PRUSSIA.

Prussia, formerly a duehy, but now a powerful and extensive kingdom of the second rank, was formed on the ancient electoral possessions as a nucleus, by means of successive territorial acquisitions, particularly in Poland, in Westphalia, and on the Rhine. The name is supposed by some to have been derived from that of the Borussi, a Sarmatian or Slavonie tribe, who, having migrated from the foot of the Riphaean Mountains, were tempted to settle in the district which is called Prussia proper. But others are of opinion that the country derived its name from its vicinity to the vast territory of Russia, and was for this reason called Porussia; po in the Slavonie language signifying near or adjacent, and consequently Porussia, shortened into Prussia, meaning near or adjacent to Russia. Nor is this derivation of the name entirely fanciful or hypothetical. Several others have been formed on the same principle. For instance, the river Elbe in Slavonic was termed Labe, and, by a similar combination, the tribes who inhabited its banks were called Po Labae or Polabae. The reader, however, must judge for himself which of these conjectures is the more probable. To the latter Frederick the Great has given the sanction of his authority in the treatise entitled Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg.

The original inhabitants of Prussia were the Slavi or Sarmatae, in the east and north-east; the Vandals on the shores of the Baltie, to the north of Pomerania; and the Suevi in the remainder of the kingdom. These people, particularly the first, are represented as having been extremely savage and barbarous; living upon raw flesh, and drinking, even to intoxication, the blood of horses at their feasts. They seem to have been unacquainted with the method of constructing huts, and to have lived in eaves or under the shelter of rocks and trees, where they protected themselves and their children from the inclemencies of the weather. Sueh rude tribes cannot be expected to furnish materials for history; and hence little is known respecting them until the thirteenth century, when the Teutonic knights first obtained a footing in the country.

This celebrated fraternity is more or less known to every reader. After the death of Barbarossa, the Germans behaved with so much bravery in the Holy Land, that the king of Jerusalem, the patriarch, and other princes, rewarded their valour by conferring upon their order certain privileges. The body in question was thus instituted under the most favourable auspices. The members were originally called Knights of St George; but they were afterwards denominated Equites Mariani, or Knights of St Mary. In the year 1190, they elected Henry Walpol, a German, who had distinguished himself for conduct and bravery, as their first grand-master; and in the subsequent year Pope Celestine III. confirmed to them the privileges which they already enjoyed, and conferred on them the title of Knights of the Teutonic Order, an appellation by which they afterwards became so famous. On the expulsion of the Christians from the Holy Land by Saladdin, a settlement was given to these knights in Prussia by Conrad duke of Mazovia, the competitor of Boleslas V. for the crown of Poland. Their original residence in the former country was Culm, to which territory they were confined by the conditions of the grant, excepting what they might conquer from their pagan neighbours, all which the emperor granted to them in perpetuity. Encouraged by this grant, the knights conquered the greater part of the country now called Prussia ; and, not content with this, they became so troublesome to Poland, that the monarchs of that kingdom were sometimes obliged to carry on dangerous and bloody wars with the order. (See the article Poland.)

The Teutonic order continued in Prussia until the year 1531. Their last grand-master was Albert marquis of Brandenburg, and nephew of Sigismund I. king of Poland. He was preferred to this dignity in hopes that his affinity to Sigismund might procure a restitution of some of the places which had been taken from the order during the previous unsuccessful wars with Poland; but in this the fraternity were disappointed. Albert, however, was so far from endeavouring to obtain any favour from his uncle by pacific means, that he refused to do homage to him, and immediately began to make preparations for throwing off his dependence, and recovering by force of arms the whole of Prussia and Pomerania. But he was so far from succeeding in his design, that, foiled in every attempt, he was forced to resign the dignity of grand-master; and in recompense for divesting himself of this office, his uncle bestowed on him part of Prussia in quality of secular duke. It was now the interest of the house of Brandenburg to assist in the expulsion of the fraternity; and accordingly, the knights, being at last driven out of Prussia and Pomerania, transferred their chapter to Mariendal in Franconia; but in that and in other provinces of the empire where they settled, little more than the name of the order now remains.

The electorate of Brandenburg, like other parts of Germany, was anciently possessed by barbarians, of whom no accurate account can be given. They were subdued by Charlemagne, as has been related in the history of France (see the article France, part first); but being on every occasion ready to revolt, Henry the Fowler, in 927, established margraves, or governors of the frontiers, in order to keep the barbarians in awe. The first margrave of Brandenburg was Sigefroy, brother-in-law of the emperor, under whose administration the bishopries of Brandenburg and Havelberg were established by Otho I. From the time of this Sigefroy, till the succession of the house of Hohenzollern, from whom the present family derive their descent, there are reckoned eight different families who have been margraves of Brandenburg; namely, the family of the Saxons, of Walbeck, Staden, Plenek, Anhalt, Bavaria, Luxemburg, and Misnia. The margraves of the first four races carried on continual wars with the Vandals and other barbarous tribes; nor could their ravages be stopped till the reign of Albert surnamed the Bear, the first prince of the house of Anhalt, who was appointed margrave by the Emperor Conrad IIL, and afterwards raised to the dignity of elector by Frederick Barbarossa, about the year 1100. Some years afterwards, the king of the Vandals having died without issue, left the Middle March by his last will to the elector, who was besides possessed of the Old March, Upper Saxony, the country of Anhalt, and part of Lusatia. In the year 1332 this line became extinct, and the electorate devolved to the empire. It was then given by the Emperor Louis of Bavaria to his son Louis, who was the first of the sixth race. Louis the Roman succeeded his brother; and as he also died without children, he was succeeded by Otho, his third brother, who sold the electorate to the Emperor Charles IV. of the house of Luxemburg, for two hundred thousand florins of gold. Charles IV. gave the March to his son Wineeslas, who was succeeded by Sigismund; and this elector, being embarrassed in his circumstances, sold the New March to the knights of the Teutonic order. Josse succeeded Sigismund; but aspiring to the empire, he sold the electorate to William duke of Misnia, who, after possessing it for one [7:18:671] year, sold it again to the Emperor Sigismund. In 1417, Frederick VI. burgrave of Nuremberg, received at the Diet of Constance the investiture of the country of Brandenburg from the hands of the Emperor Sigismund, who, two years previously, had conferred upon Frederick the dignity of elector, and arch-chamberlain of the Holy Roman empire.

This prince, the first of the family of Hohenzollern, one of the oldest in Europe, found himself possessed of the Old and the Middle March; but the dukes of Pomerania had usurped the March of the Ukraine. The elector therefore declared war against them, and soon recovered the province. But as the New March still remained in the hands of the Teutonic knights, to whom it had been sold, as already mentioned, the elector, to compensate for this, took possession of Saxony, which at that time happened to be vacant by the death of Albert, the last elector of the Anhalt line. The emperor, however, disapproving of this step, gave the investiture of Saxony to the Duke of Misnia, upon which Frederick voluntarily desisted from his acquisitions. This elector made a division of his possessions by will. To his eldest son, who had too closely applied himself to the search of the philosopher’s stone, he left only Voightland. The electorate was given to his second son Frederick; Albert, surnamed Achilles, received the duchies of Franconia; and Frederick, surnamed the Fat, had the Old March, which, by his death, returned to the electorate of Brandenburg.

Frederick I. was succeeded by his son, called also Frederick, and surnamed Irontooth on account of his strength. He might with as much reason have been surnamed the Magnanimous, since he refused two crowns, that of Bohemia, which was offered him by the pope, and the kingdom of Poland, to which he was invited by the people; but Frederick declared he would not accept of the latter unless Casimir, brother of Ladislas, the late king, should refuse it. These instances of magnanimity had such an effect on the neighbouring people, that the states of Lower Lusatia made him a voluntary surrender of their country. But as Lusatia was a fief of Bohemia, the king of that country immediately made war on the elector, in order to recover it. In this, however, he was so far from being successful, that, by a treaty of peace concluded in 1462, he was obliged to surrender to the elector the perpetual sovereignty of Corbus, Peits, Sommerfeld, and some other places. Frederick having redeemed the New March from the Teutonic order for the sum of a hundred thousand florins, and having still further enlarged his dominions, resigned the sovereignty to his brother Albert, in the year 1469.

Albert was fifty-seven years old when his brother resigned to him the electorate. Most of his exploits had been performed whilst he was burgrave of Nuremberg. Having declared war against Louis duke of Bavaria, he defeated that prince and took him prisoner. He also gained eight battles against the Nurembergers, who had rebelled and contested his rights to the burgraviate. In one of these he fought singly against sixteen men, until his people came up to his assistance. He made himself master of the town of Greiffenburg in the same manner as Alexander the Great took the capital of the Oxydracae, by leaping from the top of the walls into the town, where he defended himself singly against the inhabitants until his men forced the gates and rescued him. The confidence which the Emperor Frederick III. placed in him, gained him the direction of almost the whole empire. He commanded the imperial armies against Louis the Rich, duke of Bavaria; and also against Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who had laid siege to Nuis, but concluded a peace at the interposition of Albert. He gained the prize at seventeen tournaments, and was never dismounted. All these exploits, however, had been performed before Albert obtained the electorate.

From that time we meet with no very important transactions until the year 1594, when John Sigismund of Brandenburg, having married Anne, the only daughter of Albert duke of Prussia, that duchy was united to the electorate, of which it has ever since formed part; and he also obtained pretensions to the countries of Juliers, Berg, Cleves, Marek, Ravensburg, and Ravenstein, of which Anne was the heiress.

Sigismund died in the year 1619, and was succeeded by his son George William, during whose government the electorate suffered great calamities. At this time commenced the war between the Protestants and Catholics, which, from the period of its endurance, has been denominated the Thirty Years’ War. The former, although leagued together, were on the point of being utterly destroyed by the imperialists under the command of Tilly and Wallenstein, when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden turned the scale in their favour, and threatened the Catholic party with total destruction. But by the death of the king on the field of battle at Lutzen, the fortune of war was once more changed. At last, however, peace was concluded with the emperor; and, in 1640, the elector died, leaving his dominions to his son Frederick William.

This young prince, though only twenty years of age at the time of his accession, applied himself with the utmost diligence to repair the losses occasioned by the wars which had preceded. He received the investiture of Prussia personally from the king of Poland, on condition of paying a hundred thousand florins annually, and not making peace with the enemies of that country. His envoy likewise received the investiture of the electorate from the Emperor Ferdinand III. The elector then thought of recovering his provinces from those who had usurped them. He concluded a truce of twenty years with the Swedes, who evacuated the greater part of his states. He likewise paid a hundred and forty thousand crowns to the Swedish garrisons, which still possessed some of his towns; he concluded a treaty with the Hessians, who delivered up a part of the duchy of Cleves; and he obtained of the Hollanders the evacuation of several other cities.

In the mean time, the powers of Europe began to be sickened of a war which had continued for such a length of time with unrelenting fury. The cities of Osnaburg and Munster being chosen as the most proper places for negotiation, the conferences were opened in the year 1645; but, by reason of the multiplicity of business, they were not concluded till two years afterwards. France, which had espoused the interests of Sweden, demanded that Pomerania should be ceded to the latter, as an indemnification for the expenses which the war had cost Gustavus Adolphus and his successors. Although the empire and the elector refused to give up Pomerania, it was at last agreed to cede to the Swedes Hither Pomerania, the isles of Rugen and Wollin, and also some cities; in return for which, the bishoprics of Halberstadt, Minden, and Karnin were secularized in favour of the elector, and he was put in possession of them, together with the lordships of Hochenstein and Richenstein, and the reversion of the archbishopric of Magdeburg. Thus was concluded, in 1648, the treaty of Westphalia, which serves as a basis to all the possessions and rights of the German princes. The elector then concluded a treaty with the Swedes for the regulation of limits, and for the acquittal of certain debts; and next year the electorate, Pomerania, and the duchies of Cleves, were evacuated by the Swedes.

Notwithstanding these treaties, however, the Swedes soon afterwards invaded Pomerania, but were entirely defeated by the elector near the town of Fehrbellin. Three thousand were left dead on the field, amongst whom were a number of officers; and a great many were made prisoners. The elector immediately pursued his victory, and, gaining many advantages over the Swedes, deprived them of the cities of [7:18:672]Stralsund and Greiphswald. The Swedes, however, hoping to oblige the elector to evacuate Pomerania, which he had almost totally subdued, invaded Prussia at the head of sixteen thousand men, who advanced from Livonia, and entering the country, burned the suburbs of Memel, and took the cities of Tilse and Insterburg. The elector, to oppose the invaders, left Berlin on the 10th of January 1679, at the head of about nine thousand men. The Swedes retired at his approach, and were much harassed by the troops on their march, losing almost one half their army. At last, having crossed the bay of Frisch-Haff and Courland on the ice, the elector, on the 19th of January, arrived with his infantry within three miles of Tilse, where the Swedes had established their head-quarters. The same day, General Trefenfeldt defeated two regiments of the enemy near Splitter; and the Swedes who were in Tilse having abandoned the place, retired towards Courland. They were pursued by General Gortz, and entirely defeated with great slaughter, so that scarcely three thousand of them returned to Livonia. Yet, notwithstanding these victories, the elector, being pressed on the other side by Turenne and the Prince of Condé, was obliged to make peace with the Swedes. The conditions were, that the treaty of Westphalia should serve as the basis of the peace; and that the elector should have the property of the customs in all the ports of Further Pomerania, with the cities of Kamin, Gartz, Greiffenburg, and Wildenbruck; whilst, on his part, he consented to give up to the Swedes all that he had conquered from them, and to afford no assistance to the king of Denmark, upon condition that France should deliver up to him his provinces in Westphalia, and pay him three hundred thousand ducats as an indemnification for the damages done by the French to his states. This treaty was styled the peace of St Germains.

With the treaty of St Germains terminated the military exploits of Frederick William, who passed the last years of his administration in tranquillity. Few sovereigns ever attained greater celebrity, or enjoyed more fully the affections of his subjects and the respect of foreign countries. An embassy was sent him by Murad Geray, the khan of the Tartars, soliciting his friendship; and he received other marks of the estimation in which he was held. In 1684, he admitted into his dominions great numbers of Protestants who had fled from France after the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.; twenty thousand of whom are said to have settled in the electorate, where they introduced those arts and manufactures which proved of the utmost benefit to the country. Before his time, Prussia was held as a fief of Poland; but in 1656 he compelled the Polish monarch to declare it an independent state. Puffendorf thought the life of this prince a subject not unworthy of his pen; and Frederick the Great regards him^[1. See Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg. ] as the principal founder of the power and influence of the house of Brandenburg.

In 1688, the elector Frederick William died, and was succeeded by his son Frederick III. This prince was remarkably f<and of show and ceremony, which, during the course of k⅛ government, involved him in great expense. The attai/upent of the regal dignity seemed to be the great object of his ambition. To accomplish this object, he joined with the emperor in the alliance against France, in which he was engaged by William III. king of Britain. He also yielded up the circle of Schwibus, which had been given to his predecessor; and, in 1700, he obtained from the emperor the royal dignity which he had so earnestly desired. The terms on which it was obtained were, that Frederick should never separate from the empire those provinces of his dominions which'depended on it; that he should not, in the emperor’s presence, demand any other marks of honour than those which he had hitherto enjoyed; that the ministers which he sent to Vienna should be treated like those of other crowned heads; that the elector should maintain at his own expense six thousand men in Italy, in ease the emperor should be obliged to make war by reason of the succession of the house of Bourbon to the crown of Spain; and that the troops in question should continue there whilst the war lasted. »

Such w ere the principal terms upon which Prussia was erected into a kingdom, through the friendship of the emperor, with whom Frederick I. (so called as being the first king of Prussia), continued all his life in strict alliance. He was a pacific and patriotic prince; and having always preserved his dominions in peace, consulted more effectually the true interest, of his subjects than those monarchs who have dazzled the world by the splendour of their military exploits.

Frederick I. died in the beginning of 1713, and was succeeded by his son Frederick William, sometimes called Frederick II. He was in almost everything the reverse of his father. His dispositions being altogether martial, he applied himself entirely to the augmentation of his army, and perfecting them in their exercises, by which means they became the most expert soldiers in Europe. His foible was an ambition of having his army composed of men above the ordinary size; but as these could not be procured, he composed a regiment of the tallest men he could find; and as his officers made no scruple of picking up such men wherever they could find them for his majesty’s use, the neighbouring states were frequently offended, and a war was often likely to ensue from this ridiculous cause. However, his Prussian majesty never engaged in any martial enterprise of consequence; but having placed liis army on the most respectable footing of any in the world, and filled his coffers with cash, for he was of a very saving disposition, he put it in the power of his son to perform those exploits which proved matter of astonishment to all Europe.

In this king’s reign Prussia first perceived that her natural enemy and rival was the house of Austria, and not France, as had been formerly supposed. Hence frequent disputes took place between these two powers, for which the persecution of the Protestants by some of the Catholic states of the empire afforded a pretence; and although a war never actually took place, yet it was easy to perceive that bpth were at heart mortal enemies. But when Frederick William died in 1740, this enmity broke out in full force.

This king was succeeded by his son Frederick III., commonly styled Frederick the Great, who ascended the throne in 1740. He was born on the 24th of January 1712, and in his infancy intrusted to the care of Madame de Rocoule, who spoke no language but French, and thus probably inspired him at once with a taste for that language and a dislike of the German. As he advanced in years, he was put under more accomplished tutors; but as his father’s object was to inspire him with a love of military glory, and to teach him the art of war in all its departments, he at first made little progress in science and literature; and, in fact, his erudition was at the best but limited. The branches in which he excelled were the belles lettres and ethics. He was also an adept in music, of which he was passionately fond. But his father not reckoning such an accomplishment compatible with the profession of a soldier, forbade him to cultivate it; and his disobedience of the paternal restriction was the cause of the misunderstanding which existed between him and his father till the death of the latter. Finding himselr disgraced at court, he retired to the castle of Rheinsberg, where he devoted his time to study, and to the society and [7:18:673] conversation of learned men of different countries. When he ascended the throne in 1740,..he was welcomed by the unanimous acclamations of his subjects, who entertained sanguine hopes of his future greatness and celebrity. In accordance with the uniform policy of his family, the early and great object of his life was to increase his dominions; and the first step he took in the accomplishment of this object was the invasion of Silesia upon the death of the emperor of Germany. The empress-queen was placed in a very disagreeable situation by the demise of her father; and of this Frederick took the advantage to do himself justice, as he said, with regard to Silesia, of which his ancestors had been unjustly deprived. The province in question he accordingly seized; but it cost him dear; for the empress, having at last overcome all difficulties, formed against him the most powerful combination that was ever known in Europe.

The treaty by which the empress reluctantly yielded up to the king of Prussia the province of Silesia, and with it a clear revenue of L.800,000 a year, had scarcely been concluded, when she entered into another with the court of St Petersburg, which was concluded on the 22d of May 1746. This treaty, as far as it was made public, was merely of a defensive nature; but six secret and separate articles were added to it. By one of these it was pro∖ ided, that in case his Prussian majesty should attack the ∈ mpress-queen, or the empress of Russia, or even the republic of Poland, it should be considered as a breach of the treaty of Dresden, by which Silesia had been given up. It was also stipulated, that notwithstanding that treaty, which, in fact, had been dictated by the king of Prussia himself, the right of the empress-queen to Silesia still continued, and for the recovery of that province the contracting powers engaged mutually to furnish an army of sixty thousand men. To this treaty, called the treaty of St Petersburg, the king of Poland was invited to accede; but being in a manner in the power of the king of Prussia, he did not think proper to sign it. However, he verbally acceded to it, so as to convince the other parties of his design to co-operate in all their measures; and in consideration of such intention, it was agreed that he should have a share in the partition of the king of Prussia’s dominions, in the event of the successful issue of their enterprises.

In consequence of these machinations, every art was used to render the king of Prussia personally odious to the empress of Russia; the empress-queen made vast preparations in Bohemia and Moravia; and the king of Poland, under pretence of a military amusement, drew together sixteen thousand men, with whom he occupied a strong post at Pirna. The empress-queen, still further to strengthen herself, concluded a treaty with the court of France, dated at Versailles on the 1st of May 1756. In the mean time the king of Prussia, understanding from his emissaries what was going forward, resolved to be beforehand with his enemies; and, to keep the war out of his own country, he entered Saxony with a considerable army. At first he affected only to demand a free passage for his troops, and an observance of the neutrality professed by the king of Poland; but having good reasons to doubt this neutrality, he demanded, as a preliminary, that the Saxon troops should immediately abandon the strong post they occupied, and disperse themselves. This demand being refused, Frederick blockaded the Saxon camp at Pirna, resolving to reduce it by famine, since its strong situation rendered an attack dangerous. At that time there were in Bohemia two Saxon armies; one under the command of Marshal Brown, and the other under that of General Picoomini. To keep these in awe, the king had sent Marshal Schwerin with an army into Bohemia, and Marshal Keith penetrated into the same kingdom on the side of Misnia. But still the king of Prussia did not entirely confide in these dispositions; and therefore fearing lest Brown might afford some assistance to the Saxons, he joined his forces under Keith, and on the 1st of December 1756 attacked and defeated the Austrian general at Lowositz. The latter thus found it impossible to relieve the Saxons, and, after a vain attempt to retire from their post, they were all taken prisoners. The king of Poland quitted his dominions in Germany, and the Prussians took up their winter-quarters in Saxony. Here they seized upon the revenues, levied contributions, and obliged the country to supply them with recruits. At the same time the king of Prussia made himself master of the archives of Dresden, by which means he procured the originals of those documents which, when produced to the world, showed the combination that had been formed against him, and consequently justified the measures he had taken in his own defence.

