Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21





II. THURSDAY, APRIL 1st, NUSSLER AND ASSEMBLED LANDRATHS AT THE
SCHLOSS OF BERLIN. To them, enter KING. ...

NUSSLER (whom they have appointed spokesman). ... "Your Majesty has
given us Peace; you will also give us Well-being in the Land again:
we leave it to Highest-the-Same's gracious judgment [no limit to
Highest-the-Same's POWER, it would seem] what you will vouchsafe to
us as indemnification for the Russian plunderings."

KING. "Be you quiet; let me speak. Have you got a pencil (HAT ER
CRAYON)? Yes! Well then, write, and these Gentlemen shall dictate
to you:--

"'How much rye for bread; How much for seed; How many Horses, Oxen,
Cows, their Circles do in an entirely pressing way require?'

"Consider all that to the bottom; and come to me again the day
after to-morrow. But see that you fix everything with the utmost
exactitude, for I cannot give much." (EXIT King.)

NUSSLER (to the Landraths). "MEINE HERREN, have the goodness to
accompany me to our Landschaft House [we have a kind of County
Hall, it seems]; there we will consider everything."

And Nussler, guiding the deliberations, which are glad to follow
him on every point, and writing as PRO-TEMPORE Secretary, has all
things brought to luminous Protocol in the course of this day
and next.


III. SATURDAY, APRIL 3d, IN THE SCHLOSS AGAIN: NUSSLER AND
LANDRATHS. To them, the KING.

Nussler. "We deliver to your Majesty the written Specification you
were graciously pleased to command of us. It contains only the
indispensablest things that the Circles are in need of.
Moreover, it regards only the STANDE [richer Nobility], who pay
contribution; the Gentry [ADEL], and other poor people, who have
been utterly plundered out by the Russians, are not included in
it:--the Gentry too have suffered very much by the War and
the Plundering."

KING. "What EDELLEUTE that are members of STANDE have you [ER] got
in your Circle?"

NUSSLER (names them; and, as finis of the list, adds): ...
"I myself, too, your Majesty, I have suffered more than anybody:
I absolutely could not furnish those 4,000 bushels of meal ordered
of me by the Russians; upon which they--"

KING. "I cannot give to all: but if you have poor Nobles in
your Circle, who can in no way help themselves, I will give
them something."

NUSSLER (has not any in Nether-Barnim who are altogether in that
extreme predicament; but knows several in Lebus Circle, names them
to the King;--and turning to the Landrath of Lebus, and to another
who is mute): "Herr, you can name some more in Lebus; and you, in
Teltow Circle, Herr Landrath, since his Majesty permits." ... In a
word, the King having informed himself and declared his intention,
Nussler leads the Landraths to their old County Hall, and brings to
Protocol what had taken place.

Next day, the Kammer President (Exchequer President), Van der
Groben, had Nussler, with other Landraths, to dinner.
During dinner, there came from Head Secretary Eichel (Majesty's
unwearied Clerk of the PELLS, Sheepskins, or PAPERS) an earnest
request to Von der Groben for help,--Eichel not being able to
remember, with the requisite precision, everything his Majesty had
bid him put down on this matter. "You will go, Herr von Nussler;
be so kind, won't you?" And Nussler went, and fully illuminated
Eichel. ...

To the poorest of the Nobility, Busching tells us, what is
otherwise well known, the King gave considerable sums: to one
Circle 12,000 pounds, to another 9,000 pounds, 6,000 pounds, and so
on. By help of which bounties, and of Nussler laboring incessantly
with all his strength, Nieder-Barnim Circle got on its feet again,
no subject having been entirely ruined, but all proving able to
recover. [Busching, Beitrage (º Nussler),
i. 401-405.]

This Busching Fragment is not in the style of the Elder Dramatists,
or for the Bankside Theatre; but this represents a Fact which
befell in God's Creation, and may have an interest of its own to
the Practical Soul, especially in anarchic Countries, far advanced
in the "Gold-nugget and Nothing to Buy with it" Career of
unexampled Prosperities.

