THE TWO FREDERICKS. visit the Mosque of Omar, believed then, | as it is believed now, to stand on the site of the Jewish temple. There is great interest in comparing on this occasion the accounts of the Christian writers with those of the Mahometan, as M. Reinaud has deduced them for this period. Yet sometimes the latter are stopped short by singular scruples. Thus one of them, Soyonti by name, thinks gold embroidery and silken vestments inconsistent with true religion. He goes even farther, he thinks the very mention of them profane, and declines to notice any attire which is thus adorned. "I will not put down such dresses in my "lest God should call me book," he says, to account for them in the Day of Judgment! 66 not felt by the Such scruples were Imaum at the Mosque of Omar. Richly as Frederick might be attired, this Imaum does not shrink from describing him. His description, however, is more minute than flattering. "The Malek," he says, for was red-haired so he calls the Emperor, and partly bald and with weak sight. As a slave he would not have sold for more We may than two hundred drachms.” * smile at this truly Oriental mode of estimating merit. It may, however, remind us of the saying which, in a far different state of society, Beaumarchais has put into the mouth of his Figaro. "If so many good qualities are required in a servant, does your Excellency know many masters who would be equal to the place?" convicted of devotion to the ancient pa- It is further related by the Imaum that At this sight, as the Imaum assures us, Frederick shewed no displeasure, and uttered no reproof. Few men at the present day but would commend his respect for the rights of conscience. But in his times, any toleration of another creed was fiercely denounced by the Christian priesthood, no less than by the Mussulman, as most impious and profane. The lofty pride of Frederick must have to find himself excommunicated been bitterly chafed by his anomalous po The Imaum goes on, and declares, as he flatters himself, that Frederick was in truth estranged from the Christian faith and inclined to the Mahometan. But the proofs which he gives are strangely inconclusive. He says that, as the Emperor observed an inscription in letters of gold which ran round the cornice of the Chapel de la Sagra, he desired that it should be interpreted to him. It proved to be "Saladin in a certain year puri-sition fied the Holy City from the presence by the Church in the very city that he of those who worship many Gods." This had gained over for the Christians. He was the common taunt of the Mussul- remained but two days in Jerusalem; mans against the believers in the Trinity. thence going back to the coast, he shortly Frederick made no remark. Are we then afterwards re-embarked for Italy. to say with the Imaum that a leaning to a foreign faith is to be inferred from merely asking the sense of an inscription in a foreign tongue? If so, how many lady visitors at Athens or at Rome, might be Extracts from the Arabic Chronicles by Reinaud in the "Bibliothèque des Croisades," vol. iv. pp. 112 and 431, ed. 1829. We come now to Frederick of Prussia. Considering his warm attachment to the French literature and language, which he lar that even at the periods when allied to greatly preferred to his own, it is singuFrance he should never have paid a visit his warlike deeds were performed within to Paris. It may also be observed that a narrower space than has been usual with great commanders. We do not think that any of his battles was fought at more than 250 miles' distance from Berlin. In August, 1740, however, only a few weeks after his accession, Frederick undertook a short excursion to Alsace. He travelled with a small retinue, and a strict incognito, under the name of Comte Dufour. One of his objects on his way back was to visit his outlying dominion of Cleves; another to see Voltaire, with whom he had for some years been in correspondence, but whom he had never yet met. Of this journey Frederick himself wrote a humorous account, part in prose and part in verse, on the model of the celebrated piece by La Chapelle and Bachaumont. The whole of it has been published, but it is best known from the extracts given by Voltaire in that most malignant piece of biography first printed as "Vie privée du Roi de Prusse," and since as "Mémoires" in the first volume of Voltaire's collected works. The verses are, no doubt, extremely poor, and interesting only from the subsequent renown of the writer. Thus at the outset we find Frederick complain of the scanty fare at a village inn, and still more of the exorbitant charges. Car des hôtes intéressés, De la faim nous voyant pressés, En nous empoisonnant, nous volaient nos écus. At the gates of Strasburg, however, there are still deeper murmurs at the grasping propensities of the customhouse officers. Ces scélérats nous épiaient, Voltaire, who has transcribed this pas sage, adds to it this bitter comment: "It will be seen by these lines that Frederick had not yet become the greatest of our poets; and that philosopher as he was, he did not regard with any indifference the metal of which his father had accumulated such ample stores." At Strasburg Frederick took up his quarters at a little inn-l'Hôtel du Corbeau- and through the mediation of his landlord made acquaintance the same