f its previous history is necessary.

In respect to the national domain, perhaps no other instance can be
found so striking as that here presented, of a steady growth of an
insignificant territory, from the first surrounded by powerful nations,
to a size which entitles it to rank among the first Powers of the earth.
Passing over the first few hundred years of her history, during which
period much confusion prevailed as to boundaries as well as everything
else, we find that as late as 1417 the country embraced a territory of
only about seven thousand eight hundred square miles, or of about the
size of Massachusetts; whereas its present extent is about one hundred
and twelve thousand square miles, _i. e._, about as large as New
England, New York, and New Jersey.

In respect to population, the increase is proportionally great. In 1417
it was only one hundred and eighty-eight thousand five hundred; now it
is over eighteen millions. As to general culture, the progress of the
nation and its present relative position in the scale of civilization
leave little for national pride to wish.

The history of the nation commences with the conquest of Brandenburg by
the Saxon emperor Henry I., in 927. He founded the so-called _North
Mark_, and set over it a margrave. The government was administered by
margraves until 1411, when, after a century of anarchy, during which the
Mark was struggled for by many aspiring dukes, it was delivered over by
the emperor Sigismund, an almost worthless possession, to Frederick of
Hohenzollern, burggrave of Nuremberg, with the title of elector.

The house of Hohenzollern is still the reigning dynasty. In 1701,
Frederick III., who became elector in 1688, secured from the emperor
Leopold I. the title of King Frederick I. Not king of Brandenburg, since
Brandenburg belonged to the Austrian empire, but king in Prussia, the
name of a Polish duchy acquired by John Sigismund as a feudal possession
in 1621, but in 1656 made an independent possession by Frederick
William. Not king _of_ Prussia, but _in_ Prussia, because not all the
territory to which that name belonged was included in the
afore-mentioned duchy. The rest was not annexed till 1772, so that
Frederick the Great was the first king _of_ Prussia. And not till 1815
was the name Prussia strictly a designation of the whole land now so
called.

We cannot stop even to glance at the political condition of the nation
during the period of the electorate, i