CHAPTER IV.
STATE POLICY AND THE INDIVIDUAL.
(1600-1700.)
The last stage of the process of dissolution which the holy Roman empire passed through occupies the hundred and fifty years from Oxenstern to Napoleon. The mortal disease began in 1520, when Charles V., the Burgundian Hapsburger, was crowned Emperor of Germany; the death struggle itself did not begin till the election of Ferdinand II., the Jesuit protector, in 1620. The peal of bells that celebrated the Westphalian peace was a death-knell; what followed was the last slow destruction of an expiring organism. But it was also the beginning of a new organic formation. The rise of the Prussian state coincides precisely with the end of the Thirty Years' War.
Whether joy or sorrow ought to predominate in the consideration of such a period depends not only on the political point of view, but on the culture and character of those who form a judgment on it. To those who love to depict with poetic warmth the glories of a German empire, such as perhaps might have been, the advent and character of a time so poor in great men and in national pride can only be repugnant; whoever is in the unfortunate position of considering the interests of the Hapsburgers or those of the Order of Jesus as essentially German, will form an imaginary picture of the past, which will be as far removed from the reality, as the relique worship of the ancient church is from the free man's worship of God. But whoever investigates temperately and sensibly the connection of events, should be careful, in writing the history of this period, not to forget, in the hatefulness of appearances, to do justice to what was legitimate in the reality, and equally so, not for the sake of what, is good, to throw a veil over that which is odious. It is not purely accidental that it is only easy to one who is both a Protestant and a Prussian, to regard with conscious pride and a cheerful heart the historical development of the last two centuries.
Immediately after the peace of Münster and Osnabruck, two views of German politics confronted one another, the one which, in spite of the diminution of the Hapsburg influence and the decision of the Westphalian peace, still maintained the old traditions of Imperial supremacy, and the other that of the great territorial princes who sought to secure full freedom of action and independence for themselves, and who had, in fact, become sovereigns. The history of these opposing principles comprehends, in the main, the history of the political development of our fatherland up to the present day. Still do the two parties remain, but the aims and the means of agitation of both are changed, for above them has arisen a new formation, a third party. After 1648 it was the Imperial party who strongly proclaimed the unity of Germany; the political supremacy was claimed for the House of Hapsburg, and that was desired which is almost precisely what is at present termed the diplomatic and military lead Then weak public opinion, in which there was still a lively recollection of the old connection with the Empire, was for the most part, even among the Protestants, on its side, and the Imperial politicians endeavoured to enlist supporters through the press. If a few literary men, who stood up for German nationality in opposition to foreign influences, murmured at the weakness of the fatherland, the conclusion always presented itself to them, that the Emperor was pre-eminently entitled to revive the old supremacy of the Empire. At that time the strength of this party lay in the fact, that the only German state power of any magnitude was that of the House of Hapsburg, but their weakness consisted in this, that the policy of the Emperor was not in the main German, and that the bigotry and intrigues of the Vienna court did not inspire either the princes with fear, or the estates with confidence. On the other hand, the opposition party of princely politicians, looking to their own advantage, with very little consideration for the Empire, sought the isolation of individual states, the weakening of the connection of the Empire, the policy of the free hand and temporary alliances of the courts among themselves, instead of submitting to the power of the Diet; and their mutual union at the Diet, and in all diplomatic negotiations, tended to counteract the influence and policy of the Emperor. In the midst of this struggle betwixt two adverse principles, a new state arose in Germany, the princes of which, allying themselves sometimes with one party, sometimes with the other, endeavoured to make use of both, and collected round them a nation, which at the end of the eighteenth century appeared capable of a more vigorous development of German strength than the inheritance of the Hapsburgers. And so completely has the situation of Germany changed, that now the Imperial party acts with most of the German princes against the party of the new State. The old opponents have united in a struggle against the new party, both in the difficult position of having to uphold what is unsatisfactory, both under the fatal necessity of working against a long-cherished desire of the nation.