day with three or four French officers, whom he asked to supper. They were greatly pleased with the wit and lively conversation both of the King himself and of the Italian Count Algarotti, who was one of his train; and they returned his invitation for the ensuing day. As Comte Dufour he passed for a Grand Seigneur of Bohemia. He was presented next morning to the Maréchal de Broglie, Governor of Strasburg; and in the evening went to the play with Madame la Maréchale. But by this time the secret of his rank was rapidly becoming le secret de la comédie. It was revealed to the Maréchal himself by a soldier of the garrison, who had not long since deserted from the Prussian service. The Maréchal, it is said, was so incautious after dinner as to begin a sentence with Sire-and then, suddenly correcting himself, go on, Monsieur le Baron. Frederick afterwards observed, and with good reason, that the Maréchal had been much to blame; "he ought either," he said, "to have carefully preserved my incognito or else paid me the honours that were due to my rank."* Even at the time the displeasure of Frederick peeps forth in his poetical "Récit de Voyage," as where he bids us not rely too much on the Maréchal's wise looks: Il était né pour la surprise; Ses cheveux blancs, sa barbe grise D'un ouvrage et de son auteur Be this as it may, Frederick, perceiving that his secret was no longer safe, made a hasty exit from the theatre, and set off that same night for the Duchy of Cleves. There he at once resumed his Royal state and his Royal cares. In pursuance of some ancient claims, and by the timely advance of a few battalions, he extorted a million of francs from the Prince Bishop of Liége. He insisted that the money should be paid down in gold ducats; and this, as Voltaire satirically notes, served to indemnify him for the losses which he had lately sustained at the Strasburg custom-house. "Souvenirs de Thiebault," vol i. p. 212. Mr. Car lyle adopts a different version. As regards their legislation, the preceding judgment might, perhaps, be reversed, and the superiority be assigned to the Suabian. He of Prussia had, no doubt, great merits in this matter also. There is still standing at Sans Souci, as a monument of his impartial justice, the unsightly mill which he wished to purchase, and which the miller refused to part with, appealing to the protection of the law. The "Code Frédéric," also, may deserve some part, at least, of the high praise which the French philosophers gave it. But we do not find that Frederick ever shewed any real disposition to limit, even in the smallest degree, his own absolute power in State affairs. We do not find that he took any steps to enfranchise the peasantry, who, at the period of his death, continued serfs and bound to the soil in many parts of his dominions. The extent of his shortcomings may best be estimated from a view of the vast reforms which it was left to Baron Stein to inaugurate in 1807. Compared as chiefs of armies, the older | But still, after every possible drawback, Frederick can bear no parallel with the there will remain as balance an extraordilater. Frederick of Suabia had, indeed, nary amount of the highest military qualigreat personal courage, a cheerful endur- ties which throughout this memorable ance of toil, and, in military skill, was conflict the Great King displayed. probably not inferior to any leader of armies of that age. He had, also, great ardour of purpose. Thus, on one occasion, when he was informed that the people of Viterbo had rebelled against him, he was heard to exclaim, "Even if I had already one foot in Paradise, I would pull it back again to punish these ungrateful men!" But his success was not commensurate with his ardour or his bravery. He failed in that very siege of Viterbo; he failed in another still more memorable at Bologna. He was put to the rout at that fortified encampment to which he had given, far too prematurely, the proud name of Vittoria. Frederick of Prussia, on the other hand, ranks, and deserves to rank, with the greatest captains whom the world has ever seen - with Hannibal and Cæsar, with Marlborough and Turenne. There is nothing in all history more wonderful than the Seven Years' War. Here were the three greatest monarchies of Continental Europe France, Austria, Russia - drawing in their train not only Sweden, but also the main States of the Germanic Empire, and arrayed in arms against the single "Marquis de Brandebourg," as at this time the French officers would scornfully call him. It was a league of eighty millions of men against but six or seven millions. With such a disparity of forces it might have been expected that one campaign, or even one battle, would decide the war. Far other wise was the result. Frederick was frequently defeated, but never subdued. He held, or he recovered, his own, with indomitable energy; and at last, instead of the dismemberment of his States, which had been contemplated, he concluded peace without the cession of even a single village to his foes. Reverting to the Emperor Frederick, we may say of him with Dr. Milman that "as a legislator he commands almost unmingled admiration." * It is truly surprising to see how far on many points he was in advance of his age. Was it not, for example, until quite lately held as an axiom in finance that trade is beneficial