11th Dec. 1779.

"incomings are gone! And what does the Cüstrin Court of "Justice do? It orders the mill to be sold, that the Nobleman

may have his rent. And the Berlin Tribunal”—(Chancellor Fürst, standing painfully mute, unspoken to, unnoticed hitherto, more like a broomstick than a Chancellor, ventures to strike in with a syllable of emendation, a small correction, of these words "Berlin Tribunal"

Fürst (suggestively): "Kammergericht" (mildly suggestive, and perhaps with something in his tone which means, “I am not a broomstick !"): "Kammergericht!"

King (to short-hand Stellter). "Kammergerichts-Tribunal :" -(then to Fürst) "Go you, Sir, about your business, on the instant! Your Successor is appointed; with you I have nothing more to do. Disappear!"-Ordered,' says Official Rannsleben, ordered the Grand-Chancellor, in very severe terms, To be gone! telling him that his Successor was already ap'pointed. Which order Herr von Fürst, without saying a word, 'hastily obeyed, passing in front of us three, with the utmost 'speed.' In front,-screen, I suppose, not having room behind it, and altogether vanishes from Friedrich's History; all but some ghost of him (so we may term it), which reappears for an instant once, as will be noticed.

King (continues to Friedel, not in a lower tone probably):— "the Kammergerichts-Tribunal confirms the same. That is highly unjust; and such Sentence is altogether contrary to his "Majesty's landsfatherly intentions:-my name" (you give it, 'In the King's Name,' forsooth) "cruelly abused!”

So far is set forth in the 'Royal Protocol printed next Tuesday,' as well as in Rannsleben. But from this point, the Dialogue,—if it can be called Dialogue, being merely a rebuke and expectoration of Royal wrath against Friedel and his Two, who are all mute, so far as I can learn, and stand like criminals in the dock, feeling themselves unjustly condemned,―gets more and more into conflagration, and cannot be distinctly reported. "My name to such a thing! When was I found to oppress a poor man for love of a rich? To follow wiggeries and forms with solemn attention, careless what became of the internal fact? Act of 1566, allowing Gersdorf to make his Pond? Like

11th Dec. 1779.

enough;—and Arnold's loss of water, that is not worth the ascertaining; you know not yet what it was, some of you even say it was nothing; care not whether it was anything. Could Arnold grind, or not, as formerly? What is Act of 1566, or any or all Acts, in comparison? Wretched mortals, had you wigs a fathom long, and Law-books on your back, and Acts of 1566, by the hundredweight, what could it help, if the right of a poor man were left by you trampled under foot? What is the meaning of your sitting there as Judges? Dispensers of Right in God's Name and mine? I will make an example of you which shall be remembered!-Out of my sight!" Whereupon exeunt in haste, all Three,—though not far, not home, as will be seen.

Only the essential sense of all this, not the exact terms, could (or should) any Stellter take in short-hand; and in the Protocol it is decorously omitted altogether. Rannsleben merely says: "The King farther made use of very strong expressions against us, too strong to be repeated,— and, at last, dismissed 6 us without saying what he intended to do with us. We had 'hardly left the room, when he followed us, ordering us to wait. "The King, during the interview with us, held the Sentence, of my composition, in his hand; and seemed particularly ir'ritated about the circumstance of the judgment being pronounced in his name, as is the usual form. He struck the paper again and again with his other hand,'-heat of indignation quite extinguishing gout, for the moment,—' exclaim'ing at the same time repeatedly, "Cruelly abused my name "(meinen Namen cruel missbraucht) !"15-We will now give the remaining part of the Protocol (what directly follows the above catechetical or Dialogue part before that caught fire),—as taken down by Stellter, and read in all the Newspapers next Tuesday:

'Protocol' (of December 11th, Title already given; Docketing adds), which is to be printed.'

เ

(Catechetics as above, and then): 'The King's desire 'always is and was, That everybody, be he high or low, rich or 'poor, get prompt justice; and that, without regard of person

15 Preuss, iii. 495-498.

11th Dec. 1779.

