Let
Dryasdust
bethink him; and gird
"his flabby loins to this Enterprise; which is very be-
"hoveful in these Californian times!
"his flabby loins to this Enterprise; which is very be-
"hoveful in these Californian times!
Thomas Carlyle
cl, v.
185.
This, I suppose, would be his enumeration: Lobositj
(1756); Prni/, Kolin, Hastenbeck, Gross-Jagersdorf, Itossbach, Breslau, Lett-
then (1757); Crefold, Zorndorf, Hofhkirch (1758): "eleven hitherto in all. "
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, i. l PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 83
Jan. -April 1759.
come! And on the part of Britannic George and him,
repeated attempts were made,-- one in the end of this
Year 1759; -- but one and all of them proved futile,
and, unless for accidental reasons, need to be men-
tioned here. Many men, in all nations, long for Peace;
but there are Three Women at the top of the world
who do not; their wrath, various in quality, is great
in quantity, and disasters do the reverse of appeas-
ing it.
The French people, as is natural, are weary of a
War which yields them mere losses and disgraces;
"War carried on for Austrian whims, which likewise
seem to be impracticable! " think they. And their
Bernis himself, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who began
this sad French-Austrian Adventure, has already been
remonstrating with Kaunitz, and grumbling anxiously,
"Could not the Swedes, or somebody, be got to mediate?
Such a War is too ruinous! " Hearing which, the
Pompadour is shocked at the favourite creature of her
hands; hastens to dismiss him ("Be Cardinal, then, you
ingrate of a Bernis; disappear under that Red Hat! ")
-- and appoints, in his stead, one Choiseul (known
hitherto as Stainville, Comte de Stainville, French Ex-
cellency at Vienna, but now made Duke on this pro-
motion), Due de Choiseul;* who is a Lorrainer, or
Semi-Austrian, by very birth; and probably much fitter
for the place. A swift, impetuous kind of man, this
Choiseul, who is still rather young than otherwise; plenty
of proud spirit in him, of shifts, talent of the reckless
sort; who proved very notable in France for the next
twenty years.
French trade being ruined withal, money is running
* Minister of Foreign Affairs, "11th November 1758" (Barbier, iv. 294).
6*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 84 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. -- April 1759.
dreadfully low: but they appoint a new Controller-
General; a M. de Silhouette, who is thought to have
an extraordinary creative genius in Finance. Had he
but a Fortunatus-Purse, how lucky were it! With
Fortunatus Silhouette as purseholder, with a fiery young
Choiseul on this hand, and a fiery old Belleisle on
that, Pompadour meditates great things this Year, --
Invasions of England; stronger German Armies; better
German Plans, and slashings home upon Hanover it-
self, or the vital point; -- and flatters herself, and her
poor Louis, that there is on the anvil, for 1759, such
a French Campaign as will perhaps astonish Pitt and
another insolent King. Very fixed, fell, and feminine
is the Pompadour's humour in this matter. Nor is the
Czarina's less so; but more, if possible; unappeasable except by death. Imperial Maria Theresa has masculine
reasons withal; great hopes, too, of late. Of the War's
ending till flat impossibility stop it, there is no likeli-
hood.
To Pitt this Campaign 1759, in spite of bad omens
at the outset, proved altogether splendid: but greatly
the reverse on Friedrich's side; to whom it was the
most disastrous and unfortunate he had yet made, or
did ever make. Pitt at his zenith, in public reputation;
Friedrich never so low before, nothing seemingly but
extinction near ahead, when this Year ended. The
truth is, apart from his specific pieces of ill-luck, there
had now begun for Friedrich a new rule of procedure,
which much altered his appearance in the world.
Thrice over had he tried by the aggressive or invasive
method; thrice over made a plunge at the enemy's
heart, hoping so to disarm or lame him: but that, with
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 85
Jan. --April 1759.
resources spent to such a degree, is what he cannot do
a fourth time; he is too weak henceforth to think of
that.
Prussia has always its King, and his unrivalled
talent; but that is pretty much the only fixed item.
Prussia vmus France, Austria, Russia, Sweden and the
German Reich, what is it as a field of supplies for war!
Except its King, these are failing, year by year; and
at a rate fatally swift in comparison. Friedrich cannot
now do Leuthens, Rossbachs; far-shining feats of
victory, which astonish all the world. His fine
Prussian veterans have mostly perished; and have
been replaced by new levies and recruits; who are
inferior both in discipline and in native quality; --
though they have still, people say, a noteworthy taste
of the old Prussian sort in them; and do, in fact, fight
well to the last. But "it is observable," says Retzow
somewhere, and indeed it follows from the nature of
the case, "that while the Prussian Army presents
"always its best kind of soldiers at the beginning of a
"war, Austria, such are its resources in population,
"always improves in that particular, and its best troops
"appear in the last campaigns. " In a word, Friedrich
stands on the defensive henceforth; disputing his ground
inch by inch: and is reduced, more and more, to battle
obscurely with a hydra-coil of enemies and impediments;
and to do heroisms which make no noise in the Ga-
zettes. And, alas, which cannot figure in History
either, -- what is mora a sorrow to me here!
Friedrich, say all judges of soldiership and human
character who have studied Friedrich sufficiently, "is
greater than ever," in these four Years now coming. *
* Berenhorst, Kricjsknnsl. ; Retzow; &c.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 86 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
And this, I have found more and more to be a true
thing; verifiable and demonstrable in time and place,
though, unluckily for us, hardly in this time or this
place at all! A thing which cannot, by any method,
be made manifest to the general reader; who delights
in shining summary feats, and is impatient of tedious
preliminaries and investigations, -- especially of maps, which are the indispensablest requisite of all. A thing,
in short, that belongs peculiarly to soldier-students;
who can undergo the dull preliminaries, most dull but
most inexorably needed; and can follow out, with watch-
ful intelligence, and with a patience not to be wearied,
the multifarious topographies, details of movements and
manoeuverings, year after year, on such a Theatre of
War. What is to be done with it here! If we could,
by significant strokes, indicate, under features true so
far as they went, the great wide fireflood that was
raging round the world; if we could, carefully omitting
very many things, omit of the things intelligible and
decipherable that concern Friedrich himself, nothing
that had meaning: if indeed --I But it is idle pre-
luding. Forward again, brave reader, under such con-
ditions as there are!
Friedrich's Winter in Breslau was of secluded'
silent, sombre character, this time; nothing of stir in it
but from work only: in marked contrast with the last,
and its kindly visitors and gaieties. A Friedrich given
up to his manifold businesses, to his silent sorrows.
"I have passed my winter like a Carthusian monk,"
he writes to D'Argens: "I dine alone; I spend my life
"in reading and writing; and I do not sup. When
"one is sad, it becomes at last too burdensome to hide
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 87
Jan. -- April 1759.
"one's grief continually; and it is better to give way
"to it by oneself, than to carry one's gloom into society.
