ul in its modes, and
likely to lead to something far more important--is one of the most
respectable members of the European commonwealth, though standing
somewhat below the first rank, even while acting on terms of apparent
equality with the other great powers. The kingdom of Prussia is of
origin so comparatively recent, that there are those now living who can
remember others who were old enough to note its creation, in 1700. The
arrangements for the conversion of the electorate of Brandenburg into
the kingdom of Prussia were completed on the 16th of November, 1700, and
the coronation of Frederick I. took place on the 18th of January, 1701,
two hundred and eighty-four years less three months after his family's
connection with the country began; for it was on the 18th of April,
1417, that the Emperor Sigismund, last member of the Luxemburg family,
made Frederick, Burgrave of Nuernberg, Elector of Brandenburg,--the
investiture taking place in the marketplace of Constance. The
transaction was in the nature of a job, as Frederick was a relative of
the Emperor, to whom he had advanced money, besides rendering him
assistance in other ways. Frederick was of a very old family, and in
this respect, as in some others, the house destined to become so great
in the North bore a close resemblance to that other house destined to
reign in the South, that of Savoy, which became regal not long after the
elevation of descendants of the Burgrave of Nuernberg to royal rank. He
was a man adapted to the place he received; and the family has seldom
failed to produce able men and women in every generation, some of them
being of the highest intellectual force, while others have been
remarkable for eccentricities that at times bore considerable
resemblance to insanity. Yet there was not much in the history of the
new electoral house that promised its future greatness, for more than
two centuries.

It is surprising to look back over the history of Germany, and note how
differently matters have turned out, in respect to families and
countries, from what observers of old times would have predicted. When
Charles V. fled before Maurice of Saxony, he may have thought,
considering the great part Saxony had had in the Reformation, that from
that country danger might come to the house of Austria in yet greater
measure; but he would have smiled at the prophet who should have told
him not only that no such danger would come, but that Saxony would be
ruined