Jan. 1763.

is rather crooked of back, but has a sprightly Wife. "By all means," answered Polish Majesty: "and as I am in the distance, do you in every way further it, my Son!" Whereupon despatch of Fritsch to Vienna, and thence to Meissen; with "Yes" to him from both parties. Plenipotentiaries are named: "Fritsch shall be ours: they shall have my Schloss of Hubertsburg for Place of Congress," said the Prince. And on Thursday, December 30th, 1762, the Three Dignitaries met at Hubertsburg, and began business.

This is the Schloss in Torgau Country which Quintus Icilius's people, Saldern having refused the job, willingly undertook spoiling; and, as is well known, did it, January 22d, 1761; a thing Quintus never heard the end of. What the amount of profit, or the degree of spoil and mischief, Quintus's people made of it, I could not learn; but infer from this new event that the wreck had not been so considerable as the noise was; at any rate, that the Schloss had soon been restored to its pristine state of brilliancy. The Plenipotentiaries,-for Saxony, Fritsch; for Austria, a Von Collenbach, unknown to us; for Prussia, one Hertzberg, a man experienced beyond his years, who is of great name in Prussian History subsequently, sat here till February 15th, 1763, that is for six weeks and five days. Leaving their Protocols to better judges, who report them good, we will much prefer a word or two from Friedrich himself, while waiting the result they come to.

Friedrich to Prince Henri (home at Berlin).

"Leipzig, 14th January 1763.

Am not surprised you

"find Berlin changed for the worse: such a train of calamities "must, in the end, make itself felt in a poor and naturally barren

Country, where continual industry is needed to second its fecun“dity and keep up production. However, I will do what I can to

66

15th Feb. 1763.

remedy this dearth (la disette), at least as far as my small "means permit."

"No fear of Geldern and Wesel: all that has been cared "for by Bauer and the new Free-Corps. By the end of February, Peace will be signed; at the beginning of April, every"body will find himself at home, as in 1756.

The Circles are going to separate: indifferent to me, or 'nearly so; "but it is good to be plucking out tiresome burning "sticks, stick after stick. I hope you amuse yourself at Berlin: at Leipzig, nothing but balls and redouts; my Nephews diverting "themselves amazingly. Madame Friedrich, lately Garden-maid "at Seidlitz" (Village in the Neumark, with this Beauty plucking weeds in it,-little prescient of such a fortune), "now Wife "to an Officer of the Free Hussars, is the principal heroine of "these Festivities."9

Leipzig, 25th January 1763. "Thanks for your care about my existence. I am becoming very old, dear Brother; in a "little while, I shall be useless to the world and a burden to my"self: it is the lot of all creatures to wear down with age,-but "one is not, for all that, to abuse one's privilege of falling into dotage.

"You still speak without full confidence of our Negotiation "business" (going on at Hubertsburg yonder). "Most cer"tainly the chapter of accidents is inexhaustible; and it is still "certain there may happen quantities of things which the limited "mind of man cannot foresee: but, judging by the ordinary "course, and such degrees of probability as human creatures "found their hopes on, I believe, before the month of February entirely end, our Peace will be completed. In a permanent "Arrangement, many things need settling, which are easier to "settle now than they ever will be again. Patience; haste with"out speed is a thriftless method."10

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February 5th, the trio at Hubertsburg got their Preliminaries signed. On the tenth day thereafter, the Treaty itself was signed and sealed. All other Treaties

9

• Schöning, iii. 528.

10 Ibid. iii. 529.

15th Feb. 1763.

on the same subject had been guided towards a contemporary finis: England and France, ready since the 3d of November last, signed and ended February 10th. February 11th, the Reich signed and ended; February 15th, Prussia, Austria, Saxony; and the Third Silesian or Seven-Years War was completely finished.11