It was a desperate political situation which placed the centre of gravity of German power in the hands of individual German princes, and gave them the almost unlimited disposal of the property and lives of their subjects. The political weakness of Germany, the despotic sway and corruption of the rulers, the servility of the subjects, the immorality of the courts, and the dishonesty of officials, was the sad result, and has often been sufficiently pourtrayed. But with this time begins also the modern State life of Germany. The progress of a nation is not always understood and valued by contemporaries, the necessary changes are not always effected by great men; sometimes the good genius of a nation requires the bad, the insignificant, and the shortsighted, as instruments in a powerful reconstruction. Not in the French revolution alone has a new life proceeded from evil deeds: in Germany also, iron necessity, despotism, and contempt for old rights, have produced much that we now consider as the necessary groundwork of well-regulated State life.
The school of diplomats and statesmen who had been trained during the war in Germany, defended the interests of the German sovereigns up to the time of the French revolution. The endless peace negotiations brought together in Germany the most distinguished politicians of Europe. Pupils of Richelieu, able Netherlanders, countrymen of Macchiavelli, and the proud followers of Gustavus Adolphus. The struggle of antagonisms gave to a large number of talented Germans superabundant opportunities of forming themselves; for around the representatives of the great powers were more than a hundred political agents, writing and haranguing. From the passionate struggle which was brought to a conclusion at Münster and Osnabruck amid the constraint of ceremonials and with an appearance of cold tranquillity, from the chaotic confusion of numberless contending interests, and from the mountains of acts, controversial writings, replications, and projects of treaty, a generation of politicians was, after the peace, spread over the country, hard men, with stubborn will and indomitable perseverance, with gigantic power of work and acute judgment, learned jurists and versatile men of the world, with great knowledge of human nature, but at the same time sceptical despisers of all ideal feelings, unscrupulous in the choice of means, dextrous in making use of the weak point of an opponent, experienced in demanding and giving honour, and well inclined not to forget their own advantage. They became the leaders of politics at the courts and in the Imperial cities, quiet leaders or dextrous tools of their lords--in fact, the real rulers of Germany. They were the creators of the diplomacy and bureaucracy of Germany. Their method of negotiating may appear to us very prolix and pettifogging, but it is just in our time, when a superficial dilettanteism is to be complained of in diplomacy and State government, that the legal culture and sagacious dexterity of the old school should be looked back upon with respect. It was not the fault of these men that they were obliged to spend their lives in a hundred little quarrels, and that only few of them found themselves in the happy position of promoting a great and wise policy. But it will always be to their honour, that under unfavourable circumstances they more than once preserved the esteem and respect of the external enemies of Germany, for German diplomacy, where they no longer felt it for the power of German armies.
They regulated also the internal concerns of the devastated provinces of the new "State." According to their model was formed the official class, also the colleges of judges and administrators; often, it is true, more awkward and pedantic, but just as tenacious of rank, and not unfrequently as corruptible, as the chancellors and privy councillors on whom they depended. The new politicians carried on also important negotiations with the provincial Diets, and had no easy task to render them pliant or harmless. Ever since the end of the fifteenth century there existed, in almost all the larger territories of Germany, State representatives of the country, who voted the taxes, attaching conditions to such votes, and also giving their opinion on the application of the taxes; in the sixteenth century they had attained to increased importance, as they superintended a provincial bank, which assisted the Government in raising money. At the end of the great war, these provincial banks became the last and most important help, for they had strained their credit to the uttermost to provide a war contribution to rid the country of foreign armies. Thus after the peace they were most influential corporations, and the existence of the great portion of creditless sovereigns depended, in fact, upon them. Unfortunately the provincial States were ill fitted to be the true representatives of the country; they consisted for the most part of prelates, lords, and knights, all of them representatives of the nobility, who were, as regarded their own persons and property, exempt from taxes: under them were the deputies of the desolated and deeply involved cities. Thus they were not only inclined to lay the burden of these money grants upon the mass of the people, but it also became possible for the Government, through the preponderance of the aristocratic element, to exercise every kind of personal influence. Whilst the ruler drew the nobles of his province to his court, in order to divert himself in fitting society, his chief officials knew how to take advantage of their craving for rank and titles, and through offices, dignities, and gifts, and lastly by threats of royal displeasure, to break the resistance of individuals. Thus in the eighteenth century the States in most of the principalities sank into insignificance, in some they were entirely abolished. Still some continued to exist, and did not everywhere lose their influence and importance.