"Nothing solaces me but the vigorous application re-
quired in steady and continuous labour. This dis-
"traction does force one to put away painful ideas,
"while its lasts: but, alas, no sooner is the work done,
"than these fatal companions present themselves again,
"as if livelier than ever. Maupertuis was right: the
"sum of evil does certainly surpass that of good: --
"but to me it is all one; I have almost nothing more
"to lose; and my few remaining days, what matters it
"much of what complexion they be? "*
The loss of his Wilhelmina, had there been no
other grief, has darkened all his life to Friedrich.
Readers are not prepared for the details of grief we
could give, and the settled gloom of mind they indicate.
A loss irreparable and immeasurable; the light of life,
the one loved heart that loved him, gone. His pas-
sionate appeals to Voltaire to celebrate for him in verse
his lost treasure, and at least make her virtues immortal,
are perhaps known to readers:** alas, this is a very
feeble kind of immortality, and Friedrich too well feels
it such. All Winter he dwells internally on the sad
matter, though soon falling silent on it to others.
The War is ever more dark and dismal to him; a
wearing, harassing, nearly disgusting task; on which,
however, depends life or death. This year, he "expects
* "Breslau, lit March 1759," ToD'Argens (JEmres de Frederic, xrx. 56).
** Ode sur la mort de S. A. S. Madame la Prince$xe de Bureitli (in (Euvres
de Voltaire, xvm. 79-86): see Friedrich's Letter to him (6th November 1758);
with Voltaire's Verses in Answer (next month); Friedrich's new Letter
(Brcslau, 23d January 1759), demanding something more, -- followed by
the Ode just cited (lb. lxxii. 402; lxxViii. 82, 92; or (Euvres de Frederic,
xxiii. 20-24; &c. ).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 88 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
"to have 300,000 enemies upon him;" and "is, with
"his utmost effort, getting up 150,000 to set against
"them. " Of business, in its many kinds, there can be
no lack! In the intervals he also wrote considerably:
one of his Pieces is a Sermon on The last Judgment;
handed to Reader De Catt, one evening: -- to De
Catt's surprise, and to ours; the Voiceless in a dark
Friedrich trying to give itself some voice in this way! *
Another Piece, altogether practical, and done with ex-
cellent insight, brevity, modesty, is On Tactics;** --
properly it might be called, "Serious very Private
Thoughts," thrown on paper, and communicated only
to two or three, "On the new kind of Tactics necessary
with those Austrians and their Allies," who are in
such overwhelming strength. "To whose continual
"sluggishness, and strange want of concert, to whose
"incoherency of movements, languor of execution, and
"other enormous faults, we have owed, with some
"excuse for our own faults, our escaping of destruction
"hitherto," -- but had better not trust that way any
longer! Fouquet is one of the highly select, to whom
he communicates this Piece; adding along with it, in
Fouquet's case, an affectionate little Note, and, in spite
of poverty, some Newyear's Gift, as usual, -- the
"Widow's Mite" (300/. , we find); "receive it with
"the same heart with which it was set apart for you:
"a small help, which you may well have need of, in
"these calamitous times. "*** Fouquet much admires the
new Tactical Suggestions; -- seems to think, however,
* (Emres de Frederic, xv. 1-10 (see Preuss's Preface there; Formey,
Souvenirs, i. 37; &c. &c. ).
** Reflexions mr fa Tnctique: in (Euvres de Fre'deric, xxvm. 153-16G.
*** "Breslau, 23d December 1758;" with Fouquet's Answer, 2d January
1759: in (Euvree de Frederic, xx. 114-117.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 89
Jan. -April 1759.
that the certainly practicable one is, in particular, the
last, That of "improving our Artillery to some equality
with theirs. " For which, as may appear, the King
has already been taking thought, in more ways than
one.
Finance is naturally a heavy part of Friedrich's
Problem; the part which looks especially impossible,
from our point of vision! In Friedrich's Country, the
War Budget does not differ from the Peace one.
Neither is any borrowing possible; that sublime Art,
of rolling over on you know not whom the expenditure,
needful or needless, of your heavy-laden self, had not
yet, -- though England is busy at it, -- been invented
among Nations. Once, or perhaps twice, from the
Stiinde of some willing Province, Friedrich negotiated
some small Loan; which was punctually repaid when
Peace came, and was always gratefully remembered.
But these are as nothing, in face of such expenses;
and the thought how he did contrive on the Finance
side, is and was not a little wonderful. An ingenious
Predecessor, whom I sometimes quote, has expressed
himself in these words:
"Such modicum of Subsidy" (he is speaking of
the English Subsidy in 1758), "how useful will it
"prove in a Country bred everywhere to Spartan thrift,
"accustomed to regard waste as sin, and which will
"lay out no penny except to purpose! I guess the
"Prussian Exchequer is, by this time, much on the
"ebb; idle precious metals tending everywhere towards
"the melting-pot. At what precise date the Friedrich-
"Wilhelm balustrades, and enormous silver furnitures,
"were first gone into, Dryasdust has not informed me:
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 90 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. -- April 1759.
"but we know they all went; as they well might. To
"me nothing is so wonderful as Friedrich's Budget
"during this War. One day it will be carefully in-
"vestigated, elucidated and made conceivable and certain
"to mankind: but that as yet is far from being the case.
"We walk about in it with astonishment; almost, were
"it possible, with incredulity. Expenditure on this side,
"work done on that: human nature, especially British
"human nature, refuses to conceive it. Never in this
"world, before or since, was the like. The Friedrich "miracles in War are great; but those in Finance are
"almost greater.
Let Dryasdust bethink him; and gird
"his flabby loins to this Enterprise; which is very be-
"hoveful in these Californian times! "
The general Secret of Prussian Thrift, I do fear,
is lost from the world. And how an Army of about
200,000, in field and garrison, could be kept on foot,
and in some ability to front combined Europe, on about
Three Million Sterling annually ("25 million thalers" = 3,150,000/. , that is the steady War-Budget of those
years), remains to us inconceivable enough; -- mourn-
fully miraculous, as it were; and growing ever more so
in the Nugget-generations that now run. Meanwhile,
here are what hints I could find, on the Origins of that
modest Sum, which also are a wonder:*
"The Hoarded Prussian Moneys, or 'Treasures'" (two of
them, Kleine Schatz, Grosse Schatz, which are rigidly saved in
Peace years, for incidence of War), "being nearly run out,
"therehad come the English Subsidy: this, with Saxony, and
"the Home revenues and remnants of Schatz, had sufficed for
"1758; but will no longer suffice. Next to Saxony, the English
"Subsidy (670,000/. due the second time this year) was always
* Preuss, ii. 388-392; Stenzel, V. 137-141.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 91
Jan. --April 1759.
"Friedrich's principal resource: and in the latter years of the
"War, I observe, it was nearly twice the amount of what all
"his Prussian Countries together, in their ravaged and worn-
"out state, could yield him. In and after 1759, Desides Home
"Income, which is gradually diminishing, and English Sub-
sidy, which is a steady quantity, Friedrich's sources of re-
"venue are mainly Two.
