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? VI
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI.
CHAPTER PAGE
V. Affair of Herstal 103
How the Herstallers had behaved to Friedrich Wilhelm,
p. 105.
Friedrich takes the Rod out of Pickle, 109.
What Voltaire thought of Herstal, 115. i
VI. Returns by Hanover; does not call on his
Royal Uncle there 121
VII. Withdraws to Reinsberg, hoping a peaceable
Winter 130
Wilhelraina's Return-Visit, p. 131.
Unexpected News at Reinsberg, 136.
VIII. The Kaiser's Death 139
IX. Resolution formed at Reinsberg in conse-
quence 148
Mystery in Berlin, for Seven Weeks, while the Prepara-
tions go on; Voltaire visits Friedrich to decipher it,
but cannot, p. 152.
View of Friedrich behind the Veil, 158.
Excellency Bottahas Audience; then Excellency Dickens,
and others: December 6th, the Mystery is out, 163.
Masked Ball, at Berlin, 12-lSth December, 168.
book xn.
FIRST SILESIAN WAR, AWAKENING A GENERAL EUROPEAN
ONE, BEGINS. 1740-1741.
I. Of Schlesien, or Silesia 173
Historical Epochs of Schlesien; -- after the Quads and
Marchmen, p. 175.
II. Friedrich marches on Glogau 181
Friedrich at Crossen, and still in his own Territory,
14th-16th Dec. ; -- steps into Schlesien, p. 183.
What Glogau, and the Government at Breslau, did upon
it, 187.
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? CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI. TO
CHAPTER PAGE
March to Welchau (Saturday 17th, and stay Sunday
there); to Milkau (Monday 19th); get to Herrendorf,
within sight of Glogau, Dec. 22d, 194.
III. Problem of Glogau 204
What Berlin is saying; what Friedrich is thinking, p. 208.
Schwerin at L-iegnitz; Friedrich hushes up the Glogau
Problem, and starts with his best speed for Breslau, 214.
IV. Bbeelau under soft Pbessube 219
King enters Breslau; stays there, gracious and vigilant,
Four Days (Jan. 2d--6th, 1741), p. 223.
V. Friedrich pushes fobwabd towards Brieg and
Neisse 227
Friedrich comes across to Ottmachau; sits there, in
survey of Neisse, till his Cannon come, p. 231.
'VI. Neisse is Bombabded 237
Browne vanishes in a slight Flash of Fire, p. 244.
VII. At Vebsailles, the Most Chbistian Majesty
changes his Shibt, and Belleisle is seen
with Papers 246
Of Belleisle and his Plans, p. 252.
VIII. Phenomena in Petersburg 261
IX. Friedrich betuens to Silesia 273
Skirmish of Baumgarten, 27th February 1741, p. 278.
Aspects of Breslau, 282.
Austria is standing to Arms, 286.
The Young Dessauer captures Glogau (March 9th); the
Old Dessauer, by his Camp of Gdttin (April 2d),
checkmates certain Designing Persons, 292.
Friedrich takes the Field, with some Pomp; goes into
the Mountains, -- but comes fast back, 300.
X. Battle of Mollwitz 312
Of Friedrich's Disappearance into Fairyland, in the in-
terim; and of Maupertuis's Adventure, p. 336.
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? VIII
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI.
CHAPTER i'AUK.
XI. The bursting forth op Bedlams: Belleisle and
the Breakers op Pragmatic Sanction . . 344
Who was to blame for the Austrian-Succession War?
p. 349.
How Belleisle made Visit to Teutschland; and there was .
no fit Henry the Fowler to welcome him, 351.
Downbreak of Pragmatic Sanction; Manner of the chief
Artists in handling their Covenants, 357.
Concerning the Imperial Election (Kaiserwakt) that is
to be; Candidates for Kaisership, 367.
Teutschland to be carved into something of Symmetry,
should the Belleisle Enterprises succeed, 372.
Belleisle on Visit to Friedrich; sees Friedrich besiege
Brieg, with Effect, 376.
XII, Sorrows of his Britannic Majesty . . . 385
1. Snatch of Parliamentary Eloquence by Mr. Viner(l9th
April 1741), p. 386.
2. Constitutional Historian on the Phenomenon of Wal-
pole in England, 390.
3. Of the Spanish War, or the Jenklns's-Ear Question, 395.
Succinct History of the Spanish War, which began in
1739; and ended -- When did it end? 399.
XIII. Small War: First Emergence op Ziethen the
Hussar General into Notice . . . . 412
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? BOOK XL
FEIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND.
June -- December 1740.
Qurli/le Frederick the Great. VI.
1
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? June --Sept. 1740.
CHAPTER I.
PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICh's ACCESSION.
In Berlin, from Tuesday 31st May 1740, day of
the late King's death, till the Thursday following, the
post was stopped and the gates closed; no estafette can
be despatched, though Dickens and all the Ambas-
sadors are busy writing. On the Thursday, Regiments,
Officers, principal Officials having sworn, and the new
King being fairly in the saddle, estafettes and post-
boys shoot forth at the top of their speed; and Rumour,
towards every point of the compass, apprises mankind
what immense news there is. *
A King's Accession is always a hopeful phenomenon
to the public; more especially a young King's, who
has been talked of for his talents and aspirings, -- for
his sufferings, were it nothing more, and whose Anti-
Macchiavel is understood to be in the press. Vaguely
everywhere there has a notion gone abroad that this
young King will prove considerable. Here at last has
a Lover of Philosophy got upon the throne, and great
philanthropies and magnanimities are to be expected,
think rash editors and idle mankind. Rash editors in
England and elsewhere, we observe, are ready to
believe that Friedrich has not only disbanded the
Potsdam Giants; but means to "reduce the Prussian
Army one half" or so, for ease (temporary ease, which
we hope will be lasting) of parties concerned; and to
* Dickens (in State-Paper Office), 4th June 1740.
