Sailors
innumerable
are bred to them; they are planted
"in the Ocean, opulent stormy Neptune clipping them in all
"his moods forever: and then by nature, being a dumb, much-
"enduring, much-reflecting, stout, veracious and valiant
"kind of People, they shine in that way of life, which speci-
"ally requires such.
"in the Ocean, opulent stormy Neptune clipping them in all
"his moods forever: and then by nature, being a dumb, much-
"enduring, much-reflecting, stout, veracious and valiant
"kind of People, they shine in that way of life, which speci-
"ally requires such.
Thomas Carlyle
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? 120 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
28th Sept. 1740.
Debt, clear as noon, but never paid nor any part of
it; 60,000 thalers, due by the See of Liege ever since
the Treaty of Utrecht; 60,000, for which we will
charge no interest: that will make 240,000 thalers, --
36,000/. , instead of the old sum you might have had
it at. Produce that cash; and take Herstal, and all
the dust that has risen out of it, well home with you. "*
The Bishop thankfully complies in all points; negotia-
tion speedily done ("20th Oct. " the final date): Bishop
has not, I think, quite so much cash on hand; but will
pay all he has, and 4 per centum interest till the
whole be liquidated. His Ambassadors "get gold snuff-
boxes;" and return mildly glad.
And thus, in some six weeks after Borck's arrival
in those parts, Borck's function is well done. The noise
of Gazettes and Diplomatic circles lays itself again;
and Herstal, famous once for King Pipin, and famous
again for King Friedrich, lapses at length into ob-
scurity, which we hope will never end. Hope; --
though who can say? Eoucoux, quite close upon it, be-
comes a Battle-ground in some few years; and memora-
bilities go much at random in this world!
* Stenzel, It. 60, who counts in gulden, and Is not distinct.
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? CHAP. VI ]
121
ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER.
16th Sept. 1740.
CHAPTER VI.
RETURNS BY HANOVER; DOES NOT CALL ON HIS ROYAL
UNCLE THERE.
Freedrich spent ten days on his circuitous journey
home; considerable inspection to be done, in Minden,
Magdeburg, not to speak of other businesses he had.
The old Newspapers are still more intent upon him,
now that the Herstal Affair has broken into flame:
especially the English Newspapers; who guess that
there are passages of courtship going on between great
George their King and him. Here is one fact, correct
in every point, for the old London Public: "Letters
"from Hanover say, that the King of Prussia passed
"within a small distance of that City the 16th inst.
"n. s. , on his return to Berlin, but did not stop at
"Herrenhausen;" -- about which there has been such
hoping and speculating among us lately. * A fact
which the extinct Editor seems to meditate for a day
or two; after which he says (partly in italics), opening
his lips the second time, like a Friar Bacon's Head
significant to the Public: "Letters from Hanover tell
"us that the Interview, which it was said his Majesty
"was to have with the King of Prussia, did not take
"place, for certain private reasons, which our Cor-
respondent leaves us to guess at! "
It is well known Eriedrich did not love his little
* Daily Post, 22<J Sept. 1740; other London Newspapers from July 31st
downwards.
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? 122 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
16th Sept. 1740.
Uncle, then or thenceforth; still less his little Uncle
him: "What is this Prussia, rising alongside of us,
higher and higher, as if it would reach our own sublime
level! " thinks the little Uncle to himself. At present
there is no quarrel between them; on the contrary, as
we have seen, there is a mutual capability of helping
one another, which both recognise; but will an inter-
view tend to forward that useful result? Friedrich, in
the intervals of an ague, with Herstal just broken out,
may have wisely decided, No. "Our sublime little
Uncle, of the waxy complexion, with the proudly staring
fish-eyes, -- no wit in him, not much sense, and a
great deal of pride, -- stands dreadfully erect, 'plumb
and more,' with the Garter-leg advanced, when one
goes to see him; and his remarks are not of an enter-
taining nature. Leave him standing there: to him let
Truchsess and Bielfeld suffice, in these hurries, in this
ague that is still upon us. " Upon which the dull old
Newspapers, Owls of Minerva that then were, endeavour
to draw inferences. The noticeable fact is, Friedrich
did, on this occasion, pass within a mile or two of his
royal Uncle, without seeing him; and had not, through
life, another opportunity; never saw the sublime little
man at all, nor was again so near him.
I believe Friedrich little knows the thick-coming
difficulties of his Britannic Majesty at this juncture;
and is too impatient of these laggard procedures on the
part of a man with eyes a fleur-de-tete. Modern readers
too have forgotten Jenkins's Ear; it is not till after
long study and survey that one begins to perceive the
anomalous profundities of that phenomenon to the poor
English Nation and its poor George II.
The English sent off, last year, a scanty Expedition,
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 123
ICth Sept. 1740.
"six ships of the line," only six, under Vernon, a fiery-
Admiral , a little given to be fiery in Parliamentary
talk withal; and these did proceed to Porto-Bello on
the Spanish Main of South America; did hurl out on
Porto-Bello such a fiery destructive deluge, of gunnery
and bayonet-work, as quickly reduced the poor place
to the verge of ruin, and forced it to surrender with
whatever navy, garrison, goods and resources were in
it, to the discretion of fiery Vernon, -- who does not
prove implacable, he or his, to a petitioning enemy.
Yes, humble the insolent, but then be merciful to them,
say the admiring Gazetteers. "The actual monster,"
how cheering to think, "who tore off Mr. Jenkins's
"Ear, was got hold of" (actual monster, or even three
or four different monsters who each did it, the "hold
got" being mythical, as readers see), "and naturally
"thought he would be slit to ribbons; but our people
"magnanimously pardoned him, magnanimously flung
"him aside out of sight;"* impossible to shoot a dog
in cold blood.
Whereupon Vernon returned home triumphant; and
there burst forth such a jubilation, over the day of
small things, as is now astonishing to think of. Had
the Termagant's own Thalamus and Treasuiy been
bombarded suddenly one night by redhot balls, Madrid
City laid in ashes, or Baby Carlos's Apanage ex-
tinguished from Creation, there could hardly have been
greater English joy (witness the "Porto-Bellos" they
still have, new Towns so named); so flamy is the murky
element growing on that head. And indeed had the
cipher of tar-barrels burnt, and of ale-barrels drunk,
* Gentleman's Magazine, x. 124, 145 (date of the Event is 3d Dec. u. s.
1739).
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? 124 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [boOK XI.
16th Sept. 1740.
and the general account of wick and tallow spent in
illuminations and in aldermanic exertions on the matter,
been accurately taken, one doubts if Porto-Bello sold,
without shot fired, to the highest bidder, at its flowriest,
would have covered such a sum. For they are a singular
Nation, if stirred up from their stagnancy; and are
much in earnest about this Spanish War.
