Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

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

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I know not whether it was by my Lord Suffolk's instigation, or what
had put the Britannic Cabinet on such an idea,--perhaps the stolen
Letters of Friedrich, which show so exact a knowledge of the
current of events in America as well as England ("knows every step
of it, as if he were there himself, the Arch-Enemy of honest
neighbors in a time of stress!")--but it does appear they had got
it into their sagacious heads that the bad neighbor at Berlin was,
in effect, the Arch-Enemy, probably mainspring of the whole matter;
and that it would be in the highest degree interesting to see
clearly what Lee and he had on hand. Order thereupon to Elliot:
"Do it, at any price;" and finally, as mere price will not answer,
"Do it by any method,--STEAL Lee's Despatch-Box for us!"

Perhaps few Excellencies living had less appetite for such a job
than Elliot; but his Orders were peremptory, "Lee is a rebel,
quasi-outlaw; and you must!" Elliot thereupon took accurate survey
of the matter; and rapidly enough, and with perfect skill, though
still a novice in Berlin affairs, managed to do it. Privily hired,
or made his servant hire, the chief Housebreaker or Pickpocket in
the City: "Lee lodges in such and such a Hostelry; bring us his
Red-Box for a thirty hours; it shall be well worth your while!"
And in brief space the Red-Box arrives, accordingly; a score or two
of ready-writers waiting for it, who copy all day, all night, at
the top of their speed, till they have enough: which done, the Lee
Red-Box is left on the stairs of the Lee Tavern; Box locked again,
and complete; only the Friedrich-Lee Secrets completely pumped out
of it, and now rushing day and night towards England, to illuminate
the Supreme Council-Board there.

This astonishing mass of papers is still extant in England; [In the
EDEN-HOUSE ARCHIVES; where a natural delicacy (unaware that the
questionable Legationary FACT stands in print for so many years
past) is properly averse to any promulgation of them.]--the outside
of them I have seen, by no means the inside, had I wished it;--but
am able to say from other sources, which are open to all the world,
that seldom had a Supreme Council-Board procured for itself, by
improper or proper ways, a Discovery of less value! Discovery that
Lee has indeed been urgent at Berlin; and has raised in Friedrich
the question, "Have you got to such a condition that I can, with
safety and advantage, make a Treaty of Commerce with you?"--That
his Minister Schulenburg has, by Order, been investigating Lee on
that head; and has reported, "No, your Majesty, Lee and People are
not in such a condition;" that his Majesty has replied, "Well, let
him wait till they are;" and that Lee is waiting accordingly.
In general, That his Majesty is not less concerned in guidance or
encouragement of the American War than he is in ditto of the
Atlantic Tides or of the East-Wind (though he does keep barometers
and meteorological apparatus by him); and that we of the Council-
Board are a--what shall I say! Not since the case of poor Dr.
Cameron, in 1753, when Friedrich was to have joined the Highlanders
with 15,000 chosen Prussians for Jacobite purposes,--and the Cham
of Tartary to have taken part in the Bangorian Controversy,--was
there a more perfect platitude, or a deeper depth of ignorance as
to adjacent objects on the part of Governing Men. For shame,
my friends!--

This surprising bit of Burglary, so far as I can gather from the
Prussian Books, must have been done on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25th, 1777;
Box (with essence pumped out) restored to staircase night of
Thursday,--Police already busy, Governor Ramin and Justice-
President Philippi already apprised, and suspicion falling on the
English Minister,--whose Servant ("Arrest him we cannot without a
King's Warrant, only procurable at Potsdam!") vanishes bodily.
Friday, 27th, Ramin and Philippi make report; King answers,
"greatly astonished:" a "GARSTIGE SACHE (ugly Business), which will
do the English no honor:" "Servant fled, say you? Trace it to the
bottom; swift!" Excellency Elliot, seeing how matters lay, owned
honestly to the Official People, That it was his Servant (Servant
safe gone, Chief Pickpocket not mentioned at all); SUNDAY EVENING,
29th, King orders thereupon, "Let the matter drop." These Official
Pieces, signed by the King, by Hertzberg, Ramin and others, we do
not give: here is Friedrich's own notice of it to his
Brother Henri:--

