LI. 1807. tunes, the King was immediately compelled to adopt the CHAP. Continental System, and declare war against Great Britain-a measure which, by exposing his harbours to blockade, and totally destroying his foreign commerce, seemed to render utterly hopeless the discharge of the overwhelming pecuniary burdens with which his kingdom 483. was loaded.1 1 Hard. ix. 453, 455. Mart. Sup. iv. 452, 474, nal measures the Prussian To all human appearance, the power of Prussia was 8. now completely destroyed, and the monarchy of the Great Wise interFrederick seemed to be bound in fetters more strict and adopted by galling than had ever, in modern times, been imposed on government. an independent state. And doubtless, if these misfortunes had fallen on a people and a government not endowed in the highest degree with the spirit of patriotism and constancy in misfortune, this effect would have taken place. But adversity is the true test of political as well as private virtue, and those external calamities which utterly crush the feeble or degenerate, serve only to animate the exertions, and draw forth the energy of the uncorrupted portion of mankind. While the diplomatists of Europe were speculating on the entire extinction of Prussia as an independent power, and the only question appeared to be, to what fortunate neighbour the remnant of her territories would be allotted, a new and improved system of administration was adopted in all the branches of her government, and the foundation was laid in present suffering and humiliation of future elevation and glory. Instead of sinking in despair under the misfortunes by which they were oppressed, the King and his ministers were only roused by them to additional exertions to sustain the public fortunes. While doing so, however, he had fresh mortifications to endure. During the long period of peace which Prussia had experienced since the treaty of Bâle, in the midst of wars and disasters all around her, FrederickWilliam had enjoyed ample opportunities for cultivating his natural taste for the fine arts; and already a gallery of paintings was, when the campaign opened, far advanced LI. 1807. CHAP. at Berlin, which promised ere long to rival the far-famed museums of Munich, Dresden, and Paris. But all these 1 Hard. ix. gems in his crown were torn away by the ruthless hand of conquest; and his much-loved monuments of genius now adorned the halls of the Louvre, or graced the palace of the French Emperor.1 456, 458. Lucches. ii. 8, 12. 9. sures of the Driven by necessity to more important pursuits, the First mea- first care of the King, upon the termination of hostilities, was to free the public service from those whose temporestore the rising and unworthy policy, or treacherous and pusilpublic for lanimous conduct, had induced the general calamities. King of tunes. Haugwitz remained forgotten and neglected at his country residence; Hardenberg, whose great abilities were loudly called for in the present crisis, and who had been the leading minister since hostilities had been resolved on, was compelled, by the jealousy of Napoleon, not only to leave the government, but to retire from the country; and it was only after the withdrawal of the French armies that he obtained leave to re-enter Prussia, and return to his rural seat of Tempelberg. The Chancellor Goldbeck, and all the inferior ministers, Massow, Reck, d'Auger, Thulmeyer, and their coadjutors, were dismissed, to the great satisfaction of the public; and the generals and inferior officers, who had so disgracefully yielded up the bulwarks of the monarchy after the catastrophe of Jena, were in a body removed from the army. Yet even here the humane and perhaps prudent disposition of the King prevailed over the justly roused feeling of general indignation against such unworthy betrayers of national trusts; and instead of grounding their dismissal on their notorious dereliction of duty, it was in general rested on the destitute state of the public treasury, and the necessity of rigorous economy in every branch of administration. The inquiry, however, under 456, 459. the direction of the princes-royal, was carried through every department and grade of the army; and, to demonstrate its entire impartiality, the heroic Blucher himself 2 Hard. ix. Lucches. ii. 8, 17. 2 was subjected to the same test with his less intrepid CHAP. brethren in arms. LI. 10. Baron Stein try. His firm cha admirable Deprived, by the unworthy jealousy of Napoleon, of 1807. the assistance of Hardenberg's counsels, the King of Accession of Prussia had still the courage, in the almost desperate to the minisstate of his fortunes, to have recourse to a statesman who, like him, had been distinguished in an especial manner racter, and by the hatred of the Emperor. It is to the great abilities, measures. enlightened patriotism, and enduring constancy of the BARON STEIN, that Prussia is indebted for the measures which prepared the way for the resurrection of the monarchy. This eminent man, born in 1757, had entered the public service in the administration of the state mines, under the Great Frederick, in 1780; but his admirable talents for business soon raised him to the ministry of trade and finance in 1804, which he held till the breaking out of the Polish war in 1806, when he withdrew to his estates, and remained in retirement till again called to the public service in the beginning of October Oct. 5. 