Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

T >> Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21




Busching, for the last five or six years, is home from Russia;
comfortably established here as Consistorialrath, much concerned
with School-Superintendence; still more with GEOGRAPHY, with
copious rugged Literature of the undigested kind: a man well seen
in society; has "six families of rank which invite him to dinner;"
all the dining he is equal to, with so much undigested writing on
his hands. Busching, in his final Section, headed BERLIN LIFE,
Section more incondite even than its foregoers, has this passage:--

"On the Queen-Dowager of Sweden, Louise Ulrique's, coming to
Berlin, I felt not a little embarrassed. The case was this:
Most part of the SIXTH VOLUME of my MAGAZINE [meritorious curious
Book, sometimes quoted by us here, not yet known in English
Libraries] was printed; and in it, in the printed part, were
various things that concerned the deceased Sovereign, King Adolf
Friedrich, and his Spouse [now come to visit us],--and among these
were Articles which the then ruling party in Sweden could certainly
not like. And now I was afraid these people would come upon the
false notion, that it was from the Queen-Dowager I had got the
Articles in question;--notion altogether false, as they had been
furnished me by Baron Korf [well known to Hordt and others of us,
at Petersburg, in the Czar-Peter time], now Russian Minister at
Copenhagen. However, when Duke Friedrich of Brunswick [one of the
juniors, soldiering here with his Uncle, as they almost all are]
wrote to me, one day, That his Lady Aunt the Queen of Sweden
invited me to dine with her to-morrow, and that he, the Duke, would
introduce me,--I at once decided to lay my embarrassment before the
Queen herself.

"Next day, when I was presented to her Majesty, she took me by the
hand, and led me to a window [as was her custom with guests whom
she judged to be worth questioning and talking to], and so placed
herself in a corner there that I came to stand close before her;
when she did me the honor to ask a great many questions about
Russia, the Imperial Court especially, and most of all the Grand-
Duke [Czar Paul that is to be,--a kind of kinsman he, his poor
Father was my late Husband's Cousin-german, as perhaps you know].
A great deal of time was spent in this way; so that the Princes and
Princesses, punctual to invitation, had to wait above half an hour
long; and the Queen was more than once informed that dinner was on
the table and getting cold. I could get nothing of my own mentioned
here; all I could do was to draw back, in a polite way, so soon as
the Queen would permit: and afterwards, at table, to explain with
brevity my concern about what was printed in the MAGAZINE;
and request the Queen to permit me to send it her to read for
herself. She had it, accordingly, that same afternoon.

"A few days after, she invited me again; again spoke with me a long
while in the window embrasure, in a low tone of voice: confirmed to
me all that she had read,--and in particular, minutely explained
that LETTER OF THE KING [one of my Pieces] in which he relates what
passed between him and Count Tessin [Son's Tutor] in the Queen's
Apartment. At table, she very soon took occasion to say: 'I cannot
imagine to myself how the Herr Consistorialrath [Busching, to wit]
has come upon that Letter of my deceased Lord the King of Sweden's;
which his Majesty did write, and which is now printed in your
MAGAZINE. For certain, the King showed it to nobody.'
Whereupon BUSCHING: 'Certainly; nor is that to be imagined, your
Majesty. But the person it was addressed to must have shown it;
and so a copy of it has come to my hands.' Queen still expresses
her wonder; whereupon again, Busching, with a courageous candor:
'Your Majesty, most graciously permit me to say, that hitherto all
Swedish secrets of Court or State have been procurable for money
and good words!' The Queen, to whom I sat directly opposite, cast
down her eyes at these words and smiled;--and the Reichsrath Graf
von Schwerin [a Swedish Gentleman of hers], who sat at my left,
seized me by the hand, and said: 'Alas, that is true!'"--Here is a
difficulty got over; Magazine Number can come out when it will. As
it did, "next Easter-Fair," with proper indications and tacit
proofs that the Swedish part of it lay printed several months
before the Queen's arrival in our neighborhood.