"POTSDAM, 29th JUNE, 1777. ... There has just occurred a strange
thing at Berlin. Three days ago, in absence of the Sieur Lee, Envoy
of the American Colonies, the Envoy of England went [sent!] to the
Inn where Lee lodged, and carried off his Portfolio; it seems he
was in fear, however, and threw it down, without opening it, on the
stairs [alas, no, your Majesty, not till after pumping the essence
out]. All Berlin is talking of it. If one were to act with rigor,
it would be necessary to forbid this man the Court, since he has
committed a public theft: but, not to make a noise, I suppress the
thing. Sha'n't fail, however, to write to England about it, and
indicate that there was another way of dealing with such a matter,
for they are impertinent" (say, ignorant, blind as moles, your
Majesty; that is the charitable reading!). [ OEuvres de
Frederic, xxvi. 394. In PREUSS, v. (he calls it "iv."
or "URKUNDENBUCH to vol. iv.," but it is really and practically
vol. v.) 278, 279, are the various Official Reports.]

This was not Excellency Elliot's Burglary, as readers see,--among
all the Excellencies going, I know not that there is one with less
natural appetite for such a job; but sometimes what can a
necessitous Excellency do? Elliot is still remembered in Berlin
society, not for this only, but for emphatic things of a better
complexion which he did; a man more justly estimated there, than
generally here in our time. Here his chief fame rests on a witty
Anecdote, evidently apocryphal, and manufactured in the London
Clubs: "Who is this Hyder-Ali," said the old King to him, one day
(according to the London Clubs). "Hm," answered Elliot, with
exquisite promptitude, politeness and solidity of information,
"C'EST UN VIEUX VOLEUR QUI COMMENCE A RADOTER (An old robber, now
falling into his dotage),"--let his dotard Majesty take that.

Alas, my friends!--Ignorance by herself is an awkward lumpish
wench; not yet fallen into vicious courses, nor to be uncharitably
treated: but Ignorance and Insolence,--these are, for certain, an
unlovely Mother and Bastard! Yes;--and they may depend upon it, the
grim Parish-beadles of this Universe are out on the track of them,
and oakum and the correction-house are infallible sooner or later!
The clever Elliot, who knew a hawk from a hernshaw, never
floundered into that platitude. This, however, is a joke of his,
better or worse (I think, on his quitting Berlin in 1782, without
visible resource or outlook): "I am far from having a Sans-Souci,"
writes he to the Edens; "and I think I am coming to be SANS
SIX-SOUS."--Here still are two small Fractions, which I must
insert; and then rigorously close. Kaiser Joseph, in these months,
is travelling through France to instruct his Imperial mind.
The following is five weeks anterior to that of Lee's Red-Box:--

1. A BIT OF DIALOGUE AT PARIS (Saturday, 17th May, 1777).
After solemn Session of the ACADEMIE FRANCAISE, held in honor of an
illustrious COMTE DE FALKENSTEIN (privately, Kaiser Joseph II.),
who has come to look at France, [Minute and rather entertaining
Account of his procedures there, and especially of his two Visits
to the Academy (first was May 10th), in Mayer, Reisen
Josephs II. (Leipzig, 1778), pp. 112-132, 147 et
seq.]--Comte de Falkenstein was graciously pleased to step up to
D'Alembert, who is Perpetual Secretary here; and this little
Dialogue ensued:--

FALKENSTEIN. "I have heard you are for Germany this season;
some say you intend to become German altogether?"

D'ALEMBERT. "I did promise myself the high honor of a visit to his
Prussian Majesty, who has deigned to invite me, with all the
kindness possible: but, alas, for such hopes! The bad state of
my health--"

FALKENSTEIN. "It seems to me you have already been to see the King
of Prussia?"

D'ALEMBERT. "Two times; once in 1756 [1755, 17th-19th June,--if you
will be exact], at Wesel, when I remained only a few days;
and again in 1763, when I had the honor to pass three or four
months with him. Since that time I have always longed to have the
honor of seeing his Majesty again; but circumstances hindered me.
I, above all, regretted not to have been able to pay my court to
him that year he saw the Emperor at Neisse,--but at this moment
there is nothing more to be wished on that head" (Don't bow: the
Gentleman is INCOGNITO).