"First, there is that of wringing money from your Enemies,
"from those that have deserved ill of you, -- such of them as
"you can come at. Enemies, open or secret, even 111-wishers, "we are not particular, provided only they lie within arm's-
"length. Under this head fall principally three Countries
"(and their three poor Populations, in lieu of their Govern-
"ments): Saxony, Mecklenburg (or the main part of it,
"Mecklenburg-5'ctoer/n), and Anhalt; from these three there
"is a continual forced supply of money and furnishings.
"Their demerits toFriedrich differ much in intensity; nor is
"his wringing of them, -- which in the cases of Mecklenburg
"and Saxony increases year by year to the nearly intolerable
"pitch, -- quite in the simple ratio of their demerits; but in
"a compound ratio, of that and of his indignation andofhis
"wants.
"Saxony, as Prime Author of this War, was from the first
"laid hold of, collared tightly: 'Pay the shot, then, what you
"'can' (in the end it was almost what you cannot)! As to
"Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the grudge against Prussia was of
"very old standing, some generations now; and the present
"Duke, not a very wise Sovereign more than his Ancestors,
"had always been ill with Friednch; willing to spite and hurt
"him when possible: in Reichs Diet he, of all German Princes,
"was the first that voted for Friedrich's being put to Ban of
"the Reich, --he; and his poor People know since whether
"that was a wise step! The little Anhalt Princes too, all the
"Anhalts, Dessau, Bernburg, Cothen, Zerbst" (perhaps the
latter partially excepted, for a certain Russian Lady's sake),
"had voted, or at least had ambiguously half-voted, in favour
"of the Ban, and done other unfriendly things; and had now
"to pay dear for their bits of enmities. Poor souls, they had
"but One Vote among them all Four; -- and they only half
"gave it, tremulously pulling it back again. I should guess it
"was their terrors mainly, and over-readiness to reckon
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 92 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
"Friedrich a sinking ship; and to leap from the deck of him,/
'-- with a spurn which he took for insolent! The Anhalt-
"Dessauers particularly, who were once of his very Army,
"half Prussians for generations back, he reckoned to have
"used him scandalously ill.
"This Year the requisition on the Four Anhalts, -- which
'th'ey submit to patiently, as people who have leapt into the
"wrong ship, -- is, in precise tale: of money, 330,000 tbalers
'(about 50,000i. ); recruits, 2,200; horses, 1,800. In Saxony,
"besides the fixed Taxes, strict confiscation of Meissen
"Potteries and every Royalty, there were exacted heavy
"' Contributions,' more and more heavy, from the few opulent
"Towns, chiefly fromLeipzig; which were wrung out, latterly,
"under great severities, -- 'chief merchants of Leipzig all
"clapt in prison, kept on bread and water till they yielded,'
"-- as great severities as would suffice, but not greater; which
"also was noted. Unfortunate chief merchants of Leipzig, --
"with Briihl and Polish Majesty little likely to indemnify
"them! Unfortunate Country altogether. An intelligent
"Saxon, who is vouched for as impartial, bears witness as
"follows: 'And this I know, that the oppressions and plunder-
"'ings of the Austrians and Reichsfolk, in Saxony, turned all
"'hearts away from them; and it was publicly said, We had
"'rather bear the steady burden of the Prussians than such
'"help as these our pretended Deliverers bring. '* Whereby,
"on the whole, the poor Country got its back broken, and
"could never look up in the world since. Resource First was
"abundantly severe.
"Resource Second is strangest of all; -- and has given rise
"to criticism enough! It is no other than that of issuing baise
'money; mixing your gold and silver coin with copper, --this,
"one grieves to say, is the Second and extreme resource. 'A
"rude method,. -- would we had a better, -- of suspending
"Cash-payments,and paying by bank-notes instead! ' thinks
"Friedrich, I suppose. From his Prussian Mints, from his
"Saxon" (which are his for the present), "andfrom the little
"Anhalt-Bernburg Mint" (of which he expressly purchased
the sad privilege, --for we are not a Coiner, we are a King
reduced to suspend Cash-payments, for the time being),
"Friedrich poured out over all Germany, in all manner of
* Stenzel (citing from Kriegskanzlei, which I have not), v. 137n.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 93
Jau. --April 1759.
"kinds, huge quantities of bad Coin. This, so long as it would
"last, is more and more a copious fountain of supply. This,
"for the first time, has had to appear as an item in War-
"Budget 1759: and it fails in no following, but expands more
"and more. It was done through Ephraim, the not lovely "Berlin Jew, whom we used to hear of in Voltaire's time; --
"through Ephraim and two others, Ephraim as President: in
"return for a net Sum, these shall have privilege to coin such
"and such amounts, so and so alloyed; shall pay to General
"Tauentzien, Army Treasurer, at fixed terms, the Sums spe-
cified: 'Go, and do it; our Mint-Officers sharply watching
"'you; Mint-Officers, and General Tauentzien' (with a young
"HerrLessing, as his Chief Clerk, of whom the King knows
"nothing): 'Go, ye unlovely! ' And Ephraim and Company
"are making a great deal of money by the unlovely job.
"Ephraim is the pair of tongs; the hand, and the unlovely job,
"are a royal mans. Alas, yes. And none of us knows better
"than King Friedrich, perhaps few of us as well, how little
"lovely a job it was; how shockingly unkingly it was,--
"though a practice not unknown to German Kings and King-
"lets before his time, and since down almost to ours. * In fact,
"these are all unkingly practices; and the English Subsidy
"itself is distasteful to a proud Friedrich: but what, in those
"circumstances, can any Friedrich do?
"The first coinages of Ephraim had, it seems, in them
"about 3-7ths of copper; something less than the half, and
"more than the third," -- your gold sovereign grown to be
"worth 28s. 6d. "But yearly it grew worse; and in 1762"
(English Subsidy having failed) "matters had got inverted;
"and there was three times as much copper as silver. Com-
"merce, as was natural, went rocking and tossing, as on a sea
"under earthquakes; but there was always ready money
"among Friedrich's soldiers, as among no other: nor did the
"common people, or retail purchasers, suffer byit. 'Hah, an
"'Ephraimite! ' they would say, grinning not ill-humouredly,
"at sight of one of these pieces; some of which they had more
"specifically named 'Blue-gowns'" (owing to a tint of blue
perceivable, in spite of the industrious plating in real silver,
* In Strnzel (v. 141), enumeration of eight or nine unhappy Potentates,
who were busy with it in those same years.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 94 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
or at least "boiling in some solution" of it); "these they would
"salute with this rhyme, then current:
"Von aussen schon, won innen sclilimm; Outside noble, inside slim:
"Von aus*en Friedrich, von innen Eph~ OutsideFriedrich, inside Ephraim.
* "raim.
