66 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



France, weakened by the long and exhausting wars of Louis 

 XIV., was quite unable, if she wished it, to crush the new 

 power ; but it is probable she did not then see what has 

 since been forced upon her notice, that Prussia might become a 

 first-rate power, capable of disputing the supremacy with her in 

 southern Europe. Austria, however, saw with quick, instinctive 

 eyes, that if she wished to be, as hitherto, first without question 

 iu Germany, she must at once, without losing an opportunity, 

 strike a blow which should permanently injure Prussia, and 

 re-assert once and for ever her own superiority. She had 

 recovered pretty well from her sufferings in the Thirty Years' 

 War, and she saw that, in view of the compactness and the or- 

 ganisation which were so visible in the Prussian kingdom, she 

 must even risk something rather tlian allow Prussia to make 

 such headway. Suddenly she found that through the force of 

 circumstances she was compelled to act on the defensive instead 

 of the aggressive against her rival. The Emperor . Charles 

 of Germany died in 1740, and his daughter, Maria Theresa for 

 whose right to succeed Charles had been careful to obtain the 

 recognition of the European powers found herself engaged in 

 a contest with numerous foes who set up claims to the several 

 portions of her empire. The Pragmatic Sanction, by which the 

 assent of Europe had been given to Maria Theresa's claims, was 

 disregarded by those most interested in doing so, England and 

 some of the lesser German states being alone in their fidelity to 

 their engagements. Frederick, who knew the national feeling 

 of Austria, and the wishes of her statesmen towards him, 

 determined to assume the offensive, and to pick up for Prussia 

 what he could out of the ruins of the empire. While the 

 Elector of Bavaria claimed the Bohemian crown, which belonged 

 essentially to the Austrian Hapsburga ; while the King of Sar- 

 dinia claimed the duchy of Milan ; and the imperial crown 

 itself was claimed by no less than three hostile and powerful 

 rivals, Frederick put in his claim to the province of Silesia, 

 which he asserted to be his by virtue of some right which 

 it is difficult now to follow. His claim being refused, he 

 poured his fine troops into Silesia, and conquered the province, 

 offering the empress-queen, however, to support her against all 

 claimants to the empire, if she would confirm him in the 

 possession of Silesia. She refused, made an appeal to the 

 nationalities under her for help, and in spite of French, 

 Spanish, Prussian, and Bavarian armies, which swarmed about 

 her territories, presented a bold front, and resolutely set 

 herself to work to overcome her difficulties. By the aid of 

 British money and British troops, Maria Theresa held her 

 ground, though she was forced, as the price of buying cessation 

 from Prussian attacks, to consent, after a brilliant victory 

 gained by Frederick, to confirm Silesia to him by treaty. The 

 other belligerents were compelled by force of arms to agree to 

 a peace which for a while gave rest to Germany. 



In 1756 broke out the Seven Years' War. The situation in 

 Europe had changed. Maria Theresa was dead, and the interests 

 of England required that she should ally herself with the King 

 of Prussia rather than with his foes ; while the French, glad of 

 any support against England, with whom she was engaged in a 

 chronic war, joined their forces with those of Austria. Hanover, 

 in the British interest, sided with Prussia ; Saxony sided with 

 the empire. The time seemed to have arrived for humbling 

 Prussia, and for wresting Silesia again from her grasp. 

 Frederick saw the storm coming, and being always ready, antici- 

 pated its arrival by himself invading Bohemia. 



Now came the tug of war. By fine generalship Frederick 

 made the whole of the Saxon army, encamped at Pirna, lay 

 down its arms, and defeated at Lowositz the imperial forces 

 which were hastening to its relief. This was on October 1, 

 1756. In the spring of the following year, the Austrians and 

 French were ready. The latter began to march on the southern 

 frontier of Prussia ; the former, under Prince Charles of Lothrin- 

 gen, and Field-marshal Broune, moved to attack the Prussians, 

 and came up with them at Prague on the 6th of May. The 

 Austrians lost 24,000 men, the Prussians 18,000, and the 

 Prussians remained victors and masters of the field. Six 

 weeks afterwards the battle of Kollin was lost by Frederick, 

 with a loss of 14,000 men, after a contest of eight hours' 