FALKENSTEIN. "It was very natural that the Emperor, young, and
desiring to instruct himself, should wish to see such a Prince as
the King of Prussia; so great a Captain, a Monarch of such
reputation, and who has played so great a part. It was a Scholar
going to see his Master" (these are his very words, your Majesty).

D'ALEMBERT. "I wish M. le Comte de Falkenstein could see the
Letters which the King of Prussia did me the honor to write after
that Interview: it would then appear how this Prince judged of the
Emperor, as all the world has since done." ["D'Alembert to
Friedrich [in OEuvres de Frederic, xxv. 75],
23d May, 1777." Ib. xxv. 82; "13th August, 1777."]

KING TO D'ALEMBERT (three months after. Kaiser is home;
passed Ferney, early in August; and did not call on Voltaire, as is
well known). ... "I hear the Comte de Falkenstein has been seeing
harbors, arsenals, ships, manufactures, and has n't seen Voltaire.
Had I been in the Emperor's place, I would not have passed Ferney
without a glance at the old Patriarch, were it only to say that I
had seen and heard him. Arsenals, ships, manufactures, these you
can see anywhere; but it requires ages to produce a Voltaire.
By the rumors I hear, it will have been a certain great Lady
Theresa, very Orthodox and little Philosophical, who forbade her
Son to visit the Apostle of Tolerance."

D'ALEMBERT (in answer): "No doubt your Majesty's guess is right.
It must have been the Lady Mother. Nobody here believes that the
advice came from his Sister [Queen Marie Antoinette], who, they
say, is full of esteem for the Patriarch, and has more than once
let him know it by third parties." [ OEuvres de Frederic,
xxv. 84.]

According to Friedrich, Joseph's reflections in France were very
gloomy: "This is all one Country; strenuously kneaded into perfect
union and incorporation by the Old Kings: my discordant Romish
Reich is of many Countries,--and should be of one, if Sovereigns
were wise and strenuous!" [ OEuvres de Frederic, italic> vi. 125.]

2. A CABINET-ORDER AND ACTUAL (fac-simile) SIGNATURE OF
FRIEDRICH'S.--After unknown travels over the world, this poor brown
Bit of Paper, with a Signature of Friedrich's to it, has wandered
hither; and I have had it copied, worthy or not. A Royal Cabinet-
Order on the smallest of subjects; but perhaps all the more
significant on that account; and a Signature which readers may like
to see.

Fordan, or Fordon, is in the Bromberg Department in West Preussen,
--Bromberg no longer a heap of ruins; but a lively, new-built,
paved, CANALLED and industrious trading Town. At Fordan is a Grain-
Magazine: Bein ("Leg," DER BEIN, as they slightingly call him) is
Proviant-Master there; and must consider his ways,--the King's eye
being on him. Readers can now look and understand:--

AN DEN OBER-PROVIANTMEISTER BEIN, zu Fordan.

"POTSDAM, den 9ten April, 1777.

"Seiner Koniglicher Majestat von Preussen, Unser
allergnadigster Herr, lassen dem Ober-Proviantmeister Bein hiebey
die Getraide-Preistabelle des Brombergschen Departments zufertigen;
Woraus derselbe ersiehet wie niedrig solche an einigen Orthen sind,
und dass zu Inovraclaw und Strezeltnow der Scheffel Roggen um 12
Groschen kostet: da solches nun hier so wohlfeil ist, somuss ja der
Preis in Pohlen noch wohl geringer, und ist daher nicht abzusehen
warum die Pohlen auf so hohe Preise bestehen; der Bein muss sich
daher nun rechte Muhe gebem, und den Einkauf so wohlfeil als nur
immer moglich zu machen suchen."

