in
the year for the troops to be of any service, and they were, moreover,
contemptible in number, compared with the hundreds of thousands which
the French poured forth against their enemies. But the King of Prussia
appears to have been the grand obstacle in the way of the success of
the allied armies. Early in the year, the Germanic diet had agreed to a
_conclusum_ for a general armament of the people of the empire--of the
burghers and peasantry of all the circles, states, principalities, and
electorates comprised in the league; but Frederick William declared
that if this _conclusum_ were not withdrawn, he would withdraw his
troops; as he could not expose them to the danger which would result
from such a measure. The reasons he gave in a declaration for his
opposition were, that, by employing the peasantry against the enemy,
agriculture would suffer; that arms were wanting for such a mass of
people that it was impossible to teach the manual exercise to the
inhabitants in so short a time; that, to be victorious, the soldiers
exposed to the French must be perfectly exercised; and that it was
dangerous, at a time like the present, when the French were watching
their opportunity to insinuate their principles, to assemble such a mass
of men, whose ideas of government must be various, and among whom, from
that cause, dissensions might arise, disastrous in their consequences,
not only to the armies, but to the empire. These were Frederick
William's promulgated reasons; but it would rather appear, that, as many
parts of his kingdom were dissaffected to the house of Brandenberg,
he feared that if the population were armed they might assert their
independence, or struggle to be restored to the states to which they
formerly belonged. Be that as it may, the opposition of Frederick
William to this measure was successful, for the _conclusum_ of the diet
was not carried into effect. And yet it was manifestly the only measure
which, if it could have been accomplished, could have successfully
stemmed the torrent of French conquests.

Although the Prussians were not wholly inactive during this campaign,
yet they did not act with much vigour. Early in the year the French army
on the Rhine advanced and took the fort of Kaiserslautern, the town
of Spires, and several other towns and fortresses. They intrenched
themselves at Kaiserslautern; and early in May the Prussian general
Mollendorf drove them from thence with great slaughter. But from