It is said there is now another far grander Expe-
dition on the stocks; military this time as well as
naval, intended for the Spanish Main; -- but of that,
for the present, we will defer speaking. Enough, the
Spanish War is a most serious and most furious busi-
ness to those old English; and, to us, after forced study
of it, shines out like far-off conflagration, with a certain
lurid significance in the then night of things. Night
otherwise fallen dark and somniferous to modern man-
kind. As Britannic Majesty and his Walpoles have,
from the first, been dead against this Spanish War, the
problem is all the more ominous, and the dreadful
corollaries that may hang by it the more distressing to
the royal mind.
For example, there is known, or as good as known,
to be virtually some Family Compact, or covenanted
Brotherhood of Bourbonism, French and Spanish: po-
litical people quake to ask themselves, "How will the
French keep out of this War, if it continue any length
of time? And in that case, how will Austria, Europe
at large? Jenkins's Ear will have kindled the Uni-
verse, not the Spanish Main only, and we shall be at
a fine pass! " The Britannic Majesty reflects that if
France take to fighting him, the first stab given will
probably be in the accessiblest quarter and the intensely
most sensitive, -- our own Electoral Dominions where
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 125
16th Sept. 1740.
no Parliament plagues us, our dear native country,
Hanover. Extremely interesting to know what Fried-
rich of Prussia will do in such contingency?
Well, truly it<<night have been King George's best
bargain to close with Friedrich; to guarantee Jiilich
and Berg, and get Friedrich to stand between the
French and Hanover; while George, with an England
behind him, in such humour, went wholly into that
Spanish Business, the one thing needful to them at
present. Truly; but then again, there are considera-
tions: "What is this Friedrich, just come out upon the
world? What real fighting power has he, after all that
ridiculous drilling and recruiting Friedrich Wilhelm
made? Will he be faithful in bargain; is not, perhaps,
from of old, his bias always toward France rather?
And the Kaiser, what will the Kaiser say to it? "
These are questions for a Britannic Majesty! Seldom
was seen such an insoluble imbroglio of potentialities;
dangerous to touch, dangerous to leave lying; -- and
bis Britannic Majesty's procedures upon it are of a
very slow intricate sort; and will grow still more so,
year after year, in the new intricacies that are coming
and be a weariness to my readers and me. For observe
the simultaneous fact. All this while, Robinson at
Vienna is dunning the Imperial Majesty to remember
old Marlborough days and the Laws of Nature; and
declare for us against France, in case of the worst.
What an attempt! Imperial Majesty has no money;
Imperial Majesty remembers recent days rather, and
his own last quarrel with France (on the Polish-Elec-
tion score), in which you Sea Powers cruelly stood
neuter! One comfort, and pretty much one only, is
left to a nearly bankrupt Imperial heart; that France
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? 126 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IX HAND. [book XI.
16th Sept. 1710.
does at any rate ratify Pragmatic Sanction, and in-
stead of enemy to that inestimable Document has be-
come friend, -- if only she be well let alone. "Let
well alone," says the sad Kaiser, bankrupt of heart as
well as purse: "I have saved the Pragmatic, got Fleury
to guarantee it; I will hunt wild swine and not shadows
any more: ask me not! " And now this Herstal busi-
ness; the Imperial Dehortatoriums, perhaps of a high
nature, that are like to come? More hopeless pro-
position the Britannic Majesty never made than this to
the Kaiser. But he persists in it, orders Robinson to
persist; knocks at the Austrian door with one hand, at
the Prussian or Anti-Austrian with the other; and
gazes, with those proud fish-eyes, into perils and po-
tentialities and a sea of troubles. Wearisome to think
of, were not one bound to it! Here, from a singular
Constitutional History of England, not yet got into
print, are two Excerpts; which I will request the reader
to try if he can take along with him, in view of much
that is coming:
1. A just War. -- "This War, which posterity scoffs at as
"the War for Jenkins's Ear, was, if we examine it, a quite in-
"dispensable one; the dim much-bewildered English, driven
"into it by their deepest instincts, were, in a chaotic inarticu-
"late way, right and not wrong in taking it as the Command-
"ment of Heaven. For such, in a sense, it was; as shall by
"and by appear. Not perhaps since the grand Reformation
"Controversy, under Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth, had
"there, to this poor English People (who are essentially
"dumb, inarticulate, from the weight of meaning they have,
"notwithstanding the palaver one hears from them in certain
"epochs), been a more authentic cause of War. And, what
"was the fatal and yet foolish circumstance, their Constitu-
"tional Captains, especially their King, would never and
"could never regard it as such; but had to be forced into it by
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 127
16th Sept. 1740.
"the public rage, there being no other method left in the
"case.
"I say, a most necessary War, though of a most stupid
"appearance; such the fatality of it: -- Degun, carried on,
"ended, as if by a People in a state of somnambulism! More
"confused operation never was. A solid placid People,
"heavily asleep --(and snoring much, shall we say, and in-
"articulately grunting and struggling under indigestions,
"Constitutional and other? Do but listen to the hum of those
"extinct Pamphlets and Parliamentary Oratories of theirs! ),
"-- yet an honestly intending People; and keenly alive to any
"commandment from Heaven, that could pierce through the
"thick skin of them into their big obstinate heart. Such a
"commandment, then and there, was that monition about
"Jenkins's Ear. Upon which, so pungent was it to them,
"they smarted violently out of bed, into painful sleep-walk-
ing; and went, for twenty years and more, clambering and
"sprawling about, far and. wide, on the giddy edge of pre-
cipices, over housetops and frightful cornices and parapets;
"in a dim fulfilment of the said Heaven's command. I reckon
"that this War, though there were intervals, Treaties of
"Peace more than one, and the War had various names,--
"did not end till 1763. And then, by degrees, the poor
"English Nation found that (at, say, a thousand times the
"necessary expense, and with imminent peril to its poor
"head, and all the bones of its body) it had actually suc-
ceeded, -- by dreadful exertions in its sleep! This will be
"more apparent by and by; and may be a kind of comfort to
"the sad English reader, drearily surveying such somnam-
"bulisms on the part of his poor ancestors. "
2. Two Difficulties. -- "There are Two grand Difficulties
"in this Farce-Tragedy of a War; of which only one, and
"that not the worst of the Pair, is in the least surmised by the
"English hitherto. Difficulty First, which is even worse than
"the other, and will surprisingly attend the English in all
"their Wars now coming, is: That their fighting-apparatus,
"though made of excellent material, cannot fight, -- being in
"disorganic condition; one branch of it, especially the
"'Military' one, as they are pleased to call it, being as good
"as totally chaotic, and this in a quiet habitual manner, this
"long while back. With the Naval branch it is otherwise;
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? 128 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book xi.
16th Sept. 1740.
"which also is habitual there. The English almost as if b7
"nature can sail, andfight, in ships; cannot well help doin<*
"it.
