The constant success of the British arms in Spain and Portugal, and the frequent drawn battles between the French and Russian armies, discovered to the sagacity of Count de Hardenberg that the power of Napoleon was on the decline; and in 1310 he began that system of agitation in Prussia from which ho never afterwards desisted until the fall of his enemy. On the 0th of June 1810 he was created Chancellor of State. Nothing could exceed the distress to which the kingdom of Prussia at this time was reduced : her territory had been shorn ; her interior was occupied by French armies ; her fortresses had been seized and garrisoned by her enemies ; all her military stores and magazines had been captured. Such was the unhappy condition of Prussia when Count de Hardenberg, was called to direct her government, shortly before the disasters of the retreat from Moscow in 1812. This great calamity, and the immediate revo lution in the power of the French empire which it entailed (both which the count had predicted), at once rendered the statesman's influence absolute in Prussia. He had passed the age of sixty when this, the most active part of his life, began. During the whole war of independence he followed the steps of Napoleon, quickening every day the animosity and vengeance of his enemies. The regiments of the Prussian armies had been reduced to mere skeletons by long reverses; they were restored by Hardenberg to the fullest state of efficiency. The public treasury was without funds ; he discovered new resonrcel, and replenished it. The spirit of the people had been enervated, and the majority were favourable to the French alliance ; the count was able to reverse this feeling, and to produce that patriotism which was so conspicuous iu Prussia during the last three years of the war. He signed the treaty of peace, as the representative
of his sovereign, on the 3rd of June 1814, and was created a prince for his great services, receiving besides the rich domain of Newhar denberg for himself and his heirs in perpetuity. After Napoleon's abdication the prince accompanied the allied sovereigns to London, and was then sent as plenipotentiary to the congress of Vienna. In 1817 the King of Prussia entrnated to him the formation of a new government, and he became prime minister. Subsequently he attended every congress as the representative of his royal master.
He reformed the system of taxation throughout every department, and regulated the disposal of the national archives. After being present at the congresses of Troppau, Laybach, and Verona, he was returning home through the north of Italy when he was taken ill at Pavia, and died at Genoa, on the 26th of November 1822, at the age of seventy-two.
It would not be easy to overrate the public services of this energetic minister, which were equally important during and after the war. He abolished the privileges of the nobles, who were exempt from many taxes on account of their rank, and made them contribute to the support of the state ; be dissolved a multitude of trade corporations ; he did all that he was permitted to do to unfetter trade and commerce by the removal of restrictions, and greatly improved the system of public education. The Prince of Hardenberg was married three times, but his first wife alone had issue ; by her he had two eons. It is generally understood that he Ieft behind him some valuable memoirs of his time ; but William IV. having caused them to be deposited among the archives of the kingdom, they have not yet been published.
(Rabbe ; Diet. (lc la Conversation ; Thiers ; Alison.)