servants, to keep up their armies, and to satisfy the greed of their
mistresses, these German princes needed a good deal of money, and were
ready to show favour to any man who could help them to obtain it--show
where to bore to tap fresh financial springs. All kinds of new methods
of taxation were had recourse to, arousing the bitter mockery of the
oppressed. The tobacco monopoly was called the nose-tax; it was felt to
be oppressive only by the snuff-takers and smokers; and perhaps the
stamp on paper only by those who wrote; but the boot and shoe stamp
imposed by one of the little princes touched everyone but those who went
barefoot.
Joseph Suess introduced the stamp on paper into the palatinate. He did
not invent this duty, which had been imposed elsewhere; but he obtained
the concession of the impost, and sold it to a subfactor for 12,000
florins, and with the money invested in a speculation in the coinage of
Hesse-Darmstadt. All the little German princes at this time had their
own coinage, down to trumpery little states of a few miles in diameter,
as Waldeck, Fulda, Hechingen, and Montfort; and Germany was full to
overflow of bad money, and barren of gold and silver. Suess, in his
peregrinations, had obtained a thorough insight into the mysteries of
this branch of business. He not only thoroughly understood the practical
part of the matter--the coinage--but also where the cheapest markets
were, in which to purchase the metals to be coined. Now that he had some
money at his command, he undertook to farm the coinage of
Hesse-Darmstadt; but almost immediately undersold it, with a profit to
himself of 9,000 florins. He took other contracts for the courts, and
soon realised a comfortable fortune. Even the Archbishop of Cologne
called in his aid, and contributed to enrich him, in his efforts to get
a little more for himself out of the subjects of his palatinate. In the
summer of 1732 Joseph Suess visited the Blackforest baths of Wildbad,
for the sake of the waters. At the same time Charles Alexander of
Würtemberg and his wife were also undergoing the same cure. Oppenheim's
pleasant manners, his handsome face, and his cleverness caught the fancy
of Charles Alexander, and he appointed him his agent and steward; and as
the Prince was then in want of money, Suess lent him a trifle of 2,000
florins. Charles Alexander had not at this time any assurance that he
would ascend the ducal throne of Würtemberg, though it was probable.[18]
The reigning Duke, Eberhardt Louis, had, indeed, just lost his only son;
but it was not impossible that a posthumous grandson might be born.
Charles Alexander was first-cousin of the Duke. It is said that Suess on
this occasion foretold the future greatness of the Prince, and pretended
to extract his prophecy from the Cabala. It is certain that Charles
Alexander was very superstitious, and believed in astrology, and it is
by no means improbable that Suess practised on his credulity. He had at
his disposal plenty of means of learning whether the young Princess of
Würtemberg was likely soon to become a mother--her husband had died in
November--and he was very well aware that the old Duke was failing. The
loan made by Suess came acceptably to Prince Charles Alexander just as a
Jewish banker, Isaac Simon of Landau, with whom he had hitherto dealt,
had declined to make further advances.
When the Prince returned to Belgrade, where he resided as stadtholder of
Servia, under the Emperor, he was fully convinced that he had
discovered in Suess an able, intelligent, and devoted servant. His wife
was a princess of Thurn and Taxis, and it is possible that Suess, who
had been for some time about that court at Ratisbon, had used her
influence, and his acquaintance with her family affairs, to push his
interests with the Prince, her husband.
On October 31, 1733, died the old Duke Eberhardt Louis, and Charles
Alexander at once hastened from Belgrade to Vienna, where, in an
interview with the Emperor, without any consultation with the Estates,
or consideration for the treasury of Würtemberg, he promised Leopold a
contingent of 12,000 men to aid in the war against France. Then he went
on to Stuttgart.
Poor Würtemberg groaned under the burdens that had been imposed on it;
the favourites had been allowed to do with it what they liked; and
Charles Alexander's first public declaration on entering his capital
was: "From henceforth I will reign over you immediately, and myself see
to the reform of every grievance, and put away from my people every
burden which has galled its shoulders. If my people cry to me, my ears
shall be open to hear their call. I will not endure the disorder which
has penetrated everywhere, into every department of the State; my own
hand shall sweep it away."