Sailors innumerable are bred to them; they are planted
"in the Ocean, opulent stormy Neptune clipping them in all
"his moods forever: and then by nature, being a dumb, much-
"enduring, much-reflecting, stout, veracious and valiant
"kind of People, they shine in that way of life, which speci-
"ally requires such. Without more forethought, they have
"sailors innumerable, and of the best quality. The English
"have among them also, strange as it mayseem to the cursory
"observer, a great gift of organising; witness their Ark-
"wrights and others: and this gift they may often, in matters
"Naval more than elsewhere, get the chance of exercising.
"For a Ship's Crew, or even a Fleet, unlike a land Army, is
"of itself a unity, its fortunes disjoined, dependent on its
"own management; and it falls, moreover, as nolanjiArmy
"can, to the undivided guidance of one man, -- who (by
"hypothesis, being English), has now and then, from of old,
"chanced to be an organising man; and who is always much
"interested to know andpractise what^osbeen well organised.
"For you are in contact with verities, to an unexampled de-
"gree, when you get upon the Ocean, with intent to sail on
"it, much more to fight on it; -- bottomless destruction raging
"beneath you and on all hands of you, if you neglect, for any
"reason, the methods of keeping it down, and making it float
"you to your aim!
"The English Navy is in tolerable order at that period.
"But as to the English Army, -- we may say it is, in a wrong
"sense, the wonder of the world, and continues so throughout
"the whole of this History and farther! Never before, among
"the rational sons of Adam, were Armies sent out on such
"terms, -- namely without a General, or with no General
"understanding the least of his business. The English have
"a notion that Generalship is not wanted; that War is not an
"Art, as playing Chess is, as finding the Longitude, and
"doing the Differential Calculus are (and a much deeper Art
"than any of these); that War is taught by Nature, as eating
"is; that courageous soldiers, led on by a courageous Wooden
"Pole with Cocked-hat on it, will do very well. In the world
"I have not found opacity of platitude go deeper among any
"People. This is Difficulty First, -- not yet suspected by an
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 129
20th--24th Sept. 1740.
"English People, capable of great opacity on some sub-
jects.
"Difficulty Second is. That their Ministry, whom they
"had to force into this War, perhaps do not go zealously
"upon it. And perhaps even, in the above circumstances,
"they totally want knowledge how to go upon it, were they
"never so zealous! Difficulty Second might be much helped,
"were it not for Difficulty First. But the administering of war
"is a thing also that does not come to a man like eating. --
"This Second Difficulty, suspicion that Walpole and perhaps
"still higher heads want zeal, gives his Britannic Majesty in-
"finite trouble; and" --
-- And so, in short, he stands there, with the Garter-
leg advanced, looking loftily into a considerable sea of
troubles, -- that day when Friedrich drove past him,
Friday 16th September 1740, and never came so near
him again.
The next business for Friedrich was a Visit at
Brunswick, to the Affinities and Kindred, in passing;
where also was an important little act to be done: Be-
trothal of the young Prince, August Wilhelm, Heir-
Presumptive whom we saw in Strasburg, to a Princess
of that House, Louisa Amelia, younger Sister of Fried-
rich's own Queen. A modest promising arrangement;
which turned out well enough, -- though the young
Prince, Father to the Kings that since are, was not
supremely fortunate otherwise. * After which, the
review at Magdeburg; and home on the 24th, there to
"be busy as a Turk or as a M. Jordan," -- according
to what we read long since.
* Betrothal was 20th September 1740; Marriage, 5th January 1742
(Bnchholz, i. 207).
Cailj/e, Frederick the Great. VI. 9
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? 130 FKIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
24th Sept. --25 Oct. 1740.
CHAPTER VII.
WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG, HOPING A PEACEABLE WINTER.
By this Herstal token, which is now blazing abroad,
now and for a month to come, it can be judged that
the young King of Prussia intends to stand on his own
footing, quite peremptorily if need be; and will by no
means have himself led about in Imperial harness, as
his late Father was. , So that a dull Public (Herren-
hausen very specially), and Gazetteer Owls of Minerva
everywhere, may expect events. All the more in-
dubitably, when that spade-work comes to light in the
Wesel Country. It is privately certain (the Gazetteers
not yet sure about it, till they see the actual spades
going), this new King does fully intend to assert his
rights on Berg-Julich; and will appear there with his
iron ramrods, the instant old Kur-Pfalz shall decease,
let France and the Kaiser say No to it or say Yes.
There are, in fact, at a fit place, "Buderich, in the
neighbourhood of Wesel," certain rampart-works, be-
ginnings as of an Entrenched Camp, going on; -- "for
Review purposes merely," say the Gazetteers, in italics.
Here, it privately is Friedrich's resolution, shall a
Prussian Army, of the due strength (could be well
nigh 100,000 strong if needful), make its appearance,
directly on old Kur-Pfalz's decease, if one live to see
such event. * France and the Kaiser will probably
take good survey of that Buderich phenomenon before
meddling.
* Stenzel, iv, 61.
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? CHAP. VII. ] WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG. 131
24th Sept. --25 Oct. 1740.
To do his work like a King, and shun no peril and
no toil in the course of what his work may be, is
Friedrich's rule and intention. Nevertheless it is clear
he expects to approve himself magnanimous rather in
the Peaceable operations than in the Warlike; and his
outlooks are, of all places and pursuits, towards
Reinsberg and the Fine Arts, for the time being. His
Public activity meanwhile they describe as "prodigious,"
though the ague still clings to him; such building, in-
stituting, managing: Opera-House, French Theatre,
Palace for his Mother; -- day by day; many things to
be recorded by Editor Formey, though the rule about
them here is silence except on cause.
No doubt the ague is itself privately a point of
moment. Such a vexatious paltry little thing, in this
bright whirl of Activities, Public and other, which he
continues managing in spite of it; impatient to be rid
of it. But it will not go: there it reappears always,
punctual to its "fourth day," -- like a snarling street-
dog, in the high Ball-room and Work-room. "He is
drinking Pyrmont water;" has himself proposed Quin-
quina, a remedy just come up, but the Doctors shook
their heads; has tried snatches of Reinsberg, too short;
he intends soon to be out there for a right spell of
country, there to be "happy," and get quit of his ague.
The ague went, -- and by a remedy which surprised
the whole world, as will be seen!
Wilhelmina's Return- Visit.