Busching dined with her Majesty several times,--"eating nothing,"
he is careful to mention and was careful to show her Majesty,
"except, very gradually, a small bit of bread soaked in a glass of
wine!"--meaning thereby, "Note, ye great ones, it is not for your
dainties; in fact, it is out of loyal politeness mainly!" the
gloomily humble man.

"One time, the Queen asked me, in presence of various Princes and
Princesses of the Royal House: 'Do you think it advisable to
enlighten the Lower Classes by education?' To which I answered:
'Considering only under what heavy loads a man of the Lower
Classes, especially of the Peasant sort, has to struggle through
his life, one would think it was better neither to increase his
knowledge nor refine his sensibility. But when one reflects that
he, as well as those of the Higher Classes, is to last through
Eternity; and withal that good instruction may [or might, IF it be
not BAD] increase his practical intelligence, and help him to
methods of alleviating himself in this world, it must be thought
advisable to give him useful enlightenment.' The Queen accorded
with this view of the matter.

"Twice I dined with her Majesty at her Sister, Princess Amelia, the
Abbess of Quedlinburg's:--and the second time [must have been
Summer, 1772], Professor Sulzer, who was also a guest, caught his
death there. When I entered the reception-room, Sulzer was standing
in the middle of a thorough-draught, which they had managed to have
there, on account of the great heat; and he had just arrived, all
in a perspiration, from the Thiergarten: I called him out of the
draught, but it was too late." [Busching: Beitrage, italic> vi. 578-582.] ACH, MEIN LIEBER SULZER,--Alas, dear Sulzer:
seriously this time!

Busching has a great deal to say about Schools, about the "School
Commission 1765," the subjects taught, the methods of teaching
devised by Busching and others, and the King's continual exertions,
under deficient funds, in this province of his affairs.
Busching had unheard-of difficulty to rebuild the old Gymnasium at
Berlin into a new. Tried everybody; tried the King thrice over, but
nobody would. "One of the persons I applied to was Lieutenant-
General von Ramin, Governor of Berlin [surliest of mankind, of
whose truculent incivility there go many anecdotes]; to Ramin I
wrote, entreating that he would take a good opportunity and suggest
a new Town Schoolhouse to his Majesty: 'Excellenz, it will render
you immortal in the annals of Berlin!' To which Ramin made answer:
'That is an immortality I must renounce the hope of, and leave to
the Town-Syndics and yourself. I, for my own part, will by no means
risk such a proposal to his Majesty; which he would, in all
likelihood, answer in the negative, and receive ill at anybody's
hands.'" [Ib. vi. 568.] By subscriptions, by bequests, donations
and the private piety of individuals, Busching aiding and stirring,
the thing was at last got done. Here is another glance into School-
life: not from Busching:--

JUNE 9th, 1771. "This Year the Stande of the Kurmark find they have
an overplus of 100,000 thalers (15,000 pounds); which sum they do
themselves the pleasure of presenting to the King for his Majesty's
uses." King cannot accept it for his own uses. "This money,"
answers he (9th June), "comes from the Province, wherefore I feel
bound to lay it out again for advantage of the Province. Could not
it become a means of getting English husbandry [TURNIPS in
particular, whether short-horns or not, I do not know] introduced
among us? In the Towns that follow Farming chiefly, or in Villages
belonging to unmoneyed Nobles, we will lend out this 15,000 pounds,
at 4 per cent, in convenient sums for that object: hereby will
turnip-culture and rotation be vouchsafed us; interest at 4 per
cent brings us in 600 pounds annually; and this we will lay out in
establishing new Schoolmasters in the Kurmark, and having the youth
better educated." What a pretty idea; neat and beautiful, killing
two important birds with one most small stone! I have known
enormous cannon-balls and granite blocks, torrent after torrent,
shot out under other kinds of Finance-gunnery, that were not only
less respectable, but that were abominable to me in comparison.