And as a token of his sincerity he ordered every office-holder in Church
and State to put on paper and present to him a schedule of every payment
that had been made, by way of fee and bribe, to obtain his office. This
was published on December 28, 1733. The older and wiser heads were
shaken; the Duke, they said, was only heaping trouble on his shoulders;
let the past be buried. He replied, "I must get to the bottom of all
this iniquity. I must get inured to work."
But the hero of Belgrade had all his life been more accustomed to the
saddle than the desk, and to command in battle--a much simpler
matter--than to rule in peace. The amount of grievances brought before
him, the innumerable scandals, peculations, bewildered him. The people
were wild with enthusiasm, but the entire bureaucracy was filled with
sullen and dogged opposition.
Würtemberg enjoyed a constitution more liberal than any other German
principality. The old Duke Eberhardt with the Beard, who died in 1496,
by his will contrived for the good government of his land by providing
checks against despotic rule by the dukes his successors. On the
strength of this testament the Estates deposed his successor. The
provisions of this will were ratified in the Capitulation of Tübingen,
in 1514, and every duke on assuming the reins of government was required
to swear to observe the capitulation. Duke Charles Alexander took the
oath without perhaps very closely examining it, and found out after it
was taken that he was hampered in various ways, and was incapacitated
from raising the body of men with which he had undertaken to furnish the
Emperor, independent of the consent of the Parliament. It may here be
said that there was no hereditary house of nobles in Würtemberg; the
policy of the former dukes had been to drive the hereditary petty
nobles out of the country, and to create in their place a clique of
court officials absolutely dependent on themselves. By the constitution,
no standing army was to be maintained, and no troops raised without the
consent of the Estates; the tenure of property was guaranteed by the
State, all serfage was abolished, and no taxes could be imposed or
monopolies created without the consent of the Estates.
The Estates consisted of fourteen prelates, pastors invested with
dignities which entitled them to sit in the House, and seventy
deputies--some elected by the constituencies, others holders of certain
offices, who sat _ex officio_. The Estates had great power; indeed the
Duke could do little but ask its consent to the measures he proposed,
and to swallow humble pie at refusal. It not only imposed the taxes, but
the collectors were directly responsible to the Estates for what was
collected, and paid into its hands the sum gathered. Moreover, any
agreement entered into between the Duke and another prince was invalid
unless ratified by the Estates.
When Duke Charles Alexander, who had been accustomed to the despotic
command of an army as field-marshal, found how his hands were tied and
how he was surrounded by impediments to free action on all sides, he was
very angry, and quarrelled with the Ministers who had presented the
capitulation to him for signature. He declared that the paper presented
for him to sign had not been read to him in full, or had the obnoxious
passages folded under that he should not see them, or that they had been
added after his signature had been affixed.
He became irritable, not knowing how to keep his promise with the
Emperor, and disgusted to find himself a ruler without real authority.
Now, as it was inconvenient to call the Assembly together on every
occasion when something was wanted, a permanent committee sat in
Stuttgart, consisting of two parts. This committee acted for the Estates
and were responsible to it.
Wanting advice and help, unwilling to seek that of the reliable
Ministers--and there were some honest and patriotic--the Duke asked
Joseph Suess to assist him, and Suess was only too delighted to show him
a way out of his difficulties. The redress of grievances was thrust
aside, abuses were left uncorrected, and the Duke's attention was turned
towards two main objects--the establishment of a standing army, and the
upsetting of the old constitution.