The sums, however, which they were able to grant did not by any means suffice for the new state--to maintain a costly court, numerous officials and soldiers. Regular imposts had to be devised which would be independent of their grants. The indirect taxes quickly increased to a threatening extent. The necessaries of life--bread, meat, salt, wine, beer--and many other things, were taxed to the consumers, at the end of the seventeenth century. The custom and excise officials were stationed at the city gates, and custom-houses were placed at the frontiers, for the merchandise which passed in and out. Commercial intercourse was made use of through stamped paper, even the pleasures of the subject were made available for the state; for example (in 1708 in the Imperial hereditary lands), not only public but private dances were taxed, and also, in 1714, tobacco. At last the poor comedians were likewise obliged to pay a gulden for each representation, and even the quack and eye doctors paid at each yearly market a few kreuzers, and heavy claims were made on the Jews. It was long before either people or officials could accustom themselves to the pressure of the new imposts; the tariff and the mode of levying it were always being altered, and frequently the governments saw with dissatisfaction their expectations disappointed. On the impoverished people the pressure of the new taxes fell very severely; loud and incessant were the complaints in the popular literature.
Meanwhile the subject worked with the plough and the hammer; he sat at the writing-desk, and saw around and over him everywhere the wheels of the great state machine; he heard its clicking and creaking, and was hindered, tormented, and endangered by its every movement. He lived under it as a stranger, timid and suspicious. In about six hundred great and small courts, he saw daily the splendid households of his rulers, and the gold-embroidered dresses of the court people; the lace of the lacqueys and the tufts of the footmen were to him objects of the highest importance, his usual topic of discourse. When the ruling lord kept a grand table, the citizens had sometimes the privilege of seeing the court dine. When the court, forming a sledge party, or a so-called wirthschaft,[[75]] drove through the streets in disguise, the subjects might look on. In winter they might even themselves take a share in a great masquerade, but a barrier was erected which separated the people from the sports of the court. Once the prince had contended with the citizens, shooting at the same target, and was only treated in the jokes of the pritschmeister with somewhat greater consideration. Now the court were entirely separated from the people; and if a courtier condescended to notice a citizen, it was generally no advantage to the purse or family peace of the privileged one. Thus the poor citizen acquired an abject feeling. To obtain an office or title which would give him somewhat of this courtly power, became the object of his ambition, and the same even with the artisan. In the five or six hundred court establishments the desire for titles spread from the nobles and officials down to the lowest class of the people. Shortly before 1700 began the monstrous custom of giving court titles to the artisans, and with these an order of precedence. The court shoemaker tried by petitioning and bribery to obtain the right of nailing the coat of arms of his sovereign over his door; and the court tailor and court gardener quarrelled bitterly which should go before the other, for the tailor, according to the letter of the rule of precedence, went as a matter of course before the gardener, but the latter had obtained the right of bearing a sword.[[76]] Wealth was the only thing besides rank that gave a privileged position. Whoever calls ours a money-seeking time, should remember how great was the influence of money in former times, and how eagerly it was sought by the poor. The rich man could, it was thought, effect everything. He could be made a nobleman, provided with a title, or by his presents put his rulers under an obligation to him. These presents, were in general received willingly. Greedily did the chancellor, the judge, or the councillor accept them, and even the most sensitive rarely withstood a delicately offered gift. The protection, however, obtained by the citizen in the new state was still very deficient; it was difficult for him to obtain justice against people of distinction and influence. Lawsuits in most of the German territories were endless. A difficult case of inheritance, or a bankruptcy business, would go on to the second and third generation. Government, with the best will, could not always punish even violent injury to property from burglary or robbery. It is instructive to investigate the proceedings against the bold robber bands; even when they succeeded in catching the delinquent, the stolen goods could seldom be restored to the owners. The neighbouring governments sometimes delivered up, on requisition and petition, the criminal who had found an asylum in their country, but such deliveries were generally