d not bear to have
petitions presented to himself; he sent them immediately to the courts.
This was according to rule. But, as the magistrates were not yet
obliged to take care that these complaints of individuals should be
made public, they were only too frequently thrown on one side, and the
poor people exclaimed that there was no longer any help against the
encroachments of the Landraethe,[36] or against the corruption of
excisemen. Even the King suffered from it; not his good will, but his
power was doubted to give help against the officials.

To this evil was added another. The officials of the administration had
become more numerous, but not more powerful. Life was more luxurious,
prices had increased enormously, and their salaries, always scanty even
in the olden time, had not risen in proportion. In the cities, justice
and administration were not yet separated; a kind of tutelage was
exercised even in the merest trifles; the spontaneous activity of the
citizen was failing; the "Directors" of the city were royal officials,
frequently discharged auditors and quartermasters of regiments. In 1740
this had been a great advance; in 1806 the education and professional
knowledge of such men was insufficient. Into the war and territorial
departments, however, which are now called government departments, the
young nobility already sought for admittance; among them not a few were
men of note, who later were reckoned the greatest names in Prussia; and
most of them, without much exertion, quickly made their fortunes. It
was complained that in some of the offices almost all the work was done
by the secretaries. But that, in truth, was only the case in Silesia,
which had its own minister. After the great Polish acquisition, Count
Hoym, in Silesia, had for some years the chief administration of the
Polish province. It was a bad measure to give a subject unlimited power
over that vast territory; it was a misfortune for him and the State. He
lived at Breslau as king, and he kept spies at the court of his
Sovereign, who were to keep him _au fait_ of the state of things. The
poor nobles of Silesia thronged around him, and he gave his favourites
office, landed properties, and wealth. The uprightness of the officials
in the new province was injured by this unfit condition of things.
Government domains were sold at low prices, and Generals and privy
councillors were thus enabled to acquire large landed properties for
little money.