204 



PRUSSIA. 



Prussia, ritories as seemed consistent with the permanency 

 *~~^~~~' and security of the balance of power in Europe. 

 The following are the new territories conferred on 

 Prussia by the congress of Vienna, from France, the 

 Lower Rhine, and part of Juliers, Cleves, and Berg; 

 from Westphalia, Munster, and the remaining part of 

 Juliers, Cleves, and Berg ; and from Saxony, * Thu- 

 ringia, Upper and Lower Lusatia and Menneberg, 

 which latter provinces contain about a million of in- 

 habitants, and are situated on the north and east of 

 the Saxon dominions. We have already stated, that 

 in this year also, Prussia, partly by exchange, and 

 partly by purchase, obtained from Denmark that part 

 in the west of Pomerania, commonly called Swedish 

 Pomerania, with the island of Rugen. And thus we 

 see Prussia, by her own energy and exertions, again 

 raised from the condition of a second rate power, to be 

 one of the first sovereign states of Europe, and as for- 

 midable as she was even in the time of Frederick the 

 Great. Frederick William III. in whose reign the 

 above memorable events took place, forms one of the 

 members of the Holy Alliance, and enters with eager- 

 ness into all the views by which that body is distinguish- 

 ed; and in some respects he carries despotism in his 

 own dominions, to a height which in Britain would 

 be reckoned intolerable. But, in opposition to this, he 

 is, as previously mentioned, assiduous in other re- 

 spects in promoting the best interests of his subjects : 

 he has made several judicious improvements in the 

 legal code of the kingdom, and in the administration 

 of justice; he encourages literature, agriculture, trade, 

 and manufactures ; he has established the liberty of 

 the press ; and he has even promised a representative 

 government to his subjects, a measure for which a 

 decree was issued, dated at Vienna 1815, though it 

 has not yet been carried into execution. At the present 

 date the Prussians, finding that their country holds a 

 distinguished rank among the nations of the continent; 

 that they are making rapid progress in all the arts of 

 peace and national prosperity ; and that their property 

 and privileges are protected and held sacred, are cha- 

 racterized by as much contentment, patriotism, and 

 attachment to their sovereign and government, as they 

 displayed at any previous period of their history. 



See Travels by Marshall, (supposed to be written 

 by Sir John Hill) Coxe, Riesbeck, &c.; Letters on Si- 

 lesia, by Adam, minister plenipotentiary from the 

 United States, 1801; Tableau de la Pologne, par Malte 

 Brun, Paris, 1807; Hoeck's Apperf u Statistique des Etats 

 d'Allemagne, Paris, fol. 1801; Stutistischc Darstellung 

 der Preusische Monarchic, von J. A. Demain, 1818: 

 Reichard's Guide des Voyageurs, Weimar, 1805; Wrax- 

 all's Memoirs; see the following works by Frederick 

 the Great, Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg; 

 Memoirs of his own Times, from 1740 to the Peace of 

 Dresden; A History of the War of Seven years ; and 

 A History of the Transactions from the Peace of Hu- 

 lersburg ; see also the various Lives of Frederick the 

 Great; the Annual Register, particularly for 1806, 

 1807, 1814, and 1815; and in this work, the articles 

 AUSTRIA, FREDERICK III. GERMANY, POLAND. (&) 



PRUSSIAN BLUE. See DYEING, vol. viii. 118, Prussian 

 119, 354*, 356, 357, 389. Blue 



PRUSSIATES. See CHEMISTRY, vol. vi. p. 87 ; 

 and DYEING, vol. viii. 120. x ^ 



PRUSSIC ACID. See CHEMISTRY, vol. vi. p. 60 ; ^_^""tl^ 

 and POISONS, vol. xvi. p. 719- 



PTOLEMIES. See EGYPT, vol. viii. p. 369378. 

 ASTRONOMY, vol. ii. p. 59 ; Music, vol. xv. p. 38 ; and 

 OPTICS, vol. xv. p. 46l. 



PUERPERAL FEVER. See MIDWIFERY, vol. xiv. 

 p. 259. 



PUFFENDORF, SAMUEL, a celebrated historian and 

 jurist ; was born at Floha, near Chemnitz in Misnia, 

 in Upper Saxony. His father, who was a Lutheran 

 clergyman, educated him under his own eye ; but 

 when he was sent to Leipsic to study divinity, he ac- 

 quired a taste for the study of law, which he ever af- 

 terwards prosecuted with ardour. From Leipsic he 

 went to Jena to study mathematics under Weigel, and 

 having acquired a competent knowledge of them, he 

 devoted himself to the law of nations and the politics 

 of the Germanic body. In 1658, he was appointed 

 governor to the Swedish ambassador at the court of 

 Denmark ; and when a quarrel arose between the two 

 nations, he was put under arrest at Copenhagen along 

 with the rest of the family of the Swedish ambas- 

 sador. During this confinement, which lasted for 

 eight months, he wrote commentaries on Grotius's 

 work, On the Rights of War and Peace, and on the po- 

 litical writings of Hobbes ; and, having arranged his 

 observations, he published them under the title of 

 Elements of Universal Jurisprudence, which appeared 

 in 1660. This work acquired much reputation to its 

 author, and induced the Elector Palatine to establish 

 for Puffendorf a professorship of natural law in the 

 university of Heidelberg. The king of Sweden gave 

 him the same office in the university of Lunden in 

 1670. After the publication of his Treatise on the Law 

 of Nature and Nations, Professor Beckman published 

 a libel against him, for which he was banished the 

 kingdom. This punishment exasperated the professor 

 to such a degree, that he sent a challenge to PufFen- 

 dorf, who, however, declined to take any notice of it. 

 Having gone from Lunden to Stockholm during the 

 prevalence of the war in Schonen, he was honoured 

 with the dignity of baron, and was appointed royal 

 historiographer and counsellor of state. Here he com- 

 posed his History of Sweden from the expedition of 

 Gustavus Adolphus into Germany, to the Abdication of 

 Christina ; and also his History of Charles Gustavus. 



The elector of Brandenburg, with the consent of 

 the king of Sweden, invited our author to reside at his 

 court as a counsellor of state, and with the view of 

 writing the History of Frederick William. This great 

 work, which was not published till the death of its 

 author, appeared in 1696, entitled, The History of 

 Frederick William II. the Great, Elector ofBranden- 

 burg. It occupies two folio volumes, and was com- 

 posed from materials in the archives of the house of 

 Brandenburg. Complete copies of it are said to be 

 very scarce. 



* Saxony, during the struggles we have been recording, was in alliance with France ; and Bonaparte changed the title of elector to that 

 of king, (which still continues) and added to his dominions the duchy of Warsaw. During the eighteen months which elapsed between 

 the battle of Leipsic and the congress of Vienna, the Saxons were in dreadful suspense respecting the ultimate fate of their country. The 

 dismemberment which took place was not altogether unexpected,. The king, however, firmly remonstrated, and protested against the 

 measure ; but at length fearing that hostilities might be the result of longer-continued resistance, he was obliged to acquiesce. " All 

 my efforts," says he in an affecting farewell address to his subjects, " all my efforts to avert so painful a sacrifice have been vain. I must 

 part from you ; and the bonds which your fidelity and attachment to my person render so dear to me, the bonds which have formed for 

 ages the happiness of my house and of my ancestry, must be for ever broken,"(4naf Register for 1815.) 



