To the
Excellency
Grumkow (as above) in Berlin.
Thomas Carlyle
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl.
handle.
net/2027/hvd.
hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www.
hathitrust.
org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] DINES AT KAMMTN. . 179
4th Oct. 1731.
"a Duchy or two it would do very well. --Schulenburg: No
"Duchies possible under the Pragmatic Sanction, your High-
"ness: besides your change of religion? -- Prince: Oh, as to
"that, never! -- Then this marriage also comes to nothing.
"Of the English, and their Double-Marriage, and their
"Hotham brabble, he spoke lightly, as of an extinct matter,
"-- in terms your Excellency will like.
"But, said I, since you speak so much of marriages, I sup-
pose you wish to be married? -- Prince: No; but if the King
"absolutely will have it, I will marry to obey him. After
"that, I will shove my wife into the corner (planterai la ma
"femme), and live after my own fancy. -- Schulenburg: Hor-
"rible to think of! For, in the first place, your Highness, is
"it not written in the Law of God, Adulterers shall not in-
"herit the Kingdom of Heaven? " And in the second place;
and in the third and the fourth place! -- To all which he an-
swered as wild young fellows do, -- especially if you force
marriage on them. "I can perceive, if he marries, it will
"only be to have more liberty than now. It is certain, if he
"had his elbows free, he would strike out (s'en donnerait a
"gauche). He said to me several times: 'I am young; I want
"'to profit by my youth. '" A questionable young fellow,
Herr General; especially if you force marriage on him.
"This conversation done," continues the General, "he set
"to talking with the Madam Wreech," andher complexion of
lily and rose; "but he did not stay long; drove off about
"five" (dinner at the stroke of twelve in those countries), "in-
citing me to see him again at Ciistrin, which I promised. "
And so the Prince is off in the Autumn sunset,
driving down the peaty hollow of the Warta, through
unpicturesque country, which produces Wreechs and
incomparable flowers nevertheless. Yes; and if he look
12*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 180 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book Vin.
4th Oct. 1731.
a six miles to the right, there is the smoke of the
evening kettles from Zorndorf, rising into the sky; and
across the River, a twenty miles to the left, is Kuners-
dorf: poor sleepy sandy hamlets; where nettles of the
Devil are to be plucked one day! --
"The beautiful Wreech drove off to Tamsel," her fine
house: I to this wretched tavern; where, a couple of hours
after that conversation, I began writing it all down, and have
nothing else to do for the night. Your Excellency's most
moral, stiffnecked, pipeclayed, and extremely obedient,
'' VoN S CHU1ENBUBG. " *
This young man may be orthodox on Predestina-
tion, and outwardly growing all that a Papa could
wish; but here are strange heterodoxies, here is plenty
of mutinous capricious fire in the interior of him, Herr
General! In fact, a young man unfortunately situated;
already become solitary in Creation; has not, except
himself, a friend in the world available just now.
Tempestuous Papa storms one way, tempestuous Mamma
Nature another; and between the outside and the inside
there are inconsistencies enough.
Concerning the fair Wreech of Tamsel, with her
complexion of lily and rose, there ensued by and by
much whispering, and rumouring underbreath; which
has survived in the apocryphal Anecdote-Books, not in
too distinct a form. Here, from first hand, are three
words, which we may take to be the essence of the
whole. Grumkow reporting, in a sordid, occasionally
* FBrster, Hi. 65-71.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] DINES AT LANDSBERG. 181
19th Oct. 1731.
smutty spy-manner, to Jiis Seckendorf, from Berlin,
eight or ten months hence, has this casual expression:
"He" (King Friedrich Wilhelm) "told me in confidence
"that Wreech, the Colonel's Wife, is -- to P. R.
"(Prince-Royal); and that Wreech vowed he would
"not own it for his. And his Majesty in secret is
"rather pleased," adds the smutty spy. * Elsewhere I
have read that the poor object, which actually came
as anticipated (male or female, I forget), did not live
long; -- nor had Friedrich, by any opportunity,
another child in this world. Domestic Tamsel had to
allay itself as it best could; and the fair Wreech be-
came much a stranger to Friedrich, -- surprisingly so
to Friedrich the King, as perhaps we may see. --
Predestination, Gnadenwahl, Herr General: what is
orthodoxy on Predestination, with these accompani-
ments! ** We go now to the Second Letter and the
Third, -- from Landsberg about a fortnight later:
No. 2. To his Excellency (shovelful of titles) von Grumkow in
Berlin.
"Landsberg, 19th October 1781.
"The day before yesterday" (that is, Wednesday 17th
October) "I received an Order, To have only fifty Horse at
"that post, and" -- Order which shows us that there has
fallen out some recruiting squabble on the Polish Frontier
hereabouts; that the Polack gentlemen have seized certain
Corporals of ours, but are about restoring them; Order and
? Grumkow to Seckendorf, Berlin, 20th August 1732 (Fb'rster. iii 112).
? * For Wreech, see Benekendorf, v. 94. , for Schulenbarg, ib. 26; --
and Militair Lexikon, iii. 432 , 433, and Iv. 268 , 269. Vacant on the gos-
siping points; cautiously official, both these.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 182 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vm.
19th Oct. 1731.
affair which we shall omit. "Corporals will be got back:
"but as these Polack gentlemen will see, by the course taken,
"that we have no great stomach for biting, I fancy they will
"grow more insolent; then, 'ware who tries to recruit there
"for the future!
"On the same day I was apprised, from Custrin, That the
"Prince-Royal had resolved on an excursion to Carzig, and
"thence to theBailliage of Himmelstadt" (digging and stub-
bing now on foot at Himmelstadt too), "which is but a couple
"of miles* from this; that there would be a little hunt be-
"tween the two Bailliages; and that if I chose to come,
"I might, and the Prince would dine with me. "-- Which I
did; and so, here again, Thursday 18th October 1731, in
those remote Warta-Oder Countries, is a glimpse of his
Royal Highness at first hand. Schulenburg continues; not
even taking a new paragraph, which indeed he never does:
"They had shut up a couple of Spiesser (young roes), and
"some stags, in the old wreck of a Saugarten" (Boar-park, be-
tween Carzig and Himmelstadt; fast ruinirten Saugarten, he
calls it, daintily throwing-in a touch of German here): "the
"Prince shot one or two of them, and his companions the
"like; but it does not seem as if this amusement were much
"to his taste. He went on to Himmelstadt; and at noon he
"arrived here," in my poor Domicile at Landsberg.