Würtemberg was then a state whose limits were not very extensive, nor
did they lie within a ring fence. The imperial cities of Reutlingen,
Ulm, Heilsbronn, Weil, and Gmünd were free. It might not be convenient
for the Emperor to pay with hard cash for the troops the Duke had
promised to furnish, but he might allow of the incorporation of these
independent and wealthy cities in the duchy. Moreover, it was a feature
of the times for the princes to seek to conquer fresh districts and
incorporate them. France had recently snatched away Mompelgard from
Würtemberg, and Charles Alexander recovered it. The duchy had suffered
so severely from having been overrun by French troops that the Estates
acquiesced, though reluctantly, in the Duke's proposal that a standing
army should be maintained. Having obtained this concession, Suess
instructed him how to make it a means of acquiring money, by calling men
to arms who would be thankful to purchase their discharge. The army soon
numbered 18,000 soldiers. His general-in-chief was Remchingen, a man who
had served with him in the Imperial army and was devoted to his
interests. The Duke placed his army under officers who were none of them
Würtembergers. At the head of an army officered by his own creatures,
the Duke hoped to carry his next purpose--the abrogation of the
capitulation, and the conversion of the State from a constitutional to a
despotic monarchy. Suess now became the Duke's most confidential
adviser, and, guided by him, Charles Alexander got rid of all his
Ministers and courtiers who would not become the assistants in this
policy, and filled their places with creatures of his own, chief of whom
was a fellow named Hallwachs. In order to paralyse the Assembly the Duke
did not summon it to meet, and managed to pack the committee with men in
his interest; for, curiously enough, the committee was not elected by
the delegates, but itself elected into the vacancies created in it. By
means of the committee the Duke imposed on the country in 1736 a double
tax, and the grant of a thirtieth of all the fruits; and this was to
last "as long as the necessities of the case required it."
Suess himself was careful to keep in the background. He accepted no
office about court, became Minister of no branch of the State; but every
Minister and officer was nominated by him and devoted to him. Towards
these creatures of his own he behaved with rudeness and arrogance, so
that they feared him almost more than the Duke. If the least opposition
was manifested, Suess threatened the gallows or the block, forfeiture of
goods, and banishment; and as the Duke subscribed every order Suess
brought him, it was well known that his threats were not idle.
Suess employed Weissensee, a pastor, the prelate of Hirsau, as his court
spy. This worthless man brought to the favourite every whisper that
passed within his hearing among the courtiers of the Duke, everything
that was said in the committee, and advised whether the adhesion of this
or that man was doubtful.
Suess so completely enveloped the Duke in the threads of the web he spun
about him, that Charles Alexander followed his advice blindly, and did
nothing without consulting him.
In 1734 Suess farmed the coinage of Würtemberg, with great profit to
himself, and, having got it into his own hands, kept it there to the
end. But there is this to be said for his coinage, that it was far
better than that of all the other states of Germany; so that the
Würtemberg silver was sought throughout Germany. There was nothing
fraudulent in this transaction, and though at his trial the matter was
closely investigated, no evidence of his having exceeded what was just
could be produced against him.
It was quite another matter with the "Land Commission," a
well-intentioned institution with which the Duke began his reign.
Charles Alexander was overwhelmed with the evidence sent in to him of
bribery under the late Duke, and, unable to investigate the cases
himself, he appointed commissioners to do so, and of course these
commissioners were nominated by Suess. The commission not only examined
into evidence of bribery in the purchase of offices, but also into
peculation and neglect of duty in the discharge of offices. Those
against whom evidence was strong were sentenced to pay a heavy fine, but
were not necessarily deprived. Those, on the other hand, who had
acquired their offices honourably and had discharged their functions
conscientiously were harassed by repeated trials, terrified with
threats, and were forced to purchase their discharge at a sum fixed
according to an arbitrary tariff. Those who proved stubborn, or did not
see at what the commissioners aimed, were subjected to false witnesses,
found guilty, and fined. These fines amounted in some instances to
£2,000.
After the commission had exhausted the bureaucracy, and money was still
needed, private individuals became the prey of their inquisitorial and
extortive action.
Any citizen who was reported to be rich was summoned before the tribunal
to give an account of the manner in which he had obtained his wealth;
his private affairs were investigated, his books examined, and his trial
protracted till he was glad to purchase his dismissal for a sum
calculated according to his income as revealed to the prying eyes of the
inquisitors.
But as this did not suffice to fill the empty treasury, recurrence was
had to the old abuse which the Land Commission had been instituted to
inquire into and correct. Every office was sold, and to increase the
revenue from this source fresh offices were created, fresh titles
invented, and all were sold for ready money. Every office in Church as
well as State was bought; indeed, a sort of auction was held at every
vacancy, and the office was knocked down to the highest bidder.
