PART XXI.

THE RISE OF PRUSSIA.

CCXXXIV. Frederick William the First.

THE Reformation had been converted by Luther into a cause of the princes, but they knew not how to improve the power placed by him in their hands. Saxony at first took the lead, but speedily retrograded, and Denmark, the successor to her forsaken power, ever actuated by an unholy motive, merely aimed, under pretence of protecting religious liberty, at extending her sway over the cities and provinces of Germany. A separation, consequently, ere long again took place between her and Sweden, but the death of Gustavus Adolphus gave a death-blow to every hope, and Sweden imitated the mean policy of Denmark. The Guelphic house, when scarcely settled and promoted to the electoral dignity, emigrated to England, and Luther's grand bequest was transferred solely to the house of Brandenburg.

Frederick I., although fond of pomp and luxury and oftentimes misled, was fully conscious of the value of sowing for the future. The assumption of the royal dignity was simply an external sign of future and still unobtained grandeur, a hint to posterity. The improvement of the Prussian army by Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, who benefited Prussia with the science he had acquired under Eugene, whose military creations in Austria had died with him, was of far greater importance, and no less so was the toleration with which the king favoured liberty of thought in the new university of Halle, although, it may be, simply owing to his desire to raise its fame by that means above that so long enjoyed by the Saxon universities.

Leibnitz, although indubitably the greatest genius of the age, was, owing to his works being written either in Latin or in French, his high favour with the electoral house of Hanover, and his courtly habits, destitute of influence over the people. A few of the learned men of the times met with better

success in supplying the real wants of the people, which was principally done by the professors of the university of Halle, Thomasius and Franke, both of whom formerly belonged to that of Leipzig. Thomasius felt that Germany must be roused before she could be rescued from her state of deep degradation; he consequently rejected the Latin pedantry hitherto fostered by the universities and demanded that the learned men of Germany should again speak and write in pure German, the first step towards the enlightenment of the people, the banishment of the ancient superstitions, of the thousandfold prejudices, and of the slavish fear, by which his countrymen were artificially bound. He appealed to reason and at the same time inculcated true Christian benevolence, respect for the natural rights of man. To his eloquence was it entirely owing that a stop was almost every where put to the burning of witches. He spoke with equal warmth against torture and the other practices of the Roman law, by which German liberty was ignominiously converted into slavery. But in this he was unsuccessful; priestly prejudices were voluntarily sacrificed, but those in which temporal tyranny found an advantage were held sacred. He no sooner interfered with political matters than he fell under the bann. In Saxony, he was the first who ventured to reveal the base policy of the long deceased Hoe von Hoenegg. Justly roused to anger, he dared to maintain, in defiance of the Danish court-chaplain, Masius, who, like Pfaff in Tübingen, had recommended Lutheranism, on account of its servility, to all princes, that religion was of too holy a nature to be degraded to a mere political tool. This assertion was the signal for persecution. In Copenhagen, his controversial works were burnt by the hangman. At Leipzig, an attempt was made to seize his person and the whole of his property was confiscated. He found an asylum at Halle and a noble patron in Frederick I., who gave his pen unshackled liberty.

He was accompanied in his retreat from Leipzig by the pious Franke, the founder of the celebrated Orphan Asylum at Halle. He was Thomasius's best friend, and not only shared his views on education, but sought to realize them by the introduction, for the first time, of solid instruction into his orphan school, where, besides the Latin and theological pedantry of the schools, to which all instruction had been hitherto restricted, the German language, modern languages, mathematics,

natural philosophy, and history were taught. But Franke was also a pietist or disciple of the school of piety founded by Spener. Sound human reason and genuine feeling had at that time leagued against the pedantry of the schools, which was as remarkable for want of sense as for its cold heartlessness, and even a cursory glance at the immense revolution effected since this period by enlightenment and, it may be, no less by sentiment, at once demonstrates the importance of the protection granted by Prussia to the first prophets of modern intelligence.

Frederick I. was succeeded [A. D. 1730] by his son, Frederick William I., who, although an enemy to freedom of thought and the persecutor of Thomasius's successor, the philosopher, Wolf, whom he threatened with the gallows and expelled Halle, was an excellent guardian over the material interests and morals of his subjects. His first step immediately on his accession to the throne, was the reduction of his father's court, which was placed on an extremely simple and economical footing, Gold embroidered dresses and enormous perukes were no longer tolerated. The king appeared in a little blonde peruke, a close-fitting dark-blue uniform turned up with red, with his sword at his side and a strong bamboo in his hand. The French, their licence, and their manners were so hateful to him, that, in order to render them equally unpopular with the people of Berlin, he ordered the provosts and gaolers to be dressed in the last French fashion, and "The Marquis dismissed with Blows," a piece eminently anti-Gallic, to be represented on the stage. Often, when, like the other German princes, tempted by the crafty French court, would he exclaim, "I will not be a Frenchman. I am thoroughly German and would be content were I but president of the imperial court of finance.” On another occasion, he said, "I will place pistols and swords in my children's cradles and teach them to keep the foreigner out of Germany."