No sooner had the king entered Saxony in the manner already related, than a process was commenced against him in the Aulic Council, and before the Diet of the Empire, where he was soon condemned for contumacy, and put to the ban of the empire. The various circles were then ordered to furnish their respective contingents of men and money to put this sentence in execution; but these came in so slowly, that, had it not been for the assistance of the French under the Prince de Soubisc, the army would probably have never been in a condition to act. The Austrians, in the mean time, made great preparations, and raised a hundred‘thousand men in Bohemia, whom they placed under the command of Prince Charles of Lorraine, assisted by Marshal Brown. The Czarina sent a body of sixty thousand men under Apraxin to invade ducal Prussia, whilst a strong fleet was equipped in the Baltic to cooperate with that army. The king of Sweden also acceded to the confederacy, in hopes of recovering those possessions which his ancestors had enjoyed in Pomerania; and the Duke of Mecklenburg followed the same course, promising to join the Swedish army with six thousand men as soon as it should be necessary. On the side of the king of Prussia appeared nobody excepting an army of between thirty and forty thousand Hanoverians commanded by the Duke of Cumberland; and these were outnumbered and forced to yield to a superior army of French commanded by D’Etrées.

In the mean time, his Prussian majesty, finding that he must depend for assistance solely upon his own abilities, resolved to make the best use of his time. Aςcordingly, in the spring of 1757, his armies poured into Bohemia from two different points, whilst the king himself prepared to enter it by a third. Marshal Schwerin entered from Silesia, and the Prince of Bevern from Lusatia, where he defeated an army of twenty-eight thousand Austrians who opposed his passage. As the intentions of the king himself were not known, the Austrians detached a body of twenty thousand men from their principal army to observe his motions. This was no sooner done than the king cut off all communication between the detachment and the main body; and having joined his two generals with incredible celerity, he engaged the Austrians near Prague, totally defeated them, and took their camp, military chest, and cannon; but he lost the brave Marshal Schwerin, who was killed at the age of eighty-two, with a colonel’s standard in his hand. On the Austrian side Marshal Brown was wounded, and died in a short time, though it is supposed more from the chagrin he suffered than from the dangerous nature of the wound itself.

About forty thousand of the Austrian army took refuge in Prague, whilst the rest fled in different directions. The city was instantly invested by the king, and all succours were cut off. The great number of troops which it contained made an attack unadvisable, but seemed to render inevitable its reduction by famine; however, the king, ío accomplish his purpose the more speedily, prepared to bombard the town. On the 29th of May, after a most dreadful[7:18:674] storm of thunder and lightning, four batteries began to play upon the city. From these were thrown every twenty-four hours, 288 bombs, besides a vast number of red-hot balls, so that it was soon on firc in almost every quarter. The garrison made a vigorous defence, and one well-conducted sally, which, however, was repulsed with great loss. The magistrates, burghers, and clergy, seeing their city on the point of being reduced to an heap of rubbish, earnestly supplicated the commander to capitulate; but he was deaf to their entreaties, and drove twelve thousand of the most useless mouths out of the town, who were quickly driven in again by the Prussians.

The affairs of the empress-queen seemed thus to be verging to destruction, when Leopold count Daun took upon him the command of the army. This general, having arrived within a few miles of Prague on the day after the great battle there, immediately collected the scattered fugitives with the greatest diligence, and retired with them to a strong post in the neighbourhood, whence he gave the troops in Prague hopes of speedy relief. It was now the king of Prussia’s business, either to attempt making himself master of the city by one desperate effort, or entirely to abandon the enterprise, and drive Daun from his position before his troops had recovered from the terror of their late defeat. But, by attempting to do both, he rendered himself incapable of doing either. Though the army of Daun already amounted to sixty thousand men, and though they were strongly in trenched, and defended by a vast train of artillery, his majesty thought proper to send against them no more than thirty-two thousand men. On the morning of the 18th of June, the Prussians marched by the left along the great road which leads from Prague to Kollin, intending to assail the enemy’s right wing as soon as the necessary dispositions had been made for the attack, and the flank sufficiently developed; but various circumstances conspired to render ineffectual the plan which Frederick had formed. Daun had drawn up his army in order of battle upon the very ground which the Prussians intended to occupy, and the flank movement of the latter, being executed too close to the enemy’s line, indeed within the range of their artillery, was arrested, at the critical moment, by several brigades stopping to return the enemy’s fire. This effectually deranged the whole combination; and though the Prussians did all that human courage and steadiness could do in the circumstances, and the king himself at last charged at the head of his cavalry, they were driven from the field with a loss in killed, wounded, and missing, of nearly fourteen thousand men of all arms.^[2. See Jomini, Traité de Grande Tactique, vol. ii. chap. 10. ]

The immediate consequence of the battle of Kollin was, that the king found himself obliged to raise the siege of Prague, and to take refuge in Saxony. The Austrians harassed him as much as possible in his retreat from Bohemia; but, notwithstanding their superiority, they could not make any decisive attempt against him, as the frontiers of Saxony abounded with positions easily defended. In the mean time the Russians, who had hitherto been very dilatory in their movements, began to exert themselves, and entered Prussia under Apraxin and Fermor, where they committed innumerable cruelties and excesses. A large body of Austrians also entered Silesia, penetrated as far as Breslau, and then laid siege to Schweidnitz; whilst another body entered Lusatia, and made themselves masters of Zittau. An army of twenty-two thousand Swedes also entered Prussian Pomerania, took the towns of Anclam and Demmcin, and laid the whole country under contribution. The French, too, being freed from all restraint by the capitulation of the Duke of Cumberland at Closter-Seven, made their way into Halberstadt and the Old March of Brandenburg, first exacting contributions, and then plundering the towns. The army of the empire, being reinforced by that of the Prince de Soubise, at length marched to occupy Saxony, and thus left the Austrians at liberty to exert the greater part of their force in the reduction of Silesia.

General Haddick penetrated through Lusatia, passed by 1 the Prussian armies, and suddenly appeared before the gates 1 of Berlin, which city he laid under contribution. He retired t on the approach of a body of Prussians; yet he still found; means to occupy such a position as interrupted the king’s communications with Silesia. The destruction of the king of Prussia therefore seemed to be inevitable. Every exertion which he had made, though able and well conducted, had been unsuccessful. His general, Lehwald, who opposed the Russians, had orders to attack them at all events. He obeyed his instructions, and with thirty thousand men attacked sixty thousand of the enemy strongly intrenched at a place called Norkitten. The Prussians behaved with the greatest valour; but after having killed five times more of the eneriry than they themselves lost, they were compelled to retire, although more formidable after their defeat than the Russians after their victory. The king, in the mean time, exerted himself on every side, and his enemies fled everywhere before him; but whilst he pursued one body, another gained upon him in an opposite direction, and the winter fast approached, whilst his strength decayed, and that of his adversaries seemed to increase in every quarter.

The Prussian monarch, however, though beset with the greatest difficulties, did not abandon himself to despair, or lose that wonderful presence of mind which so eminently distinguished him in all his military enterprises. He purposely delayed a decisive action until the approach of winter, when at length, upon the 5th of November 1757, he, after a variety of skilful movements, encountered at Rosbach the united army of his enemies, commanded by the Prince of Saxe-Hilburghansen and the Prince de Soubisc. The allied army amounted to fully fifty thousand men, but most of the troops of the Circles were newly raised, and many of them not well affected to the cause. The Prussians did not exceed twenty-five thousand men; but they were superior to any troops in the world, and inspired, by the presence of their king, with the most enthusiastic valour. The imperialists were attacked whilst in full march, their cavalry was overthrown at the first shock; and being thus prevented from forming a regular order of battle, or bringing their battalions into action except in succession, they were defeated with the loss of three thousand killed, eight generals, two hundred and fifty officers of different ranks, and six thousand private soldiers taken prisoners. Night alone prevented the total déstruction of the allied army.

By this battle the king was set free from the enemy on one side; but this only gave him an opportunity of renewing h⅛ efforts on another. The Austrians had collected a great force, and now began to make proportional progress in Silesia. After a siege of sixteen days, they had reduced the strong fortress of Schweidnitz, and obliged the Prussian garrison of four thousand men to surrender as prisoners of war. Hearing of the victory at Rosbach, and learning that the king of Prussia was in full march to relieve Silesia, they resolved to assault the Prince of Bevern in his strong camp under the walls of Breslau. The attempt was made on the 22d*of November; but their attack was sustained with the greatest resolution. The slaughter of the Austrians was prodigious. A great part of the enemy had retired from the field of battle, and the rest were preparing to follow their example, when all at once the Prussian general took the same resolution. His army had suffered much in the engagement, and he became apprehensive of a total defeat in case the intrenchments should in any part be forced; for which reason he quitted his strong position and retired beh[7:18:675] iùd the Oder. Two days afterwards, the Prince of Bevern, going to reconnoitre without an escort, attended only by a groom, was taken prisoner by an advanced party of Croats, a small body of whom had crossed the Oder.

Upon this the town of Breslau immediately surrendered; and there, as well as at Schweidnitz, the Austrians found great quantities of provisions, ammunition, and money. In fact, all Silesia was on the point of falling into their hands, and the Prussian affairs were fast getting into the utmost distraction, when the king, by a rapid and able march, passed through Thuringia, Misnia, and Lusatia, in spite of the utmost efforts of Haddick and Marshal, who were sent to oppose him, and, entering Silesia upon the 2d of December, joined the Prince of Bevern’s corps, which repassed the Oder to meet him. The garrison of Schweidnitz, who, as we have already observed, had been made prisoners of war, also joined the king’s army unexpectedly; and their presence contributed not a little, notwithstanding the smallness of their number, to raise the spirits of the whole army. They had submitted with the greatest reluctance; but as the Austrians were conducting them to prison, they happened to receive intelligence of the victory at Rosbach, upon which they immediately rose on the escort that conducted them, and entirely dispersed it; and afterwards marching in such a direction as they thought would most readily lead them to their king, they accidentally met with his army. ’

His Prussian majesty now approached Breslau; on which the Austrians, confiding in their superiority (for they exceeded seventy thousand, whilst the Prussians scarcely amounted to thirty-six thousand), abandoned their strong camp, which the Prince of Bevern had formerly occupied, and advanced to give him battle. The king did not intend by any means to disappoint them, but on his part advanced with the greatest celerity. The two armies met on the 5th of December, near the village of Leuthen. Marshal Daun made the best dispositions possible. The position occupied by his army was a plain, with small eminences, which he covered with artillery; and as the ground was also interspersed with thickets, the Austrians sought to turn these likewise to their advantage. On their right and left were hills, upon which they planted batteries of cannon. The ground in their front was intersected by many causeways; and, to render the whole more impracticable, the Austrians had felled a great number of trees, and scattered them in the way. At the commencement of the engagement it was found almost impossible for the Prussian cavalry to act, On account of these impediments; but in consequence of a judicious disposition made by the king himself, all difficulties were overcome. His majesty, foreseeing that General Nadasty, who was placed on the enemy’s left with a corps de reserve, designed to assail him in flank, had placed four battalions immediately behind the cavalry of his right wing, to support them in case of attack. No disposition could have been more· fortunate. It happened just as the king had foreseen. Nadasty’s cavalry attacked the Prussian right wing with great fury; but they were received with such a severe fire from the four battalions above mentioned, that they were obliged to retire in disorder. The king’s flank, then, well covered and supported, was enabled to act with such order and vigour as repulsed the enemy. The Austrian artillery was also silenced by that of the Prussians. Still the Austrians continued to make a gallant resistance during the whole of the battle. After having been thrown into disorder, they rallied all their forces about Leuthen, which was defended on every side by intrenchments and redoubts. The Prussians∙attacked them with the utmost impetuosity, and at last became masters of the position; upon which the enemy fled on all sides, and a total rout ensued. In this battle the Austrians lost ' six thousand men killed on the spot, fifteen thousand taken prisoners, and upwards of two hundred pieces of cannon. „

The consequences of this victory were very great. Breslau, being immediately invested, surrendered on the 29th of December, and the garrison, amounting to thirteen thousand men, were made prisoners of war. The blockade of Schweidnitz was likewise formed, whilst detached Prussian parties overran the whole country of Silesia, and reduced every place of importance. Meanwhile the Russians, having ravaged and destroyed the country in such a manner that they could not subsist in it, thought proper to retire from the Prussian dominions. General Lehwald being thus left at liberty to act against the Swedes, quickly drove them out of Prussian Pomerania, the whole of which he recovered, and also overran some part of Swedish Pomerania. The duchy of Mecklenburg being thus left quite exposed, the king took ample vengeance on it, by exacting : severe contributions of men and money. To complete this monarch’s good fortune, the French, who had retired after the battle of Rosbach√were now opposed by the Hanoverians under Prince Ferdinand, who kept them, so well employed, that, during the remainder of the war, the king of Prussia had no more trouble from them.

The beginning.of the year 1758 proved favourable to the arms of his Prussian majesty. On the 3d of April he commenced his∙ operations against Schweidnitz, and pushed the siege so vigorously that the place surrendered in thirteen days. He then disposed his forces in such a manner as might best guard his dominions against his numerous enemies. For this purpose Count Dohna commanded a body of troops on the side of Pomerania; whilst another considerable body was posted between Wohlau and Glogau, in order to cover Silesia from the Russians, in case they should make their inroad that way. A little time afterwards an army was formed in Saxony, commanded by the king’s brother, Prince Henry. This army consisted of thirty battalions and forty-five squadrons, and was designed to make head against the army of the Circles, which, by great efforts during the winter, and the junction of a considerable body of Austrians, was again in a condition to take the field. Between all these armies a ready’ communication was kept up by a regular chain of posts. After the reduction of Schweidnitz, the king, having made a show of invading Bohemia, suddenly burst into Moravia, where in a short time he made himself master of the whole country, and on the 27th of May laid siege to Ölmutz, the capital. Of this Daun no sooner got information than he marched to Moravia through Bohemia; and though he was not in a condition to risk a battle, yet, by placing himself in a strong situation, where he could not be attacked, by harassing the king’s troops and cutting off their convoys, he at last obliged him to abandon the enterprise. The king, however, who frequently owed much of his success to the impenetrable secrecy in which he shrouded all his designs, gave not the least hint of his intention to raise the siege of 01- mutz. On the contrary, the very day before the siege was raised, the firing continued as briskly as ever; but in the night of the 1st of July, the whole army took the road to Bohemia in two columns, and gained an entire march upon the Austrians. Thus, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of his enemies, the Prussian army reached Bohemia, where the king seize(F upon a large magazine at Lieutomissel; defeated some corps of Austrians who had attempted to interrupt his progress; and arrived at Königsgratz, of which he took possession, after driving from it seven thousand Austrians who were intrenched’there. This city and several other districts he laid under Contribution; but he soon afterwards, entered Silesia, and marched with the utmost rapidity to encounter the Russians, who’having united their forces under Brown and her mor, had entered the New March of Brandenburg, and laid siege’ to Custrin.

The king arrived in this city at a very critical period. The Russians had laid siege to it on the J5th of August; and though they were not well skilled in managing artillery, [7:18:676]yet, by furious and unremitting discharges at random, they threw in such a number of bombs and red-hot balls, that the town was soon on fire in every quarter. Some of the wretched inhabitants were burned; others were buried in the ruins of their houses, or killed by the balls which fell like hail in the streets; whilst many of the survivors abandoned their habitations, and fled out of the town on the side where it was not invested. The governor did everything for the defence of the place; but as the walls were built after the ancient manner, it was impossible that the town could have made a lengthened defence, especially as the principal magazine of the besieged had been blown up. The stern avenger of all these injuries, however, was now at hand. The king came in sight of the Russians on the 25th of August, after a march of fifty-six days, in the course of which he beheld the country everywhere desolated, and the villages in flames. At his approach the enemy raised the siege, and retired towards the neighbouring village of Zorn-dorft', where they were almost immediately attacked. At nine o’clock in the morning a terrible fire of cannon and mortars poured destruction on the right wing of the Russian army for two hours without intermission. The slaughter was such as might have been expected; but the Russians kept their ground with astonishing resolution, new regiments pressing forward to supply the places of those that fell. When the first line had expended all their ammunition, they rushed forward on the Prussians with their bayonets; and these brave troops, although encouraged by the presence of their king, gave way and fled before an enemy already half defeated. The Russian generals ought now to have attacked with their cavalry the disordered infantry of the enemy, which would have completed the defeat, and in all probability given the finishing stroke to the king of Prussia’s affairs. This opportunity, however, they lost. But the king was not so negligent. By a very rapid and masterly movement, he brought all the cavalry of his right wing to the centre, and falling upon the Russian infantry, uncovered by their cavalry, and even disordered by their own success, drove them back with horrible slaughter, at the same time that the repulsed battalions of infantry, returning to the charge, decided the victory. The Russians were now thrown into the most dreadful confusion. The wind blew the dust and smoke into their faces, so that, unable to distinguish friends from foes, they fired on each other, plundered their own baggage, which had been placed between the lines, and intoxicated themselves with brandy; the ranks fell in upon one another, and being thus crammed together into a narrow space, the fire of the Prussians produced dreadful effect, whilst their enemies kept up only a scattered and ineffectual discharge. Yet even in this dismal situation the Russians did not fly, but suffered themselves to be slaughtered till seven in the evening, when their generals having caused an attack to be made on the Prussian right wing, the attention of the enemy was drawn to that quarter, and they had thus time to retire a little from the field of battle to recover their order. In this engagement the Russians lost twenty-one thousand five hundred and twenty-nine men, whilst that of the Prussians did not exceed two thousand.

A vast train of artillery was taken, together with the military chest, and many officers of high rank. The consequence was, that the Russian army retreated as far as Landsperg, on the frontiers of Poland, and the king was left at liberty to march with his usual expedition to the relief of Prince Henry in Saxony.

The prince was at this time severely pressed by Mar shal Daun. As soon as the king had left Bohemia in the manner already related, Daun, considering it of no use to follow him, resolved to turn his arms against Saxony. Towards that country, therefore, he marched through Lusatia, by Zittau, Gorlitz, and Bautzen. On the 3d of September he invested the strong fortress of Sonnestein, which unaccountably surrendered, after a single day’s-resistance, to one of his generals, named Macguire. He then directed his movement so as to favour the operations of General Laudon, who had advanced through Lower Lusatia to the confines of Brandenburg; and, by drawing the attention of the Prussian forces which had been left in Silesia to the northward of that duchy, he facilitated the progress of Generals Karsch and Deville in the southern parts. He then proposed that Prince Henry should be attacked by the army of the Circles, whilst that of the Austrians should pass the Elbe, and, falling at the same time on the Prussians, second the attack of the imperialists, and cut off the retreat of their enemies from Dresden. The sudden appearance of the king of Prussia, however, put an end to his plan. General Laudon abandoned all his conquests in Lower Lusatia, and retired towards Daun, whilst that general himself retired from the neighbourhood of Dresden as far as Zittau. The army of the empire kept its ground in the strong position at Pirna, formerly mentioned, but did riot undertake any thing. As for the Swedes, who had directed their movements by those of the Russians, they no sooner heard of the victory of Zorndoff than they retreated with much more expedition than they had advanced.

The affairs of the king of Prussia seemed to be thus pretty well retrieved, when, by an unfortunate oversight, he was brought to the verge of ruin. Marshal Daun had taken up an advantageous position at Stolpen, by which he preserved a communication with the army of the empire. On the other hand, the king of Prussia, having taken possession of an important post at Bautzen, extended his right wing to the village of Hohenkirchen, by which he preserved a communication with Prince Henry, protected Brandenburg, and had the power, if necessary, of throwing succours into Silesia. The two armies kept a watchful eye on each other’s movements; and as the principal aim of Daun was to cut off the king’s communication with Silesia, and that of the king to intercept Daun’s communication with Bohemia, a battle seemed inevitable. In this posture of affairs the Austrian general formed a design of attacking the Prussian camp in the night; and in point of fact he succeeded, under cover of the darkness, prolonged by a thick mist, in surprising his usually vigilant enemy, who obviously never contemplated such an enterprise on the part of his opponent. Soon after midnight, the Austrian army began its march in three columns towards the camp of the king of Prussia. The night was exceedingly dark, and they had a considerable way to march; yet all the columns arrived simultaneously, without being discovered, or the least confusion having occurred; and at five in the morning they began a regular and well-conducted attack upon one extremity of the Prussian line, which was at the same time taken in reverse by the Austrian left wing formed en potence. Nothing could withstand the sudden attack thus made. The battalions, as they hastily formed, were swept away by the overwhelming fire of the Austrians; the Prussians were thrown into confusion; and Marshal Keith, one of their best generals, having received two musket-balls, fell dead on the spot.^[3. Frederick’s position was not good, and of this he was made fully aware. Two days before the battle, Marshal Keith said to him. “Si les Autrichiens nous laissent dans ce camp, ils méritent d’etre pendus.” The king, smiling at the observation, replied, “Il faut espérer que Daun aura plus peur de nous que de la corde.” This anecdote is eminently characteristic. ’The king relied on the resources of his genius, and if light, which the ancient hero prayed for when beset by his enemies, had been vouchsafed to Frederick, Daun would never have gathered the bloody and bootless laurels of Hohenkirchen. ] Prince Francis of Brunswick had his head shot oft' by a cannon-ball as he was mounting his horse; and everything seemed to [7:18:677] announce the total destruction of the army. Still, however, the king preserved his wonderful presence of mind, which indeed never forsook him, even on the most trying occasion. He ordered some detachments from his left wing to support the right; but the moment that these orders were received, the left itself was furiously attacked. General Ketzow, who commanded in that quarter, repulsed the Austrians with difficulty, but was not able to afford any considerable assistance to the right, which alone was obliged to sustain the weight of the principal attack. The Austrians, in the beginning of the engagement, had driven the Prussians out of the village of Hohenkirchen; and as the fate of the day depended upon the possession of that post, no effort was spared to recover it. The Prussians made three bloody and unsuccessful attacks on the village; in the fourth they carried it; but the Austrians continually pouring in fresh troops, they were at last - driven out with great slaughter. The king then ordered a retreat, which was conducted in good order, without being pursued; nevertheless, this bloody action cost him seven thousand men, together with a great number of cannon. The Austrians computed their own loss at five thousand.

