PRUSSIA. 



733 



liberty ; Frederic was, in general, a lover of jus- 

 tice. With him died the principle which had given 

 motion to the whole system, and Mirabeau, in his 

 Hintoire secrete, calls Prussia pourriture avant 

 maturite. His successor, Frederic William II., was 

 a profligate and weak man ; the country was badly 

 governed ; the finances exhausted, and her politics 

 became wavering, because Frederic the Great had 

 elevated her to such a rank among the European 

 states, that she was obliged to take a prominent part 

 in the most important affairs of the continent; but af- 

 ter she had lost the aid of his genius, she had not suf- 

 ficient power to act independently. This wavering 

 character continued for a long series of years. 

 With Frederic the Great, also, or, at least, under 

 him, began a singular contradiction in Prussian 

 politics. While her government promotes with 

 great liberality the diffusion of knowledge, and 

 manifests a real enthusiasm for science, and several 

 of her most eminent public men are among the 

 friends of free institutions, yet history finds her sid- 

 ing with Russia, and, of late, also, with Austria, all 

 three opposing with a vain obstinacy the irresistible 

 progress of liberty. At Reichenbach, in 1790, 

 Prussia appeared as mediator in the peace with the 

 Porte, ami in August, 1791, became connected 

 again with the court of Vienna by the convention 

 of Pilnitz. The profligate extravagance of the 

 court of Frederic William II. required large 

 supplies of money ; and Prussia and Russia seized 

 upon the remainder of Poland, under the pretext of 

 putting down Jacobinism, although Frederic William 

 had assented to the new Polish constitution of May 

 3, 1791. The cabinet, which surrounded the im- 

 becile king, was without principle ; it took posses- 

 sion of the territory of Nuremberg; it shared, in 

 1793 and 1795, in the partitions of Poland, and 

 made a secret treaty (August 5, 1796) with France. 

 After many inconsistent steps caused by her artifi- 

 cial situation, Prussia resolved upon the maintenance 

 of a strict neutrality, which, in the state of Europe 

 at that time, was impossible. In 1803, France oc- 

 cupied Hanover. In 1805, when a third coalition 

 was forming against France, Prussia wavered more 

 than ever. The emperor of Russia, Alexander, 

 appeared at Berlin, and brought about the conven- 

 tion of Potsdam, November 3, 1805 ; but, after the 

 battle of Austerlitz, Prussia sought for peace, arid 

 concluded with France the treaties of December 

 15, 1805, at Vienna, and of February 15, 1806, at 

 Paris. April 1, 1806, she was obliged to occupy 

 Hanover, and was severely reproached by Fox. 

 After Napoleon had concluded the confederacy of 

 the Rhine, Prussia thought herself called upon to 

 form a counterpoise against France ; but she could 

 not effect a confederacy of the states of Northern 

 Germany. A war ensued, and a single battle 

 that of Jena, October 14, 1806 disclosed to the 

 world the rottenness of the system of Frederic the 

 Great (to rest the whole power of the state on the 

 army, and to separate the army as much as possible 

 from the citizens, by taking for soldiers foreigners, 

 and for officers noblemen only, whose arrogance 

 has never been surpassed, arid had no solid basis, 

 not even that of large property). The peace of 

 Tilsit, July 9, 1807, reduced Prussia to half its 

 former dimensions, and this half had to support 

 150,000 French soldiers until December, 1808, and 

 to pay 120 millions of francs ; French garrisons re- 

 mained in the fortresses of Stettin, Kustrin and 

 Glogau. The minister Von Stein (at the head of 

 affairs since October 5, 1807.) strove to regenerate 

 Prussia, and, though he was a most uncompromising 

 enemy of France, established by the edict of Oct. 

 9, 1807, new relations between the landlords and 



the cultivators, and introduced several results of the 

 French revolution. The peasants were to be in 

 future free, and might become owners of the soil ; 

 and November 19, 1808, a municipal constitution, 

 called the Stadteordnung , was established, by which 

 the minister Stein seems to have intended to lay the 

 foundation of a civil spirit, and to adapt the state 

 of Prussia to the spirit of the age.* In 1808, Stein 

 was obliged to leave Germany, in consequence of 

 the persecutions of the French. June 6, 1810, baron 

 Hardenberg was placed at the head of the govern- 

 ment as state-chancellor. His administration is a 

 most important one for Prussia. (See Hardenberg.) 

 The continuance of French oppression, instead of 

 weakening Prussia, strengthened her to a degree 

 which would have been thought impossible. Her 

 energy broke forth with a wonderful effect in 1813, 

 when the king called on " his people" to shake off 

 the French yoke. The nation was then in a state of 

 excitement, which the government gladly made use 

 of, but did not understand, or, if it did understand, 

 laboured to check as soon as the occasion for 

 turning it to profit had passed by. We have given, 

 in the first division, Statistics, &c. of Prussia, the 

 increase which this monarchy received from the 

 Vienna congress. Its political station is much the 

 same as it was before 1806, though Prussia has be- 

 come more influential than it was during the reign 

 of Frederic William II., and is closely connected 

 with Austria and Russia, and instead of rallying 

 round her the constitutional portion of Germany, 

 and making herself the champion of order and civil 

 liberty in that country, she shuts her eyes to the 

 noble opportunity, and joins to the barbarous might 

 of Russia and the withering despotism of Austria 

 the light of science and civilization, and thus, in 

 case of a general war, will compel the constitutional 

 states of Germany again to join France. 



Administration of Justice in Prussia. At the 

 head of it is the minister of justice, whose office ex- 

 tends to the organization of the whole department, 

 all the appointments in the same, &c., and to deci- 

 sions in cases unprovided for, and the remedying of 

 what appears defective or contradictory by the 

 authority of the king. Under him, in the ancient 

 Prussian dominions, are the high courts of the coun- 

 try (Oberlandesgerichte) ; under these the lower 

 courts, particularly the inquisitoriats, which have 

 charge of criminal cases ; the country and town 

 courts ; royal " justice-offices," courts of the medi- 

 atized princes, counts and barons, patrimonial 

 courts ; commissioners of justice (advocates) and 

 notaries. There are also ecclesiastical and commer- 

 cial courts. Since the new organization of justice 

 in Prussia, it has always been the plan to appoint, 

 even for courts of the first instance, several judges 

 with collegiate power, for all cases where the ques- 

 tion is one of real legal investigation ; whereas, in 

 former times, in Germany, there was but one judge 

 in all the courts of the first instance. The same 

 principle lies at the foundation of the new French 

 organization. The judicial system in Prussia is as 

 follows . A. In the German countries between the 

 Rhine and the Weser, the Elbe and Oder, including 

 East Prussia, there is a considerable variety in the 

 courts of the first instance, particularly in Silesia 

 and Westphalia, on account of the many lordships 

 and principalities which have independent courts of 

 the first instance : some of them even possess courts 

 of the second instance. In the Catholic parts of 

 the country there are, also, the ecclesiastical courts 



* The Stadteordnung gives the cities the control of their 

 pecuniary affairs, and, in some measure, of their police. It 

 was revised in 1831, and extended to cities acquired since its 

 introduction. It does not, however, confer much, real liberty. 