Monday, 17th Oct. , came the Baireuth Visitors;
Wilhelmina all in a flutter, and tremor of joy and sor-
row, to see her Brother again, her old kindred and the
9*
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? 132 FKIEDIilCH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
24th Sept. -- 25th Oct. 1740.
altered scene of things. Poor Lady, she is perceptibly
more tremulous than usual; and her Narrative, not in
dates only, but in more memorable points, dances about
at a sad rate; interior agitations and tremulous shrill
feelings shivering her this way and that, and throwing
things topsy-turvy in one's recollection. Like the
magnetic needle, shaky but stedfast (agitee metis con-
st ante). Truer nothing can be, points forever to the
Pole; but also what obliquities it makes; will shiver
aside in mad escapades, if you hold the paltriest bit of
old iron near it, -- paltriest clack of gossip about this
loved Brother of mine! Brother, we will hope, silently
continues to be Pole, so that the needle always comes
back again; otherwise all would go to wreck. Here, in
abridged and partly rectified form, are the phenomena
witnessed:
"We arrived at Berlin the end of October" (Monday 17th,
as above said. ) "My younger Brothers, followed by the
'' Princes of the Blood and by all the Court, received us at the
"bottom of the stairs. I was led to my apartment, where I
"found the Reigning Queen, my Sisters" (Ulrique, Amelia),
"and the Princesses" (of the Blood, as above, Schwedt and
the rest). "I learned with much chagrin that the King was
"ill of tertian ague" (quartan; but that is no matter). "He
'' sent me word that, being in his fit, he could notseeme; but
"that he depended on having that pleasure to-morrow. The
"Queen Mother, to whom I went without delay, was in a dark
"condition; rooms all hung with their lugubrious drapery;
"everything yet in the depth of mourning for my Father.
'' What a scene for me! Nature has her rights; I can say with
"truth, I have almost never in my life been so moved as on
"this occasion. " Interview with Mamma, -- we can fancy
it, -- "was of the most touching. " Willielmina had been
absent eight years. She scarcely knows the young ones
ain, all so grown; -- finds change on change; and that
me, as he always is, has been busy. That night the Supper-
Party was exclusively a Family one.
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? CHAP. VII. ] WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG. 133
24th Sept. --25th Oct. 1740.
Her Brother's welcome to her ou the morrow, though
ardent enough, she found deficient in sincerity, deficient in
several points; as indeed a Brother up to the neck in business,
and just come out of an ague-fit, does |not appear to the best
advantage. Wilhelmina noticed how ill he looked, so lean
and broken-down (maigre et defait) within the last two months;
but seems to have taken no account of it farther, in striking
her balances with Friedrich. And indeed in her Narrative of
this Visit, not, we will hope, in the Visit itself, she must have
been in a high state of magnetic deflection, --pretty nearly
her maximum of such, discoverable in those famous Memoirs,
-- such a tumult is there in her statements, all gone to ground-
and-lofty tumbling in this place; so discrepant are the still
ascertainable facts from this topsy-turvy picture of them,
sketched by her four years hence (in 1744). The truest of
magnetic needles; but so sensitive, if you bring foreign iron
near it!
Wilhelmina was loaded with honours by an impartial
Berlin Public, thatis, Court-Public; "but, all being in
"mourning, the Court was not brilliant. The Queen Mother
"saw little company, and was sunk in sorrow; -- had not the
"least influence in affairs, so jealous was the new King of his
"Authority, -- to the Queen Mother's surprise, says
Wilhelmina. For the rest, here is a King "becoming
"truly unpopular" (or, we fancy so, in our deflected state,
and judging by the rumour of cliques); "a general dis-
content reigning in the Country, love of his subjects pretty
"much gone; people speaking of him in no measured
"terms" (in certain cliques). "Cares nothing about those
"who helped him as Prince Royal, say some; others complain
"of his avarice" (meaning steady vigilance in outlay) "as
"surpassing the late King's; this one complained of his
"violences of temper (emportemens); that one of his suspicions,
"of his distrust, his haughtinesses, his dissimulation" (mean-
ing polite impenetrability when he saw good). Several cir-
cumstances, known to Wilhelmina's own experience, compel
Wilhelmina's assent on those points. "I would have spoken
"to him about them, if my Brother of Prussia" (young
August Wilhelm, betrothed the other day) "and the Queen
"Regnant had not dissuaded me. Farther on I will give the
"explanation of all this," -- never did it anywhere. "I beg
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? 134 FEIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOK XI.
24th Sept. --25th Oct. 1740.
"those who may one day read these Memoirs, to suspend their
"judgment on the character of this great Prince till I have
"developed it. "* Oh my Princess, you are true and bright,
but you are shrill; and I admire the effect of atmospheric
electricity, not to say, of any neighbouring marine-store shop,
or miserable bit of broken pan, on one of the finest magnetic
needles ever made and set trembling!
Wilhelmina is incapable of deliberate falsehood;
and this her impression or reminiscence, with all its
exaggeration, is entitled to be heard in evidence so far.
From this, and from other sources, readers will assure
themselves that discontents were not wanting; that
King Friedrich was not amiable to everybody at this
time, -- which indeed he never grew to be at any
other time. He had to be a King; that was the trade
he followed, not the quite different one of being amiable
all round. Amiability is good, my Princess; but the
question rises, "To whom? -- for example, to the young
gentleman who shot himself in Lbbegun? " There are
young gentlemen and old, sometimes in considerable
quantities, to whom, if you were in your duty, as a
King of men (or even as a "King of one man and his
affairs," if that is all your kingdom), you should have
been hateful instead of amiable! That is a stern truth;
too much forgotten by Wilhelmina and others. Again,
what a deadening and killing circumstance is it in the
career of amiability, that you are bound not to be com-
municative of your inner man, but perpetually and
strictly the reverse! It may be doubted if a good
King can be amiable; certainly he cannot in any but
the noblest ages, and then only to a select few. I should
guess Friedrich was at no time fairly loved, not by
* Wilhelmina, ii. 326.
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? CHAP. VII. ] WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG. 135
24ih Sept. --25th Oct. 1740.
those nearest to him. He was rapid, decisive; of wiry
compact nature; had nothing of his Father's amplitudes,
simplicities; nothing to sport with and fondle, far from
it. Tremulous sensibilities, ardent affections; these we
clearly discover in him, in extraordinary vivacity; but
he wears them under his polished panoply, and is out-
wardly a radiant but metallic object to mankind. Let
us carry this along with us in studying him; and thank
Wilhelmina for giving us hint of it in her oblique
way -- Wilhelmina's love for her Brother rose to
quite heroic pitch in coming years, and was at its
highest when she died. That continuation of her
Memoirs in which she is to develop her Brother's
character, was never written: it has been sought for,
in modern times; and a few insignificant pages, with
evidence that there is not, and was not, any more, are
all that has turned up. *
Incapable of falsity prepense, we say; but the known
facts, which stand abundantly on record if you care to
search them out, are merely as follows: Friedrich, with
such sincerity as there might be, did welcome Wilhel-
mina on the morrow of her arrival; spoke of Reins-
berg, and of air and rest, and how pleasant it would
be; rolled off next morning, having at last gathered up
his businesses, and got them well in hand, to Reins-
berg accordingly; whither Wilhelmina, with the Queen
Regnant and others of agreeable quality, followed in
two days; intending a long and pleasant spell of
country out there. Which hope was tolerably fulfilled,
even for Wilhelmina, though there did come unex-
pected interruptions, not of Friedrich's bringing.