His Prussian majesty, having thus happily escaped such imminent danger, took every possible measure to prevent the enemy from gaining any considerable advantage from his defeat.^[4. When Frederick had retired to the camp of Doberschutz, he said to his generals, “Daun nous a laissé sortir de l’échiquier; la partie n'est pas perdue; nous nous reposerons ici, et nous .marcherons ensuite en Silésie pour délivrer Neiss.” This saliy betrays a mind independent of and superior to events. A king who, situated as Frederick then’was, preserves coolness enough to compare his operations to a party at chess, the field of desolation which he had just quitted to a chess-board, and his whole existence to the turn of a game, is capable of performing the greatest actions in war. It is such men that triumph over fortune. He had been surprised under circumstances most favourable to the assailant, all of whose movements were completely concealed till the last moment by a dense fog; the extremity of his line had been attacked, and almost at the same instant taken in reverse, by the main body of the Austrian army; yet, in spite of these fearful odds, he maintained the contest for hours with nearly balanced chances, and inflicted such a severe loss on the enemy as deprived him not only of the ability to pursue, but also of the fruits which he might have expected to reap from his victory. ] Perceiving that the only advantage which they wished to derive from it was to cover the operations of their armies in Silesia, and that he had now nothing to fear on the side of Saxony, he reinforced his own army from that of his brother Prince Henry, and hastened into Silesia to raise the siege of Neiss, which had been completely invested on .the 4th of October. On the 24th of that month, therefore, he quitted his camp, and by a circuitous route, to avoid obstruction from the enemy, arrived in the plains of Gorlitz. A body of the Austrians had in vain attempted to secure this post before him, and some who arrived after him were defeated with the loss of eight hundred men. From this place the king pursued his march with the utmost diligence, but was followed by Laudon at the head of twenty-four thousand men, who constantly hung upon his rear, and harassed his army. The king, however, knowing the importance of his expedition, continued his march without interruption, and suffered his antagonist to obtain some trifling advantages without molestation. Daun, however, not content with the opposition given by Laudon, sent a large body of horse and foot by another route to reinforce Karsch and Deville, who had formed, the siege of Neiss and the blockade of Cosel, whilst he himself passed the Elbe, and advanced towards Dresden.

All these precautions, however, were of little avail. Ge*∙ nerals Karsch and Deville, notwithstanding their reinforcement, no sooner heard of the king’s approach than they raised the siege of both places, and retired, leaving behind them a considerable quantity of military stores. The object of the march being thus accomplished, the king instantly returned, and hastened to the relief of Saxony, the capital of which was in great danger from Marshal Daun. The place was but indifferently fortified, and garrisoned .only by twelve thousand men; so that it could not hold out long against a numerous and well-appointed army. It was besides commanded by a large suburb, of which, if once the enemy got possession, all defence of the city would then be vain. For this reason Sehmettau, the Prussian governor, determined to set these suburbs on fire, which was, actually done on the 10th of November, to the incredible loss of the inhabitants, as in the suburbs were carried on most of those valuable manufactures which render the city of Dresden remarkable. This disappointed the designs of Daun; but, though the act was conformable to the laws of war, and had been executed with all the caution and humanity possible, yet the Austrians exclaimed against it, as a piece of the most unprovoked and barbarous cruelty recorded in history.

After the king of Prussia had approached Dresden, all the Austrian armies retired into Bohemia, where they took up their winter quarters, as did also the king of Prussia in Saxony. This unhappy country he said he would now consider as his own by right of conquest. .But instead of treating the conquered people as his lawful subjects, he oppressed them in all possible ways, by levying the most severe and exorbitant contributions, surrounding the exchange with soldiers, and confining the merchants innarrow lodgings on straw beds, till they drew upon their correspondents for such sums as he wanted.

As early as the 23d of February 1759 the Prussians commenced military operations. General Wobersow marched with a body of troops into Poland, where he destroyed several large magazines belonging to the Russians, and returned into Silesia, without any loss, on the 18th of April. In the mean time, by certain movements on the part of the king, the greater part of the Austrian troops had been drawn towards the frontiers of Silesia. Prince Henry immediately took advantage of this opening, and on the 15th of April entered Bohemia with his army divided into two columns. One, commanded by himself, marched towards Peterswalde; the other, under General Hülsen, passed by the towns of Pasberg and Kommotau. That commanded by Prince Henry himself penetrated as far as Loboschutz and Leitmeritz; the enemy flying everywhere before them, and burning or abandoning the vast magazines which they had amassed. The division under General Hulsefi had more active employment. A strong pass at Pasberg was defended by a considerable body of Austrians. General Hulsch, having conducted his cavalry by another road, so ’as' to fall directly upon their rear, attacked them in front with his infantry, drove them out of their intrenehments, and totally defeated them with the loss of a great number killed, and two thousand taken prisoners, whilst that of the Prussians did not exceed seventy in killed and wounded. ' After this exploit they returned into Saxony, with hostages for the contributions which they had freely exacted during the course of their expedition.

Some other successes obtained by Prince Henry cleared Franconia of∙the enemy; but the approach of the Russians seemed once more to bring the affairs of the king of Prussia to a crisis. Notwithstanding the destruction of their magazines, they had continued to advance into Silesia, where they were opposed by Count Dohna; but as the troops he had under him were far inferior to the enemy, he found it impossible to do more, at least with any appearance of success, than to observe their motions and harass them on their march. This was so displeasing to the [7:18:678] king, that he disgraced this general, and appointed Wedel to succeed him, with orders to attack the Russians at all events. To enable Wedel, however, to comply with his desperate order, he sent him some reinforcements, which increased his army to about thirty thousand men. With these, on the 23d of July 1759, Wedel attacked seventy thousand Russians posted in the most advantageous manner at Zulichau, and defended by a numerous artillery. Though the Prussians marched on to almost certain defeat, they sustained the attack for a long time with unparalleled reSolution. At last, however, they gave way, and were obliged to retire with the loss of four thousand seven hundred killed or taken prisoners, and three thousand wounded.

The consequences of this victory were, that the Russians penetrated into the Prussian territories, and took possession of the towns of Crossen and Francfort on the Oder, which rendered it absolutely necessary for the king to go in person to oppose them. Accordingly, on the 4th of August he joined Wedel with a considerable body of forces, having left the greater part of his army in Saxony under Prince Henry. But as Marshal Dann had sent to the assistance of the Russians under Soltikof a body of twelve thousand horse and eight thousand foot under General Laudon, the king still found himself unable to fight them, since with this and some other reinforcements their army now amounted to upwards of ninety thousand men. He therefore recalled General Finck, whom he had sent into Saxony with nine thousand men; but with all his reinforcements lie found it impossible to augment his army to little more than forty thousand men of all arms. His situation, however, was now so critical that a battle had become inevitable; and therefore, on the 12th of August, with this inferior force, the king attacked, his enemies, strongly intrenched, and defended by a prodigious number of cannon.

In this action his principal effort was directed against the left wing of the Russian army. He began the attack, according to custom, with a heavy cannonade; and having produced the desired effect, he then assailed the left wing with several battalions disposed in columns. The Russian intrenchments were forced with great slaughter, and seventy-two pieces of cannon were taken. But still there was a defile to be passed, and several redoubts which covered the village of Kunersdorf remained to be carried. These were attacked with the same resolution, and one after another taken. The enemy made another stand at the village, and endeavoured to preserve their ground there by pushing forward several battalions of horse and foot; but this also proved unsuccessful, and they were driven from post to post quite to the last redoubts. For upwards of six hours the Prussians were successful, and everywhere broke the enemy with prodigious slaughter; they drove them from almost all the positions they had occupied before the battle, took more than half their artillery, and scarcely anything seemed wanting to render the victory complete. In these circumstances, the king wrote the following billet to the queen: “Madam, we have beaten the Russians from their intrenchments. In two hours expect to hear of a glorious victory.” But at this very instant victory abandoned the Prussian standards. The enemy, defeated in almost every quarter, found their left wing, shattered as it was, more entire than any other part of their line. Soltikof, the Russian general, immediately assembled the remains of his right wing, and collecting as many as he could from his centre, reinforced the left, and made a stand at a redoubt which had been erected on an advantageous eminence in a cemetery. All the king’s generals are said to have been of opinion that he ought to allow the Russians to retain peaceable possession of this post. Their army had already suffered so much, that it would have been impossible for them to attempt any enterprise of consequence after the battle; besides, their artillery was still numerous., the post was very strong, and the Prussian troops were greatly fatigued. These reasons for a few moments weighed with the king; but the natural impetuosity of his temper getting the better of his reason, he led on his wearied troops to renew the combat.

Within the limits to which we are restricted, it is impossible to give any adequate military details of this terrible battle. Suffice it to state, that, wherever the storm of the conflict raged most fiercely, there was the king haranguing the troops, leading in person the battalions to the charge, and exposing himself with all the hardihood of the merest soldier of fortune. The carnage was truly horrible, the combatants mutually discharging showers of grape at the distance of fifty paces, and musketry even closer. The battle had already lasted six hours with inconceivable obstinacy; the Prussians were harassed, and scarcely in a condition to sustain themselves; whilst sixteen thousand men killed or wounded attested their courageous efforts, but deprived them of the means of maintaining the conflict. At this moment some Austrian squadrons charged the right flank of Finck’s division; the king, in attempting to cover the retreat, received a contusion, and two battalions were taken behind him. The disorder now became dreadful, and the total destruction of the army was only prevented by that extraordinary presence of mind which had never for a moment failed him, even in the midst of this terrible conflict. Such was the memorable and sanguinary day of Kunersdorf, on, which the Prussians lost half their number in killed and wounded, besides a hundred and sixty-five pieces of cannon, abandoned in the battle and the retreat. The loss of the enemy in killed and wounded amounted to sixteen thousand Russians, and three thousand Austrians. Soltikof, in writing to the empress an account of the battle, dryly observed, that “if he gained another such victory, he would himself be obliged to carry the tidings on foot, with a staff in his hand.” The king, when he found the victory totally lost, is said to have sent another billet to the queen, expressed in the following manner: “Remove from Berlin with the royal family; let the archives be carried to Potsdam; the town may make conditions with the enemy.”

Immediately after this defeat, the king set himself about repairing his losses vzith the utmost diligence; and in a few <lays everything was again put in order in his camp. He replaced his artillery from Berlin; recalled General Kleist with five thousand men from Pomerania; detached six thousand from his own army to the defence of Saxony; and with the remainder threw himself between the Russians and Great Glogau, covering that city, which had been the chief object of their designs. In a word, notwithstanding their victory, he obliged the Russians to return to Poland without accomplishing any thing besides the barren victory of Kunersdorft', purchased at so fearful an expenditure of human life.

The misfortunes of the Prussian monarch, however, were not at an end. Prince Henry, indeed, by a most extraordinary and well-conducted march, entered Saxony, which had been totally overrun by the armies of the enemy; and strong detachments having been sent into that country under Generals Finck and Wunsch, the whole except Dresden was in a short time recovered. Towards this place Marshal Daun retired, and in all probability he would soon have been obliged to quit Saxony, had Frederick been content with attaining this object. But the king’s impatience could not be satisfied without cutting off Daun’s retreat, and forcing him to a battle; and for this purpose he sent General Finck, with upwards of twelve thousand men according to the Prussian account, but with twenty thousand according to that of the Austrians, to seize some passes through which alone Daun could make his way towards Bohemia. This commission was executed with the greatest exactness; but the Prussian general, having probably advanced too far into these defiles, and neglected to preserve his communications [7:18:679]with the main army, gave the enemy an opportunity of surrounding him, and at last forcing him and his whole army to surrender prisoners of war. Nor was it long before this disaster was followed by another. General Durceke occupied a position on the right bank of the Elbe, opposite to Meissen; and on the approach of a large body of Austrians he prepared to retreat across the river, into a place where he hoped to be more secure; but having been obliged by a hard frost to withdraw the bridge of boats, a thaw supervened, and when the Prussians were attempting to lay a bridge of pontoons, their rear-guard was attacked with great fury by the Austrians, and the whole either killed or taken. The loss of the Prussians on this occasion was computed at nearly three thousand men.

The year 1760 showed the Prussian monarch in a more dangerous situation than he had ever before stood. His affairs, indeed, seemed to be altogether desperate. His losses were not to be measured by the number of the killed or prisoners, but by armies destroyed or taken. Forty generals had died or been slain in his service since the beginning of October 1756, exclusive of those who were wounded or taken prisoners. This of itself would have been an irreparable loss, had not the very wars which destroyed these men furnished others equally capable of filling their places. But another deficiency, which could not be remedied, still remained. The king, by his indefatigable industry and exertions, had supplied all the deficiencies of men in his armies; but they were not the same men as before. The hardy veterans, with whom he had originally taken the field, were now no more, and their places were supplied by others who had neither the same experience nor the same discipline; so that he was obliged to supply the deficiency by his own genius and heroism.

But whatever abilities the Prussian monarch might possess, and he undoubtedly exerted them to the utmost, it seemed only to be contending against fate. His enemies gained over him still greater and greater advantages. General Laudon, with whom none but the king himself seems to have been able to cope, by a series of artful movements drew Fouquet, one of the Prussian generals, who commanded a strong body of forces, into a disadvantageous situation near Landshut. Perceiving it impossible for the Prussians to escape, Laudon then attacked their intrenchments on the night of the 23d of June. The Prussians made a gallant defence, but at last were all either killed or taken prisoners, except about three hundred. Of the Prussians four thousand were killed, and seven thousand taken prisoners; fifty-eight pieces of cannon, and a great number of colours, were also lost. The victory, however, was dearly bought; for the Austrians lost in killed and wounded above twelve thousand men, whom, however, they could better∙ spare than the Prussians, on account of their great superiority of numbers.

Laudon failed not to improve this victory to the utmost. He instantly turned back from Landshut, and fell upon the city of Glatz, which he took in a very short time, with the garrison who defended it, consisting of two thousand men. In this place were found a hundred and one pieces of brass cannon, with immense quantities of provisions and military stores. From thence he marched against Breslau, and immediately invested it. But, in the mean while, the king of Prussia, whose motions had been all this time counteracted by Marshal Daun in Saxony, marched with his usual rapidity towards Silesia. By this means he drew Daun out of Saxony; and indeed the Austrian general used such expedition that he gained two days’ march on the king. This was no sooner known to his Prussian majesty than he returned with the same expedition as he had advanced, and sat down before Dresden.

Daun soon received intelligence of the king’s retrograde movement, and also returned. In the mean time, however, the buildings of the city were terribly shattered by the king’s cannon and bombs, which continually played on it. But his endeavours to reduce it before the arrival of Daun proved ineffectual. The siege had been begun on the 13th of July, and on the 19th Daun appeared within a league of Dresden. The Prussians then redoubled their efforts. They had that day received reinforcements of heavy cannon and mortars, with which they battered the place incessantly. The cathedral church, several principal streets, some palaces, and the noble manufactory of porcelain, were entirely destroyed. The siege was continued till the 22d; but on the night of the 21 st Daun had thrown sixteen battalions into the city, which rendered it impossible for the king to continue longer before it with any prospect of success. He therefore raised the siege, and retired without molestation, though there were three considerable armies of the enemy in the neighbourhood. Breslau was fiercely bombarded by Laudon; but the approach of Prince Henry obliged him to desist from his enterprise on the 5th of August.

Meanwhile the fortune of the king seemed likely to be terminated by one fatal stroke. Finding it impossible for him to carry on a defensive war, he marched towards Silesia with such astonishing rapidity, that before the middle of August he had advanced two hundred miles, leaving Marshal Daun with his army far behind him. The object he had in view by using such expedition was to engage Laudon before he could have time to effect a junction with Daun, and Lascy, another Austrian general; a union which seemed to threaten him with unavoidable destruction. This, however, he found it impossible to prevent; and the three armies, when united, formed a tremendous line of encampments, extending.no less than thirty English miles, at the same time that every one of their posts was strong, and the communication between them easy. The king was strongly encamped at Leignitz, and for several days employed all his military skill in attempting to induce one of the bodies to detach itself from the rest, or to attack them at some disadvantage; but without the least effect.

At last the Austrian generals, having maturely weighed all circumstances, resolved to attack the king’s camp itself, strong as it was; and Marshal Daun, remembering the advantage he had gained at Hohenkirchen by an attack in the night-time, resolved to follow a similar plan on the present occasion. The whole army, as soon as it became dark, were to march from their several stations to such positions as were marked out for each corps; they were to strike their tents, but still to keep up the fires in their camps, and to cause the drums to beat the tattoo as usual, by which means they hopedto surprise the enemy; and, even if they failed in this, they judged it impossible for him to escape them, should he be ever so much on his guard. The king, having completed his dispositions for the night, had seated himself and begun to doze near a bivouac fire, when Major Hund, who, with five squadrons of Zeithen’s hussars, had been sent in reconnoissance as far as Polschildern, returned at full speed, calling out, “Where is the king? Where is the king ?” Frederick having demanded what was the matter, the major said, with an animated air, “Sire, the enemy is there? pointing in the direction; “he has repulsed my videttes, and is not more than four hundred paces from this.” The king having ordered this officer to retard as much as possible the advance of the Austrians, proceeded to issue orders, and make dispositions for defeating the design of the enemy. He indicated to General Schenkendorf, who commanded the brigade of the extreme left, an eminence situated near Bino-witz, on which he was to form; he gave orders to the second line to prolong itself to the left, to prevent the enemy from attacking the army in flank; and he immediately brought to the front several regiments of cavalry, in order to gain the time necessary for the execution of all these dispositions.
[7:18:680]

General Schenkenderf marched immediately by the left flank, gained the hill, and there established a battery of ten twelvepounders, at the moment when the Austrians were about to occupy the position. The latter, in fact, were so near, that the Prussians opened on them a heavy fire of grape, which caused great havock in the columns, while attempting to form, but unable to do so. As soon as the Prussian army was drawn up, Frederick divided it, leaving his right on the ground where it had been formed, to observe Marshal Daun, and to maintain their post; whilst with his left he turned in order to fall upon the corps under General Laudon. In the mean time, that commander, ignorant of the fate which was awaiting him, advanced with the utmost expedition towards the place which had been assigned him, in order to share in the glory of destroying the Prussian monarch; when, at three in the morning, on the 15th of August, a thick fog which covered the ground suddenly clearing up, discovered, like the opening of a mighty scene, the front of the Prussian army regularly drawn up in order of battle, and advantageously posted. Laudon, though surprised, made the best dispositions that circumstances would admit of, and an obstinate engagement ensued. After five successive attacks, executed by the Prussians, against as many different lines, he at length resolved to yield them the field of battle. It was not quite five in the morning when the battle was decided. It cost the Austrians more than ten thousand men, of whom six thousand were prisoners, and eighty-six pieces of cannon; but the loss of the Prussians did not exceed two thousand men, because all the advantages were clearly on their side.

The king did not venture to pursue Laudon, conceiving that he would require his victorious troops to support his right wing against Daun, and even Lascy. Conformably to his plan, and in order to attack by day-break the right of the camp at Leignitz, the marshal had in the evening of the 14th marched in six columns, intending to approach as far as the Katzbach. A detachment of partisans passed the river at eleven o’clock at night, to dislodge the Prussians from a village which they had occupied on the other bank, but which the enemy’s troops were astonished to find they had abandoned. Dann was not apprised of this circumstance until two in the morning, when he gave orders that the army should immediately pass the Katzbach; but this operation, retarded by the darkness, the construction of bridges, and the false direction given to some of the columns, was not effected until five in the morning, when it was no longer time to support Laudon, who had already sustained a defeat. The marshal having learned the fate of his colleague, and observing the firm countenance maintained by the victorious Prussians, retired to his original position between Neudorf and Cosendau.

The victory of Leignitz, though complete, gave but a partial relief to the king of Prussia. The most essential service it did was the preventing the Russians from joining those enemies which he already had before him. Count Czer-nichef had been advancing with twenty-four thousand men, and had even passed the Oder; but he was so intimidated by the result of this battle, that he instantly repassed that river, even although Daun had sent him a strong body of troops in order to encourage him to advance. Soon after this battle, the king joined his brother Prince Henry, and marching against Daun, who had begun to form the blockade of Schweidnitz, fell upon a corps under General Beck, made two battalions of Croats prisoners, and dispersed the remainder, which obliged the enemy to abandon the enterprise they had just undertaken. About the same time, General Hulsen gained a considerable advantage over the imperial army in Saxony, with very trifling loss on his part; by which he effectually prevented them from cutting off his communications with Torgau.

