History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 14
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Thomas Carlyle >> History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 14
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Hanau Conferences having failed, these things do not fail.
Kaiser Karl is become tragical to think of. A spectacle of pity to
Landgraf Wilhelm, to King Friedrich, and serious on-lookers;--and
perhaps not of pity only, but of "pity and fear" to some of them!--
sullen Austria taking its sweet revenges, in this fashion.
Readers who will look through these small chinks, may guess what a
world-welter this was; and how Friedrich, gazing into phase on
phase of it, as into Oracles of Fate, which to him they were, had a
History, in these months, that will now never be known.
August 16th came out her Hungarian Majesty's Response to that mild
quasi-penitent Declaration of King Louis to the Reich; and much
astonished King Louis and others, and the very Reich itself.
"Out of it?" says her Hungarian Majesty (whom we with regret, for
brevity's sake, translate from Official into vulgate): "His Most
Christian Majesty wishes to be out of it:--Does not he, the (what
shall I call him) Crowned Housebreaker taken in the fact? You shall
get out of it, please Heaven, when you have made compensation for
the damage done; and till then not, if it please Heaven!" And in
this strain (lengthily Official, though indignant to a degree)
enumerates the wanton unspeakable mischiefs and outrages which
Austria, a kind of sacred entity guaranteed by Law of Nature and
Eleven Signatures of Potentates, has suffered from the Most
Christian Majesty,--and will have compensation for, Heaven now
pointing the way! [IN EXTENSO in Adelung, iii. B, 201 et seqq.]
A most portentous Document; full of sombre emphasis, in sonorous
snuffling tone of voice; enunciating, with inflexible purpose, a
number of unexpected things: very portentous to his Prussian
Majesty among others. Forms a turning-point or crisis both in the
French War, and in his Prussian Majesty's History; and ought to be
particularly noted and dated by the careful reader. It is here that
we first publicly hear tell of Compensation, the necessity Austria
will have of Compensation,--Austria does not say expressly for
Silesia, but she says and means for loss of territory, and for all
other losses whatsoever: "Compensation for the past, and security
for the future; that is my full intention," snuffles she, in that
slow metallic tone of hers, irrevocable except by the gods.
"Compensation for the past, Security for the future:" Compensation?
what does her Hungarian Majesty mean? asked all the world;
asked Friedrich, the now Proprietor of Silesia, with peculiar
curiosity! It is the first time her Hungarian Majesty steps
articulately forward with such extraordinary Claim of Damages, as
if she alone had suffered damage;--but it is a fixed point at
Vienna, and is an agitating topic to mankind in the coming months
and years. Lorraine and the Three Bishoprics; there would be a fine
compensation. Then again, what say you to Bavaria, in lieu of the
Silesia lost? You have Bavaria by the throat; keep Bavaria, you.
Give "Kur-Baiern, Kaiser as they call him," something in the
Netherlands to live upon? Will be better out of Germany altogether,
with his French leanings. Or, give him the Kingdom of Naples,--if
once we had conquered it again? These were actual schemes,
successive, simultaneous, much occupying Carteret and the high
Heads at Vienna now and afterwards; which came all to nothing;
but should were it not impossible, be held in some remembrance
by readers.
Another still more unexpected point comes out here, in this
singular Document, publicly for the first time: Austria's feelings
in regard to the Imperial Election itself. Namely, That Austria,
considers, and has all along considered, the said Election to be
fatally vitiated by that Exclusion of the Bohemian Vote; to be in
fact nullified thereby; and that, to her clear view, the present
so-called Kaiser is an imaginary quantity, and a mere Kaiser of
French shreds and patches! "DER SEYN-SOLLENDE KAISER," snuffles
Austria in one passage, "Your Kaiser as you call him;" and in
another passage, instead of "Kaiser," puts flatly "Kur-Baiern."
This is a most extraordinary doctrine to an Electoral Romish Reich!