"By this time, whatever of money, from any source, can
"be scraped together in Friedrich's world, flows wholly into
"the Army-Chest, as the real citadel of life. In these latter
"years of the War, beginning, I could guess, from 1759, all
"Civil expenditures, and wages of Officials, cease to be paid
"in money; nobody of that kind sees the colour even of bad
"coin; but is paid only in 'Paper Assignments,'in Promises
"to Pay 'after the Peace. ' These Paper Documents made no
"pretence to the rank of Currency: such holders of them as
"had money, or friends, and could wait, got punctual pay-
"ment when the term did arrive; but those that could not,
"suffered greatly; having to negotiate their debentures on
"ruinous terms, -- sometimes at an expense of three-fourths.
"--I will add Friedrich's practical Schedule of Amounts
"from all these various Sources; and what Friedrich's own
"view of the Sources was, when he could survey them from
"the safe distance.
"Schedule of Amounts" (say for 1761). "To make up the
"Twenty-five Million thalers, necessary for the Army, there
"are:
"From our Prussian Countries, ruined, harried as Thalers.
"they have been 4 millions only.
"From Saxony and the other Wringings, . . 7 millions.
"English Subsidy (4 of good gold; becoppered
"into double), 8 ,,
"From Ephraim and his Farm of the Mint (Mftiiz-
? ? Patent) 7
"In sum Twenty-six Millions; leaving you one Million of mar-
"gin, --and always a plenty of cash in hand for incidental
"sundries. *
"Friedrich's own view of these sad matters, as he closes
"his History of the Seven-Years War" (at "Berlin, 17thDecem-
"ber 1763 ), "is in these words: 'May Heaven grant, -- if
"'Heaven deign to look down on the paltry concerns of men,
"'that the unalterable and flourishing destiny of this Country
* Preuss, ii. 388.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHiP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 95
Jm. -April 1759.
'"preserve the Sovereigns who shall govern it, from the
"' scourges and calamities which Prussia has suffered in these
"'times of trouble and subversion; that they may never again
"'be forced to recur to the violent and fatal remedies which
'"we (Tun) have been obliged to employ in maintenance of
'"the State against the ambitious hatred of the Sovereigns of
"'Europe, who wished to annihilate the House of Branden-
'"burg, and exterminate from the world whatever bore the
"'Prussian name! '"*
Of the Small-War in Spring 1759. There are Five
Disruptions of that grand Cordon (February--April);
and Ferdinand of Brunswick fights his Battle of
Bergen (April 13th).
Friedrich, being denied an aggressive course this
Year, by no means sits idly expectant and defensive
in the interim; but, all the more vigorously, as is ob-
servable, from February onwards, strikes out from him
on every side: endeavouring to spoil the Enemy's Ma-
gazines, and cripple his operations in that way. So
that there was, all winter through, a good deal of
Small-War (some of it not Small), of more importance
than usual, -- chiefly of Friedrich's originating, with
the above view, or of Ferdinand his Ally's, on a still
more pressing score. And, on the whole, that immense
Austrian-French Cordon, which goes from the Carpathi-
ans to the Ocean, had by no means a quiet time; but
was broken into, and violently hurled back, in different
parts: some four, or even five, -- attacks upon it in
all; three of them by Prince Henri, -- in two of which
Duke Ferdinand's people cooperated; the business being
for mutual behoof. These latter Three were famous in
the world, that Winter; and indeed are still recognis- * (Euvres de Frederic, v. 234.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 96 FRlEDRlCH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book SIX.
2J Jan. 1759.
able as brilliant procedures of their kind; though, ex-
cept dates and results, we can afford almost nothing of
them here. These Three, intended chiefly against
Reichs people and their Posts and Magazines, fell out
on the western and middle part of the Cordon. Another
attack was in the extreme eastward, and was for Fried-
rich's own behoof; under Fouquet's management; --
intended against the Austrian-Moravian Magazines and
Preparations, but had little success. Still another as-
sault or invasive outroad, northward against the Russian
Magazines, there also was; of which by and by. Be-
sides all which, and more memorable than all, Duke
Ferdinand, for vital reasons of his own, fought a Battle
this Spring, considerable Battle, and did not gain it;
which made great noise in the world.
It is not necessary the reader should load his me-
mory with details of all these preliminary things; on
the contrary, it is necessary that he keep his memory
clear for the far more important things that lie ahead
of these, and entertain these in a summary way, as a
kind of foreground to what is coming. Perhaps the
following Fractions of Note, which put matters in some-
thing of Chronological or Synoptical form, will suffice
him, or more than suffice. He is to understand that
the grand tug of War, this Year, gradually turns out
not to be hereabouts, nor with Daun and his adjacen-
cies at all, but with the Russians, who arrive from the
opposite Northern quarter; and that all else will prove
to be merely prefatory and nugatory in comparison.
January 2d, 1759: Frank furt-on-Maipi, though it is aReich-
stadt, finds itself suddenly become French. "Prince de Soubise
"lies between Mayn and Lahn, with his 25,000; beautifully
"safe and convenient, -- though ill off for a place-of-arms in
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 97
itl Jan. 1759.
"those parts. Opulent Frankfurt, on his right; how handy
"would that be, were not Reichs Law so express! Marburg,
"Giessen are outposts of his; on which side one of Ferdinand s
"people, Prince von Ysenburg, watches him with an 8 or
"10,000, capable of mischief in that quarter.
"On the Eve of Newyear's day, or on the auspicious Day
"itself, Soubise requests, of the Frankfurt Authorities, per-
"mission for a regiment of his to march through that Imperial
"City. To which, by law and theory, the Imperial City can
"say Yes or No; but practically cannot, without grave incon-
"venience, say other than Yes, though most Frankfurters
"wish it could. 'Yes,' answer the Frankfurt Magnates; Yes,
"surely, under the known conditions. Tuesday, January 2d,
"about 5 in the morning, while all is still dark in Frankfurt,
"regiment Nassau appears, accordingly, at the Sachsen-
"hausen Gate, Townguard people all ready to receive it and
"escort it through; and is admitted as usual. Quite as usual:
"but instead of being escorted through, it orders, in calm
"peremptory voice, the Townguard, To ground arms; with
"calm rapidity, proceeds to admit ten other regiments or
"battalions, six of them German; seizes the artillery on the
"Walls, seizes all the other Gates: -- and poor Frankfurt
"finds itself tied hand and foot, almost before it is out of bed!
"Done with great exactitude, with the minimum of confusion,
"and without a hurt skin to anybody. The Inhabitants stood
"silent, gazing; the Townguard laid down their arms, and
"went home. Totally against law; but cleverly done; perhaps
"Soubise's chief exploit in the world; certainly the one real
"success the French have yet had.
"Soubise made haste to summon the Magistrates:'Law of
'"Necessity alone, most honoured Sirs! Reichs Law is clear
"'against me. But all the more shall private liberties, re-
"'ligions, properties, in this Imperial Free-Town, be sacred
"'to us. Defence against any aggression; and the strictest of
"'discipline observed. Depend on me, I bid you! ' -- And
"kept his word to an honourable degree, they say; orinab-
"sence, made it be kept, during the Four Years that follow.
"Most Frankfurters are, at heart, Anti-French: but Soubise's
"affability was perfect; and he gave evening parties of a
"sublime character; the Magistrates all appearing there,
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. XI. 1
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
?