* Pertz: L'ber die Denkwurdigkeiten der Markgrafm von Bat/reuift
(Paper read in the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 25th April 1850).
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? 136 PRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOKXI.
'24th Sept. -- 25tU Oct. 1740.
? 120 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
28th Sept. 1740.
Debt, clear as noon, but never paid nor any part of
it; 60,000 thalers, due by the See of Liege ever since
the Treaty of Utrecht; 60,000, for which we will
charge no interest: that will make 240,000 thalers, --
36,000/. , instead of the old sum you might have had
it at. Produce that cash; and take Herstal, and all
the dust that has risen out of it, well home with you. "*
The Bishop thankfully complies in all points; negotia-
tion speedily done ("20th Oct. " the final date): Bishop
has not, I think, quite so much cash on hand; but will
pay all he has, and 4 per centum interest till the
whole be liquidated. His Ambassadors "get gold snuff-
boxes;" and return mildly glad.
And thus, in some six weeks after Borck's arrival
in those parts, Borck's function is well done. The noise
of Gazettes and Diplomatic circles lays itself again;
and Herstal, famous once for King Pipin, and famous
again for King Friedrich, lapses at length into ob-
scurity, which we hope will never end. Hope; --
though who can say? Eoucoux, quite close upon it, be-
comes a Battle-ground in some few years; and memora-
bilities go much at random in this world!
* Stenzel, It. 60, who counts in gulden, and Is not distinct.
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? CHAP. VI ]
121
ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER.
16th Sept. 1740.
CHAPTER VI.
RETURNS BY HANOVER; DOES NOT CALL ON HIS ROYAL
UNCLE THERE.
Freedrich spent ten days on his circuitous journey
home; considerable inspection to be done, in Minden,
Magdeburg, not to speak of other businesses he had.
The old Newspapers are still more intent upon him,
now that the Herstal Affair has broken into flame:
especially the English Newspapers; who guess that
there are passages of courtship going on between great
George their King and him. Here is one fact, correct
in every point, for the old London Public: "Letters
"from Hanover say, that the King of Prussia passed
"within a small distance of that City the 16th inst.
"n. s. , on his return to Berlin, but did not stop at
"Herrenhausen;" -- about which there has been such
hoping and speculating among us lately. * A fact
which the extinct Editor seems to meditate for a day
or two; after which he says (partly in italics), opening
his lips the second time, like a Friar Bacon's Head
significant to the Public: "Letters from Hanover tell
"us that the Interview, which it was said his Majesty
"was to have with the King of Prussia, did not take
"place, for certain private reasons, which our Cor-
respondent leaves us to guess at! "
It is well known Eriedrich did not love his little
* Daily Post, 22<J Sept. 1740; other London Newspapers from July 31st
downwards.
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? 122 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
16th Sept. 1740.
Uncle, then or thenceforth; still less his little Uncle
him: "What is this Prussia, rising alongside of us,
higher and higher, as if it would reach our own sublime
level! " thinks the little Uncle to himself. At present
there is no quarrel between them; on the contrary, as
we have seen, there is a mutual capability of helping
one another, which both recognise; but will an inter-
view tend to forward that useful result? Friedrich, in
the intervals of an ague, with Herstal just broken out,
may have wisely decided, No. "Our sublime little
Uncle, of the waxy complexion, with the proudly staring
fish-eyes, -- no wit in him, not much sense, and a
great deal of pride, -- stands dreadfully erect, 'plumb
and more,' with the Garter-leg advanced, when one
goes to see him; and his remarks are not of an enter-
taining nature. Leave him standing there: to him let
Truchsess and Bielfeld suffice, in these hurries, in this
ague that is still upon us. " Upon which the dull old
Newspapers, Owls of Minerva that then were, endeavour
to draw inferences. The noticeable fact is, Friedrich
did, on this occasion, pass within a mile or two of his
royal Uncle, without seeing him; and had not, through
life, another opportunity; never saw the sublime little
man at all, nor was again so near him.
I believe Friedrich little knows the thick-coming
difficulties of his Britannic Majesty at this juncture;
and is too impatient of these laggard procedures on the
part of a man with eyes a fleur-de-tete. Modern readers
too have forgotten Jenkins's Ear; it is not till after
long study and survey that one begins to perceive the
anomalous profundities of that phenomenon to the poor
English Nation and its poor George II.
The English sent off, last year, a scanty Expedition,
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 123
ICth Sept. 1740.
"six ships of the line," only six, under Vernon, a fiery-
Admiral , a little given to be fiery in Parliamentary
talk withal; and these did proceed to Porto-Bello on
the Spanish Main of South America; did hurl out on
Porto-Bello such a fiery destructive deluge, of gunnery
and bayonet-work, as quickly reduced the poor place
to the verge of ruin, and forced it to surrender with
whatever navy, garrison, goods and resources were in
it, to the discretion of fiery Vernon, -- who does not
prove implacable, he or his, to a petitioning enemy.
Yes, humble the insolent, but then be merciful to them,
say the admiring Gazetteers. "The actual monster,"
how cheering to think, "who tore off Mr. Jenkins's
"Ear, was got hold of" (actual monster, or even three
or four different monsters who each did it, the "hold
got" being mythical, as readers see), "and naturally
"thought he would be slit to ribbons; but our people
"magnanimously pardoned him, magnanimously flung
"him aside out of sight;"* impossible to shoot a dog
in cold blood.
Whereupon Vernon returned home triumphant; and
there burst forth such a jubilation, over the day of
small things, as is now astonishing to think of. Had
the Termagant's own Thalamus and Treasuiy been
bombarded suddenly one night by redhot balls, Madrid
City laid in ashes, or Baby Carlos's Apanage ex-
tinguished from Creation, there could hardly have been
greater English joy (witness the "Porto-Bellos" they
still have, new Towns so named); so flamy is the murky
element growing on that head. And indeed had the
cipher of tar-barrels burnt, and of ale-barrels drunk,
* Gentleman's Magazine, x. 124, 145 (date of the Event is 3d Dec. u. s.
1739).
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? 124 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [boOK XI.
16th Sept. 1740.
and the general account of wick and tallow spent in
illuminations and in aldermanic exertions on the matter,
been accurately taken, one doubts if Porto-Bello sold,
without shot fired, to the highest bidder, at its flowriest,
would have covered such a sum. For they are a singular
Nation, if stirred up from their stagnancy; and are
much in earnest about this Spanish War.
It is said there is now another far grander Expe-
dition on the stocks; military this time as well as
naval, intended for the Spanish Main; -- but of that,
for the present, we will defer speaking. Enough, the
Spanish War is a most serious and most furious busi-
ness to those old English; and, to us, after forced study
of it, shines out like far-off conflagration, with a certain
lurid significance in the then night of things. Night
otherwise fallen dark and somniferous to modern man-
kind. As Britannic Majesty and his Walpoles have,
from the first, been dead against this Spanish War, the
problem is all the more ominous, and the dreadful
corollaries that may hang by it the more distressing to
the royal mind.