1*
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? 4 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. JbOOK XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
go much upon emancipation, political rose-water, and
friendship to humanity, as we now call it.
At his first meeting of Council, they say, he put
this question, "Could not the Prussian Army be reduced
to 45,000? " The excellent young man. To which
the Council had answered, "Hardly, your Majesty!
The Julich-and-Berg affair is so ominous hitherto! "
These may be secrets, and dubious to people out of
doors, thinks a wise editor; but one thing patent to
the day was this, surely symbolical enough: On one
of his Majesty's first drives to Potsdam or from it, a
thousand children, -- in round numbers a thousand of
them, all with the red string round their necks, and
liable to be taken for soldiers, if needed in the regi-
ment of their Canton, -- "a thousand children" met
this young King at a turn of his road; and with shrill
unison of wail, sang out: "Oh, deliver us from . slavery,"
-- from the red threads, your Majesty! Why should
poor we be liable to suffer hardship for our Country or
otherwise, your Majesty! Can no one else be got to
do it? sang out the thousand children. And his
Majesty assented on the spot, thinks the rash editor. *
"Goose, Madam? " exclaimed a philanthropist projector
once, whose scheme of sweeping chimneys by pulling
a live goose down through them was objected to:
"Goose, Madam? You can take two ducks, then, if
you are so sorry for the goose! " -- Rash editors think
there is to be a reign of Astrsea Redux in Prussia, by
means of this young King; and forget to ask them-
selves, as the young King must by no means do, How-
far Astrsea may be possible, for Prussia and him?
At home, too, there is prophesying enough, vague
* Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1740), x. 318; Newspapers, &c.
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? CHAP. I. ] PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 5
Jane--Sept. 1740.
hope enough, which for most part goes wide of the
mark. This young King, we know, did prove con-
siderable; but not in the way shaped out for him by
the public; -- it was in far other ways! For no
public in the least knows, in such cases: nor does the
man himself know, except gradually and if he strive
to learn. As to the public -- "Doubtless," says a
friend of mine, "doubtless it was the Atlantic Ocean
"that carried Columbus to America; lucky for the
"Atlantic, and for Columbus and us: but the Atlantic
"did not quite vote that way from the first; nay its
"votes, I believe, were very various at different stages
"of the matter! " This is a truth which kings and
men, not intending to be drift-logs or waste brine
obedient to the Moon, are much called to have in
mind withal, from perhaps an early stage of their
voyage.
Friedrich's actual demeanour in these his first weeks,
which is still decipherable if one study well, has in
truth a good deal of the brilliant, of the popular,
magnanimous; but manifests strong solid quality withal,
and a head steadier than might have been expected.
For the Berlin world is all in a rather Auroral condi-
tion; and Friedrich too is, -- the chains suddenly cut
loose, and such hopes opened for the young man. He
has great things ahead; feels in himself great things,
and doubtless exults in the thought of realising them.
Magnanimous enough, popular, hopeful enough, with
Voltaire and the highest of the world looking on: --
but yet he is wise, too; creditably aware that there are
limits, that this is a bargain, and the terms of it in-
exorable. We discern with pleasure the old veracity
of character shining through this giddy new element;
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? 6 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
that all these fine procedures are at least unaffected, to
a singular degree true, and the product of nature, on
his part; and that, in short, the complete respect for
Fact, which used to be a quality of his, and which is
among the highest and also rarest in man, has on no
side deserted him at present.
A trace of airy exuberance, of natural exultancy,
not quite repressible, on the sudden change to freedom
and supreme power from what had gone before: per-
haps that also might be legible, if in those opaque
bead-rolls which are called Histories of Friedrich any-
thing human could with certainty be read! He flies
much about from place to place; now at Potsdam, now
at Berlin, at Charlottenburg, Reinsberg; nothing loth
to run whither business calls him, and appear in
public: the gazetteer world, as we noticed, which has
been hitherto a most mute world, breaks out here and
there into a kind of husky jubilation over the great
things he is daily doing, and rejoices in the prospect
of having a Philosopher King; which function the
young man, only twenty-eight gone, cannot but wish
to fulfil for the gazetteers and the world. He is a
busy man; and walks boldly into his grand enterprise
of "making men happy," to the admiration of Voltaire
and an enlightened public far and near.
Bielfeld speaks of immense concourses of people
crowding about Charlottenburg, to congratulate, to
solicit, to &c; tells us how he himself had to lodge
almost in outhouses, in that royal village of hope. His
emotions at Reinsberg, and everybody's while Friedrich
Wilhelm lay dying, and all stood like greyhounds on
the slip; and with what arrow-swiftness they shot away
when the great news came: all this he has already
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? chap. I. J PHENOMENA OP FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 7
June--Sept. 1740.
described at wearisome length, in his fantastic semi-
fabulous way. * Friedrich himself seemed moderately
glad to see Bielfeld; received his highflown congratula-
tions with a benevolent yet somewhat composed air;
and gave him afterwards, in the course of weeks, an
unexpectedly small appointment: To go to Hanover,
under Truchsess von Waldburg, and announce our
Accession. Which is but a simple, mostly formal
service; yet perhaps what Bielfeld is best equal to.
The Britannic Majesty, or at least his Hanover
people have been beforehand with this civility; Baron
Miinchhausen, no doubt by orders given for such con-
tingency, had appeared at Berlin with the due compli-
ment and condolence almost on the first day of the
New Reign; first messenger of all on that errand;
Britannic Majesty evidently in a conciliatory humour,
-- having his dangerous Spanish War on hand.
Britannic Majesty in person, shortly after, gets across
to Hanover; and Friedrich despatches Truchsess, with
Bielfeld adjoined, to return the courtesy.
