History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 19 | Page 6

italic> xxviii. 153-166.]-- 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 New-year's Gift,
as usual,--the "Widow's Mite [300 pounds, 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." ["Breslau, 23d
December, 1758;" with Fouquet's Answer, 2d January, 1759: in

OEuvres de Frederic, xx. 114-117.] Fouquet much
admires the new Tactical Suggestions;--seems to think, however, 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 STANDE 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: 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 investigated, 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
behooveful 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
pounds, that is the steady War-Budget of those years), remains to us
inconceivable enough;--mournfully 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: [Preuss, ii. 388-392; Stenzel, v. 137-141.]--
"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, there had
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 pounds due the
second time this year) was always 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, besides Home Income, which
is gradually diminishing, and English Subsidy, which is a steady
quantity, Friedrich's sources of revenue are mainly Two:--
"FIRST, there is that of wringing money