He believed and often declared himself to be "only the first servant of the state," and excused his excessive despotism on the score of duty.* This also accorded with his religious no

* Among the executions that took place at his command, that of the intrigant, Clement, who, by stirring up the cabinets of Austria and Prussia, sought to fish in troubled waters, has attracted most attention. The most remarkable among them was, however, that of a Count von Schlu

tions. He considered himself as a servant of God and wished to be the faithful shepherd of his flock. Endowed with great personal activity, he tolerated idleness in no one, and would sometimes bestow a hearty drubbing with his own hand on the loungers at the street corners in Berlin. Manly and courageous, he had a horror of effeminacy and cowardice, and, on one occasion, gave a Jew a good thrashing for dreading the whip. He bore an almost implacable hatred to his own son, afterwards Frederick the Great, merely because he suspected him of cowardice.

He habituated his subjects to labour and industry, and promoted their welfare to an extraordinary degree, whilst at the same time he filled the exchequer. Partly for the purpose of depriving the people of Berlin of other modes of extravagance, partly for that of concentrating the whole power of the state by the foundation of a large metropolis, he compelled the people to build new houses in Berlin, in the Friedrichsstadt. The purport of his decree ran simply thus, "The fellow is rich, let him build." Simplicity of dress and manners, economy, thrift, public morality, health, honesty, and truth, were strictly enjoined. In his daily intercourse with the people, he praised industrious workmen and clean housewives, scolded the idle and dirty. House thieves were mercilessly hanged before the house-door. In his own person he offered an example of economy. Whilst other princes gave expensive fêtes to their foreign guests and ambassadors, Frederick William conducted them to his smoking-room and invited them to smoke and drink beer with him. This chamber was often the scene of important negotiations. Even Francis of Lorraine, who subsequently mounted the imperial throne, was a frequent visitor to this smoking-room for the purpose of gaining the vote of Prussia for the approaching election. Still, the coarse amusements of this monarch, who took delight in beuth, who had treated his serfs with extreme cruelty. He set the king at defiance, and said, "It is not the fashion to hang a noble." He was, nevertheless, hanged on the ensuing morning. When the king for the first time introduced the taxation of the nobility and was opposed in this measure by the Estates of Eastern Prussia, he boldly prosecuted his intended reforms, and wrote, "I establish my sovereignty like a rock in bronze.". -He set a great value on his giant-guard, and, on one occa sion, thrashed the whole of his military council for condemning one of them to death for thieving.-Stenzel, History of Prussia.

plying his foreign guests with beer until drunkenness ensued, and in rendering them sick to death with the unaccustomed fumes of tobacco, his utter contempt of learning, as shown by his treatment of the learned Gundling* as a court-fool, and the brutal jokes passed upon him and others for the amusement of his boon companions, but too forcibly indicate a recurrence to the uncouth manners of the preceding century.

The army, excellently organized by Dessau, was the object of the king's greatest care, and it was from him (he always wore an uniform) that the whole state and population took the martial appearance still forming their strongest characteristic, and which, at that time, was alone able to enforce respect. Germany had, for a century, been plundered by the foreigner. Arms alone were wanting for her defence and the terrors of war would again march in her van. The formation of an army was consequently the grand desideratum, and Frederick William may therefore be pardoned for his Potsdam hobby,† his grenadier guard, composed of men of gigantic stature, whom he collected from every quarter of the globe, either received in gift or carried away by force. His recruiting officers were every where notorious for the underhand means by which they gained recruits, and were often exposed to the greatest peril when engaged in pressing men into the service. In Holland, one of them was, sans ceremonie, hanged. Hanover threatened Prussia with war on account of the subjects stolen from her territory. There was, moreover, a feud between the king of Prussia and George, king of England and elector of Hanover, the latter having wedded the Margravine of Anspach, the object of Frederick William's affection, and having bestowed upon him in her stead his sister, Sophia Dorothea, to whom, like a good and steady citizen, he nevertheless remained faithful.

* Gundling, although created a baron, a member of every council of state, and, moreover, president of the Academy of Sciences, was compelled to permit an ape, dressed like himself, to be seated at his side at table, mustachios to be painted on his face, etc. etc. His body was, after his decease, notwithstanding the protest of the clergy, buried, at the royal command, in a cask instead of a coffin. The king, on one occasion, compelled the Frankfurt professors to dispute with his court-fools over the thesis," Savants are fools."

He greatly extended and beautified Potsdam on account of the refusal of the Berlinese to maintain too numerous a garrison.