Unluckily, no Nobles were found inclined; English Husbandry
["TURNIPSE" and the rest of it] had to wait their time. The King
again writes: "No Nobles to be found, say you? Well; put the 15,000
pounds to interest in the common way,--that the Schoolmasters at
least may have solacement: I will add 120 thalers (18 pounds)
apiece, that we may have a chance of getting better Schoolmasters;
--send me List of the Places where the worst are." List was sent;
is still extant; and on the margin of it, in Royal Autograph,
this remark:--

"The Places are well selected. The bad Schoolmasters are mostly
Tailors; and you must see whether they cannot be got removed to
little Towns, and set to tailoring again, or otherwise disposed of,
that our Schools might the sooner rise into good condition, which
is an interesting thing." "Eager always our Master is to have the
Schooling of his People improved and everywhere diffused," writes,
some years afterwards, the excellent Zedlitz, officially "Minister
of Public Justice," but much and meritoriously concerned with
School matters as well. The King's ideas were of the best, and
Zedlitz sometimes had fine hopes; but the want of funds was
always great.

"In 1779," says Preuss, "there came a sad blow to Zedlitz's hopes:
Minister von Brenkenhof [deep in West-Preussen canal-diggings and
expenditures] having suggested, That instead of getting Pensions,
the Old Soldiers should be put to keeping School." Do but fancy it;
poor old fellows, little versed in scholastics hitherto!
"Friedrich, in his pinch, grasped at the small help; wrote to the
War-Department: 'Send me a List of Invalids who are fit [or at
least fittest] to be Schoolmasters.' And got thereupon a list of
74, and afterwards 5 more [79 Invalids in all]; War-Department
adding, That besides these scholastic sort, there were 741 serving
as BUDNER [Turnpike-keepers, in a sort], as Forest-watchers and the
like; and 3,443 UNVERSORGT" (shifting for themselves, no provision
made for them at all),--such the check, by cold arithmetic and
inexorable finance, upon the genial current of the soul!--

The TURNIPS, I believe, got gradually in; and Brandenburg, in our
day, is a more and more beautifully farmed Country. Nor were the
Schoolmasters unsuccessful at all points; though I cannot report a
complete educational triumph on those extremely limited terms.
[Preuss, iii. 115, 113, &c.]

Queen Ulrique left, I think, on the 9th of August, 1772; there is
sad farewell in Friedrich's Letter next day to Princess Sophie
Albertine, the Queen's Daughter, subsequently Abbess of
Quedlinburg: he is just setting out on his Silesian Reviews;
"shall, too likely, never see your good Mamma again."
["Potsdam, 10th August, 1772:" OEuvres de Frederic, italic> xxvii. ii. 93.] Poor King; Berlin City is sound asleep,
while he rushes through it on this errand,--"past the Princess
Amelia's window," in the dead of night; and takes to humming tender
strophes to her too; which gain a new meaning by their date. ["A MA
SOEUR AMELIE, EN PASSANT, LA NUIT, SOUS SA FENETRE, POUR ALLER EN
SILESIE (AOUT 1772):" OEuvres de Frederic,
xiii. 77.]

Ten days afterwards (19th August, 1772),--Queen Ulrique not yet
home,--her Son, the spirited King Gustav III., at Stockholm had
made what in our day is called a "stroke of state,"--put a thorn in
the snout of his monster of a Senate, namely: "Less of palaver,
venality and insolence, from you, Sirs; we 'restore the
Constitution of 1680,' and are something of a King again!"
Done with considerable dexterity and spirit; not one person killed
or hurt. And surely it was the muzzling-up of a great deal of folly
on their side,--provided only there came wisdom enough from Gustav
himself instead. But, alas, there did not, there hardly could.
His Uncle was alarmed, and not a little angry for the moment:
"You had two Parties to reconcile; a work of time, of patient
endeavor, continual and quiet; no good possible till then.
And instead of that--!" Gustav, a shining kind of man, showed no
want of spirit, now or afterwards: but he leant too much on France
and broken reeds;--and, in the end, got shot in the back by one of
those beautiful "Nobles" of his, and came to a bad conclusion, they
and he. ["16th-29th March, 1792," death of Gustav III. by that
assassination: "13th March, 1809," his Son Gustav IV, has to go on
his travels; "Karl XIII.," a childless Uncle, succeeds for a few
years: after whom &c.] Scandinavian Politics, thank Heaven, are
none of our business.