On these same errands the King is soon going on an Inspection
Journey, where we mean to accompany. But first, one word, and one
will suffice, on the debased Coin. The Peace was no sooner signed,
than Friedrich proceeded on the Coin. The third week after his
arrival home, there came out a salutary Edict on it, April 21st;
King eager to do it without loss of time, yet with the deliberation
requisite. Not at one big leap, which might shake, to danger of
oversetting, much commercial arrangement; but at two leaps, with a
halfway station intervening. Halfway station, with a new coinage
ready, much purer of alloy (and marked HOW much, for the benefit of
parties with accounts to settle), is to commence on TRINITATIS
(Whitsunday) instant; from and after Whitsunday the improved new
coin to be sole legal tender, till farther notice. Farther notice
comes accordingly, within a year, March 29th, 1764: "Pure money of
the standard of 1750 [honest silver coinage: readers may remember
Linsenbarth, the CANDIDATUS THEOLOGIAE, and his sack of Batzen,
confiscated at the Paekhof] shall be ready on the 1st of June
instant;" [Rodenbeck, ii. 214, 234.]--from and after which day we
hear no more of that sad matter. Finished off in about fourteen
months. Here, meanwhile, is the Inspection Journey.


KRIEGSRATH RODEN AND THE KING (6th-13th June, 1763).

JUNE 2d, 1763, Friedrich left Potsdam for Westphalia; got as far as
Magdeburg that day. Intends seeing into matters with his own eyes
in that region, as in others, after so long and sad an absence.
There are with him Friedrich Wilhelm Prince of Prussia, a tall
young fellow of nineteen; General-Adjutant von Anhalt; and one or
two Prussian military people. From Magdeburg and onwards the great
Duke Ferdinand accompanies,--who is now again Governor of
Magdeburg, and a quiet Prussian Officer as heretofore, though with
excellent Pensions from England, and glory from all the world.

The Royal Party goes by Halberstadt, which suffered greatly in the
War; thence by MINDEN (June 4th); and the first thing next day,
Friedrich takes view of the BATTLE-FIELD there,--under Ferdinand's
own guidance, doubtless; and an interesting thing to both Friedrich
and him, though left silent to us. This done, they start for
Lippstadt, are received there under joyous clangorous outburst of
all the bells and all the honors, that same afternoon; and towards
sunset, Hamm being the Night-quarter ahead, are crossing
VELLINGHAUSEN BATTLE-GROUND,--where doubtless Ferdinand again, like
a dutiful apprentice, will explain matters to his old master, so
far as needful or permissible. The conversation, I suppose, may
have been lively and miscellaneous: Ferdinand mentions a clever
business-person of the name of Roden, whom he has known in these
parts; "Roden?" the King carefully makes note;--and, in fact, we
shall see Roden presently; and his bit of DIALOGUE with the King
(recorded by his own hand) is our chief errand on this Journey.
From Hamm, next morning (June 6th), they get to Wesel by 11 A.M.
(only sixty miles); Wesel all in gala, as Lippstadt was, or still
more than Lippstadt; and for four days farther, they continue there
very busy. As Roden is our chief errand, let us attend to Roden.

WESEL, MONDAY, JUNE 6th, "Dinner being done," says an authentic
Third-Party, [Rodenbeck, ii. 217.] "the King had Kammer-Director
Meyen summoned to him with his Register-Books, Schedules and
Reports [what they call ETATS]; and was but indifferently contented
with Meyen and them." And in short, "ordering Meyen to remodel
these into a more distinct condition,"--we may now introduce the
Herr Kriegsrath Roden, a subaltern, in rank, but who has perhaps a
better head than Meyen, to judge of these ETATS. Roden himself
shall now report. This is the Royal Dialogue with Roden;
accurately preserved for us by him;--I wish it had been better
worth the reader's trouble; but its perfect credibility in every
point will be some recommendation to it.

