Germany and the German Emperor (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V UP FROM THE DEPTHS I. Mettern1ch APERIOD of social convalescence makes so dull a tale that it is usually slurred over; and the next half century shows little of interest until the clash of awakening peoples and governments obstinately bent on keeping them divided and powerless becomes insistent. The map of Germany has been radically changed. With the Holy Roman Empire has gone the elective Emperor; but an Emperor of Austria has emerged to maintain all that is real of the old pretensions, and five kings--of Prussia, Hanover, Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurttemberg. The Kings of France and Sweden are no longer German sovereigns; but the Kings of England, Holland, and Denmark claim seats in the federal body (for Hanover, Luxemburg, and Holstein). Three hundred independent States, including the Ecclesiastical Principalities and those of the Knights of the Empire, have disappeared. Thirty-nine remain, and because they are stronger and their sovereignty is now unquestioned, they present a stouter barrier against the movement for unity than the larger number of the old order. It is the south that is now the more compact, the north that is more divided. In the parcelling-out of 1815, Prussia, beside an indemnity of nearly six milhon pounds, has recovered the Duchies 1H of Westphalia and Berg, together with the northern half of the Saxon Kingdom, the West Rhineland from Aachen to Mainz, Swedish Pomerania, and the Grand Duchy of Posen. Thanks to the Duke of Wellington, the claim of Stein and Hardenberg for the cession of Alsace and Lorraine has been rejected. Stein, who, during the Russian campaign, had proposed that all German Princes who supported Napoleon should be dethroned, exhibited at the Congress of Vienna the poverty of Prussian statesmanship, in urging ...