"At one o'clock we went to table, and sat till four. He
"spoke only of very indifferent things; except saying to me:
'"Do you know, the King has promised 400,000 crowns
"'(60,000/. ) towards disengaging those Bailliages of the Mar-
"' graf of Baireuth's,"' -- old Margraf, Bailliages pawned to
raise ready cash; readers remember what interminable Law-
pleading there was, till Friedrich Wilhelm put it into a liquid
state, 'Pay me back the moneys, then ! '** -- "' 400,000 tha-
? "Demi-mille" German. *? Supri, vol. ill. pp. 226-228.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] DINES AT LANDSBERG. 183
19th Oct. 1731.
"'lers to the old Margraf, in case his Prince (Wilhelmina's
"'now Bridegroom) have a son by my Sister. ' I answered, I
"had heard nothing of it. -- 'But,' said he, 'that is a great
"'deal of money! And some hundred-thousands more have
"'gone the like road, toAnspach, who never will be able to
"'repay. For all is much in disorder at Anspach. Give the
"'Margraf his Heron-hunt (chasse au Mron), he cares for no-
"'thing; and his people pluck him at no allowance. ' I said:
"That if these Princes would regulate their expenditure, they
"might, little by little, pay off their debts; that I had been
"told at Vienna the Baireuth Bailliages were mortgaged on
"very low terms, those who now held them making eight or
"ten per-cent of their money;" -- that the Margraf ought to
make an effort; and so on. "I saw very well that these Loans
"the King makes are not to his mind.
"Directly on rising from table, he went away; excusing
"himself to me, That he could not pass the night here; that
"the King would not like his sleeping in the Town; besides
"that he had still several things to complete in a Report he
"was sending off to his Majesty. He went to Massin, and
"slept there. For my own share, I did not press him to re-
"main; what I did was rather in the way of form. There
"were with him President Munchow," civil gentleman whom
we know, "an Engineer CaptainReger, and the three Gen-
"tlemen of his Court," Wolden, Kohwedel, Natzmer who once
twirled his finger in a certain mouth, the insipid fellow.
"He is no great eater; but I observed he likes the small
"dishes (petils plats) and the high tastes: he does not care for
"fish; though I had very fine trouts, he never touched them.
"He does not take brown soup (soupe au bouillon). It did not
"seem to me he cared for wine: he tastes at all the wines;
"but commonly stands by burgundy with water.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 184 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book VIII.
19th Oct. 1731.
"I introduced to him all the Officers of my Regiment who
"are here; he received them in the style of a king" (en roi, plenty of quiet pride in him, Herr General). "It is certain he
"feels what he is born to; and if ever he get to it, will stand
"on the top of it. As to me, I mean to keep myself retired;
"and shall see of him as little as I can. I perceive well he
"does not like advice," especially when administered in the
way of preachment, by stiff old military gentlemen of the all-
wise stamp;--"and does not take pleasure except with people
inferior to him in mind. His first aim is to find out the ridi-
culous side of every one, and he loves to banter and quiz. It
"is a fault in a Prince: he ought to know people's faults, and
"not to make them known to anybody whatever,"-- which,
we perceive, is not quite the method with private gentlemen,
of the allwise type! --
"I speak to your Excellency as a friend; and assure you "he is a Prince who has talent, but who will be the slave of
"his passions (sefera dominerpar sespassions," -- not a felici-
tous prophecy, Herr General); "and will like nobody but
"such as encourage him therein. For me, I think all
"Princes are cast in the same mould; there is only a more
"and a less.
"At parting, he embraced me twice; and said: 'I am
"'sorry I cannot stay longer; but another time I will profit
"' better. ' Wolden" (one of the Three) "told me he could not
"describe how well-intentioned for your Excellency the
"Prince-Royal is" (cunning dog! ), "who says often to Wol-
"den" (doubtless guessing it will be re-said), "'If I cannot
"' show him my gratitude, I will his posterity:'" -- profoundly
obliged to the Grumkow kindred first and last! -- "Iremain
"your Excellency's" most pipeclayed
"Von ScHulenburg. "*
? Fb'rster, HI. 71-73.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] schulenburg's second letter. 185
22d Oct. 17S1.
And so, after survey of the spademen at Carzig and
Himmelstadt (where Colonel Wreech, by the way, is
Amts-Hauptmann, official Head Man), after shooting a
Spiesser or two, and dining and talking in this sort,
his Royal-Highness goes to sleep at Massin; and ends
one day of his then life. We proceed to Letter No. 3.
A day or two after No. 2, it would appear, his
Majesty, who is commonly at Wusterhausen hunting in
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 186 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vm.
22d Oct. 1731.
this season, has been rapidly out to Crossen, in these
Landsberg regions (to south, within a day's drive of
Landsberg), rapidly looking after something; Grumkow
and another Official attending him: -- other Official,
"Truchsess," is Truchsess von Waldburg, a worthy
soldier and gentleman of those parts, whom we shall
again hear of. In No. 3 there is mention likewise of
the "Kurfiirst of Koln," -- Elector of Cologne; languid
lanky gentleman of Bavarian breed, whom we saw last
year at Bonn, richest Pluralist of the Church; whom
doubtless our poor readers have forgotten again.
Mention of him; and also considerable sulky humour,
of the Majesty's-Opposition kind, on Schulenburg's part;
for which reason, and generally as a poor direct reflex
of time and place, -- reflex by ruffled bog-water,
through sedges, and in twilight; dim but indubitable,
-- we give the Letter, though the Prince is little
spoken of in it:
No. 3.
To the Excellency Grumkow (as above) in Berlin.
"Landsberg, 22d October (Monday) 1731.
"Monsieur, -- I trust your Excellency made your journey
"to Crossen with all the satisfaction imaginable. Had I been
"warned sooner, I would have come; not only to see the King,
"but for your Excellency's sake and Truchsess's: but I re-
ceived your Excellency's Letter only yesterday morning; so "I could not have arrived before yesternight, and that late;
"for it is fifty miles off, and one has to send relays beforehand;
"there being no posthorses on that road.
