History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
SETS TO WORK. "The very rottenness of the Country became an attraction
for Friedrich; and henceforth West-Preussen was, what hitherto Silesia
had been, his favorite child; which, with infinite care, like that of an
anxious loving mother, he washed, brushed, new-dressed, and forced to
go to school and into orderly habits, and kept ever in his eye. The
diplomatic squabbles about this 'acquisition' were still going on,
when he had already sent [so early as June 4th, 1772, and still more on
September 13th of that Year [See his new DIALOGUE with Roden, our Wesel
acquaintance, who was a principal Captain in this business (in PREUSS,
iv. 57, 58: date of the Dialogue is "11th May, 1772;"--Roden was on the
ground 4th June next; but, owing to Austrian delays, did not begin
till September 13th).]] a body of his best Official People into this
waste-howling scene, to set about organizing it. The Landschaften
(COUNTIES) were divided into small Circles; in a minimum of time, the
land was valued, and an equal tax put upon it; every Circle received its
LANDRATH, Law-Court, Post-office and Sanitary Police. New Parishes, each
with its Church and Parson, were called into existence as by miracle;
a company of 187 Schoolmasters--partly selected and trained by
the excellent Semler [famous over Germany, in Halle University and
SEMINARIUM, not yet in England]--were sent into the Country: multitudes
of German Mechanics too, from brick-makers up to machine-builders.
Everywhere there began a digging, a hammering, a building; Cities were
peopled anew; street after street rose out of the heaps of ruins; new
Villages of Colonists were laid out, new modes of agriculture ordered.
In the first Year after taking possession, the great Canal [of Bromberg]
was dug; which, in a length of fifteen miles, connects, by the Netze
River, the Weichsel with the Oder and the Elbe: within one year after
giving the order, the King saw loaded vessels from the Oder, 120 feet in
length of keel," and of forty tons burden, "enter the Weichsel. The vast
breadths of land, gained from the state of swamp by drainage into this
Canal, were immediately peopled by German Colonists.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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