enable him to uphold the full dignity and consideration of the Germanic crown. On his death-bed he magnanimously recommended the princes, passing by his own house, to elect the most powerful of the German princes, Henry the Saxon. The old Germanic constitution as an elective kingdom has been censured, and all the evils have been cited usually attendant upon that form of government. Now every institution is good or evil according to the temper of the people and the character of the times; and in a country, in which such sentiments prevail as were evinced by Conrad the Franconian in that magnanimous action, an elective monarchy may well exist. This whole succession of energetic and great kings and emperors is the best justification of the elective form, based on the old Germanic constitution. It occurred, moreover, precisely at the time when the constitution began to pass from the elective to the hereditary form; for men were induced by the authority of a great emperor not to go out of his house, and the son was elected even in the lifetime of the father. In this case, if a minority and a regency intervened, the empire would appear in a weaker and more uncertain condition. At the commencement of the tenth century, a powerful, energetic, and valiant warrior was required as king of the Germans, for Germany was on almost all sides surrounded by enemies. In the west was a dispute with France in respect to Lorraine, Lothaire's kingdom, part of that northern central region in which the Netherlands were included; on the north and east the whole frontier was engirdled by heathen and hostile peoples, the Danes and the various Sclavonic races. The Ilungarians principally struck terror into all Europe. Their inroads into northern Italy, and into Germany as far as the Rhine, were the more devastating, as they were bent, not on conquest, and on settling in the conquered territories, but merely on amassing booty, and then returning home. In a short space of time, even during the two reigns of Henry the First and Otho the Great, not only was Lorraine secured, the Danes overcome, the north-eastern frontier towards the Sclavonic tribes gradually advanced, the incursions of the Hungarians put an end to by the battle of Merseburg, and that on the Lech, but even Italy and the imperial dignity were annexed to the kingdom. Germany was already, without

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comparison, the most powerful state in Europe, even before Conrad the Second, by treaty with its last heirless king, had incorporated the kingdom of Burgundy, the whole southern part of the central region, including Savoy, Dauphiné, and Provence, into his German kingdom. The whole extent, however, of the power and influence of the emperors was by no means confined within these vast territories, stretching as they did from the Mediterranean to the Northern and Baltic seas. On the introduction of Christianity into Denmark, Bohemia, Poland, and Hungary, this influence became very perceptible. The power of the German kings over these countries was sometimes greater, sometimes less; and incorrect as any definition of it, according to the principles of modern Salic law would be, yet the relations with the last-named lands will enable us to form an adequate conception of the authority in which the Germanic kingdom and the emperor stood. The relations with Hungary were the most remarkable and various. After the introduction of Christianity, the greatest progress was there visible in every branch of civilization; for in King Stephen, who, as a wise Sovereign and lawgiver, held the like relation to his people that Alfred had done to his, Hungary possessed one of those rare men, who rise far above their age, and who, for centuries, long influence and guide the progress of civilization. In this epoch, likewise, occurs the restoration of Austria as a Germanic province. The eastern provinces of the Danube, inhabited at the era of the great northern migrations by Christian and Gothic tribes, the Herulians, Rugians, and Lombards, were subsequently conquered by non-German and heathen nations, without the German race, however, being exterminated. The Franks strove to extend the empire even further in this direction; and by Charlemagne's conquests, which were pushed as far as the Raab, Austria was again completely freed. Under the last weak Carlovingians, these castern marches were once more lost; and from that time it became impossible to offer the least resistance to the inroads of the Hungarians. The Austrian Margraviate, however, restored by the Othos, flourished once more, under the Babenberger family, and soon surpassed the other German provinces in blooming prosperity, trade, and culture.

