Dec. 1760-April 1761. not prevent the disciples of the Pamphlet from thinking that 'the best thing which could happen for us would be to have 'that Monarch's head shot off. (Hear, hear!)

'There are Letters from the Hague' (what foolish Letters do fly about, my friend!), 'that say Daun is dead of his wounds. If ' he is, I shall begin to believe that the King of Prussia will end 'successfully at last.' (Oh!) 'It has been the fashion to cry 'down Daun; but, as much as the King of Prussia may admire ' himself" (does immensely, according to our Selwyn informations), 'I dare say he would have been glad to be matched with one 'much more like himself than one so opposite as the Marshal.'

'January 2d, 1761. The German War is not so popular as 'you imagine, either in the Closet or in the Nation." (Enough, enough.)

The Mauduit Pamphlet, which then produced such an effect, is still to be met in old Collections and on Bookstalls; but produces little save weariness to a modern reader. 'Hanover not in real danger,' argues he; 'if 'the French had it, would not they, all Europe ordering 'them, have to give it up again? Give it up,-gratis, or in return for Canada and Pondichery, Mauduit does not say. Which is an important omission! But Mauduit's grand argument is that of expense; frightful outlay of money, aggravated by ditto mismanagement of same.

A War highly expensive, he says-(and the truth is, Pitt was never stingy of money: "Nearly the one thing we have in any plenty; be frank in use of that, in an Enterprise so ill provided otherwise, and involving life and death!" thinks Pitt);-' dreadfully expensive,' urges Mauduit, and gives some instances of Commissariat moneys signally wasted,-not by Pitt, but by the stupidity of Pitt's War Offices, Commissariat Offices, Offices of all kinds; not to be cured at once by any Pitt:How magazines of hay were shipped and re-shipped,

4 Walpole, Letters to Sir Horace Mann (Lond. 1843), i. 6, 7.

Dec. 1760-April 1761. carried hither, thither, up this river, down that (nobody knowing where the war-horses would be that were to eat it); till at length, when it had reached almost the value of bohea tea, the right place of it was found to be Emden (nearest to Britain from the first, had one but known), and not a horse would now taste it, so spoiled was the article; all horses snorted at it, as they would have done at bohea, never so expensive. These things

are incident to British warfare; also to Swedish, and to all warfares that have their War Offices in an imaginary state, state much to be abhorred by every sane creature; but not to be mended all at once by the noblest of men, into whose hands they are suddenly thrust for saving his Nation. Conflagration to be quenched; and your buckets all in hideous leakage, like buckets of the Danaïdes:—your one course is, ply them, pour with them, such as they are.

Mauduit points out farther the enormous fortunes realised by a swindling set of Army-Furnishers, Hebrews mainly, and unbeautiful to look on. Alas, yes; this too is a thing incident to the case; and in a degree to all such cases, and situations of sudden crisis;-have not we seen Jew Ephraim growing rich by the copper money even of a Friedrich? Christian Protestants there are, withal, playing the same game on a larger scale. Herr Schimmelmann ("Mouldy-man") the Dane, for instance, -Dane or Holsteiner, is coining false money for a Duke of Holstein-Plön, who has not a Seven-Years War on his hands. Diligently coining, this Mouldy Individual; still more successfully, is trading in Friedrich's Meissen China (bought in the cheapest market, sold in the dearest); has at Hamburg his "Auction of

Mauduit (towards the end) has a story of that tenor,-particulars not worth verifying.

Dec. 1760-April 1761.

Meissen Porcelain," steadily going on, as a new commercial institution of that City;-and, in short, by assiduously labouring in such harvest-fields, gathers a colossal fortune, 100,000l., 300,000l., or I will not remember what. Gets "ennobled," furthermore, by a Danish Government prompt to recognise human merit: Elephant Order, Dannebrog Order; no Order good enough for this Mouldyman of merit;6-and is, so far as I know, begetting "Nobles," that is to say, Vice-Kings and monitory Exemplars, for the Danish People, to this day. Let us shut down the iron lid on all that.

