FURSTS and
their function?

"FURST (Prince) I suppose is equivalent originally to our noun of
number, First. The old verb KIEREN (participle ERKOREN still in use, not
to mention 'Val-KYR' and other instances) is essentially the same word
as our CHOOSE, being written KIESEN as well as KIEREN. Nay, say the
etymologists, it is also written KUSSEN (to KISS,--to CHOOSE with such
emphasis!), and is not likely to fall obsolete in that form.--The other
Six Electoral Dignitaries who grew to Eight by degrees, and may be worth
noting once by the readers of this Book; are:--

"1. Three Ecclesiastical, MAINZ, COLN, TRIER (Mentz, Cologne,
Treves), Archbishops all, with sovereignty and territory more or less
considerable;--who used to be elected as Popes are, theoretically by
their respective Chapters and the Heavenly Inspirations, but practically
by the intrigues and pressures of the neighboring Potentates, especially
France and Austria.

"2. Three Secular, SACHSEN, PFALZ, BOHMEN (Saxony, Palatinate, Bohemia);
of which the last, BOHMEN, since it fell from being a Kingdom in itself,
to being a Province of Austria, is not very vocal in the Diets. These
Six, with Brandenburg, are the Seven Kurfursts in old time; SEPTEMVIRS
of the Country, so to speak.

"But now PFALZ, in the Thirty-Years War (under our Prince Rupert's
Father, whom the Germans call the `Winter-King'), got abrogated, put to
the ban, so far as an indignant Kaiser could; and the vote and KUR
of Pfalz was given to his Cousin of BAIERN (Bavaria),--so far as an
indignant Kaiser could. However, at the Peace of Westphalia (1648) it
was found incompetent to any Kaiser to abrogate PFULZ or the like of
Pfalz, a Kurfurst of the Empire. So, after jargon inconceivable, it was
settled, That PFALZ must be reinstated, though with territories much
clipped, and at the bottom of the list, not the top as formerly; and
that BAIERN, who could not stand to be balked after twenty years'
possession, must be made EIGHTH Elector. The NINTH, we saw (Year 1692),
was Gentleman Ernst of HANOVER. There never was any Tenth; and the Holy
ROMISCHE REICH, which was a grand object once, but had gone about in a
superannuated and plainly crazy state for some centuries back, was at
last put out of pain, by Napoleon, '6th August, 1806,' and allowed to
cease from this world." [Ms. _penes me._]

None of Albert's wars are so comfortable to reflect on as those he had
with the anarchic Wends; whom he now fairly