preceded by special influence, and frequently by presents of money; but the confiscated possessions of the criminal were in many cases retained, and disappeared in the hands of the officials. When in 1733, at Coburg, a gold and silver manufactory was robbed, and strong suspicion fell on a wealthy Jewish trader, the proceedings were often stopped and interfered with, in consequence of the relations the Jew had with the court; and even after he was known to be in intimate connection with a band of robbers and murderers, the proceedings against his assistants could not be pursued further, because the magistrates of the place in Hesse where the robbers dwelt, helped their flight; and the further ramifications of the band, which spread to Bavaria and Silesia, could not be traced on account of the unwillingness of the tribunals. And yet this trial was carried on with great energy, and the person who had been robbed had made distant journeys and offered large sums. Everywhere the multiplicity of rulers, and the dismemberment of territories, were productive of weakness. The Margravate of Brandenburg and a portion of Lower Saxony formed almost the only great connected unity, except the Imperial possessions. In the rest of Germany lay interspersed many thousands of large and small domains, free cities, and parcels of land appertaining to the nobility. But even a modest pride in their own province could not be cultivated in individuals. For each of the countless frontiers occasioned far more isolation than in the olden time. Even in the larger cities, excepting in the cities on the Northern Ocean, municipal spirit had disappeared. Besides his own interests, the German had little to occupy him but the tittle-tattle of the day concerning family events and any remarkable news. It may be seen from many examples how trifling, pedantic, and malicious was the talk of the city for three generations, and how morbidly sensitive, on the other hand, men had become. Anonymous lampoons in prose and verse, an old invention, became ever more numerous, coarse, and malicious; they stirred up not only families, but the whole community of citizens; they became dangerous for the propagators, if they ever ventured to, attack any influential person or royal interests. Yet they increased everywhere; no government was in a position to prevent them; for an artful publisher easily found opportunity to print and distribute them on the other side of the frontier.
Under such circumstances some qualities were developed in the German character which have not yet quite disappeared. A craving for rank and title, servility to those who, whether as officials, or as persons of rank, lived in a higher position, fear of publicity, and above all a striking inclination to form a morose, mean, and scornful judgment of the character and life of others.
This gloomy, hopeless, discontented, and ironical disposition showed itself everywhere, after the Thirty Years' War, by individuals giving vent to their thoughts about the state within whose jurisdiction they lived. It is true that the Germans continued after the great war to take an interest in politics: newspapers of all kinds increased gradually, and bore the news to every house; confidential reports from the seats of government and great commercial cities were circulated; the half-yearly reports of fairs comprised an abstract of the occurrences of many months; and numberless flying sheets, representing party interests, appeared upon every weighty event, both internal and external. The execution of the king, in England, was generally condemned by German readers as a frightful crime, and the sympathies of the whole nation were long with the Stuarts; but shortly before William of Orange put to sea against James II. it was read and believed that James had ventured to substitute a false child as heir to the throne. No one, however, excited public opinion so strongly against himself as Louis XIV. If ever a man was hated by the whole of Germany, he was. It is remarkable, that whilst the manners of his court and the fashions of his capital were everywhere imitated by the upper classes, and even the people could not escape from their influence, his politics were from the first rightly estimated by them. Countless were the flying sheets which were scattered about from all sides against him. He was the disturber of the peace, the great enemy, and in the lampoons also the proud fool. After the Palatinate was laid in ashes, the people called their dogs Melac and Teras; after the taking of Strasburg, a deeper cry of woe passed through the land. Finally, when in the great War of Succession the German armies long kept the upper hand, a feeling of self-respect was excited, which appeared in the small literature of the day. Had there been a German prince who could have awakened an energetic patriotism in the weak people, this hatred would have helped him. But a powerful outburst of patriotic feeling was hindered by the political condition of the country; in Cologne and Bavaria, French printing-presses were at work, and German pens wrote against their own countrymen.
