and of partaking of the pleasures and labours of | a respectful answer, but wisely avoided to diminish his own right or power by an absolute promise; and the king died uncertain of the fate of the tall regiment. a lower station, made him acquainted with the various forms of life, and with the genuine passions, interests, desires, and distresses, of mankind. Kings, without this help, from temporary infelicity, see the world in a mist, which maguifies every thing near them, and bounds their view to a narrow compass, which few are able to extend by the mere force of curiosity. I have always thought that what Cromwell had more than our lawful kings, he owed to the private condition in which he first entered the world, and in which he long continued: in that state he learned his art of secret transaction, and the knowledge by which he was able to oppose zeal to zeal, and make one enthusiast destroy another. The King of Prussia gained the same arts, and, being born to fairer opportunities of using them, brought to the throne the knowledge of a private man without the guilt of usurpation. Of this general acquaintance with the world there may be found some traces in his whole life. His conversation is like that of other men upon common topics, his letters have an air of familiar elegance, and his whole conduct is that of a man who has to do with men, and who is not ignorant what motives will prevail over friends or enemies. In 1740, the old king fell sick, and spoke and acted in his illness with his usual turbulence and roughness, reproaching his physicians in the grossest terms with their unskilfulness and impotence, and imputing to their ignorance or wickedness the pain which their prescriptions failed to relieve. These insults they bore with the submission which is commonly paid to despotic monarchs; till at last the celebrated Hoffman was consulted, who failing, like the rest, to give ease to his majesty, was, like the rest, treated with injurious language. Hoffman, conscious of his own merit, replied, that he could not bear reproaches which he did not deserve; that he had tried all the remedies that art could supply, or nature could admit; that he was, indeed a professor by his majesty's bounty; but that, if his abilities or integrity were doubted, he was willing to leave, not only the university, but the kingdom, and that he could not be driven into any place where the name of Hoffman would want respect. The king, however unaccustomed to such returns, was struck with conviction of his own indecency, told Hoffman, that he had spoken well, and requested him to continue his attendance. The king, finding his distemper gaining upon his strength, grew at last sensible that his end was approaching, and ordering the prince to be called to his bed, laid several injunctions upon him, of which one was to perpetuate the tall regiment by continual recruits, and another to eceive his espoused wife. The prince gave him The young king began his reign with great expectations, which he has yet surpassed. His father's faults produced many advantages to the first years of his reign. He had an army of seventy thousand men well disciplined, without any imputation of severity to himself; and was master of a vast treasure, without the crime or reproach of raising it. It was publicly said in our House of Commons, that he had eight millions sterling of our money; but I believe he that said it, had not considered how difficultly eight millions would be found in all the Prussian dominions. Men judge of what they do not see by that which they see. We are used to talk in England of millions with great fami liarity, and imagine that there is the same afilu ence of money in other countries, in countries whose manufactures are few, and commerce little. Every man's first cares are necessarily domestic. The king, being now no longer under influence, or its appearance, determined how to act towards the unhappy lady who had possessed for seven years the empty title of the Princess of Prussia. The papers of those times exhibited the conversation of their first interview; as if the king, who plans campaigns in silence, would not accommodate a difference with his wife, but with writers of news admitted as witnesses It is certain that he received her as queen, but whether he treats her as a wife is yet in dispute. In a few days his resolution was known with regard to the tall regiment; for some recruits being offered him, he rejected them; and this body of giants, by continued disregard, mould, ered away. He treated his mother with great respect, ordered that she should bear the title of Queenmother, and that, instead of addressing him as His Majesty, she should only call him Sơn, As he was passing soon after between Berlin and Potsdam, a thousand boys, who had been marked out for military service, surrounded his coach, and cried out, "Merciful king! deliver us from our slavery," He promised them their liberty, and ordered, the next day, that the badge should be taken off. He still continued that correspondence with learned men which he began when he was prince; and the eyes of all scholars, a race of mortals formed for dependence, were upon him, as a man likely to renew the times of patronage, and to emulate the bounties of Lewis the Fourteenth. It soon appeared that he was resolved to govern with very little ministerial assistance: he took cognizance of every thing with his own