'or rank, no subject of his fail at any time of impartial right and protection from his Courts of Law.

'Wherefore, with respect to this most unjust Sentence against 'the Miller Arnold of the Pommerzig Crabmill, pronounced in 'the Neumark, and confirmed here in Berlin, his Majesty will 'establish an emphatic example (ein nachdrückliches Exempel statuiren); to the end that all Courts of Justice, in all the King's Provinces, may take warning thereby, and not commit 'the like glaring unjust acts. For, let them bear in mind, That 'the least peasant, yea, what is still more, that even a beggar, 'is, no less than his Majesty, a human being, and one to whom ' due justice must be meted out. All men being equal before the 'Law, if it is a prince complaining against a peasant, or vice ' versa, the prince is the same as the peasant before the Law; ' and, on such occasions, pure justice must have its course, without regard of person: Let the Law-Courts, in all the Pro'vinces, take this for their rule. And whenever they do not carry out justice in a straightforward manner, without any re'gard of person and rank, but put aside natural fairness, then they shall have to answer his Majesty for it (sollen sie es mit "Seiner Königlichen Majestät zu thun kriegen). For a Court of 'Law doing injustice is more dangerous and pernicious than a 'band of thieves: against these one can protect oneself; but against rogues who make use of the cloak of justice to accom'plish their evil passions, against such no man can guard him'self. These are worse than the greatest knaves the world con'tains, and deserve double punishment.

For the rest, be it also known to the various Courts of 'Justice, That his Majesty has appointed a new Grand-Chan'cellor.' Fürst dismissed. Yet his Majesty will not the less 'look sharply with his own eyes after the Law-proceedings in all 'the Provinces; and he commands you'—that is, all the LawCourts urgently herewith: Firstly,'—which is also lastly— 'To proceed to deal equally with all people seeking justice, be it 'prince or peasant; for, there, all must be alike. However, if 'his Majesty, at any time hereafter, comes upon a fault com'mitted in this regard, the guilty Courts can now imagine be'forehand how they will be punished with rigour, President as

11th Dec. 1779-1st Jan. 1780.

' well as Raths, who shall have delivered a judgment so wicked ' and openly opposed to justice. Which all Colleges of Justice ' in all his Majesty's Provinces are particularly to take notice of.' 'Mem. By his Majesty's special command, measures are taken 'that this Protocol be inserted in all the Berlin Journals.'16

6

The remainder of Rannsleben's Narrative is beautifully brief and significant.—'We had hardly left the room,' said he suprà, when the King followed us,' lame as he was, with a fulminant: "Wait there!" Rannsleben continues: Shortly after came an 'Aide-de-Camp, who took us in a carriage to the common Townprison, the Kalandshof; here two Corporals and two Privates 'were set to guard us. On the 13th December 1779,' third day of our arrest, a Cabinet Order was published to us, by which 'the King had appointed a Commission of Inquiry; but had, at the same time, commanded beforehand that the Sentence should 'not be less than a year's confinement in a fortress, dismissal 'from office, and payment of compensation to the Arnold people 'for the losses they had sustained.' Which certainly was a bad outlook for us.

Precisely the same has befallen our Brethren of Cüstrin; 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 Cüstriners alike, transferred to Spandau.

I spoke of what might be called a ghost of Kanzler Fürst 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

1 In Berlin'sche Nachrichten von Staats und Gelehrten Sachen, No. 149, Tuesday, 14th December 1779.' Preuss, iii. 494.

6

11th Dec. 1779-1st Jan. 1780.

'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," 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 Pea'sants, 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 par'ties against whom judgment went, taking refuge in the Arnold 'precedent, and appealing direct to the King.'

Far graver than this Spectre of Fürst, Minister Zedlitz hesi tates, 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 Königsberg University, by the illustrious Kant; every Lecture punctually taken in short-hand, and transmitted to Berlin, post after post, for the busy man).18 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?

17 Preuss, iii. 499, 500.

18 Kuno Fischer, Kant's Leben (Mannheim, 1860), pp. 34, 35.