For example, there is known, or as good as known,
to be virtually some Family Compact, or covenanted
Brotherhood of Bourbonism, French and Spanish: po-
litical people quake to ask themselves, "How will the
French keep out of this War, if it continue any length
of time? And in that case, how will Austria, Europe
at large? Jenkins's Ear will have kindled the Uni-
verse, not the Spanish Main only, and we shall be at
a fine pass! " The Britannic Majesty reflects that if
France take to fighting him, the first stab given will
probably be in the accessiblest quarter and the intensely
most sensitive, -- our own Electoral Dominions where
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 125
16th Sept. 1740.
no Parliament plagues us, our dear native country,
Hanover. Extremely interesting to know what Fried-
rich of Prussia will do in such contingency?
Well, truly it<<night have been King George's best
bargain to close with Friedrich; to guarantee Jiilich
and Berg, and get Friedrich to stand between the
French and Hanover; while George, with an England
behind him, in such humour, went wholly into that
Spanish Business, the one thing needful to them at
present. Truly; but then again, there are considera-
tions: "What is this Friedrich, just come out upon the
world? What real fighting power has he, after all that
ridiculous drilling and recruiting Friedrich Wilhelm
made? Will he be faithful in bargain; is not, perhaps,
from of old, his bias always toward France rather?
And the Kaiser, what will the Kaiser say to it? "
These are questions for a Britannic Majesty! Seldom
was seen such an insoluble imbroglio of potentialities;
dangerous to touch, dangerous to leave lying; -- and
bis Britannic Majesty's procedures upon it are of a
very slow intricate sort; and will grow still more so,
year after year, in the new intricacies that are coming
and be a weariness to my readers and me. For observe
the simultaneous fact. All this while, Robinson at
Vienna is dunning the Imperial Majesty to remember
old Marlborough days and the Laws of Nature; and
declare for us against France, in case of the worst.
What an attempt! Imperial Majesty has no money;
Imperial Majesty remembers recent days rather, and
his own last quarrel with France (on the Polish-Elec-
tion score), in which you Sea Powers cruelly stood
neuter! One comfort, and pretty much one only, is
left to a nearly bankrupt Imperial heart; that France
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? 126 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IX HAND. [book XI.
16th Sept. 1710.
does at any rate ratify Pragmatic Sanction, and in-
stead of enemy to that inestimable Document has be-
come friend, -- if only she be well let alone. "Let
well alone," says the sad Kaiser, bankrupt of heart as
well as purse: "I have saved the Pragmatic, got Fleury
to guarantee it; I will hunt wild swine and not shadows
any more: ask me not! " And now this Herstal busi-
ness; the Imperial Dehortatoriums, perhaps of a high
nature, that are like to come? More hopeless pro-
position the Britannic Majesty never made than this to
the Kaiser. But he persists in it, orders Robinson to
persist; knocks at the Austrian door with one hand, at
the Prussian or Anti-Austrian with the other; and
gazes, with those proud fish-eyes, into perils and po-
tentialities and a sea of troubles. Wearisome to think
of, were not one bound to it! Here, from a singular
Constitutional History of England, not yet got into
print, are two Excerpts; which I will request the reader
to try if he can take along with him, in view of much
that is coming:
1. A just War. -- "This War, which posterity scoffs at as
"the War for Jenkins's Ear, was, if we examine it, a quite in-
"dispensable one; the dim much-bewildered English, driven
"into it by their deepest instincts, were, in a chaotic inarticu-
"late way, right and not wrong in taking it as the Command-
"ment of Heaven. For such, in a sense, it was; as shall by
"and by appear. Not perhaps since the grand Reformation
"Controversy, under Oliver Cromwell and Elizabeth, had
"there, to this poor English People (who are essentially
"dumb, inarticulate, from the weight of meaning they have,
"notwithstanding the palaver one hears from them in certain
"epochs), been a more authentic cause of War. And, what
"was the fatal and yet foolish circumstance, their Constitu-
"tional Captains, especially their King, would never and
"could never regard it as such; but had to be forced into it by
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 127
16th Sept. 1740.
"the public rage, there being no other method left in the
"case.
"I say, a most necessary War, though of a most stupid
"appearance; such the fatality of it: -- Degun, carried on,
"ended, as if by a People in a state of somnambulism! More
"confused operation never was. A solid placid People,
"heavily asleep --(and snoring much, shall we say, and in-
"articulately grunting and struggling under indigestions,
"Constitutional and other? Do but listen to the hum of those
"extinct Pamphlets and Parliamentary Oratories of theirs! ),
"-- yet an honestly intending People; and keenly alive to any
"commandment from Heaven, that could pierce through the
"thick skin of them into their big obstinate heart. Such a
"commandment, then and there, was that monition about
"Jenkins's Ear. Upon which, so pungent was it to them,
"they smarted violently out of bed, into painful sleep-walk-
ing; and went, for twenty years and more, clambering and
"sprawling about, far and. wide, on the giddy edge of pre-
cipices, over housetops and frightful cornices and parapets;
"in a dim fulfilment of the said Heaven's command. I reckon
"that this War, though there were intervals, Treaties of
"Peace more than one, and the War had various names,--
"did not end till 1763. And then, by degrees, the poor
"English Nation found that (at, say, a thousand times the
"necessary expense, and with imminent peril to its poor
"head, and all the bones of its body) it had actually suc-
ceeded, -- by dreadful exertions in its sleep! This will be
"more apparent by and by; and may be a kind of comfort to
"the sad English reader, drearily surveying such somnam-
"bulisms on the part of his poor ancestors. "
2. Two Difficulties. -- "There are Two grand Difficulties
"in this Farce-Tragedy of a War; of which only one, and
"that not the worst of the Pair, is in the least surmised by the
"English hitherto. Difficulty First, which is even worse than
"the other, and will surprisingly attend the English in all
"their Wars now coming, is: That their fighting-apparatus,
"though made of excellent material, cannot fight, -- being in
"disorganic condition; one branch of it, especially the
"'Military' one, as they are pleased to call it, being as good
"as totally chaotic, and this in a quiet habitual manner, this
"long while back. With the Naval branch it is otherwise;
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? 128 FRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book xi.
16th Sept. 1740.
"which also is habitual there. The English almost as if b7
"nature can sail, andfight, in ships; cannot well help doin<*
"it.
Sailors innumerable are bred to them; they are planted
"in the Ocean, opulent stormy Neptune clipping them in all
"his moods forever: and then by nature, being a dumb, much-
"enduring, much-reflecting, stout, veracious and valiant
"kind of People, they shine in that way of life, which speci-
"ally requires such. Without more forethought, they have
"sailors innumerable, and of the best quality. The English
"have among them also, strange as it mayseem to the cursory
"observer, a great gift of organising; witness their Ark-
"wrights and others: and this gift they may often, in matters
"Naval more than elsewhere, get the chance of exercising.