Friedrich does not neglect these points of good
manners; along with which something of substantial
may be privately conjoined. For example, if he had
in secret his eye on Jiilich and Berg, could anything
be fitter than to ascertain what the French will think
of such an enterprise? What the French; and next to
them what the English, that is to say, Hanoverians,
who meddle much in affairs of the Reich. For these
reasons and others he likewise, probably with more
study than in the Bielfeld case, despatches Colonel
Camas to make his compliment at the French Court,
and in an expert way take soundings there. Camas, a
* Bielfeld, i. C8-77; ib. 81.
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? 8 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
Juno--Sept. 1740.
fat sedate military gentleman, of advanced years, full
of observation, experience and sound sense, -- "with
"one arm, which he makes do the work of two, and
"nobody can notice that the other arm resting in his
"coat-breast is of cork, so expert is he," -- will do in
this matter what is feasible; probably not much for
the present. He is to call on Voltaire, as he passes,
who is in Holland again, at the Hague for some
months back; and deliver him "a little cask of Hungary
Wine," which probably his Majesty had thought ex-
quisite. Of which, and the other insignificant pas-
sages between them, we hear more than enough in
the writings and correspondences of Voltaire about
this time.
In such way Friedrich disposes of his Bielfelds;
who are rather numerous about him now and hence-
forth. Adventurers from all quarters, especially of the
literary type, in hopes of being employed, much
hovered round Friedrich through his whole reign. But
they met a rather strict judge on arriving; it cannot
be said they found it such a Goshen as they ex-
pected.
Favour, friendly intimacy, it is visible from the
first, avails nothing with this young King; beyond
and before all things he will have his work done, and
looks out exclusively for the man ablest to do it.
Hence Bielfeld goes to Hanover, to grin out euphuisms,
and make graceful court-bows to our sublime little
Uncle there. On the other hand, Friedrich institutes
a new Knighthood, Order of Merit so-called; which
indeed is but a small feat, testifying mere hope and
exuberance as yet; and may even be made worse
than nothing, according to the Knights he shall manage
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? CHAP. I. ] PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 9
2d June 1740.
to have. Happily it proved a successful new Order in
this last all-essential particular; and, to the end of
Friedrich's life, continued to be a great and coveted
distinction among the Prussians.
Beyond doubt this is a radiant enough young
Majesty; entitled to hope, and to be the cause of hope.
Handsome, to begin with; decidedly well-looking, all
say, and of graceful presence, though hardly five feet
seven, and perhaps stouter of limb than the strict
Belvedere standard. * Has a fine free expressive face;
nothing of austerity in it; not a proud face, or not too
proud, yet rapidly flashing on you all manner of high
meanings. ** Such a man, in the bloom of his years;
with such a possibility ahead, and Voltaire and man-
kind waiting applausive! -- Let us try to select, and
extricate into coherence and visibility out of those
Historical dustheaps, a few of the symptomatic
phenomena, or physiognomic procedures of Friedrich
in his first weeks of Kingship, by way of contribution
to some Portraiture of his then inner-man.
Friedrich will make Men happy: Corn-Magazines.
On the day after his Accession, Officers and chief
Ministers taking the Oath, Friedrich, to his Officers,
"on whom he counts for the same zeal now which he
* Height, it appears, was five feet five inches (Rhenish), which in Eng-
lish measure is five feet seven or a hairsbreadth less. Preuss, twice over,
by a mistake unusual with him, gives "five feet two inches three lines1' as
the correct cipher (which it is of Napoleon's measure in French feet); then
settles on the above dimensions from unexceptionable authority (Preuss,
Bttch fur Jcdermnnn, i. 18; Preuss, Friedrich der Grossc, i. 39 and 419).
** "Wille's Engraving after Pesne" (excellent, both Picture and En-
graving) is reckoned the best Likeness in that form.
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? 10 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
2d June 1740.
"had witnessed as their comrade," recommends mild-
ness of demeanour from the higher to the lower, and
that the common soldier be not treated with harshness
when not deserved: and to his Ministers he is still
more emphatic, in the like or a higher strain. Officially
announcing to them, by Letter, that a new Reign has
commenced, he uses these words, legible soon after to
a glad Berlin Public: "Our grand care will be, To
"further the Country's wellbeing, and to make every
"one of our subjects (einen jeden unserer Unterthaneti)
"contented and happy. Our will is, not that you strive
"to enrich Us by vexation of Our subjects; but
"rather that you aim steadily as well towards the ad-
vantage of the Country as Our particular interest, for-
asmuch as we make no difference between these two
"objects," but consider them one and the same. This
is written, and gets into print within the month; and
his Majesty, that same day (Wednesday 2d June),
when it came to personal reception, and actual taking
of the Oath, was pleased to add in words, which also
were printed shortly, this comfortable corollary: "My
"will henceforth is, If it ever chance that my particular
"interest and the general good of my Countries should
"seem to go against each other, -- in that case, my
"will is, That the latter always be preferred. "*
This is a fine dialect for incipient Royalty; and it
is brand-new at that time. It excites an admiration
in the then populations, which to us, so long used to
it and to what commonly comes of it, is not conceiv-
able at once. There can be no doubt the young King
* Dickens, Despatch, 4th June 1740; Preuss, Friedrichs Jniiend und
Thronbesteiqung (Berlin, 1840), p. 325 ; -- quoting from the Berlin News-
papers, of 28th June and 2d July 1740.
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? CHAP. I. ] PHENOMENA OP FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 11
Jane--Sept. 1740.
does faithfully intend to develop himself in the way of
making men happy; but here, as elsewhere, are limits
which he will recognise ahead, some of them perhaps
nearer than was expected.
Meanwhile his first acts, in this direction, correspond
to these fine words. The year 1740, still grim with
cold into the heart of summer, bids fair to have a late
poor harvest, and famine threatens to add itself to
other hardships there have been. Recognising the
actualities of the case, what his poor Father could not,
he opens the Public Granaries, -- a wise resource they
have in Prussian countries against the year of scarcity;
-- orders grain to be sold out, at reasonable rates, to
the suffering poor; and takes the due pains, consider-
able in some cases, that this be rendered feasible every-
where in his dominions. "Berlin, 2d June," is the
first date of this important order; fine program to his
Ministers, which, we read, is no sooner uttered, than
some performance follows. An evident piece of wisdom
and humanity; for which doubtless blessings of a very
sincere kind rise to him from several millions of his
fellow-mortals.