"His Royal Majesty of Preussen, Our most all-gracious Lord, lets
herewith, to the Head Proviant-Master Bein, the Grain-Prices Table
of the Bromberg Department be despatched; Wherefrom Bein perceives
how low in some places these are, and that, at Inovraclaw and
Strezeltnow the Bushel of Rye costs about 14 Pence: now, as it is
so cheap there, the price in Poland must be still smaller;
and therefore it is not to be conceived why the Poles demand such
high prices," as the said Bein reports: "Bein therefore is charged
to take especial pains, and try not to make the purchase dearer
than is indispensable."

FRIEDRICH'S SIGNATURE HERE--PAGE 390, BOOK XXI--------

Original kindly furnished me by Mr. W. H. Doeg, Barlow Moor,
Manchester: whose it now is,--purchased in London, A.D. 1863.
The FRH of German CURSIV-SCHRIFT (current hand), which the
woodcutter has appended, shut off by a square, will show English
readers what the King means: an "Frh" done as
by a flourish of one's stick, in the most compendious and really
ingenious manner,--suitable for an economic King, who has to repeat
it scores of times every day of his life!

Chapter VI.

THE BAVARIAN WAR.

At the very beginning of 1778, the chronic quarrel with Austria
passed, by an accident just fallen out, into the acute state;
rose gradually, and, in spite of negotiating, issued in a thing
called Bavarian-Succession War, which did not end till Spring of
the following year. The accident was this. At Munchen, December
30th, 1777, Max Joseph Kurfurst of Baiern, only Brother of our
lively friend the Electress-Dowager of Saxony, died; suddenly, of
small-pox unskilfully treated. He was in his fifty-second year;
childless, the last of that Bavarian branch. His Heir is Karl
Theodor, Kur-Pfalz (Elector Palatine), who is now to unite the Two
Electorates,--unless Austria can bargain with him otherwise.
Austria's desire to get hold of Baiern is of very old standing;
and we have heard lately how much it was an object with Kaunitz and
his young Kaiser. With Karl Theodor they did bargain,--in fact, had
beforehand as good as bargained,--and were greatly astonished, when
King Friedrich, alone of all Teutschland or the world, mildly, but
peremptorily, interfered, and said No,--with effect, as is
well known.

Something, not much, must be said of this Bavarian-Succession War;
which occupied, at a pitch of tension and anxiety foreign to him
for a long time, fifteen months of Friedrich's old age (January,
1778-March, 1779); and filled all Europe round him and it, in an
extraordinary manner. Something; by no means much, now that we have
seen the issue of such mountains all in travail. Nobody could then
say but it bade fair to become a Fourth Austrian-Prussian War, as
sanguinary as the Seven-Years had been; for in effect there stood
once more the Two Nations ranked against each other, as if for
mortal duel, near half a million men in whole; parleying indeed,
but brandishing their swords, and ever and anon giving mutual clash
of fence, as if the work had begun, though there always intervened
new parleying first.

And now everybody sees that the work never did begin;
that parleying, enforced by brandishing, turned out to be all the
work there was: and everybody has forgotten it, and, except for
specific purposes, demands not to be put in mind of it.
Mountains in labor were not so frequent then as now, when the Penny
Newspaper has got charge of them; though then as now to practical
people they were a nuisance. Mountains all in terrific travail-
throes, threatening to overset the solar system, have always a
charm, especially for the more foolish classes: but when once the
birth has taken place, and the wretched mouse ducks past you, or
even nothing at all can be seen to duck past, who is there but
impatiently turns on his heel?

Those Territories, which adjoin on its own dominions, would have
been extremely commodious to Austria;--as Austria itself has long
known; and by repeatedly attempting them on any chance given (as in
1741-1745, to go no farther back), has shown how well it knows.
Indeed, the whole of Bavaria fairly incorporated and made Austrian,
what an infinite convenience would it be!

"Do but look on the Map [this Note is not by Busching, but by
somebody of Austrian tendencies]: you would say, Austria without
Bavaria is like a Human Figure with its belly belonging to somebody
else. Bavaria is the trunk or belly of the Austrian Dominions,
shutting off all the limbs of them each from the other; making for
central part a huge chasm.