1807. During his active employment, he acquired, by the accuracy and fidelity of his administration, the esteem both of his sovereign and his fellow-citizens; and, during his subsequent retirement, he had ample opportunities for meditating on the causes which had brought such calamities on his country. So clearly were his ideas formed, 1 Hard. ix. and so decided his conviction as to the only means which 460, 461. remained of reinstating the public affairs,1 that he com * Baron Stein was born at Nassau, in October 1757, of an old noble family which held immediately of the Germanic empire. He received the rudiments of his education at Göttingen, and afterwards studied public law at Wehtzlar, the seat of the Imperial Chamber. In 1780, at the age of twenty-three, he first entered the civil service of Prussia, to which he had been early destined by his father, as director of the mines at Wettin in Westphalia; and in 1784 was appointed ambassador at Aschaffenburg. His great abilities having become known in these situations, he was, in 1786, appointed to the important situation of president of all the Westphalian chambers, in which office he laboured assiduously and successfully till 1804. In that year he was, on the death of Struensee, minister of finance and trade, promoted to that elevated situation, in which capacity he remained till 1806, when, on account of some differences with the King of Prussia as to the course to be pursued in the critical circumstances of the monarchy, he resigned his office and retired to his estates at LI. CHAP. menced at once a vigorous but yet cautious system of amelioration; and, only four days after his appointment as Minister of the Interior, a royal decree appeared, which introduced a salutary reform into the constitution. 1807. Oct. 9. 11. reforms which he introduced in Prussia. Oct. 9. By this ordinance the peasants and burghers obtained Admirable the right, hitherto confined to the nobles, of acquiring and holding landed property; while they in their turn were permitted, without losing caste, to engage in the pursuits of commerce and industry. Landholders were allowed, under reservation of the rights of their creditors, to separate their estates into distinct parcels, and alienate them to different persons. Every species of slavery, whether contracted by birth, marriage, or agreement, was prohibited subsequent to the 11th November 1810; and every servitude, corvée, or obligation of service or rent, other than those founded on the rights of property or express agreement, was for ever abolished. By a second ordinance, published six weeks afterwards, certain important franchises were conferred on municipalities. By this wise decree, which is in many respects the Magna Charta of the Prussian burghs, it was provided that the burghers should enjoy councillors of their own election, for regulating all local and municipal concerns: that a third of the number should go out by rotation, and be renewed by an election every year; that the council thus chosen should assemble twice a-year to deliberate on the public affairs; that two burgomasters should be at the head of Nov. 19. Nassau. The King, however, was so well aware of his abilities, that he recalled him soon after the peace of Tilsit; and it was then that he planned and executed those great yet cautious social reforms which laid the foundation of the resurrection of the monarchy. Ere long, however, his patriotic spirit and great abilities excited the jealousy of Napoleon, who made the King of Prussia send him into exile. He retired to Prague, where he remained, associating much with Arndt, the banished Elector of Hesse-Cassel and other vehement enemies of Napoleon, till May 1812, when, on the approach of the French Emperor to Dresden on the eve of the Moscow campaign, he went to St Petersburg, where his firmness and energy were of great service in supporting the Emperor Alexander through that dreadful crisis.-See Biog. des Hommes Vivants, v. 415; Lebensbilder aus dem Befreiungs Kriege, ii. 487; Von Gagern's Antheil an der Politik, iv. 387, 396; and STEIN's Lebens Geschichte, i. 1, 274. LI. 1807. the magistracy, one of whom should be chosen by the CHAP. King from a list of three presented, and the other by the councillors and that the police of the burgh should be administered by a syndic appointed for twelve years, and who should also have a seat in the municipal council. The administration of the Haute Police, or that connected with the state, was reserved to government. By a third ordinance, an equally important alteration was Nov. 24. made in favour of the numerous class of debtors, whom the public calamities had disabled from performing their engagements, by prohibiting all demand for the capital sums till the 24th June 1810; providing at the same time for the punctual payment of the interest, under pain of losing the benefit of the ordinance. Thus at the very moment that France, during the excitement consequent on the triumphs of Jena and Friedland, was losing the last remnant of the free institutions which had been called into existence during the fervour and crimes of the Revolution; Prussia, amidst the humiliation of unprecedented disasters, and when groaning under the weight of foreign chains, was silently relaxing the fetters of the feudal system, and laying the foundation, in a cautious and guiltless reformation of experienced grievances, for the future erection of those really free institutions which can 460, 463. never be established on any other bases than those of 17, 18. justice, order, and religion.1 1 Hard. ix. Lucches. ii. causes of Prussia. In the prosecution, however, of these glorious, because 12. wise and judicious, plans of public improvement, Stein Various had great difficulties to encounter. Government was distress in overwhelmed by a multitude of civil servants, to the Stein is number of seven thousand, who had been deprived of exiled. their situations in the ceded provinces, and whose just prayers for relief could not be attended to by a treasury drained of the last farthing by the charges of the war, and the inordinate requisitions of the French armies. The rapid absorption of the precious metals by these rigorous taskmasters, the general practice of hoarding |