"We are, -- not to make comparisons, -- like Harlequin!
"No sooner out of one scrape, than we get into another; and
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] schulenburg's third letter. 187
22d Oct. 1731.
"all for the sake of those Big Blockheads (Vamour de ces
"grands colosses). What the Kurfiirst of Koln has done, in
"his character of Bishop of Osnabriick," -- a deed not known
to this Editor, but clearly in the way of snubbing our re-
cruiting system, -- "is too droll: but if we avenge ourselves,
"there will be high play, and plenty of it, all round our
"borders! If such things would make any impression on the
"spirit of our Master: but they do not; they" -- in short, this
recruiting system is delirious, thinks the stiff Schulenburg;
and scruples not to say so, though not in his place in Parlia-
ment , or even Tobacco-Parliament. For there is a Majesty's
Opposition in all lands and times. "We ruin the Country,"
says the Honourable Member, "sending annually millions of
"money out of it, for a set of vagabond fellows {gens a sac et
"acorde), who will never do us the least service. One sees
"clearly it is the hand of God," darkening some people's
understanding; "otherwise it might be possible their eyes
"would open, one time or another! " -- A stiff pipeclayed
gentleman of great wisdom, with plenty of sulphur burning
in the heart of him. The rest of his Letter is all in the Oppo-
sition strain (almost as if from his place in Parliament, only
far briefer than is usual "within these walls"); and winds up
with a glance at Victor Amadeus's strange feat, or rather at
the Son's feat done upon Victor, over in Sardinia; preceded
by this interjectionary sentence on a Prince nearer home:
"As to the Prince-Koyal, depend on it he will do whatever
"is required of him" (marry anybody you like&c), "if you
"give him more elbow-room, for that is whither he aims. --
"Not a bad stroke that, of the King of Sardinia" -- Grand
news of the day, at that time; now somewhat forgotten, and
requiring a word from us:
Old King Victor Amadeus of Sardinia had solemnly
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 188 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [BOOKVm
23d Oct 173].
abdicated in favour of his Son; went, for a twelvemonth
or more, into private felicity with an elderly Lady-
love whom he had long esteemed the first of women;
-- tired of such felicity, after a twelvemonth; demanded
his crown back, and could not get it! Lady-love and
he are taken prisoners; lodged in separate castles:*
and the wrath of the proud old gentleman is Olympian
in character, -- split an oak table, smiting it while he
spoke (say the cicerones); -- and his silence, and the
fiery daggers he looks, are still more emphatic. But
the young fellow holds out; you cannot play handy-
dandy with a king's crown, your Majesty! say his new
Ministers. Is and will continue King. "Not a bad
stroke of him," thinks Schulenburg, --
-- "especially if his Father meant to play him the same trick,"
that is, clap him in prison. Not a bad stroke; -- which per-
haps there is another that could imitate, "if his Papa gave
"him the opportunity! But this Papa will take good care;
"and the Queen will not forget the Sardinian business,
"when he talks again of abdicating," as he does when in ill
humour. --
"But now had not we better have been friends with Eng-
land, should war rise upon that Sardinian business? General
"Schulenburg," -- the famed Venetian Fieldmarshal, bruiser
of the Turks in Candia,** my honoured Uncle, who sometimes -
* 2d September 1730, abdicated, went to Chamber? ; reclaims, is locked
in Blvoll, 8th October 1731 (news of it just come to Schulenburg); dies
there, 31st October 1732, his 67th year.
*? Same who was beaten by Charles XII. before; a worthy soldier
nevertheless, say the Authorities: Lift of him by Varnhagen von Ease
(Biographitche Denkmale, Berlin, 1845).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] schulenburg's third letter. 189
22(1 Oct. 1731.
used to visit his Sister the Maypole, now Emerita, in Lon-
don, and sip beer and take tobacco on an evening, with
George I. of famous memory, --he also "writes me this Victor-
"Amadeusnews, from Paris;" so that it is certain; Ex-King
locked in Kivoli near a fortnight ago: "he, General Schulen-
"burg, says farther, To judge by the outside, all appears
" very quiet; but many think, at the bottom of the bag it will
"not be the same. " --
"lam, with respect," your Excellency's much in buckram,
"Le Comte de Schoulenboubg. " *
So far Lieutenant-General Schulenburg; whom we
thank for these contemporary glimpses of a young man
that has become historical, and of the scene he lived
in. And with these three accidental utterances, as if
they (which are alone left) had been the sum of all he
said in the world, let the Lieutenant-General withdraw
now into silence: he will turn up twice again, after
half-a-score of years, once in a nobler than talking
attitude, the close-harnessed, stalwart, slightly atrabiliar
military gentleman of the old Prussian school.
These glimpses of the Crown-Prince, reflected on
us in this manner, are not very luculent to the reader, -- light being indifferent, and mirror none of the best: -- but some features do gleam forth, good and not so
good; which, with others coming, may gradually coalesce
into something conceivable. A Prince clearly of much
spirit, and not without petulance; abundant fire, much
of it shining and burning irregularly at present; being
sore held down from without, and anomalously situated.
* Fb'rster, Hi. 73-75.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 190 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book Vm.
Oct. 1731.
Pride enough, thinks Schulenburg, capricious petulance
enough, -- likely to go into "a reign of the passions,"
if we live. As will be seen! --
Wilhelmina was betrothed in June last: Wilhelmina,
a Bride these six months, continues to be much tor-
mented by Mamma. But the Bridegroom, Prince of
Baireuth, is gradually recommending himself to persons
of judgment, to Wilhelmina among others. One day
he narrowly missed an unheard-of accident: a foolish
servant, at some boar-hunt, gave him a loaded piece on
the half-cock; half-cock slipped in the handling; bullet
grazed his Majesty's very temple, was felt twitching
the hair there: -- ye Heavens! Whereupon imperti-
nent remarks from some of the Dessau people (allies of
Schwedt and the Margravine in high colours); which
were well answered by the Prince, and noiselessly but
severely checked by a well-bred King. * King has
given the Prince of Baireuth a regiment; and likes him
tolerably, though the young man will not always drink
as could be wished. Wedding, in spite of clouds from
her Majesty, is coming steadily on.