Ꮓ eyes; declared, that in all contrarieties of interest between him and his subjects, the public good should have the preference; and in one of the first exertions of regal power banished the prime minister and favourite of his father, as one that had betrayed his master and abused his trust. He then declared his resolution to grant a general toleration of religion, and among other liberalities of concession allowed the profession of Free Masonry. It is the great taint of his character, that he has given reason to doubt, whether this toleration is the effect of charity or indifference, whether he means to support good men of every religion, or considers all religions as equally good. There had subsisted for some time in Prussia an order called the Order for Favour, which, according to its denomination, had been conferred with very little distinction. The king instituted the Order for Merit, with which he honoured those whom he considered as deserving. There were some who thought their merit not sufficiently recompensed by this new title; but he was not very ready to grant pecuniary rewards. Those who were most in his favour he sometimes presented with snuff-boxes, on which was Inscribed, Amitie augmente le prix. In three days the answer was sent, in which the bishop founds his claim to the two lordships upon a grant of Charles the Fifth, guaranteed by France and Spain; alleges that his predecessors had enjoyed this grant above a century, and that he never intended to infringe the rights of Prussia; but, as the House of Brandenburgh had always made some pretensions to that territory, he was willing to do what other bishops had offered, to purchase that claim for a hundred thousand crowns. To every man that knows the state of the feudal countries, the intricacy of their pedigrees, the confusion of their alliances, and the different rules of inheritance that prevail in different places, it will appear evident, that of reviving antiquated claims there can be no end, and that the possession of a century is a better title than can commonly be produced. So long a prescription supposes an acquiescence in the other claimants; and that acquiescence supposes also some reason, perhaps now unknown, for which the claim was forborne. Whether this rule could be considered as valid in the controversy between these sovereigns, may, however, be doubted, for the bishop's answer seems to imply, that the title of the House of Brandenburgh had been kept alive by repeated claims, though the seizure of the territory had been hitherto forborne. The king did not suffer his claim to be sub He was, however, charitable, if not liberal, for he ordered the magistrates of the several districts to be very attentive to the relief of thejected to any altercations, but, having published poor; and if the funds established for that use were not sufficient, permitted that the deficiency should be supplied out of the revenues of the town. One of his first cares was the advancement of learning. Immediately upon his accession, he wrote to Rollin and Voltaire, that he desired the continuance of their friendship; and sent for Mr. Maupertuis, the principal of the French academicians, who passed a winter in Lapland, to verify, by the mensuration of a degree near the Pole, the Newtonian doctrine of the form of the earth. He requested of Maupertuis to come to Berlin, to settle an academy, in terms of great ardour and great condescension. At the same time, he showed the world that literary amusements were not likely, as has more than once happened to royal students, to withdraw him from the care of the kingdom, or make him forget his interest. He began by reviving a claim to Herstal and Hermal, two dis- | tricts in the possession of the Bishop of Liege. When he sent his commissary to demand the homage of the inhabitants, they refused him admission, declaring that they acknowledged no sovereign but the bishop. The king then wrote a letter to the bishop, in which he complained of the violation of his right, and the contempt of his authority, charged the prelate with countenancing the late act of disobedience, and required an answer in two days. a declaration, in which he charged the bishop with violence and injustice, and remarked that the feudal laws allowed every man, whose possession was withheld from him, to enter it with an armed force, he immediately despatched two thousand soldiers into the controverted countries, where they lived without control, exercising every kind of military tyranny, till the cries of the inhabitants forced the bishop to relinquish them to the quiet government of Prussia. This was but a petty acquisition; the time was now come when the King of Prussia was to form and execute greater designs. On the 9th of October, 1740, half Europe was thrown intc confusion by the death of Charles the Sixth, Emperor of Germany; by whose death all the hereditary dominions of the House of Austria descended, according to the pragmatic sanction, to his eldest daughter, who was married to the Duke of Lorrain, at the time of the emperor's death, Duke of Tuscany. By how many securities the pragmatic sanction was fortified, and how little it was regarded when those securities became necessary; how many claimants started up at once to the several dominions of the house of Austria; how vehemently their pretensions were enforced, and how many invasions were threatened or attempted; the