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"Of all cruelties, save me from your small pedant, your closetphilosopher, who has just courage enough to bestride his theory, without wit to see whither it will carry him. In experience, a child; in obstinacy, a woman; in nothing a man but in logic-chopping; instead of God's grace, a few copy-book headings about benevolence, and industry, and independence; there is his metal. If the world will be mended on his principles, well; if not, poor world! but principles must be carried out, though through blood and famine; for truly man was made for theories, not theories for man. A doctrine is these men's God; touch but that shrine, and lo! your simpering philanthropist becomes as ruthless as a Dominican."

"Bitter truths, these, my masters!" He who wrote this can never be a follower of the "Brights" and the "Cobdens." But no more on these political topics, all of which are naturally suggested by the very singular work before us.

We implore Mr. Kingsley, in conclusion, not to be bound by any party-chains. His acceptance of Professor Maurice's patronage seems quite out of keeping with his genius, and cannot be accounted for save on the score of some fancied party-tie. Let him take heed, that he be not numbered among the "Arnoldschool," or, indeed, any other limited school or sect. Looking at the work we are reviewing, we cannot but avow that he is a man of genius; and, as such, we claim him for his Church, and for his country.

ART. VIII.-Memoirs of the House of Brandenburg, and History of Prussia during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. By LEOPOLD RANKE. Translated from the German by SIR ALEXANDER and LADY DUFF GORDON. In Three Volumes. London: Murray. 1849.

THE interest which we feel in the history of a nation or the life of an individual, is less in proportion to their intrinsic merits than to the result produced by their actions or exertions: a quiet and sensible man passes through the world unobserved, and though we may venerate his memory, we feel little inclination to write his life; while, on the other hand, he who raises himself from a cottage to a throne, or arrives at the highest distinctions of his own profession, will always be an object of curiosity. Kings while they live are always a sort of spectacle for the vulgar; their high station and supposed power create a sensation of awe in the breasts of those who gaze upon them. But, as history deals chiefly with kings, the monarchs of another century are often lost to our mind amidst the multitude who went before and who succeeded them; and, in a long dynasty, one or two only are found whose characters are remembered beyond their own country, and to whom distant nations accord the distinction of recollecting much more than their names.

As, however, in private life we read with intense interest the struggles of the rising barrister whom casual circumstances, as well as his own talents, afterwards placed upon the woolsack of England, so in history we look with admiration upon the prince who raises his State to a higher rank among kingdoms than it formerly possessed; his predecessors or his successors may be more worthy of our esteem, but the world is so constituted that results give prominence to character; and Alexander the Great, by extending his empire throughout Asia, has gained more celebrity than his father, whose exertions were confined to Greece. The earlier kings of Macedonia are scarcely known by name: Philip was the first who gave weight to his nation in the affairs of foreigners; we therefore feel an interest in him, on account of the effects produced by his reign.

Just so, in the history before us, Brandenburg is but a subordinate state of the German empire. A German electorate, with the pomp and ceremonial of royalty, the dependance of vassalage, and the cares and embarrassments of needy nobility,

often gives us a mere picture of poverty and pride. The grandfather of Frederick the Great was the first to raise the House of Brandenburg from this subordinate position, and to declare himself king of Prussia by the title of Frederick the First. This took place in July 1700; his coronation followed in January 1701. Much, however, still remained to be done; a royal crown gives only title without power; Austria held Silesia, to which Prussia had a prior claim; the army was small, the people uneducated, and little better than the serfs of the feudal system; and though neighbouring nations did not object to the royalty of King Frederick, they seemed little to respect or fear him in his new capacity. Till his death, in 1713, little progress seems to have been made; taxation and a new system of farming the crown lands were his principal objects. It was reserved for his son Frederick William I. and his grandson Frederick II., to give royal dignity to their newly-acquired crown, and to place Prussia in the rank of a powerful kingdom. Frederick William was a warrior, and had little else to recommend him; but a warrior was what Prussia required. Europe was in a state of great disorder, the wars of Louis XIV. had not yet subsided. To form an empire, then, it was necessary to raise a powerful army, and for this Frederick William had peculiar talents. He reigned till the year 1740; and then his celebrated son, with greater genius for war, and unrivalled versatility of talents, continued the aggrandizement of Prussia down to the time of the French revolution. To watch the gradual rise of empires and of men is, as we said before, the most interesting of all studies. Frederick William, therefore, and Frederick II. are characters on which history loves to dwell. Their minute actions and feelings are interesting to all; and as modern ingenuity now searches the archives of palaces, and brings to light letters and records long forgotten, we have ample materials for history and biography in the courts and times of these remarkable men. Nor is this interest without its moral use; successful exertion like theirs teaches mankind that they may rise to high stations by the diligent use of opportunities; and when we meet with the troubles, faults, and failings of kings and their children, we may learn contentment, in reading that the mightiest of the earth are, like ourselves, exposed to petty vexations, and not exempt from the weakness and trials to which ordinary mortals are liable.