"MONDAY, 6th JUNE, 1763, about 11 A.M., his Majesty arrived in
Wesel," says Roden (confirming to us the authentic Third-Party);
"I waited on Adjutant-General Colonel von Anhalt to announce
myself; who referred me to Kriegsrath Coper ["MEIN SEGRETER KOPER"
is a name we have heard before], who told me to be ready so soon as
Dinner should be over. Dinner was no sooner over [2 P.M. or so],
than the Herr Kammer-Director Meyen with his ETATS was called in.
His Majesty was not content with these, Herr Meyen was told;
and they were to be remodelled into a more distinct condition.
The instant Herr Meyen stept out, I was called in. His Majesty was
standing with his back to the fire; and said:--

KING. "'Come nearer [Roden comes nearer]. Prince Ferdinand [of
Brunswick, whom we generally call DUKE and great, to distinguish
him from a little Prussian Prince Ferdinand] has told me much good
of you: where do you come from?'

RODEN. "'From Soest' [venerable "stone-old" little Town, in
Vellinghausen region].

KING. "'Did you get my Letter?'

RODEN. "'Yea, IHRO MAJESTAT.'

KING. "'I will give you some employment. Have you got a pencil?'

RODEN. "'Yea' [and took out his Note-book and tools, which he had
"bought in a shop a quarter of an hour before"].

KING. "'Listen. By the War many Houses have got ruined: I mean that
they shall be put in order again; for which end,--to those that
cannot themselves help, particularly to Soest, Hamm, Lunen and in
part Wesel, as places that have suffered most,--I intend to give
the moneys. Now you must make me an exact List of what is to be
done in those places. Thus [King, lifting his finger, let us fancy,
dictates; Roden, with brand-new pencil and tablets, writes:]

"'1. In each of those Towns, how many ruined Houses there are which
the proprietors themselves can manage to rebuild. 2. How many which
the proprietors cannot. 3. The vacant grounds or steadings of such
proprietors as are perhaps dead, or gone else-whither, must be
given to others that are willing to build: but in regard to this,
Law also must do its part, and the absent and the heirs must be
cited to say, Whether they will themselves build? and in case they
won't, the steadings can then be given to others.'"
Roden having written,--

KING. "'In the course of six days you must be ready [what an
expeditious King! Is to be at Cleve the sixth day hence: Meet me
there, then],--longer I cannot give you.'

RODEN (considering a moment). "'If your Majesty will permit me to
use ESTAFETTES [express messengers] for the Towns farthest off,--as
I cannot myself, within the time, travel over all the Towns,--I
hope to be ready.'

KING. "'That I permit; and will repay you the ESTAFETTE moneys.--
Tell me, How comes the decrease of population in these parts?
Recruits I got none.'

RODEN. "'Under favor of your Majesty, Regiment Schenkendorf got,
every year, for recompletion, what recruits were wanted, from its
Canton in the Grafschaft Mark here.'

KING. "'There you may be right: but from Cleve Country we had no
recruits; not we, though the Austrians had, [with a slight sarcasm
of tone].

RODEN. "'Out of Cleve, so far as I know, there were no recruits
delivered to the Austrians.'

KING. "'You could not know; you were with the Allied Army' [Duke
Ferdinand's, commissariating and the like, where Duke Ferdinand
recognized you to have a head].

RODEN. "'There have been many epidemic diseases too; especially in
Soest;--after the Battle of Vellinghausen all the wounded were
brought thither, and the hospitals were established there.'

KING. "'Epidemic diseases they might have got without a Battle
[dislikes hearing ill of the soldier trade]. I will have Order sent
to the Cleve Kammer, Not to lay hindrance in your way, but the
contrary. Now God keep you (GOTT BEWAHRE IHN).'"--EXIT Roden;--
"DARAUF RETIRIRTE MICH," says he;-- but will reappear shortly.

Sunday, 12th June, is the sixth day hence; later than the end of
Sunday is not permissible to swift Roden; nor does he need it.

