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383 



T H I 



IV. Conditions concerning the relations between 

 Germt'.i/y and foreign poteen. 



1, The peace of Westphalia was guaranteed by Sweden 

 and France. 



The Thirty Years' War was the Peloponnesian War of 

 Germany, and by the Peace of Westphalia the German 

 princes prepared the destruction of their independence 

 and the downfall of the empire. The German princes 

 were originally rich landowners appointed by (Tie em- 

 perors as high judges ("graven, comites) and military com- 

 manders (herzoge, duces). From the eleventh century they 

 endeavoured to obtain possession of these functions as 

 hereditary ngnr,s. During five centuries they carried on a 

 system of rebellion against the Imperial authority, and 

 gradually usurped rights and privileges which the em- 

 perors were compelled to confer upon them in due form. 

 Thus both legislation and administration became here- 

 ditary in the princes. Having succeeded with regard to 

 political rights, they considered the Reformation of Luther 

 as an opportunity of usurping ecclesiastical legislation. 

 It was granted to a great number of them by the Peace of 

 Westphalia. Luther's reforms gave birth to the Protestant 

 faith, but this faith required to be supported by a church. 

 A Protestant church did not exist before the Peace of West- 

 phalia, nor was it established by this peace, nor is there 

 now any general Protestant church in Germany. The 

 princes considering themselves as legal successors of the 

 bishops, the episcopal rights became a part of political 

 sovereignty, and the ministers of the faith gradually 

 became functionaries of the princes. Their first duty was 

 to obey them ; they not only obeyed, but they crouched 

 before them and their ministers ; their abject behaviour 

 is shown by numerous works published during the latter 

 part of the seventeenth centviry and the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. When the people saw the dependence of the minis- 

 ters on the temporal authority, they confounded the com- 

 mands of their faith with the laws of their princes, and, not 

 discovering any divine character in these laws, they forgot 

 the divine origin of their religion. Thus they fell into that 

 remarkable indifference concerning religious matters which 

 now prevails in the greater part of the Protestant coun- 

 tries of Germany. This religious state is a consequence of 

 the Thirty Years' War. 



The political consequences of that war are still more 

 evident. Germany was a wilderness its material strength 

 wag ruined its political power was broken its intellec- 

 tual development was checked and the fierce and manly 

 spirit of the nation was broken by their thousand arbitrary 

 rulers, who themselves became slaves of the French. 

 Divided into factions by the private interests of the princes, 

 Germany became the theatre where the armies of all Europe 

 met to settle the differences of their kings. This state of 

 things lasted a hundred and fifty years, and ended with 

 the destruction of the German empire by Napoleon. 



rK. A. Menzel, Geschichte den Dreusigjdhrigen 

 Krifafx, 2 vols. Kvo., Breslau, 18*5-37 ; Breyer, Ge- 

 nrhichte den Dreitsisjrihrigen Kriegesnachungedruckten 

 Ptipieren, 1st vol., Miinchen, 1811, 8vo. ; Breyer, Beitrage 

 zur Gexchichte den Dreittigja/ingen Krieges aui bisher 

 ungfflrurktfn Papien-n, Miinchen, 1812, 8vo. ; Schiller, 

 QetchichtG den Dreixsiffjahrigen Krieges : this work, 

 distinguished by the beauty of its style, contains the most 

 interesting description pf the Thirty Years' War; but its 

 historical value is not very great ; Leo, Li'hrliurh der 

 Universal Genchichte, vol. iii. : the author's description is 

 remarkable for the application of philosophical principles 

 to history; Eichhorn, />///> Ktnatu- und Rechts-Ge- 

 nchichtf, vol. iv. : the author starts from a legal point of 

 view, but he treats political and religious rights rather as 

 a lawyer than as a publicist ; Woltmann, Geschichte 

 liiilixrhi'ii fr'rii'dens, Leipzig, 1808-9, 2 vols. 

 8vo. ; Meiern, Acta Pacts WestpnOMat /mf/lica, oder 

 Wettphizlitche Friedemhandlun gen, Gottingen, 1734-6, 

 fi vols. Ibl.i 



THISTLE, the common name of Cardmu, a genus of 

 plants belonging to the large natural order Composite. 

 From the time of Theophrastus down to that of Caspar 

 Bauhin, all plants that possessed a spiny involucre were 

 comprehended in the genus Carduus. The artichoke 

 'Cynara) and the teasel fDipsacus) were included in it by 

 Tragus and Lobelius. Morison confined the genus to 



those plants that Had spiny scales of the involucre and a 

 crown of feathery down (pappus) surmounting the seed. 

