318 



FREDERIC II. FREDERIC V. 



l>a>iv terminated this war, without any foreign inter- 

 ference, ii tlie principle, that the contracting parties 

 should remain I'M statu yuo. Frederic came out of 

 tlie seven years' war with a reputation which promised 

 him, in the future, a decisive influence in the affairs 

 of Germany and Europe. His next care was the 

 relief of his kingdom, drained and exhausted by the 

 vmiicst. Me opened his magazines to furnish his 

 subjects corn tor food and for sowing. To the 

 peasants he distributed horses for ploughing, rebuilt, 

 at his own expense, the houses destroyed by fire, 

 established new settlements, built manufactories, and 

 laid out canals. Silesia was excused from all taxes 

 for six months, the Neumark and Pomerania for two 

 years. In 1764, Frederic founded the bank of 

 Berlin, with a capital of 8,000,000 Prussian dollars. 

 His attempt, in 1766, to organize the excise on the 

 French system met with great censure. Several 

 good institutions were established during this interval 

 of peace ; but the new code of laws was completed 

 and carried into operation under his successor. 



A treaty was concluded with Russia (March 31, 

 1764), in consequence of which Frederic supported 

 the election of the new king of Poland, Stanislaus 

 Poniatowski, and the cause of the oppressed Dissi- 

 dents (q. v.) in Poland. For the purpose of con- 

 necting Prussia with Pomerania and the Mark, and 

 of enlarging and consolidating his territories, Frederic 

 consented to the first partition of Poland, which was 

 first proposed at Petersburg, and concluded August 5, 

 1772. Frederic received the whole of Polish Prussia 

 (which had been ceded to Poland by the Teutonic 

 order, in 1466,) with the part of Great Poland to the 

 river Netz, excepting Dantzic and Thorn. From 

 this time, the kingdom of Prussia was divided into 

 East and West Prussia. The king erected a fortress 

 at Graudenz, and established a council of war and of 

 the domains at Marienwerder. The plans of the em- 

 peror Joseph II., who visited him in Silesia, in 1769, 

 and whose visit he returned in Moravia, in 1770, 

 could not escape his vigilance. He declared against 

 the possession of a large part of Bavaria by Austria, 

 in 1778, after the death of Maximilian Joseph, elector 

 of Bavaria, without issue. Charles Theodore, elec- 

 tor of the Palatinate, inherited as tlie nexi- heir, and 

 had consented to a cession ; but the duke of Deux- 

 Ponts, presumptive, heir of the Bavarian Palatinate, 

 and the elector of Saxony, who had also claims to 

 the inheritance of Bavaria, refused to acknowledge 

 this cession. Austria was not to be diverted from 

 her designs by negotiations. Saxony therefore formed 

 an alliance with Prussia, and Frederic invaded Bo- 

 hemia with two armies (July, 1778). The emperor 

 Joseph kept his position, in a strongly fortified camp, 

 behind the Elbe, near laromirz, and could not be in- 

 duced to give battle. The aged empress Maria 

 Theresa wished for peace. Negotiations were com- 

 menced in the monastery of Braunau (in August), 

 but were broken off without being brought to any 

 result. But, Catharine II. having declared her in- 

 tention of assisting Prussia with 60,000 men, this 

 war of the Bavarian succession was terminated with- 

 out a battle by the peace of Teschen (q. v.), May 13, 

 1779. Frederic had generously declared, in the be- 

 ginning of the negotiations, that he would not de- 

 mand any reimbursement of the expenses of the war. 

 Austria consented to the union of the principalities 

 of Franconia with Prussia, and renounced the feudal 

 claims of Bohemia to those countries. In the even- 

 ing of his active life, Frederic concluded, in con- 

 nexion with Saxony and Hanover, the confederation 

 of the German princes, July 23, 1785. 



An incurable dropsy hastened tlie death of this 

 great king. He died at Sans-Souci, August 17, 

 " the seventy-fifth year of his life and the 



forty-seventh of his reign, and left to his nephew, 

 Frederic William II., a kingdom increased by 29,000 

 square miles, more than 70,000,000 Prussian dollars 

 in tlie treasury, an army of 200,000 men, great credit 

 with all the European powers, and a state distin. 

 guished for population, industry, wealth, and science 

 Improved by severe experience before he ascended 

 the throne, animated by the example of his father, 

 and possessed of rare talents, ripened in the solitude 

 of Rheinsberg, Frederic seized the helm of govern- 

 ment, and shook the whole political system of Eu- 

 rope, when he drew his sword in defence of his 

 rights as a member of the empire, and of the rights 

 of his house against the encroachments and the 

 tyranny of the emperors, when he conceived and 

 established, in accordance with the wants of his time, 

 the confederation of princes, the master work of his 

 policy. One of his great merits is, that, in the most 

 difficult circumstances, he contracted no public debts, 

 but, on the contrary, although he distributed a con- 

 siderable part of his revenues, in different ways, 

 among his subjects, he had a richer treasury than 

 any monarch in Europe ever possessed. His con- 

 tempt for ecclesiastical establishments, which was 

 considered by his contemporaries as a contempt of 

 religion, has been censured. But his writings show 

 that his heart was often open to the highest senti- 

 ments of piety. Entirely unacquainted with the 

 literature and mental cultivation of Germany, he 

 underrated it, and contributed nothing to its improve- 

 ment. It must, however, be confessed that the Ger- 

 man muse was not very attractive at the time when 

 Frederic devoted himself to French literature, and, 

 when a higher spirit was infused into it, the king, 

 crowded with occupations, was too strongly fixed in 

 his tastes and studies to be affected by it. A passage 

 in his writings shows that he anticipated a brighter 

 day for German literature, without the hope of seeing 

 it himself. 



Frederic's complete works, relating chiefly to his- 

 tory, politics, military science, philosophy, and the 

 belles-lettres, and his poetical and miscellaneous 

 works, are to be found in three collections CEuvres 

 Posthumes de Frederic II. (Posthumous Works of 

 Frederic II., Berlin, 1788, 15 vols.); Supplement aux 

 CEuvres Posthumes de Frederic le Grand, Berlin, 

 vols.; and CEuvres de Frederic II., publics du Vivant 

 de I Auteur (Works of Frederic II., published during 

 the Life of the Author), Berlin, 1789, 4 vols. The 

 edition of Amsterdam (1789 and 1790) is more critical. 

 His Antimachiavel (first edition, Hague, 1740) shows 

 how he prepared himself for the throne. His essay on 

 the forms of government and on the duties of a ruler, 

 which he wrote after forty years' reign, is an excel- 

 lent manual for a sovereign. Dippold, in his Sketches 

 of Universal History, draws an excellent picture of 

 Frederic. The government of Frederic was an auto- 

 cracy, and its consequences showed themselves most 

 disadvantageously in the civil administration, which 

 continually became more a machine. Sufficient to 

 himself, Frederic had no council. His talents, his 

 army, and his treasure, were his sole means of 

 government. The consequence was that the separa- 

 tion between the citizens and the military rose to an 

 unexampled height in the Prussian monarchy. But 

 it must be acknowledged that Frederic was popular 

 in the noblest sense of the word that he was the 

 man of the nation. He lived, indeed, in the midst 

 of his people. Each of his subjects was proud of 

 him, and addressed him without fear, for the king 

 considered himself as only the first officer of tlie 

 state. 



FREDERIC V., king of Denmark, was born in 

 1723, and succeeded his father Christian VI., in 1746. 

 He preserved his dominions in peace, and promoted 