distresses of the emperor's daughter, known for several years by the title only of the Queen of Hungary, because Hungary was the only country to which her claim had not been disputed; the firmness with which she struggled with her difficulties, and the good fortune by which she surmounted them; the nar. row plan of this essay will not suffer me to relate. Let them be told by some other writer of more leisure and wider intelligence. and believed that he could accomplish it; that he would immediately advance to the queen two millions of florins; that, in recompence for all this, he required Silesia to be yielded to him." These seem not to be the offers of a prince very much convinced of his own right. He afterwards moderated his claim, and ordered his minister to hint at Vienna, that half of Silesia would content him. The queen answered, that though the king alleged, as his reason for entering Silesia, the danger of the Austrian territories from other pretenders, and endeavoured to persuade her to give up part of her possessions for the preservation of the rest, it was evident that he was the first and only invader, and that, till he entered in a hostile manner, all her estates were unmolested. Upon the emperor's death, many of the German princes fell upon the Austrian territories as upon a dead carcase, to be dismembered among them without resistance. Among these, with whatever justice, certainly with very little generosity, was the King of Prussia, who, having assembled his troops, as was imagined, to support the pragmatic sanction, on a sudden entered Silesia with thirty thousand men, publishing a declaration, in which he disclaims any design of injuring the rights of the House of Austria, but urges his claim to Silesia, as rising "from"that she set a high value on the King of Prusancient conventions of family and confraternity between the House of Brandenburgh and the Princes of Silesia, and other honourable titles." He says, the fear of being defeated by other pretenders to the Austrian dominions, obliged him to enter Silesia without any previous expostulation with the queen, and that he shall "strenuously espouse the interests of the House of Austria." To his promises of assistance, she replied, sia's friendship; but that he was already oblig ed to assist her against invaders, both by the golden bull, and the pragmatic sanction, of which he was a guarantee, and that, if these ties were of no force, she knew not what to hope from other engagements.” Of his offers of alliances with Russia and the maritime powers, she observed, that it could be never fit to alienate her dominions for the conso With regard to his interest in the election of an emperor, she expressed her gratitude in strong terms; but added, that the election ought to be free, and that it must be necessarily embarrassed by contentions thus raised in the heart of the Such a declaration was, I believe, in the opin-lidation of an alliance formed only to keep them ion of all Europe, nothing less than the aggra-intire. vation of hostility by insult, and was received by the Austrians with suitable indignation. The king pursued his purpose, marched forward, and in the frontiers of Silesia made a speech to his followers, in which he told them, that he considered them rather "as friends than sub-empire. Of the pecuniary assistance proposed, jects, that the troops of Brandenburgh had been always eminent for their bravery, that they would always fight in his presence, and that he would recompence those who should distinguish themselves in his service, rather as a father than as a king." The civilities of the great are never thrown away. The soldiers would naturally follow such a leader with alacrity; especially because they expected no opposition: but human expectations are frequently deceived. she remarks, that no prince ever made war to oblige another to take money, and that the contributions already levied in Silesia exceeded the two millions, offered as its purchase. She concluded that as she values the king's friendship, she was willing to purchase it by any compliance but the diminution of her dominicns, and exhorted him to perform his part in support of the pragmatic sanction. The king, finding negotiation thus ineffectual, pushed forward his inroads, and now began to show how secretly he could take his measures. When he called a council of war, he proposed the question in a few words: all his generals wrote their opinions in his presence upon separate papers, which he carried away, and, exam Entering thus suddenly into a country which he was supposed rather likely to protect than to invade, he acted for some time with absolute authority but, supposing that this submission would not always last, he endeavoured to persuade the queen to a cession of Silesia, imagin-ining them in private, formed his resolution, ing that she would easily be persuaded to yield without imparting it otherwise than by his orwhat was already lost. He therefore ordered ders. his minister to declare at Vienna, "that he was ready to guarantee all the German dominions of the House of Austria; that he would conclude a treaty with Austria, Russia, and the maritime powers; that he would endeavour that the Duke of Lorrain should be elected emperor, He began, not without policy, to seize first upon the estates of the clergy, an order every where necessary, and every where envied. He plundered the convents of