"What were they, sir?" asked a student.
"They were a powerful military order, formed during the crusades, who fought for the Holy Sepulchre in Palestine. After the siege of Acre, a charitable society for the care of the wounded and sick was organized by the people of Lübec and Bremen, which was made into an order of knighthood similar to the Templars. Only nobles were admitted to its membership, and the Grand Master lived in Jerusalem at first, then in Venice, and afterwards in Germany. After the crusades, they regarded themselves as called to convert the heathen, which benignant work they did, by first conquering the pagan territory. The order became immensely rich and powerful, holding the territory from the Oder to the Gulf of Finland, and deriving from it an immense revenue. They were constantly at war with Poland, which, with their extravagant demands upon the people, turned the nobility and the people against them. The oppressed called upon the King of Poland for assistance, and a war of twelve years followed, in which the order lost West Prussia, holding the rest by paying tribute to the conquerors. The knights were deprived of much of their power and wealth, though they still retained vast possessions. The Grand Master became a kind of spiritual potentate in Germany, and collected his revenues till 1805, when they went to the Emperor of Austria. In 1809 Napoleon abolished the order, and its territories reverted to the sovereigns in whose dominions they were located.
"The nucleus of the present kingdom of Prussia was the margraviate of Brandenburg, of which Berlin is near the centre. By the extinction of the family of its ruler, it was inherited by Sigismond, Emperor of Germany, who sold it to Frederick VI., Burgrave of Nuremburg, in 1417. He was of the house of Hohenzollern, from which the present King of Prussia is descended, and with the territory the electoral dignity was conferred upon him. His successors ruled the electorate for over two hundred years, one of whom signed the protest at Spires, from which the Protestants obtained their name.
"Poland held Prussia after it had conquered the Teutonic Knights, and in 1525 gave the sovereignty of the country to Albert of Brandenburg; but it was not till 1656 that Prussia was declared independent by treaty. In 1618 John Sigismund, Elector of Brandenburg, acquired the Duchy of Prussia, in the right of his wife, who was the daughter of Duke Albert II. By the Thirty Years' War the united country was reduced to misery and desolation, when, in 1640, Frederick William, commonly called the Great Elector, succeeded to the government. He annexed considerable territory to his dominion, and added greatly to its power and influence. His son Frederick, the third elector of that name, by the consent of Leopold, Emperor of Germany, obtained by a bribe, tendered through the imperial confessor, raised his domain into a kingdom, and placed the crown upon his own head at Königsberg, in 1701, taking the title of Frederick I. This was the origin of the kingdom of Prussia. Frederick I. extended his domain, which has been the policy of all his successors. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick William I., who reigned twenty-seven years, and left a well-disciplined army, and six millions of dollars in cash in the treasury, to enable his son Frederick II. to commence business. This son was the renowned Frederick the Great. He used his capital stock to the best advantage for himself, wrested Silesia from Austria, and took part in the partition of Poland. He reigned forty-six years, and at his death had increased his territory from forty-eight thousand to seventy-seven thousand square miles.
"Prussia now ranked as one of the great powers of Europe. Frederick the Great left for his successor an army of two hundred and twenty thousand men, and treasure to the value of fifty million dollars. He was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II., in 1786, who added forty thousand square miles to his kingdom by engaging in the second and third partitions of Poland. In 1797 he was followed by his son Frederick William III., who was the father of the present King of Prussia. He lacked the decision necessary to carry his kingdom safely through the troubles of his time. His armies were defeated by Napoleon, and for six years the conqueror held him in subjection, and deprived him of half his domain. The Prussian soldiers under Blucher, however, took an important part in the overthrow of the Emperor of the French, and in the Congress of Vienna, when the affairs of Europe were readjusted, his territory was restored, and even increased, so that the kingdom, at his death, consisted of one hundred and seven thousand square miles. In 1840 he was followed by his son Frederick William IV. In 1848 an insurrection broke out in Berlin, the result of which was a considerable modification of the absolutism of the government. A constitution was adopted, and repeatedly altered and amended. But the king had the best of it in the end, and Prussia was finally pacified. In 1857 the king was attacked by disease of the mind, and his brother William became regent, and in 1861 succeeded him as king, under the title of William I. He is decidedly absolute in his tendencies, and claims to hold his crown by the grace of God, and not by the will of the people.
"In speaking of Denmark, I told you in what manner the war of 1866, between Prussia and Austria, was produced. In the terrible battle of Sadowa, Austria was completely humiliated. Prussia dictated her own terms of peace, and annexed a territory nearly equal in size to the state of Maine, including Hanover, Schleswig-Holstein, Hesse Cassel, Nassau, and other German states. The population of Prussia, with these additions, is nearly twenty-three millions. The real engineer of Prussia's magnificent fortunes is not the king, but Bismarck—Count Otto von Bismarck-Shönhausen. He was born in 1814, was liberally educated, and elected a member of the Constituent Assembly in 1848. He served as minister or ambassador to Russia, France, and the Diet at Frankfort, and was appointed minister of foreign affairs and chief of the ministers in 1862.
"Prussia is a constitutional monarchy, and the crown is hereditary in the male line, in the Hohenzollern family. The executive and part of the legislative power are vested in the king, who is of age at eighteen. The legislature is composed of a House of Lords and a Chamber of Deputies. A bill passing both branches and being approved by the king becomes a law. Bills may originate with the king or either of the chambers. A bill vetoed by the king, or rejected by either house, cannot be moved again during the same session. The upper house is composed of the princes of the royal family who are of age, and a few other princes; the heads of certain noble families, life peers chosen by the king from rich land-owners, great manufacturers, and celebrated men, eight noblemen chosen by the eight former provinces of Prussia; representatives of universities, the burgomasters of towns having over fifty thousand inhabitants; and any number of members nominated by the king for life, or for a limited period. The lower house consists of four hundred and thirty-two members, chosen indirectly by the people.
"The royal family of Prussia are Protestants, but all denominations of Christians have equal rights and privileges. Nearly two thirds of the people are Protestants, and about one third Catholics. Education is universal, and compulsory. Every town must maintain schools, and all parents are obliged to send their children to them. A small tuition fee is charged,—about two or three cents a week,—but this is not exacted when the parents are too poor to pay it. The compulsion applies only to the elementary schools; but the higher schools are open to the poor at a very small charge. There are eleven grades of schools, from the elementary up to the university, including normal, industrial, and veterinary, schools for agriculture, mining, and architecture.
"The military system under which Prussia has obtained such tremendous successes in war was established in 1814, on the principle that every man capable of bearing arms should be instructed in military tactics, and actually serve in the army for a specified period. No substitutes are allowed, and there are very few exemptions, and these only of the most obvious character. Every man is enrolled as soon as he is twenty, and must serve seven years, the first three in the regular army, and the other four in the reserve. At the end of this term he belongs to the Landwehr, or militia, for nine years, during which time he is liable to be put into the regular army in case of war. At the expiration of this period he is thirty-six years of age, and then he is enrolled in the Landsturm, until he is fifty; but this body are not sent out of the country, and are called into service only in case of invasion. For thirty years of his life, therefore, the Prussian is a soldier. The military organizations, such as companies, regiments, brigades, divisions, corps d'armée, are always kept up; the officers are ever ready, and in case of war it is only necessary to call in the men. It requires only two weeks to organize the reserves and Landwehr. On a peace footing, the army consists of about four hundred thousand; on a war footing, double this number.