By these successes the affairs of his Prussian majesty seemed to revive; but his enemies were still formidable and menacing. The recent manoeuvres had drawn him so far into Silesia, that his communication with Brandenburg was almost wholly intercepted. The Russian army, which, after it had repassed the Order, began to quit Silesia, sent forward a powerful detachment under Count Czemichef towards the March of Brandenburg. A body of fifteen thousand Austrians, under the generals Lascy and Brentano, and the united body of Austrians and imperialists which acted in Saxony, began their march in concert with the Russians, and proposed to unite at the gates of Berlin. These armies amounted to forty thousand men. To oppose this formidable force, General Hülsen called to his assistance General Werner, who had been detached with a body of troops to Pomerania; but, after being joined by him, their united forces were found not to exceed fifteen or sixteen thousand men. To attempt a defence of the capital with this force would have been little short of madness. These commanders were therefore obliged to leave Berlin to its fate, which, indeed, considering the barbarity of the Russians and the animosity of the Austrians, seemed to be a dreadful one. However, by the powerful mediation of several foreign ministers, the town obtained terms which were not altogether intolerable; but the magazines, arsenals, and founderies were destroyed, and an immense quantity of military stores was seized, with a number of cannon and other arms. The city was first obliged to pay eight hundred thousand guilders, after which a contribution of one million nine hundred thousand crowns was imposed; yet, notwithstanding this, many acts of violence were committed, and the king’s palace was plundered, the furniture being abused in a scandalous manner.

The combined armies remained only four days in Berlin. Dreading the vengeance of the king of Prussia, who was rapidly advancing, they deemed it prudent to make their stay as short as possible. But so great were the embarrassments which now beset that monarch, that it seemed almost beyond human power to retrieve his affairs. The imperialists, on their return from Berlin, having no army to oppose them, made themselves masters of Leipzig, Torgau, Meissen, and Wirtemberg, in which last city they found the grand magazine of the Prussian army. Stainville also, at the head of a detachment from the French army, laid both the city and duchy of Halberstadt under contribution. In Eastern Pomerania, the Russians had besieged Colberg both by land and by sea. In Western Pomerania, the Swedes advanced with the greatest celerity, hoping to share in the plunder of Berlin., In Silesia, the king no sooner began his march to the northward, than Laudon advanced, and laid siege to the important fortress of Cosel; and, to complete his distress and embarrassment, the king himself was attended at every step by Daun with a superior army, prepared to take every advantage.

In this situation the king, being joined by Hülsen and the Prince of Wirtemberg, with the corps under their command, advanced along the Elbe, whilst Daun fell back in order to cover Leipzig and Torgau; but the latter finding that the Prussians directed their march towards the Elbe, encamped within reach of Torgau, one part of his army extending to the Elbe, by which he was protected on one side, whilst on the other he was covered by hills and woods, thus occupying a most advantageous position. The Prussian army did not amount to fifty thousand men, whilst that of the Austrians exceeded eighty-six thousand; yet such were the unfortunate circumstances of the king, that he was obliged to fight under all these disadvantages. He therefore caused his army to be informed that he was now to lead them to a most desperate attempt, that his affairs required it, and that he was determined to conquer or die. His soldiers unanimously declared that they would die with him.

The 3d of November 1760 was the day upon which this important action was fought. The king divided his forces [7:18:681]into three columns. General Hulsen was directed to take post with one in a wood which lay on the left of the Austrian army, with instructions not to move until he found the rest of the Prussians engaged; General Zeithen was to charge with the right; and the grand attack in front was to be conducted by the king in person. His forces were disposed in such a manner that either his right or left wing could take the enemy in rear and reverse, so as to disable them from undertaking any thing against the part where he intended to direct his principal attack. On the other hand, Marshal Daun, perceiving that the king was serious in his design of fighting, in order to prevent confusion, sent all his baggage across the Elbe, on which he had established three bridges, in the event of a retreat being necessary. The Austrian army then changed front, and passed to the rear, its left being placed on the heights of Zinna, and its right amongst the vines in rear of Siptitz; the reserve was stationed near Groswig, the division of the grenadiers of the left wing at Weidenhain, and that of the grenadiers and carabineers of the right in rear of Neiden. Lascy retired from Schilda, on Loswig and Torgau; whilst Ried with the light troops took a position on the extreme right towards Mokrena. In this formidable position he was found, when, about two o’clock in the afternoon, the king began the attack. The latter was received by the fire of two hundred pieces of cannon, which were disposed along the Austrian front.. The Prussians were thrice led to the attack; but every time they were repulsed and broken. The king at length commanded a fresh body of cavalry to advance, which at first compelled the Austrians to retire; but as fresh reinforcements continually poured in, this cavalry was in its turn obliged to fall back; and the Prussians maintained themselves with extreme difficulty, until General Zeithen, with the right wing, attacked the enemy in the rear, repulsed them, and took possession of some eminences which commanded the whole Austrian line. Encouraged by this success, the Prussian infantry once more advanced, carried several of the enemy’s intrenchments, and made way for a new attack of the cavalry, which broke in with irresistible fury amongst the Austrians, and threw several bodies of them into irreparable disorder. It was now about nine o’clock, and consequently both armies were involved in darkness; yet the fire continued without intermission, and the battalions with a blind rage discharged at one another, without distinguishing friend from foe. Daun received a dangerous wound in the thigh, and was carried from the field, which probably hastened the defeat of his troops. The command then devolved on Count O’Donnell, who, finding the greater part of his troops in disorder, the night advancing, and the enemy possessed of some eminences which commanded his camp, and whence it was in vain to think of driving them, ordered a retreat, which was conducted in perfect order and dead silence; few were lost in passing the Elbe, and by far the greater part of their artillery was preserved. The loss of the Prussians was estimated at ten thousand in killed and wounded. That of the Austrians in killed and wounded is not known; but eight thousand were made prisoners, along with two hundred and sixteen officers, amongst whom were four generals.

The result of the victory gained at Torgau was, that the king recovered all Saxony except Dresden; whilst General Werner having in the mean time marched into Pomerania, the Russians raised the siege of Colberg, and retired into Poland, without having effected any thing further than wasting the open country. Werner then marched to the assistance of Western Pomerania, where he defeated a body of Swedes, and at last drove them out of the country. Laudon too abruptly raised the blockade of Cosel; and afterwards, abandoning Landshut, he retired into Austrian Silesia, leaving the Prussian portion free from molestation. Daun placed one part of his army in Dresden, and the other in some strong positions which lie to the south and west of the city, by which he commanded the Elbe, and preserved his communications with Bohemia. The army of the empire retired into Franconia, and established its head-quarters at Bamberg.

Though these successes had apparently retrieved in some measure the affairs of the king, yet his strength was in reality nearly exhausted; and in the campaign of 1761 he made no such vigorous efforts as he had formerly done. The Russians, dividing themselves into two bodies, invaded Silesia and Pomerania. In the former country they laid siege to Breslau, and in the latter to Colberg. ∙ Tottleben, who had commanded the Russian armies, was now removed on a suspicion of having corresponded with the king of Prussia, and General Romanzof appointed in his stead; a measure which, it was expected, would render the Russian operations this year more vigorous and consistent than they had ever yet been.

The king continued strongly encamped near Schweidnitz, where he was so closely watched by Daun and Laudon that he could not attempt anything. However, he defeated the designs of the Russians against Breslau, by sending General Platen to destroy their magazines; which the latter accomplished with great success, at the same time cutting off a body of four thousand of their troops. But this only brought the more certain destruction upon Colberg, against which the body of the Russian army immediately marched, cruelly wasting the country as they advanced. The king of Prussia was unable to do any thing but send small detachments, which, although they could not oppose their enemies in the field, yet, he hoped, by cutting off their convoys, might distress them to such a degree as to oblige them to abandon the siege, or at least protract it till the severity of the winter should render it impossible for them to carry on their operations. He thus weakened his own army so much, that it was found requisite to draw out of Schweidnitz four thousand men to reinforce it; and no sooner had this been done, than Laudon suddenly attacked and took that fortress by a coup-de-main. Colberg made a brave defence; but the troops sent to its relief being totally unable to cope with the Russian army, consisting of fifty thousand men, it was, on the 3d of December, obliged to surrender; and thus the fate of the Prussian monarch, almost every part of whose dominions lay open to the invaders, seemed to be decided.

In the midst of these gloomy appearances, the empress of Russia, the king’s most inveterate and inflexible enemy, died on the 2d of January 1762. ^ She was succeeded by Peter III. who, instead of being the king’s enemy, was his most sanguine friend. As early as the 23d of February, in a memorial delivered to the ministers of the allied courts, he declared that, “in order to the establishment of peace, he was ready to sacrifice all the conquests made in this war by the arms of Russia, in hopes that the allied courts will on their parts equally prefer the restoration of peace and tranquillity, to the advantages which they might expect from the continuance of the war, but which they cannot obtain but by a continuance of the effusion of human blood.” This address was not much relished by the allies. They were very willing to make peace, provided it should prove for their own interest to do so; but they recommended to his attention fidelity to treaties, which constitutes no less valuable a part of the royal character than humanity and disinterestedness. This answer made no impression upon the Czar. A suspension of hostilities took place on the 16th of March, which was followed by a treaty of alliance on the 5th of May. In this treaty the Czar stipulated nothing in favour of his former confederates; on the contrary, he agreed to join his troops to those of the king of Prussia, in order to act against them. Sweden, which had for a long time acted under the direction of Russian councils, now followed[7:18:682] the example of her mistress, and on the 22d of May concluded a peace with Prussia.

It is not to be supposed that the king of Prussia would remain long inactive after such an unexpected turn of fortune in his favour. His arms were now everywhere attended with success. Prince Henry drove the imperialists from some important positions in Saxony, by which he secured all that part which the Prussians had possessed; and though the Austrians frequently attempted to recover the ground thus, lost, they were constantly repulsed with great slaughter. The king was not joined by his new allies· till towards the end of June; after which he drove Daun before him to the extremity of Silesia, leaving the town of Schweidnitz entirely uncovered, and which the king immediately prepared to invest. In the mean time, different detachments of Prussians, some on the side of Saxony, and others on that of Silesia, penetrated into Bohemia, laid many parts of the country under contribution, and spread universal alarm. A considerable body of Russian irregulars also made an irruption into Bohemia, where they practised on the Austrians the same cruelties which they had long been accustomed to exercise on the Prussians.

But whilst the king was thus making the best use of his time, he was all at once threatened with a fatal reverse of fortune by a new revolution in Russia. The emperor was deposed, and his deposition was soon afterwards followed by his death. The empress, who succeeded him, suspected that her husband had been misled by the councils of his Prussian majesty, against whom, therefore, she entertained a mortal enmity. In the very beginning of her reign, however, she could not again undertake a war of so much importance as that which had just been concluded. She therefore declared her intention of observing the peace concluded by the late emperor; but she nevertheless resolved to recall her armies from Silesia, Prussia, and Pomerania, which indeed the unsettled state of the kingdom rendered in some degree necessary. At the same time a discovery was made regarding the king of Prussia himself, which turned the scale greatly in his favour. The Russian senate, flaming with resentment against this monarch, as well as against their late unfortunate sovereign, and the empress, full of suspicion that the conduct of the latter might have been influenced by the councils of the former, searched eagerly amongst the papers of the late emperor for an elucidation of this point. Many letters from the Prussian monarch were indeed found, but these were conceived in a strain absolutely different from what had been expected. The king had, as far as prudence would permit, kept a reserve and distance with regard to the rash advances of this unhappy ally; and, in particular, had counselled him to undertake nothing against the empress his consort. The reading of these letters is said to have produced such an effect upon the empress, that she burst into tears, and expressed her gratitude in the warmest terms towards the Prussian monarch. Still, however, the Russian army was ordered to separate from the Prussians; but all the important places which the former had taken during the war were faithfully restored.

The king, finding that the Russians were no more to take an active part in his favour, resolved to profit by their appearance in his camp; and, therefore, the day after the order for their return had arrived, he attacked the Austrian army, drove their right wing from all its positions, and entirely cut off their communication with Schweidnitz, so that nothing could be attempted for its relief. Prince Henry kept them in continual alarms for Bohemia; whilst a great share of their attention, and no small portion of their forces, were engaged on that side. Marshal Daun, now finding himself rendered almost incapable of undertaking any thing, detached Laudon, with a force greatly superior, to attack the Prince of Bevern, and drive him from the advantageous position which he occupied. But the prince defended himself with such resolution, that all the efforts of Landon were baffled before the king could come to the aid of his lieutenant. The Austrians, being then placed between two fires, were routed and pursued with terrible slaughter; after which the king met with no further interruption in his preparation for the siege, and the trenches were opened on the 18th of July. Marshal Daun did not even attempt to relieve the place; but the garrison being very strong, it held out for nearly two months from the date of the opening of the trenches. It is said that the attack was directed, and the defence conducted, by two engineers who had written on the subject of the attack and defence of fortified places; and they were now practically engaged in proving the superiority of their systems. At last, however, the garrison, to the number of eight thousand men, surrendered prisoners of war; and the whole of this body, except nine, were soon after drowned at the mouth of the Oder, on their passage to their intended confinement in Königsberg.

The king of Prussia, having thus become master of Schweidnitz, turned his attention towards Saxony, where he reinforced his brother’s army, and made preparations for laying siege to Dresden. In this country the Austrians had lately met with some success, and driven back Prince Henry as far as Freyberg; but on the 29th of October they were attacked by the Prussian army thus reinforced, and totally discomfited. After various tactical combinations, of no great importance, a simultaneous attack made by three Prussian divisions, in which they were ably supported by the cavalry, decided the fortune of the day. The loss of the imperial army amounted to four thousand prisoners, and about three thousand men //ors de combat; that of the Prussians did not exceed fifteen hundred men of all arms, and they signalized their gallant achievement by the capture of twenty-eight pieces of cannon and nine standards. This affair does them the more honour that they had in the field only twenty-nine battalions and sixty squadrons, or scarcely eighteen thousand men, whilst the enemy had forty-nine battalions and sixty-eight squadrons, or more than twenty-six thousand men. The victory of Freyberg proved decisive. The empress-queen, finding herself deserted by all her allies, was glad to conclude a treaty, upon the principle of mutual restitution and oblivion; and thus, at the end of a bloody war, both parties were content to adopt the status quo ante, and sit down in the same situation in which they respectively stood before a sword had been drawn. This treaty has been called the peace of Hubertsburg.

The war was no sooner terminated than the king of Prussia turned his attention to domestic policy, and the recovery of his dominions from those innumerable calamities which had befallen them during the contest. He immediately distributed lands to his disbanded soldiers, and gave them the horses of his artillery to assist them in their cultivation. By his wise and prudent management, the horrors of war were soon forgotten; and the country ere long became as flonrishing as ever. But notwithstanding this pacific disposition, the king never slackened his endeavours for the defence of his states, but kept on foot a respectable army, which might be able to act with promptitude on any emergency.

In the year 1778, a new difference arose with the house of Austria, concerning the duchy of Bavaria. But though great warlike preparations were made upon both sides, and immense armies brought into the field, nothing of consequence was effected. Any little advantage obtained seems to have been on the side of the Prussians, who made themselves masters of several towns, and carried on the war in the enemy’s country. However, the emperor acted with so much caution, and showed so much skill in defensive tactics, that all the manoeuvres of his Prussian majesty could gain no material advantage; whilst, on the other hand, [7:18:683]Frederick was too wise to venture an engagement. A peace therefore was soon concluded; and since that time the history of Prussia, during the remainder of this great king’s reign, affords no remarkable event which has not been mentioned in other parts of the present work. (See particularly the article Poland.)

A few general remarks, however, may not be deemed altogether out of place in concluding this imperfect sketch of the military career of Frederick. He was undoubtedly a great captain, and to him belongs the high merit of having demonstrated how much success in war depends upon scientific combinations, executed with corresponding celerity and precision. But still be is not entitled to rank with the greatest masters of the art; and, compared with Napoleon, he was as much surpassed by the latter in all the higher attributes of a great commander as he excelled the captains of his own time. He was opposed to generals far inferior to those with whom Napoleon had for the most part to contend; and his tactics were frequently arranged upon the knowledge he possessed of their respective characters, rather than in conformity to the established principles of the art. Nor did he possess the invaluable secret, which Napoleon first revealed to the world in his Italian campaigns, of promptly following up his successes, and gathering in the fruits of victory, before the enemy could have time to recover from the shock of defeat. This, which is the last and highest endowment of a great general, was reserved for his immortal successor, whose campaigns afford ample and instructive examples of all that is most finished, not only in grand military combinations, but also in the still more difficult and important art of deriving from them every result which they seemed calculated to afford. Upon every occasion, however, the personal character and conduct of Frederick in the field stamped him the hero of the age in which he lived, and cannot but be viewed with admiration by every succeeding one. I lis presence of mind was almost supernatural; nothing could shake, nothing could for a moment disturb, the cool and steady composure with which he regarded the most frightful scenes of war. Amidst the perils of surprise at Hohenkirchen, when the fog rendered the enemy perceptible only by the murderous fire they were pouring amongst his battalions; as well as when destruction and ruin stared him in the face at Kunersdorf, where the men lay dead or dying around him in sections, and the carnage appalled even his most, veteran officers; he remained as collected and steady as at a review at Potsdam, cheering and animating the troops by his voice and example, rallying them when broken or driven back, and leading them back to the charge with a standard in his hand. In a word, he was greater in defeat than in victory; and it is as much, perhaps, to his personal conduct in the field, as to his superior tactics and the natural bravery of his troops, that his principal successes are to be ascribed.

But Frederick was not continually engaged in war. He enjoyed many intervals of tranquillity, many years of profound repose. Nor did he waste these in the unworthy indulgence of luxurious ease or sensual gratification. On the contrary, every moment of his time was spent in promoting the interests and the welfare of his subjects. He occupied himself in adopting measures for promoting the advancement of agriculture and manufactures, commerce, literature, and the arts; he founded academies and seminaries of learning; he invited learned men from every country in Europe to settle in his dominions; he cleared waste lands, constructed canals, rebuilt and repaired the cities that had been dilapidated by the enemy, rewarded men of merit in every department of enterprise; in a word, he spared no labour or expense in promoting the internal improvement of his kingdom. One of his chief objects was a reform in the courts of justice, and this he effected, as far at least as regards the delay and expense of legal proceedings, the great evils that obstruct or rather defeat the administration of justice. Nor can it be doubted that the Code Frederick, published in 1746, and afterwards adopted throughout the Prussian dominions, if regarded as the result of one reign and the wisdom of one individual, is entitled to the hearty applause and commendation of every legal reformer. But unfortunately the soldier was uppermost in everything. The learned men whom he invited from other countries were treated by him rather as a regiment of soldiers than a body of philosophers; and even in matters of taste and literature he sought to introduce a sort of military regulation. The army was naturally enough his favourite object of attention, and in seeking to improve it he carried discipline amongst the troops to a degree of severity unknown in Europe until his time, and which subsequent experience has rendered it necessary to relax, or at. least to simplify greatly in its more oppressive details. Nor, amidst all his avocations, did he lay aside his early attachment to letters and to study. To this pursuit he, in times of peace, devoted a portion of every day; and he is the author of various works which the influence of his high rank and famè was not necessary to introduce to the notice of the world.^[5. The principal works of Frederick the Great are, 1. Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg; 2. Memoirs of his own Time, from the year 1740 to the Peace of Dresden; and 3. a History of the Seven Years’ War. His poem on the Art of War, at first publish, ed separately, was afterwards reprinted with other poems and epistles in a volume entitled Miscellaneous Works of the Philosopher of Sans Souci. ] The foulest stain on his memory consists in first suggesting, and then participating in, the dismemberment of Poland. Frederick planned the robbery, the Russian monarch executed it, and then the leagued plunderers divided the spoil between them.

Frederick died in 1786, at the age of seventy-five, and was succeeded by his nephew Frederick William II. This prince, on his accession, found the most effectual securities for the preservation of his dominions; the finest army in the world, a people enthusiastically loyal, and a treasury replenished with seven millions sterling. Nor with these advantages was the new king wanting to himself. The predilection of Frederick for the French language and French literature was not grateful to his subjects. The new sovereign began his reign with declaring in council, “Germans we are, and Germans I mean we*shall continue ;” at the same time giving directions that their native language should resume its natural rank and station, from which for nearly half a century it had been degraded by the French. This was a very popular measure, and it was followed by another still more so. Observing that he had marked with great concern the progress of impiety and profaneness on the one hand, and that of blind enthusiasm on the other, he declared that he would not have his subjects corrupted either by fanatics or atheists, and strictly prohibited all publications tending to excite a contempt for or indifference about religion.

On his accession to the throne, this pacific conduct upon the part of the new king endeared him to his subjects, and commanded the approbation of all good men. And an opportunity soon occurred in which he was thought to have: displayed talents in negotiation and military arrangements, which rendered him in every respect a worthy successor of his uncle. The states of Holland, which had long been jealous of the power of the stadtholder, and inclined to a republican government without any permanent chief, had gained such an ascendency in the states-general, that in 1786 and 1787 they in effect divested the Prince of Orange of all his prerogatives. They proceeded even to the seizure and imprisonment of the princess, sister of the king of Prussia; and, depending upon support from France, they treated with [7:18:684]insolence every power connected with them in Europe. The court of Berlin did not witness these proceedings without indignation; and the king formed a plan for restoring the power of the stadtholder, with such secrecy and prudence, that perhaps nothing could surpass it, except, indeed, the facility with which it was carried into execution. In the short space of one month, the Duke of Brunswick led eighteen thousand Prussians to Amsterdam, and restored the ancient prerogatives of the Prince of Orange.

The affairs of Prussia during the early period of the French revolution, and especially the active but unsuccessful part which that monarch took against it, are interwoven with the historical details of that period given in the articles Britain and France, to which the reader is therefore referred. Taking a just view of the true interests of Prussia, he availed himself of the first favourable opportunity to withdraw from the contest with republican France, in which the honour of his arms had suffered abasement; and he died in the year 1797, when his son, Frederick William III., ascended the throne of Prussia.

