Book: History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 21

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

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Precisely the same has befallen our Brethren of Custrin; all
suddenly packed into Prison, just while reading our Approval of
them;--there they sit, their Sentence to be like ours. "Our arrest
in the Kalandshof lasted from 11th December, 1779, till 5th
January, 1780," three weeks and three days,--when (with Two
Exceptions, to be noted presently) we were all, Kammergerichters
and Custriners alike, transferred to Spandau.

I spoke of what might be called a ghost of Kanzler Furst once
revisiting the glimpses of the Moon, or Sun if there were any in
the dismal December days. This is it, witness one who saw it:
"On the morning of December 12th, the day after the Grand-
Chancellor's dismissal, the Street in which he lived was thronged
with the carriages of callers, who came to testify their sympathy,
and to offer their condolence to the fallen Chancellor. The crowd
of carriages could be seen from the windows of the King's Palace."
The same young Legal Gentleman, by and by a very old one, who,
himself one of the callers at the Ex-Chancellor's house that day,
saw this, and related it in his old age to Herr Preuss, [Preuss,
iii. 499, 500.] remembers and relates also this other
significant fact:--

"During the days that followed" the above event and Publication of
the Royal Protocol, "I often crossed, in the forenoon, the
Esplanade in front of the Palace (SCHLOSSPLATZ), at that side where
the King's apartments were; the same which his Royal Highness the
Crown-Prince now [1833] occupies. I remember that here, on that
part of the Esplanade which was directly under Friedrich's windows,
there stood constantly numbers of Peasants, not ten or twelve, but
as many as a hundred at a time; all with Petitions in their hands,
which they were holding up towards the window; shouting, 'Please
his Majesty to look at these; we have been still worse treated than
the Arnolds!' And indeed, I have understood the Law-Courts, for
some time after, found great difficulty to assert their authority:
the parties against whom judgment went, taking refuge in the Arnold
precedent, and appealing direct to the King."

Far graver than this Spectre of Furst, Minister Zedlitz hesitates,
finally refuses, to pronounce such a Sentence as the King orders on
these men of Law! Estimable, able, conscientious Zedlitz;
zealous on Education matters, too;--whom I always like for
contriving to attend a Course of Kant's Lectures, while 500 miles
away from him (actual Course in Konigsberg University, by the
illustrious Kant; every Lecture punctually taken in short-hand, and
transmitted to Berlin, post after post, for the busy man).
[Kuno Fischer, Kant's Leben (Mannheim, 1860),
pp. 34, 35.] Here is now some painful Correspondence between the
King and him,--painful, yet pleasant:--

KING TO MINISTER VON ZEDLITZ, WHO HAS ALARMING DOUBTS (Berlin, 28th
December, 1779).--"Your Report of the 20th instant in regard to
Judgment on the arrested Raths has been received. But do you think
I don't understand your Advocate fellows and their quirks; or how
they can polish up a bad cause, and by their hyperboles exaggerate
or extenuate as they find fit? The Goose-quill class (FEDERZEUG)
can't look at facts. When Soldiers set to investigate anything, on
an order given, they go the straight way to the kernel of the
matter; upon which, plenty of objections from the Goose-quill
people!--But you may assure yourself I give more belief to an
honest Officer, who has honor in the heart of him, than to all your
Advocates and sentences. I perceive well they are themselves
afraid, and don't want to see any of their fellows punished.
"If, therefore, you will not obey my Order, I shall take another in
your place who will; for depart from it I will not. You may tell
them that. And know, for your part, that such miserable jargon
(MISERABEL STYL) makes not the smallest impression on me.
Hereby, then, you are to guide yourself; and merely say whether you
will follow my Order or not; for I will in no wise fall away from
it. I am your well-affectioned King,--FRIEDRICH."