One cannot, therefore, say that the Germans were deficient altogether in political feeling in the century from 1640 to 1740, for it burst forth everywhere; even in works of imagination, in novels, and also in the drama, political conversation found a place, as did aesthetic talk in Goethe's time. But it was unfortunate that this feeling vented itself on the political quarrels of other countries, and that the transactions in Germany itself, excited less interest than the daily occurrences of the Parisian court, or the abdication of the Queen of Sweden. The indifferent public still continued to occupy itself as earnestly about comets, witches, appearances of the devil, a quarrel amongst ecclesiastics, disputes between councillors and citizens of some Imperial city, or the conversion of some small prince by the Jesuits, as about the battle of Fehrbellin. The preparations of the Turks and the war in Hungary were, perhaps, spoken of with a shake of the head; but to pay money for it, or render assistance, was seldom thought of; even after the siege of Vienna by the Turks, in 1683, Count Stahremberg was scarcely as interesting to the great German public as the spy Kolschitzky, who had brought the account from the city to the Imperial main army; his figure was engraved in copper in Turkish dress, and sold in the market. It is true he shared this glory with every distinguished thief and murderer who had ever been executed anywhere, to the great diversion of the public. Sometimes, indeed, the attention of the Germans was fixed with deeper interest on one man, the Elector of Brandenburg. In Southern Germany, also, he was spoken of respectfully; he was a powerful-minded prince, but, unfortunately, his means were small. This was the general opinion; but, as upon his character, so, likewise, upon other vital questions, did the German people give their opinion with as much tranquillity as if it were a question of the Muscovite Czar, or of the distant Japan, concerning which Jesuit accounts had been narrated centuries before. And this was not the result of the trammels of the press, though it certainly was much fettered; for, in spite of all the recklessness with which the ruling powers sought to revenge themselves on its unruly spirit, the multiplicity of states, and the mutual hatred of neighbouring governments, made it difficult to crush an unbridled press. It was other causes which made the people so indifferent to their own interests.
Neither was it deficiency in judgment. If the numberless political discourses of that time are clumsy and diffuse in composition, without any sufficient knowledge of facts and persons, yet they deserve credit for much sound sense and frequently a surprising comprehension of the condition of Germany. The Germans, even before 1700, were not deficient in political discernment; nay, before the Thirty Years' War, much progress was apparent. But it was their peculiar characteristic that, with this comprehension of their dangerous situation, of the helplessness of the Empire, and of its miserable, dislocated state, the people calmly and quietly recognised it with a shake of the head; even their literary teachers were rarely roused to manly indignation, still less to determined will, nor even to form fruitless projects. Thus, the nation in the seventeenth century might be compared to a hopeless invalid, who, free from the excitement of fever, soberly, calmly, and sensibly contemplates his own condition. We know, indeed, that it is our own century which has cured this morbid state of the German people; but we also perceive the cause of the singular, cold, and gloomy objectiveness which became so peculiar to our nation, and of which traces are yet to be discovered in many individuals. It is the disease of a rightly-gifted, genial nature, whose volition has been crushed by the horrors of war and the struggles of fate, and whose warm heart has been benumbed. A clear, circumspect, just spirit remains to the German; noble political enthusiasm is lost to him. He no longer finds pleasure and honour in being the citizen of a great State; he has no nation that he loves, no State that he honours; he is an individual among individuals; he has well-wishers and detractors, good friends and bad enemies, scarcely any fellow-citizens as yet, scarcely yet any countrymen.
As characteristic of such a frame of mind, a flying-sheet will here be given, which, in the allegorical style of the seventeenth century, makes bitter observations on the new State policy. Even during the great war, Bogislaw Philipp Chemnitz, one of the most zealous and talented adherents of the Swedish party, made a prodigious sensation by a book, in which he complains of the Imperial house as the principal cause of the misery of Germany, and finds the only salvation of the country in the independence and complete power of the German princes. From the title of the book,[[77]] "Staatsraison," this expression became the usual term for denoting the new system of government which, after the peace, began to prevail in the German territories. Since that, this Staatsraison was through half a century condemned in numerous moral treatises from the popular press; it was represented as double and triple headed, and in books, pictures, and satirical verses, always accused of being arbitrary, hard, and hypocritical. To this effect are the contents of the following work, which is here given with some abbreviations and alterations which are indispensable for its easier comprehension[[78]]:--
"As the ratio status is now not only honoured in the world, but held to be an irrevocable law, so are truth and honesty, on the other hand, no longer valued. When a situation in the service of the state is vacant, there is, indeed, no want of candidates; but out of nine the prince finds scarcely three that will suit him. Therefore, they must be examined. And if, in the examination, any one, in answer to the question, what should be the first and most distinguished virtue of a prince's councillor, should say: 'The men of the olden time teach that a prince should be none other than a servant for the general welfare; therefore, it is his duty to rule according to law and justice, for God and nature have implanted in the heart of every one a true balance for weighing the gold; do to others as you would they should do unto you;' then the prince would give him a courteous dismissal.