During the early part of this reign, nothing occurred deserving of commemoration. Besides the most sedulous attention to the discipline of the army, which it was his object to maintain in a state of perfect efficiency, the king occupied himself in promoting the internal improvement of his states; and in this judicious course of policy he persevered until the year 1806, when his own rapacity and perfidy involved him in a war with France, which terminated in the almost total extinction of his kingdom. Seeing the power of the French arms rapidly increasing, and admonished by the stunning blow which the Austrians had received at Austerlitz, he formed an alliance with Napoleon, and even shared in the distribution of the spoil by invading Hanover, which he annexed to his dominions, whilst he shut the northern ports of his kingdom against the British flag. The result of this base proceeding may easily be anticipated. The British minister immediately quitted Berlin, and this was soon followed by a declaration of war on the part of his Britannic majesty. His situation now became embarrassing and critical in the highest degree. Some time befor , e the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon had ascertained, by an intercepted correspondence, that the king of Prussia had been deeply implicated in the counsels of his enemies, and that he fully intended, in the event of the emperor sustaining a reverse in that campaign, to fall upon the rear of the French army, and complete its destruction. But the unparalleled victory of Austerlitz, which at one blow humbled Austria and staggered Russia, rendered his position one of great difficulty and danger. His treachery had been detected by a man who duly appreciated both its character and extent; and henceforward his Prussian majesty found himself treated by Napoleon as little better than a vassal prince, whose rights he disregarded, and whom he intended to punish whenever he should have accomplished the more important enterprise of thoroughly humbling Austria. The eyes of the king were further opened to the precarious nature of his situation by the confederation of the Rhine, which was now instituted, and afforded to France a secure basis of operations in any attack which Napoleon might think proper to direct against Prussia. Had the latter taken a decided part against France before the battle of Austerlitz, the independence of Europe might have been preserved. But after this auspicious moment had been allowed to pass unimproved, every chance of success was lost; and the disasters which followed were no more than might have been foreseen by any person of ordinary observation and sagacity.

In crises of imminent peril, weak minds generally choose the part which most certainly and directly leads to destruction. Early in October 1806, Prussia declared war against France, and in less than a month thereafter the monarchy had ceased to exist. Napoleon, having foreseen this step on the part of the enemy, was fully prepared to meet it. By a most rapid and skilful march on the Saale, he threw himself upon the communications of the Prussian army under the Duke of Brunswick; and this decisive movement, one of the most masterly in the whole history of war, led to the simultaneous battles of Iena and Auerstadt, in which the Prussians lost twenty thousand men, including some twenty generals, and the commander-in-chief, who was mortally wounded. This double conflict took place on the 14th of October, a memorable day in the annals of the Prussian monarchy; and with the rapidity of lightning Napoleon followed up the blow. The Prussians having lost their communications, were obliged to retire on diverging lines, which rendered mutual support impossible, and their destruction more certain. They were pursued with incredible vivacity. Erfurt, Magdeburg, and Stettin were reduced; and on the 27th of the same month, being only thirteen days after the battle, Napoleon entered the capital at the head of his victorious legions. In the mean time, the king of Prussia retired, first to Custrin, and afterwards to Königsberg. The Russians had by this time come to his aid, and on the 26th of December another dreadful battle took place at Pultusk, where the allied armies were totally defeated. The French afterwards invaded Silesia; took Stralsund, Colberg, and Dantzig; and carried with them victory and conquest in every direction. And to such a state of distress was Frederick William at length reduced, that, with all his dominions except East Prussia in the hands of the enemy, the British envoy, Lord Hutchinson, on his arrival at Memel in March 1807, found it necessary to advance eighty thousand pounds for the support of his family and domestic household;^[6. By this time peace had been re-established between Great Britain and Prussia. ] and this having been intimated to the British ministers, his majesty recommended it to parliament to enable him to fulfil the agreement entered into by our ambassador.

The campaign of 1807 was in all respects glorious for the French arms. The mighty battle of Friedland proved a conquest rather than a victory. By it the Russians were completely defeated and humbled; whilst the king of Prussia, as the consummation of his misfortunes, had the mortification to find himself at the mercy of the conqueror, to be disposed of as the latter might think fit. The Russians having retired beyond the Niemen, conferences took place at Tilsitt, and were eventually followed by a treaty of peace, which left Frederick William little more than a nominal sovereignty. By this disastrous arrangement the Prussian monarch, who had formerly ceded to France the duchies of Cleves and Berg, renounced the whole of his dominions situated between the Rhine and the Elbe, part of Lusatia, the city of Dantzig, all the provinces which formerly constituted part of Poland, and further agreed to shut his ports against the trade and navigation of Great Britain; in a word, he gave up about ten thousand square miles of territory, containing a population of about five millions of souls, and had the additional humiliation of being forced to assist in carrying out the continental system of Napoleon. Nor was this the utmost extent of his abasement. He had to support the armies of France stationed in his territories, to pay immense contributions to the French emperor, and not only to promulgate, but enforce, in his provinces, every decree issued in Holland against the commerce of this country. Frederick William, thus humbled and reduced, endeavoured to submit with patience to his fate, and to alleviate the sufferings of his subjects by effecting great reductions in his civil and military establishments.

This peace, which, as Napoleon fulfilled none of his engagements, [7:18:685]could only be regarded as nominal, continued nevertheless for six years, during which time all the calamities attendant on foreign occupation by an exasperated conqueror were accumulated on this kingdom. Hence the ardour with which the Prussians ran to arms in 1813, their courage under the reverses at the outset of the campaign, and their perseverance in its prosecution. They had been excited and prepared to take arms, whenever the favourable moment for doing so should arrive, by means of secret associations formed for the purpose, and more especially by the agency of the Tugenbund, or Bond of Peace, whose ramifications extended to every town and village in the kingdom. Nor was Frederick, notwithstanding the thraldom under which he laboured, inattentive to the discipline and improvement of his army, in which the military spirit had nearly sunk under accumulated reverses. At one time the number of his troops was but small, scarcely exceeding 20,000 men; yet, by successive enlistments, and continually drilling levy after levy, so as not apparently to augment his force, whilst he was in reality training to arms all the youth of the kingdom, he could bring into the field, at the critical moment, more than 200,000 regularly-instructed soldiers. The French had indeed deprived the kingdom of arms, which they carried off from the arsenals; but this loss was promptly supplied by the assistance of Great Britain and other powers.

Meanwhile, the disastrous termination of the Russian campaign proved the signal for the desertion of Napoleon, first by Prussia, and afterwards by Austria. It was now felt that his star had passed the culminating point, and already begun to wane. General d’Yorck took the earliest opportunity to withdraw with the Prussian contingent; a declaration of war followed; and Europe prepared to rise in arms against the military despotism of Napoleon. In the campaigns of 1813 and 1814, the Prussian army, led by Blucher, Bulow, and other able officers, distinguished itself in all the great battles, at Lutzen, Juterboch, Leipzig, in the recovery of Silesia, and also in the plains of Champagne, where, though several times defeated with great loss by the masterly combinations of Napoleon, it displayed a noble perseverance, and fought with all the spirit of a truly national army. Hostilities were for a short time suspended by the negotiations which took place at Châtillon; but Napoleon having, from confidence in his own genius, refused the terms offered, the allies decided to advance against the heart of his power, and at Montmartre, where die Prussians again distinguished themselves, the struggle ended, and was soon followed by the treaty of Paris. The abdication of Napoleon was followed by his retirement to the island of Elba, which had been assigned as the place of his exile. But early the following year he returned to France, and by a march from Fréjus to Paris expelled the Bourbons, at the same time reseating himself on the imperial throne. This extraordinary conquest, which is perhaps without a parallel in history, produced the campaign of 1815, in which the Prussians, it must be confessed, added nothing to their laurels. On the 16th of June, their army was not only defeated at Ligny, but so completely broken up, that out of more than 90,000 men of which it consisted on the morning of the battle, not 30,000 ever afterwards re-assembled. Yet this remnant having, by the united talents and energy of Blucher and Bulow, eluded the corps of Grouchy at Wavre, and appeared on the field of battle at Waterloo on the evening of the 18th, materially contributed to render the victory there achieved by the British arms decisive of the fate of Napoleon, France, and Europe.

The immediate consequence of this mighty achievement was the settlement of the different nations of Europe according to the views of the conquerors, and in the circumstances in which they have ever since continued. The congress of Vienna had the delicate and difficult task of as∙- signing acquisitions and boundaries to the various powers which had been engaged in the struggle; and some strange dislocations naturally resulted from this attempt to effect a general settlement at the close of a war which had been productive of so great vicissitudes of fortune. To Prussia were secured generally the restitution of the provinces formerly wrested from her, excepting part of Poland, destined to be united with the duchy of Warsaw, and ample indemnification for this partial sacrifice, in Saxony and the Lower Rhine, by the addition of such territories as were deemed consistent with the stability and security of the balance of power in Europe. The acquisitions which Prussia thus made, through the grace and favour of the congress of Vienna, were, from France, the Lower Rhine, and part of Juliers, Cleves, and Berg; from Westphalia, Munster, and the remaining part of Juliers, Cleves, and Berg; and from Saxony, Thuringia, Upper and Lower Lusatia, and Menne-berg; large indemnities, it must be confessed, for parting with a portion of territory originally acquired by robbery and spoliation. In this year also, Prussia, partly by exchange, and partly by purchase, obtained from Denmark that part of Western which is commonly called Swedish Pomerania, together with the island of Rugen. And thus, after experiencing violent shocks and vicissitudes, by which the kingdom had been broken in pieces, and little more than the name of the monarchy saved from the wreck, we behold Prussia, after a series of unparalleled changes in another direction, again raised from the condition of a second-rate power, and taking her station amongst the first sovereign states of Europe, as formidable as in the days of Frederick the Great, and with a territory and population far exceeding any thing he could boast of.

In fact, the settlement of 1815 invested Prussia with a degree of power which she had never possessed before, and we need not wonder that it should have exercised a marked influence on the general character and conduct of her government. In the agony of the struggle against Napoleon, when a sudden freak of fortune, or some bold stroke of his trancendent genius, might have disconcerted all the schemes formed for his overthrow, everything was promised to the people, and amongst the rest representative institutions. But, according to the morality of kings, “vows made in pain are violent and void,” and hence impose no obligations on royal consciences. So, at least, it happened in the case of Prussia, which, so far from redeeming its pledge, has strenuously resisted every attempt made to urge its fulfilment on the government, which, if not essentially hostile to political liberty, might, from the general character of the people, have safely granted them the boon that they so much desire. But the fact that such hostility exists on the part of the government, is proved by the whole tenor and spirit of its policy, external as well as internal. To say nothing of the circumstance, that its closest political ties are with governments purely despotic, particularly with Russia, no sooner did the demand for representative institutions become general in Europe, and Spain, Naples, and Piedmont, successively extort constitutions, than his majesty Frederick William III. joined the Holy Alliance, and entered with eagerness into all the views by which that confederacy was distinguished. Having repression for its object, it was prepared to crush liberty, wherever it ventured to raise its ensign; to arrest the progress of political improvement, and to employ military force to punish all who were afflicted with any undue zeal in favour of a cause which freemen are accustomed to consider as sacred. In time, however, the Holy Alliance, with all its apparent power, yielded to the influence of events, and gradually vanished as completely as if it had never existed and domineered over the Continent. But the spirit still survives, at least in the Prussian government, which, with all its ostentatious pretensions to a species of liberality, and with the merit of having introduced some wise measures and use [7:18:686]ful improvements, nevertheless carries despotism to a height which in this or in any other free country would be intolerable. This, we think, is very evident from the conduct which the Prussian cabinet has pursued in the formation of the German Commercial League, a measure of decided hostility against the interests of this country.

The extent to which this confederacy has already (1839) been carried, will astound those who have not been closely observant of the policy of Prussia during the last twenty years. The Commercial League of Germany comprises the vast territory included between the river Niemen and the Baltic at one extremity, and the Alps and the Lake of Constance at the other. On the east it is bounded by Russia, Poland, and Austria, and on the west by Belgium, Holland, and France. It consists of the union of four kingdoms, one electorate, three grand dukedoms, and more than twenty smaller states, the whole comprising 8654 German square miles, and 27,728,000 inhabitants, a population surpassing by several millions that of Great Britain and Ireland, and nearly double that of Spain. The dominions of the Commercial League comprehend the residences of twenty-six sovereign princes, several of whom, however limited in domains, exhibit a splendour approaching to that of the greatest empires. The army consists of 246,168 soldiers in time of peace, and in the event of war may be augmented to 550,000. The amount of the annual taxes paid by the population of those provinces is nearly L. 17,000,000 sterling, by far the greatest part of which is derived from the custom-house duties and the excise.

Prussia created this league for the purpose of advancing her political projects, the nature of which was manifested by her sovereign as early as the Congress of Vienna. The enthusiastic efforts of the Prussian people having materially contributed to the overthrow of the common enemy, their king founded on their merit in this respect a pretension to unite under his dominion the greater part of Germany. The whole kingdom of Saxony, all the country between the Weser and the Elbe, the territory which formerly belonged to the Orange family, and that which had formed the electorate of Mayence, were all claimed by the Prussian monarch, as a reward for the sacrifices that had been made by his people. Austria resisted, however, and her resistance proved successful. Prussia was obliged to content herself with certain parcels of the principalities she coveted, and which assorted ill with the rest of her dominions. The kingdom of Prussia is, in fact, composed of incongruous and dislocated pieces. Her Saxon and Westphalian provinces are separated from each other by the territories of Hanover and Cassel, and the rest are interlaced by a number of small principalities, which offer serious obstacles to the unity and efficiency of an administrative system. Accordingly, the desire of finding an opportunity to annihilate these principalities, and unite their territories with the Prussian dominions, induced the court of Berlin to employ unscrupulous means, and resort to dangerous expedients, in order to accomplish its object.

These and other analogous intrigues, however, never interrupted the principal aim of Prussia, which seems to have been that of becoming arbiter of Germany; and it must be confessed that she has made a grand step in advance towards the attainment of that object, by imposing upon the whole German nation her commercial laws and institutions. The grand duke of Hesse-Darmstadt was the first German prince who consented to enter into a commercial league with Prussia. This was in the year 1825; and since that period Prussia has steadily pursued her great scheme of a commercial union, with a degree of success which has probably outrun ’ her most sanguine expectations.

The acquisition of Hesse-Darmstadt served the Prussian government as a means of transit to the southern provinces of Germany. There existed already a commercial alliance between Bavaria and Wurtemberg, founded on just and equal terms, and highly advantageous to both countries. Prussia, having succeeded with the electorate, now endeavoured to prevail on both of these states to enter into the league; but for a time all her efforts were baffled by the talents of the Bavarian minister, Count Armansperg. The conferences, however, were carried on during several years; and at length, in the year 1828, a commercial contract was agreed to on both sides. This contract, however, did not stipulate the establishment of a commercial union, though it facilitated the intercourse between the southern and northern parts of Germany, by fair and moderate duties. But Prussia never for an instant lost sight of her grand object; and having effected the removal of Count Armansperg from the Bavarian ministry, her conditions were at length accepted by both states, and the southern league, consisting of Bavaria and Wurtemberg, entered into a complete commercial union with the northern league, composed of Prussia and Hesse. The contract was concluded in the beginning of 1832; and although the ruling power of Prussia was not so explicitly acknowledged in the articles of the new contract as it had been in that with Hesse, yet it was Prussia that dictated the laws of the union in all essential points, and became the arbiter in all questions of difficulty.

Bavaria and Wurtemberg being thus gained, it became an easy task to prevail upon the remaining principalities. The kingdom of Saxony was the only one from which resistance was anticipated. But the commercial union, being principally calculated for obtaining an open market in Southern Germany, Saxony, which abounds in manufactured products, profited by the opportunity to share in the advantages which Prussia had prepared for herself; whilst the example of the royal government was immediately followed by the smaller Saxon countries, and by all those numerous states which are neither wealthy nor extensive enough to maintain an independent commerce, and a system of internal industry. The free city of Frankfort, however, was found much less tractable. Proud of its republican constitution, and powerful by its wealth, it for a time maintained its independence; but the struggle was too unequal to continue long between a powerful confederacy and a small isolated state. By a mixture of intrigue and violence, akin to that which had been exercised against the Polish commonwealth of Cracow, the senate was at last obliged to yield, and consent to the union; at the same time declaring, that its resolution was taken, not from any conviction of its being beneficial to the republic of Frankfort, but in consequence of its federative dependence, and the greatly superior strength of its antagonist.

After the acquisition of Frankfort, the territory included in the league seemed to be sufficiently compact; but it nevertheless wanted two additional states to render it complete (teres atque rotundus), namely, the duchy of Baden in the south, and the territories of Hanover, Brunswick, and Oldenburg, in the north. Both were equally important for the full attainment of the objects contemplated by Prussia in securing the command of the right bank of the Rhine, and also in furthering the schemes of Russia respecting the navigation of the Baltic, and the exclusion of the British mercantile navy from that sea.

In the case of Baden, resistance, though strenuously offered, proved as unsuccessful as in that of the free town of Frankfort, and of the smaller states generally. The grand duchy was forced to enter the Prussian union; and Baden is now an integral member of the league, notwithstanding the hatred of the people against everything bearing the name of Prussia, or originating from that country. With respect to Hanover and the northern principalities of Germany, however, their position rendered it impossible for the Prussian cabinet to proceed against them in a similar way. Hanover, Brunswick, and Oldenburg were united with Hesse-Cassel[7:18:687] in a separate league, and thus remained independent of Prussian influence. Unable to surmount the difficulties opposed to her schemes by the circumstance of the connection of Hanover with England, Prussia now endeavoured to separate that kingdom from its commercial allies; and succeeded as far as concerned the electorate of Hesse-Cassel, which, openly violating the compact it had formed with its allies, withdrew from them, and joined the Prussian union. This was one point gained; whilst the accession of King Ernest to the throne of Hanover has excited hopes, we fear not altogether groundless, of drawing him into the confederacy.

At the same time it is but right to observe, that whatever may have been the original views of Prussia in the formation of the union, the immediate results deserve the acknowledgments of all Germany. Internal trade has received a new impulse; the custom-house lines, which formerly separated the German states from each other, have been abolished; and a great stimulus has been given to manufacturing industry. From Aix-la-Chapelle on the confines of the Netherlands, to Tilsitt on the borders of Russia, and from Stettin and Dantzig on the north to Switzerland and Bohemia on the south, there is nothing to interrupt the freedom of commerce: a commodity having once passed the frontier of the league, may be conveyed without hindrance throughout its whole extent. But this internal trade is governed and directed by a protector and ruler, namely, Prussia; and it has for its main object to extend throughout Germany a monopoly of Prussian manufactures, to the exclusion of all foreign competition. The same power also profits by this union for obtaining a predominant influence in the political affairs of Germany, and even endeavours to exercise this influence at the expense of the independence of the smaller German states, and of those constitutional rights which some of them have employed to the greatest advantage in improving their internal condition. Freedom in trade and commerce throughout the united German states is not alone sufficient. This is no doubt excellent in itself, inasmuch as it is regarded by the inhabitants of Germany as a patriotic institution, which strengthens the national union of their father-land, and improves the social condition of its people. But it would have been more consistent with sound commercial policy, and productive of greater advantage to the majority of the German states, if such an union had been constructed on the double basis of internal freedom, and the maintenance of an amicable intercourse with foreign countries, instead of excluding the commerce and manufactures of the latter from the German markets. As matters stand, however, the system of exclusion introduced by, and essentially connected with, the commercial league, has no other object than the establishment of a Prussian monopoly in Germany, which it consequently deprives of all the benefit that might be obtained under a more liberal and enlightened commercial policy.^[7. See an article on this subject in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. xliv. p. 30G, et seq. ] It must, however, be admitted, that Prussia is not without good grounds of complaint against Britain, on account of her commercial policy towards the German states. Prussia has only three great staple articles of export, namely, corn, timber, and wool. In ordinary years we exclude the first of these from our markets; and on Prussian timber we levy a duty of fifty-five shillings a load, and admit Ameri can timber on payment of a duty of ten shillings; whilst the government of Prussia has always expressed its willingness to place its intercourse with foreign states on the basis of reciprocity.

The Prussian government does not appear to understand thoroughly the important maxim, pas trop gouverner; at least, in its conduct towards the Rhenish provinces, it has exhibited a busy, vexatious, intermeddling spirit, productive of no good whatever to itself, and the occasion of much discontent amongst the people. This tendency to interfere with details which are beyond the natural competency of any government, or which, at all events, it would be wiser to let alone, has displayed itself not only in accidental and isolated acts, but in legislative enactments and solemn transactions. The concessions which the French government had made in favour of the industry of the Rhenish provinces whilst they formed part of the French empire, were cancelled by a royal ordinance dated the 17th of September 1817; and this proceeding, avowedly intended to advance the prosperity of the eastern provinces at the expense of those on the Rhine, has since been followed by a series of others, all calculated, not only to keep alive, but to embitter the irritation which it first excited in the minds of the people. Nor has even the religion of these provinces, though ostensibly acknowledged and protected by the state, escaped the interference of the government, which, in attempting to regulate everything, has involved itself in great difficulties, and gone far to alienate the affections of the people. This is exemplified in the affair of the Archbishop of Cologne, which, after forming for several years a principal subject of its diplomacy, has at length terminated, as far as that prelate is concerned, in his forcible expulsion from his diocese, and the virtual abrogation of all ecclesiastical authority in the archiepiscopal province over which he presided.^[8. We had intended to give a pretty full narrative of this extraordinary occurrence; but considering that, in one sense at least, the affair is not ended, the Prussian government having again opened negotiations with the Court of Rome, we deem it the wisest course to abstain altogether from attempting to give an exposition of a transaction which is still incomplete. It is sufficient to say, that the Prussian government seems to feel its situation to be anything but a comfortable one; and, if a judgment may be formed from the notes addressed to the Cardinal Secretary, Lainbruschini, by its envoy, Bunsen, since the expulsion of Baron Droste from the archiepiscopal see of Cologne by military force, it would gladly retrace its steps, and fall back from the aggressive position it has assumed, if it could do so without humiliation and disgrace. By the last accounts, however, the sovereign pontiff, Gregory XVI., had refused to listen to any compromise. “Restore the archbishop to liberty, replace him in the full exercise of his ecclesiastical functions, and then I will hear you,” said Gregory, “but not till then.” ]

STATISTICS.