MARGINALE (in Autograph).--"My Gentleman [you, Herr von Zedlitz,
with your dubitatings] won't make me believe black is white. I know
the Advocate sleight-of-hand, and won't be taken in. An example has
become necessary here,-- those Scoundrels (CANAILLEN) having so
enormously misused my name, to practise arbitrary and unheard-of
injustices. A Judge that goes upon chicaning is to be punished more
severely than a highway Robber. For you have trusted to the one;
you are on your guard against the other."

ZEDLITZ TO THE KING (Berlin, 31st December, 1779).--"I have at all
times had your Royal Majesty's favor before my eyes as the supreme
happiness of my life, and have most zealously endeavored to merit
the same: but I should recognize myself unworthy of it, were I
capable of an undertaking contrary to my conviction. From the
reasons indicated by myself, as well as by the Criminal-Senate
[Paper of reasons fortunately lost], your Majesty will deign to
consider that I am unable to draw up a condemnatory Sentence
against your Majesty's Servants-of-Justice now under arrest on
account of the Arnold Affair. Your Majesty's till death,--
VON ZEDLITZ."

KING TO ZEDLITZ (Berlin, 1st January, 1780).--"My dear State's-
Minister Freiherr von Zedlitz,--It much surprises me to see, from
your Note of yesterday, that yon refuse to pronounce a judgment on
those Servants-of-Justice arrested for their conduct in the Arnold
Case, according to my Order. If you, therefore, will not, I will;
and do it as follows:--

"1. The Custrin Regierungs-Rath Scheibler, who, it appears in
evidence, was of an opposite opinion to his Colleagues, and voted
That the man up-stream had not a right to cut off the water from
the man down-stream; and that the point, as to Arnold's wanting
water, should be more closely and strictly inquired into,--he,
Scheibler, shall be set free from his arrest, and go back to his
post at Custrin. And in like manner, Kammergerichts-Rath
Rannsleben--who has evidently given himself faithful trouble about
the cause, and has brought forward with a quite visible
impartiality all the considerations and dubieties, especially about
the condition of the water and the alleged hurtfulness of the Pond
--is absolved from arrest.

"2. As for the other arrested Servants-of-Justice, they are one and
all dismissed from office (CASSIRT), and condemned to one year's
Fortress-Arrest. Furthermore, they shall pay to Arnold the value of
his Mill, and make good to him, out of their own pocket, all the
loss and damage he has suffered in this business; the Neumark
KAMMER (Revenue-Board) to tax and estimate the same. [Damage came
to 1,358 thalers, 11 groschen, 1 pfennig,--that is, 203 pounds 14s.
and some pence and farthings; the last farthing of which was
punctually paid to Arnold, within the next eight months;] [Preuss,
iii. 409.]--so that

"3. The Miller Arnold shall be completely put as he was (IN
INTEGRUM RESTITUIRT).

"And in such way must the matter, in all branches of it, be
immediately proceeded with, got ready, and handed in for my
Completion (VOLLZIEHUNG) by Signature. Which you, therefore, will
take charge of, without delay. For the rest, I will tell you
farther, that I am not ill pleased to know you on the side you show
on this occasion [as a man that will not go against his
conscience], and shall see, by and by, what I can farther do with
you. [Left him where he was, as the best thing.] Whereafter you are
accordingly to guide yourself. And I remain otherwise your well-
affectioned King, FRIEDRICH."
[Ib. iii. 519, 520; see ib. 405 n.]