Let us now, from the materials before us, consider a few of the characters presented on the scene.

Frederick William married the daughter of George I., and the unfortunate Sophia Dorothea; he was, therefore, brother-in-law of George II., whom he cordially disliked, and his son was cousin

to Frederick, prince of Wales, the father of George III. This relationship to England gives an additional interest to the Prussian family, as marriages between the royal families were frequently projected. As Frederick William's great object was his army, he became a thorough-going old soldier; the term 'good officer,' gives us too much the idea of a gentleman. Had we met him incognito, we should have supposed him to be a respectable coarse-minded adjutant, who had risen from the ranks. Continued drill, great anxiety about the appearance of his troops, minute knowledge of all the technicalities of mounting guard, manœuvring, and reviewing, great nicety as to the dress of officers and men; these were the great subjects that occupied the king's mind, and every thing else seemed worse than useless, as it only tended to distract attention from the study of his favourite science. He must have been the most disagreeable companion in private life that we can well imagine: his children actually trembled at his presence, and his wife seemed in continual danger of losing her life by his violence. We have the best account of the "old Corporal" from his eldest daughter, Wilhelmina, afterwards margravine of Bareith. Her private memoirs, published towards the end of the last century, were at one time supposed to be a forgery; we believe, however, that their authenticity has since been established. They certainly carry with them the internal evidence of truth; we can perceive all through the graphic descriptions of an eye-witness; and if not actually written by the princess herself, the author must have been well acquainted with her, and with the habits and feelings of the court. We give a few anecdotes of the king's domestic life, extracted at random from his daughter's memoirs. It appears, that the Prince Frederick and his sister had gone to their mother's room on some occasion, when their father was supposed to be absent: he returned suddenly, and both of them, fearing his displeasure, hid themselves, Wilhelmina in a closet, and Frederick under the bed. The old king continued for some hours in conversation with his wife, and the prince and princess remained in their undignified position till they were nearly smothered.

Sometimes, it appears, that Frederick William was seized with a fit of religious melancholy: he would then send for a clergyman named Franke, who lectured the family all the time of dinner, and made them feel as dull as the monks of La Trappe; he condemned all amusements, and would not allow any conversation in his presence, except upon the subject of religion. The king, at these times, used to preach a sermon to his family every afternoon; his valet acted as his clerk, and his children were obliged

to affect a contrite and penitent air, which only taught them hypocrisy. On these occasions, the king would talk of resigning his throne, and setting up for a country farmer: Wilhelmina was to be his washerwoman; Frederica, a younger daughter, being, as he said, the most avaricious of the family, was to be the storekeeper; Charlotte, a third daughter, was to attend the market and be his cook. If the king had really had any feeling of true religion, we might sympathize with his care of his family, and even if he were somewhat prolix in his sermons, we might commend his zeal rather than his discretion; but he seems to have had little idea on the subject of his duty towards God; and the course which he pursued shows that his sermons and advice proceeded rather from a determination to exact military obedience from his children, than from any sincere desire for their spiritual good. His daughter says of him,

"We shortly after followed the king to Potsdam, where he had a violent fit of the gout in both feet. This illness, added to the vexation of seeing his hopes vanished, put him into an insupportable humour. The pains of purgatory could not equal those we endured. We were obliged to be in the king's room by nine o'clock in the morning, we dined there, and durst not leave it on any account. The king passed the whole day in abusing my brother and me. He called me the English baggage, and my brother the rascally Frederick. He forced us to eat and drink things which we disliked or which disagreed with our constitutions; this ill-judged severity sometimes made us throw up in his presence all we had in our stomachs. Every day was marked by some unlucky event: we could not lift up our eyes without beholding some ill-fated being tormented in one way or other. The impatience of the king would not suffer him to lie in bed. He was placed in an arm-chair, upon casters, and rolled about all over the palace. His arms rested on crutches. We followed this triumphal car every where, like unfortunate captives undergoing their punishment. The poor king was really suffering violent pains, and the overflowing of black bile caused his intolerable humour."—Memoirs of the Margravine of Bareith, vol. i. p. 148. Edition of 1812.

The great grievance of the family appears to have been the concern which her parents took as to Wilhelmina's settlement in life. She does not venture to give us a description of herself in her own words, but she quotes the expressions of some of her friends, which are any thing but flattering to her beauty. She was low in stature, sharp-featured, exceedingly plain, and, we suspect, slightly marked with the small-pox: be this as it may, to provide her with a husband seemed to be the great object at which her parents zealously aimed, and which she herself as carefully avoided. Her cousin Frederick, prince of Wales, as

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