Another canal was made in the year 1753, called the new canal of the Oder. It draws its waters from that river near Gustebiese, and pours them into it again about a mile below Oderberg. There are likewise in the Marquisate of Brandenburg a number of lakes, some of which are united by canals, or natural channels. Neither the Elbe nor the Oder abound so much with fish as the Havel, the Spree, and the other small rivers: and the same analogy holds with regard to the lakes.
Brandenburg is said to have been occupied by the ancient Suevi, of whom there were several colonies or subdivisions. This country must have been known to the Romans, who, about the commencement of the Christian xra, pursued their conquests as far as the Elbe. Their progress in this direction was checked by the barbarous but valiant inhabitants, by whoa, it con tinued to be occupied till the fifth century, when they pushed farther to the south, abandoning their own country to the Veneti or Wendi, a Sarmat,an tribe, whose language corresponds to that of the Poles, Rus sians, Bohemians, and other Sciavonian natons, and who, under the general name of Selavi, occupied not only Brandenburg, but the whole tract of counry situ ated between the Elbe and the Vistula. With these people, who were inveterate enemies to the :'..hristain religion,the kings of the Franks waged perpe.ual war ; and to reduce them to subjection was always a grand object with Charlemagne and his successors. They maintained an obstinate struggle for their independence till the year 927, when they were finally subdued by Henry the Fowler, who compelled them to adopt the Christain religion, and bestowed their country on his brother-in-law Sigefrid, a Saxon Count, with the title of Margrave, or lord warden of the marches or borders. Sige frid newpeopled his dominions from the Nether lands, Westphalia, Franconia, and Saxony ; and soon af ter this conquest, the Saxon emperors established the four Margraviates of AUSTRIA, of the EAsT, (or Misnia and Lusatia) of the NORTH, and of Sc HLESW1G, to de fend the frontiers of Germany against the Huns, Scha vonians, and Danes. The Margraviate of the north was established for the purpose of opposing the Scha vonians of Brandenburg ; and the dignity of Margrave continued to be conferred by the emperors at pleasure, till Albert, of the house of Anhalt, surnamed the Bear, obtained possession of Brandenburg, the capital, about the beginning of the twelfth century, and as a reward of his valour, was made by Conrad II. hereditary Mar grave of the kingdom, which he had subdued. Albert conquered all the country between the Elbe and the Oder, converted the Sclavonian inhabitants to Christian ity, peopled the country with a numerous colony of Ger mans, whom a great inundation had compelled to emi grate from Holland, and thus became the true founder of this Margraviate, which was possessed by his descen dants till the year 1340, when the family became ex tinct. The emperor Louis of Bavaria, then reigning,
conferred the Margraviatc of Brandenburg on his son Louis. It remained in the house of Bavaria only till the year 1373, when Otto of Bavaria sold it for 100,000 florins of gold to the emperor Charles IV., king of Bo hemia, of the house of Luxemburg. The emperor Sigismund, the son of this Charles, after having alien ated the New Mark and other valuable parts of Bran denburg, sold the remainder, for the enormous price of 400,000 ducats, to Frederic, Count of Zollern, and burgrave of Nuremberg, an able prince, who bad es tablished the weak Sigismund on the imperial throne, and supported him there by his valour, his prudence, and his treasures. This Frederic is the ancestor of the present royal family of Prussia. The princes of this house soon recovered the alienated territories of Brandenburg, and enlarged them by the gradual ac cessions of Pomerania, Prussia, Silesia, the duchy of Magdeburg, the principality of Halberstadt, the duchy of Cleves, the countries of Minden, Marck, Ravensberg, Lingen, Meurs, Ostfrisia, Neufchatel, Glatz, part. of Lusatia, and of the palatinates of Posnania and Uladis law. These were the component parts of the Prussian monarchy, which under the illustrious Frederic II. per formed so brilliant a part in the transactions of Europe. The glory of this kingdom, however, was but short lived ; and the failure of the Prussian arms in France and Poland during the reign of his nephew, soon con vinced the world, that the machine owed all its energy to the great Frederic's mighty and animating soul. See PRUSSIA.
The king of Prussia, as elector of Brandenburg, pos sesses the seventh place among the electors of the em pire ; and has five voices in the college of princes at the diet of the empire, independently of his voice in the electoral college. As arch-chamberlain, he cat ries the sceptre before the emperor at his coronation, and brings him water in a silver bason. He enjoys, likewise, the right of levying customs, in virtue of a particular privi lege granted by the emperor Frederic III. in 1456, by which that emperor assigns to the electors of Branden burg, an unlimited power of raising and establishing customs and tolls.
The states of Brandenburg consist of the nobility and towns, who assemble at Berlin, and who still retain some shadow of their ancient privileges. The heredi tary officers of the marquisate are a marshal, chamber lain, cup-bearer, purveyor, sewer, treasurer, and ranger.
The inhabitants in general follow the Lutheran reli gion:but the religion of the coast is Calvinism. There are likewise a considerable number of Roman Catholics ; and all enjoy the most perfect liberty of conscience. Population 755,577. See ..Vemoires de la Maison de Brandebourg ; Busching's Geography ; and Peuchet's Dictionnaire, &c• (k)