irty Years' War fixed the eyes of
politicians upon the small State on the north-eastern frontier of
Germany, towards Sweden and Poland, that was struggling against the
Hapsburgers and Bourbons? The heritage of the Hohenzollerns was no
favoured fertile country, in which the peasant dwelt comfortably on
well-cultivated acres, or to which rich merchants brought in galleons,
Italian silks, and the spices and ingots of the new world. It was a
poor devastated, sandy country; the cities were burnt, the huts of the
country people demolished, the fields uncultivated, many square miles
denuded of men and beasts of burden, and nature restored to its
primitive state. When Frederic William, in 1640, assumed the Electoral
hat, he found nothing but contested claims to scattered territories, of
about 1450 square miles,[11] and in all the fortresses of his family
domains, were established domineering conquerors. Out of an insecure
desert did this clever double-dealing Prince establish his State, with
a cunning and recklessness in regard to his neighbours which excited a
sensation even in that unscrupulous period, but at the same time with
an heroic vigour and enlarged views, by which he more than once
attained to a higher conception of German honour, than the Emperor or
any other prince of the Empire.

Nevertheless, when the astute politician died in 1688, what he left
behind was still only a small nation, not to be reckoned among the
Powers of Europe. For though his sovereignty comprehended 2034 square
miles, the population, at the utmost, only amounted to 1,300,000. When
Frederic II., a century later, assumed the dominions of his ancestors,
he only inherited a population of 2,240,000 souls, far less than is now
to be found in the one province of Silesia. What was it then, that,
immediately after the battles of the Thirty Years' War, excited the
jealousy of all the governments, especially of the Imperial house, and
that made such bitter opponents of the hitherto warm friends of the
Brandenbergers? For two centuries, both Germans and foreigners placed
their hopes on this new State; equally long have Germans and
foreigners, first with scorn and then with hatred, called it an
artificial superstructure, which could not maintain itself against
violent storms, and which had unjustifiably intruded itself among the
Powers of Europe. How came it at last that, after the death of Frederic
the Great, unprejudiced judges declared that it would be b