tian state like that of the
Middle Ages. He was caricatured by the journals of the day, and
laughed at by the wits, including Heine, and pictured as a king with
"Order" on one hand, "Counter-order" on the other, and "Disorder" on
his forehead.

Though Frederick William II marched into France in 1792, to support
the French monarchy, neither his army nor his people were prepared or
fit for this enterprise, and he soon retired. In 1793, Prussia joined
Russia in a second partition of Poland, but in 1795, angry with what
was considered the double dealing of Austria and Russia, Prussia
concluded a peace with France, the treaty of Basle was signed in 1795,
and for ten years Prussia practically took no part in the Napoleonic
wars.

Napoleon took over the lands on the left bank of the Rhine, took away
the freedom of forty-eight towns, leaving only Hamburg, Bremen,
Frankfort, Augsburg, and Nuremberg, and in 1803 he took Hanover.
Later, in 1805, Bavaria, Wuertemberg, and Baden aided Napoleon to fight
the alliance against him of Austria, England, Russia, and Sweden. In
that same year the Electors of Wuertemberg and Bavaria were made kings
by Napoleon. In 1806 Bavaria, Baden, Wuertemberg, and Hessen seceded
from the German Empire, formed themselves into the Confederation of
the Rhine, and acknowledged Napoleon as their protector. In 1806
Francis II, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, resigned, and there was
neither an empire nor an emperor of Germany, nor was there a Germany
of united interests.

In 1806 Frederick William III, driven by the grossest insults to his
country and to his wife, finally declared war against France; there
followed the battle of Jena, in which the Germans were routed, and in
that same year Napoleon marched into Berlin unopposed. In 1807 the
Russian Emperor was persuaded to make peace, and Prussia without her
ally was helpless. The Peace of Tilsit, in July, 1807, deprived
Prussia of the whole of the territory between the Elbe and the Rhine,
and this with Brunswick, Hessen-Cassel, and part of Hanover was dubbed
the Kingdom of Westphalia, and Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome was
made king. The Polish territory of Prussia was given to the Elector of
Saxony, who was also rewarded for having deserted Prussia after the
battle of Jena by being made a king. Prussia was further required to
reduce her army to forty-two thousand men.

It is neither a pretty nor an inspiriting story, this of the mangling
of German