that he considered it a declaration of war. Knowing that the court of Saxony, contrary to existing treaties, was secretly engaged in the league against him, he marched an army into the electorate in August, 1756, and, almost unopposed, took military possession of it. He thus turned the enemy's resources against himself, and drew from that unfortunate country · continual supplies of men and money, without which he could scarcely have supported the protracted struggle which ensued, and which is celebrated under the title of the Seven Years' War. The events of this war, however interesting to a military student, are singularly unfit for concise narra tion, and that from the very circumstances which displayed the King of Prussia's talents to most advantage. Attacked on every side, compelled to hasten from the pursuit of a beaten, to make head in some other quarter against a threatening enemy, the activity, vigilance, and indomitable resolution of Frederic must strike all those who read these campaigns at length, and with the necessary help of maps and plans, though his profound tactical skill and readiness in emergencies may be fully appreciable only by the learned. But when these complicated events are reduced to a bare list of marches and countermarches, victories and defeats, the spirit vanishes, and a mere caput mortuum remains. The war being necessarily defensive, Frederic could seldom carry the seat of action into an enemy's country. The Prussian dominions were subject to continual ravage, and that country, as well as Saxony, paid a heavy price that the possession of Silesia might be The celebrated victory King of Prussia's reputation as the deserves especial notice, the emancipa tion of the peasants from hereditary servitude. This great undertaking he commenced at an early period of his 66 first living general of Europe. Peace was signed at the castle of Hubertsburg, near Dresden, Feb. 15th, 1763. The brilliant military reputation reign, by giving up his own seignioral which Frederic had acquired in this rights over the serfs on the crown doarduous contest did not tempt him to mains: he completed it in the year pursue the career of a conqueror. He 1766, by an edict abolishing servitude had risked everything to maintain pos- throughout his dominions. In 1765, session of Silesia; but if his writings he commenced a gradual alteration in speak the real feelings of his mind, he the fiscal system of Prussia, suggested was deeply sensible to the sufferings in part by the celebrated Helvetius. and evils which attend upon war. In the department of finance, though "The state of Prussia," he himself all his experiments did not succeed, he says, in the "Histoire de mon Temps," was very successful. He is said, in the can only be compared to that of a course of his reign, to have raised the man riddled with wounds, weakened annual revenue to nearly double what by loss of blood, and ready to sink it had been in his father's time, and under the weight of his misfortunes. that without increasing the pressure The nobility was exhausted, the com- of the people. mons ruined, numbers of villages were burnt, of towns ruined. Civil order was lost in a total anarchy: in a word, the desolation was universal." To cure these evils Frederic applied his earnest attention; and by grants of money to those towns which had suffered most; by the commencement and continuation of various great works of public utility; by attention to agriculture; by draining marshes, and settling colonists in the barren, or ruined portions of his country; by cherishing manufactures (though not always with a useful or judicious zeal), he succeeded in repairing the exhausted population and resources of Prussia with a rapidity the more wonderful, because his military establishment was at the same time recruited and maintained at the enormous number, considering the size and wealth of the kingdom, of 200,000 men. One of his measures In such cares and in his literary pursuits, among which we may espe cially mention his "History of the Seven Years' War," passed the time of Frederic for ten years. In 1772, he engaged in the nefarious project for the first partition of Poland. It does not seem, however, that the scheme originated, as has been said, with Frederic: on the contrary, it appears to have been conceived by Catherine II., and matured in conversations with Prince Henry, the King of Prussia's brother, during a visit to St. Petersburg. By the treaty of partition, which was not finally arranged till 1777, Prussia gained a territory of no great extent, but of importance from its connecting Prussia Proper with the electoral dominions of Brandenburg and Silesia, and giving a compactness to the kingdom, of which it stood greatly in need. Frederic made some amends for his conduct in this matter, by the diligence with which he labored to improve his acquisition. In this, as in most circumstances of internal administration, he was very successful; and the country, ruined by war, misgovernment, and the brutal sloth of its inhabitants, soon assumed the aspect of cheerful industry. The King of Prussia once more led an army into the field, when, on the death of the Elector of Bavaria, childless, in 1778, Joseph II. of Austria conceived the plan of re-annexing to his own crown, under the plea of various antiquated feudal rights, the greater part of the Bavarian territories. Stimulated quite as much by jealousy of Austria, as by a sense of the injustice of this act, Frederic stood out as the