After Germany had become an independent elective king

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dom, each of the four principal German nations, the Franks, the Saxons, the Suabians, and the Bavarians, with the exception of the latter, gave a dynasty to the state. Although the kingdom was an elective one, yet birth in the reigning house was an almost legally established claim for the succession; primogeniture, however, did not prevail; but a free election took place from among the several members of the reigning family. Even the succession of the eldest, if it was left with him, required the solemn confirmation of an election and on the extinction of a dynasty, the absolute right of election reverted in full force. Each of the three dynasties of the German kings and emperors, the Franconian, the Saxon, and the Suabian, lasted somewhat longer than a hundred years. They all resemble each other in this, that the great military heroes and energetic sovereigns of each dynasty appear chiefly among the earlier kings and emperors; the later members, on the other hand, manifest a greater predisposition to refinement, and less energy, or at least an energy less severely disciplined, and less wisely. applied, more irregular, more ungovernable. Thus Henry the First and Otho the Great were the heroes of the Saxon royal line; the two last Othos were distinguished for their family connection with the Greek imperial house, and by their predilection for southern magnificence and refinement. They even copied the ceremonial of the Byzantine court, and they may have conceived the idea possible of reestablishing the seat of empire at Rome. The first emperors of the Franconian dynasty, Conrad the Salian, and Henry the Third, were perhaps the most powerful and fortunate emperors that Germany ever had. The weakness and the ungovernable character of their successors contributed much to distract the empire by the great contest with the church, although the motives for such a contest had already long existed, and the struggle itself was inevitable. Among the sovereigns of the Suabian dynasty, Frederick the First, a stern ruler, and a formidable, if not always successful, warrior, shows how great and powerful an emperor even at that time was and might be. Frederick the Second, though perhaps superior in refinement and boldness of intellect to all preceding emperors, indeed to all the sovereigns of the middle age, yet, by the profligate employment he made of his great

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gifts, brought about the destruction of the German kingdom and empire, such as it had existed in the middle age under the three above-named dynasties. Rodolph of Hapsburg, and after him Maximilian, restored it, indeed, but the former under a very different form. Thus in all three dynasties was exhibited a like progressive or declining movement from energy to weakness, from a severe and regular system of government to a state of license and anarchy.

All these dynasties alike placed their highest glory in possessing the imperial dignity, and in elevating it to a pinnacle of splendour. Frederick the Second was the first, who seems to have undervalued a dignity hitherto esteemed the highest of all earthly dignities. We may add, that in the system of policy of the three dynasties, there was a material difference in the direction of their conquests. The Saxon emperors bent their energies against the hostile nations on the north and east, and laid thereby the foundations for the strength and greatness of the empire. In Italy they sought fame rather than sovereign possessions; in Germany itself they ruled with magnanimity and mildness. The Franconian emperors evidently aimed at unlimited power. Not that they sought to put down the freedom of the people, to wrest their rights from the lesser nobility, or to discourage the rise of the cities; but undoubtedly they had the evident intention of rendering the empire absolutely hereditary, of abolishing the peculiar rights of the different German states, of extending in every way the regal power, and perhaps even they cherished the remoter plan of incorporating the great duchies with the crown. Their system of policy, thus directed to the aggrandizement of power, as soon as it was unwisely applied, laid the foundation for that contest with the church, in which they were first involved. This contest concerned the respective claims of the emperor and the Roman see upon the ecclesiastical princes, whose dependence on their temporal superior these emperors exacted with as much strictness and jealousy as they showed in the exercise of any other of their royal rights. They appear, moreover, to have sought to obtain especial influence over the church itself. No emperor before or after him possessed so much of this sort of influence as Henry the Third; and although he made a good use of it, yet it was

naturally calculated to bring about a reaction. The Suabian emperors finally neglected, not only the earlier acquisitions aud claims in the countries both north, west, and east of the empire, but even Germany itself and their imperial mission, in order to become the absolute rulers and monarchs of the beautiful Hesperian peninsula. In their time the contest between the church and the empire assumed a totally different character, as the temporal interests of the independence or the subjection of Italy became involved in it. With regard to the acquisitions by conquest, those of the Saxon emperors were the most important, the most necessary for the preservation of the state, and the most advantageous for the growth of its true power. It has been doubted whether the incorporation of the kingdom of Burgundy with that of Germany made any important addition to the true power of the latter, since this sovereignty in Burgundy was not of sufficient duration for the two countries to become thoroughly united, and it is easy to see how loosely even Lorraine hung to the empire. At least, however, the western frontiers were secured by this acquisition, for even at that time France could easily have become a most dangerous rival and neighbour to Germany.

In like manner, modern historians are almost unanimously of opinion that the connection with Italy, and even the imperial dignity, was injurious to Germany. It may indeed be admitted that the German kings, in the succeeding times, would have been more powerful, if the state had extended its conquests in other directions, or if the kings had applied their energies to the acquisition of unlimited power. But to civilization this connection was undoubtedly advantageous. Italy might likewise have been secured, if the earliest emperors had resided in it more, especially in the northern provinces, and had incorporated these more closely with Germany. Under the Suabian emperors this was too late; and by the acquisition of Sicily, not only the house of Suabia, but the imperial authority itself, wholly forfeited the affections of the Italians, who then apprehended utter subjugation.

Despite all these limitations, the power of the empire under the more vigorous emperors was very great. It included all Germany, together with Switzerland and Holland, northern Italy, and the eastern provinces of France.

It