This, then, is an impartial account of the celebrated passage
between Friedrich and the Lawyers known by the name of "the MILLER-
ARNOLD CASE;" which attracted the notice of all Europe,--just while
the decennium of the French Revolution was beginning. In Russia,
the Czarina Catharine, the friend of Philosophers, sent to her
Senate a copy of Friedrich's PROTOCOL OF DECEMBER 11th, as a
noteworthy instance of Royal supreme judicature. In France, Prints
in celebration of it,--"one Print by Vangelisti, entitled BALANCE
DE FREDERIC,"--were exhibited in shop-windows, expounded in
newspapers, and discoursed of in drawing-rooms. The Case brought
into talk again an old Miller Case of Friedrich's, which had been
famous above thirty years ago, when Sans-Souci was getting built.
Readers know it: Potsdam Miller, and his obstinate Windmill, which
still grinds on its knoll in those localities, and would not, at
any price, become part of the King's Gardens. "Not at any price?"
said the King's agent: "Cannot the King take it from you for
nothing, if he chose?" "Have n't we the Kammergericht at Berlin!"
answered the Miller. To Friedrich's great delight, as appears;--
which might render the Windmill itself a kind of ornament to his
Gardens thenceforth. The French admiration over these two Miller
Cases continued to be very great. [Dieulafoi, LE MEUNIER DE
SANS-SOUCI (Comedy or farce, of I know not what year); Andrieux, LE
MOULIN DE SANS-SOUCI ("Poem," at INSTITUT NATIONAL 15 GERMINAL, AN
5), &c. &c.: Preuss, iii. 412, 413.]

As to Miller Arnold and his Cause, the united voice of Prussian
Society condemned Friedrich's procedure: Such harshness to Grand-
Chancellor Furst and respectable old Official Gentlemen, amounting
to the barbarous and tyrannous, according to Prussian Society.
To support which feeling, and testify it openly, they drove in
crowds to Furst's (some have told me to the Prison-doors too, but
that seems hypothetic); and left cards for old Furst and Company.
In sight of Friedrich, who inquired, "What is this stir on the
streets, then?"--and, on learning, made not the least audible
remark; but continued his salutary cashierment of the wigged
Gentlemen, and imprisonment till their full term ran.

My impression has been that, in Berlin Society, there was more
sympathy for mere respectability of wig than in Friedrich.
To Friedrich respectability of wig that issues in solemnly failing
to do justice, is a mere enormity, greater than the most wigless
condition could be. Wigless, the thing were to be endured, a thing
one is born to, more or less: but in wig,--out upon it! And the wig
which screens, and would strive to disguise and even to embellish
such a thing: To the gutters with such wig!

In support of their feeling for Furst and Company, Berlin Society
was farther obliged to pronounce the claim of Miller Arnold a
nullity, and that no injustice whatever had been done him.
Mere pretences on his part, subterfuges for his idle conduct, for
his inability to pay due rent, said Berlin Society. And that
impartial Soldier-person, whom Friedrich sent to examine by the
light of nature, and report? "Corrupted he!" answer they:
"had intrigues with--" I forget whom; somebody of the womankind
(perhaps Arnold's old hard-featured Wife, if you are driven into a
corner!)--"and was not to be depended on at all!" In which
condemned state, Berlin Society almost wholly disapproving it, the
Arnold Process was found at Friedrich's death (restoration of
honors to old Furst and Company, one of the first acts of the New
Reign, sure of immediate popularity); and, I think, pretty much
continues so still, few or none in Berlin Society admitting Miller
Arnold's claim to redress, much less defending that onslaught on
Furst and the wigs. [Herr Preuss himself inclines that way, rather
condemnatory of Friedrich; but his Account, as usual, is exact and
authentic,--though distressingly confused, and scattered about into
different corners (Preuss, iii. 381-413; then again, ibid. 520
&c.). On the other hand, there is one Segebusch, too, a learned
Doctor, of Altona, who takes the King's side,--and really is rather
stupid, argumentative merely, and unilluminative, if you read him:
Segebusch, Historischrechtliche Wurdigung der Einmischung
Friedrich's des Grossen in die bekannte Rechtssache des Mullers
Arnold, auch fur Nicht-Juristen (Altona, 1829).]

Who, from the remote distance, would venture to contradict?
Once more, my own poor impression was, which I keep silent except
to friends, that Berlin Society was wrong; that Miller Arnold had
of a truth lost portions of his dam-water, and was entitled to
abatement; and that in such case, Friedrich's horror at the Furst-
and-Company Phenomenon (horror aggravated by gout) had its highly
respectable side withal.

