solved to trust herself to the fidelity of Pragmatic Sanction. His plan now was to secure his share of the plunder by betraying his accomplices. Maria Theresa was little inclined to listen to any such compromise; but the English government represented to her so strongly the necessity of buying off Frederic, that she agreed to negotiate. The negotiation would not, however, have ended in a treaty, had not the arms of Frederic been crowned with a second victory. Prince Charles of Loraine, brother-in-law to Maria Theresa, a bold and active, though unfortunate general, gave battle to the Prussians at Chotusitz, and was defeated. The King was still only a learner of the military art. He acknowledged, at a later period, that his success on this occasion was to be attributed, not at all to his own generalship, but solely to the valour and steadiness of his troops. He completely effaced, however, by his personal courage and energy, the stain which Molwitz had left on his reputation. a people, rude indeed, turbulent, and impatient of oppression, but brave, generous, and simple-hearted. In the midst of distress and peril she had given birth to a son, afterwards the Emperor Joseph the Second. Scarcely had she risen from her couch, when she hastened to Presburg. There, in the sight of an innumerable multitude, she was crowned with the crown and robed with the robe of St. Stephen. No spectator could restrain his tears when the beautiful young mother, still weak from child-bearing, rode, after the fashion of her fathers, up the Mount of Defiance, unsheathed the ancient sword of state, shook it towards north and south, east and west, and, with a glow on her pale face, challenged the four corners of the world to dispute her rights and those of her boy. At the first sitting of the Diet she appeared clad in deep mourning for her father, and in pathetic and dignified words implored her people to support her just cause. Magnates and deputies sprang up, half drew their sabres, and with eager voices vowed to stand by her with their lives and fortunes. Till then, her firmness had never once forsaken her before the public eye; but at that shout she sank down upon her throne, and wept aloud. Still more touching was the sight when, a few days later, she came again before the Estates of her realm, and held up before them the little Archduke in her arms. Then it was that the enthusiasm of Hungary broke forth into that war-cry which soon resounded throughout Europe, "Let us die for our King, Maria Theresa !" In the mean time, Frederick was meditating a change of policy. He had no wish to raise France to supreme power on the Continent, at the expense of the house of Hapsburg. His first object was to rob the Queen of Hungary. His second object was that, if possible, nobody should rob her but himself. He had entered into engage ments with the powers leagued against Austria; but these engagements were in his estimation of no more force than the guarantee formerly given to the A peace, concluded under the English mediation, was the fruit of this battle. Maria Theresa ceded Silesia : Frederic abandoned his allies: Saxony followed his example; and the Queen was left at liberty to turn her whole force against France and Bavaria. She was every where triumphant. The French were compelled to evacuate Bohemia, and with difficulty effected their escape. The whole line of their retreat might be tracked by the corpses of thousands who had died of cold, fatigue, and hunger. Many of those who reached their country carried with them the seeds of death. Bavaria was overrun by bands of ferocious warriors from that bloody debatable land which lies on the frontier between Christendom and Islam. The terrible names of the Pandoor, the Croat, and the Hussar, then first became familiar to western Europe. The unfortunate Charles of Bavaria, vanquished by Austria, betrayed by Prussia, driven from his hereditary states, and neglected by his allies, was hurried by shame and remorse to an untimely end. An English army appeared in the heart of Germany, and defeated the French at Dettingen. The Austrian | cord his opinion of Voltaire's diplocaptains already began to talk of com-macy. "He had no credentials," says pleting the work of Marlborough and Frederic, and the whole mission was Eugene, and of compelling France to a joke, a mere farce." relinquish Alsace and the three Bishoprics. The Court of Versailles, in this peril, looked to Frederic for help. He had been guilty of two great treasons: perhaps he might be induced to commit a third. The Duchess of Chateauroux then held the chief influence over the feeble Lewis. She determined to send an agent to Berlin; and Voltaire was selected for the mission. He eagerly undertook the task; for, while his literary fame filled all Europe, he was troubled with a childish craving for political distinction. He was vain, and not without reason, of his address, and of his insinuating eloquence; and