their stores of provision; and told them, that he never had heard of any magazines erected by the apostles. This insult was mean, because it was unjust; | honours, and endeavoured to join the praise of but those who could not resist were obliged to legislator to that of conqueror. bear it. He proceeded in his expedition; and a detachment of his troops took Jablunca, one of the strong places of Silesia, which was soon after abandoned. for want of provisions, which the Austrian hussars, who were now in motion, were busy to interrupt. One of the most remarkable events of the Silesian war, was the conquest of Great Glogaw, which was taken by an assault in the dark, headed by Prince Leopold of Anhalt Dessau. They arrived at the foot of the fortifications about twelve at night, and in two hours were masters of the place. In attempts of this kind, many accidents happen which cannot be heard without surprise. Four Prussian grenadiers who had climbed the ramparts, missing their own company, met an Austrian captain with fifty-two men they were at first frighted, and were about to retreat; but, gathering courage, commanded the Austrians to lay down their arms, and in the terror of darkness and confusion were unexpectedly obeyed. To settle property, to suppress false clains, and to regulate the administration of civil and criminal justice, are attempts so difficult and so useful, that I shall willingly suspend or contract the history of battles and sieges, to give a larger account of this pacific enterprize. That the King of Prussia has considered the nature and the reasons of laws, with more attention than is common to princes, appears from his dissertation on the "Reasons for enacting and repealing Laws:" a piece which yet deserves notice, rather as a proof of good inclination than of great ability; for there is nothing to be found in it more than the most obvious books may supply, or the weakest intellect discover. Some of his observations are just and useful; but upon such a subject who can think without often thinking right? It is, however, not to be omitted, that he appears always propense towards the side of mercy. “If a poor man," says he, "steals in his want a watch, or a few pieces, from one to whom the loss is inconsiderable, it this a reason for condemning At the same time a conspiracy to kill or carry away the King of Prussia was said to be dis-him to death?" covered. The Prussians published a memorial, in which the Austrian court was accused of employing emissaries and assassins against the king; and it was alleged, in direct terms, that one of them had confessed himself obliged by oath to destroy him, which oath had been given him in an Aulic council in the presence of the Duke of Lorrain. To this the Austrians answered, "that the character of the queen and duke was oo well known not to destroy the force of such an accusation, that the tale of the confession was an imposture, and that no such attempt was ever made." Each party was now inflamed, and orders were given to the Austrian general to hazard a battle. The two armies met at Molwitz, and parted without a complete victory on either side. The Austrians quitted the field in good order; and the King of Prussia rode away upon the first disorder of his troops, without waiting for the last event. This attention to his personal safety has not yet been forgotten. After this, there was no action of much importance. But the King of Prussia, irritated by opposition, transferred his interest in the election to the Duke of Bavaria; and the Queen of Hungary, now attacked by France, Spain, and Bavaria, was obliged to make peace with him at the expense of half Silesia, without procuring those advantages which were once offered her. To enlarge dominions has been the boast of many princes; to diffuse happiness and security through wide regions has been granted to few. The King of Prussia has aspired to both these He regrets that the laws against duels have been ineffectual; and is of opinion that they can never attain their end, unless the princes of Europe shall agree not to afford an asylum to duellists, and to punish all who shall insult their equals either by word, deed, or writing. He seems to suspect this scheme of being chimerical. "Yet why," says he, "should not personal quarrels be submitted to judges, as well as questions of possession? and why should not a congress be appointed for the general good of mankind, as well as for so many purposes of less importance?" He declares himself with great ardour against the use of torture, and by some misinformation charges the English that they still retain it. It is perhaps impossible to review the laws of any country without discovering many defects any many superfluities. Laws often continue, when their reasons have ceased. Laws made for the first state of the society continue unabolished, when the general form of life is changed. Parts of the judicial procedure, which were at first only accidental, become in time essential; and formalities are accumulated on each other, till the art of litigation requires more study, than the discovery of right. The King of Prussia, examining the institutions of his own country, thought them such as could only be amended by a general abrogation, and the establishment of a new body of law, to which he gave the name of the "Code Frederique," which is comprised in one volume of no great bulk, and must therefore