Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

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

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OF FRIEDRICH'S NEW EXCISE SYSTEM.

In his late Inspection-Journey to Cleve Country, D'Alembert, from
Paris, by appointment waited for the King; [In ( OEuvres de
Frederic, xxiv. 377-380 (D'Alembert's fine bits of
Letters in prospect of Potsdam, "Paris, 7th March-29th April,
1763;" and two small Notes while there, "Sans-Souci, 6th July-15th
August, 1763").]--picked up at Geldern (June 11th), as we saw
above. D'Alembert got to Potsdam June 22d; stayed till middle of
August. He had met the King once before, in 1755; who found him "a
BON GARCON," as we then saw. D'Alembert was always, since that
time, an agreeable, estimable little man to Friedrich. Age now
about forty-six; has lately refused the fine Russian post of "Tutor
to the Czarowitsh" (Czarowitsh Paul, poor little Boy of eight or
nine, whom we, or Herr Busching for us, saw galloping about, not
long since, "in his dressing-gown," under Panin's Tutorage);
refuses now, in a delicate gradual manner, the fine Prussian post
of Perpetual President, or Successor to Maupertuis;--definitely
preferring his frugal pensions at Paris, and garret all his own
there. Continues, especially after this two months' visit of 1763,
one of the King's chief correspondents for the next twenty years.
["29th October, 1783," D'Alembert died: "born 16th November, 1717;"
--a Foundling, as is well known; "Mother a Sister of Cardinal
Tencin's; Father," accidental, "an Officer in the Artillery."]
A man of much clear intellect; a thought SHRIEKY in his ways
sometimes; but always prudent, rational, polite, and loyally
recognizing Friedrich as a precious article in this world. Here is
a word of D'Alembert's to Madame du Deffand, at Paris, some ten or
twelve days after the Cleve meeting, and the third day after his
arrival here:--

"POTSDAM, 25th JUNE, 1763. MADAME,-- ... I will not go into the
praises of this Prince," King Friedrich, my now Host; "in my mouth
it might be suspicious: I will merely send you two traits of him,
which will indicate his way of thinking and feeling. When I spoke
to him [at Geldern, probably, on our first meeting] of the glory he
had acquired, he answered, with the greatest simplicity, That there
was a furious discount to be deducted from said glory; that chance
came in for almost the whole of it; and that he would far rather
have done Ratine's ATHALIE than all this War:--ATHALIE is the work
he likes, and rereads oftenest; I believe you won't disapprove his
taste there. The other trait I have to give you is, That on the day
[15th February last] of concluding this Peace, which is so glorious
to him, some one saying, 'It is the finest day of your Majesty's
life:' 'The finest day of life,' answered he, 'is the day on which
one quits it.' ...--Adieu, Madame." [ "OEuvres Posthumes de
D'Alembert (Paris, 1799). i. 197:" cited in PREUSS,
ii. 348.]

The meeting in Cleve Country was, no doubt, a very pretty passage,
with Two pretty Months following;--and if it be true that HELVETIUS
was a consequence, the 11th of June, 1763, may almost claim to be a
kind of epoch in Friedrich's later history. The opulent and
ingenious M. Helvetius, who wrote DE L'ESPRIT, and has got banished
for that feat (lost in the gloom of London in those months), had
been a mighty Tax-gatherer as well; D'Alembert, as brother
Philosophe, was familiar with Helvetius. It is certain, also, King
Friedrich, at this time, found he would require annually two
million thalers more;--where to get them, seemed the impossibility.
A General Krockow, who had long been in French Service, and is much
about the King, was often recommending the French Excise system;--
he is the Krockow of DOMSTADTL, and that SIEGE OF OLMUTZ, memorable
to some of us:--"A wonderful Excise system," Krockow is often
saying, in this time of straits. "Who completely understands it?"
the King might ask. "Helvetius, against the world!" D'Alembert
could justly answer. "Invite Helvetius to leave his London exile,
and accept an asylum here, where he may be of vital use to me!"
concludes Friedrich.