Mauduit's Pamphlet, if it raised in the abhorrent unthinking English mind some vague notion, as probably it did, that Pitt was responsible for these things, or was in a sort the cause or author of them, might produce some effect against him. "What a splash is this you are making, you Great Commoner; wetting everybody's feet, as our Mauduit proves;-while the Conflagration seems to be going out, if you let it alone!" For the heads of men resemble-My friend, I will not tell you what they, in multitudinous instances, resemble.

But thus has woollen Mauduit, from his private camp (Clement's Lane, Lombard Street,' say the Dictionaries), shot, at a very high object, what pigeon'segg or small pebble he had; the first of many such that took that aim; with weak though loud-sounding impact, but with results-results on King Friedrich in particular, which were stronger than the Cannonade of Torgau! As will be seen. For within year and day, -Mauduit and Company making their noises from without, and the Butes and Hardwickes working incessantly with such rare power of leverage and screwage in the interior parts, a certain Quasi-Olympian House, made

Preuss, ii. 391, 282, &c.

Dec. 1760-April 1761. of glass, will lie in sherds, and the ablest and noblest man in England see himself forbidden to do England any service farther: "Not needed more, Sir! Go you, -and look at us for the remainder of your life!"

King Friedrich in the Apel House at Leipzig (8th December 1760-17th March 1761).

Friedrich's Winter in the Apel House at Leipzig is of cheerfuller character than we might imagine. Endless sore business he doubtless has, of recruiting, financiering, watching and providing, which grows more difficult year by year; but he has subordinates that work to his signal, and an organised machinery for business such as no other man. And solacements there are withal: his Books he has about him; welcomer than ever in such seasons: Friends too, he is not solitary; nor neglectful of resources. Faithful D'Argens came at once (stayed till the middle of March): D'Argens, Quintus Icilius, English Mitchell; these three almost daily bore him company. Till the middle of January, also, he had his two Nephews with him (Sons of his poor deceased Brother, the late tragic Prince of Prussia), -the elder of whom, Friedrich Wilhelm, became King afterwards; the second, Henri by name, died suddenly of small-pox within about seven years hence, to the King's deep and sore grief, who liked him the better of the two. Their ages respectively are now about 16 and 14.8 Their appetite for dancing, and their gay young ways,

* Œuvres de Frédéric, xix. 212, 213. Sends a Courier to conduct D'Argens 'for December 8th;' '21st March,' D'Argens is back at Berlin.

* Henri, born 30th December 1747, died 26th May 1767;-Friedrich Wilhelm, afterwards Friedrich Wilhelm II. (sometimes called Der Dicke, The Big), born 25th December 1744; King, 17th August 1786; died 16th November 1797.

Dec. 1760-April 1761. are pleasant now and afterwards to the old Uncle in his grim element.?

Music, too, he had; daily evening Concert, though from himself there is no fluting now. One of his Berlin Concert people who had been sent for, was Fasch, a virtuoso on I know not what instrument, but a man given to take note of things about him. Fasch was painfully surprised to see his King so altered in the interim past: bent now, sunk into himself, grown old; 'to whom these five years of war-tumult and anxiety, ' of sorrow and hard toil, had given a dash of gloomy 'seriousness and melancholy, which was in strong con'trast with his former vividly bright expression, and was not natural to his years.'10

From D'Argens there is one authentic Anecdote, worth giving. One evening D'Argens came to him; entering his Apartment, found him in a situation very unexpected; which has been memorable ever since. 'One evening' (there is no date to it, except vaguely, as above, December 1760-March 1761), 'D'Argens, entering the King's Apartment, found him sitting on the ground with a big platter of fried meat, from 'which he was feeding his dogs. He had a little rod, 'with which he kept order among them, and shoved 'the best bits to his favourites. The Marquis, in asto'nishment, recoiled a step, struck his hands together, and exclaimed: "The Five Great Powers of Europe, 'who have sworn alliance, and conspired to undo the Marquis de Brandebourg, how might they puzzle their 'heads to guess what he is now doing! Scheming some 'dangerous plan for the next Campaign, think they; 'collecting funds to have money for it; studying about Letters, &c. in Schöning.

เ

10 Zelter's Life of Fasch (cited in Preuss, ii. 278).