March 1765-June 1766.

King;10-picked up at Geldern (June 11th), as we saw above. D'Alembert got to Potsdam, June 22d; stayed till middle of August. He had met the King once before, in 1755; who found him "a bon garçon," as we then saw. D'Alembert was always, since that time, an agreeable, estimable little man to Friedrich. Age now about forty-six; has lately refused the fine Russian post of Tutor to the Czarowitsh' (Czarowitsh Paul, poor little Boy of eight or nine, whom we, or Herr Büsching for us, saw galloping about, not long since, 'in his dressinggown,' under Panim's Tutorage); refuses now, in a delicate gradual manner, the fine Prussian post of Perpetual President, or Successor to Maupertuis;-definitely preferring his frugal pensions at Paris, and garret all his own there. Continues, especially after this twomonths visit of 1763, one of the King's chief correspondents for the next twenty years.11 A man of much clear intellect; a thought shrieky in his ways sometimes; but always prudent, rational, polite, and loyally recognising Friedrich as a precious article in this world. Here is a word of D'Alembert's to Madame du Deffand, at Paris, some ten or twelve days after the Cleve meeting, and the third day after his arrival here:

* I will not go

'Potsdam, 25th June 1763. Madame,- * into the praises of this Prince,' King Friedrich, my now Host; ' in my mouth it might be suspicious: I will merely send you two 'traits of him, which will indicate his way of thinking and feeling. 'When I spoke to him' (at Geldern, probably, on our first meeting) of the glory he had acquired, he answered, with the greatest

10 In Euvres de Frédéric, xxiv. 377-380 (D'Alembert's fine bits of Letters in prospect of Potsdam, 'Paris, 7th March-29th April 1763 ;' and two small Notes while there, 'Sans-Souci, 6th July-15th August 1763').

11 29th October 1783,' D'Alembert died: 'born 16th November 1717 ;' -a Foundling, as is well known; 'Mother a Sister of Cardinal Tencin's ; 'Father,' accidental, 'an Officer in the Artillery.'

March 1765-June 1766.

'simplicity, That there was a furious discount to be deducted from said glory; that chance came in for almost the whole of 'it; and that he would far rather have done Racine's Athalie 'than all this War:-Athalie is the work he likes, and re-reads ' oftenest; I believe you won't disapprove his taste there. The ' other trait I have to give you is, That on the day' (15th February last) of concluding this Peace, which is so glorious to him, some one saying, "It is the finest day of your Majesty's life:" "The finest day of life," answered he, "is the day on which one quits it." *-Adieu, Madame.'12

The meeting in Cleve Country was, no doubt, a very pretty passage, with Two pretty Months following;and if it be true that Helvetius was a consequence, the 11th of June 1763 may almost claim to be a kind of epoch in Friedrich's later history. The opulent and ingenious M. Helvetius, who wrote De l'Esprit, and has got banished for that feat (lost in the gloom of London in those months), had been a mighty Tax-gatherer as well; D'Alembert, as brother Philosophe, was familiar with Helvetius. It is certain, also, King Friedrich, at this time, found he would require annually two million thalers more;-where to get them, seemed the impossibility. A General Krockow, who had long been in French Service, and is much about the King, was often recommending the French Excise-system; he is the Krockow of Domstädtl, and that Siege of Olmütz, memorable to some of us:-"A wonderful Excise-system," Krockow is often saying, in this time of straits. "Who completely understands it?" the King might ask. "Helvetius, against the world!" D'Alembert could justly answer. "Invite Helvetius to leave his London exile, and accept an asylum here, where he may be of vital use to me!" concludes Friedrich.

12 Euvres Posthumes de D'Alembert (Paris, 1799), i. 197:' cited in Preuss, ii. 348.

1766.

