He had proved himself the greatest commander of his age, although he owed many a defeat to his own rashness, and many a victory to such generals as Ferdinand of Brunswick, Schwerin, Seydlitz, Ziethen, and Prince Henry. But his capital had been more than once plundered; the population had suffered frightfully. He found the number of his subjects diminished by one tenth; a sixth of the male able-bodied adults had died on the field of battle. Cossacks and Croats had slaughtered young and old, women and children. Fields were unsown; villages and hamlets were deserts. But, say historians, Frederick did not owe a dollar. His first object was the thorough restoration and reorganization of the army. During every moment of the 23 remaining years of his life, he was armed at all points. His energies meanwhile were employed with equal devotion in the restoration of his country. The corn which had been provided for the next campaign was bestowed upon the destitute. In Silesia taxes were remitted for six months; in Pomerania and New Brandenburg for two years. Immense sums of money were expended in agricultural and industrial improvements; in all, during the remainder of his reign, 24,000,000 thalers. To meet these and other similar ends, the most rigid economy was practised.

The royal household was so frugal that the king saved annually from the sum appropriated to his court nearly 1,000,000 thalers. His envoys in England and France had salaries less than $5,000 a year. The king himself had but one fine dress during the remainder of his life. Shabby old garments and snuffy yellow waistcoats were his daily wear; and when it was found at his death that he did not possess a single decent shirt, he was buried in one belonging to his valet de chambre. The only exception to his economy was caused by his love of building. He was himself singularly industrious. He spent 20 hours out of the 24 in some active bodily or mental employment. He rose at four, and retired at midnight. Dinner was the scene of intellectual activity, a school of wit and discussion. Religious persecution was unknown in his dominions; perfect order reigned throughout; property was secure; speech and the press were free. Lampoons and libels on himself he wholly disregarded. My people and I," he said, " understand each other. They are to say what they like, and I am to do what I like." Cheap and speedy justice was administered. In commercial policy and international law he was in advance of his time.

Devoted as he was to letters, he never allowed the passion for literature to divert him from duty. He had no knowledge of the force of the German language, and spoke of it with contempt; yet he never wrote French correctly. Though respectable as a historian, and voluminous as a versifier, he never learned to spell the language which he idolized. In the year 1772 was concerted the dismemberment of Poland. It originated between Frederick and Catharine of Russia; a most unwilling consent was wrung from Maria Theresa. Frederick took possession of his share without delay. Later important public acts of his life were his successful opposition in 1778 to the claim of the emperor Joseph II. to the Bavarian succession; the establishment in 1785 of the so-called confederation of princes (Fursten-bund); and a treaty with the United States of America, embodying the most elevated principles of international rights. Without much community of political sentiment, he was friendly to the American patriots, and gave evidence of his dislike of British policy in employing Hessian troops beyond the Atlantic, by levying the same toll per head upon the recruits which passed through his dominions as was charged upon bought and sold cattle." Washington commanded his admiration, and Mount Vernon received among its treasures a Prussian sword of honor, forwarded from Potsdam with the words:From the oldest general in the world to the greatest." Frederick died after a severe attack of dropsy, at the age of 74; he left no children by his wife, with whom he never cohabited, and was therefore succeeded by a nephew, Frederick William II., to whom he left a surplus of $50,000,000, an army of 220,000 men, a. territory increased by nearly 30,000 sq. m., and an industrious, intelligent, and happy population of 0,000,000. His collected works have been published by order of the king of Prussia, under the auspices of the royal academy of sciences (30 vols., Berlin, 1846-'57). Extensive works on Frederick have been written by Kolb and Preuss. See also Carlyle's History of Friedrich the Second" (6 vols., London and New York, 1858-'64); Friedrich der Grosse und Katharina II., by Kurd von Schlozer (Berlin, 1859); Geschichte Friedrich's des Grossen, by F. Kugler (7th ed., Leipsic, 1870); and Friedrich der Grosse, by Droysen (1st vol., 1873).