Nay furthermore, as can be dimly gathered, this
scarcity continuing, some continuous mode of manage-
ment was set on foot for the Poor; and there is no-
minated, with salary, with outline of plan and other
requisites, as "Inspector of the Poor," to his own and
our surprise, M. Jordan, late Reader to the Crown-
Prince, and still much the intimate of his royal Friend.
Inspector who seems to do his work very well. And
in the November coming this is what we see: "One
thousand poor old women, the destitute of Berlin, set
to spin," at his Majesty's charges; vacant houses, hired
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? 12 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
3d June 1740.
for them in certain streets and suburbs, have been
new-planked, partitioned, warmed; and spinning is
there for any diligent female soul. There a thousand
of them sit, under proper officers, proper wages, treat-
ment; -- and the hum of their poor spindles, and of
their poor inarticulate old hearts, is a comfort, if one
chance to think of it. -- Of "distressed needlewomen"
who cannot sew, nor be taught to do it; who, in pri-
vate truth, are mutinous maid-servants come at last to
the net upshot of their anarchies; of these, or of the
like incurable phenomena, I hear nothing in Berlin;
and can believe that, under this King, Indigence itself
may still have something of a human aspect, not a
brutal or diabolic as is commoner in some places! --
This is one of Friedrich's first acts, this opening of the
Corn-magazines, and arrangements for the Destitute;*
and of this there can be no criticism. The sound of
hungry pots set boiling, on judicious principles; the
hum of those old women's spindles in the warm rooms:
gods and men are well pleased to hear such sounds;
and accept the same as part, real though infinitesimally
small, of the sphere-harmonies of this Universe!
Abolition of Legal Torture.
Friedrich makes haste, next, to strike into Law-
improvements. It is but the morrow after this of the
Corn-magazines, by Kabinets-Ordre (Act of Parliament,
* Hebien-Geachichte, i. 367. Rcidenbeck, Tagebuch ans Friedrichs dcs
Grossen Regmtenleben (Berlin, 1840), i. 2,26 (2d June, October, 1740): a
meritorious, laborious, though essentially chaotic Book, unexpectedly
futile of result to the reader; settles for each Day of Friedrich's Reign, so
far as possible, where Friedrich -was and what doing; fatally wants all
index &c. , as usual.
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? chap. I. ] PHENOMENA OP FRIEDRICrl's ACCESSION. 13
Jane--Sept. 1740.
such as they can have in that Country, where the
Three Estates sit all under one Three-cornered Hat,
and the debates are kept silent, and only the upshot
of them, more or less faithfully, is made public), --
by Cabinet Order, 3d June 1740, he abolishes the use
of Torture in Criminal Trials. * Legal Torture,
"Question" as they mildly call it, is at an end from
this date. Not in any Prussian Court shall a "question"
try for answer again by that savage method. The use
of Torture had, I believe, fallen rather obsolete in
Prussia; but now the very threat of it shall vanish, --
the threat of it, as we may remember, had reached
Friedrich himself, at one time. Three or four years
ago, it is farther said, a dark murder happened in
Berlin: Man killed one night in the open streets; mur-
derer discoverable by no method, -- unless he were a
certain Candidatus of Divinity to whom some trace of
evidence pointed, but who sorrowfully persisted in
absolute and total denial. This poor Candidatus had
been threatened with the rack; and would most likely
have at length got it, had not the real murderer been
discovered, -- much to the discredit of the rack in
Berlin. This Candidatus was only threatened; nor do
I know when the last actual instance in Prussia was;
but in enlightened France, and most other countries,
there was as yet no scruple upon it. Barbier, the
Diarist at Paris, some time after this, tells us of a
gang of thieves there, who were regularly put to the
torture; and "they blabbed too, Us ont jase" says
Barbier with official jocosity. **
* Preuss, Priedrichs Jugcud und Thronbestcigunq (Berliii, 1840, -- a
minor Book of Preuss's), p. 340. Rtidenbeck, i. 14 (*'3d June").
** Barbier, Journal Historiqtw du Regno de Louis XV (Paris, 1849), ii.
338 (date "Dec. 1742").
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? 14 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
Friedrich's Cabinet Order, we need not say, was
greeted everywhere, at home and abroad, by three
rounds of applause; -- in which surely all of us still
join; though the per-contra also is becoming visible to
some of us, and our enthusiasm grows less complete
than formerly. This was Friedrich's first step in Law-
Reform, done on his fourth day of Kingship. A long
career in that kind lies ahead of him; in reform of
Law, civil as well as criminal, his efforts ended with
life only. For his love of Justice was really great;
and the mendacities and wiggeries, attached to such a
necessary of life as Law, found no favour from him at
any time.
Will have Philosophers about him, and a real Academy
of Sciences.
To neglect the Philosophies, Fine Arts, interests of
Human Culture, he is least of all likely. The idea of
building up the Academy of Sciences to its pristine
height, or far higher, is evidently one of those that
have long lain in the Crown Prince's mind, eager to
realise themselves. Immortal Wolf, exiled but safe at
Marburg, and refusing to return in Friedrich Wilhelm's
time, had lately dedicated a Book to the Crown Prince;
indicating that perhaps, under a new Reign, he might
be more persuadable. Friedrich makes haste to per-
suade; instructs the proper person, Reverend Herr Rein-
beck, Head of the Consistorium at Berlin, to write and
negotiate. "All reasonable conditions shall be granted''
the immortal Wolf, -- and Friedrich adds with his own
hand as Postscript: "I request you (Ihn) to use all
"diligence about Wolf. A man that seeks truth, and
? ?
? VI
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI.
