Concerning Portraits And Portraiture Classic Reprint

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ISBN 13 : 9781331130703
Total Pages : 246 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (37 download)

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Download or read book The International Portrait Gallery (Classic Reprint) written by and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-11 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The International Portrait Gallery The name of the Emperor of Germany is one of the most significant in the nineteenth century. It may be taken to symbolise that unification of the German people and regeneration of the German Empire with which it must always remain inseparably associated. Nothing during the last fifty years has been more remarkable, or is likely to exercise a greater influence upon Europe, than the consolidation under single governments of the two great countries, Italy and Germany. It would be difficult to overrate the importance and the salutariness of the results that may be expected from it, and have even already begun to appear. In older and more barbarous times the aggregation of extensive territories under the hand of a single powerful ruler has not always been a beneficial thing, and even in days more near our own its effect has often been disastrous. But the great distinction must be kept carefully in mind, between that merely territorial dominion which has been effected by the violence of an unscrupulous and ambitious man, and such consolidation as that which Italy and Germany have lately undergone, where a number of petty and ill-governed States have been incorporated into one great whole, to which by speech and race they naturally belong. The consequences of the former have generally been evil, while from the latter we may reasonably look for good. The accomplishment of this result has been chiefly due, in Italy, to Victor Emmanuel and his minister Cavour; in Germany, to Prince Bismarck and the present Emperor. The history of the Emperor William's life is, therefore, so far as its main interest is concerned, little else than an account of the rise of Prussia from the low condition to which Napoleon had brought her till she has come to be the head of a united Empire. Wilhelm I. (Friedrich Ludvig) is the second son of Frederick William III. of Prussia, and younger brother of the late Frederick William IV. He was born on the 22nd of March, 1797. His early childhood was passed amid the convulsion and alarm occasioned by the ambition of the first Napoleon. No country suffered more than Germany from the disasters of that time, when all her different States were overrun by the French. In 1800 Napoleon brought the old German Empire to a close, by forcing Francis II. of Austria to renounce the Imperial crown, and established the Confederation of the Rhine to take its place. At this date Prince William was not ten years old. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.