"Such a candidate had not long ago got through an examination at a certain court, by shrewd and cautious answers; he was nominated councillor, and as the prince was kindly disposed towards him, he gave him in marriage the daughter of his vice-chancellor. After the new councillor had taken the oath of fidelity and secresy, the vice-chancellor got the keys of the state apartments, and took his son-in-law in to initiate him into state secrets.
"In the first room hung many state mantles of all colours, on the outside beautifully trimmed, but badly lined inside, a portion of them having wolf or fox skins in addition to the bad lining. The son-in-law expressed surprise at this, but the chancellor answered: 'These are state mantles, which must be used when one has to propose anything suspicious to subjects, in order to persuade them that black is white; then must one disguise the matter in the mantle of state necessity, in order to induce the subjects to submit to contributions, rates, and other taxes. Therefore, the first mantle, embroidered in gold, is called the welfare of the subject; the second, with fringe, the advancement of the commonwealth; the third, which is red, the maintenance of divine service: it is used when one desires to drive any one, whom one cannot otherwise catch, from house and home, or give him a bloody back, under pretence of false teaching. The fourth is called zeal for the faith; the fifth, the freedom of fatherland; the sixth, the maintenance of privileges.' Last of all, there hung one very old and much worn, like an old banner or horse cover, concerning which the son-in-law laughed, wondering much; but the father-in-law said--'The daily and too great misuse of this has worn the hair off, but it is called good intentions, and is oftener sought after at the courts of the great than daily bread. For, if one lays insupportable burdens on subjects, and reduces them to skin and bone with soccage service, and if one cuts the bread from their mouths, it is said to be done with the best intentions; if one begins an unnecessary war, and plunges the country and its inhabitants in a sea of blood under fire and sword, it is done with the best intentions. Who could know that it would turn out so ill? If one sends innocent people to prison or to the rack, or drives them into utter misery, and their innocence comes to light, still it must have been with good intentions. If one passes an unjust judgment from hatred, envy, favour, bribery, or friendship, it is only done with a good intention. It comes at last to such a point, that one shall make use of the help of the devil with the best intentions. If one or other of these mantles are too short to disguise the roguery, one may cloak it with two, three, or more.' This room appeared very strange to the new councillor; he, nevertheless, followed his noble father-in-law into another; there they found all sorts of masks, so ingeniously formed both in colour and features that they might be the natural faces of men. 'When the mantles,' said the chancellor, 'do not suffice to the attainment of the above-mentioned object, one must make a change; for if one appears too often in one or the other mantle successively before the States, or subjects, or before neighbouring potentates, they at last learn to understand it, and say: "It is the old story; we know what he wants, he wishes to obtain money; but how can we always get it? One might at least be informed to what these repeated taxes are applied." The masks serve to meet this discontent One is called the oath; another, calumny; a third, deceit; these delude people, be they good or bad, and effect more than all the arguments of logic. But, above all, the oath is the masterpiece of court logic; for an honourable man always thinks that another is like-minded with himself; he holds more to an oath and good faith than to all temporal goods; but if a man is a knave, he must still give credence to an oath, otherwise he puts himself under suspicion that he neither values oaths nor duty. If both the others fail, calumny must be resorted to, to relieve subjects from the burden of some thousand gulden according to their means.'