CHAPTER PAGE
V. Affair of Herstal 103
How the Herstallers had behaved to Friedrich Wilhelm,
p. 105.
Friedrich takes the Rod out of Pickle, 109.
What Voltaire thought of Herstal, 115. i
VI. Returns by Hanover; does not call on his
Royal Uncle there 121
VII. Withdraws to Reinsberg, hoping a peaceable
Winter 130
Wilhelraina's Return-Visit, p. 131.
Unexpected News at Reinsberg, 136.
VIII. The Kaiser's Death 139
IX. Resolution formed at Reinsberg in conse-
quence 148
Mystery in Berlin, for Seven Weeks, while the Prepara-
tions go on; Voltaire visits Friedrich to decipher it,
but cannot, p. 152.
View of Friedrich behind the Veil, 158.
Excellency Bottahas Audience; then Excellency Dickens,
and others: December 6th, the Mystery is out, 163.
Masked Ball, at Berlin, 12-lSth December, 168.
book xn.
FIRST SILESIAN WAR, AWAKENING A GENERAL EUROPEAN
ONE, BEGINS. 1740-1741.
I. Of Schlesien, or Silesia 173
Historical Epochs of Schlesien; -- after the Quads and
Marchmen, p. 175.
II. Friedrich marches on Glogau 181
Friedrich at Crossen, and still in his own Territory,
14th-16th Dec. ; -- steps into Schlesien, p. 183.
What Glogau, and the Government at Breslau, did upon
it, 187.
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? CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI. TO
CHAPTER PAGE
March to Welchau (Saturday 17th, and stay Sunday
there); to Milkau (Monday 19th); get to Herrendorf,
within sight of Glogau, Dec. 22d, 194.
III. Problem of Glogau 204
What Berlin is saying; what Friedrich is thinking, p. 208.
Schwerin at L-iegnitz; Friedrich hushes up the Glogau
Problem, and starts with his best speed for Breslau, 214.
IV. Bbeelau under soft Pbessube 219
King enters Breslau; stays there, gracious and vigilant,
Four Days (Jan. 2d--6th, 1741), p. 223.
V. Friedrich pushes fobwabd towards Brieg and
Neisse 227
Friedrich comes across to Ottmachau; sits there, in
survey of Neisse, till his Cannon come, p. 231.
'VI. Neisse is Bombabded 237
Browne vanishes in a slight Flash of Fire, p. 244.
VII. At Vebsailles, the Most Chbistian Majesty
changes his Shibt, and Belleisle is seen
with Papers 246
Of Belleisle and his Plans, p. 252.
VIII. Phenomena in Petersburg 261
IX. Friedrich betuens to Silesia 273
Skirmish of Baumgarten, 27th February 1741, p. 278.
Aspects of Breslau, 282.
Austria is standing to Arms, 286.
The Young Dessauer captures Glogau (March 9th); the
Old Dessauer, by his Camp of Gdttin (April 2d),
checkmates certain Designing Persons, 292.
Friedrich takes the Field, with some Pomp; goes into
the Mountains, -- but comes fast back, 300.
X. Battle of Mollwitz 312
Of Friedrich's Disappearance into Fairyland, in the in-
terim; and of Maupertuis's Adventure, p. 336.
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? VIII
CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI.
CHAPTER i'AUK.
XI. The bursting forth op Bedlams: Belleisle and
the Breakers op Pragmatic Sanction . . 344
Who was to blame for the Austrian-Succession War?
p. 349.
How Belleisle made Visit to Teutschland; and there was .
no fit Henry the Fowler to welcome him, 351.
Downbreak of Pragmatic Sanction; Manner of the chief
Artists in handling their Covenants, 357.
Concerning the Imperial Election (Kaiserwakt) that is
to be; Candidates for Kaisership, 367.
Teutschland to be carved into something of Symmetry,
should the Belleisle Enterprises succeed, 372.
Belleisle on Visit to Friedrich; sees Friedrich besiege
Brieg, with Effect, 376.
XII, Sorrows of his Britannic Majesty . . . 385
1. Snatch of Parliamentary Eloquence by Mr. Viner(l9th
April 1741), p. 386.
2. Constitutional Historian on the Phenomenon of Wal-
pole in England, 390.
3. Of the Spanish War, or the Jenklns's-Ear Question, 395.
Succinct History of the Spanish War, which began in
1739; and ended -- When did it end? 399.
XIII. Small War: First Emergence op Ziethen the
Hussar General into Notice . . . . 412
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? BOOK XL
FEIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND.
June -- December 1740.
Qurli/le Frederick the Great. VI.
1
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? June --Sept. 1740.
CHAPTER I.
PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICh's ACCESSION.
In Berlin, from Tuesday 31st May 1740, day of
the late King's death, till the Thursday following, the
post was stopped and the gates closed; no estafette can
be despatched, though Dickens and all the Ambas-
sadors are busy writing. On the Thursday, Regiments,
Officers, principal Officials having sworn, and the new
King being fairly in the saddle, estafettes and post-
boys shoot forth at the top of their speed; and Rumour,
towards every point of the compass, apprises mankind
what immense news there is. *
A King's Accession is always a hopeful phenomenon
to the public; more especially a young King's, who
has been talked of for his talents and aspirings, -- for
his sufferings, were it nothing more, and whose Anti-
Macchiavel is understood to be in the press. Vaguely
everywhere there has a notion gone abroad that this
young King will prove considerable. Here at last has
a Lover of Philosophy got upon the throne, and great
philanthropies and magnanimities are to be expected,
think rash editors and idle mankind. Rash editors in
England and elsewhere, we observe, are ready to
believe that Friedrich has not only disbanded the
Potsdam Giants; but means to "reduce the Prussian
Army one half" or so, for ease (temporary ease, which
we hope will be lasting) of parties concerned; and to
* Dickens (in State-Paper Office), 4th June 1740.
1*
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? 4 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. JbOOK XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
go much upon emancipation, political rose-water, and
friendship to humanity, as we now call it.