(1756); Prni/, Kolin, Hastenbeck, Gross-Jagersdorf, Itossbach, Breslau, Lett-
then (1757); Crefold, Zorndorf, Hofhkirch (1758): "eleven hitherto in all. "
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, i. l PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 83
Jan. -April 1759.
come! And on the part of Britannic George and him,
repeated attempts were made,-- one in the end of this
Year 1759; -- but one and all of them proved futile,
and, unless for accidental reasons, need to be men-
tioned here. Many men, in all nations, long for Peace;
but there are Three Women at the top of the world
who do not; their wrath, various in quality, is great
in quantity, and disasters do the reverse of appeas-
ing it.
The French people, as is natural, are weary of a
War which yields them mere losses and disgraces;
"War carried on for Austrian whims, which likewise
seem to be impracticable! " think they. And their
Bernis himself, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who began
this sad French-Austrian Adventure, has already been
remonstrating with Kaunitz, and grumbling anxiously,
"Could not the Swedes, or somebody, be got to mediate?
Such a War is too ruinous! " Hearing which, the
Pompadour is shocked at the favourite creature of her
hands; hastens to dismiss him ("Be Cardinal, then, you
ingrate of a Bernis; disappear under that Red Hat! ")
-- and appoints, in his stead, one Choiseul (known
hitherto as Stainville, Comte de Stainville, French Ex-
cellency at Vienna, but now made Duke on this pro-
motion), Due de Choiseul;* who is a Lorrainer, or
Semi-Austrian, by very birth; and probably much fitter
for the place. A swift, impetuous kind of man, this
Choiseul, who is still rather young than otherwise; plenty
of proud spirit in him, of shifts, talent of the reckless
sort; who proved very notable in France for the next
twenty years.
French trade being ruined withal, money is running
* Minister of Foreign Affairs, "11th November 1758" (Barbier, iv. 294).
6*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 84 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. -- April 1759.
dreadfully low: but they appoint a new Controller-
General; a M. de Silhouette, who is thought to have
an extraordinary creative genius in Finance. Had he
but a Fortunatus-Purse, how lucky were it! With
Fortunatus Silhouette as purseholder, with a fiery young
Choiseul on this hand, and a fiery old Belleisle on
that, Pompadour meditates great things this Year, --
Invasions of England; stronger German Armies; better
German Plans, and slashings home upon Hanover it-
self, or the vital point; -- and flatters herself, and her
poor Louis, that there is on the anvil, for 1759, such
a French Campaign as will perhaps astonish Pitt and
another insolent King. Very fixed, fell, and feminine
is the Pompadour's humour in this matter. Nor is the
Czarina's less so; but more, if possible; unappeasable except by death. Imperial Maria Theresa has masculine
reasons withal; great hopes, too, of late. Of the War's
ending till flat impossibility stop it, there is no likeli-
hood.
To Pitt this Campaign 1759, in spite of bad omens
at the outset, proved altogether splendid: but greatly
the reverse on Friedrich's side; to whom it was the
most disastrous and unfortunate he had yet made, or
did ever make. Pitt at his zenith, in public reputation;
Friedrich never so low before, nothing seemingly but
extinction near ahead, when this Year ended. The
truth is, apart from his specific pieces of ill-luck, there
had now begun for Friedrich a new rule of procedure,
which much altered his appearance in the world.
Thrice over had he tried by the aggressive or invasive
method; thrice over made a plunge at the enemy's
heart, hoping so to disarm or lame him: but that, with
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 85
Jan. --April 1759.
resources spent to such a degree, is what he cannot do
a fourth time; he is too weak henceforth to think of
that.
Prussia has always its King, and his unrivalled
talent; but that is pretty much the only fixed item.
Prussia vmus France, Austria, Russia, Sweden and the
German Reich, what is it as a field of supplies for war!
Except its King, these are failing, year by year; and
at a rate fatally swift in comparison. Friedrich cannot
now do Leuthens, Rossbachs; far-shining feats of
victory, which astonish all the world. His fine
Prussian veterans have mostly perished; and have
been replaced by new levies and recruits; who are
inferior both in discipline and in native quality; --
though they have still, people say, a noteworthy taste
of the old Prussian sort in them; and do, in fact, fight
well to the last. But "it is observable," says Retzow
somewhere, and indeed it follows from the nature of
the case, "that while the Prussian Army presents
"always its best kind of soldiers at the beginning of a
"war, Austria, such are its resources in population,
"always improves in that particular, and its best troops
"appear in the last campaigns. " In a word, Friedrich
stands on the defensive henceforth; disputing his ground
inch by inch: and is reduced, more and more, to battle
obscurely with a hydra-coil of enemies and impediments;
and to do heroisms which make no noise in the Ga-
zettes. And, alas, which cannot figure in History
either, -- what is mora a sorrow to me here!
Friedrich, say all judges of soldiership and human
character who have studied Friedrich sufficiently, "is
greater than ever," in these four Years now coming. *
* Berenhorst, Kricjsknnsl. ; Retzow; &c.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 86 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
And this, I have found more and more to be a true
thing; verifiable and demonstrable in time and place,
though, unluckily for us, hardly in this time or this
place at all! A thing which cannot, by any method,
be made manifest to the general reader; who delights
in shining summary feats, and is impatient of tedious
preliminaries and investigations, -- especially of maps, which are the indispensablest requisite of all. A thing,
in short, that belongs peculiarly to soldier-students;
who can undergo the dull preliminaries, most dull but
most inexorably needed; and can follow out, with watch-
ful intelligence, and with a patience not to be wearied,
the multifarious topographies, details of movements and
manoeuverings, year after year, on such a Theatre of
War. What is to be done with it here! If we could,
by significant strokes, indicate, under features true so
far as they went, the great wide fireflood that was
raging round the world; if we could, carefully omitting
very many things, omit of the things intelligible and
decipherable that concern Friedrich himself, nothing
that had meaning: if indeed --I But it is idle pre-
luding. Forward again, brave reader, under such con-
ditions as there are!
Friedrich's Winter in Breslau was of secluded'
silent, sombre character, this time; nothing of stir in it
but from work only: in marked contrast with the last,
and its kindly visitors and gaieties. A Friedrich given
up to his manifold businesses, to his silent sorrows.
"I have passed my winter like a Carthusian monk,"
he writes to D'Argens: "I dine alone; I spend my life
"in reading and writing; and I do not sup. When
"one is sad, it becomes at last too burdensome to hide
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 87
Jan. -- April 1759.
"one's grief continually; and it is better to give way
"to it by oneself, than to carry one's gloom into society.
"Nothing solaces me but the vigorous application re-
quired in steady and continuous labour. This dis-
"traction does force one to put away painful ideas,
"while its lasts: but, alas, no sooner is the work done,
"than these fatal companions present themselves again,
"as if livelier than ever. Maupertuis was right: the
"sum of evil does certainly surpass that of good: --
"but to me it is all one; I have almost nothing more
"to lose; and my few remaining days, what matters it
"much of what complexion they be? "*
The loss of his Wilhelmina, had there been no
other grief, has darkened all his life to Friedrich.