This sort of commerce had been bad enough under the late Duke, but it
became fourfold as bad now under the redresser of abuses, for what had
before been inchoate was now organised by Suess into a system.
Not only were the offices sold, but after they had been entered upon,
the tenant was expected to pay a second sum, entitled the gratuity,
which was to go, it was announced, towards a sustentation fund for
widows and orphans and the aged. It is needless to say that none of this
money ever reached widows, orphans, or aged.
A special bureau of gratuities was organised by decree of the Duke, and
filled with men appointed by Suess, who paid into his hands the sums
received; and he, after having sifted them, and retained what he thought
fit, shook the rest into the ducal treasury. This bureau was founded by
ducal rescript in 1736.
Side by side with the Office of Gratuities came the Fiscal Office into
being, whose function it was to revise the magisterial and judicial
proceedings of the courts of justice. This also was filled by Suess with
his creatures. The ground given to the world for its establishment was
the correction of judicial errors and injustices committed by the courts
of law. It was the final court of revision, before which every decision
went before it was carried into effect. Legal proceedings, moreover,
were long and costly, and the Fiscal Court undertook to interfere when
any suit threatened to be unduly protracted to the prejudice of justice.
But the practical working of the Fiscal Court was something very
different. It interfered with the course of justice, reversing
judgments, not according to equity, but according to the bribes paid
into the hands of the board. In a very short time the sources of justice
were completely poisoned by it, and no crime, however great and however
clearly established, led to chastisement if sufficient money were paid
into the hands of the court of revision. The whole country was overrun
with spies, who denounced as guilty of imaginary crimes those who were
rich, and such never escaped without leaving some of their gold sticking
to the hands of the fiscal counsellors.
As usual with Joseph Suess, he endeavoured to keep officially clear of
this court, as he had of the Office of Gratuities, and of all others.
But the Duke nominated him assistant counsellor. Suess protested, and
endeavoured to shirk the honour; but as the Duke refused to release him,
he took care never once to attend the court, and when the proceedings
and judgments were sent him for his signature he always sent them back
unsigned; and he never was easy till relieved of the unacceptable title.
For Suess was a clever rogue. In every transaction that was public, and
of which documentary evidence was producible that he had been mixed up
with it, he acted with integrity; but whenever he engaged on a
proceeding which might render him liable to be tried in the event of
his falling into disfavour, he kept himself in the background and acted
through his agents; so that when, eventually, he was tried for his
treasonable and fraudulent conduct, documentary evidence incriminating
him was wholly wanting.
After the death of the Duke, it was estimated from the records of the
two courts that they had in the year 1736-7 squeezed sixty-five thousand
pounds out of the small and poor duchy.
Suess had constituted himself jeweller to the Duke, who had a fancy for
precious stones, but knew nothing of their relative values. When Suess
offered him a jewel he was unable to resist the temptation of buying it,
and very little of the money of the Bureau of Gratuities ever reached
him; he took the value out in stones at Suess' estimation. When some of
his intimates ventured to suggest that the Jew was deceiving him as to
the worth of the stones, Duke Charles Alexander shrugged his shoulders
and said with a laugh, "It may be so, but I can't do without that
coujon" (_cochon_).[19] . At the beginning of 1736 a new edict for wards
was issued by the Duke, probably on Suess' suggestion, whereby he
constituted a chancery which should act as guardian to all orphans under
age, managing their property for them, and was accountable to none but
the Duke for the way in which it dealt with the trust. Then a commission
was instituted to take charge of all charitable bequests in the duchy;
and by this means Suess got the fingering of property to the amount of
two hundred thousand pounds, for which the State paid to the Charities
at the rate of three per cent.