At his first meeting of Council, they say, he put
this question, "Could not the Prussian Army be reduced
to 45,000? " The excellent young man. To which
the Council had answered, "Hardly, your Majesty!
The Julich-and-Berg affair is so ominous hitherto! "
These may be secrets, and dubious to people out of
doors, thinks a wise editor; but one thing patent to
the day was this, surely symbolical enough: On one
of his Majesty's first drives to Potsdam or from it, a
thousand children, -- in round numbers a thousand of
them, all with the red string round their necks, and
liable to be taken for soldiers, if needed in the regi-
ment of their Canton, -- "a thousand children" met
this young King at a turn of his road; and with shrill
unison of wail, sang out: "Oh, deliver us from . slavery,"
-- from the red threads, your Majesty! Why should
poor we be liable to suffer hardship for our Country or
otherwise, your Majesty! Can no one else be got to
do it? sang out the thousand children. And his
Majesty assented on the spot, thinks the rash editor. *
"Goose, Madam? " exclaimed a philanthropist projector
once, whose scheme of sweeping chimneys by pulling
a live goose down through them was objected to:
"Goose, Madam? You can take two ducks, then, if
you are so sorry for the goose! " -- Rash editors think
there is to be a reign of Astrsea Redux in Prussia, by
means of this young King; and forget to ask them-
selves, as the young King must by no means do, How-
far Astrsea may be possible, for Prussia and him?
At home, too, there is prophesying enough, vague
* Gentleman's Magazine (London, 1740), x. 318; Newspapers, &c.
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? CHAP. I. ] PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 5
Jane--Sept. 1740.
hope enough, which for most part goes wide of the
mark. This young King, we know, did prove con-
siderable; but not in the way shaped out for him by
the public; -- it was in far other ways! For no
public in the least knows, in such cases: nor does the
man himself know, except gradually and if he strive
to learn. As to the public -- "Doubtless," says a
friend of mine, "doubtless it was the Atlantic Ocean
"that carried Columbus to America; lucky for the
"Atlantic, and for Columbus and us: but the Atlantic
"did not quite vote that way from the first; nay its
"votes, I believe, were very various at different stages
"of the matter! " This is a truth which kings and
men, not intending to be drift-logs or waste brine
obedient to the Moon, are much called to have in
mind withal, from perhaps an early stage of their
voyage.
Friedrich's actual demeanour in these his first weeks,
which is still decipherable if one study well, has in
truth a good deal of the brilliant, of the popular,
magnanimous; but manifests strong solid quality withal,
and a head steadier than might have been expected.
For the Berlin world is all in a rather Auroral condi-
tion; and Friedrich too is, -- the chains suddenly cut
loose, and such hopes opened for the young man. He
has great things ahead; feels in himself great things,
and doubtless exults in the thought of realising them.
Magnanimous enough, popular, hopeful enough, with
Voltaire and the highest of the world looking on: --
but yet he is wise, too; creditably aware that there are
limits, that this is a bargain, and the terms of it in-
exorable. We discern with pleasure the old veracity
of character shining through this giddy new element;
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? 6 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
that all these fine procedures are at least unaffected, to
a singular degree true, and the product of nature, on
his part; and that, in short, the complete respect for
Fact, which used to be a quality of his, and which is
among the highest and also rarest in man, has on no
side deserted him at present.
A trace of airy exuberance, of natural exultancy,
not quite repressible, on the sudden change to freedom
and supreme power from what had gone before: per-
haps that also might be legible, if in those opaque
bead-rolls which are called Histories of Friedrich any-
thing human could with certainty be read! He flies
much about from place to place; now at Potsdam, now
at Berlin, at Charlottenburg, Reinsberg; nothing loth
to run whither business calls him, and appear in
public: the gazetteer world, as we noticed, which has
been hitherto a most mute world, breaks out here and
there into a kind of husky jubilation over the great
things he is daily doing, and rejoices in the prospect
of having a Philosopher King; which function the
young man, only twenty-eight gone, cannot but wish
to fulfil for the gazetteers and the world. He is a
busy man; and walks boldly into his grand enterprise
of "making men happy," to the admiration of Voltaire
and an enlightened public far and near.
Bielfeld speaks of immense concourses of people
crowding about Charlottenburg, to congratulate, to
solicit, to &c; tells us how he himself had to lodge
almost in outhouses, in that royal village of hope. His
emotions at Reinsberg, and everybody's while Friedrich
Wilhelm lay dying, and all stood like greyhounds on
the slip; and with what arrow-swiftness they shot away
when the great news came: all this he has already
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? chap. I. J PHENOMENA OP FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 7
June--Sept. 1740.
described at wearisome length, in his fantastic semi-
fabulous way. * Friedrich himself seemed moderately
glad to see Bielfeld; received his highflown congratula-
tions with a benevolent yet somewhat composed air;
and gave him afterwards, in the course of weeks, an
unexpectedly small appointment: To go to Hanover,
under Truchsess von Waldburg, and announce our
Accession. Which is but a simple, mostly formal
service; yet perhaps what Bielfeld is best equal to.
The Britannic Majesty, or at least his Hanover
people have been beforehand with this civility; Baron
Miinchhausen, no doubt by orders given for such con-
tingency, had appeared at Berlin with the due compli-
ment and condolence almost on the first day of the
New Reign; first messenger of all on that errand;
Britannic Majesty evidently in a conciliatory humour,
-- having his dangerous Spanish War on hand.
Britannic Majesty in person, shortly after, gets across
to Hanover; and Friedrich despatches Truchsess, with
Bielfeld adjoined, to return the courtesy.
Friedrich does not neglect these points of good
manners; along with which something of substantial
may be privately conjoined. For example, if he had
in secret his eye on Jiilich and Berg, could anything
be fitter than to ascertain what the French will think
of such an enterprise? What the French; and next to
them what the English, that is to say, Hanoverians,
who meddle much in affairs of the Reich. For these
reasons and others he likewise, probably with more
study than in the Bielfeld case, despatches Colonel
Camas to make his compliment at the French Court,
and in an expert way take soundings there. Camas, a
* Bielfeld, i. C8-77; ib. 81.
