It is often the province of the historian to trace the progress of small states, and observe their gradual transformation into large ones. It often also devolves upon him to notice the decay of large states and their gradual reduction to insignificant principalities, if not their total annihilation. The growth of the margravate of Brandenburg into the mighty kingdom of Prussia, and finally into the great German Empire of the pre-sent day, is a remarkable instance of the former; while the dissolution of the great duchy of Burgundy and its gradual absorption is one of the latter, although some portion of it has reconstituted itself in the small but prosperous kingdom of Belgium. But what I propose to bring before the Society falls under neither of these heads, but is the brief history of a power which might have had a career like that of Brandenburg or Austria, but the course of which was simply cut short by the failure of its dynasty in the very meridian of success and prosperity.