The kingdom of Prussia is situated in the northern part of Germany. It is bounded on the north by the Baltic Sea and a small portion of the duchy of Mecklenburg; on the east by Russia, and its dependent kingdom, Poland; on the south-east by Austria; on the south by the kingdom of Saxony and the Saxon duchies; on the south-west by Bavaria and part of France; and on the west by France and the kingdom of the Netherlands. In describing these boundaries, it is, however, necessary to remark, that some parts of the kingdom are small detached portions entirely insulated by the dominions of other powers, such as Neufchatel in Switzerland, Suhl in Saxony, and Rahnis in Saxe-Weimar. The whole boundary by land is in length 735 Prussian miles, equal to 3439 English miles. There is no communication between the eastern and western provinces of Prussia without passing through the dominions of other princes. Hanover, on the north, is interposed between its eastern and western provinces; and in the southern parts of it the territories of the sovereigns of Brunswick, Waldeck, Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau, Saxe-Weimar, and Saxe-Gotha, intercept the direct communication.
[7:18:688]

The great division of Prussia is into those provinces which are in Germany, and form a part of the Germanic confederation, and into those states which have no connection with that alliance.
[table]

Of the children at school, 1,159,434 were males, and 1,075,925 females.

The duchy of Neufchatel is not included in the above statement, because its situation and constitutional laws differ materially from the rest of the Prussian dominions. In 1831 it contained a population of 54,080. In the same year there was an average population per square mile,

In the province of Prussia, of. 1689 inhabitants.

Posen, of. 1951

Brandenburg, of....2103 Pomerania, of. 1567

Silesia, of. 3269

Saxony, of 3100

Westphalia, of.....3380

Provinces of the Rhine 4633

Consequently in the whole kingdom there were on an average 2576 inhabitants to every square mile.

The population has increased very rapidly within the last twenty years. In 1819 there were, in 937 towns, 2,730,487 inhabitants. In 1831 the same towns contained 3,229,473, the increase being more than 18 per cent. The increase in the towns in the province of Brandenburg was about 23 per cent., in the province of Pomerania nearly 22 per cent., whilst in the province of Prussia it was only about 13 per cent. The population of the whole kingdom from the year 1819 to the year 1831 increased from 11,084,993 to 13,510,030, or about 21∣ths per cent.

In 1829 there were in the whole kingdom, of marriages, 108,881; of births, 495,382; and of deaths, 388,255. During the fifteen years from 1820 to 1834 inclusively, there was an yearly average of births, males 260,436, females 245,765; of deaths, males 187,650, females 176,164.

The inhabitants of Prussia are of different races. The most numerous body are of German origin, divided by language and customs into the High and Low Germans. These, except in the province of Posen, form everywhere the great majority. The Low German or Platt Deutsche language is generally spoken in the countries between the Rhine and the Elbe, on the north side of the Hartz Mountains, and prevails along the Baltic through part of Bandenburg and Pomerania. In Silesia, in the southern part of Saxony, in the trans-Rhenish provinces, and in East Prussia, dialects, or rather differing idioms, of the High German, are spoken, but all far removed from the pure language of Saxony, or, as it is called, Der Meissnichen Dialect. Th e Walloons, in the vicinity of the Forest of Ardennes, and the colonists descended from French refugees at the time of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, are now much mixed with the German inhabitants; but many of them have confused the two languages, and speak a kind of German-French patois. Amongst the higher classes in every part of the kingdom the pure High German language is spoken, generally with the peculiar idiom and pronunciation of Berlin; and that language is universally used in books, in the churches, in the courts of law, and in the more important transactions of commerce.

There are about 10,400,000 Germans, Sclavonians, Poles, Lithuanians, &c. Those of Sclavonian origin amount to nearly two millions, and retain their original language. The greater part of these are usually denominated Poles, and are the inhabitants of parts of Posen, West Prussia, and Silesia. About 50,000 people in Lithuania have a peculiar language of their own. The Wenden or Vandals have also a different language from all the other subjects of Prussia. They are between two and three hundred thousand in number, and are settled, a few in the province of Brandenburg, and the remainder in the province of Pomerania, and the districts of Leignitz and Kassubon in East Prussia. The Jews, according to the census of 1828, amounted to nearly 170,000 individuals; they are to be met with in every part of the Prussian territory, but principally in the province of Posen.

The established religion of Prussia is the Protestant, now denominated the Evangelical Confession, comprehending Lutherans, Calvinists, Hernhutters or Moravians, and Hussites. The professors of it amounted in 1828 to 7,738,664 individuals. They were formerly divided into two sects, the Lutheran and Reformed, but are now united into one, and form a large majority in the circles of Königsberg, Gumbinnen, Dantzig, Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfort, Stettin, Köslin, Stralsund, Breslau, Reichenbach, Leignitz, Magdeburg, Merseburg, Erfurt, and Minden. At the same period the Roman Catholics amounted to 4,816,813, and formed the majority in the districts of Marie∏warden, Bromberg, Posen, Oppeln, Munster, Arensberg, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Cleves, Coblentz, Nachen, and Treves. The United Brethren, or Hernhutters, may be reckoned at between 10,000and 12,000 souls. The Mennonites, a species of Anabaptists, amounted to 15,655; and the Jews, as before stated, to about 170,000. The proportion of each religious denomination was in 1825 calculated in the following manner: Supposing the whole population of the Prussian kingdom to be unity, the various religious divisions are, Evangelical Christians, 0∙6067; Roman Catholics, 0∙3795; Mennonites, 0 , 00l3; Jews, 0∙0125; or, in other words, in every 10,000 inhabitants there are 6067 Protestants, 3795 Romanists, [7:18:689]13 Mennonites, 125 Jews. These different sects are all equal in the eye of the law, have the same protection for their worship, and arc all alike eligible to every civil, judicial, and military office.^[9. According to an act passed in 1817, the Protestant clergy in each province are regulated by a synod composed of all the superintendents, headed by a president. They meet once or twice a year in a General Assembly, and consult on the internal affairs of the churches belonging to the province. They also superintend all schools, and take especial cognizance of the religious instruction given in them. Their decisions are sent to the minister of the interior, furnished with the approval of the consistory of the province. The Roman Catholics are divided into two archbishoprics, the one of which comprehends the eastern, the other the western provinces, nine dioceses, and about 3200 parishes. Gnesen is the metropolitan see of the eastern, Cologne that of the western districts. No archbishop or bishop can be elected without the sanction of the king. The annual stipend of the archbishops is about L.i72θ sterling, that of the bishops about L.1150 sterling, besides perquisites. Public pilgrimages out of the country are entirely prohibited, and none allowed within the state which extend to more than one day’s journey. Il is worthy of notice, that in Silesia the number of Roman Catholics has diminished, and still continues to diminish. Like the Society of Friends, the Mennonites are opposed to the use of offensive arms. They are, therefore, by the act of 1815, exempted from military service; but, to counterbalance this privilege, they are obliged to contribute a sum amounting to about L∙720 a year towards the support of the military academy at Culm. The Jews are acknowledged as Prussian subjects, and enjoy the same rights and privileges with the Christians. They can fill any post or office, and can hold real estates of all kinds, and follow all lawful callings. They are of course obliged in return to contribute to the support of the state, and are subjected to military service by conscription. They are, however, not admitted as teachers in the public academies and universities, owing to some impediments which arise in the discharge of these functions. Apostacy from Christianity to Judaism is not tolerated. ]

The different classes of inhabitants in Prussia may be divided into nobles, landed proprietors, burgesses, with more or less extensive privileges, and peasants. At the head of these the nobles are of two kinds practically, though not legally. The high nobility are the princes, who were formerly petty sovereigns on their own estates, but whose independence has merged in the general government; they amount to about fifty families. The lower nobility, consisting of about two hundred thousand individuals, have preferable claims to certain offices in the army, the state, and the church; but their privileges have been gradually contracting, and they are now in almost every point only equal to the. burghers or citizens. Some of the Prussian nobles are the descendants of the Teutonic knights, who renounced their monastic vows; but other noble families came at a later period from the north of Germany. The Prussian aristocracy is not a wealthy order; their estates are of little value; it is supposed that the greatest income derived from the land of any one noble does not exceed L.2500. The higher ranks of nobility, the princes, dukes, counts, earls, viscounts, and some of the ancient barons, are not subjected to military duty by conscription, and pay no personal taxes. The higher clergy, namely, the bishops, abbots, provosts, &c. have all these prerogatives, and the same rank as the nobility. The burgesses are a numerous and respectable class of inhabitants, but they differ according to their origin and the size of their towns; the descendants of the German colonists being more enlightened than those sprung from the Poles and the Wendes. Traces of the ancient freedom enjoyed by the Hanseatic towns may still be observed in Memel, Königsberg, Elbing, Dantzig, and Thorn. The burgesses of Dantzig are peculiarly distinguished for their general intelligence, and their active and industrious habits. The power of the guilds in the cities has been gradually diminished, and they are now scarcely obstacles, as they were formerly here, and still are in other parts of Germany, to the exercise of industry and ingenuity in any profession which individuals may select for themselves. The largest class is composed of the baueren or peasants. They were formerly slaves, and were usually sold, as in Russia, with the estates to which they were attached; but their lot has been progressively ameliorated, and during the reign of the present king the last vestiges of this barbarism have been totally abolished. The final extinction of personal slavery was not decreed till September 1811; and, from the military events which speedily succeeded, it was not practically destroyed till several years afterwards. At present the peasantry, who amount to two thirds of the whole population, are a species of copyholders, with customary quitrents and herriots to the landowners; but they may purchase land and become themselves proprietors, a benefit only recently conferred upon them, and which those who are industrious and economical very eagerly avail themselves of. The condition of the peasantry varies considerably throughout the different provinces of which the Prussian monarchy is composed. In some they are slothful, ignorant, and superstitious, whilst in others the efforts of the Prussian administration to improve their moral and intellectual condition have been attended with success. The peasants on the werders, and the inhabitants of the new colonies, arc the wealthiest and most intelligent of the peasantry. Their houses are not destitute of elegance, and their children are well educated. The other extremity of the country is inhabited by Lithuanian peasants, the descendants of the ancient Pruczi; they retain their native dialect, and are still ignorant and slothful. The coarse cloth with which they are clad is manufactured by themselves; and all of them wear a sort of scarf, or, as it is called, a margin, which appears to be the same as the plaid of the Scottish Highlanders. The boots and the hats of the women are nowise different from those of the men. “The German millers form almost a distinct caste; the happy inhabitants of a romantic country, possessing numerous flocks, abundantly provided with fish, poultry, and game, they make up the class between the peasantry and the nobles, and neither associate with the one nor the other, all of them intermarrying amongst themselves.” (Malte-Brun.)

In so extensive a territory as Prussia, there will necessarily be great inequalities in soil, productions, and climate. The greater part of the country is a sandy soil, generally very level, and often covered with heaths. The woods of it are nearly one fourth of the whole surface, and only certain portions near the rivers, or in particular situations, can be considered as fertile, or even grateful soils. Many barren sandy plains are to be found, which are deemed to be more expensive to bring into cultivation than could be repaid by their productions. This is especially the case in the Churmark, in Lower Lusatia, and in some of the Westphalian provinces, where large spaces are occupied by heaths, such as the heaths of Minden, which extend over ten thousand acres, those of Lippstadt, of twenty thousand, and the still larger ones oΓSenner andFuhling. In EastPrus-sia there arc several very extensive morasses, which require draining to render them productive. In the fruitful district of Magdeburg, the bog of the Dromling covers more than a hundred thousand acres. A part of it indeed is in the Hanoverian and a part of it in the Brunswick territory, which prevents the necessary drains from being executed, which would make it one of the most valuable tracts of land in that part of Germany.

The most fruitful corn-land in the kingdom of Prussia is the vicinity of Tilsitt, and some other districts of East Prussia, and the greater part of the duchy of Posen. That province forms physically a part of Poland; the same plains, the same kind of sand intermixed with clay and black loam, the same fertility in corn, and the same sort of forests, may be observed in the two countries. But many large marshes covered with weeds and brushwood are still undrained in [7:18:690] the province, particularly along the winding course of the Obra. In West Prussia, the district of the Netz, the country around Marienburg, and that near Dantzig and Elbing, are excellent corn countries. That part of Silesia which is on the cast of the Oder forms a very large plain, slightly undulated by hills, and differs in no respect from the plains in Poland. But in the western districts the land is more unequal, and that portion of Silesia is bounded by high mountainous chains. This province also contains several large and humid meadows and marshes. The land in Brandenburg is low, and in general sandy. Its inclination is so inconsiderable, that a great many marshes and small lakes are formed by the inundations of rivers. In this province only some districts, such as the mark of Prignitz, and the Ukermark, are celebrated for the quantity and quality of their grain; but the country abounds in forests of fir, pine, oak, beech, and ash. In Pomerania the soil is almost entirely formed by accessions from the sea, and alluvial deposits from rivers and streams. A great part of the country is covered with forests and extensive heaths, and it is only the banks of the rivers and of the lakes that can be advantageously cultivated. The soil is very favourable for all kinds of grain in the duchies of Saxony and Magdeburg, in Thuringia, and in the principalities of Halberstadt and Quedlinburg. These divisions, in favourable seasons, may he considered as the real granaries from which the less fertile parts of Prussia draw their supplies of corn.

The western parts of the Prussian dominions are far less productive than the eastern. A few only of the Westphalian provinces are highly fruitful. The districts most eminent for fertility are the vicinity of Minden and of Paderborn, the borders of the Soester, and the circles of the Lieg and the Wupper. In the Rhenish provinces, the neighbourhood of Juliers, Bonn, Cologne, Coblentz, Kreusnaeh, Ba-charach, and the banks of the Meuse, are tolerably fertile. The principality of Nenfehatel is very mountainous. Six or seven valleys, some of which, such as those of Rutz and Travers, afford rich pasture, make up the greater part of the land.

The climate varies considerably in the different districts. It may generally be described as temperate and healthy, though, from the great variety of situations, there are many exceptions. On the borders of the Baltic the winters are severely cold, and the weather changeable, raw, and foggy. The greatest degree of cold in the last century was from the 2 J st to the 25th January 1795, when Reaumur’s thermometer was at 24° below zero. The greatest heat of that century was in the following summer, when the same thermometer was at 36° above zero. The middle provinces of Posen, Brandenburg, Silesia, Saxony, and the whole western parts of the monarchy, possess a more mild and less variable climate, but very different in the several localities. The atmosphere of Brandenburg, though mild, is humid, and subject to frequent variations in temperature; and is, besides, often exposed to violent storms from the south and the east. On the sandy plains of that province the heat is in the summer very oppressive, and the air, from the abundance of stagnant water, frequently unhealthy, whilst in the vicinity of the Hartz the cool mountain breezes are enjoyed. Silesia suffers great disadvantages from snowy winters and rainy autumns. The air is in many parts salubrious, but the southern districts, from the thick forests, and the elevation of the soil, are exposed to long and severe winters. The climate is milder in the northern part of the country; but the lakes and marshes infect the air in several places, and render it unwholesome. The banks of the Rhine and Moselle are covered with verdure before the inhabitants of Riesengebirge, and of the Lithuanian heaths, have laid aside the fur pelisses of the winter.

Few of the countries of Europe have been more favoured by nature than Prussia with streams that contribute to for tility and intercourse; and the labour of the inhabitants has been advantageously directed to several public works, which have facilitated the communication between the different rivers. As the slope of the whole Prussian dominions is towards the west and north, all the rivers that rise in or pass through them empty themselves either into the Baltic Sea or the German Ocean. The streams that merge in the first of these are the Niemen, which rises in Lithuania, and becomes navigable at Sehmaleninken; about ten miles below Tilsitt it divides into two branches, which, through the maritime lake of Curisch-Haf, empty themselves into the sea. The German name of the Niemen is derived from the town of Memel, which is built at the outlet of the same lake. During its short course through the Prussian territory, the Niemen receives on its right side the waters of the Sehesschappe, and on its left those of the navigable river Jura. The river of the hills, the ancient Prussian Prigolla, the modern Pregel, is composed of the united streams of the Pisa, Ranet, Russe, Augerap, and Inster; after it assumes its name it receives the Deinenear, Tappiau, and the Alle near Wehlau. It becomes navigable near Gottenburg, and, passing Königsberg, discharges its streams by the Frisch-Haf into the Baltic. The Vistula, the Polish Wisla, or the German Weichsel, rises in the Austrian part of Silesia. It passes through Poland, where at Craeow it becomes navigable. On its entrance into the Russian territories it divides into two branches, the eastern of which takes the name of the Nogat, and joins the Baltic near Elbing; the western is again subdivided into two arms, one of which is lost in the Frisch-Haf, and the other reaches the sea near Dantzig. Its course after entering Prussia is about 140 miles, and during its progress it is augmented by the streams of the Ossa, the Brahe, and the Mottlau. Geographers have been led to suppose, and not without probability, that the Vistula is not so deep as it once was; it is certain that it may be forded in the vicinity of Thorn. The Oder, which in the German dialect of Pomerania is called the Ader, and of which the ancient Wendo-Slavonie name is the Wiadro, a word that signifies a pitcher, has its source in the mountains of Moravia, in the ancient circle of Olrnutz; but the Elsa, which rises from the base of the Carpathians, is in reality the principal source. It becomes navigable near Ratibor soon after entering the province of Silesia, and, after passing through Brandenburg and Pomerania, divides into two branches, and enters the great estuaries which communicate with the Baltic Sea through the three mouths of Peene, Swine, and Divenou. Its course in the Prussian states is 370 miles; the general rate of its current is languid, forming in many places large fens and turbid lakes; and it is prevented from overflowing by embankments. It receives near Oderberg the waters of the Oppa, near Breslau those of the Ohlau, near Grosglogau those of the Bartsch, near Neuzelle those of the Neisse, and at Custrin those of the Wartha. This last is the most valuable of all the secondary rivers of Prussia, because it affords the means of a communication between the Oder and the Vistula. The rivers of Prussia which empty themselves into the German Ocean are, the Elbe, which rises in the Riesengebirge, or Giant’s Mountains, and is known at its source by the Slavonie name of the Labbe. It receives from the south of Bohemia the Moldawa or the Bohemian Oritza, which, as it is deeper and broader than the Elbe, ought perhaps to be considered as the principal river. It is navigable at Mühlberg, where it enters Bohemia. It receives the Elster near Wittenberg, the Muldau near Dessau, the Saale near Saalhorn, and the Havel near Werben; soon after which, in its passage to the ocean, it quits the Prussian dominions. The Weser enters but a small portion of the territory of the Prussian kingdom, though it forms the boundary on the eastern side of the Westphalian provinces, from Holtzmin-den to Carlshafen. The only part where both its banks [7:18:691]are in Prussia is near Minden, where it has forced its way through the range of mountains, and formed the celebrated passage well known to the ancients as the Porta Westpha- 1ica. The Rhine enters the lately acquired provinces of Prussia at Bingen, a little below Mentz, and quits thena at Kerkcrdom, above Nimeguen. From Bingen to the country above Coblentz it is confined by mountains, and small islands and headlands are formed by the rocks. It receives within the Prussian territories the streams of the Nahe; the Lahn, that is concealed under mountains; the Moselle, which, free from shallows and every incumbrance, resembles in its meandering course a canal fashioned by the hand of man; the Ahr, the Erft, the Ruhr, and the Lippe. The Ems, though it rises in the province of Westphalia, is a small stream, not navigable till it enters the kingdom of Hanover.

Most of the rivers of Prussia are so advantageously connected with each other by means of navigable canals, that an uninterrupted communication is maintained by them from Halle and Magdeburg to Elbing, and the surrounding districts have the benefit of those facilities for exchanging their various productions. The Frederieksgraben Canal, in East Prussia, is formed to avoid the dangerous navigation of the Curisch-Haf, in the intercourse between Tilsitt and Memel. The Bromberg Canal joins the Netze and the Brahe, and by their means the Oder and the Vistula. It is the most expensive of all the Prussian canals, having within eighteen miles ten locks. The commerce on it furnishes freight to about 600 barges annually, each of thirty tons burden, besides smaller boats. The Finnow Canal, which unites the Oder and the Havel, is about twenty miles long, and has on it about 4000 small, and from 1600 to 1700 large boats. The new Oder Canal shortens the navigation of that river, and serves also for the purpose of draining the meadows through which it passes. The Plauen Canal connects the Havel with the Elbe, and is the channel of intercourse between Berlin and Hamburg. The Friedrich-Wilhelm, or Mullros Canal, unites the Oder and the Spree. Besides these, there arc others of less importance, as the Storkow, the Werbellin, the Klodnitz, the Saxon, and the Munster Canals, all of which are of local benefit; and the Rhine Canal, begun in 1S09.