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? 8 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
Juno--Sept. 1740.
fat sedate military gentleman, of advanced years, full
of observation, experience and sound sense, -- "with
"one arm, which he makes do the work of two, and
"nobody can notice that the other arm resting in his
"coat-breast is of cork, so expert is he," -- will do in
this matter what is feasible; probably not much for
the present. He is to call on Voltaire, as he passes,
who is in Holland again, at the Hague for some
months back; and deliver him "a little cask of Hungary
Wine," which probably his Majesty had thought ex-
quisite. Of which, and the other insignificant pas-
sages between them, we hear more than enough in
the writings and correspondences of Voltaire about
this time.
In such way Friedrich disposes of his Bielfelds;
who are rather numerous about him now and hence-
forth. Adventurers from all quarters, especially of the
literary type, in hopes of being employed, much
hovered round Friedrich through his whole reign. But
they met a rather strict judge on arriving; it cannot
be said they found it such a Goshen as they ex-
pected.
Favour, friendly intimacy, it is visible from the
first, avails nothing with this young King; beyond
and before all things he will have his work done, and
looks out exclusively for the man ablest to do it.
Hence Bielfeld goes to Hanover, to grin out euphuisms,
and make graceful court-bows to our sublime little
Uncle there. On the other hand, Friedrich institutes
a new Knighthood, Order of Merit so-called; which
indeed is but a small feat, testifying mere hope and
exuberance as yet; and may even be made worse
than nothing, according to the Knights he shall manage
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? CHAP. I. ] PHENOMENA OF FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 9
2d June 1740.
to have. Happily it proved a successful new Order in
this last all-essential particular; and, to the end of
Friedrich's life, continued to be a great and coveted
distinction among the Prussians.
Beyond doubt this is a radiant enough young
Majesty; entitled to hope, and to be the cause of hope.
Handsome, to begin with; decidedly well-looking, all
say, and of graceful presence, though hardly five feet
seven, and perhaps stouter of limb than the strict
Belvedere standard. * Has a fine free expressive face;
nothing of austerity in it; not a proud face, or not too
proud, yet rapidly flashing on you all manner of high
meanings. ** Such a man, in the bloom of his years;
with such a possibility ahead, and Voltaire and man-
kind waiting applausive! -- Let us try to select, and
extricate into coherence and visibility out of those
Historical dustheaps, a few of the symptomatic
phenomena, or physiognomic procedures of Friedrich
in his first weeks of Kingship, by way of contribution
to some Portraiture of his then inner-man.
Friedrich will make Men happy: Corn-Magazines.
On the day after his Accession, Officers and chief
Ministers taking the Oath, Friedrich, to his Officers,
"on whom he counts for the same zeal now which he
* Height, it appears, was five feet five inches (Rhenish), which in Eng-
lish measure is five feet seven or a hairsbreadth less. Preuss, twice over,
by a mistake unusual with him, gives "five feet two inches three lines1' as
the correct cipher (which it is of Napoleon's measure in French feet); then
settles on the above dimensions from unexceptionable authority (Preuss,
Bttch fur Jcdermnnn, i. 18; Preuss, Friedrich der Grossc, i. 39 and 419).
** "Wille's Engraving after Pesne" (excellent, both Picture and En-
graving) is reckoned the best Likeness in that form.
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? 10 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
2d June 1740.
"had witnessed as their comrade," recommends mild-
ness of demeanour from the higher to the lower, and
that the common soldier be not treated with harshness
when not deserved: and to his Ministers he is still
more emphatic, in the like or a higher strain. Officially
announcing to them, by Letter, that a new Reign has
commenced, he uses these words, legible soon after to
a glad Berlin Public: "Our grand care will be, To
"further the Country's wellbeing, and to make every
"one of our subjects (einen jeden unserer Unterthaneti)
"contented and happy. Our will is, not that you strive
"to enrich Us by vexation of Our subjects; but
"rather that you aim steadily as well towards the ad-
vantage of the Country as Our particular interest, for-
asmuch as we make no difference between these two
"objects," but consider them one and the same. This
is written, and gets into print within the month; and
his Majesty, that same day (Wednesday 2d June),
when it came to personal reception, and actual taking
of the Oath, was pleased to add in words, which also
were printed shortly, this comfortable corollary: "My
"will henceforth is, If it ever chance that my particular
"interest and the general good of my Countries should
"seem to go against each other, -- in that case, my
"will is, That the latter always be preferred. "*
This is a fine dialect for incipient Royalty; and it
is brand-new at that time. It excites an admiration
in the then populations, which to us, so long used to
it and to what commonly comes of it, is not conceiv-
able at once. There can be no doubt the young King
* Dickens, Despatch, 4th June 1740; Preuss, Friedrichs Jniiend und
Thronbesteiqung (Berlin, 1840), p. 325 ; -- quoting from the Berlin News-
papers, of 28th June and 2d July 1740.
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? CHAP. I. ] PHENOMENA OP FRIEDRICH's ACCESSION. 11
Jane--Sept. 1740.
does faithfully intend to develop himself in the way of
making men happy; but here, as elsewhere, are limits
which he will recognise ahead, some of them perhaps
nearer than was expected.
Meanwhile his first acts, in this direction, correspond
to these fine words. The year 1740, still grim with
cold into the heart of summer, bids fair to have a late
poor harvest, and famine threatens to add itself to
other hardships there have been. Recognising the
actualities of the case, what his poor Father could not,
he opens the Public Granaries, -- a wise resource they
have in Prussian countries against the year of scarcity;
-- orders grain to be sold out, at reasonable rates, to
the suffering poor; and takes the due pains, consider-
able in some cases, that this be rendered feasible every-
where in his dominions. "Berlin, 2d June," is the
first date of this important order; fine program to his
Ministers, which, we read, is no sooner uttered, than
some performance follows. An evident piece of wisdom
and humanity; for which doubtless blessings of a very
sincere kind rise to him from several millions of his
fellow-mortals.