When, after Friedrich's death, on Von Gersdorf's urgent
reclamations, the case was reopened, and allowed to be carried
"into the Secret Tribunal, as the competent Court of Appeal in
third instance," the said Tribunal found, That the law-maxim
depended upon by the Lower Courts, as to "the absolute right of
owners of private streams," did NOT apply in the present case;
but that the Deed of 1566 did; and also that "the facts as to
pretended damage [PRETENCE merely] from loss of water, were
satisfactorily proved against Arnold:" Gersdorf, therefore, may
have his Pond; and Arnold must refund the money paid to him for
"damages" by the condemned Judges; and also the purchase-money of
his Mill, if he means to keep the latter. All which moneys,
however, his Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm II., Friedrich's Successor,
to have done with the matter, handsomely paid out of his own
pocket: the handsome way of ending it.

In his last journey to West-Preussen, June, 1784, Friedrich said to
the new Regierungs-President (Chief Judge) there: "I am Head
Commissary of Justice; and have a heavy responsibility lying on
me,"--as will you in this new Office. Friedrich at no moment
neglected this part of his functions; and his procedure in it
throughout, one cannot but admit to have been faithful, beautiful,
human. Very impatient indeed when he comes upon Imbecility and
Pedantry threatening to extinguish Essence and Fact, among his Law
People! This is one MARGINALE of his, among many such, some of them
still more stinging, which are comfortable to every reader.
The Case is that of a murderer,--murder indisputable; "but may not
insanity be suspected, your Majesty, such the absence of motive,
such the--?" Majesty answers: "That is nothing but inanity and
stupid pleading against right. The fellow put a child to death;
if he were a soldier, you would execute him without priest;
and because this CANAILLE is a citizen, you make him 'melancholic'
to get him off. Beautiful justice!" [Preuss, iii. 375.]

Friedrich has to sign all Death-Sentences; and he does it, wherever
I have noticed, rigorously well. For the rest, his Criminal
Calendar seems to be lighter than any other of his time; "in a
population of 5,200,000," says he once, "14 to 15 are annually
condemned to death."

Chapter VIII.

THE FURSTENBUND: FRIEDRICH'S LAST YEARS.

At Vienna, on November 29th, 1780, the noble Kaiserinn Maria
Theresa, after a short illness, died. Her end was beautiful and
exemplary, as her course had been. The disease, which seemed at
first only a bad cold, proved to have been induration of the lungs;
the chief symptom throughout, a more and more suffocating
difficulty to breathe. On the edge of death, the Kaiserinn, sitting
in a chair (bed impossible in such struggle for breath), leant her
head back as if inclined to sleep. One of her women arranged the
cushions, asked in a whisper, "Will your Majesty sleep, then?"
"No," answered the dying Kaiserinn; "I could sleep, but I must not;
Death is too near. He must not steal upon me. These fifteen years I
have been making ready for him; I will meet him awake."
Fifteen years ago her beloved Franz was snatched from her, in such
sudden manner: and ever since, she has gone in Widow's dress;
and has looked upon herself as one who had done with the world.
The 18th of every month has been for her a day of solitary prayer;
18th of every August (Franz's death-day) she has gone down
punctually to the vaults in the Stephans-Kirche, and sat by his
coffin there;--last August, something broke in the apparatus as she
descended; and it has ever since been an omen to her. [Hormayr,
OEsterreichischer Plutarch, iv. (2tes) 94;
Keith, ii. 114.] Omen now fulfilled.

