Part 1209

"The most startling of all the deeds in the recent revival of anarchistic activity was the assassination of M. Carnot, President of the French Republic, on the 24th of June. While driving through the streets of Lyons, where he was taking part in the opening ceremonies of an exposition, he was mortally stabbed by an Italian Anarchist named Santo Caserio. The assassin was immediately captured, and was executed August 16. His trial did not reveal any accomplices, though there was evidence tending to show that the deed was resolved upon by a band of Anarchists. Caserio boasted of his identification with the sect. … According to the constitutional prescription, a joint convention of the two chambers of the legislature was immediately summoned for a presidential election. The convention met at Versailles, June 27, M. Challemel-Lacour, president of the Senate, in the chair, and on the first ballot chose M. Casimir-Périer by 451 out of a total of 851 votes, M. Brisson, the Radical candidate, stood second, with 195, and M. Dupuy third, with 97."

_Political Science Quarterly, December, 1894._

On the 15th of January, 1895, M. Casimir-Périer astonished the world and threw France into consternation, almost, by suddenly and peremptorily resigning the Presidency. The reason given was the intolerable powerlessness and practical inutility of the President under the existing constitution. The exciting crisis which this resignation produced was passed through without disorder, and on the 17th the National Assembly elected M. François Felix Faure to the office of President.

FRANCE: Libraries.

See LIBRARIES (page 2010).

FRANCE, Bank of.

See MONEY (page 2212).

FRANKLIN, Benjamin, and the first subscription library.

See LIBRARIES, MODERN (page 2017).

FRANKLIN, Benjamin: Electrical discovery.

See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: A. D. 1745-1747 (page 770).

FRANKLIN, Benjamin: Examination before Parliament.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1766 (pages 3192-3201).

FRANKLIN, Sir john. Northern explorations and voyages of. Loss and search for.

See (in this Supplement) ARCTIC EXPLORATION: 1819-1822, and after.

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FREDERICK BARBAROSSA, in Italy.

See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: A. D. 1154-1190, and 1162-1177; also, pages 1811-1813.

FREE CITIES OF GERMANY, The.

See (in this Supplement) GERMANY: 13-15th CENTURIES; also, page 473.

FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE.

See below: TOLERATION, RELIGIOUS.

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, The first.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1793 (page 3305).

The Second.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1850 (pages 3388-3391).

GALEN, and the development of anatomy and physiology.

See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 2d CENTURY (page 2128).

GALVANI'S ELECTRICAL DISCOVERIES.

See ELECTRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: A. D. 1786-1800 (page 771).

GAUL: Ancient commerce.

See (In this Supplement) COMMERCE, ANCIENT.

GENOA: The Bank of St. George.

See MONEY AND BANKING (page 2207).

GENOA: Mediæval Commerce.

See (in this Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.

GEORGE III.: Conversation with Governor Hutchinson on affairs in the colonies.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1774 (pages 3210-3213).

His absolute notions of Kingship.

See England: A. D. 1760-1763 (page 927).

GEORGE, Henry, and the Single Tax movement.

See SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: A. D. 1880 (page 2955).

GERM THEORY OF DISEASE, Origin and development of the.

See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 17-18TH CENTURIES, and 19TH CENTURY (pages 2138, 2144, and after).

GERMANY:Start--------

GERMANY: Outline sketch of general history.

See EUROPE (page 1015, and after).

GERMANY: A. D. 962. Otto I. and the Restoration of the Empire.

"And now it came about that out of the midst of the Germanic nations a new monarchy arose which wrested itself free from the immediate influence of the papacy and its antiquated pretensions and broke a new path for the idea of the empire, an idea that seemed to have been fully crushed. This was the empire of Otto the Great. It was not to be compared with the old Roman empire, it did not at all come up to what the Carolingian had been. But it did give strong and irrevocable expression to the idea of a highest authority in Germany, an authority bound up with religion, yet independent in itself. … The foundation of the Germanic empire, that is of an organization which, resting on the internal development of the German nations had won a universal position through the extension of the power of the Ottos over Italy, forms the event of world-wide importance of the tenth century. … This Germanic empire had no genealogical origin that was entirely indisputable, but it did in so far have an advantage over the Carolingian empire that the right of heredity in the German monarchy decided of itself the question of succession to the empire. Besides this it had a sort of overlordship over its neighbors to maintain which was different from that earlier one: the attempts at Christianizing and at the same time reducing to submission took in other regions extending far beyond the limits of the former ones. It was a resuscitation of the idea of the old Roman empire but by no means of its form. On the contrary, through constant struggles new constitutional forms had developed themselves of which the old world had as yet no conception. Not that it is the proper place here to enter more deeply into the question of the feudal system which gave to public life an altogether changed aspect. But, in a word or two at least, we must characterize this transformation. Its essence is that an attempt was made to adjust the conception of obedience and military service to the needs of the life of the individual. All the arrangements of life changed their character so soon as it became the custom to grant land to local overlords who, in turn, provided with possessions according to their own several grades, could only be sure of being able to hold these possessions in so far as they kept faith and troth with the lord-in-chief of the land. It was through and through a living organization, which took in the entire monarchy and bound it together into a many-membered whole; for the counts and dukes for their own part entered into a similar relationship with their own sub-tenants. Therewith the possession of land entered into an indissoluble connection with the theory of the empire, a connection which extended also to those border nations which were in contact with and subordinate to the monarchy. That an empire so constituted could not reckon on such unconditional obedience as had been paid to the old Roman empire is clear as day. Nevertheless the whole order of things in the world depended on the system of adjusted relationships, the keystone or rather commanding central point of which was formed by this same empire. It could scarcely claim any longer to be universal but it did nevertheless hold the chief place in the general state-system of Europe, and it proved a powerful upholder of the independence of the secular power. It was just this idea of universal power, and altogether of ascendancy over the Christian world, that was indelibly implanted in the German empire. But could this idea be actually realized, was Germany strong enough to carry it through? Otto the Great originated it, but by no means carried it to its completion. He passed his life amid constant internal and external struggles; no lasting form of constitution was he able to leave behind. That is, one might almost say, what is most characteristic of great natures: they can originate, indeed, but they cannot complete."