Nay furthermore, as can be dimly gathered, this
scarcity continuing, some continuous mode of manage-
ment was set on foot for the Poor; and there is no-
minated, with salary, with outline of plan and other
requisites, as "Inspector of the Poor," to his own and
our surprise, M. Jordan, late Reader to the Crown-
Prince, and still much the intimate of his royal Friend.
Inspector who seems to do his work very well. And
in the November coming this is what we see: "One
thousand poor old women, the destitute of Berlin, set
to spin," at his Majesty's charges; vacant houses, hired
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? 12 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
3d June 1740.
for them in certain streets and suburbs, have been
new-planked, partitioned, warmed; and spinning is
there for any diligent female soul. There a thousand
of them sit, under proper officers, proper wages, treat-
ment; -- and the hum of their poor spindles, and of
their poor inarticulate old hearts, is a comfort, if one
chance to think of it. -- Of "distressed needlewomen"
who cannot sew, nor be taught to do it; who, in pri-
vate truth, are mutinous maid-servants come at last to
the net upshot of their anarchies; of these, or of the
like incurable phenomena, I hear nothing in Berlin;
and can believe that, under this King, Indigence itself
may still have something of a human aspect, not a
brutal or diabolic as is commoner in some places! --
This is one of Friedrich's first acts, this opening of the
Corn-magazines, and arrangements for the Destitute;*
and of this there can be no criticism. The sound of
hungry pots set boiling, on judicious principles; the
hum of those old women's spindles in the warm rooms:
gods and men are well pleased to hear such sounds;
and accept the same as part, real though infinitesimally
small, of the sphere-harmonies of this Universe!
Abolition of Legal Torture.
Friedrich makes haste, next, to strike into Law-
improvements. It is but the morrow after this of the
Corn-magazines, by Kabinets-Ordre (Act of Parliament,
* Hebien-Geachichte, i. 367. Rcidenbeck, Tagebuch ans Friedrichs dcs
Grossen Regmtenleben (Berlin, 1840), i. 2,26 (2d June, October, 1740): a
meritorious, laborious, though essentially chaotic Book, unexpectedly
futile of result to the reader; settles for each Day of Friedrich's Reign, so
far as possible, where Friedrich -was and what doing; fatally wants all
index &c. , as usual.
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? chap. I. ] PHENOMENA OP FRIEDRICrl's ACCESSION. 13
Jane--Sept. 1740.
such as they can have in that Country, where the
Three Estates sit all under one Three-cornered Hat,
and the debates are kept silent, and only the upshot
of them, more or less faithfully, is made public), --
by Cabinet Order, 3d June 1740, he abolishes the use
of Torture in Criminal Trials. * Legal Torture,
"Question" as they mildly call it, is at an end from
this date. Not in any Prussian Court shall a "question"
try for answer again by that savage method. The use
of Torture had, I believe, fallen rather obsolete in
Prussia; but now the very threat of it shall vanish, --
the threat of it, as we may remember, had reached
Friedrich himself, at one time. Three or four years
ago, it is farther said, a dark murder happened in
Berlin: Man killed one night in the open streets; mur-
derer discoverable by no method, -- unless he were a
certain Candidatus of Divinity to whom some trace of
evidence pointed, but who sorrowfully persisted in
absolute and total denial. This poor Candidatus had
been threatened with the rack; and would most likely
have at length got it, had not the real murderer been
discovered, -- much to the discredit of the rack in
Berlin. This Candidatus was only threatened; nor do
I know when the last actual instance in Prussia was;
but in enlightened France, and most other countries,
there was as yet no scruple upon it. Barbier, the
Diarist at Paris, some time after this, tells us of a
gang of thieves there, who were regularly put to the
torture; and "they blabbed too, Us ont jase" says
Barbier with official jocosity. **
* Preuss, Priedrichs Jugcud und Thronbestcigunq (Berliii, 1840, -- a
minor Book of Preuss's), p. 340. Rtidenbeck, i. 14 (*'3d June").
** Barbier, Journal Historiqtw du Regno de Louis XV (Paris, 1849), ii.
338 (date "Dec. 1742").
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijk Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 14 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
June--Sept. 1740.
Friedrich's Cabinet Order, we need not say, was
greeted everywhere, at home and abroad, by three
rounds of applause; -- in which surely all of us still
join; though the per-contra also is becoming visible to
some of us, and our enthusiasm grows less complete
than formerly. This was Friedrich's first step in Law-
Reform, done on his fourth day of Kingship. A long
career in that kind lies ahead of him; in reform of
Law, civil as well as criminal, his efforts ended with
life only. For his love of Justice was really great;
and the mendacities and wiggeries, attached to such a
necessary of life as Law, found no favour from him at
any time.
Will have Philosophers about him, and a real Academy
of Sciences.
To neglect the Philosophies, Fine Arts, interests of
Human Culture, he is least of all likely. The idea of
building up the Academy of Sciences to its pristine
height, or far higher, is evidently one of those that
have long lain in the Crown Prince's mind, eager to
realise themselves. Immortal Wolf, exiled but safe at
Marburg, and refusing to return in Friedrich Wilhelm's
time, had lately dedicated a Book to the Crown Prince;
indicating that perhaps, under a new Reign, he might
be more persuadable. Friedrich makes haste to per-
suade; instructs the proper person, Reverend Herr Rein-
beck, Head of the Consistorium at Berlin, to write and
negotiate. "All reasonable conditions shall be granted''
the immortal Wolf, -- and Friedrich adds with his own
hand as Postscript: "I request you (Ihn) to use all
"diligence about Wolf. A man that seeks truth, and
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