Friday, 10th, Friedrich left Wesel; crossed the Rhine, intending
for Cleve; went by CREFELD,--at Crefeld had view of another BATTLE-
FIELD, under good ciceroneship; remarks or circumstances otherwise
not given:--and, next day, Saturday, 11th, picked up D'Alembert,
who, by appointment, is proceeding towards Potsdam, at a more
leisurely rate. That same Saturday, after much business done, the
King was at Kempen, thence at Geldern; speeding for Cleve itself,
due there that night. At Geldern, we say, he picked up D'Alembert;
--concerning whom, more by and by. And finally, "on Saturday night,
about half-past 8, the King entered Cleve," amid joyances
extraordinary, hut did not alight; drove direct through by the
Nassau Gate, and took quarter "in the neighboring Country-house of
Bellevue, with the Dutch General von Spaen there,"--an obliging
acquaintance once, while LIEUTENANT Spaen, in our old Crown-Prince
times of trouble! Had his year in Spandau for us there, while poor
Katte lost his head! To whom, I have heard, the King talked
charmingly on this occasion, but was silent as to old Potsdam
matters. [Supra, vii. 165.]--


By his set day, Roden is also in Cleve, punctual man, finished or
just finishing; and ready for summons by his Majesty.
And accordingly:--

"CLEVE, MONDAY, JUNE 13th, At 9 in the morning," records he, "I had
audience of the King's Majesty. [In Spaen's Villa of Bellevue,
shall we still suppose? Duke Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia and the
rest, have bestowed themselves in other fit houses; D'Alembert
too,--who is to make direct for Potsdam henceforth, by his own
route; and will meet us on arriving.]--I handed him my Report, with
the Tabular Schedule. His Majesty read it carefully through, in my
presence; and examined all of it with strictness. Was pleased to
signify his satisfaction with my work. Resolved to allow 250,000
thalers (37,500 pounds) for this business of Rebuilding; gave out
the due Orders to his Kammer, in consequence, and commanded me to
arrange with the Kammer what was necessary. This done, his
Majesty said:--

KING. "'What you were described to me, I find you to be. You are a
diligent laborious man; I must have you nearer to me;--in the
Berlin Hammer you ought to be. You shall have a good, a right good
Salary; your Patent I will give you gratis; also a VORSPANN-PASS
[Standing Order available at all Prussian Post-Stations] for two
carriages [rapid Program of the thing, though yet distant, rising
in the Royal fancy!]. Now serve on as faithfully as you have
hitherto done.'

RODEN. "'That is the object of all my endeavors.'" (EXIT:--I did
not hear specially whitherward just now; but he comes to be supreme
Kammer-President in those parts by and by.)

"The Herr Kriegsrath Coper was present, and noted all the Orders to
he expedited." [Preuss, ii. 442; Rodenbeck, ii. 217, 218: in regard
to D'Alembert, see OEuvres de Frederic,
xxiv. 190.]

These snatches of notice at first-hand, and what the reader's fancy
may make of these, are all we can bestow on this Section of
Friedrich's Labors; which is naturally more interesting to Prussian
readers than to English. He has himself given lucid and eloquent
account of it,--Two ample Chapters, "DES FINANCES;"
"DU MILITAIRE," [ OEuvres de Frederic, vii.
73-90, 91-109.]--altogether pleasant reading, should there still be
curiosity upon it. There is something of flowingly eloquent in
Friedrich's account of this Battle waged against the inanimate
Chaos; something of exultant and triumphant, not noticeable of him
in regard to his other Victories. On the Leuthens, Rossbachs, he is
always cold as water, and nobody could gather that he had the least
pleasure in recording them. Not so here. And indeed here he is as
beautiful as anywhere; and the reader, as a general son of Adam,--
proud to see human intellect and heroism slaying that kind of
lions, and doing what in certain sad epochs is unanimously voted to
be impossible and unattemptable,--exults along with him;
and perhaps whispers to his own poor heart, nearly choked by the
immeasurable imbroglio of Blue-books and Parliamentary Eloquences
which for the present encumber Heaven and Earth, "MELIORA SPERO."
To Mirabeau, the following details, from first-hand, but already of
twenty-three years distance, were not known, [Appeared first in
Tome v. of "OEuvres Posthumes de Frederic II." italic> (are in Tome vi. of Preuss's Edition of OEUVRES), "Berlin,
1788;"--above a year after Mirabeau had left.] while he sat penning
those robust Essays on the Duty of LEAVE-ALONE.

