Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/320

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THREE YEARS IN EUROPE.

consolidated and vastly increased the limits of the infant kingdom, and was unwearied in his efforts to embellish the capital with new buildings. The University, the Cathedral, the Royal library and many other fine buildings were erected by him, and the population of the town had risen to 1,45,000 by the end of his reign.

Berlin like every other capital in Europe suffered heavily from Napoleon's wars. Napoleon's victories at Jena and Austerlitz and the French occupation of Berlin had a depressing effect, but it was for a time only. Prussian patriotism never burned brighter than under the repeated disasters of the Napoleonic wars, and the Prussians finally avenged their disgrace in the hard fought battle of Waterloo. The present ruler of Prussia succeeded in 1861, and has after his glorious victory over the French in 1871 assumed the ancient title of the Emperor of Germany, and thus united Prussia and all the German estates under one vigorous administration. The population of Berlin has increased from 700,000 in 1867 to 1,300,000 in 1886.

The finest street in modern Berlin is the Unterden Linden so called from its avenues of lime trees, and is 196 ft. in width and nearly a mile in length, and lined on both sides by the handsomest houses that can be seen in any city in Europe. This fine street ends with the town at the Brandenburg Gate in the extreme west, and beyond this gate is the Thiergarten which is to Berlin what the Bois de Boulogne is to Paris.

To begin then from the Thiergarten in the extreme