who wrote DE L'ESPRIT, and has got banished for that feat
(lost in the gloom of London in those months), had been a mighty
Tax-gatherer as well; D'Alembert, as brother Philosophe, was familiar
with Helvetius. It is certain, also, King Friedrich, at this time, found
he would require annually two million thalers more;--where to get them,
seemed the impossibility. A General Krockow, who had long been in French
Service, and is much about the King, was often recommending the French
Excise system;--he is the Krockow of DOMSTADTL, and that SIEGE OF
OLMUTZ, memorable to some of us:--"A wonderful Excise system," Krockow
is often saying, in this time of straits. "Who completely understands
it?" the King might ask. "Helvetius, against the world!" D'Alembert
could justly answer. "Invite Helvetius to leave his London exile, and
accept an asylum here, where he may be of vital use to me!" concludes
Friedrich.

Helvetius came in March, 1765; stayed till June, 1766: [Rodenbeck, ii.
254; Preuss, iii. 11.]--within which time a French Excise system, which
he had been devising and putting together, had just got in gear, and
been in action for a month, to Helvetius's satisfaction. Who thereupon
went his way, and never returned;--taking with him, as man and
tax-gatherer, the King's lasting gratitude; but by no means that of the
Prussian Nation, in his tax-gathering capacity! All Prussia, or all of
it that fell under this Helvetius Excise system, united to condemn it,
in all manner of dialects, louder and louder: here, for instance, is
the utterance of Herr Hamann, himself a kind of Custom-house Clerk (at
Konigsberg, in East Preussen), and on modest terms a Literary man of
real merit and originality, who may be supposed to understand this
subject: "And so," says Hamann, "the State has declared its own subjects
incapable of managing its Finance system; and in this way has intrusted
its heart, that is the purse of its subjects, to a company of Foreign
Scoundrels, ignorant of everything relating to it!" ["Hamann to Jacobi"
(see Preuss, iii. 1-35), "Konigsberg, 18th January, 1786."]

This lasted all Friedrich's lifetime; and gave rise to not a little
buzzing, especially in its primary or incipient stages. It seems to
have been one of the unsuccessfulest Finance adventures Friedrich ever
engaged in. It cost his subjects infinite small trouble; awakened very
great complaining; and, for the first time, real discontent,--skin-deep
but sincere and un