"Ober-Pfalz,--which used to be Kur-Pfalz's, which is Bavaria's
since we took it from the Winter-King and bestowed it in that way,
--Ober-Pfalz, the country of Amberg, where Maillebois once pleased
to make invasion of us;--does not it adjoin on the Bohemian Forest?
The RIBS there, Bohemian all, up to the shoulder, are ours: but the
shoulder-blade and left arm, whose are they! Austria Proper and
Hungary, these may be taken as sitting-part and lower limbs, ample
and fleshy; but see, just above the pelvis, on the south side, how
Bavaria and its Tyrol sticks itself in upon Austria, who fancied
she also had a Tyrol, and far the more important one. Our Tyrol,
our Styria, Carniola, Carinthia,--Bavaria blocks these in. Then the
Swabian Austria,--Breisach, and those Upper-Rhine Countries, from
which we invade France,--we cannot reach them except through
Bavarian ground. Swabian Austria should be our right arm, fingers
of it reaching into Switzerland; Ober-Pfalz our left:--and as to
the broad breast between these two; left arm and broad breast are
Bavaria's, not ours. Of the Netherlands, which might be called
geographically the head of Austria, alas, the long neck, Lorraine,
was once ours; but whose is it? Irrecoverable for the present,--
perhaps may not always be so!"

These are Kaunitz's ideas; and the young Kaiser has eagerly adopted
them as the loadstar of his life. "Make the Reich a reality again,"
thinks the Kaiser (good, if only possible, think we too);
"make Austria great; Austria is the Reich, how else can the Reich
be real?"

In practical politics these are rather wild ideas; but they are
really Kaunitz's and his Kaiser's; and were persisted in long after
this Bavarian matter got its check: and as a whole, they got
repeated checks; being impossible all, and far from the meaning of
a Time big with French Revolution, and with quite other things than
world-greatness to Austria, and rejuvenescence on such or on any
terms to the poor old Holy Roman Reich, which had been a wiggery so
long. Nobody could guess of what it was that France or the world
might be with child: nobody, till the birth in 1789, and even for a
generation afterwards. France is weakly and unwieldy, has strange
enough longings for chalky, inky, visionary, foolish substances,
and may be in the family-way for aught we know.

To Kaunitz it is pretty clear that France will not stand in his
path in this fine little Bavarian business; which is all he cares
for at present. England in war with its Colonies; Russia attentive
to its Turk; foreign Nations, what can they do but talk;
remonstrate more or less, as they did in the case of Poland;
and permit the thing with protest? Only from one Sovereign Person,
and from him I should guess not much, does Kaunitz expect serious
opposition: from Friedrich of Prussia; to whom no enlargement of
Austria can be matter of indifference. "But cannot we perhaps make
it worth his while?" thinks Kaunitz: "Tush, he is old and broken;
thought to be dying; has an absolute horror of war. He too will sit
quiet; or we must make it worth his while." In this calculation
Kaunitz deceived himself; we are now shortly to see how.

Kaunitz's Case, when he brings it before the Reich, and general
Public of mankind and its Gazetteers, will by no means prove to be
a strong one. His Law "TITLE" is this:--

"Archduke Albert V., of Austria, subsequently Kaiser Albert II.,
had married Elizabeth, only Daughter of Kaiser Sigismund SUPER-
GRAMMATICAM: Albert is he who got three crowns in one year,
Hungary, Bohemia, Romish Reich; and 'we hope a fourth,' say the Old
Historians, 'which was a heavenly and eternal one,'--died, in short
(1439, age forty). From him come the now Kaisers.

"In 1426, thirteen years before this event of the Crowns, Sigismund
GRAMMATICAM had infeoffed him in a thing still of shadowy nature,--
the Expectancy of a Straubingen Princedom; pleasant extensive
District, only not yet fallen, or like falling vacant: 'You shall
inherit, you and yours (who are also my own), so soon as this
present line of Wittelsbachers die!' said Kaiser Sigismund,
solemnly, in two solemn sheepskins. 'Not a whit of it,' would the
Wittelsbachers have answered, had they known of the affair.
'When we die out, there is another Line of Wittelsbachers, plenty
of other lines; and House-treaties many and old, settling all that,
without help of you and Albert of the Three Crowns!'
And accordingly there had never come the least fruit, or attempt at
fruit, from these two Sigismund Sheepskins; which were still lying
in the Vienna Archives, where they had lain since the creation of
them, known to an Antiquary or two, but not even by them thought
worthy of mention in this busy world. This was literally all the
claim that Austria had; and every by-stander admitted it to be, in
itself, not worth a rush."