Helvetius came in March, 1765; stayed till June, 1766: [Rodenbeck,
ii. 254; Preuss, iii. 11.]--within which time a French Excise
system, which he had been devising and putting together, had just
got in gear, and been in action for a month, to Helvetius's
satisfaction. Who thereupon went his way, and never returned;--
taking with him, as man and tax-gatherer, the King's lasting
gratitude; but by no means that of the Prussian Nation, in his tax-
gathering capacity! All Prussia, or all of it that fell under this
Helvetius Excise system, united to condemn it, in all manner of
dialects, louder and louder: here, for instance, is the utterance
of Herr Hamann, himself a kind of Custom-house Clerk (at
Konigsberg, in East Preussen), and on modest terms a Literary man
of real merit and originality, who may be supposed to understand
this subject: "And so," says Hamann, "the State has declared its
own subjects incapable of managing its Finance system; and in this
way has intrusted its heart, that is the purse of its subjects, to
a company of Foreign Scoundrels, ignorant of everything relating to
it!" ["Hamann to Jacobi" (see Preuss, iii. 1-35), "Konigsberg, 18th
January, 1786."]

This lasted all Friedrich's lifetime; and gave rise to not a little
buzzing, especially in its primary or incipient stages. It seems to
have been one of the unsuccessfulest Finance adventures Friedrich
ever engaged in. It cost his subjects infinite small trouble;
awakened very great complaining; and, for the first time, real
discontent,--skin-deep but sincere and universal,--against the
misguided Vater Fritz. Much noisy absurdity there was upon it, at
home, and especially abroad: "Griping miser," "greedy tyrant," and
so forth! Deducting all which, everybody now admits that
Friedrich's aim was excellent and proper; but nobody denies withal
that the means were inconsiderate, of no profit in proportion to
the trouble they gave, and improper to adopt unless the
necessity compelled.

Friedrich is forbidden, or forbids himself, as we have often
mentioned, to impose new taxes: and nevertheless now, on
calculations deep, minute and no doubt exact, he judges That for
meeting new attacks of War (or being ready to meet, which will
oftenest mean averting them),--a thing which, as he has just seen,
may concern the very existence of the State,--it is necessary that
there should be on foot such and such quotities and kinds of
Soldiery and War-furniture, visible to all neighbors; and privately
in the Treasury never less than such and such a sum. To which end
Arithmetic declares that there is required about Two Million
thalers more of yearly revenue than we now have. And where, in
these circumstances, are the means of raising such a sum?

Friedrich imposes no new taxes; but there may be stricter methods
of levying the old;--there may, and in fact there must, be means
found! Friedrich has consulted his Finance Ministers; put the
question SERIATIM to these wise heads: they answer with one voice,
"There are no means." [Rodenbeck, ii. 256.] Friedrich, therefore,
has recourse to Helvetius; who, on due consideration, and after
survey of much documentary and tabulary raw-material, is of
opinion, That the Prussian Excises would, if levied with the
punctuality, precision and vigilant exactitude of French methods,
actually yield the required overplus. "Organize me the methods,
then; get them put in action here; under French hands, if that be
indispensable." Helvetius bethought him of what fittest French
hands there were to his knowledge,--in France there are a great
many hands flung idle in the present downbreak of finance there:--
Helvetius appears to have selected, arranged and contrived in this
matter with his best diligence. De Launay, the Head-engineer of the
thing, was admitted by all Prussia, after Twenty-two years
unfriendly experience of him, to have been a suitable and estimable
person; a man of judicious ways, of no small intelligence,
prudence, and of very great skill in administering business.

Head-engineer De Launay, one may guess, would be consulted by
Helvetius in choice of the subaltern Officials, the stokers and
steerers in this new Steam-Machinery, which had all to be manned
from France. There were Four heads of departments immediately under
De Launay, or scarcely under him, junior brothers rather:--who
chose these I did not hear; but these latter, it is evident, were
not a superior quality of people. Of these Four,--all at very high
salaries, from De Launay downwards; "higher than a Prussian
Minister of State!" murmured the public,--two, within the first
year, got into quarrel; fought a duel, fatal to one of them;
so that there were now only Three left. "Three, with De Launay,
will do," opined Friedrich; and divided the vacant salary among the
survivors: in which form they had at least no more duelling.

