le as he drilled his
grenadiers. Capital and industry were diverted from their natural
direction by a crowd of preposterous regulations. There was a monopoly
of coffee, a monopoly of tobacco, a monopoly of refined sugar. The
public money, of which the King was generally so sparing, was lavishly
spent in ploughing bogs, in planting mulberry trees amidst the sand, in
bringing sheep from Spain to improve the Saxon wool, in bestowing prizes
for fine yarn, in building manufactories of porcelain, manufactories of
carpets, manufactories of hardware, manufactories of lace. Neither the
experience of other rulers, nor his own, could ever teach him that
something more than an edict and a grant of public money was required to
create a Lyons, a Brussels, or a Birmingham.

For his commercial policy, however, there was some excuse. He had on his
side illustrious examples and popular prejudice. Grievously as he erred,
he erred in company with his age. In other departments his meddling was
altogether without apology. He interfered with the course of justice as
well as with the course of trade; and set up his own crude notions of
equity against the law as expounded by the unanimous voice of the
gravest magistrates. It never occurred to him that men whose lives were
passed in adjudicating on questions of civil right were more likely to
form correct opinions on such questions than a prince whose attention
was divided among a thousand objects, and who had never read a law book
through. The resistance opposed to him by the tribunals inflamed him to
fury. He reviled his Chancellor. He kicked the shins of his Judges. He
did not, it is true, intend to act unjustly. He firmly believed that he
was doing right, and defending the cause of the poor against the
wealthy. Yet this well-meant meddling probably did far more harm than
all the explosions of his evil passions during the whole of his long
reign. We could make shift to live under a debauchee or a tyrant; but
to be ruled by a busybody is more than human nature can bear.

The same passion for directing and regulating appeared in every part of
the King's policy. Every lad of a certain station in life was forced to
go to certain schools within the Prussian dominions. If a young Prussian
repaired, though but for a few weeks, to Leyden or Gottingen, for the
purpose of study, the offence was punished with civil disabilities, and
sometimes with the confiscation of property. Nobody was to travel
with