"In itself perhaps not," thought Kaunitz; "but the free consent of
Karl Theodor the Heir, will not that be a Title in full? One would
hope so; in the present state of Europe: France, England, Russia,
every Nation weltering overhead in its own troubles and affairs,
little at leisure for ours!" And it is with Karl Theodor, to make
out a full Title for himself there, that Kaunitz has been secretly
busy this long time back, especially in the late critical days of
poor Kurfurst Max.

Karl Theodor of the Pfalz, now fallen Heir to Baiern, is a poor
idle creature, of purely egoistic, ornamental, dilettante nature;
sunk in theatricals, bastard children and the like; much praised by
Voltaire, who sometimes used to visit him; and by Collini, to whom
he is a kind master. Karl Theodor cares little for the integrity of
Baiern, much for that of his own skin. Very long ago, in 1742, in
poor Kaiser Karl's Coronation time, we saw him wedded, him and
another, to two fair Sister Sulzbach Princesses, [Supra, viii.
119.] Grand-daughters of old Karl Philip, the then Kur-Pfalz, whom
he has inherited. It was the last act of that never-resting old
Karl Philip, of whom we used to hear so much: "Karl Theodor to have
one of my inestimable Grand-daughters; Duke Clement, younger
Brother of our blessed new Kaiser, to have another; thereby we
unite the kindred branches of the Pfalz-Baiern Families, and make
the assurance of the Heritages doubly sure!" said old Karl Philip;
and died happy, or the happiest he could.

Readers no doubt have forgotten this circumstance; and, in their
total lack of interest in Karl Theodor and his paltry affairs, may
as well be reminded of it;--and furthermore, that these brilliant
young Wives, "Duchess Clement" especially, called on Wilhelmina
during the Frankfurt Gayeties, and were a charm to Kaiser Karl
Albert, striving to look forward across clouds into a glittering
future for his House. Theodor's Princess brought him no children;
she and her Sister are both still living; a lone woman the latter
(Duke Clement dead these seven years),--a still more lone the
former, with such a Husband yet living! Lone women both, well
forward in the fifties; active souls, I should guess, at least to
judge by Duchess Clement, who being a Dowager, and mistress of her
movements, is emphatic in denouncing such disaster and disgrace;
and plays a great part, at Munchen, in the agitating scenes now on
hand. Comes out "like a noble Amazon," say the admiring by-
standers, on this occasion; stirs whatever faculty she has,
especially her tongue; and goes on urging, pushing and contriving
all she can, regardless of risks in such an imminency.

Karl Theodor finds his Heritages indisputable; but he has no
Legitimate Son to leave them to; and has many Illegitimate, whom
Austria can provide for,--and richly will. His Heir is a Nephew,
Karl August Christian, of Zweibruck; whom perhaps it would not be
painful to him to disappoint a little of his high expectations.
On the whole, Peace; plentiful provision, titular and other, for
his Illegitimates; and a comfortable sum of ready money over, to
enliven the Theatricals, Dusseldorf Picture-Galleries and
Dilettante operations and Collections,--how much welcomer to
Theodor than a Baiern never so religiously saved entire at the
expense of quarrel, which cannot but be tedious, troublesome and
dangerous! Honor, indeed--but what, to an old stager in the
dilettante line, is honor? Old stagers there are who will own to
you, like Balzac's Englishman in a case of conflagration, when
honor called on all men to take their buckets, "MAIS JE N'AI POINT
D'HONNEUR!" To whom, unluckily, you cannot answer as in that case,
"C'EST EGAL, 'T is all one; do as if you had some!" Karl Theodor
scandalously left Baiern to its fate.

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