"To form an idea of the general subversion," says the King, in
regard to 1763, "and how great were the desolation and
discouragement, you must represent to yourself Countries entirely
ravaged, the very traces of the old habitations hardly
discoverable; Towns, some ruined from top to bottom, others half
destroyed by fire;--13,000 Houses, of which the very vestiges were
gone. No field in seed; no grain for the food of the inhabitants;
60,000 horses needed, if there was to be ploughing carried on:
in the Provinces generally Half a Million Population (500,000) less
than in 1756,--that is to say, upon only Four Millions and a Half,
the ninth man was wanting. Noble and Peasant had been pillaged,
ransomed, foraged, eaten out by so many different Armies;
nothing now left them but life and miserable rags.

"There was no credit, by trading people, even for the daily
necessaries of life." And furthermore, what we were not prepared
for, "No police in the Towns: to habits of equity and order had
succeeded a vile greed of gain and an anarchic disorder.
The Colleges of Justice and of Finance had, by these frequent
invasions of so many enemies, been reduced to inaction:" no Judge,
in many places not even a Tax-gatherer: the silence of the Laws had
produced in the people a taste for license; boundless appetite for
gain was their main rule of action: the noble, the merchant, the
farmer, the laborer, raising emulously each the price of his
commodity, seemed to endeavor only for their mutual ruin.
Such, when the War ended, was the fatal spectacle over these
Provinces, which had once been so flourishing: however pathetic the
description may be, it will never approach the touching and
sorrowful impression which the sight of it produced."

Friedrich found that it would never do to trust to the mere aid of
Time in such circumstances: at the end of the Thirty-Years War,
"Time" had, owing to absolute want of money, been the one recipe of
the Great Elector in a similar case; and Time was then found to
mean "about a hundred Years." Friedrich found that he must at once
step in with active remedies, and on all hands strive to make the
impossible possible. Luckily he had in readiness, as usual, the
funds for an Eighth Campaign, had such been needed. Out of these
moneys he proceeded to rebuild the Towns and Villages; "from the
Corn-Stores (GRANARIES D'ABONDANCE," Government establishments
gathered from plentiful harvests against scarce, according to old
rule) "were taken the supplies for food of the people and sowing of
the ground: the horses intended for the artillery, baggage and
commissariat," 60,000 horses we have heard, "were distributed among
those who had none, to be employed in tillage of the land.
Silesia was discharged from all taxes for six months; Pommern and
the Neumark for two years. A sum of about Three Million sterling
[in THALERS 20,389,000] was given for relief of the Provinces, and
as acquittance of the impositions the Enemy had wrung from them.

"Great as was this expense, it was necessary and indispensable.
The condition of these Provinces after the Peace of Hubertsburg
recalled what we know of them when the Peace of Munster closed the
famous Thirty-Years War. On that occasion the State failed of help
from want of means; which put it, out, of the Great Elector's power
to assist his people: and what happened? That a whole century
elapsed before his Successors could restore the Towns and
Champaigns to what they were. This impressive example was
admonitory to the King: that to repair the Public Calamities,
assistance must be prompt and effective. Repeated gifts (LARGESSES)
restored courage to the poor Husbandmen, who began to despair of
their lot; by the helps given, hope in all classes sprang up anew:
encouragement of labor produced activity; love of Country rose
again with fresh life: in a word [within the second year in a
markedly hopeful manner, and within seven years altogether], the
fields were cultivated again, manufacturers had resumed their work;
and the Police, once more in vigor, corrected by degrees the vices
that had taken root during the time of anarchy." [ OEuvres
de Frederic, vi. 74, 75.]