"In the third chamber were hanging, in all directions, razors and brass basins; the shelves were covered with cupping-glasses and sponges. There were many vessels containing strong alkalies, tourniquets, and pincers, and shears lay on the tables and window-seats. The young councillor crossed himself; what could they have to do at court with this surgical apparatus, as even many artisans hesitate to admit bath-keepers, shepherds, millers, and trumpeters into their guilds? 'It is not so ill imagined,' said the old man; 'this is the least deceptive handiwork of the state policy, and is more profitable than pen and ink. It is so necessary, that no prince, without this handiwork, can long maintain with dignity his state and his reputation; and its use is so general, that even the country nobles practise it in a masterly way on their peasants; hence the maxim comes, that "If a nobleman draws too much blood from the peasants' veins, he himself is ruined." Of what use to the prince are his land and people, if he cannot shear their wool for the rents that are due, and draw contributions with cupping-glasses, and cleanse disobedient leaders by the alkali of sharp punishment? Nay, the potentates shave, pinch, and cup one another, also, whenever they can. Thus did the generals in the last war draw, now from the Imperial cities, now from the benefices, much of their best blood; and the Holy Roman Empire has been as severely pinched by foreign crowns as if it had been done by born bath-servants, only they have made the lie too hot. Many have held the basin to the foreigners, and things have gone so far, that insignificant cavaliers have ventured to shear other princes. But what the princes do not do in person is performed by their councillors, treasurers, and other officials, who allow themselves to be used as the sponge, and where they have attached themselves to an office, a city, or a village, and have sucked up so much moisture that they well-nigh burst asunder, then comes the prince, and gives them such a squeeze of the hand, that they are obliged to disgorge all that they have absorbed, and become as empty as cast-off serpent skins.'
"Silently did the young councillor listen, and entered the fourth chamber. There lay many cases of state spectacles of different kinds. 'Some, when they are put on, make a thing ten times larger than it is, so that a midge appears like an elephant--a thread like a rope--and a farthing like a rose-noble; they serve to blind the eyes of subjects. If the prince presents them with a couple of timber-trees, remits somewhat of their contribution, or gives them the liberty to appear before him in velvet and silk, they prize this as highly as if he had given them many thousand ducats. These spectacles so injure the eyes of the unfortunate courtiers, that the least favour, such as the prince laying his hand upon their shoulder, or even looking upon them, is valued more highly than if they had received from him a rent of 500 gulden. Nay, the prince has, through his most august understanding, discovered a special profitable use of these spectacles. If he finds the States unwilling to give him contributions, he gets up a cry that the enemy is at hand; that we need thus much and more of provisions, money, and men to meet the barbarous enemy, otherwise all would fall into his jaws. By these exaggerations the people are rendered willing, and give as much as they possibly can. But so soon as the fish is caught, then it is found that God has roused up great princes, who, for the sake of peace, have mediated, and the contributions are used for other purposes. Another kind of spectacles have, on the contrary, the property of making a mountain appear not greater than a hazel-nut or bean; they are fixed on the cities and frontier lands, right in the face of which the princes have built castles and fortresses; in order to persuade them that these are only pleasure and garden houses, custom-houses and hunting-boxes. The third kind of spectacles, through which the white appears black, and the black snow white, will always be used when one wishes anything bad to have a glittering appearance; they serve also for those who are induced to marry--under the supposition that they are virtuous ladies--the females who wait upon the royal household, make their beds, and curl their hair.'
"After this the chancellor reached down a box of brown powder, and desired his son-in-law to guess what it was. 'It is eye-powder or dust,' said the old man, 'which rulers sprinkle in the eyes of their subjects. It is one of the principal tricks to keep the populace quiet; for when there arise among them turbulent spirits, who open the eyes of subjects by certain political doctrines, and lead them to inquire into the secrets of government, to read the hearts of princes, bring together their grievances, and attach themselves to lynx-eyed agitators, then insurrection and war are at the door.' After this a vessel of court-peas was produced. The old man stated that this was one of the most noxious expedients employed at court, not indeed used by the rulers, but by their false courtiers. 'How so?' said the son. 'I regret that I must explain it to you,' answered the father, 'for I fear, if I teach it you too well, you may sometime try the art upon myself; where gain is to be made one puts even a father's nose out of joint. The peas are strewed in the council-room and chancery, on the stairs, here and there, in the hope of tripping up those whom you cannot otherwise get rid of, especially if they are conscientious, and think they can make their way by good intentions.