As to the subaltern working-parties, the VISITATEURS, CONTROLLEURS,
JAUGEURS (Gaugers), PLOMBEURS (Lead-stampers), or the strangest
kind of all, called "Cellar-Rats (COMMIS RATS-DE-CAVE), "they were
so detested and exclaimed against, by a Public impatient of the
work itself, there is no knowing what their degree of scoundrelism
was, nor even, within amazingly wide limits, what the arithmetical
number of them was. About 500 in the whole of Prussia, says a quiet
Prussian, who has made some inquiry; ["Beguelin, ACCISE- UND ZOLL-
VERFASSUNG, s. 138" (Preuss, iii, 18).] 1,500 says Mirabeau;
3,000 say other exaggerative persons, or even 5,000; De Launay's
account is, Not at any time above 200. But we can all imagine how
vexatious they and their business were. Nobody now is privileged
with exemption: from one and all of you, Nobles, Clergy, People,
strict account is required, about your beers and liquors;
your coffee, salt; your consumptions and your purchases of all
excisable articles:--nay, I think in coffee and salt, in salt for
certain, what you will require, according to your station and
domestic numbers, is computed for you, to save trouble; such and
such quantities you will please to buy in our presence, or to pay
duty for, whether you buy them or not. Into all houses, at any hour
of the day or of the night, these cellar-rats had liberty,--(on
warrant from some higher rat of their own type, I know not how much
higher; and no sure appeal for you, except to the King; tolerably
sure there, if you be INNOCENT, but evidently perilous if you be
only NOT-CONVICTED!)--had liberty, I say, to search for contraband;
all your presses, drawers, repositories, you must open to these
beautiful creatures; watch in nightcap, and candle in hand, while
your things get all tumbled hither and thither, in the search for
what perhaps is not there; nay, it was said and suspected, but I
never knew it for certain, that these poisonous French are capable
of slipping in something contraband, on purpose to have you fined
whether or not.

Readers can conceive, though apparently Friedrich did not, what a
world of vexation all this occasioned; and how, in the continual
annoyance to all mankind, the irritation, provocation and querulous
eloquence spread among high and low. Of which the King knew
something; but far from the whole. His object was one of vital
importance; and his plan once fixed, he went on with it, according
to his custom, regardless of little rubs. The Anecdote Books are
full of details, comic mostly, on this subject: How the French rats
pounced down upon good harmless people, innocent frugal parsonages,
farm-houses; and were comically flung prostrate by native ready
wit, or by direct appeal to the King. Details, never so authentic,
could not be advisable in this place. Perhaps there are not more
than Two authentic Passages, known to me, which can now have the
least interest, even of a momentary sort, to English readers.
The first is, Of King Friedrich caricatured as a Miser grinding
Coffee. I give it, without essential alteration of any kind, in
Herr Preuss's words, copied from those of one who saw it:--the
second, which relates to a Princess or Ex-Princess of the Royal
House, I must reserve for a little while. Herr Preuss says:--

"Once during the time of the 'Regie' [which lasted from 1766 to
1786 and the King's death: no other date assignable, though 1768,
or so, may be imaginable for our purpose], as the King came riding
along the Jager Strasse, there was visible near what is called the
Furstenhaus," kind of Berlin Somerset House, [Nicolai, i. 155.] "a
great crowd of people. 'See what it is!' the King sent his one
attendant, a heiduc or groom, into it, to learn what it was.
'They have something posted up about your Majesty,' reported the
groom; and Friedrich, who by this time had ridden forward, took a
look at the thing; which was a Caricature figure of himself:
King in very melancholy guise, seated on a Stool, a Coffee-mill
between his knees; diligently grinding with the one hand, and with
the other picking up any bean that might have fallen. 'Hang it
lower,' said the King, beckoning his groom with a wave of the
finger: 'Lower, that they may not have to hurt their necks about
it!' No sooner were the words spoken, which spread instantly, than
there rose from the whole crowd one universal huzza of joy.
They tore the Caricature into a thousand pieces, and rolled after
the King with loud (LEBE HOCH, Our Friedrich forever!' as he rode
slowly away." [Preuss, iii. 275 ("from BERLIN CONVERSUTIONSBLATT
&c. of 1827, No. 253").] That is their Friedrich's method with the
Caricature Department. Heffner, Kapellmeister in Upsala, reports
this bit of memorability; he was then of the King's Music-Chapel in
Berlin, and saw this with his eyes.