Helvetius came in March 1765; stayed till June 1766:13 within which time a French Excise-system, which he had been devising and putting together, had just got in gear, and been in action for a month, to Helvetius's satisfaction. Who thereupon went his way, and never returned;-taking with him, as man and taxgatherer, the King's lasting gratitude; but by no means that of the Prussian Nation, in his tax-gathering capacity! All Prussia, or all of it that fell under this Helvetius Excise-system, united to condemn it, in all manner of dialects, louder and louder: here, for instance, is the utterance of Herr Hamann, himself a kind of Customhouse Clerk (at Königsberg, in East Preussen), and on modest terms a Literary man of real merit and originality, who may be supposed to understand this subject: "And so," says Hamann, "the State has declared its "own subjects incapable of managing its Finance-system; and in this way has intrusted its heart, that is "the purse of its subjects, to a company of Foreign "Scoundrels, ignorant of everything relating to it!"'14

46

This lasted all Friedrich's lifetime; and gave rise to not a little buzzing, especially in its primary or incipient stages. It seems to have been one of the unsuccessfullest Finance-adventures Friedrich ever engaged in. It cost his subjects infinite small trouble; awakened very great complaining; and for the first time, real discontent,-skin-deep but sincere and universal, against the misguided Vater Fritz. Much noisy absurdity there was upon it, at home, and especially abroad: "Griping miser," "greedy tyrant," and so forth! Deducting all which, everybody now admits that Friedrich's aim was

13 Rödenbeck, ii. 254; Preuss, iii. 11.

14 Hamann to Jacobi' (see Preuss, iii. 1-35), 'Königsberg, 18th January 1786.'

1766.

excellent and proper; but nobody denies withal that the means were inconsiderate, of no profit in proportion to the trouble they gave, and improper to adopt unless the necessity compelled.

Friedrich is forbidden, or forbids himself, as we have often mentioned, to impose new taxes: and nevertheless now, on calculations deep, minute, and no doubt exact, he judges That for meeting new attacks of War (or being ready to meet, which will oftenest mean averting them),-a thing which, as he has just seen, may concern the very existence of the State,—it is necessary that there should be on foot such and such quotities and kinds of Soldiery and War-furniture, visible to all neighbours; and privately in the Treasury never less than such and such a sum. To which end Arithmetic declares that there is required about Two Million thalers more of yearly revenue than we now have. And where, in these circumstances, are the means of raising such a sum?

but there may be there may, and in Friedrich has con

Friedrich imposes no new taxes; stricter methods of levying the old; fact there must, be means found! sulted his Finance Ministers; put the question seriatim to these wise heads: they answer with one voice, "There are no means."15 Friedrich, therefore, has recourse to Helvetius; who, on due consideration, and after survey of much documentary and tabulary raw-material, is of opinion, That the Prussian Excises would, if levied with the punctuality, precision and vigilant exactitude of French methods, actually yield the required overplus. "Organise me the methods, then; get them put in action here; under French hands, if that be indispensable." Helvetius bethought him of what fittest French

15 Rödenbeck, ii. 256.

1766.

hands there were to his knowledge,-in France there are a great many hands flung idle in the present downbreak of finance there:-Helvetius appears to have selected, arranged and contrived in this matter with his best diligence. De Launay, the Head-engineer of the thing, was admitted by all Prussia, after Twenty-two years unfriendly experience of him, to have been a suitable and estimable person; a man of judicious ways, of no small intelligence, prudence, and of very great skill in administering business.

Head-engineer De Launay, .one may guess, would be consulted by Helvetius in choice of the subaltern. Officials, the stokers and steerers in this new SteamMachinery, which had all to be manned from France. There were Four heads of departments immediately under De Launay, or scarcely under him, junior brothers rather: who chose these I did not hear; but these latter, it is evident, were not a superior quality of people. Of these Four,-all at very high salaries, from De Launay downwards; "higher than a Prussian Minister of State!" murmured the public,-two, within the first year, got into quarrel; fought a duel, fatal to one of them; so that there were now only Three left. "Three, with De Launay, will do," opined Friedrich; and divided the vacant salary among the survivors: in which form they had at least no more duelling.

As to the subaltern working-parties, the Visitateurs, Controlleurs, Jaugeurs (Gaugers), Plombeurs (Leadstampers), or the strangest kind of all, called 'CellarRats (Commis Rats-de-Cave),' they were so detested and exclaimed against, by a Public impatient of the work itself, there is no knowing what their degree of scoundrelism was, nor even, within amazingly wide limits, what the arithmetical number of them was. About 500