294 FREDERICK AND WAR
'humanity' of eighteenth-century warfare cannot always be detected
in the contests over Silesia. The possible reproach of barbarism did
not deter Frederick from giving serious consideration in 1761 to the
idea of employing a flame-thrower, proposed by a Captain Henry
O'Kelly in England. If the device was never employed in war, it was
almost certainly because O'Kelly could not guarantee to propel the
jet to three hundred paces, as Frederick demanded (PC 12755).
The goods, the liberty and occasionally the lives of the civilians
were by no means sacrosanct. In the context of the Seven Years War,
the word 'atrocity' is usually associated with the ravages of the
Cossacks in Pomerania and the Neumark. However, the Cossacks
behaved no better when they came under Prussian control in 1762,
and one can only guess at the kind of destruction that would have
been worked by the Crimean Tartars if, as Frederick had intended,
they had descended on Hungary and the countryside around Vienna.
Plundering and vandalising of property became almost a matter
of routine when some of the Prussian armies passed through inhabited
areas, or quartered themselves there (PC 10702,12504; Mitchell, 1850,
I, 319; Braker, 1852, 143; Catt, 1884, 352). In Moravia in 1742
Frederick employed this practice as an instrument of strategy, and in
general the habits of the royal army were usually compared un-
favourably with those of Schwerin and Prince Henry, which observed
strict discipline (see p. 231). We reproduce without comment two
extracts from Frederick's correspondence:
Among his possessions Count Briihl has two or three estates in
the neighbourhood of Leipzig and Nossen. It would be nice if
you could detach Lieutenant-Colonel Mayr with some of his
free companies to beat up those places a little - only I don't
want to know anything about it. (To Keith, 12 December 1757,
PC 9580)Madam, I am in receipt of your letter of the 15th. As regards the
subject matter, I can only declare that all the information I
have is that some troops, as they were passing by Nischwitz,
were told that there were some weapons concealed in the house
there. They entered the establishment to carry out a search and
ascertain the truth of the story. All the damage on this occasion
was done by the local people, whom nothing could dissuade or
divert from assuaging their anger at the expense of those who,
they declared, were the cause of their misfortune and that of
Saxony in general. (To Countess Briihl, 28 February 1758, PC
9799)Altogether the eighteenth century offers no exception to the