquered by the
sword of Prussia. We do not undervalue the
participation of our allies; but it is a IN matter
of history that this participation is a conse-
quence of the Prussian victories of 1866
truth which need not be concealed from
our then adversaries, and which they