an any other person. It is one of those strange facts which
are so constantly meeting us in history, that it was by Napoleon's
advice that Stein was employed by the Prussian king. "Take the Baron von
Stein," said the Emperor, when the king at Tilsit spoke of the misery of
his situation; "he is a man of sense." Eighteen months later, Napoleon
actually outlawed Stein, the decree of outlawry dating from Madrid. The
language of the decree was of the most insulting character. "One Stein"
(_le nomme Stein_), it was said, was endeavoring to create troubles in
Germany, and therefore he was denounced as an enemy of France and of the
Rhenish Confederacy. The property he held in French or confederate
territory was confiscated, and the troops of France and her allies were
ordered to arrest him, wherever he could be found. Had he been taken,
quite likely he would have been as summarily dealt with as Palm had
been.

Stein fled into Bohemia, where he resided three years, when Alexander I.
invited him to Russia, and employed him in the most important affairs.
He kept up Alexander's courage during the darkest days of 1812, and
advised, with success, against yielding to the French, though it is
probable the Czar might have had his own terms from Napoleon, after the
latter had reached Moscow. It is said that the American Minister in
Russia, the late Mr. J. Q. Adams, was not less energetic than Stein on
the same side. It may well be doubted if their advice was such as a
Russian sovereign should have followed, though it was excellent for
Germany and for all nations that feared Napoleon. If the American
Minister did what was attributed to him, he actually acted in behalf of
the very nation against which his own country had just declared war! The
war between the United States and England began at the same time that
active operations against Russia were entered upon by the French; and
England was the only powerful nation upon which Russia could rely for
assistance.

Stein had done his work before he was made to leave Prussia. He was the
creator of the Prussian people. His reforms would be pronounced agrarian
measures in England or America. An imitation of them in England might
not be amiss; but in America, where land is a drug, and where possession
of it does not give half the consideration that proceeds from the
ownership of "stocks" or funds, it would be as much out of place as a
mixture for blackening negroes, or a machine for converting N