THE HUNGRY HOHENZOLLERNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11557, 19 April 1898, Page 6

THE HUNGRY HOHENZOLLERNS.

(New Century Review,') May not the violent haste of the German Emperor to turn his murdered missionaries to account for the acquisition of Chinese territory be explained by what Mr Baring-Gonld, in his “ Germany" (“Stories of the Nations”), calls “the insatiable greed of increasing their power, which seems to have been inherent in the Hohenzollerns ?” At all events, the fact is clear that William 11, is only carrying out the policy which has been hereditary in his family over since its founder came down from his “ castle on a thimble ” in the Swabian tableland, and started on that career of pawnhroking, intrigue deceit and downright robbery which he successors have so profitably continued during the intervening seven hundred and odd years. There is no more instructive or consistent record in all history than this of the CEAFT AND UNSCRUPULOUSNESS by which the Hohenzollerns originally belonging to the pettiest nobility of the Middle Ages—moved through the stages of Burggrave of Nuremburg, Markgrave of Brandenburg, Elector of Brandenburg, and King of Prussia to the Imperial throne of Germany, the dominant position amongst the German peoples, .and the military supremacy .of . Europe. . -The faculty of acquisitiveness hasnever. failed or lapsed in the Hohenzollern race. Habits, long persisted in, become second nature, and a policy pursued through several centuries tends to make itself permanent; so that here we have an ample explanation of the Emperor William’s restless craving for new dominion, whether on the land or on sea; of his passionate appeals for soldiers and ships; of his apparently erratic actions in Asia, Africa, the West Indies, and other parts of the non-European world. There is no doubt whatever as to what he wants. He wants the mastery of the earth, and to this purpose he is applying methods which have never varied with the Hohenzollerns during THEIR LONG PERFORMANCE ON THE STAGE OP HISTORY. The date 1170 is assigned as that in which Conrad of Hohenzollern, the first of the name of whom we have authentic record, set out from his little Swabian fastness to seek his fortune. “ This Conrad,” says Carlyle, “ riding down from Hohenzollern, probably with no great stock of luggage about him, little dreams of being connected with ‘ Brandenburg, on the other side of the world; but is' unconsciously more so than any other of the sons of A dam. * * * * Why should a young' fellow that- has. capabilities stay.at home in hungry idleness, with no estate but his javelin .and .his buff jerkin,, and no em-, ployment but his' hawks, when there is a wide, opulent; world waiting to" be. conquered ? ” But Conrad did not start without a plan. He intended, as' a beginning, to see whether he could not be useful to the great Barbarossa. In this he succeeded so well that he very soon got high promotion, and finally obtained permission to marry the heiress of the Yohburg family, in whom vested the office and IMMENSE POSSESSIONS of the Bnrggrafs of Niirnberg. This office Conrad got; and so became at once a “Prince of the Empu-e,” a basis from which, says Carlyle, “ if a man happened to have talent of his own and solid resources of his own (which are always on the growing hand with this .family), he may. go far enough.” In this office the Hohenzollerns abided and grew for many, a long century. * * *• The weak and irresolute Frederick William 11. lost the Ehine provinces to France, and although he managed to get some considerable Polish pickings at the second and third partitions in 1793 and 4 1795, they rather weakened'than strength^,

enM his kingdom, and by no means afforded compensation for the losses he sustained in the West. Matters fared still worse with Frederick William 111., who was ground under the heel of Napoleon at Jena and Auerstadt in 1807, and was deprived of half his kingdom. The disastrous Peace of Tilsit sliced off the illgotten Polish pickings and the whole of Prussian territory west of the Elbe. In fact, it seemed as if extinction as a separate State was imminent, and one is reminded of Heine’s feelings as he saw

THE TERRIBLE FRENCH EMPEROR ride through Leipsic—pale, immobile, with lips compressed and’sternly silent: “yet one shuddered to think those lips had but to whistle, ct La Prussa n’exist (lit plus!” But the Hohenzollem star was not to sink after all. The fatuous ambition of Bonaparte drove him to madness after madness, and it being finally the luck of Prussia to share in the battle of Waterloo, she got back the northern half of Saxony, her old possessions west of the Elbe, Swedish Pomerania, the duchies of Berg and Julioh, and other territories in Westphalia and on the Rhine, giving the kingdom a total area of no less than 108,000 square miles. From this point the history of the Hohenzollerns becomes too recent to need going through in detail. With William 1., Bismarck, and Moltke, there began a new era of ' PRUSSIAN 'AGGRANDISEMENT. The AustrO-Prussian war of .1866 gave Prussia the Kingdom of Hanover, Hesse Cassel, Hesse Nassau, Frankfort - and Schleswig Holstein —the last-named being the spoil of apiece of barefaced robbery. The Fran co-Prussian war of 1870 added Alsace-Lorraine to the effective strength of Prussia, although, nominally, territorial integrity has not been established. It should be pointed out, too, that , this war really originated in the putting forward of a Hohenzollem prince as a candidate for the throne of Spain; ' and we read with, some amusement only a day or two ago that the German Emperor has announced: his intention of being personally present at the coronation of the young Queen of, Holland, with the view of bringing off an advantageous, Hohenzollem match in that quarter.. That Germany —or ratherPrussia—has covetous eyes -.on- Denmark,; Holland, and perhaps Belgium, is a; matter of notoriety, and the fact,, may not be without its bearing on the ,sudden en- r thusiasm of the Emperor, for making,’ Germany a great naval power, „... -V, ’