It had cost, in loss of human lives first of all, nobody can say what: according to Friedrich's computation, there had perished of actual fighters, on the various fields, of all the nations, 853,000; of which above the fifth part, or 180,000, is his own share: and, by misery and ravage, the general Population of Prussia finds itself 500,000 fewer; nearly the ninth man missing. This is the expenditure of Life. Other items are not worth enumerating, in comparison; if statistically given, you can find the most approved guesses at them by the same Head, who ought to be an authority.12 It was a War distinguished by-Archenholtz will tell you, with melodious emphasis, what a distinguished, great, and thrice-greatest War it was. There have since been other far bigger Wars,-if size were a measure of greatness; which it by no means is! I believe there was excellent Heroism shown in this War, by persons I could name; by one person, Heroism really to be called superior, or, in its kind, almost of the rank of supreme;-and that in regard to the Military Arts and Virtues, it has as yet, for faculty and for performance, had no rival; nor is likely soon to have. The Prussians, as we once mentioned, still use it as their school-model in those respects. And we-Oh readers, do not at least you and I thank God to have now done with it!—

11 Copy of the Treaty, in Helden-Geschichte, vii. 624 et seq.; in Seyfarth, Beylagen, iii. 479-495; in Rousset, in Wenck, in &c. &c. 12 Euvres de Frédéric, v. 230-234; Preuss, iii. 349-351.

15th Feb. 1763.

Of the Peace-Treaties at Hubertsburg, Paris, and other places, it is not necessary that we say almost anything. They are to be found in innumerable Books, dreary to the mind; and of the 158 Articles to be counted there, not one could be interesting at present. The substance of the whole lies now in Three Points, not mentioned or contemplated at all in those Documents, though repeatedly alluded to and intimated by us here.

The issue, as between Austria and Prussia, strives to be, in all points, simply As-you-were; and, in all outward or tangible points, strictly is so. After such a tornado of strife as the civilised world had not witnessed since the Thirty-Years War. Tornado springing doubtless from the regions called Infernal; and darkening the upper world from south to north, and from east to west for Seven Years long;-issuing in general As-youwere! Yes truly, the tornado was Infernal; but Heaven too had silently its purposes in it. Nor is the mere expenditure of men's diabolic rages, in mutual clash as of opposite electricities, with reduction to equipoise, and restoration of zero and repose again after seven years, the one or the principal result arrived at. Inarticulately, little dreamt of at the time by any by-stander, the results, on survey from this distance, are visible as Threefold. Let us name them one other time:

1o. There is no taking of Silesia from this man; no clipping of him down to the orthodox old limits; he and his Country have palpably outgrown these. Austria gives up the Problem: "We have lost Silesia!" Yes; and, what you hardly yet know,-and what, I perceive, Friedrich himself still less knows,-Teutschland has found Prussia. Prussia, it seems, cannot be conquered by the whole world trying to do it; Prussia has gone through its Fire-Baptism, to the satisfaction of gods

15th Feb. 1763.

and men; and is a Nation henceforth. In and of poor dislocated Teutschland, there is one of the Great Powers of the World henceforth; an actual Nation. And a Nation not grounding itself on extinct Traditions, Wiggeries, Papistries, Immaculate Conceptions; no, but on living Facts, Facts of Arithmetic, Geometry, Gravitation, Martin Luther's Reformation, and what it really can believe in:-to the infinite advantage of said Nation and of poor Teutschland henceforth. To be a Nation; and to believe as you are convinced, instead of pretending to believe as you are bribed or bullied by the devils about you; what an advantage to parties concerned! If Prussia follow its star-As it really tries to do, in spite of stumbling! For the sake of Germany, one hopes always Prussia will; and that it may get through its various Child-Diseases, without death: though it has had sad plunges and crises,-and is perhaps just now in one of its worst Influenzas, the Parliamentary-Eloquence or Ballot-Box Influenza! One of the most dangerous Diseases of National Adolescence; extremely prevalent over the world at this time,-indeed unavoidable, for reasons obvious enough. "Sic itur ad astra;" all Nations certain that the way to Heaven is By voting, by eloquently wagging the tongue "within those walls!" Diseases, real or imaginary, await Nations like individuals; and are not to be resisted, but must be submitted to, and got through the best you can. Measles and mumps; you cannot prevent them in Nations either. Nay fashions even; fashion of Crinoline, for instance (how infinitely more, that of Ballot-Box and Fourth-Estate!),—are you able to prevent even that? You have to be patient under it, and keep hoping!

2o. In regard to England. Her Jenkins's-Ear Controversy is at last settled. Not only liberty of the Seas,