At the commencement of 1761 it was evident that the king of Prussia's situation was most critical. He confessed himself that, after the great losses he had sustained, his army was not equal to what it had formerly been. He accordingly occupied a strong camp in Silesia, where he remained immoveable, watching his enemies, but was un able to prevent Marshal Laudohn from taking Schweidnitz, and the Russians, Colberg. Frederick's situation was now so desperate, that be appears to have seriously contemplated suicide : in this critical state, the only event perhaps which could have saved him occurred. This was the death of the empress Elizabeth on the 5th of January 1762, and the accession of Peter III., who was an enthusiastic admirer of Frederick, with whom he immediately concluded a treaty of alliance. Peace was also made with the Swedes, and though Peter was soon deposed, yet Catharine, who succeeded him, observed a strict neutrality during the remainder of the war. The king and his brother, prince Henry, gained several advantages in 1762 and 1763, and peace having been concluded between Great Britain and France, Austria was left alone, and the empress queen obliged to conclude peace with Prussia. The two powers mutually guaranteed the whole of each other's German dominions, Frederick only promising to give his vote to Joseph as king of the Romans. The king of Poland was restored to his dominions without compensation. Thus ended the Seven Years' War, which, after immense sacrifices of human life and treasure, left the political balance of Europe unchanged.
The issue of this great contest, in which the genius of Frederick had been so eminently distinguished, secured to him a decisive influence in the affairs, not only of Germany, but of all Europe. Returning to his capital after an absence of more than six years, he seriously directed his attention to repair the evils inflicted ou his dominions by the war. Ile opened his magazines to give his subjects corn, both for food and for seed. Ho distributed horses among the farmers, rebuilt at his own expense) the houses which had been burnt, founded colonies, erected manufactories, and made canals for the convenience of inland trade. Silesia vias exempted from the payment of all taxes for six years, and the New Mark and Pomerania for two years. To relieve the nobility in those three provinces, a system of credit was introduced, by which the value of estates was raised, and.the rate of interest reduced. In 1704 he founded the bank of Berlin, to which ho gave eight millions of dollars as its first fund. Though he really desired to promote trade, from his Ignorance of true commercial principles, and his desire to increase the revenue, be was induced to take measures, some of which were injudicious, and others decidedly unjust : for instance, the debase ment of the current coin. Meantime he continued to maintain a very large army. In March 1764 he concluded an alliance with Russia, by which he supported the election of the new king of Poland, Stanislaus Poniatowski, and the cause of the oppressed diesideuts in Poland. In 1772 he agreed to the first partition of Poland, by which he obtained all Polish Prussia (which was ceded in 1466 by the Teutonic Order to Poland) and a part of Great Poland, as far as to the river Netz, but with the exception of Danzig and Thorn. Frederick has been accused of having first suggested the partition of Poland ; but the fact is, that Frederick I. had formed a plan for the partition of Poland, drawn up in the year 1710. From that time the kingdom of Prussia was divided
into East and West Prussia. In 1778, on the death of the elector of Bavaria, without children, Frederick interfered to prevent Austria from partitioning that country. The war was however terminated without a battle, by the treaty of Teechen, in May 1779, by which Austria renounced its intentions, and consented to the union of the Fran conian principalities with Prussia. In 1785, the emperor having formed a plan to obtain Bavaria in exchange for the Low Countries, Frederick defeated it in conjunction with Saxony and Hanover, by concluding the alliance between the German princes, called the Fiirateabund,' which has been considered as the masterpiece of his policy. In 1786 be concluded a treaty of amity and commerce with the United States of America. Though he had long suffered from gout and asthma, which terminated in confirmed dropsy, not a little aggravated by his indulgence in the pleasures of the table, he continued his =emitted attention to public affairs till within two days of his death, the approach of which he contemplated with composure: he died on the 17th of August 1736, at his favourite palace of Sans Souci, iu the seventy-fifth year of his age, and the forty-seventh of his reign, leaving to his nephew, Frederick William II., a kingdom enlarged, from 2190 to 3515 German square miles ; about 70,000,000 of dollars (10,000,000/. sterling) in the treasury, and an army of 200,000 men.
The character of Frederick II., and his public and private life, have furnished the subject for numerous publications in all the European languages, which are perfectly familiar to most classes of readers. One of his great merits was, that he did not contract any public debt, and though he raised a very large revenue, yet a considerable part returned into the pockets of his subjects through various channels. Among his defects may be reckoned his contempt for religious institutions. He was avowedly an unbeliever in revealed religion, and his notions respecting natural religion appear to have been vague and fluctuating. With respect to his temper, he seems to have been deficient in real sensibility ; and though many examples of his clemency and placability are recorded, he was at times harsh and even cruel. His moral con duct was guided generally by his pleasure and his interest, and in that respect, as well as his religion, he was greatly influenced by his predi lection for French literature, and especially his intimacy with and admiration of Voltaire. Proud as the Germans in general are of Frederick, they cannot help regretting his contempt of German litera ture. It must however be owned that German literature, at the com mencement of Frederick's life, was in a very low state, and it may be doubted whether the literature and language of Germany did not gain rather than lose by his neglect of them. Frederick was essentially a despot, and his interference with what he confessedly did not under stand, would probably have done more harm than good. His volumi nous works, all in French, would have entitled him to a certain amount of distinction in the literary world, even if he had not been a king. Besides the works already mentioned, he published military iuetruc tione, and some miscellaneous pieces iu 4 vols. 8vo. His posthumous works, in 15 vole., contain the history of his own times, the history of the Seven Years' War, and memoirs, from the treaty of Hubertaburg, 1763, to the end of the partition of Poland.