His Majesty's Building Operations.
"This year," says Fassmann, "the building opera-
"tions both in Berlin and Stettin," -- in Stettin where
new fortifications are completed, in Berlin where gra-
dually whole new quarters are getting built, -- "were
? Wilhelmina, i. 356.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] majesty's building operations. 191
Oct. 1731.
"exceedingly pushed forward (ausserst poussirt). " Alas,
yes; this too is a questionable memorable feature of
his Majesty's reign. Late Majesty, old King Fried-
rich L, wishful, as others had been, for the growth of
Berlin, laid out a new Quarter, and called it Friedrichs
Stadt; -- scraggy boggy ground, planned out into
streets, Friedrichs Strasse the chief street, with here and
there a house standing lonesomely prophetic on it.
But it is this present Majesty, Friedrich Wilhelm, that
gets the plan executed, and the Friedrichs Strasse ac-
tually built, not always in the soft or spontaneous
manner. Friedrich Wilhelm was the iEdile of his
Country, as well as the Drill-sergeant; Berlin City did
not rise of its own accord, or on the principle of leave-
alone, any more than the Prussian Army itself. Wreck
and rubbish Friedrich Wilhelm will not leave alone, in
any kind; but is intent by all chances to sweep them
from the face of the Earth, that something useful,
seemly to the Royal mind, may stand there instead.
Hence these building-operations in the Friedrich Street
and elsewhere, so "exceedingly pushed forward. "
The number of scraggy waste places he swept clear,
first and last, and built tight human dwellings upon, is
almost uncountable. A common gift from him (as from
his Son after him) to a man in favour, was that of a
new good House, -- an excellent gift. Or if the man
is himself able to build, Majesty will help him, incite
him: "Timber enough is in the royal forests; stone,
lime are in the royal quarries; scraggy waste is abun-
dant: why should any man, of the least industry or
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 192 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vin.
Oct. 1781.
private capital, live in a bad house? " By degrees,
the pressure of his Majesty upon private men to build
with encouragement became considerable, became ex-
cessive, irresistible; and was much complained of, in
these years now come. Old Colonel Derschau is the
King's Agent, at Berlin, in this matter; a hard stiff
man; squeezes men, all manner of men with the least
capital, till they build.
Niissler, for example, whom we once saw at Ha- 1nover, managing a certain contested Heritage for Fried-
rich Wilhelm; adroit Niissler, though he has yet got no
fixed appointment, nor pay except by the job, is urged
to build; -- second year hence, 1733, occurs the case
of Niissler, and is copiously dwelt upon by Biisching
his biographer: "Build yourself a house in the Fried richs Strasse! " urges Derschau. "But I have no pay,
no capital! " pleads Niissler. -- "Tush, your Father-in-
law, abstruse Kanzler von Ludwig, in Halle University,
monster of law-learning there, is not he a monster of
hoarded moneys withal? He will lend you, for his own
and his Daughter's sake. * Or shall his Majesty compel
him? " urges Derschau. And slowly, continually turns
the screw upon Niissler, till he too raises for himself a
firm good house in the Friedrichs Stadt, -- Friedrichs
Strasse, or Street, as they now call it, which the Tourist
of these days knows. Substantial clear ashlar Street,
miles or half-miles long; straight as a line: -- Friedrich
Wilhelm found it scrag and quagmire; and left it what
the Tourist sees, by these hard methods. Thus Herr
* BUaching: BeitrSge, i. 324.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chap, v. ] majesty's building operations. 193
Oct. 1781.
Privy-Councillor Klinggraf too, Niissler's next neigh-
bour: he did not want to build; far from it; but was
obliged, on worse terms than Nussler. You have such
work, founding your house; -- for the Nussler-Kling-
graf spot was a fish-pool, and "carps were dug up" in
founding; -- such piles, bound platform of solid beams;
"4,000 thalers gone before the first stone is laid:" and
in fact, the house must be built honestly, or it will be
worse for the house and you. "Cost me 12,000thalers
(1,800/. ) in all, and is worth perhaps 2,000! " sorrow-
fully ejaculates Nussler, when the job is over. Still
worse with Privy-Councillor Klinggraf: his house, the
next to Niissler's, is worth mere nothing to him when
built; a soap-boiler offers him 800 thalers (120Z. ) for
it; and Niissler, to avoid suffocation, purchases it him-
self of Klinggraf for that sum. Derschau, with his
slow screw-machinery, is very formidable; -- and Biisch-
ing knows it for a fact, "that respectable Berlin persons
"used to run out of the way of Biirgermeister Koch
"and him, when either of them turned up on the
"streets! "
These things were heavy to bear. Truly, yes:
where is the liberty of private capital, or liberty of al-
most any kind, on those terms? Liberty to annihilate
rubbish and chaos, under known conditions, you may
have; but not the least liberty to keep them about you,
though never so fond of doing it! What shall we say?
Nussler and the Soapboiler do both live in houses more
human than they once had. Berlin itself, and some
other things, did not spring from Free-trade. Berlin
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. IV. 13
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 194 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book Vm
Oct. 1731.
City would, to this day, have been a Place of Scrubs
("the Berlin" a mere appellative noun to that effect),
had Free-trade always been the rule there. I am sorry
his Majesty transgresses the limits; -- and we, my
friends, if we can make our Chaos into Cosmos by
firing Parliamentary eloquence into it, and bombarding
it with Blue-Books, we will much triumph over his
Majesty, one day! --
Thus are the building operations exceedingly pushed
forward, the Ear of Jenkins torn off, and Victor Ama-
deus locked in ward, while our Crown-Prince, in the
eclipsed state, is inspected by a Sage in pipeclay, and
Wilhelmina's wedding is coming on.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? cHap, vi. ] wilhelmina's wedding. 195
20th Nov. 1731.
CHAPTER VI.
wilhelmina's wedding.
Tuesday, 20th November 1731, Wilhelmina's
wedding-day arrived, after a brideship of eight months;
and that young Lady's troublesome romance, more hap-
pily than might have been expected, did at last wind
itself up. Mamma's unreasonable humours continued,
more or less; but these also must now end. Old wooers
and outlooks, "the four or three crowned heads," --
they lie far over the horizon; faded out of one's very
thoughts, all these.