Is the Holy Romish Reich to DECLARE itself an "Enchanted Wiggery,"
then, and do suicide, for behoof of Austria?--
"August 16th, this extraordinary Document was delivered to the
Chancery of Mainz; and September 23d, it was, contrary to
expectation, brought to DICTATUR by said Chancery,"--of which
latter phrase, and phenomenon, here is the explanation to
English readers.
Had the late Kur-Mainz (general Arch-Chairman, Speaker of the Diet)
been still in office and existence, certainly so shocking a
Document had never been allowed "to come to DICTATUR,"--to be
dictated to the Reich's Clerks; to have a first reading, as we
should call it; or even to lie on the table, with a theoretic
chance that way. But Austria, thanks to our little George and his
Pragmatic Armament, had got a new Kur-Mainz;--by whom, in open
contempt of impartiality, and in open leaning for Austria with all
his weight, it was duly forwarded to Dictature; brought before an
astonished Diet (REICHSTAG), and endlessly argued of in Reichstag
and Reich,--with small benefit to Austria, or the new Kur-Mainz.
Wise kindness to Austria had been suppression of this Piece, not
bringing of it to Dictature at all: but the new Kur-Mainz, called
upon, and conscious of face sufficient, had not scrupled.
"Shame on you, partial Arch-Chancellor!" exclaims all the world.--
"Revoke such shamefully partial Dictature?" this was the next
question brought before the Reich. In which, Kur-Hanover (Britannic
George) was the one Elector that opined, No. Majority conclusive;
though, as usual, no settle- ment attainable. This is the famous
"DICTATUR-SACHE (Dictature Question)," which rages on us, for about
eleven months to come, in those distracted old Books; and seems as
if it would never end. Nor is there any saying when it would have
ended;--had not, in August, 1744, something else ended, the King of
Prussia's patience, namely; which enabled it to end, on the
Kaiser's then order! [Adelung, iii. B, 201, iv. 198, &c.]
It must be owned, in general, the conduct of Maria Theresa to the
Reich, ever since the Reich had ventured to reject her Husband as
Kaiser, and prefer another, was all along of a high nature; till
now it has grown into absolute contumacy, and a treating of the
Reich's elected Kaiser as a merely chimerical personage. No law of
the Reich had been violated against her Hungarian Majesty or
Husband: "What law?" asked all judges. Vicarius Kur-Sachsen sat, in
committee, hatching for many months that Question of the Kur-Bohmen
Vote; and by the prescribed methods, brought it out in the
negative,--every formality and regularity observed, and nobody but
your Austrian Deputy protesting upon it, when requested to go home.
But, the high Maria had a notion that the Reich belonged to her
august Family and her; and that all Elections to the contrary were
an inconclusive thing, fundamentally void every one of them.
Thus too, long before this, in regard to the REICHS-ARCHIV
Question. The Archives and indispensablest Official Records and
Papers of the Reich,--these had lain so long at Vienna, the high
Maria could not think of giving them up. "So difficult to extricate
what Papers are Austrian specially, from what are Austrian-
Imperial;--must have time!" answered she always. And neither the
Kaiser's more and more pressing demands, nor those of the late
Kur-Mainz, backed by the Reich, and reiterated month after month
and year after year, could avail in the matter. Mere angry
correspondences, growing ever angrier;--the Archives of the Reich
lay irrecoverable at Vienna, detained on this pretext and on that:
nor were they ever given up; but lay there till the Reich itself
had ended, much more the Kaiser Karl VII.! These are
high procedures.
As if the Reich had been one's own chattel; as if a Non-Austrian
Kaiser mere impossible, and the Reich and its laws had, even
Officially, become phantasmal! That, in fact, was Maria Theresa's
inarticulate inborn notion; and gradually, as her successes on the
field rose higher, it became ever more articulate: till this of
"the SEYN-SOLLENDE Kaiser" put a crown on it. Justifiable, if the
Reich with its Laws were a chattel, or rebellious vassal, of
Austria; not justifiable otherwise. "Hear ye?" answered almost all
the Reich (eight Kurfursts, with the one exception of Kur-Hanover:
as we observed): "Our solemnly elected Kaiser, Karl VII., is a
thing of quirks and quiddities, of French shreds and patches;
at present, it seems, the Reich has no Kaiser at all; and will go
ever deeper into anarchies and unnamabilities, till it proceed anew
to get one,--of the right Austrian type!"--The Reich is a talking
entity: King Friedrich is bound rather to silence, so long as
possible. His thoughts on these matters are not given; but sure
enough they were continual, too intense they could hardly be.
