History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11 [23]
or other; and gives Bielfeld a gracious nod now and then."
[Bielfeld, i. 158.] Harrington is here too;--and Britannic Majesty
and he are busy governing the English Nation on these terms.--
We return now to the Prussian Majesty.
About six weeks after that of Dickens,--Cleve Journey and much
else now ended,--Praetorius the Danish Envoy, whom we slightly
knew at Reinsberg once, gives this testimony; writing home to an
Excellency at Copenhagen, whose name we need not inquire into:--
"To give your Excellency a just idea of the new Government here,
I must observe that hitherto the King of Prussia does as it were
everything himself; and that, excepting the Finance Minister von
Boden, who preaches frugality, and finds for that doctrine
uncommon acceptance, almost greater even than in the former reign,
his Majesty allows no counselling from any Minister; so that Herr
von Podewils, who is now the working hand in the department of
Foreign Affairs, has nothing given him to do but to expedite the
orders he receives from the Cabinet, his advice not being asked
upon any matter; and so it is with the other Ministers.
People thought the loss of Herr von Thulmeyer," veteran Foreign
Minister whom we have transiently heard of in the Double-Marriage
time, and perhaps have even seen at London or elsewhere, [Died 4th
August (Rodenbeck, p. 20).] "would be irreparable; so expert was
he, and a living archive in that business: however, his post seems
to have vanished with himself. His salary is divided between Herr
von Podewils," whom the reader will sometimes hear of again,
"Kriegsrath (Councillor of War) von Ilgen," son of the old
gentleman we used to know, "and Hofrath Sellentin who is RENDANT
OF THE LEGATIONS-KASSE" (Ambassadors' Paymaster, we could guess,
Ambassador Body having specialty of cash assigned it, comparable
with the specialty of value received from it, in this strict
frugal Country),--neither of which two latter names shall the
reader be troubled with farther. "A good many resolutions, and
responses by the King, I have seen: they combine laconic
expression with an admirable business eye (GESCHAFTSBLICK).
Unhappily,"--at least for us in the Diplomatic line, for your
Excellency and me unhappily,--"there is nobody about the King who
possesses his complete confidence, or whom we can make use of in
regard to the necessary introductions and preliminary movements.
Hereby it comes that,--as certain things can only be handled with
cautious foresight and circumlocution, and in the way of beginning
wide,--an Ambassador here is more thrown out of his course than in
any other Court; and knows not, though his object were steadily in
sight, what road to strike into for getting towards it." [Preuss,
Chapter III.
FRIEDRICH MAKES AN EXCURSION, NOT OF DIRECT SORT
INTO THE CLEVE COUNTRIES.
King Friedrich did not quite keep his day at Wesel; indeed this
24th was not the first day, but the last of several, he had
appointed to himself for finis to that Journey in the Cleve
Countries; Journey rather complex to arrange. He has several
businesses ahead in those parts; and, as usual, will group them
with good judgment, and thrift of time. Not inspections merely,
but amusements, meetings with friends, especially French friends:
the question is, how to group them with skill, so that the
necessary elements may converge at the right moment, and one shot
kill three or four birds. This is Friedrich's fine way,
perceptible in all these Journeys. The French friends, flying each
on his own track, with his own load of impediments, Voltaire with
his Madame for instance, are a difficult element in such problem;
and there has been, and is, much scheming and corresponding about
it, within the last month especially.
Voltaire is now at Brussels, with his Du Chatelet, prosecuting
that endless "lawsuit with the House of Honsbruck,"--which he, and
we, are both desirous to have done with. He is at the Hague, too,
now and then; printing,