he flattered himself that he possessed boundless influence over the King of Prussia. The truth was that he knew, as yet, only one corner of Frederic's character. He was well acquainted with all the petty vanities and affectations of the poetaster; but was not aware that these foibles were united with all the talents and vices which lead to success in active life, and that the unlucky versifier who pestered him with reams of middling Alexandrines, was the most vigilant, suspicious, and severe of politicians. But what the influence of Voltaire could not effect, the rapid progress of the Austrian arms effected. If it should be in the power of Maria Theresa and George the Second to dictate terms of peace to France, what chance was there that Prussia would long retain Silesia ? Frederic's conscience told him that he had acted perfidiously and inhumanly towards the Queen of Hungary. That her resentment was strong she had given ample proof; and of her respect for treaties he judged by his own. Guarantees, he said, were mere filigree, pretty to look at, but too brittle to bear the slightest pressure. He thought it his safest course to ally himself closely to France, and again to attack the Empress Queen. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1744, without notice, without any decent pretext, he recommenced hostilities, marched through the electorate of Saxony without troubling himself about the permission of the Elector, invaded Bohemia, took Prague, and even menaced Vienna. It was now that, for the first time, he experienced the inconstancy of fortune. An Austrian army under Charles of Loraine threatened his communications with Silesia. Saxony was all in arms behind him. He found it necessary to save himself by a retreat. He afterwards owned that his failure was the natural effect of his own blunders. No general, he said, had ever committed greater faults. It must be added, that to the reverses of this campaign he always ascribed his subsequent successes. It was in the midst of difficulty and disgrace that he caught the first clear glimpse of the principles of the military art. Voltaire was received with every mark of respect and friendship, was lodged in the palace, and had a seat daily at the royal table. The negotiation was of an extraordinary description. Nothing can be conceived more whimsical than the conferences which took place between the first literary man and the first practical man of the age, whom a strange weakness had induced to exchange their parts. The great poet would talk of nothing but treaties and guarantees, and the great King of nothing but metaphors and The memorable year 1745 followed. rhymes. On one occasion Voltaire put The war raged by sea and land, in into his Majesty's hands a paper on the Italy, in Germany, and in Flanders; state of Europe, and received it back and even England, after many years of with verses scrawled on the margin. In profound internal quiet, saw, for the secret they both laughed at each other. | last time, hostile armies set in battle Voltaire did not spare the King's array against each other. This year is poems; and the King has left on re-memorable in the life of Frederic, as the date at which his noviciate in the and that of France, that he was geneart of war may be said to have termi- rally regarded as holding the balance nated. There have been great cap- of Europe, a high dignity for one who tains whose precocious and self-taught ranked lowest among kings, and whose military skill resembled intuition. great grandfather had been no more Condé, Clive, and Napoleon are ex- than a Margrave. By the public, the amples. But Frederic was not one of King of Prussia was considered as a these brilliant portents. His proficiency politician destitute alike of morality in military science was simply the pro-and decency, insatiably rapacious, and ficiency which a man of vigorous facul- shamelessly false; nor was the public ties makes in any science to which he much in the wrong. He was at the applies his mind with earnestness and same time allowed to be a man of parts, industry. It was at Hohenfriedberg a rising general, a shrewd negotiator that he first proved how much he had and administrator. Those qualities profited by his errors, and by their con- wherein he surpassed all mankind, sequences. His victory on that day were as yet unknown to others or to was chiefly due to his skilful disposi- himself; for they were qualities which tions, and convinced Europe that the shine out only on a dark ground. His prince who, a few years before, had career had hitherto, with little interstood aghast in the rout of Molwitz, ruption, been prosperous; and it was had attained in the military art a mas- only in adversity, in adversity which tery equalled by none of his contem- seemed without hope or resource, in poraries, or equalled by Saxe alone. adversity which would have overThe victory of Hohenfriedberg was whelmed even men celebrated