Queen Ulrique was spared all these catastrophes. She had alarmed
her Brother by a dangerous illness, sudden and dangerous, in 1775;
who writes with great anxiety about it, to Another still more
anxious: [See "Correspondence with Gustav III." (in
OEuvres de Frederic, xxvii. ii. 84, &c.).] of this she
got well again; but it did not last very long. July 16th, 1782, she
died;--and the sad Friedrich had to say, Adieu. Alas, "must the
eldest of us mourn, then, by the grave of those younger!"


WILHELMINA'S DAUGHTER, ELIZABETH FREDERIKE SOPHIE, DUCHESS
OF WURTEMBERG, APPEARS AT FERNEY (September, 1773).

Of our dear Wilhelmina's high and unfortunate Daughter there should
be some Biography; and there will surely, if a man of sympathy and
faculty pass that way; but there is not hitherto. Nothing hitherto
but a few bare dates; bare and sternly significant, as on a
Tombstone; indicating that she had a History, and that it was a
tragic one. Welcome to all of us, in this state of matters, is the
following one clear emergence of her into the light of day, and in
company so interesting too! Seven years before her death she had
gone to Lausanne (July, 1773) to consult Tissot, a renowned
Physician of those days. From Lausanne, after two months, she
visited Voltaire at Ferney. Read this Letter of Voltaire's:--


TO ELIZABETH FREDERIKE SOPHIE, DUCHESS OF WURTEMBERG
(at Lausanne).

"FEENEY, 10th July, 1773.

"MADAM,--I am informed that your most Serene Highness has deigned
to remember that I was in the world. It is very sad to be there,
without paying you my court. I never felt so cruelly the sad state
to which old age and maladies have reduced me.

"I never saw you except as a child [1743, her age then 10]: but you
were certainly the beautifulest child in Europe. May you be the
happiest Princess [alas!], as you deserve to be! I was attached to
Madam the Margravine [your dear Mother] with equal devotedness and
respect; and I had the honor to be pretty deep in her confidence,
for some time before this world, which was not worthy of her, had
lost that adorable Princess. You resemble her;--but don't resemble
her in--feebleness of health! You are in the flower of your age
[coming forty, I should fear]: let such bright flower lose nothing
of its splendor; may your happiness be able to equal [PUISSO
EGALER] your beauty; may all your days be serene, and the sweets of
friendship add a new charm to them! These are my wishes; they are
as lively as my regrets at not being at your feet. What a
consolation it would be for me to speak of your loving Mother, and
of all your august relatives! Why must Destiny send you to Lausanne
[consulting Dr. Tissot there], and hinder me from flying thither!--
Let your most Serene Highness deign to accept the profound respect
of the old moribund Philosopher of Ferney.--V." [ OEuvres
de Voltaire, xcii. 331.]

The Answer of the Princess, or farther Correspondence on the
matter, is not given; evident only that by and by, as Voltaire
himself will inform us, she did appear at Ferney;--and a certain
Swedish tourist, one Bjornstahl, who met her there, enables us even
to give the date. He reports this anecdote:--

"At supper, on the evening of 7th September, 1773, the Princess sat
next to Voltaire, who always addressed her 'VOTRE ALTESSE.' At last
the Duchess said to him, 'TU ES ANON PAPA, JE SUIS TA FILLE, ET JE
VOUZ ETRE APPELEE TA FILLE.' Voltaire took a pencil from his
pocket, asked for a card, and wrote upon it:--

'Ah, le beau titre que voila!
Vous me donnez la premiere des places;
Quelle famille j'aurais la!
Je serais le pere des Graces'
[ OEuvres de Voltaire, xviii. 342.]

He gave the card to the Princess, who embraced and kissed him for
it." [Vehse, Geschichte der Deutschen Hofe
(Hamburg, 1853), xxv. 252, 253.]


