Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Climate and Diseases of America
OF all the princes reigning over the smaller German states during the eighteenth century, there were none whose sway was so arbitrary, and whose tyranny was so freely exercised, as those of the Margraves of Anspach and Bayreuth. The cruelty and lawlessness of these petty rulers cannot be better illustrated than by citing two incidents that cc curred but a few years before the American Revolution. As Charles Frederick William, Margrave of Anspach (1723 was one day walking with his mistress, she expressed the wish to see a chimney sweep, who had just emerged upon the roof of the Bruckberg Castle, fall to the ground; whereupon his Highness, to gratify her, shot the man dead. To the widow, who came to crave his mercy, he made a gift of five ?orins. In Bayreuth the same state of affairs existed. The Margrave Frederick Christian (1763 - 1769) had contracted the disagreeable habit of venting his spleen by belaboring his subjects with a cane in broad daylight. High and low, noble and civilian, cabinet minister and officers, none were safe from this unmistakable proof of the sovereign's ill-temper. As this habit became daily harder to bear, a meeting was called to consider what action the nobility, and especially the military, should take with reference to this inclination of the margrave. The high nobility and the very worthy corps of officers came to the val iant determination that they would ask the court preacher to intercede with his serene Highness, and beg him to have a greater regard for a soldier's pride. At the same time it was moreover decided that a thrashing at the hands of their ruler should not be deemed derogatory to the honor of a subject, and that all the money received from him in condonation of such acts should be deposited in a common treasury.
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.