To Friedrich's difficulties, which were not inconsiderable, mark
only this last additament: "During this War, the elder of the
Councillors, and all the Ministers of the Grand Directorium [centre
of Prussian Administration], had successively died: and in such
time of trouble it had been impossible to replace them.
The embarrassment was, To find persons capable of filling these
different employments [some would have very soon done it, your
Majesty; but their haste would not have tended to speed!]--We
searched the Provinces (ON FOUILLA, sifted), where good heads were
found as rare as in the Capital: at length five Chief Ministers
were pitched upon,"--who prove to be tolerable, and even good.
Three of them were, the VONS Blumenthal, Massow, Hagen, unknown to
readers here: fourth and fifth were, the Von Wedell as War-
Minister, once Dictator at Zullichan; and a Von der Horst, who had
what we might partially call the Home Department, and who may by
accident once or so be namable again.

Nor was War all, says the King: "accidental Fires in different
places," while we struggled to repair the ravagings of War, "were
of unexampled frequency, and did immense farther damage. From 1765
to 1769, here is the list of places burnt: In East Preussen, the
City of Konigsberg twice over; in Silesia, the Towns of Freystadt,
Ober-Glogau [do readers recollect Manteuffel of Foot and "WIR
WOLLEN IHM WAS"!], Parchwitz, Naumburg-on-Queiss, and Goldberg;
in the Mark, Nauen; in the Neumark, Calies and a part of Lansberg;
in Pommern, Belgard and Tempelburg. These accidents required
incessantly new expenditures to repair them."

Friedrich was not the least of a Free Trader, except where it
suited him: and his continual subventions and donations, guidances,
encouragements, commandings and prohibitions, wise supervision and
impulsion,--are a thing I should like to hear an intelligent
Mirabeau (Junior or Senior) discourse upon, after he had well
studied them! For example: "ON RENDIT LES PRETRES UTILES, The
Priests, Catholic Priests, were turned to use by obliging all the
rich Abbeys to establish manufactures: here it was weavers making
damasks and table-cloths; there oil-mills [oil from linseed];
or workers in copper, wire-drawers; as suited the localities and
the natural products,--the flaxes and the metals, with water-power,
markets, and so on." What a charming resuscitation of the rich
Abbeys from their dormant condition!

I should like still better to explain how, in Lower Silesia, "we
(ON) managed to increase the number of Husbandmen by 4,000
families. You will be surprised how it was possible to multiply to
this extent the people living by Agriculture in a Country where
already not a field was waste. The reason was this. Many Lords of
Land, to increase their Domain, had imperceptibly appropriated to
themselves the holdings (TERRES) of their vassals. Had this abuse
been suffered to go on, in time a great"-- But the commentary
needed would be too lengthy; we will give only the result: "In the
long-run, every Village would have had its Lord, but there would
have been no tax-paying Farmers left." The Landlord, ruler of these
Landless, might himself (as Majesty well knows) have been made to
PAY, had that been all; but it was not. "To possess something;
that is what makes the citizen attached to his Country; those who
have no property, and have nothing to lose, what tie have they?"
A weak one, in comparison! "All these things being represented to
the Landlord Class, their own advantage made them consent to
replace their Peasants on the old footing." ...

"To make head against so many extraordinary demands," adds the King
(looking over to a new Chapter, that of the MILITARY, which
Department, to his eyes, was not less shockingly dilapidated than
the CIVIL, and equally or more needed instant repair), "new
resources had to be devised. For, besides what was needed for
re-establishment of the Provinces, new Fortifications were
necessary; and all our Cannon, E'VASES (worn too wide in the bore),
needed to be refounded; which occasioned considerable new expense.
This led us to improvement of the Excises,"--concerning which there
will have to be a Section by itself.

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