? CHAP, v. ] DINES AT KAMMTN. . 179
4th Oct. 1731.
"a Duchy or two it would do very well. --Schulenburg: No
"Duchies possible under the Pragmatic Sanction, your High-
"ness: besides your change of religion? -- Prince: Oh, as to
"that, never! -- Then this marriage also comes to nothing.
"Of the English, and their Double-Marriage, and their
"Hotham brabble, he spoke lightly, as of an extinct matter,
"-- in terms your Excellency will like.
"But, said I, since you speak so much of marriages, I sup-
pose you wish to be married? -- Prince: No; but if the King
"absolutely will have it, I will marry to obey him. After
"that, I will shove my wife into the corner (planterai la ma
"femme), and live after my own fancy. -- Schulenburg: Hor-
"rible to think of! For, in the first place, your Highness, is
"it not written in the Law of God, Adulterers shall not in-
"herit the Kingdom of Heaven? " And in the second place;
and in the third and the fourth place! -- To all which he an-
swered as wild young fellows do, -- especially if you force
marriage on them. "I can perceive, if he marries, it will
"only be to have more liberty than now. It is certain, if he
"had his elbows free, he would strike out (s'en donnerait a
"gauche). He said to me several times: 'I am young; I want
"'to profit by my youth. '" A questionable young fellow,
Herr General; especially if you force marriage on him.
"This conversation done," continues the General, "he set
"to talking with the Madam Wreech," andher complexion of
lily and rose; "but he did not stay long; drove off about
"five" (dinner at the stroke of twelve in those countries), "in-
citing me to see him again at Ciistrin, which I promised. "
And so the Prince is off in the Autumn sunset,
driving down the peaty hollow of the Warta, through
unpicturesque country, which produces Wreechs and
incomparable flowers nevertheless. Yes; and if he look
12*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 180 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book Vin.
4th Oct. 1731.
a six miles to the right, there is the smoke of the
evening kettles from Zorndorf, rising into the sky; and
across the River, a twenty miles to the left, is Kuners-
dorf: poor sleepy sandy hamlets; where nettles of the
Devil are to be plucked one day! --
"The beautiful Wreech drove off to Tamsel," her fine
house: I to this wretched tavern; where, a couple of hours
after that conversation, I began writing it all down, and have
nothing else to do for the night. Your Excellency's most
moral, stiffnecked, pipeclayed, and extremely obedient,
'' VoN S CHU1ENBUBG. " *
This young man may be orthodox on Predestina-
tion, and outwardly growing all that a Papa could
wish; but here are strange heterodoxies, here is plenty
of mutinous capricious fire in the interior of him, Herr
General! In fact, a young man unfortunately situated;
already become solitary in Creation; has not, except
himself, a friend in the world available just now.
Tempestuous Papa storms one way, tempestuous Mamma
Nature another; and between the outside and the inside
there are inconsistencies enough.
Concerning the fair Wreech of Tamsel, with her
complexion of lily and rose, there ensued by and by
much whispering, and rumouring underbreath; which
has survived in the apocryphal Anecdote-Books, not in
too distinct a form. Here, from first hand, are three
words, which we may take to be the essence of the
whole. Grumkow reporting, in a sordid, occasionally
* FBrster, Hi. 65-71.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] DINES AT LANDSBERG. 181
19th Oct. 1731.
smutty spy-manner, to Jiis Seckendorf, from Berlin,
eight or ten months hence, has this casual expression:
"He" (King Friedrich Wilhelm) "told me in confidence
"that Wreech, the Colonel's Wife, is -- to P. R.
"(Prince-Royal); and that Wreech vowed he would
"not own it for his. And his Majesty in secret is
"rather pleased," adds the smutty spy. * Elsewhere I
have read that the poor object, which actually came
as anticipated (male or female, I forget), did not live
long; -- nor had Friedrich, by any opportunity,
another child in this world. Domestic Tamsel had to
allay itself as it best could; and the fair Wreech be-
came much a stranger to Friedrich, -- surprisingly so
to Friedrich the King, as perhaps we may see. --
Predestination, Gnadenwahl, Herr General: what is
orthodoxy on Predestination, with these accompani-
ments! ** We go now to the Second Letter and the
Third, -- from Landsberg about a fortnight later:
No. 2. To his Excellency (shovelful of titles) von Grumkow in
Berlin.
"Landsberg, 19th October 1781.
"The day before yesterday" (that is, Wednesday 17th
October) "I received an Order, To have only fifty Horse at
"that post, and" -- Order which shows us that there has
fallen out some recruiting squabble on the Polish Frontier
hereabouts; that the Polack gentlemen have seized certain
Corporals of ours, but are about restoring them; Order and
? Grumkow to Seckendorf, Berlin, 20th August 1732 (Fb'rster. iii 112).
? * For Wreech, see Benekendorf, v. 94. , for Schulenbarg, ib. 26; --
and Militair Lexikon, iii. 432 , 433, and Iv. 268 , 269. Vacant on the gos-
siping points; cautiously official, both these.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 182 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vm.
19th Oct. 1731.
affair which we shall omit. "Corporals will be got back:
"but as these Polack gentlemen will see, by the course taken,
"that we have no great stomach for biting, I fancy they will
"grow more insolent; then, 'ware who tries to recruit there
"for the future!
"On the same day I was apprised, from Custrin, That the
"Prince-Royal had resolved on an excursion to Carzig, and
"thence to theBailliage of Himmelstadt" (digging and stub-
bing now on foot at Himmelstadt too), "which is but a couple
"of miles* from this; that there would be a little hunt be-
"tween the two Bailliages; and that if I chose to come,
"I might, and the Prince would dine with me. "-- Which I
did; and so, here again, Thursday 18th October 1731, in
those remote Warta-Oder Countries, is a glimpse of his
Royal Highness at first hand. Schulenburg continues; not
even taking a new paragraph, which indeed he never does:
"They had shut up a couple of Spiesser (young roes), and
"some stags, in the old wreck of a Saugarten" (Boar-park, be-
tween Carzig and Himmelstadt; fast ruinirten Saugarten, he
calls it, daintily throwing-in a touch of German here): "the
"Prince shot one or two of them, and his companions the
"like; but it does not seem as if this amusement were much
"to his taste. He went on to Himmelstadt; and at noon he
"arrived here," in my poor Domicile at Landsberg.
