The Washington herald., 1914-05-31

THE KINGDOM OF
FREDERICK THE great
DATES AND EvENTs-AeE Sx.
November 5. is6-Kins and Queen of Psu.aa IN
Car ot Russa pledged thennseavs ss.inse N.s-
leon By tomb Of Frederick the Great
December I5 lss-Nspoleon ssve Hanover TO Pru
sa.
under Nspoleon's protection
August 8, Ips-John Palm the bookseller Of Nuren
berg. shot.
September q. loe-Prusia secretly opsned the zm
paign asainst Napoleon.
September s. 1sos-Nspoaeo. lsft Pszis. ~
October :. Ias-Antved at the fruut-
October g. lsos-opened hs Prcsaan omp.asn.
octobsr "A. Ins-oy.rvhelmed Pru.ia at Jena snt
Austadt ~
October 10. .ss-Napoleon at wemar.
octobG y. lHs-At Potsdam-
October =. lss-Entrsd Berlin in triumph.
T is a familiar remark that hardly Q
line Napoleon drew on the map Of
Europe survived his downfall Yet
it is true that he laid the cornerstone
of three great nations. not to mention
Switzerland
He rescued France from chaos and es-
tablished her on foundations that have
been little changed or weakened by time.
He found Italy only q name and he made
her kingdom. He drew many Ger
man states together into the Confedera-
tion Of the Rhine. when Germany was
but a vague, ill-defined geographical
term, and started a union Of the Ger
manic peoples which has widened into
the empire of the Kaisers.
While this man tore down with one
hand, he built up with the other and
was equally a master of construction and
destruction. creating civil institutions as
quickly and skilfulIy as ne created
armies.
It is easy to quarrel with his motives
and forget his achievements. The utter
failure Of his selfish ambition too often
obscures the enduring success he won
for the great cause that made him its
servant-the mighty power not Of him
self.
that o'er him planned,
and which with the pitilessness of ma
ture cast him away when he was no
longer useful to II. This larger pur-
pose filed him with a rage against the
petty subdivisions that medieval ignor-
ance and privilege had drawn between
men. and with passion for the fedora
ton Of the continent in a united states
of Europe.
Germany as II Was.
At the opening of the nineteenth CEN
tury Germany still remained prey to the
tribal system of the Middle Ages. There
were nearly IL not quite as many ma
tions in the few hundred miles between
the Rhine and the Niemen as there are
independent sovereignties On the entire
face of the earth today. traveller may
circumnavigate the globe now without
crossing more frontiers or passing
through more ycustom-houses than barred
trade and communication between tho
German people only a little more than
100 years ago. Progress was dead among
them and patriotism unborn.
The innumerable courts and their aris-
trocracies despised the mother tongue
and spoke the more polite language of
France II the King Of Prussia wrote a
letter to his Queen he employed French.
German things were good enough only
for the great, dumb. driven peasantry.
Those stolid masses wore the yoke of
serfdom and were crushed to earth be-
meath the burdens of tho feudal system.
They were without liberty. without
schools, almost without rights of any
kind and could not own q rod Of the
soil they titled.
Prussia was the natural leader Of Ger
many. being by far the largest strictly
German state But she was yet only |
Prussian and cared little for Germany
as a whole The reigning family of
HohenzoIlerns, with no public conscience
to csII them to account played politics |
as q sordid game Of grabbing and cheat |
ing, looking only to increasing the num- |
bers of their subjects and swelling their |
revenues. They were stili dripping with |
the bloody spoils Of the partition OF Po-
land when they turned from Russia and
Austria, their partners in that horrible
crime, to traffic with Napoleon.
They were well satisfied to share his
spoils until IN his war with England he
s-stched Hanover from the British
crown and took possession OF Bremen
and cuxhaven. step which brought
him to the frontiers Of Prussia and gave
him command OF her two Eafeways to i
. NEXT SUNDAY-n
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