"Compensation;" "The Reich as good as mine:" Whither is all this
tending? Walrave and those Silesian Fortifyings,--let Walrave mind
his work, and get it perfected!
BRITANNIC MAJESTY GOES HOME.
The "Combined Invasion of Elsass"--let us say briefly, overstepping
the order of date, and still for a moment leaving Friedrich--came
to nothing, this year. Prince Karl was 70,000; Britannic George
(when once those Dutch, crawling on all summer, had actually come
up) was 66,000,--nay 70,000; Karl having lent him that beautiful
cannibal gentleman, "Colonel Mentzel and 4,000 Tolpatches," by way
of edge-trimming. Karl was to cross in Upper Elsass, in the
Strasburg parts; Karl once across, Britannic Majesty was to cross
about Mainz, and co-operate from Lower Elsass. And they should have
been swift about it; and were not! All the world expected a severe
slash to France; and France itself had the due apprehension of it:
but France and all the world were mistaken, this time.
Prince Karl was slow with his preparations; Noailles and Coigny
(Broglio's successor) were not slow; "raising batteries
everywhere," raising lines, "10,000 Elsass Peasants," and what not;
--so that, by the time Prince Karl was ready (middle of August),
they lay intrenched and minatory at all passable points; and Karl
could nowhere, in that Upper-Rhine Country, by any method, get
across. Nothing got across; except once or twice for perhaps a day,
Butcher Trenck and his loose kennel of Pandours; who went about,
plundering and rioting, with loud rodomontade, to the admiration of
the Gazetteers, if of no one else.
Nor was George's seconding of important nature; most dubitative,
wholly passive, you would rather say, though the River, in his
quarter, lay undefended. He did, at last, cross the Rhine about
Mainz; went languidly to Worms,--did an ever-memorable TREATY OF
WORMS there, if no fighting there or elsewhere. Went to Speyer,
where the Dutch joined him (sadly short of numbers stipulated, had
it been the least matter);--was at Germersheim, at what other
places I forget; manoeuvring about in a languid and as if in an
aimless manner, at least it was in a perfectly ineffectual one.
Mentzel rode gloriously to Trarbach, into Lorraine; stuck up
Proclamation, "Hungarian Majesty come, by God's help, for her own
again," and the like;--of which Document, now fallen rare, we give
textually the last line: "And if any of you DON'T [don't sit quiet
at least], I will," to be brief, "first cut off your ears and
noses, and then hang you out of hand." The singular Champion of
Christendom, famous to the then Gazetteers! [In Adelung (iii. B,
193) the Proclamation at large. I have, or once had, a
Life of Mentzel (Dublin, I think, 1744), "price
twopence,"--dear at the money.] Nothing farther could George, with
his Dutch now adjoined, do in those parts, but wriggle slightly to
and fro without aim; or stand absolutely still, and eat provision
(great uncertainty and discrepancy among the Generals, and Stair
gone in a huff [Went, "August 27th, by Worms" (Henderson,
Life of Cumberlund, p. 48), just while his Majesty was
beginning to cross.]),--till at length the "Combined Pragmatic
Troops" returned to Mainz (October 11th); and thence, dreadfully in
ill-humor with each other, separated into their winter-quarters in
the Netherlands and adjacent regions.
Prince Karl tried hard in several places; hardest at, Alt-Breisach,
far up the River, with Swabian Freiburg for his place of arms;--an
Austrian Country all that, "Hithcr Austria," Swabian Austria.