unavoidably contain general positions to be accommodated to particular cases by the wisdom and integrity of the courts. To embarrass justice by multipli- | fore necessary. But these men, instead of encity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in deavouring to promote justice and discover judges, seems to be the opposite rocks on which truth, have exerted their wits in the defence of all civil institutions have been wrecked, and be- bad causes, by forgeries of facts, and fallacies of tween which legislative wisdom has never yet argument. found an open passage. Of this new system of laws, contracted as it is, a full account cannot be expected in these memoirs: but, that curiosity may not be dismissed without some gratification, it has been thought proper to epitomise the king's "plan for the reformation of his courts." "The differences which arise between members of the same society, may be terminated by a voluntary agreement between the parties, by arbitration, or by a judicial process. "The two first methods produce more frequently a temporary suspension of disputes than a final termination. Courts of justice are therefore necessary, with a settled method of procedure, of which the most simple is to cite the parties, to hear their pleas, and dismiss them with immediate decision. "This, however, is in many cases impracticable, and in others is so seldom practised, that it is frequent rather to incur loss than to seek for legal reparation, by entering a labyrinth of which there is no end. "To remedy this evil, the king has ordered an inquiry into the qualifications of the advocate. All those who practise without a regular admission, or who can be convicted of disingenuous practice, are discarded. And the judges are commanded to examine which of the causes now depending have been protracted by the crimes and ignorance of the advocates, and to dismiss those who shall appear culpable. "When advocates are too numerous to live by honest practice, they busy themselves in exciting disputes, and disturbing the community: the number of these to be employed in each court is therefore fixed. "The reward of the advocates is fixed with due regard to the nature of the cause, and the labour required; but not a penny is received by them till the suit is ended, that it may be their interest, as well as that of the clients, to shorten the process. "No advocate is admitted in petty courts, small towns, or villages; where the poverty of the people, and for the most part the low value of the matter contested, make despatch absolutely necessary. In those places the parties shall appear in person, and the judge make a sum "This tediousness of suits keeps the parties in disquiet and perturbation, rouses and perpetuates animosities, exhausts the litigants by expense, retards the progress of their fortune, and discou-mary decision. rages strangers from settling. "These inconveniences, with which the best regulated polities of Europe are embarrassed, must be removed, not by the total prohibition of suits, which is impossible, but by contraction of processes; by opening an easy way for the appearance of truth, and removing all obstructions by which it is concealed. "The ordonnance of 1667, by which Lewis the Fourteenth established a uniformity of procedure through all his courts, has been considered as one of the greatest benefits of his reign. "The king of Prussia, observing that each of his provinces had a different method of judicial procedure, proposed to reduce them all to one form; which being tried with success in Pome rania, a province remarkable for contention, he afterwards extended to all his dominions, ordering the judges to inform him of any difficulties which arose from it. "Some settled method is necessary in judicial procedures. Small and simple causes might be decided upon the oral pleas of the two parties appearing before the judge: but many cases are so entangled and perplexed as to require all the skill and abilities of those who devote their lives to the study of the law. "Advocates, or men who can understand and explain the question to be discussed, are there "There must likewise be allowed a subordination of tribunals, and a power of appeal. No judge is so skilful and attentive as not sometimes to err. Few are so honest as not sometimes to be partial. Petty judges would become insupportably tyrannical if they were not restrained by the fear of a superior judicature; and their decision would be negligent or arbitrary if they were not in danger of seeing them examined and cancelled. "The right of appeal must be restrained, that causes may not be transferred without end from court to court; and a peremptory decision must at last be made. "When an appeal is made to a higher court, the appellant is allowed only four weeks to frame his bill, the judge of the lower court being to transmit to the higher all the evidences and informations. If upon the first view of the cause thus opened, it shall appear that the appeal was made without just cause, the first sentence shall be confirmed without citation of the defendant. If any new evidence shall appear, or any doubts arise, both the parties shall be heard. "In the discussion of causes altercation must be allowed; yet to altercation some limits must be put. There are therefore allowed a bill, an answer, a reply, and a rejoinder, to be delivered in writing. "No cause is allowed to be beard in more |