The lakes of Prussia, especially in the eastern portions of the kingdom, are numerous and extensive. On the coast of the Baltic the two fresh-water lakes, denominated the Curisch-Haf and Frisch-Haf, may be considered as the most remarkable phenomena in the physical geography of Prussia. The former, which received its name from the ancient Cures or Coures, who inhabited its banks, is sixty-six miles in length, and varies from fifteen to thirty in breadth. It is divided from the sea by a narrow stripe of land. The sand-banks and shallows on this lake are so numerous that it is only navigable for boats, and they, too, are exposed to frequent hurricanes. The Frisch-Haf, or fresh-water lake, is about sixty miles in length, and from six to fifteen miles in breadth. It is separated by a chain of sand-banks from the Baltic Sea, with which it communicates by a strait called the Gatt. The Stettin-Haf is of nearly the same extent. Besides the lakes on the shore, those in the interior of the country are stated to exceed 1000, many of them from ten to twenty miles in length. In East Prussia are 300, in West Prussia 160, and in the province of Brandenburg 680. Many parts of these lakes have been contracted by embankments, and the soil which they covered gradually appropriated to agricultural purposes. At present they supply vast quantities of fish, the right to take which is in many instances farmed at very high rates.

The cultivation of the soil is the employment of three fourths of the inhabitants of the Prussian dominions. The wants and the industry of the inhabitants, aided by a rigid parsimony, directed and stimulated by a paternal though absolute government, have changed, in the course of the last century, the most sterile and unproductive kingdom of Europe into a territory which more than supplies the demands of its own inhabitants, and leaves a surplus quantity of corn in most years for exportation to other countries. In the three provinces which communicate with the Baltic Sea, viz. East Prussia, West Prussia, and Pomerania, it is calculated that four fifths of the inhabitants subsist wholly by producing food. In these provinces, in the sense of the term as it is used in our country, farmer is still almost unknown. Almost every proprietor, whether a large or a small one, cultivates his own land; and all the operations of agriculture are performed in a slovenly and indolent manner. The general course of cultivation is to fallow every third year, by ploughing three times if intended for rye, and five times if for wheat, the land being allowed to rest the whole of the year from one autumn to another. The extent of land sown with wheat does not amount to one tenth of that on which rye is grown. After the wheat or rye is harvested, oats or barley are sown in the succeeding spring. This rotation completes the course, which is again succeeded by a whole year’s fallow, so that the land only bears corn two years out of every three, and the soil is so poor that the last crop is considered as a good one if it yields three times the seed. The implements of husbandry correspond with the state of agriculture and the nature of the soil. They are almost wholly formed of wood, and are constructed in a very rude and clumsy manner.

In the province of Brandenburg the soil is unproductive, but the husbandmen arc industrious; and since the encouragement given to agriculture by Frederick the Great, uncultivated lands have been covered with harvests, thick forests have been changed into rich meadows, many unwholesome marshes have been drained, and, in consequence, the land throughout the province has risen in value. The crops in Silesia are inadequate for the numerous population, and a quantity of grain is imported into the province from Poland and Austria.

The principal grains of Prussia are wheat, rye, barley, and oats. The quantity of rye far exceeds that of every other kind of corn; it forms the principal aliment of the inhabitants, amongst whom wheat is seldom eaten in bread. Pease, both white and gray, are extensively raised, and especially that description of them known in England by the name of “Prussian blues.” Beans of all varieties are cultivated in the soils on the borders of the rivers, which are suitable to their growth. Buckwheat is much sown in some places, and forms an important part of the sustenance of the labouring classes. An article for food is collected in Prussia, especially in Brandenburg, from the seeds of the grass called festuca fluitans. It is manufactured into a substance called manna grits, and is far more agreeable to the taste, though employed for the same purposes, than oat-meal with us. The cultivation of potatoes has for many years past been gradually extending, and is become so great as to supply almost the sole aliment of a very great proportion of the labouring population.

Table of the Average Prices of the four principal sorts of Grain in the different Provinces of Prussia in the year 1836.
[table]
[7:18:692]

The most productive branch of rural economy next to corn is that of breeding and fattening cattle. The practices in this branch are, however, of a very imperfect kind; and though the different races, especially of cows, are to be found in Prussia, yet so little attention has been paid, by crossing them, to obtain the most perfect animals, that they are almost all very indifferent. The proportion which the number of cattle of every description bears to the land is much too small. It appears, from an official account published in 1819, that the stock of cattle in the maritime provinces of Prussia at the end of that year was as follows :— asses and colts, 556,839; oxen, cows, and calves, 1,171,434; sheep and lambs, 2,049,801; swine, 617,310.

According to the lowest estimate relative to the stock of cattle in England, there are more than three times the number of horses, and upwards of four times the number of oxen and sheep, in the same extent of land. The sheep generally are bad, but of late years very great improvements have been made in their fleeces by the introduction of the Merino and Paduan rams. It is supposed that the sheep increased in the Prussian provinces betaveen the years 1819 and 1824 at the rate of twenty-five per cent, and that the finer sort of sheep have increased in a still greater ratio. The fine-woolled sheep are now pretty numerous, and supply the manufacturers with that raw material, which used formerly to be furnished principally from Spain.^[10. In Silesia the flocks are shorn twice a year, and the summer’s wool is considered as the most valuable. The number of sheep throughout that province is upwards of two millions three hundred thousand, and their annual produce varies from three millions five hundred thousand to four millions of pounds. ] The monied value of the live stock on the farms is very low. The best flocks of Merino sheep, exclusive of the wool, do not bring more than six shillings or six shillings and eightpence a head. Cows are worth from thirty to sixty-five shillings, and the variation in their price is much greater than in that of sheep. The races of horses are not good, though great efforts have been made by the government to improve them; and establishments of stallions, for gratuitous propagation, are fixed in several parts of the kingdom. The breeding of swine is a very considerable employment, and the hams, bacon, and sausages made from them form a large proportion of the animal food of the inhabitants of the Prussian dominions.

The great deficiency in the rural economy of Prussia, as in most parts of the Continent, is the small portion of land appropriated to pasture. Hence the number of cattle maintained is small in proportion to its extent; and the effect of the deficiency of manure is to be found in the small increase upon the different crops of grain. The average increase is stated to be six for one of wheat, five and three quarters for one of barley, four for one of rye, and four and a half for one of oats. The land of the kingdom is thus appropriated.

English Acres.

Under the plough 29,224,741

In garden culture 295,302

Vineyards 36,908

Meadows and pasture 14,672,000

Woods, forests, and plantations... 17,574,294

61,803,245

The remaining 11,800,000 acres are either in lakes, ponds, rivers, canals, roads, the sites of cities, towns, and villages, or of so bad a soil as not to be deemed worth cultivation.

Besides articles for food, the soil of Prussia produces many for commerce. The principal of these is flax, which is grown in every village, and almost by every peasant. Besides what is used by the growers for their orvn domestic manufactures, the quantity annually brought to market is very considerable. Two thirds of this quantity is produced from Silesia alone. It is generally of a good quality, with a fine and long fibre, especially when raised from foreign seed. This change of seed is found so essential, that large quantities are annually imported from Livonia and other Russian provinces; and the seed preserved at home is mostly used for making oil and oil-cake, with the latter of which the oxen are fattened. Thread is also made from felwort, a plant of which the cultivation is rapidly increasing. Tobacco, madder, woad, sail our, and hops, have been much grown, especially during the continental restrictions of Napoleon; and though the opening of foreign commerce has greatly discouraged their cultivation, they are still continued upon a small scale. Chicoium or succory, as in other parts of Germany, is much used as a substitute for coffee; and though the peace has reduced the price of the latter article, the succory finds an extensive sale, and is still cultivated very largely in many districts. It was in Prussia that the experiments of Margrave concerning the extraction of sugar from beetrave were first put into practice upon a great scale; and works were erected long before the process was generally known in France. And although commercial transactions are now facilitated by the communications that have been opened during peace, the making of sugar from beetrave has become an important branch of industry in Prussia. The wine made in Prussia before the acquisition of the Rhenish provinces was of a bad quality, and scarcely superior to vinegar; but these territories yield wine of good flavour and great strength. The annual quantity is calculated to vary from six to eight millions of gallons. Prussia, like the rest of Germany, is well provided with alimentary vegetables of excellent quality. The culture of cabbages, and the different sorts of turnips, carrots, pease, and beans, has been carried to a great degree of perfection. The silk raised in Silesia and some other districts is too inconsiderable to be of much value; but the bombex or silk-worm succeeds well in the province of Brandenburg, and the quantity of silk derived from it is very considerable. The forests, amounting to nearly two sevenths of the whole country, furnish large quantities of timber for building and for exportation; fuel, tar, pitch, rosin, and potash, are more valuable, from the great facilities which the rivers and canals afford to internal navigation, by which their products can be easily conveyed to the borders of the sea. Game is rare or abundant, according as the districts are well or ill wooded. The bear and the elk, the wild boar and the stag, are frequently seen in the woods and the forests of Prussia proper; but the elks and the wild oxen are very rare in the other provinces. The lynx is sometimes seen on the mountains, where are also met the wild cat and the badger. The wolf is now rare; and the fox, the marten, and the beaver, are not nearly so common as they formerly were. The fish that abound in the rivers afford the means of subsistence to many of the inhabitants. Some of them are of an excellent quality, and there are several kinds in the Spree that are so much prized as to form a lucrative branch of exportation. The salmon abounds most in the Rhine; but it is by no means rare in the Elbe and the Weser. The sturgeon, of which the length is sometimes from twelve to fourteen feet, the spams, the glanis, that weighs from forty to fifty pounds, are often taken in the Oder, and the finest trouts in the rivers that Aoav from the Hartz and the Erzgebirge. The lamprey and the loach are not uncommon; and numerous marshes or lakes abound with pike, murenae, and trouts.

The mines of Prussia are by no means worked to the extent of which they are capable. Every province possesses [7:18:693]iron, which is prepared in forges and blast-furnaces in their vicinity. They are principally worked with charcoal from the neighbouring forests; but in some instances with fossil coal. Little or no iron is exported, as it can be made cheaper in countries which have more easy access to the ocean. The mines of rock-salt, and the salt springs, are sufficiently worked to supply the consumption of their vicinity; but the provinces in the Baltic Sea find it more advantageous to draw their supply from the mines of Cheshire. Coals are found in Silesia and Saxony, Westphalia and Brandenburg; but the mines are not extensively worked. From the unproductive state of the gold-mines in Silesia, they were abandoned in 1798. The silver-mines arc those of Tarnowitz and Rudelstadt in Silesia, and of Mansfeld and Rothenburg in Saxony. In Tarnowitz there is an extensive and valuable lead-mine, in which the silver is found. It is supposed that in ancient times the mine yielded about fifteen or sixteen thousand quintals of lead, and between three and four thousand marks of silver; and it has been affirmed that the annual produce of the mine is at present greater. In Silesia there are found also slate, mill-stones, marble, serpentine, porphyry, rock-crystal, jaspers, carnelians, onyxes, agates, and a particular sort of chrysoprasus∙ The other minerals of Prussia are copper, cobalt, calamine, arsenic, alum, vitriol, and saltpetre; but they do not yield sufficient for the internal consumption. Amber is almost an exclusive production of Prussia. It is found in mines, as well as procured by the fishermen on the shores of the Baltic. Its value is at present much less than it was in ancient times; but in some manufactories in Prussia workmen are still employed in making from it small jewels, scented powder, spirituous acid, and a fine oil that is used as a varnish. Part of the raw material is exported by the Danes and Italians; but Turkey is the staple market for the commodity. The quantity which is found in Prussia amounts annually to more than two hundred tons, and the revenue which the crown derives from it is equal to three or four thousand pounds.

Prussia is a manufacturing country, though these branches of industry give employment to a far less portion of its inhabitants than the cultivation of the soil. The most natural and important manufacture is that of linen cloth, the raw material of which, and all the articles that contribute to its perfecting, are produced at home. It has long been established, and extensively spread. In Silesia especially, the habit of spinning fine thread has given to the females a delicacy of tact that is only excelled in some parts of the Netherlands. Besides the common articles for personal and domestic usc, Prussia manufactures the finest and most beautiful damask services for the table, which are generally preferred to all others, in the higher circles, throughout nearly the whole of Europe. Before the continental war, the produce of the linen from Silesia amounted to L. 1,689,915 sterling, of which L.970,000 was destined for foreign consumption. In the western provinces the linen cloth is principally made for home consumption. Large quantities of linen goods were formerly exported to Spain, and from Cadiz to the former Spanish colonies in South America; but that trade was destroyed by the submission of the continent to the prohibitions imposed by Napoleon, and has not since been recovered, as the markets are now supplied by Great Britain and Ireland.

The increase of Merino sheep has given a great stimulus to the fine woollen manufactures, especially to those in the newly-acquired provinces on the French frontiers, where some of the best superfine cloths that Europe can exhibit are made. In the late department of the Roer, or, as it is now denominated, the circle of Aachen, in the towns of Eupen, Aachen, Montjoic, Stolberg, and Montmedy, fine cloths and cassimeres are manufactured, which are estimated to amount to a million and a half sterling, and afford employment to upwards of 50,000 workmen, as well as to every kind of machinery that has been invented in England or in any other country. The cloths for the dress of the middle and lower classes are wholly made within the kingdom from their native wools. The woollen manufactories throughout the kingdom, on an average from 1829 to 1831, yielded annually about L∙4,525,000 sterling.

Cotton goods have been made to a considerable extent. In some instances the yarn is spun in foreign countries, and the weaving, bleaching, and dyeing only executed in Prussia; and as the raw material, a foreign article, cannot be procured so cheap as in England, this branch of industry has much diminished since the general peace. During the period from 1829 to 1831, the cotton manufactures produced to the state about L.4,250,000 sterling yearly, after deducting the prime cost of the materials. The iron manufactures are more than sufficient for the domestic consumption, and furnish to the value of about L.300,000 sterling for exportation. There are three hundred paper-mills, which furnish the common kinds of paper in quantities sufficient for the consumption of the country; but the finer sorts are supplied either from Great Britain or from France. Silk goods, and mixed goods either of silk and cotton or silk and woollen, are chiefly made in the capital, in which, and in some other places, they give employment to about 20,000 looms. The various kinds of leather are made from skins produced at home, as far as they are found sufficient, and the deficiency is supplied from Buenos Ayres, through the intervention of Britain or Spain. Copper and brass wares for all domestic purposes are made, partly from the copper and calamine of their own mines, but chiefly with copper furnished by other countries. The amount of these wares is estimated at about L.200,000 sterling. Tobacco, snuff, sugar, soap, candles, cabinet-ware, earthen-ware, porcelain, tin goods, and almost every article of common consumption, are made within the kingdom. As no wine is made in the eastern part of Prussia, the common beverage is either beer or brandy, distilled from the native grains. The establishments for brewing and distilling are consequently very numerous; but none of them approach in magnitude to the larger concerns of a similar kind in England. The whole quantity of beer brewed is between four and five million casks, of fifty gallons each. The consumption of corn brandy is upwards of 8,000,000 gallons. In the larger cities the letter-founders, printers, engravers, musical, optical, and mathematical instrument makers, gold and silver smiths, jewellers, watchmakers, and other similar artificers, are to be found as numerous and as skilful as in the other countries on the Continent. With regard to the respective trades, Prussia contains, on an yearly average, 328,317 mechanics, artisans, and craftmen, with 181,054 assistants. The number of printing-offices is 327, with 709 presses; tile and brick manufactories, limekilns, glasshouses, tar manufactories, 5406; iron, copper, and other smelts, 1932; watermills, 13,949, with 22,693 lets; 10,451 windmills, 1184 mills worked with horses, and 9422 oilmills; fulling-machines, tan, saw, and paper-mills, looms for shawls, stockings, and tissue of all sorts, 87,558; 5614 drivers of teams for the transportation of goods by land, employing 11,994 horses; the licensed hotels, cook-shops, taverns, wine and spirit retailers, amount in the whole country to 74,721.

The commerce of Prussia with foreign nations is much less than the extent of the country and the number of the inhabitants would lead us to expect. It is loaded with many restrictions, which, however necessary they may be deemed in a fiscal view, are vexatious and harassing. The commerce by land, by internal navigation, is principally with Austria and Russia. From Austria she receives salt and wine, and sends linen-yarn in exchange. From Russia she draws hemp, com, hides, tallow, and some other [7:18:694]productions of the soil, and sends in return both linen and woollen cloths. The provinces on the Rhine carry on very considerable traffic in wine and manufactured goods with the adjoining provinces in the kingdom of the Netherlands, and with several of the states of Germany.

As Prussia possesses no seaports except on the Baltic, and as none of its harbours enjoy good entrances, or are calculated to receive ships of a great draught of water, there is very little commerce carried on beyond the limits of Europe.

The greater part of the exports from Prussia are conveyed by foreign ships, of which the British exceed in number those of all other nations together. Dantzig, once a Hanse town, and the scat of extensive commerce, has much declined since it has become subject to Prussia, notwithstanding its favourable situation for exporting the productions raised on the banks of the Vistula and its tributary streams. It still, however, exports corn, wood, potashes, linen, wool, wax, honey, horse-hair, and feathers; and imports colonial wares and some few manufactured goods. The vessels which entered the port of Dantzig during the year 1835 amounted to 621, having a tonnage of 94,534; and those which cleared out to 621, having a tonnage of 95,079. The imports by sea during the same year amounted to L.495,909, and the exports to L.373,700. Königsberg exports corn, but the vessels to be loaded with it can approach no nearer than to Pillau. The number of vessels inwards during the year 1835 amounted to 246, and the tonnage to 18,028; those outwards to 249, and the tonnage to 18,786. The imports during the same year amounted to L.265,203, and the exports to L.275,642. Elbing has lately increased by dividing the commerce with Dantzig, and the articles imported and exported are of the same description as constitute the trade of that city. Memel is the largest exporting city, and corn, ship-timber, and masts, pot and pearl ashes, with flax-seed, are its chief commodities. Stettin has the greatest portion of the import trade, as, from its position on the Oder, it is best calculated to receive colonial produce, and forward it to the capital and to the centre of the kingdom. It is also the port in which the greater part of the vessels for the fisheries are equipped. The estimated value of its exports in 1834 amounted to L.374,800, in 1835 to L.280,000; and that of its imports in 1834 to L.714,050, and in 1835 to L.841,670. Stralsund, though it possesses a good harbour, has but little trade, from being destitute of water-communicqtion with the interior of the kingdom. The other ports of Prussia, Colberg, Rugen-walde, Stolpe, Barth, Swinemunde, and Wolgast, carry on some trade, and though not to a great extent, it is valuable, from being almost exclusively conducted in national vessels. The whole exports of Prussia, both by land and by sea, amount to about L.4,500,000 sterling, the whole of the imports to about L.3,750,000; but in the latter is not included the products of their own oil and herring fisheries. The duties on imported goods vary from ten to twenty-five per cent, ad valorem, besides an additional tax, never exceeding ten per cent., for the consumption of imported goods. With very few exceptions, all exportations are duty free. For transit goods a certain import and export duty is paid. According to the commercial treaty with Great Britain, concluded 2d April 1824, a perfect reciprocity is established respecting the duties levied on ships belonging to either country visiting the ports of the other. Coasting is only permitted to ships belonging to Prussia.

A Statement of the Extent of each of the States composing the German Commercial Union, in German and English Square Miles, in the month of October 1836.
[table]
[7:18:695]

A Recapitulation of the States composing the Prussian Commercial Union, with the Population of each State.
[table]

The government of Prussia is an unlimited monarchy; for though in some of the provinces, by ancient custom, the states still exist, they seldom assemble, and only for such inferior purposes as regulating the debts or expenses of their respective provinces. They have no legislative powers, and scarcely even the right to make representations to the monarch. By the act of the 5th of June 1823, an assembly was instituted, composed of provincial members, to meet alternately at Berlin, Königsberg, Dantzig, or Stettin. The qualifications for membership are ten years’ possession of an estate, connection with one of the Christian churches, to be thirty years of age, and to have a blameless reputation. The electors must be twenty-four years of age, and no one can give his vote by proxy. Tfie crown is hereditary in the oldest member of the royal family, whether male or female. The monarch is of age when he arrives at his eighteenth year. The natural guardian of the royal minor is the nearest and oldest princely relation of the house. The king professes the evangelical religion, but he may, if he chooses, follow the Roman Catholic faith. The sole executive and legislative power is vested in him, and his authority is less restrained by the ancient privileges and usages of his subjects than that of any other European monarch. The administration is vested in a council· of state, consisting of members of the royal family, and of the ministers of foreign affairs, of the finances, of justice, of public instruction, of trade, of the public debt, of police, and of war. The state chancellor is president of this council, and to him all the heads of the different departments are accountable, and make their weekly reports. He is uncontrollable by his colleagues, and directed solely by the king. In the details of the administration, through all the inferior departments there is much simplicity, and a degree of economy in remunerating public services which scarcely finds a parallel under any other government.

The canton of Neufchatel enjoys peculiar privileges, and a form of government altogether different from that by which the rest of the Prussian dominions is regulated. It forms a part of the Swiss confederation; and though it acknowledges the king of Prussia as its sovereign, his influence is very inconsiderable. He receives only the revenue of some domains, and a very moderate land-tax, which cannot be augmented. The inhabitants who choose the military profession may enter into the service of any state not actually at war with Prussia. Every profession and every trade are free, and no customs are levied, and no duties imposed on any goods which enter or leave the territory.