for speedily followed by that of Sorr. strength of mind, that his real greatness could be shown. In the mean time, the arms of France had been victorious in the Low Countries. Frederic had no longer reason to fear that Maria Theresa would be able to give law to Europe, and he began to meditate a fourth breach of his engagements. The court of Versailles was alarmed and mortified. A letter of earnest expostulation, in the handwriting of Lewis, was sent to Berlin; but in vain. In the autumn of 1745, Frederic made peace with England, and, before the close of the year, with Austria also. The pretensions of Charles of Bavaria could present no obstacle to an accommodation. That unhappy prince was no more; and Francis of Loraine, the husband of Maria Theresa, was raised, with the general assent of the Germanic body, to the Imperial throne. He had, from the commencement of his reign, applied himself to public business after Я fashion unknown among kings. Lewis the Fourteenth, indeed, had been his own prime minister, and had exercised a general superintendence over all the departments of the government; but this was not sufficient for Frederic. He was not content with being his own prime minister: he would be his own sole minister. Under him there was no room, not merely for a Richelieu or a Mazarin, but for a Colbert, a Louvois, or a Torcy. A love of labour for its own sake, a restless and insatiable longing to dictate, to intermeddle, to make his power felt, a profound scorn and distrust of his fellow-creatures, made him unwilling to ask counsel, to confide important Prussia was again at peace; but the secrets, to delegate ample powers. The European war lasted till, in the year highest functionaries under his govern1748, it was terminated by the treaty ment were mere clerks, and were not of Aix-la-Chapelle. Of all the powers so much trusted by him as valuable that had taken part in it, the only gainer clerks are often trusted by the heads of was Frederic. Not only had he added departments. He was his own treato his patrimony the fine province of surer, his own commander-in-chief, his Silesia he had, by his unprincipled | own intendant of public works, his own dexterity, succeeded so well in alter-minister for trade and justice, for home nately depressing the scale of Austria affairs and foreign affairs, his own VOL. II. S master of the horse, steward, and cham- | now and then by some cutting epigram. berlain. Matters of which no chief of By eight he had generally finished this an office in any other government would part of his task. The adjutant-general ever hear were, in this singular mo- was then in attendance, and received narchy, decided by the King in person. instructions for the day as to all the If a traveller wished for a good place military arrangements of the kingdom. to see a review, he had to write to Then the King went to review his Frederic, and received next day, from guards, not as kings ordinarily review a royal messenger, Frederic's answer their guards, but with the minute attensigned by Frederic's own hand. This tion and severity of an old drill-serwas an extravagant, a morbid activity. geant. In the mean time the four The public business would assuredly cabinet secretaries had been employed have been better done if each depart-in answering the letters on which the ment had been put under a man of King had that morning signified his talents and integrity, and if the King had contented himself with a general control. In this manner the advantages which belong to unity of design, and the advantages which belong to the division of labour, would have been to a great extent combined. But such a system would not have suited the peculiar temper of Frederic. He could tolerate no will, no reason, in the state, save his own. He wished for no abler assistance than that of penmen who had just understanding enough to translate and transcribe, to make out his scrawls, and to put his concise Yes and No into an official form. Of the higher intellectual faculties, there is as much in a copying machine, or a lithographic press, as he required from a secretary of the cabinet. His own exertions were such as were hardly to be expected from a human body or a human mind. At Potsdam, his ordinary residence, he rose at three in summer and four in winter. A page | soon appeared, with a large basket full of all the letters which had arrived for the King by the last courier, despatches from ambassadors, reports from officers of revenue, plans of buildings, proposals for draining marshes, complaints from persons who thought themselves aggrieved, applications from persons who wanted titles, military commissions, and civil situations. He examined the seals with a keen eye; for he was never for a moment free from the suspicion that some fraud might be practised on him. Then he read the letters, divided them into several packets, and signified his pleasure, generally by a mark, often by two