to a nation only when its exports are greater than its imports? We find Frederick, on the contrary, declare as his opinion that trade is beneficial to both nations that engage in it. Again, how few years have passed, comparatively speaking, since there was a line of custom-houses to divide, for example, Ireland from Great Britain, and Biscay from CasIt is true that this general statement tile? Frederick, on the contrary, lays it should not be too absolutely taken. For down as his rule that within the limits of Frederick there were some gleams of the same dominion commerce should be light in the dark picture. There was the absolutely free. Thus, on one occasion, constant alliance and the yearly subsidy when the governor of a district in Sicily of England. There was the Czarina's attempted to prohibit the import of prosudden death, and her successor's fa- visions across the river Salso, the Emvourable disposition. Other such retriev-peror sternly rebuked him. "Rememing circumstances might be mentioned. ber," said Frederick, "that though there may be separate jurisdictions, it is all one empire; and that its people must not be This is Dr. Vehse's computation, Lord Macaulay has rather magnified the difference, making the numbers in the one case a hundred millions, and in the other "not five millions." ("Essays," vol. iv. p. 60, ed. 1866.) "Latin Christianity," vol. iv. p. 358. suffered to act as strangers, far less as may seem, these decrees of Frederick enemies, to one another." I were rather in mitigation of those that had been issued before him. There was, above all, this important provision - the final decision was not to rest with the vengeful ecclesiastical courts, but after due investigation by these each case was to be adjudged by the secular authority. Equality before the law: such was the maxim of the Suabian sovereign no less than of the Prussian, five centuries later. With this view the Emperor abrogated where he could, and, where he could not, restrained and curtailed, the claim of the nobles and clergy to hold themselves ex- The subject of religious toleration may empt from the duties that devolved on invite some remarks on the personal other classes. It was their privilege creed of either Sovereign. As to Fredby right of conquest, said the Norman erick of Prussia, there is no room for Barons; by God's appointment, said the doubt or question. He adhered in the Romish Bishops not to be liable to most open manner to the school of the trial by the ordinary tribunals, nor to con- philosophers, as they called themselves tribution in taxes to the exigencies of the in France. Like the great object of his State. Against these odious pretensions admiration, Voltaire, he would often make -which, as is well known, maintained the Christian religion the topic for his their ground in France, for example, un- biting jests. He loved especially to quote til the commencement of the French and misapply some text of Scripture. Revolution Frederick was constantly This one or two instances will shew. contending. Nor would he allow the common man to be oppressed. It serves to shew the temper of those times that he found it requisite to issue an edict forbidding, as though a common practice, that a feudal lord might cudgel the vassals of another if his own vassals had in the first instance been cudgelled by that other lord. In this case, as in many others, Frederick did his utmost to mitigate and lessen the curse of serfdom as it existed on the estates of the prelates and barons; and he abolished it altogether in the domains belonging to the Crown. It appears then that, on one occasion, Frederick found fault with the façade of a church of Potsdam, and he caused it to be altered, by which process, however, some windows were shut up. The clergyman and congregation made remonstrances, declaring that they could not see. But they were silenced by the text which Frederick alleged: "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." Thus, again, in the Seven Years' War, the Prussian horsemen of Natzmer, wearing as part of their uniform a white fur jacket, were derided on that account by their antagonists, the Austrian cavalry of Religious toleration was the rule of both General Putkammer, being called "the the Fredericks, but toleration is far less Berlin sheep." Great resentment was worthy of note in the eighteenth century, felt by them at this insulting nickname, when it became the common practice, insomuch that, having in a battle put the than in the thirteenth, when it appeared a Putkammer regiment to the rout, they strange portent to the people. A godless shewed it little quarter in their pursuit, policy the priests pronounced it. They and fiercely cut it down. The Austrian viewed with indignation the liberty of General, who was one of the few prisconscience which Frederick allowed-oners, complained to Frederick of the alike to the Jew in the commercial cities, treatment they had received. "But have to the Saracen on the hills of Sicily, and you read the Bible?" asked Frederick. to the Greek upon the eastern coasts."Certainly I have, Sire."