"At one o'clock we went to table, and sat till four. He
"spoke only of very indifferent things; except saying to me:
'"Do you know, the King has promised 400,000 crowns
"'(60,000/. ) towards disengaging those Bailliages of the Mar-
"' graf of Baireuth's,"' -- old Margraf, Bailliages pawned to
raise ready cash; readers remember what interminable Law-
pleading there was, till Friedrich Wilhelm put it into a liquid
state, 'Pay me back the moneys, then ! '** -- "' 400,000 tha-
? "Demi-mille" German. *? Supri, vol. ill. pp. 226-228.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] DINES AT LANDSBERG. 183
19th Oct. 1731.
"'lers to the old Margraf, in case his Prince (Wilhelmina's
"'now Bridegroom) have a son by my Sister. ' I answered, I
"had heard nothing of it. -- 'But,' said he, 'that is a great
"'deal of money! And some hundred-thousands more have
"'gone the like road, toAnspach, who never will be able to
"'repay. For all is much in disorder at Anspach. Give the
"'Margraf his Heron-hunt (chasse au Mron), he cares for no-
"'thing; and his people pluck him at no allowance. ' I said:
"That if these Princes would regulate their expenditure, they
"might, little by little, pay off their debts; that I had been
"told at Vienna the Baireuth Bailliages were mortgaged on
"very low terms, those who now held them making eight or
"ten per-cent of their money;" -- that the Margraf ought to
make an effort; and so on. "I saw very well that these Loans
"the King makes are not to his mind.
"Directly on rising from table, he went away; excusing
"himself to me, That he could not pass the night here; that
"the King would not like his sleeping in the Town; besides
"that he had still several things to complete in a Report he
"was sending off to his Majesty. He went to Massin, and
"slept there. For my own share, I did not press him to re-
"main; what I did was rather in the way of form. There
"were with him President Munchow," civil gentleman whom
we know, "an Engineer CaptainReger, and the three Gen-
"tlemen of his Court," Wolden, Kohwedel, Natzmer who once
twirled his finger in a certain mouth, the insipid fellow.
"He is no great eater; but I observed he likes the small
"dishes (petils plats) and the high tastes: he does not care for
"fish; though I had very fine trouts, he never touched them.
"He does not take brown soup (soupe au bouillon). It did not
"seem to me he cared for wine: he tastes at all the wines;
"but commonly stands by burgundy with water.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 184 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book VIII.
19th Oct. 1731.
"I introduced to him all the Officers of my Regiment who
"are here; he received them in the style of a king" (en roi, plenty of quiet pride in him, Herr General). "It is certain he
"feels what he is born to; and if ever he get to it, will stand
"on the top of it. As to me, I mean to keep myself retired;
"and shall see of him as little as I can. I perceive well he
"does not like advice," especially when administered in the
way of preachment, by stiff old military gentlemen of the all-
wise stamp;--"and does not take pleasure except with people
inferior to him in mind. His first aim is to find out the ridi-
culous side of every one, and he loves to banter and quiz. It
"is a fault in a Prince: he ought to know people's faults, and
"not to make them known to anybody whatever,"-- which,
we perceive, is not quite the method with private gentlemen,
of the allwise type! --
"I speak to your Excellency as a friend; and assure you "he is a Prince who has talent, but who will be the slave of
"his passions (sefera dominerpar sespassions," -- not a felici-
tous prophecy, Herr General); "and will like nobody but
"such as encourage him therein. For me, I think all
"Princes are cast in the same mould; there is only a more
"and a less.
"At parting, he embraced me twice; and said: 'I am
"'sorry I cannot stay longer; but another time I will profit
"' better. ' Wolden" (one of the Three) "told me he could not
"describe how well-intentioned for your Excellency the
"Prince-Royal is" (cunning dog! ), "who says often to Wol-
"den" (doubtless guessing it will be re-said), "'If I cannot
"' show him my gratitude, I will his posterity:'" -- profoundly
obliged to the Grumkow kindred first and last! -- "Iremain
"your Excellency's" most pipeclayed
"Von ScHulenburg. "*
? Fb'rster, HI. 71-73.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] schulenburg's second letter. 185
22d Oct. 17S1.
And so, after survey of the spademen at Carzig and
Himmelstadt (where Colonel Wreech, by the way, is
Amts-Hauptmann, official Head Man), after shooting a
Spiesser or two, and dining and talking in this sort,
his Royal-Highness goes to sleep at Massin; and ends
one day of his then life. We proceed to Letter No. 3.
A day or two after No. 2, it would appear, his
Majesty, who is commonly at Wusterhausen hunting in
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 186 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vm.
22d Oct. 1731.
this season, has been rapidly out to Crossen, in these
Landsberg regions (to south, within a day's drive of
Landsberg), rapidly looking after something; Grumkow
and another Official attending him: -- other Official,
"Truchsess," is Truchsess von Waldburg, a worthy
soldier and gentleman of those parts, whom we shall
again hear of. In No. 3 there is mention likewise of
the "Kurfiirst of Koln," -- Elector of Cologne; languid
lanky gentleman of Bavarian breed, whom we saw last
year at Bonn, richest Pluralist of the Church; whom
doubtless our poor readers have forgotten again.
Mention of him; and also considerable sulky humour,
of the Majesty's-Opposition kind, on Schulenburg's part;
for which reason, and generally as a poor direct reflex
of time and place, -- reflex by ruffled bog-water,
through sedges, and in twilight; dim but indubitable,
-- we give the Letter, though the Prince is little
spoken of in it:
No. 3.
To the Excellency Grumkow (as above) in Berlin.
"Landsberg, 22d October (Monday) 1731.
"Monsieur, -- I trust your Excellency made your journey
"to Crossen with all the satisfaction imaginable. Had I been
"warned sooner, I would have come; not only to see the King,
"but for your Excellency's sake and Truchsess's: but I re-
ceived your Excellency's Letter only yesterday morning; so "I could not have arrived before yesternight, and that late;
"for it is fifty miles off, and one has to send relays beforehand;
"there being no posthorses on that road.
"We are, -- not to make comparisons, -- like Harlequin!
