LI. 1807. CHAP. which their depredations occasioned, and the necessity in consequence of having recourse to a currency of a baser alloy, or paper money, to supply the deficiency, had totally deranged the monetary system, and occasioned a rapid enhancement of prices, under which the labouring classes suffered severely. The closing of the harbours against foreign commerce, in consequence of the Berlin and Milan decrees, put the finishing stroke to the public distress, and raised such a ferment, that the King was obliged to yield to the general clamour and the representations of the French authorities, who dreaded the effects of such an intrepid system of government, and sent Stein into honourable exile in Bohemia. So rapidly was this insisted on by the ministers of Napoleon, that the last of these regenerating measures, dated 24th November 1807, was signed by his successors, M. Dohna and Altenstein. But by this ebullition of jealousy the French Emperor gained nothing. The merit of Stein was too generally known by the intelligent classes to be forgotten; from his retreat he really directed the Prussian councils; and by the appointment of SCHARNHORST to the elevated office of minister of war, the door was opened to a variety of important changes in that department, which proved of the highest consequence six years afterwards in the mortal struggle for European freedom.1 1 Hard. ix. 464, 466. 13. History, character, and great reforms of Scharnhorst. Gerard David de Scharnhorst, who was now intrusted with the military direction of Prussia, and whose great scientific abilities subsequently rendered him so distinguished in the annals of European glory, had quitted the Hanoverian service for that of Prussia in 1801. Taken prisoner at Lübeck, but subsequently exchanged, he had powerfully contributed, by his decisive conduct at the critical moment with Lestocq's corps, to the result of the battle of Eylau. In him a blameless life and amiable manners were combined with the purest patriotism and the soundest judgment: exalted attainments were undisfigured by pride; vigour of thought was adorned by sim LI. 1807. plicity of character. The perfection of the French military CHAP. organisation, as well as the energy of their army, appeared to him in painful contrast beside the numerous defects and dejected spirit of that over which he now presided. But instead of sinking in despair under the difficulties of his situation, he was only inspired, by the magnitude of the evil, with additional ardour in the work of amelioration, and induced, like Stein, to take advantage of the general consternation to effect several salutary reforms, which, in more tranquil times, might have been seriously obstructed by the prejudices of aristocratic birth or the suggestions of interested ambition. Boldly applying to the military department the admirable principles by which Stein had secured the affections of the burgher classes, he threw open to the whole citizens the higher grades of the army, from which they had hitherto been excluded, abolished the degrading corporal punishments by which the spirit of the soldier had been withered, and removed Dec. 15. those invidious distinctions which, by exempting some Jan. 7,1808. classes from the burden of personal service, made its 467. Stein's weight fall with additional severity on those who were not relieved.1 1807, and 1 Hard. ix. Leb. Gesch. . 118, 124. 14. reforms and the army. Every department of the service underwent his searching scrutiny. In all he introduced salutary reforms, recti- His great fied experienced abuses, and electrified the general spirit, admirable by opening to merit the career of promotion; while the system in general strength of the army was silently augmented to an extent which afterwards became in the highest degrec important, by the introduction of an equally simple and efficacious regulation. By the subsisting engagements with Napoleon, it had been provided that Prussia should not keep on foot more than forty-two thousand men—a stipulation which at once cast her down to the rank of a fourth-rate power, and totally disabled her from assuming the attitude of resistance to the numerous and hourly increasing demands of the French armies. To elude its operation, and at the same time avoid any direct or obvi CHAP. 1807. ous infringement of the treaty, he took care never to have more than the stipulated number of men at once in arms, but no sooner were the young soldiers sufficiently drilled than they were sent home to their hearths, and other recruits called to the national standards, who, in like manner, after a brief period of service, made way for others in succession. By this simple but admirable system, which is the true secret of the political strength and military renown of Prussia, so much beyond the physical resources of the monarchy, a military spirit was diffused through the whole population; service in the army came to be considered, instead of a degradation, as an agreeable recreation after the severe labours of pacific life; the manner, carriage, and intelligence of those who returned from their standards were so superior to those of the rustics who had remained at home, that no Prussian damsel would look at a youth who had not served in the ranks; the passion for arms became universal; and while 1 Hard. ix. forty thousand only were enrolled in the regular army, Stein's Leb. two hundred thousand brave men were ere long trained to arms, and ready at a moment's warning to join the standards of their country.1* 467, 468. Gesch. ii. 140, 447. 