—" "Well, if so, But they found some consolation in the rigour of the edicts against the Lombard Paterini," for so these precursors of the Reformation were at that time termed. No severity was deemed too great for them. The obstinate heretic was to be burned alive, and his whole property confiscated. It was declared penal even to petition in his favour. Yet strange as it 66 you must have found a sentence which explains the whole case." "What sentence can that be, Sire? "Beware of those which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." It was otherwise with the Suabian. No doubt that he also was frequently charged with irreligion. At other times, again, his ecclesiastical enemies, seeing his forbearance to the Jew and the Mahometan in his dominions, were wont to brand him with those opprobrious names, sometimes with either singly, sometimes with both together. But Frederick himself, while he disdained the taunt, repelled the charge. He always declared himself a firm believer in the Christian faith, resist ing only, as he said the usurpations, spiritual and temporal, of the See of Rome. Some of the sayings ascribed to him are not quite reverent; as when he exclaimed that, if God had borne in mind the beautiful island of Sicily, He would never have assigned the barren country of Judæa to his chosen people. Something, however, must be allowed to the temper of that and the ensuing age. The reader of Chaucer, for example, may recollect some passages in which sacred names are used in most unfit collocation, though, as it would seem, without any scoffing idea. It may be added that, whenever we come to specific charges, some of those urged against Frederick are almost demonstrably false. Thus it was alleged that, at his instigation, his Chancellor and favourite, Peter de Vineâ, had composed a sceptical treatise against the principal religions known or professed in the world. It was said to be entitled De Tribus Impostoribus, meaning Moses, Christ, and Mahomet. This book was much talked of, and yet never seen; and modern research appears to have clearly shewn that, in fact, it never existed. exploded, might have been thought beyond their influence. It is, therefore, with some surprise that we find him in the Seven Years' War carefully collecting the predictions of the countryside conjurors (les devins de village) and expressing his disappointment that he learnt so little from them. He had also his lucky and unlucky days. "Do not," he said once to the Prince of Orange, "choose Monday for your marriage with my niece; let it be either Sunday or Tuesday. Monday is not fortunate for us; at least I never won a battle on that day." The two blots in the character of the Suabian Frederick were, first, his indulgence in illicit amours (of which his accomplished son, King Enzio, was, among others, a living token) and secondly, his cruel treatment of public offenders. On some occasions, as was said, he had punished men guilty of high-treason by wrapping them up in lead and casting them into a red-hot furnace. It is to this that Dante alludes when he speaks of the hypocrites weighed down by gilded robes, so heavy that the Emperor's were trifling in comparison: — Ma dentro tutte piombo, e gravi tanto Che Federigo le mettea di paglia.* We hear also of summary executions in It is worthy of note that, while a disbe- the case of towns stormed or troops surlief in Revealed Religion was with more rendered. It is only right, however, to or less justice imputed to both the Fred-bear in mind what was the usual practice ericks, each lent a ready ear to the pre- in that age. Cruelty was the rule, humandictions of conjurors and fortune-tellers. ity, the rare exception. As the first inIt had been foretold to the Suabian that stance of the former that just now occurs he would die in the midst of flowers; and to us we may mention the "dark Knight for this reason he would never set foot of Liddesdale,” as Sir Walter Scott has within the walls of Florence. But he did termed him, who, taking prisoner Sir Alnot thereby escape his doom. In the exander Ramsey, the gallant ancestor of year 1250, while journeying in Northern the Dalhousies, flung him into a dungeon Apulia, he was seized with sudden dysen- of Hermitage Castle, and left him there. tery at the small town of Castel Fioren- to perish of cold and hunger. But such tino, and there, after a few days' illness, breathed his last. On an earlier occasion, at Vicenza, a conjuror boasted that he would place in the hands of Frederick a sealed paper, naming the very gate by which he would depart from the city on the morrow. Frederick took the paper, but, resolving to disappoint the wizard, caused a breach to be made in the city walls, and by this he issued forth. Then, breaking the seal, he read to his surprise, "The Emperor will leave the city by the New Gate the Porta Nuova." Frederick of Prussia, coming five centuries later, in an age when among all civilized nations fancies of this kind were barbarous customs, although some palliation for the conduct of Frederick, by no means afford an adequate defence in the case of a prince so enlightened and accomplished, and so greatly on most other points beyond the temper of his times. Frederick of Prussia, on the contrary, was not indeed humane, in the sense of having any great sympathy with his fellow-men. He gave a parting token of his disdain for them by desiring to be buried on the terrace of Sans Souci by the side of his favourite greyhounds. But, though harsh, he was by no means cruel. His "Inferno," cant. xxiii. vers. 65. |