VOLTAIRE TO FRIEDRICH (a fortnight after).

"FERNEY, 22d September, 1773.

"I must tell you that I have felt, in these late days, in spite of
all my past caprices, how much I am attached to your Majesty and to
your House. Madam the Duchess of Wurtemberg having had, like so
many others, the weakness to believe that health is to be found at
Lausanne, and that Dr. Tissot gives it if one pay him, has, as you
know, made the journey to Lausanne; and I, who am more veritably
ill than she, and than all the Princesses who have taken Tissot for
an AEsculapius, had not the strength to leave my home. Madam of
Wurtemberg, apprised of all the feelings that still live in me for
the memory of Madam the Margravine of Baireuth her Mother, has
deigned to visit my hermitage, and pass two days with us. I should
have recognized her, even without warning; she has the turn of her
Mother's face with your eyes.

"You Hero-people who govern the world don't allow yourselves to be
subdued by feelings; you have them all the same as we, but you
maintain your decorum. We other petty mortals yield to all our
impressions: I set myself to cry, in speaking to her of you and of
Madam the Princess her Mother; and she too, though she is Niece of
the first Captain in Europe, could not restrain her tears.
It appears to me, that she has the talent (ESPRIT) and the graces
of your House; and that especially she is more attached to you than
to her Husband [I should think so!]. She returns, I believe,
to Baireuth,--

--[No Mother, no Father there now: foolish Uncle of Anspath died
long ago, "3d August, 1757:" Aunt Dowager of Anspach gone to
Erlangen, I hope, to Feuchtwang, Schwabach or Schwaningen, or some
Widow's-Mansion "WITTWENSITZ" of her own; [Lived, finally at
Schwaningen, in sight of such vicissitudes and follies round her,
till "4th February, 1784" (Rodenbeck, iii. 304).] reigning Son,
with his French-Actress equipments, being of questionable
figure],--

--"returns, I believe, to Baireuth; where she will find
another Princess of a different sort; I mean Mademoiselle Clairon,
who cultivates Natural History, and is Lady Philosopher to
Monseigneur the Margraf,"--high-rouged Tragedy-Queen, rather
tyrannous upon him, they say: a young man destined to adorn
Hammersmith by and by, and not go a good road.

... "I renounce my beautiful hopes of seeing the Mahometans driven
out of Europe, and Athens become again the Seat of the Muses.
Neither you nor the Kaiser are"--are inclined in the Crusading way
at all. ... "The old sick man of Ferney is always at the feet of
your Majesty; he feels very sorry that he cannot talk of you
farther with Madam the Duchess of Wurtemberg, who adores you.--
LE VIEUX MALADE." [ OEuvres de Voltaire,
xcii. 390.]

To which Friedrich makes answer: "If it is forevermore forbidden me
to see you again, I am not the less glad that the Duchess of
Wurtemberg has seen you. I should certainly have mixed my tears
with yours, had I been present at that touching scene! Be it
weakness, be it excess of regard, I have built for her lost Mother,
what Cicero projected for his Tullia, a TEMPLE OF FRIENDSHIP: her
Statue occupies the background, and on each pillar stands a mask
(MASCARON) containing the Bust of some Hero in Friendship: I send
you the drawing of it." ["Potsdam, 24th October, 1773:"
OEuvres de Frederic, xxiii. 259:--"Temple" was built
in 1768 (Ib. p. 259 n.).] Which again sets Voltaire weeping, and
will the Duchess when she sees it. [Voltaire's next Letter:
OEuvres de Voltaire, xcii. 434.]