Then came the imposition of duties and taxes. Salt was taxed,
playing-cards, groceries, leather, tobacco, carriages, even the sweeping
of chimneys. A gazette was issued containing decrees of the Duke and
official appointments, and every officer and holder of any place,
however insignificant, under Government was compelled to subscribe to
this weekly paper, the profits of which came to the Duke and his
adviser. Then came a property and income tax; then in quick succession
one tormenting edict after another, irritating and disturbing the
people, and all meaning one thing--money.
Lotteries were established by order of the Duke. Suess paid the Duke
£300 for one, and pocketed the profits, which were considerable. At the
court balls and masquerades Suess had his roulette tables in an
adjoining room, and what fell to the _croupier_ went into his
pocket.[20]
At last his sun declined. The Duke became more and more engrossed in his
ideas of upsetting the constitution by means of his army, and listened
more to his general, Remchingen, than to Suess. He entered into a
compact with the elector of Bavaria and with the Bishops of Würzburg and
Bamberg to send him troops to assist him in his great project, and, as a
price for this assistance, promised to introduce the Roman Catholic
religion into Würtemberg.
The enemies of Suess, finding that he was losing hold of the Duke, took
advantage of a precious stone which the Jew had sold him for a thousand
pounds, and which proved to be worth only four hundred, to open the eyes
of Charles Alexander to the character of the man who had exercised such
unbounded influence over him. Suess, finding his power slipping from
him, resolved to quit the country. The Duke stopped him. Suess offered
five thousand pounds for permission to depart; it was refused. Charles
Alexander was aware that Suess knew too many court secrets to be allowed
to quit the country. Moreover, the necessities of the Duke made him feel
that he might still need the ingenuity of Suess to help him to raise
money. As a means of retaining him he granted him a so-called
"absolutorium"--a rescript which made him responsible to no one for any
of his actions in the past or in the future. Furnished with this
document, the Jew consented to remain, and then the Duke required of him
a loan of four thousand pounds for the expenses of a journey he
meditated to Danzig to consult a physician about a foot from which he
suffered. The "absolutorium" was signed in February 1737.
On March 12 following, Charles Alexander started on his journey from
Stuttgart, but went no farther than his palace at Ludwigsburg.
Although the utmost secrecy had been maintained, it had nevertheless
transpired that the constitution was to be upset as soon as the Duke had
left the country. He had given sealed orders to his general, Remchingen,
to this effect. The Bavarian and Würtemberg troops, to the number of
19,000 men, were already on the march. The Würtemberg army was entirely
officered by the Duke's own men. Orders had been issued to forbid the
Stuttgart Civil Guard from exercising and assembling, and ordering that
a general disarmament of the Civil Guard and of the peasants and
citizens should be enforced immediately the Duke had crossed the
frontier. All the fortresses in the duchy had been provided with
abundance of ammunition and ordnance.
At Ludwigsburg the Duke halted to consult an astrologer as to the
prospect of his undertaking. Suess laughed contemptuously at the
pretences of this man, and, pointing to a cannon, said to Charles
Alexander, "This is your best telescope."
The sealed orders were to be opened on the 13th, and on that day the
stroke was to be dealt. Already Ludwigsburg was full of Würzburg
soldiers. A courier of the Duke with a letter had, in a drunken
squabble, been deprived of the dispatch; this was opened and shown to
the Assembly, which assembled in all haste and alarm. It revealed the
plot. At once some of the notables hastened to Ludwigsburg to have an
interview with their prince. He received them roughly, and dismissed
them without disavowing his intentions. The consternation became
general. The day was stormy; clouds were whirled across the sky, then
came a drift of hail, then a gleam of sun. At Ludwigsburg, the wind blew
in whole ranges of windows, shivering the glass. The alarm-bells rang in
the church towers, for fire had broken out in the village of Eglosheim.
The Assembly sent another deputation to Ludwigsburg, consisting of
their oldest and most respected members. They did not arrive till late,
and unable to obtain access through the front gates, crept round by the
kitchen entrance, and presented themselves unexpectedly before the Duke
at ten o'clock at night, as he was retiring to rest from a ball that had
been given. Dancing was still going on in one of the wings, and the
strains of music entered the chamber when the old notables of
Würtemberg, men of venerable age and high character, forced their way
into the Duke's presence.