ilesian wars and in the Seven Years' War he roused the national
enthusiasm for the royal house to the highest pitch. He secured for
Prussia the rank of a great Power in Europe. He enlarged her boundaries,
and, notwithstanding his expensive wars, promoted the general prosperity
of the land. Genial and kind-hearted, he won the affections of the
people, so that loyalty was easy and pleasant--none the less so, the
more completely the object of the loyalty was the king's person.

The reign of Frederick William II. was not characterized by any special
development in the political condition of the country. Lacking in energy
and decision, given to self-indulgence, controlled by courtiers and
favorite women, although by the partition of Poland he increased the
national domains, and by educational measures helped to promote German
literature instead of the French preferred by his father, he was yet too
inferior to the great Frederick to be able to uphold the glory of the
royal house. By his disgraceful withdrawal from the First Coalition and
the Treaty of Basle, by which he yielded to France all of Prussia lying
beyond the Rhine, he prepared the way for her subsequent humiliation by
Bonaparte.

The long reign of Frederick William III. is the richest period of
Prussia's history. Here begins that development whose progress is now
one of the most noteworthy of our time. The king, cautious,
conscientious, patriotic, but timid, declined to join the Second
Coalition (1799), hoping thereby to secure Prussia against the ravages
of war. Prominent Prussians, moreover, were positively friendly to
Napoleon; so that, even after the latter had violated his obligations by
marching through Prussian territory, the king hesitated a year to
declare war. This was done August 9, 1806; but two months later his army
was routed at Jena; Napoleon entered Berlin; the Prussians were finally
defeated at Friedland by the French, and at Tilsit, July 9, 1807, the
Prussian king was forced to give up the half of his domains, and to
furnish the conqueror a tribute of one hundred and forty millions of
francs. For six years Prussia lay prostrate at the feet of France. In
1812 he was compelled to furnish twenty thousand men to join Napoleon's
army in his invasion of Russia. Not till after the disastrous issue of
this invasion did king or people dare to lift an arm in defence of the
national independence. But these years compose just the period which
Prussians love