The King's tendency at all times, and his practice generally, when
we hear of it, was to take the people's side; so that gradually
these French procedures were a great deal mitigated; and DIE REGIE
--so they called this hateful new-fangled system of Excise
machinery--became much more supportable, "the sorrows of it nothing
but a tradition to the younger sort," reports Dohm, who is
extremely ample on this subject. [Christian Wilhelm von Dohm,
Denkwurdigkeiten meiner Zeit (Lemgo und
Hanover, 1819), iv. 500 et seq.] De Launay was honorably dismissed,
and the whole Regie abolished, a month or two after
Friedrich's death.

With a splenetic satisfaction authentic Dohm, who sufficiently
condemns the REGIE, adds that it was not even successful; and shows
by evidence, and computation to the uttermost farthing, that
instead of two million thalers annually, it yielded on the average
rather less than one. The desired overplus of two millions, and a
good deal more did indeed come in, says he: but it was owing to the
great prosperity of Prussia at large, after the Seven-Years War;
to the manifold industries awakening, which have gone on
progressive ever since. Dohm declares farther, that the very object
was in a sort fanciful, nugatory; arguing that nobody did attack
Friedrich;--but omitting to prove that nobody would have done so,
had Friedrich NOT stood ready to receive him. We will remark only,
what is very indisputable, that Friedrich, owing to the Regie, or
to other causes, did get the humble overplus necessary for him;
and did stand ready for any war which might have come (and which
did in a sort come); that he more and more relaxed the Regie, as it
became less indispensable to him; and was willing, if he found the
Caricatures and Opposition Placards too high posted, to save the
poor reading people any trouble that was possible.

A French eye-witness testifies: "They had no talent, these Regie
fellows, but that of writing and ciphering; extremely conceited
too, and were capable of the most ridiculous follies. Once, for
instance, they condemned a common soldier, who had hidden some
pounds of tobacco, to a fine of 200 thalers. The King, on reviewing
it for confirmation, wrote on the margin: 'Before confirming this
sentence, I should wish to know where the Soldier, who gets 8
groschen [ninepence halfpenny] in the 5 days, will find the 200
crowns for paying this Fine!'" [Laveaux (2d edition), iii. 228.]
Innumerable instances of a constant disposition that way, on the
King's part, stand on record. "A crown a head on the import of fat
cattle, Tax on butcher's-meat?" writes he once to De Launay:
"No, that would fall on the poorer classes: to that I must say No.
I am, by office, Procurator of the Poor (L'AVOCAT DU PAUVRE)."
Elsewhere it is "AVOCAT DEC PAUVRE ET DU SOLDAT (of the working-man
and of the soldier); and have to plead their cause."
[Preuss, iii. 20.]

We will now give our Second Anecdote; which has less of
memorability to us strangers at present, though doubtless it was
then, in Berlin society, the more celebrated of the two;
relating, as it did, to a high Court-Lady, almost the highest, and
who was herself only too celebrated in those years. The heroine is
Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick, King's own Niece and a pretty
woman; who for four years (14th July, 1765-18th April, 1769) of her
long life was Princess Royal of Prussia,--Wife of that tall young
Gentleman whom we used to see dancing about, whom we last saw at
Schweidnitz getting flung from his horse, on the day of Pirch's
saddle there:--his Wife for four years, but in the fourth year
ceased to be so [Rodenbeck, ii. 241, 257.] (for excellent reasons,
on both sides), and lived thenceforth in a divorced eclipsed state
at Stettin, where is laid the scene of our Anecdote. I understand
it to be perfectly true; but cannot ascertain from any of the
witnesses in what year the thing happened; or whether it was at
Stettin or Berlin,--though my author has guessed, "Stettin, in the
Lady's divorced state," as appears.