assertor of the liberties of Germany, and proceeding with the utmost politeness from explanation to explanation, he marched an army into Bohemia in July, 1778. The war, however, which was terminated in the following spring by the peace of Teschen, was one of manoeuvres, and partial engagements; in which Frederic's skill in strategy shone with its usual lustre, and success, on the whole, rested with the Prussians. By the terms of the treaty, the Bavarian dominions were secured, nearly entire, to the rightful collateral heirs, whose several claims were settled, while certain minor stipulations were made in favor of Prussia. A few years later, in 1785, Frederic again found occasion to oppose Austria, in defence of the integrity of the Germanic constitution. The Emperor Joseph, in prosecution of his designs on Bavaria, had formed a contract with the reigning elector, to exchange the Austrian provinces in the Netherlands for the Electorate. Dissenting from this arrangement, the heir to the succession entrusted the advocacy of his rights to Frederic, who lost no time in negotiating a confederation among the chief powers of Germany, (known by the name of the Germanic League,) to support the constitution of the empire, and the rights of its several princes. By this timely step Austria was compelled to forego the desired acquisition. At this time Frederic's constitution had begun to decay. He had long been a sufferer from gout, the natural consequence of indulgence in good eating and rich cookery, to which throughout his life he was addicted. Towards the end of the year he began to experience great difficulty of breathing. His complaints, aggravated by total neglect of medical advice, and an extravagant appetite, which he gratified by eating to excess of the most highly seasoned and unwholesome food, terminated in a confirmed dropsy. During the latter months of his life he suffered griev ously from this complication of disor ders; and through this period he disdisplayed remarkable patience, and consideration for the feelings of those around him. No expression of suffering was allowed to pass his lips; and up to the last day of his life he continued to discharge with punctuality those political duties which he had imposed upon himself in youth and strength. Strange to say, while he exhibited this extraordinary self-control in some respects, he would not abstain from the most extravagant excesses in diet, though they were almost always followed by a severe aggravation of his sufferings. Up to August 15th, 1786, he continued, as usual, to receive and answer all communications, and to despatch the usual routine of civil and military business. On the following day he fell into a lethargy, from which he only partially recovered. He died in the course of the night of August 16. The published works of the King of Prussia were collected in twenty-three volumes, 8vo. Amsterdam, 1790. We shall here mention, as completing the body of his historical works, the "Mémoires depuis la Paix de Hubertsbourg," and "Mémoires de la Guerre de 1778." Among his poems, the most remarkable is the "Art de la Guerre;" but these, as happens in most cases, where the writer has thought fit to employ a foreign language, have been little known or esteemed, since their author ceased to rivet the attention of the world by the brilliance of his actions, and the singularity of his char acter. Of the personal appearance of the king, Old Fritz, as he was familiarly called by the people, we have this graphic sketch by his latest biographer, Carlyle: "A king every inch of him, though without the trappings of a king. Presents himself in a Spartan simplicity of vesture; no crown but an old military cocked-hat; no sceptre but one like Agamemnon's, a walking-stick out of the woods, which serves also as a riding-stick; and for royal robes, a mere soldier's blue coat with red facings, coat likely to be old, and sure to On the have a great deal of Spanish snuff on the breast of it; rest of the apparel dim, unobtrusive in color or cut, ending in high, over-knee, military boots, which may be brushed, but are not permitted to be blackened or varnished. The man is not of godlike physiognomy, any more than of imposing stature or costume: close shut mouth with thin lips, prominent jaws and nose, receding brow, by no means of Olympian height; head, however, is of long form and has superlative gray eyes in it. Not what is called a beautiful man, nor yet, by all appearance what is called a happy one. contrary, the face bears evidence of many sorrows, as they are termed, of much hard labor done in this world; and seems to anticipate nothing but more still coming. Quiet stoicism, capable enough of what joy there were, but not expecting any worth mention; great unconscious and some conscious pride, well tempered with a cheery mockery of humor, are written on that old face; which carries its chin well forward, in spite of the slight stoop about the neck; snuffy nose ra ther flung into the air, under its old cocked-hat, like an old snuffy lion on the watch; and such a pair of eyes as no man or lion or lynx of that century bore elsewhere, according to all the testimony we have."* * The main portion of this narrative is from the "Gallery of Portraits and Memoirs," pub lished under the superintendence of the "So ciety for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge." The episode on the intimacy of the sovereign with Voltaire is from Macaulay's article on Frederic in the Edinburgh Review. |