_L. von Ranke, Weltgeschichte, (translated from the German), volume 7, pages. 5-7._

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"For what else did he (Otto I) wish to found but a world-monarchy like that of the Caesars? Emperor of the Romans and Augustus did he call himself and at Rome he had received his imperial crown. And was not for him the most sacred spot in the universe the grave of St. Peter at Rome? Was not this Saxon in armor an equally eager apostle of the Roman church with that Anglo-Saxon monk who as servant of the pope had planted Christianity in North German lands? While Otto was determined to extend the power of his empire as far as to the most distant peoples of the still unexplored north and east, he at the same time purposed to bear to the end of the world Christianity in the form in which Rome had given it him. The bones of the Roman martyrs he carried over the Alps and through faith in them he worked wonders; woods were cleared, marshes dried, cities built, victories won over the most dangerous enemies. Not only did the language of Rome sound forth from the altars of Saxony: it became at the same time the language of affairs in the emperor's chancery, and in it the commands of the all-powerful Augustus were issued to the whole world. Thus did Otto, although through and through a Saxon warrior of the old stamp, live wholly at the same time in those Roman ideas against which, in times gone by, his forefathers had struggled. The mightiest contradictions which have affected the course of the world's history met together in his personality in full force, and reconciled themselves there just as they did in the great onward course of events. … In all the movements of the time Otto took part with force and with success; the imperial title was now no empty name as it had been in the last years of the Carolingian period. But not through laws, not through an artificial state system, not through a great army of officials did Otto rule Western Europe, but more than all through the wealth of military resources which his victories had placed in his hands. Through the great army of his German vassals who were well versed in war he overthrew the Slavonians, kept the Danes in check, compelled the Hungarians to relinquish their nomadic life of plunder and to seek settled dwelling places in the plains of the Danube; so that now the gates of the East through which up till then masses of peoples threatening everything with destruction had always anew broken in upon the West were closed forever. The fame of his victories and his feudal supremacy, extending itself further and further, made him also protector of the Burgundian and French kingdoms, and finally lord of Lombardy and of the City of Rome. With the military resources of Germany he holds in subjection the surrounding peoples; but through the power thus won, on the other hand, he himself gains a proud ascendancy over the multitude of his own vassals. Only for the reason that he wins for himself a truly royal position in Germany is he enabled to gain the imperial crown; but this again it is which first really secures and confirms his own and his family's rule in the German lands. On this rests chiefly his preeminent position, that he is the first and mightiest lord of Western Christendom, that as such he is able at any moment to bring together a numerous military force with which no people, no prince can any longer cope. But not on this alone. For the Catholic clergy also, spreading far and wide over the whole west, serves him as it were like a new crowd of vassals in stole and cassock. He nominates the archbishops and bishops in his German and Italian kingdoms as well as in the newly converted lands of the North and East; he rules the successor of St. Peter and through him exercises a decisive influence on church progress even in the western lands where he does not himself install the dignitaries of the church. Different as this German empire was from the Frankish, faulty as was its organization, its resources seemed nevertheless sufficient in the hand of a competent ruler to maintain a far-reaching and effectual rule in the West; the more so as it was upheld by public opinion and supported by the authority of the church. But one must not be led into error; these resources were only sufficient in the hands of a so powerful and active prince as Otto. From the Elbe marshes he hastened to the Abruzzian Mountains; from the banks of the Rhine now to the shores of the Adriatic, now to the sand-dunes of the Baltic. Ceaselessly is he in motion, continually under arms—first against the Wends and Hungarians, then against the Greeks and Lombards. No county in his wide realm, no bishopric in Catholic Christendom but what he fixed his eye upon and vigilantly watched. And wherever he may tarry and whatever he may undertake his every act is full of fire, force and vigor and always hits the mark. With such a representative the empire is not only the highest power in the Western world but one which on all its affairs has a deep and active influence—a power as much venerated as it was dreaded."

_W. von Giesebrecht, Deutsche Kaiserzeit (translated from the German). volume 1, pages 476-484._

"He (Otto) now permanently united the Roman empire to the German nation and this powerful and intelligent people undertook the illustrious but thankless task of being the Atlas of universal history. And soon enough did the connection of Germany with Italy result in the reform of the church and the revival of the various sciences, while in Italy itself it was essentially the Germanic element which brought into being the glorious civic republics. Through a historical necessity, doubtless, Germany and Italy, the purest representatives of the antique and the Teutonic types and the fairest provinces in the kingdom of human thought, were brought into this long-lasting connection. From this point of view posterity has no right to complain that the Roman empire was laid like a visitation of Fate on our Fatherland and compelled it for centuries to pour out its life-blood in Italy in order to construct those foundations of general European culture for which modern humanity has essentially Germany to thank."

_Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom (translated from the German), volume 3, page 334._

See, also, GERMANY: A. D. 936-973 (pages 1439-1441).

GERMANY: 11-12th Centuries. The question of the Investitures.

See (in this Supplement) PAPACY: A. D. 11-12TH CENTURIES.

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GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1272(?). The Rise of the College of Electors.