Readers are not prepared for the details of grief we
could give, and the settled gloom of mind they indicate.
A loss irreparable and immeasurable; the light of life,
the one loved heart that loved him, gone. His pas-
sionate appeals to Voltaire to celebrate for him in verse
his lost treasure, and at least make her virtues immortal,
are perhaps known to readers:** alas, this is a very
feeble kind of immortality, and Friedrich too well feels
it such. All Winter he dwells internally on the sad
matter, though soon falling silent on it to others.
The War is ever more dark and dismal to him; a
wearing, harassing, nearly disgusting task; on which,
however, depends life or death. This year, he "expects
* "Breslau, lit March 1759," ToD'Argens (JEmres de Frederic, xrx. 56).
** Ode sur la mort de S. A. S. Madame la Prince$xe de Bureitli (in (Euvres
de Voltaire, xvm. 79-86): see Friedrich's Letter to him (6th November 1758);
with Voltaire's Verses in Answer (next month); Friedrich's new Letter
(Brcslau, 23d January 1759), demanding something more, -- followed by
the Ode just cited (lb. lxxii. 402; lxxViii. 82, 92; or (Euvres de Frederic,
xxiii. 20-24; &c. ).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 88 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
"to have 300,000 enemies upon him;" and "is, with
"his utmost effort, getting up 150,000 to set against
"them. " Of business, in its many kinds, there can be
no lack! In the intervals he also wrote considerably:
one of his Pieces is a Sermon on The last Judgment;
handed to Reader De Catt, one evening: -- to De
Catt's surprise, and to ours; the Voiceless in a dark
Friedrich trying to give itself some voice in this way! *
Another Piece, altogether practical, and done with ex-
cellent insight, brevity, modesty, is On Tactics;** --
properly it might be called, "Serious very Private
Thoughts," thrown on paper, and communicated only
to two or three, "On the new kind of Tactics necessary
with those Austrians and their Allies," who are in
such overwhelming strength. "To whose continual
"sluggishness, and strange want of concert, to whose
"incoherency of movements, languor of execution, and
"other enormous faults, we have owed, with some
"excuse for our own faults, our escaping of destruction
"hitherto," -- but had better not trust that way any
longer! Fouquet is one of the highly select, to whom
he communicates this Piece; adding along with it, in
Fouquet's case, an affectionate little Note, and, in spite
of poverty, some Newyear's Gift, as usual, -- the
"Widow's Mite" (300/. , we find); "receive it with
"the same heart with which it was set apart for you:
"a small help, which you may well have need of, in
"these calamitous times. "*** Fouquet much admires the
new Tactical Suggestions; -- seems to think, however,
* (Emres de Frederic, xv. 1-10 (see Preuss's Preface there; Formey,
Souvenirs, i. 37; &c. &c. ).
** Reflexions mr fa Tnctique: in (Euvres de Fre'deric, xxvm. 153-16G.
*** "Breslau, 23d December 1758;" with Fouquet's Answer, 2d January
1759: in (Euvree de Frederic, xx. 114-117.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 89
Jan. -April 1759.
that the certainly practicable one is, in particular, the
last, That of "improving our Artillery to some equality
with theirs. " For which, as may appear, the King
has already been taking thought, in more ways than
one.
Finance is naturally a heavy part of Friedrich's
Problem; the part which looks especially impossible,
from our point of vision! In Friedrich's Country, the
War Budget does not differ from the Peace one.
Neither is any borrowing possible; that sublime Art,
of rolling over on you know not whom the expenditure,
needful or needless, of your heavy-laden self, had not
yet, -- though England is busy at it, -- been invented
among Nations. Once, or perhaps twice, from the
Stiinde of some willing Province, Friedrich negotiated
some small Loan; which was punctually repaid when
Peace came, and was always gratefully remembered.
But these are as nothing, in face of such expenses;
and the thought how he did contrive on the Finance
side, is and was not a little wonderful. An ingenious
Predecessor, whom I sometimes quote, has expressed
himself in these words:
"Such modicum of Subsidy" (he is speaking of
the English Subsidy in 1758), "how useful will it
"prove in a Country bred everywhere to Spartan thrift,
"accustomed to regard waste as sin, and which will
"lay out no penny except to purpose! I guess the
"Prussian Exchequer is, by this time, much on the
"ebb; idle precious metals tending everywhere towards
"the melting-pot. At what precise date the Friedrich-
"Wilhelm balustrades, and enormous silver furnitures,
"were first gone into, Dryasdust has not informed me:
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 90 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. -- April 1759.
"but we know they all went; as they well might. To
"me nothing is so wonderful as Friedrich's Budget
"during this War. One day it will be carefully in-
"vestigated, elucidated and made conceivable and certain
"to mankind: but that as yet is far from being the case.
"We walk about in it with astonishment; almost, were
"it possible, with incredulity. Expenditure on this side,
"work done on that: human nature, especially British
"human nature, refuses to conceive it. Never in this
"world, before or since, was the like. The Friedrich "miracles in War are great; but those in Finance are
"almost greater.
Let Dryasdust bethink him; and gird
"his flabby loins to this Enterprise; which is very be-
"hoveful in these Californian times! "
The general Secret of Prussian Thrift, I do fear,
is lost from the world. And how an Army of about
200,000, in field and garrison, could be kept on foot,
and in some ability to front combined Europe, on about
Three Million Sterling annually ("25 million thalers" = 3,150,000/. , that is the steady War-Budget of those
years), remains to us inconceivable enough; -- mourn-
fully miraculous, as it were; and growing ever more so
in the Nugget-generations that now run. Meanwhile,
here are what hints I could find, on the Origins of that
modest Sum, which also are a wonder:*
"The Hoarded Prussian Moneys, or 'Treasures'" (two of
them, Kleine Schatz, Grosse Schatz, which are rigidly saved in
Peace years, for incidence of War), "being nearly run out,
"therehad come the English Subsidy: this, with Saxony, and
"the Home revenues and remnants of Schatz, had sufficed for
"1758; but will no longer suffice. Next to Saxony, the English
"Subsidy (670,000/. due the second time this year) was always
* Preuss, ii. 388-392; Stenzel, V. 137-141.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 91
Jan. --April 1759.
"Friedrich's principal resource: and in the latter years of the
"War, I observe, it was nearly twice the amount of what all
"his Prussian Countries together, in their ravaged and worn-
"out state, could yield him. In and after 1759, Desides Home
"Income, which is gradually diminishing, and English Sub-
sidy, which is a steady quantity, Friedrich's sources of re-
"venue are mainly Two.
"First, there is that of wringing money from your Enemies,
"from those that have deserved ill of you, -- such of them as
"you can come at. Enemies, open or secret, even 111-wishers, "we are not particular, provided only they lie within arm's-
"length. Under this head fall principally three Countries
"(and their three poor Populations, in lieu of their Govern-
"ments): Saxony, Mecklenburg (or the main part of it,
"Mecklenburg-5'ctoer/n), and Anhalt; from these three there
"is a continual forced supply of money and furnishings.