"This Princess had commissioned, direct from Lyon, a very beautiful
dress; which arrived duly, addressed to her at Stettin. As this
kind of stuffs is charged with very heavy dues, the DOUANIER, head
Custom-house Personage of the Town, had the impertinence to detain
the dress till payment were made. The Princess, in a lofty
indignation, sent word to this person, To bring the dress
instantly, and she would pay the dues on it. He obeyed: but,"--mark
the result,--"scarcely had the Princess got eye on him, when she
seized her Lyon Dress; and, giving the Douanier a couple of good
slaps on the face, ordered him out of her apartment and house.

"The Douanier, thinking himself one and somewhat, withdrew in high
choler; had a long PROCES-VERBAL of the thing drawn out; and sent
it to the King with eloquent complaint, 'That he had been
dishonored in doing the function appointed him.' Friedrich replied
as follows: TO THE DOUANIER AT STETTIN: 'The loss of the Excise-
dues shall fall to my score; the Dress shall remain with the
Princess; the slaps to him who has received them. As to the
pretended Dishonor, I entirely relieve the complainant from that:
never can the appliance of a beautiful hand dishonor the face of an
Officer of Customs.--F.'" [Laveaux (abridged), iii. 229.]

Northern Tourists, Wraxall and others, passing that way, speak of
this Princess, down to recent times, as a phenomenon of the place.
Apparently a high and peremptory kind of Lady, disdaining to be
bowed too low by her disgraces. She survived all her generation,
and the next and the next, and indeed into our own. Died 18th
February, 1840: at the age of ninety-six. Threescore and eleven
years of that eclipsed Stettin Existence; this of the Lyon gown,
and caitiff of a Custom-houser slapped on the face, her one
adventure put on record for us!--

She was signally blamable in that of the Divorce; but not she
alone, nor first of the Two. Her Crown-Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm,
called afterwards, as King, "DER DICKE (the Fat, or the Big)," and
held in little esteem by Posterity,--a headlong, rather dark and
physical kind of creature, though not ill-meaning or dishonest,--
was himself a dreadful sinner in that department of things; and had
BEGUN the bad game against his poor Cousin and Spouse! Readers of
discursive turn are perhaps acquainted with a certain "Grafin von
Lichtenau," and her MEMOIRS so called:--not willingly, but driven,
I fish up one specimen, and one only, from that record of human
puddles and perversities:--

"From the first year of our attachment," says this precious Grafin,
"I was already the confidant of his," the Prince of Prussia's,
"most secret thoughts. One day [in 1767, second year of his married
life, I then fifteen, slim Daughter of a Player on the French Horn,
in his Majesty's pay], the Prince happened to be very serious;
and was owning to me with frankness that he had some wrongs towards
my sex to reproach himself with,"--alas, yes, some few:--"and he
swore that he would never forsake ME; and that if Heaven disposed
of my life before his, none but he should close my eyes. He was
fingering with a penknife at the time; he struck the point of it
into the palm of his left hand, and wrote with his blood [the
unclean creature], on a little bit of paper, the Oath which his
lips had just pronounced in so solemn a tone. Vainly should I
undertake to paint my emotion on this action of his! The Prince saw
what I felt; and took advantage of it to beg that I would follow
his example. I hastened to satisfy him; and traced, as he had done,
with my blood, the promise to remain his friend to the tomb, and
never to forsake him. This Promise must have been found among his
Papers after his death [still in the Archives? we will hope not!]--
Both of us stood faithful to this Oath. The tie of love, it is
true, we broke: but that was by mutual consent, and the better to
fix ourselves in the bonds of an inviolable friendship.
Other mistresses reigned over his senses; but I"--ACH GOTT, no more
of that. [ Memoires de la Comtesse de Lichtenau italic> (a Londres, chez Colburn Libraire, Conduit-street, Bond-
street, 2 tomes, small 8vo, 1809), i. 129.]

