he King loved good eating and drinking, and during great
part of his life took pleasure in seeing his table surrounded by guests;
yet the whole charge of his kitchen was brought within the sum of two
thousand pounds sterling a year. He examined every extraordinary item
with a care which might be thought to suit the mistress of a boarding
house better than a great prince. When more than four rix-dollars were
asked of him for a hundred oysters, he stormed as if he had heard that
one of his generals had sold a fortress to the Empress Queen. Not a
bottle of champagne was uncorked without his express order. The game of
the royal parks and forests, a serious head of expenditure in most
kingdoms, was to him a source of profit. The whole was farmed out; and
though the farmers were almost ruined by their contract, the King would
grant them no remission. His wardrobe consisted of one fine gala dress,
which lasted him all his life; of two or three old coats fit for
Monmouth Street, of yellow waistcoats soiled with snuff, and of huge
boots embrowned by time. One taste alone sometimes allured him beyond
the limits of parsimony, nay, even beyond the limits of prudence, the
taste for building. In all other things his economy was such as we might
call by a harsher name, if we did not reflect that his funds were drawn
from a heavily taxed people, and that it was impossible for him, without
excessive tyranny, to keep up at once a formidable army and a splendid
court.

Considered as an administrator, Frederic had undoubtedly many titles to
praise. Order was strictly maintained throughout his dominions. Property
was secure. A great liberty of speaking and of writing was allowed.
Confident in the irresistible strength derived from a great army, the
King looked down on malcontents and libellers with a wise disdain; and
gave little encouragement to spies and informers. When he was told of
the disaffection of one of his subjects, he merely asked, "How many
thousand men can he bring into the field?" He once saw a crowd staring
at something on a wall. He rode up, and found that the object of
curiosity was a scurrilous placard against himself. The placard had been
posted up so high that it was not easy to read it. Frederic ordered his
attendants to take it down and put it lower. "My people and I," he said,
"have come to an agreement which satisfies us both. They are to say what
they please, and I am to do what I please." No person would have dared