The orders of knighthood established in Prussia are, the order of the black eagle, founded 18th January 1701, by Frederick I.; the order of the red eagle, founded 1734, by the Margrave Frederick Charles of Baireuth; the order pour le merite, founded 1740, by Frederick II.; the royal Prussian new order of St John, founded 1812, in commemoration of the ancient order of St John, dissolved 1811. During the war with France in 1813 and 1815, the Iron Cross was given to those who either had actually fought against the enemy, or else done some meritorious act, either civil or military, during that period. The king also founded, in 1814, the order of Louise for females who distinguished themselves in the cause of their country during the war. There are, besides, various other marks of distinction given for different degrees of military service. All orders are distributed by the king alone.

The revenues of Prussia are derived from taxes upon the land, upon persons, upon patents, and licenses, which are denominated direct contributions; and from an excise, or rather a custom-duty, on foreign productions. A small sum is derived from stamped paper. In those provinces which were taken from the French empire, the taxes on land, on trades, on doors and windows, as then established, are still continued, and will remain till the whole of these provinces are brought under the simple regulations established in the other dominions. More than one fourth of the revenue of the monarchy is derived from the royal domains, and the hereditary rights or royalties which are exercised over the mines, the salt-springs, the game, the coinage, the posting, and the postage, with some other branches. Though the higher branches of the administration appear to be benefited by parsimony in the salaries, yet in the inferior departments it appears to be injurious, as the petty officers, who are very numerous, are too poor to refuse bribes; and they are not deterred by the apprehension of dismission from offices whose fair emoluments scarcely equal the wages of a day-labourer.
[7:18:696]

The following is a Statement of the Average Annual Income of the Kingdom of Prussia, under its several heads, from 1829 to 1834, and of (he same prospectively from 1834 to 1837, inclusive.
[table]

Before the reign of the father of the present king, Prussia had no public debt whatever, but usually a sufficient accumulation of money to meet any emergency that might occur. The present king, by economy and regularity, had reduced the debt which his predecessor had incurred, when the rupture with Napoleon in 1806 drew forth all his resources, and until the year 1815 the debt continued to increase. Since the restoration of general peace, due measures have been taken for the reduction of it. On the 12th of January 1833 it amounted to L.25,678,365, including a loan of L.6,000,000 from British subjects, and the debts assumed upon the cessions of territory from Sweden, Denmark, and Saxony. Besides this national debt, many of the corporate bodies have borrowed considerable sums, which were presented to the government in the most critical periods, and which are in the progress of being liquidated from their own incomes.

The expenditure of the government is upon a very low scale. No court can be less expensive than that of Berlin, and no monarch can be less attentive to his personal gratifications than the present king, who, like his predecessor, Frederick II., appropriates but a small portion of his patrimonial income to his private purposes, devoting it principally to the service of the state. The average annual expenditure from 1829 to 1837 inclusive was as follows:
[table]

In 1832 the Prussian army stood as follows :—

Royal guards—Infantry 16,280

Cavalry 3,820

20,000

Line—Infantry 118,510

... Cavalry 19,100

137,640

Artillery and pioneers 17,720

175,360

Landwehr 153,420

The regular ranks are filled by a conscription, which compels every young man, as he arrives at twenty years of age, to serve for a limited period. If the conscript can purchase his arms and accoutrements, and pay a small sum, he may at the end of one year pass into the landwehr, which is composed of this class of men, and of all others between twenty-five and forty years of age. In time of peace the landwehr is exercised but one day in the year, but in war it becomes a disposable force, and is marched wherever its services may be deemed necessary. The other militia force, the landsturm, is composed of all males capable of bearing [7:18:697]arms, above forty years of age. This force is only called out in periods of great emergency, and then its duty is entirely domestic, being confined to guarding prisoners and maintaining internal tranquillity. But it is unnecessary to enlarge on this subject, as it is pretty fully treated of in the article Army, to which the reader is referred.

Soldiers who are maimed or severely wounded are admitted either into the hospitals at Berlin, Stolpe, &c. or into one of the twenty-four invalid companies, and receive board, lodging, clothes, and necessary medical attendance. Those who are less severely wounded, or who in consequence of their military service are incapable of entirely earning their livelihood, receive pensions proportioned to circumstances.

To the military establishment belong the institution for the education of the children of soldiers in Stralsund and Annaburg, and the Military Orphan Hospital in Potsdam, where the orphans of soldiers are maintained and educated.

The principal fortresses in the kingdom are, in the province of Prussia, Dantzig, with Weichselmunde, Grau-dentz, Pillau, and Thorn; in Pomerania, Colberg and Stettin; in Brandenburg, Kustrin and Spandau; in Silesia, Glutz, Glogau, Kosel, Neize, Schweidnitz, and Silberberg; in Saxony, Magdeburg, Wittenberg, Torgau, and Erfurt; in Westphalia, Minden; in the province of the Rhine, Wesel, Cologne, Gulick, Saarlouis, and Ehrenbreitstein, with Coblentz.

Prussia enjoys a peculiar code of laws, founded by Frederick the Great upon the ancient customs and usages of the people, and finally reduced to a more regular system in 1794. The magistracy in the rural districts is still a patrimonial right, vested in owners of particular estates; but the power formerly possessed by them has been contracted within narrower limits than formerly. The decision of these lower courts is not final, except in very trifling cases; and an appeal may be made to the tribunals of the second instance, which are established in the several provinces, and to whom is attached the superintendence of the colleges for imparting legal knowledge to pupils. To these tribunals of the second instance, or Oberlandesgerichten, is intrusted the duty of promulgating the laws, of watching over the interests of lunatics and minors, as well as of deciding processes. They are usually divided into two portions, one of which attends to the appeals from the inferior courts, and the other pronounces sentence on such civil and criminal cases as originate in them. From all the Oberlandesgerichten appeals may be brought before the High College of Justice in Berlin, whose decisions are final. The Prussian system of law is more simplified than most of those of feudal origin, and in its practice it is expeditious, economical, and uniform. The police is under separate jurisdictions; and in the country the landraths resemble in some measure our petty sessions of justices of the peace. In the cities there are peculiar boards appointed, under whose direction the regulation of buildings, sewers, and the supplies of water and of food, are placed. The police has the superintendence of the examination of those who are licensed to practise the medical profession, of the insurance offices against losses by fire, and of the engines and other implements to prevent fire from extending. To this is added the keeping a watchful eye on all individuals who have no visible means of subsistence. In all the cities the police is mildly and regularly administered, with more attention to the prevention than the punishment of crimes.

As to the amount of crime, it varies considerably in the different provinces. It appears from the returns, that crimes are most rare in the Protestant districts, and most common in those where the numerous festivals and holidays of the Roman Catholic Church are observed. It is certain, besides, that the most industrious countries are those in which there are fewest Romanists. In the territories of Aix-la-Chapelle one individual out of every 60,000 inhabitants has been found guilty of murder; in the province of Saxony and the country of Munster, one out of every 35,000; in the district of Marienwerder, one out of every 25,000; in Pomerania, one out of every 4760; in the towns of Cologne, Munster, Dusseldorf, and Aix-la-Chapelle, one out of every 400. As to the number of thefts and robberies, there is in Pomerania one for every 6432 inhabitants; in Western Prussia, Silesia, or Eastern Prussia, one for every 3000; in the neighbourhood of Coblentz and Treves, one for every 800; in Cologne, Dusseldorf, Munster, and Aix-la-Chapelle, one for every 400.

Few of the nations of Europe have, within the last two centuries, exceeded Prussia in the number and eminence of its men of learning, or in the variety and excellence of its establishments for the promotion of science and literature. In no other country is the instruction of the lower classes so sedulously provided for, and in none are there so few persons who are ignorant of the first rudiments of knowledge. In Prussia, as in other countries, public instruction long formed a part of the business of the minister of the interior; but in 1819 a special department of administration was devoted to this object. The minister of public instruction enjoys a rank and authority equal to those of any of his colleagues. Under him is a numerous council, divided into three sections; one for church affairs, composed of a certain number of councillors, chiefly ecclesiastics, with a director at their head; another for public instruction, also composed of a certain number of councillors, almost all laymen, with a director; and a section for medicine, with its councillors and director. All the members of this council receive salaries from the state. The same individual may belong to two sections, but he can in no case receive more than the salary of one. In each of the ten provinces into which Prussia is divided, under the direction of the supreme president of the province, is an institution called the Provincial Consistory, which is connected with and dependent upon the ministry of public instruction, and having its internal organization formed upon the same model. All the members are nominated directly by the minister of public instruction, and they are remunerated for their labours. Their duty is more peculiarly to superintend the secondary instruction, the gymnasia, and higher burgher schools. Every gemeinde (parish) must by the law of the land have a school; and the pastor or curate is, in virtue of his office, the inspector of this school, associated with whom is a committee composed of some of the most considerable persons of the parish. In the urban parishes the magistrates form a higher committee or board, which presides over all these schools with their several committees, and arranges them into one harmonious system. There is, moreover, in the chief town of the circle another inspector, whose authority extends to all the schools of that circle, and who corresponds with the local inspectors and committees. In the regierung (regency) of every department there is a special councillor for the primary schools, called schulrath (school councillor), who acts as a link between the public instruction and the ordinary civil administration of the province. He inspects the schools, quickens and keeps alive the zeal of the school-inspectors, school-committees, and the schoolmasters. He conducts the correspondence relative to schools in the name of the regency, with the local and superior inspectors, as well as with the provincial consistories and the minister of public instruction. Like all his colleagues, he is a paid officer.

In Prussia the state imposes on all parents the strict obligation of sending their children to school, unless they can prove that they are giving them a competent education at home. Children must remain at school from their seventh to their fourteenth year inclusive.^[11. Five is the age fixed by the fundamental law, but seven is that at which education is rigidly enforced. ] Neglect of this duty exposes[7:18:698] parents or guardians to punishment by fine or imprisonment. The hours of lessons in the elementary schools are arranged in such a manner as to facilitate to parents the execution of this law, and at the same time not to deprive them entirely of the assistance which their children might afford them in their labours; and care is everywhere taken to furnish necessitous parents with the means of sending their children to school, by providing them with the things necessary for their instruction, or with such clothes as they stand in need of. Every parish, however small, is bound to have an elementary school, accomplishing at least the most indispensable part of the scheme of instruction prescribed by law; and every town is bound to have at least one burgher school or more, according to its population. Iu certain cases where a parish is absolutely unable to furnish the means of an elementary school of itself, several villages may unite together into one school association. The law provides also a suitable income for teachers, and certain provision for them when they are past service, a suitable building for the purposes of teaching and of exercise, furniture, books, &c. and pecuniary assistance for the necessitous scholars. The gymnasia, and other establishments of a similar kind, are principally supported by the general funds of the state, or of the province; but the inferior schools in towns and villages are supported by the towns, and by the school associations in the country. If, however, a town is unable out of its own resources to support the lower grade of instruction of which it stands in need, aid is given to it from the school funds of the department to which it belongs. The necessary funds are provided by an assessment levied on all the householders in the parish.

Every complete elementary school comprehends the following objects:—Religious instruction; the German language; the elements of geometry, together with the general principles of drawing; calculation and practical arithmetic, the elements of physics, geography, general history, and especially the history of Prussia; singing, writing, and gymnastic exercises; the simplest manual labours, and some instruction in husbandry. The instructions in religion, reading, writing, arithmetic, and singing, are indispensable in every school; and no school is considered as complete unless it fulfil the whole scheme of instruction just marked out. Next to the village are the burgher schools, where, in addition to the branches taught in the elementary schools, the pupils are instructed in Latin, and prepared for admission into institutions called gymnasia, similar to our grammar schools of Winchester, Eton, Westminster, and Edinburgh. In these institutions classical learning is pursued to a great extent, as preparatory to admission into the universities; some of them are under the direction of the Protestants, others under that of the Catholics, and some few under a combined direction of both sects. They have, according to their extent, from four to twelve masters; and the pupils are divided into five or six classes, the lower of which differ but little in their instructions from the burgher schools. In the larger and middle-sized cities schools are established for the instruction of the females, with which, in Silesia, are combined, amongst those of the lower class, the teaching the delicate art of lace-making.

The religious instruction given in the Prussian schools is always adapted to the doctrines of the church to which the school belongs. The children of a different persuasion, however, are subjected to no kind of annoyance or constraint on account of their particular creed. No attempt is made to proselytise them; and they are not obliged, against the will of their parents, or their own, to attend the religious instruction or exercises of the school, but private masters of their own creed are charged with their religious education. Every scholar of an elementary school must, when he leaves it, receive a certificate as to his capacity, and his moral and religious dispositions, signed by the masters and the school-committee. These certificates are always presented to the clergyman before admission to the communion, to master-manufacturers or artisans on being bound apprentices, or to housekeepers on entering service.

In order to provide schools with proper masters, primary normal schools have been instituted, in which those intended for the office of teachers receive instruction in the appropriate branches of education, and especially in the theory and practice of teaching. Pecuniary assistance is also given to a certain fixed number of poor scholars of good promise. The expenses of these establishments are defrayed partly by the general funds of the state, and partly by the departmental funds for schools. The age of admission is from sixteen to eighteen years, and the course of study extends to three years; and during that time no pupil is called out to active service in the army. Any person of mature age and irreproachable character may be appointed to the office of schoolmaster, if he is found, on examination, to possess the necessary qualifications; but preference is given to the pupils of the primary normal schools. The election of the schoolmasters for country schools is vested in the committee of superintendence; for town schools supported by a public rate, in the municipal authorities; but in all schools in towns founded by the king, the election to masterships is conducted by the provincial consistories. The election must, however, be ratified by royal authority before the teacher can be installed in his office, or be entitled to its revenues. Able and diligent schoolmasters are encouraged by promotion to places of a higher class, and even, on particular occasions, by extraordinary rewards; neglect of duty, and other offences, are punished by reprimands, fines, and deprivation of employment. Public schools are the basis of popular instruction in Prussia, but private schools are not prohibited. Those, however, who wish to establish schools for private education must undergo an examination, and receive a license from the provincial consis-tory; and the establishment is placed under the special supervision of one of the members of the school-committee of the town or district in which it is situated.

In 1831 it was estimated that, in Prussia, the children of from one day to fourteén years old amounted to 4,767,072. It is a rule in statistics, that out of a hundred children, those between seven and fourteen form three sevenths, which gives out of every hundred, forty-three of an age to go to school (or, to give theminutest fractions, 42,857 in 100,000), and consequently in Prussia 2,043,030. Now it has been found, according to the accurate calculation of the attendance lists, that the actual number of children who attended the public primary schools in the year 1831 was 2,021,421, exhibiting the slight difference of only 21,609 between the real and the normal number. And even this will vanish, if we consider that these calculations are founded only on the public primary schools, and do not include the private ones; and that no account is taken of the children educated at home, nor of the boys belonging to the lower classes of the gymnasia. Taking these circumstances into account, it is evident that the number of children under fourteen who receive in one way or another the benefits of education, is not only equal to three sevenths of the population, but that it must actually exceed that number; a circumstance which can be explained only by the fact, that in the most civilized provinces of Prussia the taste for instruction is so generally diffused, that parents anticipate the age fixed by law for sending their children to school. The following statement will show the relative proportion in each province, of the total number of children attending public schools:

At the end of the year 1831, in every 100,000 children, the number who attended public schools was, in the province of Saxony, 54,515; in that of Westphalia, 47,386; in that of Brandenburg, 45,814; in that of Silesia, 45,042; in that of the Rhine, 41,002; in that of Pomerania, [7:18:699]40,775; in that of Prussia, 39,651; and in that of Posen, ' 22,283. The difference in the proportion of boys and of girls is inconsiderable. Out of 2,021,421 children attending school, there were, in 1831, 1,044,364 boys, or 43,694 in 100,000; and 977,057 girls, or 41,106 in 100,000. The total number of primary public schools was 22,612; of these, 21,789 are elementary and 823 middle schools, of which 481 are for boys and 342 for girls. The elementary schools are attended by 987,475 boys and by 930,459 girls, and the middle schools by 56,889 boys and by 46,598 girls. For the 22,612 public schools there are in all 27,749 masters and mistresses, who are distributéd as follows, viz. 21,789 elementary schools, with 22,211 regular masters, 694 regular mistresses, and 2014 assistant masters and mistresses; 481 middle or burgher schools for boys, with 1172 regular masters and 360 assistant masters; 342 middle or burgher schools for girls, with 633 regular masters, 289 regular mistresses, and 471 assistant masters and mistresses.

In the year 1831 there were in Prussia thirty-three great primary normal schools, each of which contained from forty to 100 pupils; their total expenditure was L.16,583, and the grants from the state amounted to L∙13,260. Besides these, there are a considerable number of small normal schools. The annual sum paid by the public treasury for the elementary and the burgher schools throughout Prussia amounted in 1831 to L.34,520.

As primary instruction belongs chiefly to the department and the parish, and secondary instruction to the provinces, so the universities are under the exclusive care of the state, and, like the universities in the other parts of Germany, are either endowed, or the expenses of the professors and the libraries are defrayed by the government. The course of study is left much to the choice of the students, and is therefore too much influenced by the temporary popularity of particular professors. The means of instruction in every branch of science and literature arc abundantly furnished; and, in spite of the want of discipline which generally prevails, the foundation is laid in them of those eminent acquirements in which the students have afterwards distinguished themselves in the various walks of science and literature. The principal universities arc those of Berlin, Breslau, Halle, Bonn, Königsberg, Munster, and Greifswald.

A Statement of the Average Number of Students in each Eranch of Science, distinguishing Natives from Foreigners, in the several Universities and Catholic Seminaries of Prussia ; also the Number of Professors in each, and the Average Number of Students to each Professor, in the Year 1834.
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Statement of the Total Average Number of Students in each Branch of Science, distinguishing Natives from Foreigners, in the Universities of Prussia, in each Half Year from 1830 to 1834.
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The state makes annual allowances for the support of the various departments of the universities.

I— The University at Berlin.
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[7:18:700]

II.— University at Bonn.
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III.— University of Bresi au .
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IV University of Greifswald.
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V.— University at Halle.
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VI University of Königsberg.
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There arc also, unconnected with the universities, theological academies for the Catholics, Lutherans, and Moravians, where they receive the instruction necessary to qualify them for the duties of their functions. Besides these, there are useful establishments for pupils in medicine, surgery, midwifery, the veterinary and military professions, rural economy, and for teaching the deaf and dumb, and the blind.

The collections of natural history, the philosophical and astronomical apparatus, and the public libraries, are upon a very liberal footing, and at the service of any individual who wishes to avail himself of their assistance. The libraries of Berlin thus open to general use contain more than 300,000 volumes, those of Breslau more than 100,000, that of Halle more than 50,000, and in the other cities large collections are generally to be found.

The freedom of the press has of late been somewhat restrained, particularly as relates to fugitive and periodical publications of the smaller class. All books must undergo censorship previous to publication; but works of science are allowed to pass with scarcely any inspection, and there is no restriction on bringing into Prussia any works published in any of the other states of Germany. The universities have an unlimited right of printing without a previous inspection. In the year 1819 the newspapers were, sixty-two government weekly papers, which contained little but domestic intelligence and advertisements; fifteen political papers written by individuals, but with much reserve; and one literary journal.

A savings bank was established in Berlin in 1818. It allows four and a half per cent, on every deposit from a crown upwards. Its capital has increased rapidly, and in 1824 amounted to 685,742 crowns.

The practice of insuring against fire has now become very general, and the property insured in the province of Brandenburg alone in 1824 amounted to 37,854,875 crowns.

The currency of Prussia consists of metallic and paper money, but the former is so much greater in amount, that the latter suffers no depreciation. The metallic money is estimated to amount to 30,000,000 reichs-thalern. The paper money, including that issued by a privileged company, [7:18:701]does not amount to more than 5,000,000, and, by means of a sinking fund, is gradually diminishing, and will soon be extinct. The money is coined in Berlin, Breslau, and Dusseldorf. The gold coins are double, single, and half Frederick William d’ors, valued at 10 d., 5 d. and 2½ d. reichs-thalern. The silver coins are the thaler, the half thaler, and the third, sixth, and twelfth of the thaler. The copper and mixed metal coins are groschen, sechser, drier, and pfenninge. In the old provinces accounts are kept in dollars (thalern), groschen, and pfenningen. Twelve pfenningen make a grosch, and twenty-four groschen a dollar. The value of the dollar in exchange with London varies from three shillings to three shillings and twopence. In the provinces the accounts are kept in various denominations of money, but they are easily reduced into florins or gulden, three of which are equal to two dollars, and the value of which in exchange with London is about two shillings.

The legal long measure of Prussia is the Berlin ell of two feet, which contains 25½ths Rhenish inches, or 296 French lines. In the distant provinces a local measure of length prevails, which differs in each. The Prussian mile is 23,685

feet, or nearly the same as the German geographical mile, or one fifteenth of a degree of latitude, being somewhat less than four and a half English miles. The land measure is the Magdeburg morgen of100 roods, each rood of twelve feet; and the foot is about one seventh longer than the English; thus the morgen is nearly two thirds of an English acre. The dry measure is the Berlin scheffel of 2758Parisian cubic inches, or nearly one bushel, one peck, and one gallon, English measure. The liquid measures are more various than any other, and differ in every province; but as they are all legally reducible to Berlin measure, we give that only, viz. an oxhoft is six cimer, an cimer two ankers, an anker thirty-two quarts, the quart two noseln. The quart contains fifty-eight Parisian cubic inches, or nearly one ninth less than the English quart. The weights of commerce are the shipslast, containing twelve shipspounds; the shipspound contains 280 common pounds; the centner, of 110 pounds, is divided into light and heavy stones, having ten of the former and five of the latter; the pound is divided into two marks, the mark into sixteen loth, the loth into fourquentchen, and the quentchen into four pfenningen.