"For a Ship's Crew, or even a Fleet, unlike a land Army, is
"of itself a unity, its fortunes disjoined, dependent on its
"own management; and it falls, moreover, as nolanjiArmy
"can, to the undivided guidance of one man, -- who (by
"hypothesis, being English), has now and then, from of old,
"chanced to be an organising man; and who is always much
"interested to know andpractise what^osbeen well organised.
"For you are in contact with verities, to an unexampled de-
"gree, when you get upon the Ocean, with intent to sail on
"it, much more to fight on it; -- bottomless destruction raging
"beneath you and on all hands of you, if you neglect, for any
"reason, the methods of keeping it down, and making it float
"you to your aim!
"The English Navy is in tolerable order at that period.
"But as to the English Army, -- we may say it is, in a wrong
"sense, the wonder of the world, and continues so throughout
"the whole of this History and farther! Never before, among
"the rational sons of Adam, were Armies sent out on such
"terms, -- namely without a General, or with no General
"understanding the least of his business. The English have
"a notion that Generalship is not wanted; that War is not an
"Art, as playing Chess is, as finding the Longitude, and
"doing the Differential Calculus are (and a much deeper Art
"than any of these); that War is taught by Nature, as eating
"is; that courageous soldiers, led on by a courageous Wooden
"Pole with Cocked-hat on it, will do very well. In the world
"I have not found opacity of platitude go deeper among any
"People. This is Difficulty First, -- not yet suspected by an
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? CHAP. VI. ] ROYAL UNCLE AT HANOVER. 129
20th--24th Sept. 1740.
"English People, capable of great opacity on some sub-
jects.
"Difficulty Second is. That their Ministry, whom they
"had to force into this War, perhaps do not go zealously
"upon it. And perhaps even, in the above circumstances,
"they totally want knowledge how to go upon it, were they
"never so zealous! Difficulty Second might be much helped,
"were it not for Difficulty First. But the administering of war
"is a thing also that does not come to a man like eating. --
"This Second Difficulty, suspicion that Walpole and perhaps
"still higher heads want zeal, gives his Britannic Majesty in-
"finite trouble; and" --
-- And so, in short, he stands there, with the Garter-
leg advanced, looking loftily into a considerable sea of
troubles, -- that day when Friedrich drove past him,
Friday 16th September 1740, and never came so near
him again.
The next business for Friedrich was a Visit at
Brunswick, to the Affinities and Kindred, in passing;
where also was an important little act to be done: Be-
trothal of the young Prince, August Wilhelm, Heir-
Presumptive whom we saw in Strasburg, to a Princess
of that House, Louisa Amelia, younger Sister of Fried-
rich's own Queen. A modest promising arrangement;
which turned out well enough, -- though the young
Prince, Father to the Kings that since are, was not
supremely fortunate otherwise. * After which, the
review at Magdeburg; and home on the 24th, there to
"be busy as a Turk or as a M. Jordan," -- according
to what we read long since.
* Betrothal was 20th September 1740; Marriage, 5th January 1742
(Bnchholz, i. 207).
Cailj/e, Frederick the Great. VI. 9
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? 130 FKIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
24th Sept. --25 Oct. 1740.
CHAPTER VII.
WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG, HOPING A PEACEABLE WINTER.
By this Herstal token, which is now blazing abroad,
now and for a month to come, it can be judged that
the young King of Prussia intends to stand on his own
footing, quite peremptorily if need be; and will by no
means have himself led about in Imperial harness, as
his late Father was. , So that a dull Public (Herren-
hausen very specially), and Gazetteer Owls of Minerva
everywhere, may expect events. All the more in-
dubitably, when that spade-work comes to light in the
Wesel Country. It is privately certain (the Gazetteers
not yet sure about it, till they see the actual spades
going), this new King does fully intend to assert his
rights on Berg-Julich; and will appear there with his
iron ramrods, the instant old Kur-Pfalz shall decease,
let France and the Kaiser say No to it or say Yes.
There are, in fact, at a fit place, "Buderich, in the
neighbourhood of Wesel," certain rampart-works, be-
ginnings as of an Entrenched Camp, going on; -- "for
Review purposes merely," say the Gazetteers, in italics.
Here, it privately is Friedrich's resolution, shall a
Prussian Army, of the due strength (could be well
nigh 100,000 strong if needful), make its appearance,
directly on old Kur-Pfalz's decease, if one live to see
such event. * France and the Kaiser will probably
take good survey of that Buderich phenomenon before
meddling.
* Stenzel, iv, 61.
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? CHAP. VII. ] WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG. 131
24th Sept. --25 Oct. 1740.
To do his work like a King, and shun no peril and
no toil in the course of what his work may be, is
Friedrich's rule and intention. Nevertheless it is clear
he expects to approve himself magnanimous rather in
the Peaceable operations than in the Warlike; and his
outlooks are, of all places and pursuits, towards
Reinsberg and the Fine Arts, for the time being. His
Public activity meanwhile they describe as "prodigious,"
though the ague still clings to him; such building, in-
stituting, managing: Opera-House, French Theatre,
Palace for his Mother; -- day by day; many things to
be recorded by Editor Formey, though the rule about
them here is silence except on cause.
No doubt the ague is itself privately a point of
moment. Such a vexatious paltry little thing, in this
bright whirl of Activities, Public and other, which he
continues managing in spite of it; impatient to be rid
of it. But it will not go: there it reappears always,
punctual to its "fourth day," -- like a snarling street-
dog, in the high Ball-room and Work-room. "He is
drinking Pyrmont water;" has himself proposed Quin-
quina, a remedy just come up, but the Doctors shook
their heads; has tried snatches of Reinsberg, too short;
he intends soon to be out there for a right spell of
country, there to be "happy," and get quit of his ague.
The ague went, -- and by a remedy which surprised
the whole world, as will be seen!
Wilhelmina's Return- Visit.
Monday, 17th Oct. , came the Baireuth Visitors;
Wilhelmina all in a flutter, and tremor of joy and sor-
row, to see her Brother again, her old kindred and the
9*
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? 132 FKIEDIilCH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [book XI.
