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fee ihem when they were writing profeffedly about it. This arifes from the amazingdifference that there is betwixt theory and practice, and that in all philofophical decla-mations, people commonly only confider the end, without thinking of the means bywhich it is to be brought about; nay, they often overlook the only means by which itcan be brought about at all. Hence it has appeared, that thofe who have written themoft ftrongly againft luxury, have not been favourable to the Pruffian fyftem of excife,though it is the only fure dam whereby all exceffes may be reftrained. All the politicalprinciples with refpeft to the happinefs of nations, which 1’Abbe Raynal gives us inthat famous Hijloire Politique et Philofophique of his, in which he is fo violent againft theKing of Pruflia, without knowing any thing about him, had been adopted in Pruflia,and perhaps no where elfe in the wide world before the Abbe put pen to paper.
Another part of thefe declaimers find fault only for the fake of appearing fingular.Mr. Guibert and fome others of our countrymen are among this clafs. Thefe gentle-men took it in their heads to exhibit the King to a people, the god of whofe idolatryhe has long been, through a kind of magic lanthorn, with his head where his heelsfhould be. Doubtlefs, the indifference with which the King is accuftomed to beholdall fuch buffooneries, muft have made them vaftly pleafed with their wife work.
The King of Pruflia and his father have folved the three moft difficult problems offtate that exift; and hiftory affords no example of their having been folved fo quickly, fohappily, and fo univerfally, as they have been by thefe princes. They have made'alazy, prodigal, and ftupid people induftrious, active, and alert; they have given to acountry, which had been entirely neglected by nature, a value which many of the mofthighly favoured countries have not, and they have placed a fmall nation in a fituationnot only to vanquifh in a favourable moment all the combined forces of the mightieftmonarchies of Europe united, but to be able at any time to meafure fwords with eitherof them ftngly.
LETTER LI.
WHEN you hear the King of Pruflia mentioned in the fouthern parts of Germany ,you think they are fpeaking of an angel of death, whofe employment it is to kill the peo-ple by hundreds and thoufands, to burn cities and villages, and to be the firft generalof his day. This opinion commonly refts upon the fame ground as another, whichwas very generally received by the common people during the laft Silefian war, of theKing of Pruflia’s having taken up arms againft France and Auftria for the extirpationof the Roman Catholic religion. Auftria had often recourfe to fuch little artifices;{he was w'ont to appeal to the religious and paffionate feelings of the people, wheneverher troops were beaten, and probably found fome confolation in it, not that only whicharifes from exciting compaflion, but the more fubftantial one of the fupport derivedfrom the riches and forces of fome of the Catholic princes of Germany . Such pre-judices in the populace are eafily produced ; but when you read in the writings of fome ofthe moft famous Auftrian ftatefmen and literati that the King of Pruflia’s whole fyftemis contrived for the purpofe of making himfelf terrible to his neighbours, of plunderingthem, and of living by robbery, you do not know whether to laugh moft at their igno-rance, or be moft afhamed at their impudence f
Out of Germany they look upon the King of Pruflia as a great general, but are nottherefore blind to his other virtues. Our countrymen, whofe impartiality and jufticein judging of the merits of great men nobody can controvert, read his civil ordinances,
14 his