732 



PRUSSIA. 



of the principles introduced by the French revolu- 

 tion. The internal organization of the state rests 

 on the edict of October 9, 1 707, and the administra- 

 tion was settled by the law of April 30, 1815. A 

 general presides over each military division, and a 

 high president (oberprasident) over each province. 

 The conduct of public affairs belongs lo the govern- 

 ments ; the administration of justice to the high 

 courts of the country (OberlandesgericMe). Each 

 " government" has a president and two chief divi- 

 sions, the first of which attends to the police, the 

 estates, the military, and the general affairs of the 

 government, and is under the minister of the in- 

 terior. The second division, under the minister of 

 the police, has the charge of all financial affairs. 

 Each province is divided into circles, superintended 

 by a counsellor (Landrath), the organ of both divi- 

 sions. The high presidents are permanent deputies 

 of the ministers. To them are intrusted all those 

 matters of political regulation, whose effect cannot 

 be restricted to a single government; in particular, 

 they are the presidents of the consistorial and me- 

 dical authorities, and, at the same time, presidents 

 of the government in the capital of the province. 

 At the head of the state stands the monarch, who 

 issues through his " privy cabinet" cabinet orders, 

 signed by himself. March' 30, 1817, a council of 

 state was established : it is the highest deliberative 

 authority, but has no part in executive business. 

 It examines all plans, proposals, grievances, &c. 

 The king presides, or the chancellor of state, or a 

 member temporarily substituted. In 1819, this 

 council consisted of sixty-six persons, including the 

 princes. Under the "ministry of state" (consisting 

 of the prince-royal, nine ministers of state and six 

 reporting counsellors) stand immediately the privy 

 state and cabinet archives, the high committee of 

 examination, and the board of statistics. The 

 ministry of state consists of, 1. the ministry of the 

 royal household ; 2. of foreign affairs; 3. of justice; 

 4. of fimmces ; 5. of manufactures, commerce and 

 public works ; 6. of the army ; 7. the interior and 

 the police ; 8. of ecclesiastical affairs, education 

 and health; 9. of accounts (Stcatsbuchhalterei.) In- 

 dependent of these is the general posUoffice. The 

 general directory of foreign commerce has formed 

 a separate department since 1820. The same is the 

 case with the chief bank at Berlin. (For the Prus- 

 sian law, and the administration of justice, see the 

 end of this article.) The Prussian government has 

 fulfilled its pecuniary obligations with scrupulous 

 exactness : thus it behaved honourably in its new 

 provinces to the public creditors, who were so long 

 ill-treated under the confederation, and acknow- 

 ledged the whole debt in Westphalia, which had 

 been reduced to a third by the king of Westphalia. 

 The reigning house in Prussia is the house of Ho- 

 henzollera. 



History of Prussia. The Teutonic knights re- 

 ceived, in 1226, a strip of land on the Vistula from 

 Conrad of Masovia (see Poland), in order that they 

 might protect Poland from the heathen inhabitants 

 of Prussia. From 1230 to 1283, they carried on a 

 war of extermination with eleven Prussian tribes. 

 These at last became Christians, and adopted the 

 German customs. The power of the Teutonic 

 knights increased rapidly, and, in the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, their territory extended from the Oder, along 

 the Baltic, to the bay of Finland, and contained 

 cities like Dantzic, Elbing, Thorn, Culm, &c. 

 About 1404, they ruled over 2,500,000 of people, 

 and had an annual income of 800,000 marks. But 

 the knights became tyrants, and the nobility and 

 cities had no means of escaping their oppression 

 but by submitting to Poland.. A terrible war en- 



sued, from 1454 to 1466, and the country was filled 

 with bloodshed and devastation. It 1511, the 

 knights elected Albert of Brandenburg, son of the 

 margrave of Anspach, to the office of grand master, 

 with a view of strengthening themselves. In 1525, 

 the order was abolished entirely in Prussia, and its 

 territory was converted into an hereditary duchy, 

 under prince Albert and his male descendants or 

 brothers, as a fief of Poland. The republic of Po- 

 land acknowledged the sovereignty of the elector 

 of Brandenburg in the duchy of Prussia by the 

 treaty of Welau, September 19, 1657. Towards 

 other powers, and especially Sweden, the great 

 elector Frederic William also maintained a respect- 

 able attitude. His son Frederic III. placed the 

 royal crown upon his head, January 18, 1701, as 

 Frederic I., thereby elevating Prussia Proper to a 

 kingdom. Vanity probably led him to take this 

 step, but, under him, the monarchy increased in 

 territory, and a desire for further increase a ne- 

 cessary consequence of the scattered condition of 

 its component parts and the assumption of a sta- 

 tion which required augmented power to support 

 it became an early, and, it may be said, a ruling 

 trait of Prussian policy, and the desire is still strong, 

 for the original motive still remains. Frederic 

 William I. (q. v.) received Stettin in 1720, by the 

 peace of Stockholm, and also Prussian Gueldres. 

 He was a tyrannical soldier, but sagacious, a friend 

 of justice when it did not interfere with his caprices 

 or plans. His desire to keep on foot a standing 

 army of 60,000 men, led him to the enlisting of 

 foreigners. He was frugal, and under him began the 

 system so much developed by Frederic II., of mak- 

 ing the internal government as much as possible a 

 machine. His love of justice not unfrequently led 

 him to infringe the independence of the judiciary. 

 With many resources which waited only for deve- 

 lopment, Prussia came to Frederic the Great, who 

 made it one of the first powers of Europe. Claims 

 upon parts of Silesia were used as a pretext for the 

 invasion of that province. After several wars, he 

 remained in possession of the chief part of it. East 

 Friesland was united with Prussia in 1743. From 

 the year 1763, Frederic's chief care was directed to 

 the internal government, almost all the branches of 

 which he improved ; but the great number of troops 

 which he kept on foot induced him to make the in- 

 crease of revenue the chief object of his government, 

 and the whole system of internal administration 

 was regulated with a view to make it a productive 

 machine. Square miles and population were then 

 the measure of power and happiness in the policy 

 of the European cabinets ; the first partition of 

 Poland, in 1772, was the consequence ; and, from 

 that time, Prussia sacrificed Poland to Russia, to 

 secure its aid as an ally against Austria. The 

 monarchy was almost doubled under Frederic the 

 Great. He left to his nephew, Frederic William 

 II., a territory of 71,760 square miles, with 5,800000 

 inhabitants, and an army of 220,000 men (which, 

 however, consumed almost four fifths of the reve- 

 nue of the state), and a treasure of 50 million Prus- 

 sian dollars (about 34 million Spanish). Frederic 

 the Great had no true love for his nation ; his rul- 

 ing passions were the love of fame and of power. 

 He regarded the Prussian nation as a foreign gene- 

 ral regards the army under his command. More 

 than any other prince he undermined the German 

 empire, which, it must be owned, had become worse 

 than worthless. H<? separated entirely the army 

 and the citizens a system whose natural termina- 

 tion was the punishment of an insolent nobility on 

 the field of Jena. Under his government industry 

 was encouraged ; the press enjoyed considerable 