 duration ; and to this siicceeded a number of battles, now 

 between Prussians and Austrians, now between Prussians 

 and Austrians allied with Frenchmen, now between Prussians 

 and Frenchmen combined with Eussians. The odda were 



almost always against the Prussians, who supplied the want 

 of numbers by the desperation which naturally inspires men 

 fighting for actual existence, and who on several occasions 

 achieved wonderful success, considering the proportion of 

 enemies opposed to them. At Leuthen (5th of December, 1757), 

 when the Prussians, under Frederick himself, were 32,000 

 against over 80,000 of Austrians, Bavarians, and Wurtem- 

 bergers, under the best generals of the day, the Prussians 

 gained a decisive victory. Six thousand of the conquerors fell, 

 but were revenged by the loss of 27,000 of the enemy, who also 

 lost 116 guns and 51 flags ; and of the strong Austrian army 

 which had begun the campaign, only 37,000 reached Bohemia. 

 Breslau, with a garrison of 18,000 men, surrendered, with 

 all its stores and its military chest, to a force which did 

 not number more than about 14,000. In other principal 

 battles the Prussians were now victorious, now ruinously 

 defeated, and more than once Berlin was occupied by hostile 

 troops, and the capital of Prussia suffered the penalty of its 

 king being at war with barbarians like the Russians. At 

 Kunersdorf, on the 12th of August, 1759, Frederick experienced 

 the greatest defeat he ever sustained his army, nearly half 

 the numbers of the Austrians and Eussians, was beaten 

 with the loss of nearly half its complement, of 170 guns, 

 and 28 colours. It was a crushing defeat. But the spirit 

 of Frederick was of the "no surrender" kind; and though, 

 after this reverse, it seemed impossible for him to hold his 

 own, and though his kingdom was exposed to all the horrors 

 of invasion, he remained firm, gathered up his forces for 

 another effort, and in August, 1760, overthrew the Austrians at 

 Liegnitz with dreadful slaughter, and with great loss of cannon 

 and military trophies. From this time to the end of the year 

 1762 the war went on with varying success, but the Prussians, 

 aided by British subsidies to the extent during the seven 

 years of .112,000,000, managed on the whole to win the 

 mastery. On the 31st of December, 1762, France and Eussia 

 having withdrawn from the contest, the representatives of 

 Prussia, Austria, and Saxony met at Hubertsburg, and 

 arranged the basis of the Treaty of Paris, which restored 

 peace on the basis of mutual restitution of conquests. 

 Prussia gave up her hold on Saxony, and Austria consented to 

 the integral union of Silesia with the new kingdom of Prussia. 

 This kingdom entirely changed the whole character of its 

 relations to the other European powers. It came out of the 

 war a recognised entity a thing capable of being cultivated 

 and of growing ; it had no longer a doubtful or precarious 

 status. Moulded by the second King of Prussia, perfected by 

 the third, it grew in the interval between the Seven Years' War 

 and the wars of Napoleon into a very considerable power, second 

 only in Germany to that wielded by the house of Austria. The 

 Seven Weeks' War of 1866 showed what use Prussia had made 

 of her opportunities since 1815, and proved that she was more 

 than a match for her pristine master and later rival ; while the 

 Franco-German War of 1870-71, which ended in the disastrous 

 defeat of France, brought Prussia to the height of its power, 

 and directly resulted in the formation of the new German 

 Empire, altogether apart from Austria, and with the King of 

 Prussia at its head as Emperor of Germany. 



LESSONS 



SPANISH. III. 



OF THE ADJECTIVE. 



ADJECTIVES in Spanish have both a singular and a plural form, 

 according as they are used with singular or plural nouns ; for 

 example : 



Grande hombre, tall man. Grandes hombres, tall men. 



The rules for the formation of the plural of adjectives are the 

 same as those for forming the plural of nouns. 



Adjectives which end in an, on, or o, and such as are derived 

 from the names of nations, change not only from the singular 

 to the plural, but also from the masculine to the feminine, to 

 agree with the noun (expressed or understood) to which they 

 belong ; as, 



Espanol, Spanish (man) ; Espanola, 



Spanish (woman). 

 Hombre generoso, generous man; 



muger geuerosa, generous woman. 



Faufarron, bragging (man) ; fan- 

 farrona, bragging (woman). 



Ingles, English (man) ; Inglesa, 

 English (woman). 