"'As most of the potentates know little themselves of these political tricks, unless Machiavellian councillors make them acquainted with them, who can blame the councillors if they make use of their secret to enrich and elevate themselves? Then follows the state policy of private persons, for where God builds a church the devil will have a chapel also; thus I have, by the side of my sovereign's principality, made myself a small one, and as I am now becoming old I will reveal to you, my son-in-law, these tricks, that you may be able to follow in my steps. But to the point I have never soiled myself with peasants and their dung-carts, but preferred great assemblages. Imperial, electoral, and princes' diets; for the larger the pond, the better it is to fish in. Yet have I so far acted with moderation that I have never intermeddled too far nor tied myself to one party alone; but have always remained a free man. Like the sleek fox, I adapted myself to every one's humour and business, and turned to the best account my jests. I led the various parties by the nose, so that they always had recourse to me, followed and trusted me; and, moreover, allowed themselves to be fooled. Thus I did from the beginning. When my prince discovered these qualities in me, he made me his councillor and then chancellor. Now the nobles must bring with them whole cartloads of wine, whole waggons full of corn, and the like gifts, if they would obtain a favourable decision in chancery, or wish to procure a bill of feoffment or decree of court. All the citizens and peasants, too, must make presents, or their causes lie in a heap undecided. But especially the following trick brought me good luck: When a rich man, having committed an evil deed, has been ill spoken of by the prince, &c., then I gave him to understand how great was the anger of the prince against him, and that it might cost him his life if he did not employ me in the business. If he agreed, I concealed his guilt; or, at least, helped him out of it. But if he did not, I would institute a suit against him, and he was exposed to danger and death. If he endeavoured to succeed, through the means of attorneys, in spite of me, I would make use of all my cunning to prevail against and ruin him. When the fox's skin did not answer, I assumed that of the lion; what I could not acquire by wiles and cunning, I usurped de facto, and discovered how I could obtain by violence. If any one complained of the old chancellor, and wished to bring a suit against him at court, I offered to submit myself to a judicial action, for the councillors, as colleagues, were on my side. I displaced in village and field the boundary stone, made other ditches and frontier lines, squeezed out of my neighbours some hundred morgens of arable land, meadows, and woods. In like manner I laid hands on the property of rich widows, orphans, and wards; bought rents and perpetual leases, and lent out money which, in three years, was doubled. It would be tedious to relate the gains I made by assignments, bills of exchange, wine, corn, and salt traffic.'
"All this the son-in-law listened to with great attention, and said, 'Noble father, you have well administered for your family, and brought it into prosperity; but the question is whether your descendants will prosper so as to inherit it in the third or fourth generation; for "ill-gotten gains seldom prosper."'
"'That signifies as little to me as a midge on the wall. Let any one say what he will, I, on the other hand, have what I will. He who would gain something must venture something, and not mind what people say. I have revealed and confided to you more than to my own wife and children. Now come home with me to supper.'"
Such is the purport of the sad irony of the flying sheet, which is peculiarly appropriate here, as it evidently gives expression to the common sentiments of the time. At the conclusion of it one particular intrigue of a small German court is more alluded to than related.
Even after 1700, this cold, bitter way of speaking of the political condition of Germany continued generally; for the "aufklärungs" literature, which sprang up at this period, altered the style more than the spirit. Indeed, from the end of the War of Succession till 1740, during the longest period of peace which Germany had experienced for a century, a diminution of political interest is discernible in the small literature. It is always the extraordinary destinies of individuals which more specially interest the public--the prophecies of a Pietist, the trial of a woman for child murder, the execution of an alchymist, and such like. When on Christmas night, 1715, two poor peasants were suffocated by coal vapours in a vineyard-hut at Jena, whilst they, together with a student and a torn copy of Faust's book of necromancy, were endeavouring to raise a great treasure, this misfortune gave rise to full a dozen flying sheets--clerical, medical, and philosophical--which fiercely contended as to whether the claw of the devil or the coals had been the cause of death. All the battles that had been fought, from that of Hochstädt to Malplaquet, had not made a greater sensation. Even in the "Dialogues from the Kingdom of the Dead,"--a clumsy imitation of Lucian, in which opinions were given of the public characters of the day,--it is evident that it is more particularly the anecdotes and the private scandal which attracted the people. Once more an interest was powerfully excited by the expulsion of the Protestant Salzburger; but in the year 1740 a great political character impressed itself on the soul of Germany, and announced by the thunder of his cannon the beginning of a new time.
But it was not the "State system" alone which loosened the connection of the burgher class, and turned the German into an isolated individual: the powers which usually confirm and strengthen the united life of individuals, faith and science, worked to the same effect.