ost, and a sanitary police. New parishes were called into life as if
by magic; a company of 187 schoolmasters were introduced into the
country; the worthy Semler had sought out and drilled some of them.
Numbers of German artisans were hired, machine and brick makers;
digging, hammering, and building began all over the country; the cities
were reinhabited; street upon street arose out of the heaps of ruins;
the Starosties were changed into crown property; new villages were
built and colonised, and new agriculture enjoined. In the course of the
first year after taking possession of the country, the great canal was
dug, three German miles in length, uniting the Vistula by means of the
Netze with the Oder and Elbe; a year after, the King had given
directions for this work, he saw loaded boats from the Oder, 120 feet
long, passing from the East to the Vistula. By means of the new
water-wheels, wide districts of country were drained and occupied by
German colonists. The King worked indefatigably; he praised and blamed;
and, however great the zeal of his officials, they could seldom do
enough for him. In consequence of this, the wild Sclavonian tares,
which had shot up, not only there but also in the German fields, were
brought under, so that even the Polish districts got accustomed to the
new order of things; and West Prussia, in the war after 1806, proved
itself almost as Prussian as the old provinces.

Whilst the grey-headed King was creating and looking after everything,
one year passed after another over his thoughtful head; all about him
was more tranquil, but void and lonely, and small was the circle of men
in whom he confided. He had laid his flute aside, and the new French
literature appeared to him insipid and prosy; sometimes it seemed as if
a new life sprouted up under him in Germany, to which he was a
stranger. Unweariedly did he labour for the improvement of his army and
the welfare of his people; ever less did he value his tools, and ever
higher and more passionate was his feeling of the great duties of his
position.

But if his struggles in the Seven Years' War may be called superhuman,
equally so did his labours now appear to contemporaries. There was
something great, but also terrible, in the way in which he made the
prosperity of the whole his highest and constant object, disregarding
the comfort of individuals. When, in front of the ranks, he dismissed
from the service with bitter words of blame the Colone