On her death, Joseph and Kaunitz, now become supreme, launched
abroad in their ambitious adventures with loose rein. Schemes of
all kinds; including Bavaria still, in spite of the late check;
for which latter, and for vast prospects in Turkey as well, the
young Kaiser is now upon a cunning method, full of promise to him,
--that of ingratiating himself with the Czarina, and cutting out
Friedrich in that quarter. Summer, 1780, while the Kaiserinn still
lived, Joseph made his famous First Visit to the Czarina (May-
August, 1780), [Hermann, vi. 132-135.]--not yet for some years his
thrice-famous Second Visit (thrice-famous Cleopatra-voyage with her
down the Dnieper; dramaturgic cities and populations keeping pace
with them on the banks, such the scenic faculty of Russian
Officials, with Potemkin as stage-manager):--in the course of which
First Visit, still more in the Second, it is well known the Czarina
and Joseph came to an understanding. Little articulated of it as
yet; but the meaning already clear to both. "A frank partnership,
high Madam: to you, full scope in your glorious notion of a Greek
Capital and Empire, Turk quite trampled away, Constantinople a
Christian metropolis once more [and your next Grandson a
CONSTANTINE,--to be in readiness]: why not, if I may share too, in
the Donau Countries, that lie handy? To you, I say, an Eastern
Empire; to me, a Western: Revival of the poor old Romish Reich, so
far as may be; and no hindrance upon Bavaria, next time. Have not
we had enough of that old Friedrich, who stands perpetually upon
STATUS QUO, and to both of us is a mere stoppage of the way?"

Czarina Catharine took the hint; christened her next Grandson
"Constantine" (to be in readiness); [This is the Constantine who
renounced, in favor of the late Czar Nicholas; and proved a failure
in regard to "New Greek Empire," and otherwise.] and from that time
stiffly refused renewing her Treaty with Friedrich;--to Friedrich's
great grief, seeing her, on the contrary, industrious to forward
every German scheme of Joseph's, Bavarian or other, and
foreshadowing to himself dismal issues for Prussia when this
present term of Treaty should expire. As to Joseph, he was busy
night and day,--really perilous to Friedrich and the independence
of the German Reich. His young Brother, Maximilian, he contrives,
Czarina helping, to get elected Co-adjutor of Koln; Successor of
our Lanky Friend there, to be Kur-Koln in due season, and make the
Electorate of Koln a bit of Austria henceforth. [Lengthy and minute
account of that Transaction, in all the steps of it, in DOHM, i.
295-39.] Then there came "PANIS-BRIEFE," [PANIS (Bread) BRIEF is a
Letter with which, in ancient centuries, the Kaiser used to furnish
an old worn-out Servant, addressed to some Monastery, some Abbot or
Prior in easy circumstances: "Be so good as provide this old
Gentleman with Panis (Bread, or Board and Lodging) while he lives."
Very pretty in Barbarossa's time;--but now--!]--who knows what?--
usurpations, graspings and pretensions without end:--finally, an
open pretension to incorporate Bavaria, after all. Bavaria, not in
part now, but in whole: "You, Karl Theodor, injured man, cannot we
give you Territory in the Netherlands; a King there you shall be,
and have your vote as Kur-Pfalz still; only think! In return for
which, Bavaria ours in fee-simple, and so finish that?"
Karl Theodor is perfectly willing,--only perhaps some others are
not. Then and there, these threatening complexities, now gone
like a dream of the night, were really life-perils for the Kingdom
of Prussia; never to be lost sight of by a veteran Shepherd of the
People. They kept a vigilant King Friedrich continually on the
stretch, and were a standing life-problem to him in those final
Years. Problem nearly insoluble to human contrivance; the Russian
card having palpably gone into the other hand. Problem solved,
nevertheless; it is still remembered how.

On the development of that pretty Bavarian Project, the thing
became pressing; and it is well known by what a stroke of genius
Friedrich checkmated it; and produced instead a "FURSTENBUND," or
general "Confederation of German Princes," Prussia atop, to forbid
peremptorily that the Laws of the Reich be infringed. FURSTENBUND:
this is the victorious summit of Friedrich's Public History,
towards which all his efforts tended, during these five years:
Friedrich's last feat in the world. Feat, how obsolete now,--fallen
silent everywhere, except in German Parish-History, and to the
students of Friedrich's character in old age! Had no result
whatever in European History; so unexpected was the turn things
took. A FURSTENBUND which was swallowed bodily within few years, in
that World-Explosion of Democracy, and War of the Giants;
and--unless Napoleon's "Confederation of the Rhine" were perhaps
some transitory ghost of it?--left not even a ghost behind.
A FURSTENBUND of which we must say something, when its Year comes;
but obviously not much.

