im PRUSSIA. 



elector of Brandenburg, and afterwards king of Prussia, instituted, 

 in 1685, the " Order of Generosity." The knights wear a cross of 

 eight points, enamelled blue, having in the centre this motto, " La 

 Gen&rosite." pendent to a blue ribband. The same prince instituted 

 the " Order of the Black Eagle," on the day of his coronation at 

 Konigsberg, in the year 1700: the sovereign is, always grand-mas-? 

 ter : and ihe number of knights, exclusive of the i*oyai family, is 

 limited to thirty, who must also be admitted into the " Order of Gene- 

 rosity," previous to their receiving this, unless they be sovereign 

 princes. The badge is an eight-cornered golden blue enamelled 

 cross, in the middle of which is the name of the sovereign, and on the 

 edges are four black spread-eagles. It is worn suspended from a 

 broad orange-coloured ribband which passes from the left to the right. 

 The knights wear on the left side of their coats a silver star, in the 

 middle of which is a black eagle, with the motto Suum Cuique. The 

 " Order ol Merit" was instituted by Frederic II, in the year 1740, to 

 reward the merit of persons either in arms or arts, without distinc- 

 tion of birth, religion, or country. The king is sovereign, and the 

 number of knights unlimited. Frederic II, likewise instituted the 

 orders of u St. Stephen" and " St. John;" the former in 1754, the 

 latter in 1756. 



History ...The ancient history of Prussia, like that of other king- 

 doms, is lost in the clouds of fiction and romance. The early inhabi- 

 tants, a brave and warlike people, descended from the Slavonians, 

 refused to submit to the neighbouring princes, who, on pretence of 

 converting them to Christianity, endeavoured to subject them to 

 slavery. They made a noble stand against the kings of Poland ; one 

 of whom, Boltslaus IV, was by them defeated and killed in 1163. 

 They continued independent, and pagans, till the time of the cru- 

 sades, when the German knights of the Teutonic order, about the year 

 1227, undertook their conversion by the edge of the sword, but upon 

 condition of having, as a reward, the property of the country when 

 conquered. A long series of wars followed, in which the inhabitants 

 of Prussia were almost extirpated by the religious knights, who, in 

 the thirteenth century, after committing the most incredible barbari- 

 ties, peopled the country with Germans. After a vast waste of blood, 

 in 1 466 a peace was concluded between the knights of the Teutonic 

 order and Casimir IV, king of Poland, who had undertaken the cause 

 of the oppressed people ; by which it was agreed, that the part now 

 called Polish Prussia should continue a free province, under the king's 

 protection ; and that the knights and the grand-master should possess 

 the other part, acknowledging themselves vassals of Poland. This 

 gave rise to fresh wars, in which the knights endeavoured, but 

 unsuccessfully, to throw off their vassallage to Poland. In 1525, 

 Albert, margrave of Brandenburg, and the last grand-master of the 

 Teutonic order, laid aside the habit of his order, embraced Luther- 

 anism, and concluded a peace at Cracow, by which the margrave was 

 acknowledged duke of the east part of Prussia (formerly called, for 

 that reason, Ducal Prussia) but to be held as a fief of Poland, and to 

 descend to his male heirs ; and upon failure of his male issue, to his 

 brother and his male heirs. Thus ended the sovereignty of the 

 Teutonic order in Prussia, after it had subsisted nearly 300 years. 

 In 1657, the elector Frederic-William of Brandenburg, deservedly 

 called the Great, had Ducal Prussia confirmed to him; and, by the 

 conventions of Welau and Bromberg, it was freed, by John Casimir 