"No sooner out of one scrape, than we get into another; and
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] schulenburg's third letter. 187
22d Oct. 1731.
"all for the sake of those Big Blockheads (Vamour de ces
"grands colosses). What the Kurfiirst of Koln has done, in
"his character of Bishop of Osnabriick," -- a deed not known
to this Editor, but clearly in the way of snubbing our re-
cruiting system, -- "is too droll: but if we avenge ourselves,
"there will be high play, and plenty of it, all round our
"borders! If such things would make any impression on the
"spirit of our Master: but they do not; they" -- in short, this
recruiting system is delirious, thinks the stiff Schulenburg;
and scruples not to say so, though not in his place in Parlia-
ment , or even Tobacco-Parliament. For there is a Majesty's
Opposition in all lands and times. "We ruin the Country,"
says the Honourable Member, "sending annually millions of
"money out of it, for a set of vagabond fellows {gens a sac et
"acorde), who will never do us the least service. One sees
"clearly it is the hand of God," darkening some people's
understanding; "otherwise it might be possible their eyes
"would open, one time or another! " -- A stiff pipeclayed
gentleman of great wisdom, with plenty of sulphur burning
in the heart of him. The rest of his Letter is all in the Oppo-
sition strain (almost as if from his place in Parliament, only
far briefer than is usual "within these walls"); and winds up
with a glance at Victor Amadeus's strange feat, or rather at
the Son's feat done upon Victor, over in Sardinia; preceded
by this interjectionary sentence on a Prince nearer home:
"As to the Prince-Koyal, depend on it he will do whatever
"is required of him" (marry anybody you like&c), "if you
"give him more elbow-room, for that is whither he aims. --
"Not a bad stroke that, of the King of Sardinia" -- Grand
news of the day, at that time; now somewhat forgotten, and
requiring a word from us:
Old King Victor Amadeus of Sardinia had solemnly
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 188 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [BOOKVm
23d Oct 173].
abdicated in favour of his Son; went, for a twelvemonth
or more, into private felicity with an elderly Lady-
love whom he had long esteemed the first of women;
-- tired of such felicity, after a twelvemonth; demanded
his crown back, and could not get it! Lady-love and
he are taken prisoners; lodged in separate castles:*
and the wrath of the proud old gentleman is Olympian
in character, -- split an oak table, smiting it while he
spoke (say the cicerones); -- and his silence, and the
fiery daggers he looks, are still more emphatic. But
the young fellow holds out; you cannot play handy-
dandy with a king's crown, your Majesty! say his new
Ministers. Is and will continue King. "Not a bad
stroke of him," thinks Schulenburg, --
-- "especially if his Father meant to play him the same trick,"
that is, clap him in prison. Not a bad stroke; -- which per-
haps there is another that could imitate, "if his Papa gave
"him the opportunity! But this Papa will take good care;
"and the Queen will not forget the Sardinian business,
"when he talks again of abdicating," as he does when in ill
humour. --
"But now had not we better have been friends with Eng-
land, should war rise upon that Sardinian business? General
"Schulenburg," -- the famed Venetian Fieldmarshal, bruiser
of the Turks in Candia,** my honoured Uncle, who sometimes -
* 2d September 1730, abdicated, went to Chamber? ; reclaims, is locked
in Blvoll, 8th October 1731 (news of it just come to Schulenburg); dies
there, 31st October 1732, his 67th year.
*? Same who was beaten by Charles XII. before; a worthy soldier
nevertheless, say the Authorities: Lift of him by Varnhagen von Ease
(Biographitche Denkmale, Berlin, 1845).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] schulenburg's third letter. 189
22(1 Oct. 1731.
used to visit his Sister the Maypole, now Emerita, in Lon-
don, and sip beer and take tobacco on an evening, with
George I. of famous memory, --he also "writes me this Victor-
"Amadeusnews, from Paris;" so that it is certain; Ex-King
locked in Kivoli near a fortnight ago: "he, General Schulen-
"burg, says farther, To judge by the outside, all appears
" very quiet; but many think, at the bottom of the bag it will
"not be the same. " --
"lam, with respect," your Excellency's much in buckram,
"Le Comte de Schoulenboubg. " *
So far Lieutenant-General Schulenburg; whom we
thank for these contemporary glimpses of a young man
that has become historical, and of the scene he lived
in. And with these three accidental utterances, as if
they (which are alone left) had been the sum of all he
said in the world, let the Lieutenant-General withdraw
now into silence: he will turn up twice again, after
half-a-score of years, once in a nobler than talking
attitude, the close-harnessed, stalwart, slightly atrabiliar
military gentleman of the old Prussian school.
These glimpses of the Crown-Prince, reflected on
us in this manner, are not very luculent to the reader, -- light being indifferent, and mirror none of the best: -- but some features do gleam forth, good and not so
good; which, with others coming, may gradually coalesce
into something conceivable. A Prince clearly of much
spirit, and not without petulance; abundant fire, much
of it shining and burning irregularly at present; being
sore held down from without, and anomalously situated.
* Fb'rster, Hi. 73-75.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 190 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book Vm.
Oct. 1731.
Pride enough, thinks Schulenburg, capricious petulance
enough, -- likely to go into "a reign of the passions,"
if we live. As will be seen! --
Wilhelmina was betrothed in June last: Wilhelmina,
a Bride these six months, continues to be much tor-
mented by Mamma. But the Bridegroom, Prince of
Baireuth, is gradually recommending himself to persons
of judgment, to Wilhelmina among others. One day
he narrowly missed an unheard-of accident: a foolish
servant, at some boar-hunt, gave him a loaded piece on
the half-cock; half-cock slipped in the handling; bullet
grazed his Majesty's very temple, was felt twitching
the hair there: -- ye Heavens! Whereupon imperti-
nent remarks from some of the Dessau people (allies of
Schwedt and the Margravine in high colours); which
were well answered by the Prince, and noiselessly but
severely checked by a well-bred King. * King has
given the Prince of Baireuth a regiment; and likes him
tolerably, though the young man will not always drink
as could be wished. Wedding, in spite of clouds from
her Majesty, is coming steadily on.
His Majesty's Building Operations.