We said there hitherto was nearly nothing anywhere discoverable as
History of this high Lady but the dates only; these we now give.
She was "born 30th August, 1732,"--her Mother's and Father's one
Child;--four years older than her Anspach Cousin, who inherited
Baireuth too, and finished off that genealogy. She was "wedded 26th
September, 1748;" her age then about 16; her gloomy Duke of
Wurtemberg, age 20, all sunshine and goodness to her then: she was
"divorced in 1757:" "died 6th April, 1780,"--Tradition says, "in
great poverty [great for her rank, I suppose, proud as she might
be, and above complaining],--at Neustadt-on-the-Aisch" (in the
Nurnberg region), whither she had retired, I know not how long
after her Papa's death and Cousin's accession. She is bound for her
Cousin's Court, we observe, just now; and, considering her Cousin's
ways and her own turn of mind, it is easy to fancy she had not a
pleasant time there.

Tradition tells us, credibly enough, "She was very like her Mother:
beautiful, much the lady (VON FEINEM TON), and of energetic
character;" and adds, probably on slight foundation, "but very cold
and proud towards the people." [Vehse, xxv. 251.] Many Books will
inform you how, "On first entering Stuttgard, when the reigning
Duke and she were met by a party of congratulatory peasant women
dressed in their national costume, she said to her Duke," being
then only sixteen, poor young soul, and on her marriage-journey,
"'WAS WILL DAS GESCHMEISS (Why does that rabble bore us)!'" This is
probably the main foundation. That "her Ladies, on approaching her,
had always to kiss the hem of her gown," lay in the nature of the
case, being then the rule to people of her rank.
Beautiful Unfortunate, adieu:--and be Voltaire thanked, too!--

It is long since we have seen Voltaire before:--a prosperous Lord
at Ferney these dozen years ("the only man in France that lives
like a GRAND SEIGNEUR," says Cardinal Bernis to him once [Their
CORRESPONDENCE, really pretty of its kind, used to circulate as a
separate Volume in the years then subsequent.]); doing great things
for the Pays de Gex and for France, and for Europe; delivering the
Calases, the Sirvens and the Oppressed of various kinds;
especially ardent upon the INFAME, as the real business Heaven has
assigned him in his Day, the sunset of which, and Night wherein no
man can work, he feels to be hastening on. "Couldn't we, the few
Faithful, go to Cleve in a body?" thinks he at one time: "To Cleve;
and there, as from a safe place, under the Philosopher King, shoot
out our fiery artilleries with effect?" The Philosopher King is
perfectly willing, "provided you don't involve me in Wars with my
neighbors." Willing enough he; but they the Faithful--alas, the
Patriarch finds that they have none of his own heroic ardor, and
that the thing cannot be done. Upon which, "struck with sorrow,"
say his Biographers, "he writes nothing to Friedrich for two
years." ["Nov. 1769," recommences ( OEuvres de Frederic,
xxiii. 140. 139).]

The truth is, he is growing very old; and though a piercing
radiance, as of stars, bursts occasionally from the central part of
him, the outworks are getting decayed and dim; obstruction more and
more accumulating, and the immeasurable Night drawing nigh.
Well does Voltaire himself, at all moments, know this; and his
bearing under it, one must say, is rather beautiful. There is a
tenderness, a sadness, in these his later Letters to Friedrich;
instead of emphasis or strength, a beautiful shrill melody, as of a
woman, as of a child; he grieves unappeasably to have lost
Friedrich; never will forgive Maupertuis:--poor old man!
Friedrich answers in a much livelier, more robust tone: friendly,
encouraging, communicative on small matters;--full of praises,--in
fact, sincerely glad to have such a transcendent genius still alive
with him in this world. Praises to the most liberal pitch
everything of Voltaire's,--except only the Article on WAR, which
occasionally (as below) he quizzes a little, to the Patriarch or
his Disciple.

As we have room for nothing of all this, and perhaps shall not see
Voltaire again,--there are Two actual Interviews with him, which,
being withal by Englishmen, though otherwise not good for much, we
intend for readers here. In these last twenty years D'Alembert is
Friedrich's chief Correspondent. Of D'Alembert to the King, it may
be or may not, some opportunity will rise for a specimen; meanwhile
here is a short Letter of the King's to D'Alembert, through which
there pass so many threads of contemporaneous flying events (swift
shuttles on the loud-sounding Loom of Time), that we are tempted to
give this, before the two Interviews in question.

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