PRUSSIA. 



731 



point of population contains 148,948 inhabitants, 

 and the largest in this resuect, that of Breslaii, con- 

 tains 942,307 inhabitants. A government is under 

 the control of a president and a number of counsel- 

 lors and assessors, who have the charge of every 

 thing except the administration of justice. Each 

 province lias a high-president. The ten provinces 

 are as folllows : 



Bramienbnn?, 



Fonn-ratiia, 



Silfsia, 



Saxony, 



Westpluilia, 



Cleves-Bcra-, 



Lower Kliine, 



East Prussia. 



West Prussia, 



POSPII, 



Inhabitant! 

 in 1823. 

 1,539,602 



877,555 

 2,396,551 

 1,1 '!i.H-H 

 1,228,544 

 1,075,025 

 1,127,297 

 1,216,154 



792,207 

 1,064,506 



Neufchatel has 51,580. Though the geographical 

 character and financial resources of Prussia were 

 much improved by the peace of Paris, the first still 

 gives rise to many inconveniences. Prussia has an 

 unguarded frontier from Scidenberg, in Upper 

 Lusatia, to Wittichenau ; an open frontier towards 

 Russia (as a Russian army may, at any time, come 

 within three days' march of Breslau, and to fortify 

 the Prosna would cost millions), and her Rhenish 

 provinces compel her to keep up always a strong 

 military force in the direction of France all which 

 shows, if we may use the phrase, the artificial exist- 

 ence of Prussia, her unnatural position. Prussia 

 can only partially overcome these disadvantages by 

 immense expense ; and nothing but the establish- 

 ment of a general government for the whole of Ger- 

 many can afford an adequate barrier against the 

 threatening power of Russia. Prussia, which has 

 but a third part of the population of France, has 

 yet 712 miles more of frontier. At one extremity 

 she touches the gates of the French fortress Thion- 

 ville on the Moselle, while the other is watered by 

 the Memel and the Niemen, and we seek in vain 

 for a body to unite the two arms, which are con- 

 nected only by the double military road running 

 through Hanover. There are, properly speaking, 

 three Prussias, one in Poland, one in Germany, one 

 between the Meuse and the Rhine. The kingdom 

 has three vulnerable parts, towards Russia, Austria, 

 and France ; hence its situation is dependent. 



The commerce is various, yet would be much 

 greater if those countries which now form Prussia 

 formed part of one great state, comprising all Ger- 

 many, because her trade with the interior of Ger- 

 many is now obstructed. The Prussian territory 

 extends 522 miles on the Baltic, and has several 

 bays and ports, Its inland trade is promoted by 

 the rivers Oder, Vistula, Elbe and Saale (the two 

 latter of which are connected by seven canals with 

 the two former), the Rhine, and also the Memel, 

 Pregel, Warta, Netze, Havel, Spree, Weser, Ems, 

 Ruhr, Lippe and Moselle, which either flow through 

 Prussia, or belong entirely to it. There are rich 

 lands along the banko of most of these rivers. The 

 mineral treasures of the country, which are consi- 

 derable, with the exception of the nobler metals, 

 are much wrought. Amber is found almost exclu- 

 sively on the coast of Hinder Pomerania and East 

 Prussia. Cattle of all kinds are raised ; horses are 

 bred chiefly in East Prussia. Agriculture and the 

 raising of sheep (Prussia has more than 15,000,000 

 of sheep) have attained a high degree of perfection. 

 Manufactures are carried on in the mountainous 

 part of Silesia, in Ravensberg, the Mark, Berg, and 

 the other Rhenish provinces, chiefly of articles ol 

 domestic production ; for example, manufactures ol 

 linen, amounting, in Silesia, annually to 11,000,000 



of Prussian dollars (above 7,400,000 Spanish), of 

 ol (in Silesia, Brandenburg, Saxony, the Lower 

 Rhine, Aix-la-Chapelle, Burtscheid, Stolberg, &c.), 

 and manufactures of various kinds of hardware. 

 Iron and steel wares are largely made at Berlin, 

 Solingen, Remscheid, Iserlohn. The value of all 

 these manufactures was estimated, in 1804, at 

 51,000,000, and, including all sorts of articles for 

 consumptions, at more than 85,000,000 of Prussian 

 dollars,* and that year may betaken as a standard. 

 Dantzic, Stettin, Konigsberg, Memel, Elbing, Pillau, 

 Colberg, Stralsund and Swinemunde (q. v.) are 

 seaports, some of them not unimportant. Though 

 Prussia employed many thousand sailors before the 

 introduction of the continental system, yet it has 

 no navy to protect its commerce ; and some forced 

 attempts of the government to carry the Prussian 

 flag to distant parts of the world, have by no means 

 tended to the benefit of commerce. By a law of 

 September 21, 1821, a small coin (silver grosh), of 

 which thirty make one Prussian dollar, was intro- 

 duced. Government gain by it fourteen per cent. 



Most of the inhabitants of Prussia are Lutherans: 

 the reigning family are Calvinistic. In 1824, the 

 king introduced a new liturgy, which, in 1825, 

 5343 of the 7782 evangelical churches in the Prus- 

 sian monarchy had accepted. According to the 

 concordate with the pope, in the bull De Salute 

 Animarum, of July 16, 1821, the bishops of Mun- 

 ster, Treves and Paderborn are under the arch- 

 bishop of Cologne, and the bishop of Culm is under 

 the archbishop of Gnesen and Posen. The bisho- 

 prics of Breslau and Ermeland are under no arch- 

 bishop. The eight chapters elect their bishops ; 

 the pope confirms the election, and the chapters 

 inquire, before the election, whether the persons 

 proposed for their votes would be agreeable to tht> 

 king. The members of the chapters are ejected 

 by the pope in the months one, three, five, seven, 

 nine, eleven ; in the other months by the bishop. 

 In the first case, respect is paid to the wishes of the 

 king ; in the latter, the election is subject to the 

 royal confirmation. 1 he following orders of knight- 

 hood exist in Prussia : the order of the Black 

 Eagle, founded in 1701, at the coronation of Fre- 

 deric I., consisting of but one class ; the order of 

 the Red Eagle, originally an order of the house of 

 Anspach and Baireuth, and confirmed in 1791, by 

 Frederic William II., and, in 1810, divided into 

 three classes ; the Louisa order, founded in 1814, 

 for females ; the order of Merit, founded in 1740 ; 

 that of the Iron Cross, with two classes, for those 

 who fought in the campaigns of 1813 15; the or- 

 der of St John, besides various other honorary 

 designations, medals, crosses, &c. In 1823, the 

 king established provincial estates both where they 

 had previously existed, and where they had not. 

 This was to pass for a fulfilment of his promise 

 made in 1815, to give a constitution to his people, 

 but was, in fact, an evasion and a mockery. The 

 estates consisting of nobility, citizens and peasants, 

 have the right to give their opinion when they are 

 consulted, and in questions relating to taxation, they 

 are always to be consulted ; but in no case is their 

 opinion binding on the government. 



Though Prussia is an absolute monarchy, all per- 

 sons are equally subject to the laws, and justice is 

 impartially administered (except in the case of ac- 

 cusations for political offences) ; all are equally 

 bound to do military duty, and the way to office is 

 nominally open to all. Feudal services were abo- 

 lished or rendered redeemable by the edict of Oct. 

 9, 1807, which must be considered as a consequence 



* A t'russian dollar is fqusl to about 2*. 8rf. of our money 