 Plants resembling them, but without a spiny involucre, he 

 called Cirsium, and those without the feathery pappus 

 Carduus improprie dictus. Tournefort adopted these dis- 

 tinctions. Vaillant defined Carduus more accurately, 

 giving it to plants with a globular involucre composed of 

 spiny scales, with compound flowers, tubular florets, 

 stamens united by the anthers, a hairy receptacle, and a 

 hairy pappus on the seeds. If the pappus was feathery, 

 he called the genus Acama ; and when the receptacle was 

 not hairy, but honeycombed, he used the term Ono- 

 pordon, a name previously applied to thistles by Pliny. 

 When the scales and receptacles were fleshy, he named 

 the genus Cynara. Linnseus adopted these genera, but 

 changed Vaillant's Acama into Cm'cus, a name which had 

 been previously employed by Tournefort for another genus. 



The genus Carduus, Common Thistle, consists of upwards 

 of 30 species, most of which are inhabitants of Europe. 

 None of them are found in the New World. 



C.nutans, Musk-Thistle, has decurrent spiny leaves, with 

 handsome drooping flowers ; the scales of the involucre 

 cottony, the outer ones spreading. It is a common plant 

 on waste ground, in dry, stony, or chalky soils, in Great 

 Britain. It gives out, especially in the evening in warm 

 weather, a strong smell of musk. 



C. marianus, Milk-Thistle, has spinous leaves embracing 

 the stem ; the scales of the involucre leaf-like, recurved 

 and spinous at the margin. It is a native of England ; 

 scarce in Scotland. The leaves are distinguished by the 

 milky whiteness of their veins. This milkiness is said, 

 according to an absurd story, to have been produced by a 

 drop of the Virgin Mary's milk, just as the Milky-Way 

 was supposed to arise from that of Juno. This plant is an 

 esculent, and may be eaten young as a salad, or boiled and 

 eaten as greens. The young stalks, when peeled and 

 soaked in water, are also excellent. 



The root may be prepared like salsify and skirret, and 

 the receptacle maybe cooked and eaten as the artichoke. 

 When cultivated, the seeds should be sown in spring, and 

 the plants kept at a foot and a half distance from each 

 other, and the earth thrown up round them till they are 

 etiolated. 



The genus Cnicus, Plume-Thistle, is known by the fea- 

 thered down that crowns the seeds. It is a large genus : 

 nine of the species are inhabitants of Great Britain. 



The Cotton-Thistle is the Onopordon, which is known 

 by its honeycombed receptacle. The O. Acanthium is a 

 British species. The leaves are ovato-oblong, sinuated, 

 spinous, decurrent, and woolly on both sides. It attains a 

 height of from four to six feet. It is cultivated in Scot- 

 land as the Scotch Thistle ; but it is doubtful whether 

 this national badge has any existing type, as the repre- 

 sentations of the Scotch Thistle on ancient wood-carvings, 

 coins, and armorial bearings, differ more from each other 

 than any known species of thistles. The receptacle and 

 stalks of the Cotton-Thistle are sometimes eaten, in the 

 same manner as the artichoke and cardoon. [CYNARA.] 



The Carline Thistle forms the genus Carh'na, which 

 obtained that name from a tradition that the root of the 

 Common Carline (C. vulgarit) was shown by an angel to 

 Charlemagne as a remedy for the plague which prevailed 

 in his army. The genus is known from the others by the 

 inner scales of the involucre being spreading and mem- 

 branous, and of a yellow colour. The Common Carline is 

 a frequent plant in Great Britain on dry hilly pasture and 

 in fields. It is about one foot high. 



The Blessed Thistle is the Centaurea benedicta, the 

 Ciinliiiix hftiedictus of old writers. The involucre of the 

 genus Centaurea is not spiny, and the seeds have a very 

 simple pappus, or none. The Blessed Thistle is a native of 

 the Levant, and in the middle ages was held in extravagant 

 estimation on account of its supposed virtues. It is still 

 cultivated in some places on account of its medical pro- 

 perties. 



For Sow Thistle, see SONCHUS. 



Some of the species of thistles are admitted into gar- 

 dens. They form a pretty variety for borders, and require 

 little care in their cultivation. They sow themselves very 

 extensively by means of their winged seeds. On this 

 account they are great pests to the farmer. In fields the 

 annual kinds may be got rid of by the weeding hook, but 



