On December 27th, all the kingdoms, States, municipalities, and separate
classes within the dominions of the House of Haps- burg forwarded congratulations to the Emperor on the six- hundredth anniversary of the dynasty, which dates as a reign- ing family from the day on which Rudolph, then Emperor of Germany, invested his sons with the Austrian dukedoms, The history of the House, which has scarcely ever won a battle, yet has never lost the affection of its soldiers, and while never con- quering has constantly enlarged its dominions, is a strange one ; but the strangest point in it is the intermittent affection of its people. They appear, even while rebelling, never to have lost a kindly relation to the family which, though frequently tyran- nical, and almost always stupid, has never been either undignified or affected. In the Hereditary States in parti- cular the Hapsburgs have always been regarded as kinsmen, rulers who even when hated were always understood, and always regarded as identified in some way with those who fought them. The position of the House as the barrier for so many years against the Turk, and as occupant of the sacrosanct throne of the Caesars, for ages the only true throne, accounts in part for Wm; but they must have had qualities, too, unper- ceived except by their own peoples. A sort of simple grandeur,
as of men who could only be at the top of the world, and were independent of such accidents as brains, is the only one which students of their records clearly see. That shines out all through. Vehse's narratives.
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