"Their demerits toFriedrich differ much in intensity; nor is
"his wringing of them, -- which in the cases of Mecklenburg
"and Saxony increases year by year to the nearly intolerable
"pitch, -- quite in the simple ratio of their demerits; but in
"a compound ratio, of that and of his indignation andofhis
"wants.
"Saxony, as Prime Author of this War, was from the first
"laid hold of, collared tightly: 'Pay the shot, then, what you
"'can' (in the end it was almost what you cannot)! As to
"Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the grudge against Prussia was of
"very old standing, some generations now; and the present
"Duke, not a very wise Sovereign more than his Ancestors,
"had always been ill with Friednch; willing to spite and hurt
"him when possible: in Reichs Diet he, of all German Princes,
"was the first that voted for Friedrich's being put to Ban of
"the Reich, --he; and his poor People know since whether
"that was a wise step! The little Anhalt Princes too, all the
"Anhalts, Dessau, Bernburg, Cothen, Zerbst" (perhaps the
latter partially excepted, for a certain Russian Lady's sake),
"had voted, or at least had ambiguously half-voted, in favour
"of the Ban, and done other unfriendly things; and had now
"to pay dear for their bits of enmities. Poor souls, they had
"but One Vote among them all Four; -- and they only half
"gave it, tremulously pulling it back again. I should guess it
"was their terrors mainly, and over-readiness to reckon
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 92 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
"Friedrich a sinking ship; and to leap from the deck of him,/
'-- with a spurn which he took for insolent! The Anhalt-
"Dessauers particularly, who were once of his very Army,
"half Prussians for generations back, he reckoned to have
"used him scandalously ill.
"This Year the requisition on the Four Anhalts, -- which
'th'ey submit to patiently, as people who have leapt into the
"wrong ship, -- is, in precise tale: of money, 330,000 tbalers
'(about 50,000i. ); recruits, 2,200; horses, 1,800. In Saxony,
"besides the fixed Taxes, strict confiscation of Meissen
"Potteries and every Royalty, there were exacted heavy
"' Contributions,' more and more heavy, from the few opulent
"Towns, chiefly fromLeipzig; which were wrung out, latterly,
"under great severities, -- 'chief merchants of Leipzig all
"clapt in prison, kept on bread and water till they yielded,'
"-- as great severities as would suffice, but not greater; which
"also was noted. Unfortunate chief merchants of Leipzig, --
"with Briihl and Polish Majesty little likely to indemnify
"them! Unfortunate Country altogether. An intelligent
"Saxon, who is vouched for as impartial, bears witness as
"follows: 'And this I know, that the oppressions and plunder-
"'ings of the Austrians and Reichsfolk, in Saxony, turned all
"'hearts away from them; and it was publicly said, We had
"'rather bear the steady burden of the Prussians than such
'"help as these our pretended Deliverers bring. '* Whereby,
"on the whole, the poor Country got its back broken, and
"could never look up in the world since. Resource First was
"abundantly severe.
"Resource Second is strangest of all; -- and has given rise
"to criticism enough! It is no other than that of issuing baise
'money; mixing your gold and silver coin with copper, --this,
"one grieves to say, is the Second and extreme resource. 'A
"rude method,. -- would we had a better, -- of suspending
"Cash-payments,and paying by bank-notes instead! ' thinks
"Friedrich, I suppose. From his Prussian Mints, from his
"Saxon" (which are his for the present), "andfrom the little
"Anhalt-Bernburg Mint" (of which he expressly purchased
the sad privilege, --for we are not a Coiner, we are a King
reduced to suspend Cash-payments, for the time being),
"Friedrich poured out over all Germany, in all manner of
* Stenzel (citing from Kriegskanzlei, which I have not), v. 137n.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 93
Jau. --April 1759.
"kinds, huge quantities of bad Coin. This, so long as it would
"last, is more and more a copious fountain of supply. This,
"for the first time, has had to appear as an item in War-
"Budget 1759: and it fails in no following, but expands more
"and more. It was done through Ephraim, the not lovely "Berlin Jew, whom we used to hear of in Voltaire's time; --
"through Ephraim and two others, Ephraim as President: in
"return for a net Sum, these shall have privilege to coin such
"and such amounts, so and so alloyed; shall pay to General
"Tauentzien, Army Treasurer, at fixed terms, the Sums spe-
cified: 'Go, and do it; our Mint-Officers sharply watching
"'you; Mint-Officers, and General Tauentzien' (with a young
"HerrLessing, as his Chief Clerk, of whom the King knows
"nothing): 'Go, ye unlovely! ' And Ephraim and Company
"are making a great deal of money by the unlovely job.
"Ephraim is the pair of tongs; the hand, and the unlovely job,
"are a royal mans. Alas, yes. And none of us knows better
"than King Friedrich, perhaps few of us as well, how little
"lovely a job it was; how shockingly unkingly it was,--
"though a practice not unknown to German Kings and King-
"lets before his time, and since down almost to ours. * In fact,
"these are all unkingly practices; and the English Subsidy
"itself is distasteful to a proud Friedrich: but what, in those
"circumstances, can any Friedrich do?
"The first coinages of Ephraim had, it seems, in them
"about 3-7ths of copper; something less than the half, and
"more than the third," -- your gold sovereign grown to be
"worth 28s. 6d. "But yearly it grew worse; and in 1762"
(English Subsidy having failed) "matters had got inverted;
"and there was three times as much copper as silver. Com-
"merce, as was natural, went rocking and tossing, as on a sea
"under earthquakes; but there was always ready money
"among Friedrich's soldiers, as among no other: nor did the
"common people, or retail purchasers, suffer byit. 'Hah, an
"'Ephraimite! ' they would say, grinning not ill-humouredly,
"at sight of one of these pieces; some of which they had more
"specifically named 'Blue-gowns'" (owing to a tint of blue
perceivable, in spite of the industrious plating in real silver,
* In Strnzel (v. 141), enumeration of eight or nine unhappy Potentates,
who were busy with it in those same years.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 94 FRIEDRICH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book XIX.
Jan. --April 1759.
or at least "boiling in some solution" of it); "these they would
"salute with this rhyme, then current:
"Von aussen schon, won innen sclilimm; Outside noble, inside slim:
"Von aus*en Friedrich, von innen Eph~ OutsideFriedrich, inside Ephraim.
* "raim.
"By this time, whatever of money, from any source, can
"be scraped together in Friedrich's world, flows wholly into
"the Army-Chest, as the real citadel of life. In these latter
"years of the War, beginning, I could guess, from 1759, all
"Civil expenditures, and wages of Officials, cease to be paid
"in money; nobody of that kind sees the colour even of bad
"coin; but is paid only in 'Paper Assignments,'in Promises
"to Pay 'after the Peace. ' These Paper Documents made no
"pretence to the rank of Currency: such holders of them as
"had money, or friends, and could wait, got punctual pay-
"ment when the term did arrive; but those that could not,
"suffered greatly; having to negotiate their debentures on
"ruinous terms, -- sometimes at an expense of three-fourths.
