ere saved or disbursed. He who in Austria left the Roman
Catholic faith was punished with confiscation and banishment; in
Prussia every one could change his religion as he chose, that was his
affair. In the Imperial dominions the government felt it burdensome to
look after anything; the Prussian officials thrust their noses into
everything. In spite of the three Silesian wars, the country was far
more flourishing than in the Imperial time; a century had not been
sufficient to efface the traces of the Thirty Years' War; the people
remembered well how in the cities heaps of ruins had remained from the
Swedish time, and everywhere near the newly-built houses, the dismal
wastes caused by fire. Many little cities had still blockhouses in the
old Sclavonian style, with straw and shingle roofs, which had long been
scantily patched. Under the Prussians, not only the traces of the old
devastation, but even of the Seven Years' War, soon disappeared.
Frederic had fifteen large cities built up with regular streets at the
King's cost, and some hundred new villages constructed and occupied by
freehold colonists; he had laid on the landed proprietors the heavy
burden of rebuilding some thousands of homesteads, and occupying them
with tenants with hereditary rights. In the Imperial time the imposts
had been far less, but they were unequally apportioned, and the
heaviest burdens were on the poor; the nobles were exempt from the
greater part; the method of raising them was ill arranged; much was
embezzled or squandered, and little proportionately found its way into
the Emperor's coffers. The Prussians, on the other hand, had divided
the country into small circles, valued the collective acreage, and in a
few years had withdrawn all exemptions from taxes; the country now paid
its ground tax, the cities their excise. Thus the province bore a
double amount of burdens with greater ease, only the privileged
murmured; and in this way it was able to maintain 40,000 soldiers,
whilst formerly there had been only 2000. Before 1740 the nobles had
acted the part of fine gentlemen; any one who was a Roman Catholic, and
rich, lived at Vienna; others, who could afford it, went to Breslau.
Now the greater number of the landed proprietors dwelt on their
properties. Krippenreiters had ceased; the noblemen knew that the King
considered it honourable in him to care for the culture of his ground,
and that he showed cold contempt towards those who were not landl