History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 21 | Page 7

for a piously thankful feeling towards
the Past, a piously valiant towards the Future. What king or man had
seen himself delivered from such strangling imbroglios of destruction,
such devouring rages of a hostile world? And the ruin worked by them
lay monstrous and appalling all round. Friedrich is now Fifty-one gone;
unusually old for his age; feels himself an old man, broken with years
and toils; and here lies his Kingdom in haggard slashed condition, worn
to skin and bone: How is the King, resourceless, to remedy it? That is
now the seemingly impossible problem. "Begin it,--thereby alone will it
ever cease to be impossible!" Friedrich begins, we may say, on the first
morrow morning. Labors at his problem, as he did in the march to
Leuthen; finds it to become more possible, day after day, month after
month, the farther he strives with it.
"Why not leave it to Nature?" think many, with the Dismal Science at

their elbow. Well; that was the easiest plan, but it was not Friedrich's.
His remaining moneys, 25 million thalers ready for a Campaign which
has not come, he distributes to the most necessitous: "all his
artillery-horses" are parted into plough- teams, and given to those who
can otherwise get none: think what a fine figure of rye and barley,
instead of mere windlestraws, beggary and desolation, was realized by
that act alone. Nature is ready to do much; will of herself cover, with
some veil of grass and lichen, the nakedness of ruin: but her victorious
act, when she can accomplish it, is that of getting YOU to go with her
handsomely, and change disaster itself into new wealth. Into new
wisdom and valor, which are wealth in all kinds; California mere zero
to them, zero, or even a frightful MINUS quantity! Friedrich's
procedures in this matter I believe to be little less didactic than those
other, which are so celebrated in War: but no Dryasdust, not even a
Dryasdust of the Dismal Science, has gone into them, rendered men
familiar with them in their details and results. His Silesian Land-Bank
(joint-stock Moneys, lent on security of Land) was of itself, had I room
to explain it, an immense furtherance. [Preuss, iii. 75; OEuvres
de Frederic, vi. 84.] Friedrich, many tell us, was as great in
Peace as in War: and truly, in the economic and material provinces, my
own impression, gathered painfully in darkness, and contradiction of
the Dismal-Science Doctors, is much to that effect. A first-rate
Husbandman (as his Father had been); who not only defended his
Nation, but made it rich beyond what seemed possible; and diligently
sowed annuals into it, and perennials which flourish aloft at this day.
Mirabeau's Monarchie Prussienne, in 8 thick
Volumes 8vo,--composed, or hastily cobbled together, some Twenty
years after this period,--contains the best tabular view one anywhere
gets of Friedrich's economics, military and other practical methods and
resources:--solid exact Tables these are, and intelligent intelligible
descriptions, done by Mauvillon FILS, the same punctual Major
Mauvillon who used to attend us in Duke Ferdinand's War;--and so far
as Mirabeau is concerned, the Work consists farther of a certain small
Essay done in big type, shoved into the belly of each Volume, and
eloquently recommending, with respectful censures and regrets over
Friedrich, the Gospel of Free Trade, dear to Papa Mirabeau. The Son is

himself a convert; far above lying, even to please Papa: but one can see,
the thought of Papa gives him new fire of expression. They are
eloquent, ruggedly strong Essays, those of Mirabeau Junior upon Free
Trade: --they contain, in condensed shape, everything we were
privileged to hear, seventy years later, from all organs, coach-horns,
jews- harps and scrannel-pipes, PRO and CONTRA, on the same
sublime subject: "God is great, and Plugson of Undershot is his Prophet.
Thus saith the Lord, Buy in the cheapest market, sell in the dearest!" To
which the afflicted human mind listens what it can;-- and after seventy
years, mournfully asks itself and Mirabeau, "M. le Comte, would there
have been in Prussia, for example, any Trade at all, any Nation at all,
had it always been left 'Free'? There would have been mere sand and
quagmire, and a community of wolves and bisons, M. le Comte. Have
the goodness to terminate that Litany, and take up another!"
We said, Friedrich began his problem on the first morrow morning; and
that is literally true, that or even MORE. Here is how Friedrich takes
his stand amid the wreck, speedy enough to begin: this view of our old
friend Nussler and him is one of the Pieces we can give,--thanks to
Herr Busching and his Beitrage for the last time!
Nussler is now something of a Country Gentleman, so