"--I will add Friedrich's practical Schedule of Amounts
"from all these various Sources; and what Friedrich's own
"view of the Sources was, when he could survey them from
"the safe distance.
"Schedule of Amounts" (say for 1761). "To make up the
"Twenty-five Million thalers, necessary for the Army, there
"are:
"From our Prussian Countries, ruined, harried as Thalers.
"they have been 4 millions only.
"From Saxony and the other Wringings, . . 7 millions.
"English Subsidy (4 of good gold; becoppered
"into double), 8 ,,
"From Ephraim and his Farm of the Mint (Mftiiz-
? ? Patent) 7
"In sum Twenty-six Millions; leaving you one Million of mar-
"gin, --and always a plenty of cash in hand for incidental
"sundries. *
"Friedrich's own view of these sad matters, as he closes
"his History of the Seven-Years War" (at "Berlin, 17thDecem-
"ber 1763 ), "is in these words: 'May Heaven grant, -- if
"'Heaven deign to look down on the paltry concerns of men,
"'that the unalterable and flourishing destiny of this Country
* Preuss, ii. 388.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHiP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 95
Jm. -April 1759.
'"preserve the Sovereigns who shall govern it, from the
"' scourges and calamities which Prussia has suffered in these
"'times of trouble and subversion; that they may never again
"'be forced to recur to the violent and fatal remedies which
'"we (Tun) have been obliged to employ in maintenance of
'"the State against the ambitious hatred of the Sovereigns of
"'Europe, who wished to annihilate the House of Branden-
'"burg, and exterminate from the world whatever bore the
"'Prussian name! '"*
Of the Small-War in Spring 1759. There are Five
Disruptions of that grand Cordon (February--April);
and Ferdinand of Brunswick fights his Battle of
Bergen (April 13th).
Friedrich, being denied an aggressive course this
Year, by no means sits idly expectant and defensive
in the interim; but, all the more vigorously, as is ob-
servable, from February onwards, strikes out from him
on every side: endeavouring to spoil the Enemy's Ma-
gazines, and cripple his operations in that way. So
that there was, all winter through, a good deal of
Small-War (some of it not Small), of more importance
than usual, -- chiefly of Friedrich's originating, with
the above view, or of Ferdinand his Ally's, on a still
more pressing score. And, on the whole, that immense
Austrian-French Cordon, which goes from the Carpathi-
ans to the Ocean, had by no means a quiet time; but
was broken into, and violently hurled back, in different
parts: some four, or even five, -- attacks upon it in
all; three of them by Prince Henri, -- in two of which
Duke Ferdinand's people cooperated; the business being
for mutual behoof. These latter Three were famous in
the world, that Winter; and indeed are still recognis- * (Euvres de Frederic, v. 234.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 96 FRlEDRlCH LIKE TO BE OVERWHELMED. [book SIX.
2J Jan. 1759.
able as brilliant procedures of their kind; though, ex-
cept dates and results, we can afford almost nothing of
them here. These Three, intended chiefly against
Reichs people and their Posts and Magazines, fell out
on the western and middle part of the Cordon. Another
attack was in the extreme eastward, and was for Fried-
rich's own behoof; under Fouquet's management; --
intended against the Austrian-Moravian Magazines and
Preparations, but had little success. Still another as-
sault or invasive outroad, northward against the Russian
Magazines, there also was; of which by and by. Be-
sides all which, and more memorable than all, Duke
Ferdinand, for vital reasons of his own, fought a Battle
this Spring, considerable Battle, and did not gain it;
which made great noise in the world.
It is not necessary the reader should load his me-
mory with details of all these preliminary things; on
the contrary, it is necessary that he keep his memory
clear for the far more important things that lie ahead
of these, and entertain these in a summary way, as a
kind of foreground to what is coming. Perhaps the
following Fractions of Note, which put matters in some-
thing of Chronological or Synoptical form, will suffice
him, or more than suffice. He is to understand that
the grand tug of War, this Year, gradually turns out
not to be hereabouts, nor with Daun and his adjacen-
cies at all, but with the Russians, who arrive from the
opposite Northern quarter; and that all else will prove
to be merely prefatory and nugatory in comparison.
January 2d, 1759: Frank furt-on-Maipi, though it is aReich-
stadt, finds itself suddenly become French. "Prince de Soubise
"lies between Mayn and Lahn, with his 25,000; beautifully
"safe and convenient, -- though ill off for a place-of-arms in
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. I. ] PRELIMINARIES TO A FOURTH CAMPAIGN. 97
itl Jan. 1759.
"those parts. Opulent Frankfurt, on his right; how handy
"would that be, were not Reichs Law so express! Marburg,
"Giessen are outposts of his; on which side one of Ferdinand s
"people, Prince von Ysenburg, watches him with an 8 or
"10,000, capable of mischief in that quarter.
"On the Eve of Newyear's day, or on the auspicious Day
"itself, Soubise requests, of the Frankfurt Authorities, per-
"mission for a regiment of his to march through that Imperial
"City. To which, by law and theory, the Imperial City can
"say Yes or No; but practically cannot, without grave incon-
"venience, say other than Yes, though most Frankfurters
"wish it could. 'Yes,' answer the Frankfurt Magnates; Yes,
"surely, under the known conditions. Tuesday, January 2d,
"about 5 in the morning, while all is still dark in Frankfurt,
"regiment Nassau appears, accordingly, at the Sachsen-
"hausen Gate, Townguard people all ready to receive it and
"escort it through; and is admitted as usual. Quite as usual:
"but instead of being escorted through, it orders, in calm
"peremptory voice, the Townguard, To ground arms; with
"calm rapidity, proceeds to admit ten other regiments or
"battalions, six of them German; seizes the artillery on the
"Walls, seizes all the other Gates: -- and poor Frankfurt
"finds itself tied hand and foot, almost before it is out of bed!
"Done with great exactitude, with the minimum of confusion,
"and without a hurt skin to anybody. The Inhabitants stood
"silent, gazing; the Townguard laid down their arms, and
"went home. Totally against law; but cleverly done; perhaps
"Soubise's chief exploit in the world; certainly the one real
"success the French have yet had.
"Soubise made haste to summon the Magistrates:'Law of
'"Necessity alone, most honoured Sirs! Reichs Law is clear
"'against me. But all the more shall private liberties, re-
"'ligions, properties, in this Imperial Free-Town, be sacred
"'to us. Defence against any aggression; and the strictest of
"'discipline observed. Depend on me, I bid you! ' -- And
"kept his word to an honourable degree, they say; orinab-
"sence, made it be kept, during the Four Years that follow.
"Most Frankfurters are, at heart, Anti-French: but Soubise's
"affability was perfect; and he gave evening parties of a
"sublime character; the Magistrates all appearing there,
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. XI. 1
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijf Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
?