15. From these salutary changes, joined to the oppressive Rise and exactions of the French armies, and the enormous conthe Tugend- tributions levied by the government through the whole secret socie- of the north of Germany, arose another effect, not less progress of bund and ties. important in its ultimate consequences upon the future fate of Europe. Grievously oppressed by foreign depredation; deprived by national disaster of domestic protection; surrounded within and without by insatiable enemies or impotent friends; cut off from their commerce, *It is a most singular circumstance that this admirable military system, which beyond all question proved the salvation of Prussia both in the Seven Years' War and that of Independence in the year 1813, was derived by them from their German ancestors in the time of Cæsar. "Suevorum gens est longe maxima et bellicosissima Germanorum omnium. Hi centum pagos habere dicuntur, ex quibus quotannis singula millia armatorum, bellandi causâ, ex finibus educunt; reliqui, qui domi manserint, se atque alios alunt. Hi rursus invicem anno post in armis sunt, illi domi remanent. Sic neque agricultura, LI. 1807. their manufactures, the vent for their industry,—with CHAP. their farm produce liable to perpetual seizure by bands of rapacious men armed with imperial authority,-the inhabitants both of the towns and the country had no resource but in mutual and voluntary associations. The universality of the suffering produced a corresponding unanimity of opinion; the divisions which existed before the war disappeared under the calamities to which it had given birth; the jealousies of rank or class yielded to the pressure of common distress. Genius and learning, amidst the general despondency, stood forth as the leaders, privately and cautiously indeed, but still the leaders, of public thought. Societies were everywhere formed, in profound secrecy, for the future deliverance of Germany; the professors at the universities were at their head; the ardent youth who attended these seminaries joyfully enrolled themselves in their ranks; the nobles and statesmen at the helm of affairs lent them what, with such materials, was much required, -the aid of their wisdom and the benefits of their experience. Stein was their leader: from his retreat in Bohemia, and subsequently in Russia, he exercised a secret but unlimited sway over the minds of all the energetic and generous portion of the north of Germany. Arndt, who was soon after compelled to seek an asylum from French persecution in the latter empire, lent the cause all the aid of his nervous eloquence; Professor Jahn supported it with powerful zeal; Hardenberg was active in its behalf; Scharnhorst, and almost all the councillors of the King, though compelled publicly to discountenance its proceedings, were, in reality, either secret members of the TUGENDBUND,* or warmly disposed to ii. 180, 188. second its efforts.1 nec ratio atque usus belli intermittitur: neque multum frumento, sed maximam partem lacte atque pecore vivunt."-CESAR, de Bello Gallico. It would seem that nations never change either as regards the spirit of their institutions or their national character: if we would discover the remote causes of either, we must seek for them in their cradle, as we must for the germ of the full-grown oak in the acorn. * Society or League of Virtue. 1 Hard. ix. 467, 469. Stein's Leb. CHAP. LI. 1807. 16. and officers There, too, were to be seen those exalted spirits who subsequently, through evil report and good report, in prosperity and adversity, stood foremost in support of Generals European freedom: Schill, whose ardent patriotism, in who secretly advance of his countrymen, precipitated in 1809, to his joined the Tugendown ruin, that premature resistance which four years bund. longer of ignominy and bondage were required to render universal; Wittgenstein, the future antagonist of Napoleon, whose clear judgment, notwithstanding the prudent reserve of his character, saw in these associations the only means of future salvation; Blucher, whose generous and inconsiderate ardour threw him early into their arms, as it afterwards warmed him in the headlong charge against the enemy; Gneisenau, whose scientific abilities, supplying what was wanting in his gallant associate, proved so fatal to the arms of France. The nobles, straitened in their fortunes by the French requisitions, and insulted in their persons by the French officers; the peasants, ground to the dust by merciless exactions, supported by military force; the merchants, ruined by the Continental System, and reduced to despair by the entire stoppage of foreign commerce; the burghers, become the bitterest enemies of Napoleon, from his entire overthrow of those liberal principles on which the early fortunes of the Revolution had been founded-all combined to join the secret societies, from which alone they could one day hope for the deliverance of their country. The machinery put in motion for the attainment of these objects was indeed highly dangerous, and capable of being applied to the worst purposes; but the necessities of their situation gave the lovers of the Fatherland no alternative. Alike in town and country, equally among the rich and the poor, the Tugendbund spread its ramifications. A central body of Directors at Berlin guided its movements; provincial committees carried its orders into effect; and, as is usual in such cases, a dark, unseen authority was obeyed with an implicit alacrity unknown to the commands even of |