"This year," says Fassmann, "the building opera-
"tions both in Berlin and Stettin," -- in Stettin where
new fortifications are completed, in Berlin where gra-
dually whole new quarters are getting built, -- "were
? Wilhelmina, i. 356.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP, v. ] majesty's building operations. 191
Oct. 1731.
"exceedingly pushed forward (ausserst poussirt). " Alas,
yes; this too is a questionable memorable feature of
his Majesty's reign. Late Majesty, old King Fried-
rich L, wishful, as others had been, for the growth of
Berlin, laid out a new Quarter, and called it Friedrichs
Stadt; -- scraggy boggy ground, planned out into
streets, Friedrichs Strasse the chief street, with here and
there a house standing lonesomely prophetic on it.
But it is this present Majesty, Friedrich Wilhelm, that
gets the plan executed, and the Friedrichs Strasse ac-
tually built, not always in the soft or spontaneous
manner. Friedrich Wilhelm was the iEdile of his
Country, as well as the Drill-sergeant; Berlin City did
not rise of its own accord, or on the principle of leave-
alone, any more than the Prussian Army itself. Wreck
and rubbish Friedrich Wilhelm will not leave alone, in
any kind; but is intent by all chances to sweep them
from the face of the Earth, that something useful,
seemly to the Royal mind, may stand there instead.
Hence these building-operations in the Friedrich Street
and elsewhere, so "exceedingly pushed forward. "
The number of scraggy waste places he swept clear,
first and last, and built tight human dwellings upon, is
almost uncountable. A common gift from him (as from
his Son after him) to a man in favour, was that of a
new good House, -- an excellent gift. Or if the man
is himself able to build, Majesty will help him, incite
him: "Timber enough is in the royal forests; stone,
lime are in the royal quarries; scraggy waste is abun-
dant: why should any man, of the least industry or
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 192 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book vin.
Oct. 1781.
private capital, live in a bad house? " By degrees,
the pressure of his Majesty upon private men to build
with encouragement became considerable, became ex-
cessive, irresistible; and was much complained of, in
these years now come. Old Colonel Derschau is the
King's Agent, at Berlin, in this matter; a hard stiff
man; squeezes men, all manner of men with the least
capital, till they build.
Niissler, for example, whom we once saw at Ha- 1nover, managing a certain contested Heritage for Fried-
rich Wilhelm; adroit Niissler, though he has yet got no
fixed appointment, nor pay except by the job, is urged
to build; -- second year hence, 1733, occurs the case
of Niissler, and is copiously dwelt upon by Biisching
his biographer: "Build yourself a house in the Fried richs Strasse! " urges Derschau. "But I have no pay,
no capital! " pleads Niissler. -- "Tush, your Father-in-
law, abstruse Kanzler von Ludwig, in Halle University,
monster of law-learning there, is not he a monster of
hoarded moneys withal? He will lend you, for his own
and his Daughter's sake. * Or shall his Majesty compel
him? " urges Derschau. And slowly, continually turns
the screw upon Niissler, till he too raises for himself a
firm good house in the Friedrichs Stadt, -- Friedrichs
Strasse, or Street, as they now call it, which the Tourist
of these days knows. Substantial clear ashlar Street,
miles or half-miles long; straight as a line: -- Friedrich
Wilhelm found it scrag and quagmire; and left it what
the Tourist sees, by these hard methods. Thus Herr
* BUaching: BeitrSge, i. 324.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? chap, v. ] majesty's building operations. 193
Oct. 1781.
Privy-Councillor Klinggraf too, Niissler's next neigh-
bour: he did not want to build; far from it; but was
obliged, on worse terms than Nussler. You have such
work, founding your house; -- for the Nussler-Kling-
graf spot was a fish-pool, and "carps were dug up" in
founding; -- such piles, bound platform of solid beams;
"4,000 thalers gone before the first stone is laid:" and
in fact, the house must be built honestly, or it will be
worse for the house and you. "Cost me 12,000thalers
(1,800/. ) in all, and is worth perhaps 2,000! " sorrow-
fully ejaculates Nussler, when the job is over. Still
worse with Privy-Councillor Klinggraf: his house, the
next to Niissler's, is worth mere nothing to him when
built; a soap-boiler offers him 800 thalers (120Z. ) for
it; and Niissler, to avoid suffocation, purchases it him-
self of Klinggraf for that sum. Derschau, with his
slow screw-machinery, is very formidable; -- and Biisch-
ing knows it for a fact, "that respectable Berlin persons
"used to run out of the way of Biirgermeister Koch
"and him, when either of them turned up on the
"streets! "
These things were heavy to bear. Truly, yes:
where is the liberty of private capital, or liberty of al-
most any kind, on those terms? Liberty to annihilate
rubbish and chaos, under known conditions, you may
have; but not the least liberty to keep them about you,
though never so fond of doing it! What shall we say?
Nussler and the Soapboiler do both live in houses more
human than they once had. Berlin itself, and some
other things, did not spring from Free-trade. Berlin
Carlyle, Frederic the Great. IV. 13
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 194 CROWN-PRINCE RETRIEVED. [book Vm
Oct. 1731.
City would, to this day, have been a Place of Scrubs
("the Berlin" a mere appellative noun to that effect),
had Free-trade always been the rule there. I am sorry
his Majesty transgresses the limits; -- and we, my
friends, if we can make our Chaos into Cosmos by
firing Parliamentary eloquence into it, and bombarding
it with Blue-Books, we will much triumph over his
Majesty, one day! --
Thus are the building operations exceedingly pushed
forward, the Ear of Jenkins torn off, and Victor Ama-
deus locked in ward, while our Crown-Prince, in the
eclipsed state, is inspected by a Sage in pipeclay, and
Wilhelmina's wedding is coming on.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijm Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? cHap, vi. ] wilhelmina's wedding. 195
20th Nov. 1731.
CHAPTER VI.
wilhelmina's wedding.
Tuesday, 20th November 1731, Wilhelmina's
wedding-day arrived, after a brideship of eight months;
and that young Lady's troublesome romance, more hap-
pily than might have been expected, did at last wind
itself up. Mamma's unreasonable humours continued,
more or less; but these also must now end. Old wooers
and outlooks, "the four or three crowned heads," --
they lie far over the horizon; faded out of one's very
thoughts, all these.