Nor are the Domesticities, as set forth by our Prussian
authorities, an opulent topic for us. Friedrich's Old Age is not
unamiable; on the contrary, I think it would have made a pretty
Picture, had there been a Limner to take it, with the least
felicity or physiognomic coherency;--as there was not. His Letters,
and all the symptoms we have, denote a sound-hearted brave old man;
continually subduing to himself many ugly troubles; and, like the
stars, always steady at his work. To sit grieving or desponding is,
at all times, far from him: "Why despond? Won't it be all done
presently; is it of much moment while it lasts?" A fine,
unaffectedly vigorous, simple and manful old age;--rather serene
than otherwise; in spite of electric outbursts and cloudy weather
that could not be wanting.

Of all which there is not, in this place, much more to be said.
Friedrich's element is itself wearing dim, sombre of hue; and the
records of it, too, seem to grow dimmer, more and more
intermittent. Old friends, of the intellectual kind, are almost all
dead; the new are of little moment to us,--not worth naming in
comparison, The chief, perhaps, is a certain young Marchese
Lucchesini, who comes about this time, ["Chamberlain [titular, with
Pension, &c.], 9th May, 1780, age then 28" (Preuss, iv.
211);-arrived when or how is not said.] and continues in more and
more favor both with Friedrich and his Successor,--employed even in
Diplomatics by the latter. An accomplished young Gentleman, from
Lucca; of fine intelligence, and, what was no less essential to him
here, a perfect propriety in breeding and carriage. One makes no
acquaintance with him in these straggling records, nor desires to
make any. It was he that brought the inane, ever scribbling Denina
hither, if that can be reckoned a merit. Inane Denina came as
Academician, October, 1782; saw Friedrich, [Rodenbeck, iii. 285,
286.] at least once ("Academician, Pension; yes, yes!")--and I know
not whether any second time.

Friedrich, on loss of friends, does not take refuge in solitude; he
tries always for something of substitute; sees his man once or
twice,--in several instances once only, and leaves him to his
pension in sinecure thenceforth. Cornelius de Pauw, the rich Canon
of Xanten (Uncle of Anacharsis Klootz, the afterwards renowned),
came on those principles; hung on for six months, not liked, not
liking; and was then permitted to go home for good, his pension
with him. Another, a Frenchman, whose name I forget, sat gloomily
in Potsdam, after his rejection; silent (not knowing German),
unclipt, unkempt, rough as Nebuchadnezzar, till he died. De Catt is
still a resource; steady till almost the end, when somebody's
tongue, it is thought, did him ill with the King.

Alone, or almost alone, of the ancient set is Bastiani; a tall,
black-browed man, with uncommonly bright eyes, now himself old, and
a comfortable Abbot in Silesia; who comes from time to time,
awakening the King into his pristine topics and altitudes.
Bastiani's history is something curious: as a tall Venetian Monk
(son of a tailor in Venice), he had been crimped by Friedrich
Wilhelm's people; Friedrich found him serving as a Potsdam Giant,
but discerned far other faculties in the bright-looking man, far
other knowledges; and gradually made him what we see. Banters him
sometimes that he will rise to be Pope one day, so cunning and
clever is he: "What will you say to me, a Heretic, when you get to
be Pope; tell me now; out with it, I insist!" Bastiani parried,
pleaded, but unable to get off, made what some call his one piece
of wit: "I will say: O Royal Eagle, screen me with thy wings, but
spare me with thy sharp beak!" This is Bastiani's one recorded
piece of wit; for he was tacit rather, and practically watchful,
and did not waste his fine intellect in that way.

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