The King's own account of the affair is sufficiently explicit.
His words are: "Not long ago [about two years before this of the
penknife] we mentioned the Prince of Prussia's marriage with
Elizabeth of Brunswick [his Cousin twice over, her Mother, Princess
Charlotte of Prussia, being his Father's Sister and mine, and her
Father HIS Mother's Brother,--if you like to count it].
This engagement, from which everybody had expected happy
consequences, did not correspond to the wishes of the Royal House."
Only one Princess could be realized (subsequently Wife to the late
Duke of York),--she came this same year of the penknife,--and bad
outlooks for more. "The Husband, young and dissolute (SANS MOEURS),
given up to a crapulous life, from which his relatives could not
correct him, was continually committing infidelities to his Wife.
The Princess, who was in the flower of her beauty, felt outraged by
such neglect of her charms; her vivacity, and the good opinion she
had of herself, brought her upon the thought of avenging her wrongs
by retaliation. Speedily she gave in to excesses, scarcely inferior
to those of her Husband. Family quarrels broke out, and were soon
publicly known. The antipathy that ensued took away all hope of
succession [had it been desirable in these sad circumstances!].
Prince Henri [JUNIOR, this hopeful Prince of Prussia's Brother],
who was gifted with all the qualities to be wished in a young man
[witness my tears for him], had been carried off by small-pox.
["26th May, 1767," age 19 gone; ELOGE of him by Friedrich
("MS. still stained with tears"), in OEuvres de Frederic,
vii. 37 et seq.] The King's Brothers, Princes Henri
and Ferdinand, avowed frankly that they would never consent to
have, by some accidental bastard, their rights of succession to the
crown carried off. In the end, there was nothing for it but
proceeding to a divorce." [ OEuvres de Frederic, italic> vi. 23.]

Divorce was done in a beautiful private manner; case tried with
strictly shut doors; all the five judges under oath to carry into
the grave whatever they came to know of it: [Preuss, iv. 180-186.]
divorce completed 18th April, 1769; and, within three months, a new
marriage was accomplished, Princess Frederika Luisa of Hessen-
Darmstadt the happy woman. By means of whom there was duly realized
a Friedrich Wilhelm, who became "King Friedrich Wilhelm III." (a
much-enduring, excellent, though inarticulate man), as well as
various other Princes and Princesses, in spite of interruptions
from the Lichtenau Sisterhood. High-souled Elizabeth was relegated
to Stettin; her amount of Pension is not mentioned; her Family,
after the unhappy proofs communicated to them, had given their
consent and sanction;--and she stayed there, idle, or her own
mistress of work, for the next seventy-one years.--Enough of HER
Lyon Dress, surely, and of the Excise system altogether!--

THE NEUE PALAIS, IN SANS-SOUCI NEIGHBORHOOD, IS FOUNDED
AND FINISHED (1763-1770).

If D'Alembert's Visit was the germ of the Excise system, it will be
curious to note,--and indeed whether or not, it will be
chronologically serviceable to us here, and worth noting,--that
there went on a small synchronous affair, still visible to
everybody: namely, That in the very hours while Friedrich and
D'Alembert were saluting mutually at Geldern (11th June, 1763),
there was laid the foundation of what they call the NEUE PALAIS;
New Palace of Sans-Souci: [Rodenbeck, ii. 219.] a sumptuous
Edifice, in the curious LOUIS-QUINZE or what is called "Rococo"
style of the time; Palace never much inhabited by Friedrich or his
successors, which still stands in those ornamental Potsdam regions.
Why built, especially in the then down-pressed financial
circumstances, some have had their difficulties to imagine.
It appears, this New Palace had been determined on before the War
broke out; and Friedrich said to himself: "We will build it now, to
help the mechanical classes in Berlin,--perhaps also, in part
[think some, and why should not they, a little?] to show mankind
that we have still ready money; and are nothing like so ruined as
they fancy."

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