But a larger field than that of finance was opened to Stein in the war of 1806.  The king intrusted to him the portfolio of foreign affairs,—­not willingly, but because he regarded him as the ablest man in the kingdom.  Stein declined to be foreign minister unless he was entirely unshackled, and the king was obliged to yield, for the misfortunes of the country had now culminated in the disastrous defeat at Friedland.  The king, however, soon quarrelled with his minister, being jealous of his commanding abilities, and unused to dictation from any source.  After a brief exile at Nassau, the peace of Tilsit having proved the sagacity of his views, Stein returned to power as virtual dictator of the kingdom, with the approbation of Napoleon; but his dictatorship lasted only about a year, when he was again discharged.

During that year, 1807, Stein made his mark in Prussian history.  Without dwelling on details, he effected the abolition of serfdom in Prussia, the trade in land, and municipal reforms, giving citizens self-government in place of the despotism of military bureaus.  He made it his business to pay off the French war indemnity,—­one hundred and fifty million francs, a great sum for Prussia to raise when dismembered and trodden in the dust under one hundred and fifty thousand French soldiers,—­and to establish a new and improved administrative system.  But, more than all, he attempted to rouse a moral, religious, and patriotic spirit in the nation, and to inspire it anew with courage, self-confidence, and self-sacrifice.  In 1808 the ministry became warlike in spite of its despair, the first glimpse of hope being the popular rising in Spain.  It was during the ministry of Stein, and through his efforts, that the anti-Napoleonic revolution began.

The intense hostility of Stein to Napoleon, and his commanding abilities, led Napoleon in 1808 imperatively to demand from the King of Prussia the dismissal of his minister; and Frederick William dared not resist.  Stein did not retire, however, until after the royal edict had emancipated the serfs of Prussia, and until that other great reform was made by which the nobles lost the monopoly of office and exemption from taxation, while the citizen class gained admission to all posts, trades, and occupations.  These great reforms were chiefly to be traced to Stein, although Hardenberg and others, like Schoen and Niebuhr, had a hand in them.

Stein also opened the military profession to the citizen class, which before was closed, only nobles being intrusted with command in the army.  It is true that nobles still continued to form a large majority of officers, even as peasants formed the bulk of the army.  But the removal of restrictions and the abolition of serfdom tended to create patriotic sentiments among all classes, on which the strength of armies in no small degree rests.  In the time of Frederic the Great the army was a mere machine.  It was something more when the nation in 1811 rallied to