did not found, many charitable institutions, and not only did not
enrich himself, but during and through the American war was able to
relieve his country of many millions of taxes, and to lay the foundation
of a large reserve for the expenses of the government. The administration
was so painfully careful that, in spite of the interruption of Napoleon's
kingdom of Westphalia, the accounts were so kept as to show satisfactorily
just what proportion of the revenue belonged to the nation and what to the
sovereign.

All that Hesse has of material as well as intellectual advantages it owes
to Elector Frederick, from hospitals to art galleries. In his day the
visitor might think that Cassel was equal to Sparta and Athens. He died
all too soon for the honorable love of his faithful subjects. He never
ceased to mourn over the long absence of his army, his dear subjects.
Instead of a year's service, it lasted for nine years, although the last
years of the war were comparatively free from bloodshed, and spent in
occasional skirmishes and in marching to and fro through vast regions. The
Elector often wanted to put an end to the alliance with England, but his
ministers and his Parliament held firmly to it. He did insist on replacing
the losses of the Hessians by foreign enlistments, to which he had once so
patriotically objected, but now men from beyond his borders poured in with
the hope of joining the Hessian army and thus seeing the wonderland,
America. Anxiety, years of longing and quiet grief, weighed on his noble
heart, so that a few months after the return of the last of his soldiers
he died suddenly. He saw once more the old victorious flags that had waved
in triumph at Minden and Crefeld, at Flatbush, White Plains, Fort
Washington, and Gildford [_sic_] Court-House; he saw them once again and
died.

The circumstances of the enlistment of the Hessian troops may be explained
thus: German and other European countries had for centuries strengthened
their armies by enlisting men. Hesse, and later Brandenburg Prussia, made
service compulsory, and thus, in the years that followed the Thirty Years'
War, filled their armies with their own subjects. Still, voluntary
enlistments continued and do so still. But no country cared for the
enlisted man and for his protection from acts of violence at the hands of
officers as Hesse-Cassel did, and yet no country has been so much blamed
for its dealing with its soldiers. Personally, the Elector