24th Sept. -- 25th Oct. 1740.
altered scene of things. Poor Lady, she is perceptibly
more tremulous than usual; and her Narrative, not in
dates only, but in more memorable points, dances about
at a sad rate; interior agitations and tremulous shrill
feelings shivering her this way and that, and throwing
things topsy-turvy in one's recollection. Like the
magnetic needle, shaky but stedfast (agitee metis con-
st ante). Truer nothing can be, points forever to the
Pole; but also what obliquities it makes; will shiver
aside in mad escapades, if you hold the paltriest bit of
old iron near it, -- paltriest clack of gossip about this
loved Brother of mine! Brother, we will hope, silently
continues to be Pole, so that the needle always comes
back again; otherwise all would go to wreck. Here, in
abridged and partly rectified form, are the phenomena
witnessed:
"We arrived at Berlin the end of October" (Monday 17th,
as above said. ) "My younger Brothers, followed by the
'' Princes of the Blood and by all the Court, received us at the
"bottom of the stairs. I was led to my apartment, where I
"found the Reigning Queen, my Sisters" (Ulrique, Amelia),
"and the Princesses" (of the Blood, as above, Schwedt and
the rest). "I learned with much chagrin that the King was
"ill of tertian ague" (quartan; but that is no matter). "He
'' sent me word that, being in his fit, he could notseeme; but
"that he depended on having that pleasure to-morrow. The
"Queen Mother, to whom I went without delay, was in a dark
"condition; rooms all hung with their lugubrious drapery;
"everything yet in the depth of mourning for my Father.
'' What a scene for me! Nature has her rights; I can say with
"truth, I have almost never in my life been so moved as on
"this occasion. " Interview with Mamma, -- we can fancy
it, -- "was of the most touching. " Willielmina had been
absent eight years. She scarcely knows the young ones
ain, all so grown; -- finds change on change; and that
me, as he always is, has been busy. That night the Supper-
Party was exclusively a Family one.
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? CHAP. VII. ] WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG. 133
24th Sept. --25th Oct. 1740.
Her Brother's welcome to her ou the morrow, though
ardent enough, she found deficient in sincerity, deficient in
several points; as indeed a Brother up to the neck in business,
and just come out of an ague-fit, does |not appear to the best
advantage. Wilhelmina noticed how ill he looked, so lean
and broken-down (maigre et defait) within the last two months;
but seems to have taken no account of it farther, in striking
her balances with Friedrich. And indeed in her Narrative of
this Visit, not, we will hope, in the Visit itself, she must have
been in a high state of magnetic deflection, --pretty nearly
her maximum of such, discoverable in those famous Memoirs,
-- such a tumult is there in her statements, all gone to ground-
and-lofty tumbling in this place; so discrepant are the still
ascertainable facts from this topsy-turvy picture of them,
sketched by her four years hence (in 1744). The truest of
magnetic needles; but so sensitive, if you bring foreign iron
near it!
Wilhelmina was loaded with honours by an impartial
Berlin Public, thatis, Court-Public; "but, all being in
"mourning, the Court was not brilliant. The Queen Mother
"saw little company, and was sunk in sorrow; -- had not the
"least influence in affairs, so jealous was the new King of his
"Authority, -- to the Queen Mother's surprise, says
Wilhelmina. For the rest, here is a King "becoming
"truly unpopular" (or, we fancy so, in our deflected state,
and judging by the rumour of cliques); "a general dis-
content reigning in the Country, love of his subjects pretty
"much gone; people speaking of him in no measured
"terms" (in certain cliques). "Cares nothing about those
"who helped him as Prince Royal, say some; others complain
"of his avarice" (meaning steady vigilance in outlay) "as
"surpassing the late King's; this one complained of his
"violences of temper (emportemens); that one of his suspicions,
"of his distrust, his haughtinesses, his dissimulation" (mean-
ing polite impenetrability when he saw good). Several cir-
cumstances, known to Wilhelmina's own experience, compel
Wilhelmina's assent on those points. "I would have spoken
"to him about them, if my Brother of Prussia" (young
August Wilhelm, betrothed the other day) "and the Queen
"Regnant had not dissuaded me. Farther on I will give the
"explanation of all this," -- never did it anywhere. "I beg
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? 134 FEIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOK XI.
24th Sept. --25th Oct. 1740.
"those who may one day read these Memoirs, to suspend their
"judgment on the character of this great Prince till I have
"developed it. "* Oh my Princess, you are true and bright,
but you are shrill; and I admire the effect of atmospheric
electricity, not to say, of any neighbouring marine-store shop,
or miserable bit of broken pan, on one of the finest magnetic
needles ever made and set trembling!
Wilhelmina is incapable of deliberate falsehood;
and this her impression or reminiscence, with all its
exaggeration, is entitled to be heard in evidence so far.
From this, and from other sources, readers will assure
themselves that discontents were not wanting; that
King Friedrich was not amiable to everybody at this
time, -- which indeed he never grew to be at any
other time. He had to be a King; that was the trade
he followed, not the quite different one of being amiable
all round. Amiability is good, my Princess; but the
question rises, "To whom? -- for example, to the young
gentleman who shot himself in Lbbegun? " There are
young gentlemen and old, sometimes in considerable
quantities, to whom, if you were in your duty, as a
King of men (or even as a "King of one man and his
affairs," if that is all your kingdom), you should have
been hateful instead of amiable! That is a stern truth;
too much forgotten by Wilhelmina and others. Again,
what a deadening and killing circumstance is it in the
career of amiability, that you are bound not to be com-
municative of your inner man, but perpetually and
strictly the reverse! It may be doubted if a good
King can be amiable; certainly he cannot in any but
the noblest ages, and then only to a select few. I should
guess Friedrich was at no time fairly loved, not by
* Wilhelmina, ii. 326.
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? CHAP. VII. ] WITHDRAWS TO REINSBERG. 135
24ih Sept. --25th Oct. 1740.
those nearest to him. He was rapid, decisive; of wiry
compact nature; had nothing of his Father's amplitudes,
simplicities; nothing to sport with and fondle, far from
it. Tremulous sensibilities, ardent affections; these we
clearly discover in him, in extraordinary vivacity; but
he wears them under his polished panoply, and is out-
wardly a radiant but metallic object to mankind. Let
us carry this along with us in studying him; and thank
Wilhelmina for giving us hint of it in her oblique
way -- Wilhelmina's love for her Brother rose to
quite heroic pitch in coming years, and was at its
highest when she died. That continuation of her
Memoirs in which she is to develop her Brother's
character, was never written: it has been sought for,
in modern times; and a few insignificant pages, with
evidence that there is not, and was not, any more, are
all that has turned up. *
Incapable of falsity prepense, we say; but the known
facts, which stand abundantly on record if you care to
search them out, are merely as follows: Friedrich, with
such sincerity as there might be, did welcome Wilhel-
mina on the morrow of her arrival; spoke of Reins-
berg, and of air and rest, and how pleasant it would
be; rolled off next morning, having at last gathered up
his businesses, and got them well in hand, to Reins-
berg accordingly; whither Wilhelmina, with the Queen
Regnant and others of agreeable quality, followed in
two days; intending a long and pleasant spell of
country out there. Which hope was tolerably fulfilled,
even for Wilhelmina, though there did come unex-
pected interruptions, not of Friedrich's bringing.
* Pertz: L'ber die Denkwurdigkeiten der Markgrafm von Bat/reuift
(Paper read in the Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlin, 25th April 1850).
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? 136 PRIEDRICH TAKES THE REINS IN HAND. [bOOKXI.
'24th Sept. -- 25tU Oct. 1740.
