460 FREDERICK (PRUSSIA) held the fortresses of Prussia and Poland ; their army in the dominions of the king still amount- ed to 60,000. But Napoleon's hour of success had passed. The continual desertion of his allies served to strengthen the phalanx of the coalition after every defeat of his armies. His enormous new levies were not sufficient to cov- er the extraordinary losses, and to face so many enemies. The Prussians fought bravely in vari- ous engagements in 1813 and 1814 (see BLU- CHEE), and the king often gave proofs of per- sonal activity and courage. He entered Paris with his allies, accompanied Alexander on his visit to England, made a triumphal entry into his capital in August, 1814, and repaired to the congress of Vienna. The stipulations of this congress conferred on Prussia greater power than it possessed before the wars, enlarging it particularly with parts of Saxony, one of the last allies of Napoleon. The sudden return of the captive of Elba called the Prussians again to arms, and Blticher, after his previous de- feat, appeared at Waterloo in time to finish the great struggle. The last 25 years of the reign of Frederick William form a period of undisturbed peace and prosperity for Prussia. Closely allied with the czar Alexander, and afterward with Nicholas, the king pursued a policy of strict conservatism. Much was done for internal improvements, little for political reform. He, however, formed the great Ger- man commercial league, the Zollverein. Revo- lutionary agitations, wherever they manifested themselves, were suppressed with severity. The last years of his reign were agitated by a strife with the Roman Catholic clergy. The eldest of his four sons succeeded him. One of his daughters was married to the emperor Nicholas. In 1824 he had formed a morgan- atic marriage with the countess Augusta of Harrach, whom he made princess of Liegnitz. She died in Hamburg, June 6, 1873, aged 72. FREDERICK WILLIAM IV., son and successor of the preceding, born Oct. 15, 1795, died at the chateau of Sans Souci, near Potsdam, Jan. 2, 1861. He received a careful scientific educa- tion, though his boyhood was passed in the most disastrous period of Prussian history, and his youth in that of the great struggle against Napoleon. He was often present on the scene of action during the last campaign against that emperor, became familiarly acquainted with many distinguished men of his age, and de- veloped his taste for the fine arts while re- siding in Paris after its occupation by the allies, and on a journey to Italy in 1828. Ad- mitted to the councils of his father, he evinced a marked independence of opinion with much administrative ability. As military governor of Pomerania, his affability gained him gene- ral popularity. He succeeded to the throne June 7, 1840. His first solemn declaration at Konigsberg, a limited political amnesty, the reinstating of Arndt, the old liberal poet, the reappointment to office of the popular lieutenant general Von Boyen, and the con- ciliatory termination of a difficulty between the state and the Roman Catholic clergy, were hailed with applause ; but the appoint- ment to office of Hassenpflug and Eichhorn, and various- other conservative measures, soon destroyed the hopes of the liberal part of the nation. The development given to the repre- sentation by provincial estates, which had been introduced under the preceding reign, by the convocation of their standing committees in 1842, and by the convocation of the united provincial estates of the kingdom in February, 1847, was made less significant by the distinct declaration of the king that the representatives, far from becoming legislators, would be allowed only to give advice to the unlimited sovereign, and that he would never consent to bind his inherited authority by a written compact. Periodical meetings of the united assembly, were asked for in vain. The government, though granting general toleration, declared against the separation of the church from the state and the emancipation of the Jews, and avowedly sought to rule the kingdom in con- formity with the views of the school generally known as pietists. Much more was done for the material interests of the state through in- ternal improvements, commercial union with foreign states, and the extension of the Zoll- verein, which also augmented the political in- fluence of Prussia. A bank with a capital of 10,000,000 thalers was established at Ber- lin. The Polish conspiracy of 1846, which threatened the eastern possessions of the king, was detected in time in the duchy of Posen ; the outbreak in the same province was easily suppressed; the insurgents of Cracow, who laid down their arms on Prussian territory, were treated with rigor. The people were already politically agitated by the lively dis- cussions of the diet (from April 11 to June 26, 1847), and of its standing committees, as- sembled Jan. 18, 1848, and also by the trial of the insurrectionists of Posen, and of Miero- slawski, the destined leader of the Polish move- ment, as well as by the victory of the liberals in Switzerland over the Sonderbund, the constitu- tional movements in Italy, and the revolution in Sicily, when the news of the French revolu- tion of Feb. 24 involved the whole of Germany in a flame. The popular movement was victo- rious all over the southwest and south of the confederation, before Frederick William was forced to yield to it. Even after the fall of Metternich in Vienna (March 13), he was deter- mined to maintain his royal authority, and to grant liberties only as free gifts. Threatening popular gatherings in Berlin were dispersed by his soldiery before he proclaimed the. freedom of the press and the promise of a change in the form of government. These concessions were received with enthusiasm, but the people still demanded the removal of the troops from the capital, and for this purpose a deputation of citizens visited the palace (March 18), while a crowd assembled before it. The deputation