or three words, will. These unhappy men were forced The general principles on which this strange government was conducted, deserve attention. The policy of Frederic was essentially the same as his father's; but Frederic, while he carried that policy to lengths to which his father never thought of carrying it, cleared it at the same time from the absurdities with which his father had encumbered it. The King's first object was to have a great, efficient, and welltrained army. He had a kingdom which in extent and population was hardly in the second rank of European powers; and yet he aspired to a place not inferior to that of the sovereigns of England, France, and Austria. For that end it was necessary that Prussia should be all sting. Lewis the Fifteenth, with five times as many subjects as Frederic, and more than five times as large a revenue, had not a more formidable army. The proportion which | kitchen was brought within the sum of the soldiers in Prussia bore to the peo- two thousand pounds sterling a year. ple seems hardly credible. Of the males He examined every extraordinary item in the vigour of life, a seventh part with a care which might be thought were probably under arms; and this to suit the mistress of a boarding-house great force had, by drilling, by review- better than a great prince. When ing, and by the unsparing use of cane more than four rixdollars were asked and scourge, been taught to perform of him for a hundred oysters, he all evolutions with a rapidity and a stormed as if he had heard that one precision which would have astonished of his generals had sold a fortress to Villars or Eugene. The elevated feel- the Empress Queen. Not a bottle of ings which are necessary to the best Champagne was uncorked without his kind of army were then wanting to the express order. The game of the royal Prussian service. In those ranks were parks and forests, a serious head of not found the religious and political expenditure in most kingdoms, was to enthusiasm which inspired the pikemen him a source of profit. The whole of Cromwell, the patriotic ardour, the was farmed out; and though the thirst of glory, the devotion to a great farmers were almost ruined by their leader, which inflamed the Old Guard contract, the King would grant them of Napoleon. But in all the mechani- no remission. His wardrobe consisted cal parts of the military calling, the of one fine gala dress, which lasted Prussians were as superior to the him all his life; of two or three old English and French troops of that day coats fit for Monmouth Street, of yelas the English and French troops to a low waistcoats soiled with snuff, and rustic militia. of huge boots embrowned by time. One taste alone sometimes allured him beyond the limits of parsimony, nay, even beyond the limits of prudence, the taste for building. In all other things his economy was such as we might call by a harsher name, if we did not reflect that his funds were drawn from a heavily taxed people, and that it was impossible for him, without excessive tyranny, to keep up at once a formidable army and a splendid court. Considered as an administrator, Though the pay of the Prussian soldier was small, though every rixdollar of extraordinary charge was scrutinized by Frederic with a vigilance and suspicion such as Mr. Joseph Hume never brought to the examination of an army estimate, the expense of such an establishment was, for the means of the country, enormous. In order that it might not be utterly ruinous, it was necessary that every other expense should be cut down to the lowest possible point. Accordingly. Frederic, though his dominions bordered on the Frederic had undoubtedly many titles sea, had no navy. He neither had to praise. Order was strictly mainnor wished to have colonies. His tained throughout his dominions. judges, his fiscal officers, were meanly Property was secure. A great liberty paid. His ministers at foreign courts of speaking and of writing was walked on foot, or drove shabby old allowed. Confident in the irresistible carriages till the axle-trees gave way. strength derived from a great army, Even to his highest diplomatic agents, the King looked down on malcontents who resided at London and Paris, he and libellers with a wise disdain; and allowed less than a thousand pounds gave little encouragement to spies and sterling a year. The royal household informers. When he was told of the was managed with a frugality unusual disaffection of one of his subjects, he in the establishments of opulent subjects, merely asked, "How many thousand unexampled in any other palace. The men can he bring into the field?" He King loved good eating and drinking, once saw a crowd staring at something and during great part of his life took on a wall. He rode up and found that pleasure in seeing his table surrounded the object of curiosity was a scurrilous by guests; yet the whole charge of his | placard against himself. The placard |
