ual, strict, rapid justice for all; no favour for the noble or rich,
but rather, in doubtful cases, for the poor man. The number of working
men was to be increased, each occupation made as remunerative and as
prosperous as possible; the less that was imported from abroad the
better; everything to be produced at home, and the surplus to be
disposed of beyond the frontiers. Such were the main principles of his
political economy. Incessantly did he endeavour to increase the number
of morgens of arable land, and to procure new places for settlers.
Swamps were drained, lakes drawn off, and dykes thrown up; canals were
dug, and advances made for the establishment of new manufactories;
cities and villages rebuilt more solid and convenient than before,
under the active encouragement of government; the provincial credit
system, the fire-insurance society, and the royal bank were
established; popular schools everywhere founded, well-informed people
encouraged to come, and the education and discipline of the ruling
official class promoted by examinations and strict control. It is the
business of historians to enumerate and extol all this, and also to
recount some vain attempts of the King which failed from his endeavour
to guide everything himself.

The King looked after all his dominions, and not least after that child
of sorrow, the newly won Silesia. When he conquered this large province
it had little more than a million of inhabitants.[20] Greatly was the
contrast felt between the easy-going Austrian government and the
strict, restless, stirring rule of Prussia. At Vienna the catalogue of
forbidden books was greater than at Rome; now ceaseless bales of books
found their way into the province from Germany: all were free to buy
and read, even the attacks upon their own ruler. In Austria it was the
privilege of the nobility to wear foreign cloth; in Prussia, when the
father of Frederic the Great had forbidden the import of foreign cloth,
he first dressed himself and his princesses in home-made manufacture.
At Vienna no office was considered distinguished for which anything
more was required than representation: all the work was the affair of
the subalterns; the lord of the bedchamber was more considered than a
deserving General or minister. In Prussia even the highest in rank was
little esteemed if he was not useful to the State; and the King himself
was the most precise official, for he looked after every thousand
thalers that w