There, at Alt-Breisach, lay Prince Karl (24th August-3d September),
his left leaning on that venerable sugar-loaf Hill, with the towers
and ramparts on the top of it; looking wistfully into Alsace, if
there were no way of getting at it. He did get once half-way across
the River, lodging himself in an Island called Rheinmark; but could
get no farther, owing to the Noailles-Coigny preparations for him.
Called a Council of War; decided that he had not Magazines, that it
was too late in the season; and marched home again (October 12th)
through the Schwabenland; leaving, besides the strong Garrison of
Freiburg, only Trenck with 12,000 Pandours to keep the Country open
for us, against next year. Britannic Majesty, as we observed, did
then, almost simultaneously, in like manner march home; [Adelung,
iii. B, 192, 215; Anonymous, Cumberland,
p. 121.]--one goal is always clear when the day sinks: Make for
your quarters, for your bed.
Prince Karl was gloriously wedded, this Winter, to her Hungarian
Majesty's young Sister;--glorious meed of War; and, they say, a
union of hearts withal;--Wife and he to have Brussels for
residence, and be "Joint-Governors of the Netherlands" henceforth.
Stout Khevenhuller, almost during the rejoicings, took fever, and
suddenly died; to the great sorrow of her Majesty, for loss of such
a soldier and man. [ Maria Theresiens Leben,
pp. 94, 45.] Britannic Majesty has not been successful with his
Pragmatic Army. He did get his new Kur-Mainz, who has brought the
Austrian Exorbitancy to a first reading, and into general view.
He did get out of the Dettingen mouse-trap; and, to the admiration
of the Gazetteer mind, and (we hope) envy of Most Christian
Majesty, he has, regardless of expense, played Supreme Jove on the
German boards for above three months running. But as to Settlement
of the German Quarrel, he has done nothing at all, and even a good
deal less! Let me commend to readers this little scrap of Note;
headed, "METHODS OF PACIFICATING GERMANY:--
1. There is one ready method of pacificating Germany: That his
Britannic Majesty should firmly button his breeches-pocket, 'Not
one sixpence more, Madam!'--and go home to his bed, if he find no
business waiting him at home. Has not he always the EAR-OF-JENKINS
Question, and the Cause of Liberty in that succinct form. But, in
Germany, sinews of war being cut, law of gravitation would at once
act; and exorbitant Hungarian Majesty, tired France, and all else,
would in a brief space of time lapse into equilibrium, probably of
the more stable kind.
2. Or, if you want to save the Cause of Liberty on a grand scale,
there are those HANAU CONFERENCES,--Carteret's magnificent scheme:
A united Teutschland (England inspiring it), to rush on the throat
of France, for 'Compensation,' for universal salving of sores.
This second method, Diana having intervened, is gone to water, and
even to poisoned water. So that,
3". There was nothing left for poor Carteret but a TREATY OF
WORMS (concerning which, something more explicit by and by):
A Teutschland (the English, doubly and trebly inspiring it, as
surely they will now need!) to rush as aforesaid, in the DISunited
and indeed nearly internecine state. Which third method--unless
Carteret can conquer Naples for the Kaiser, stuff the Kaiser into
some satisfactory 'Netherlands' or the like, and miraculously do
the unfeasible (Fortune perhaps favoring the brave)--may be called
the unlikely one! As poor Carteret probably guesses, or dreads;--
had he now any choice left. But it was love's last shift! And, by
aid of Diana and otherwise, that is the posture in which, at Mainz,
11th October, 1743, we leave the German Question."
"Compensation," from France in particular, is not to be had gratis,
it appears. Somewhere or other it must be had! Complaining once, as
she very often does, to her Supreme Jove, Hungarian Majesty had
written: "Why, oh, why did you force me to give up Silesia!"--
Supreme Jove answers (at what date I never knew, though Friedrich
knows it, and "has copy of the Letter"): "Madam, what was good to
give is good to take back (CC QUI EST BON A PRENDRE EST BON A
RENDRE)!" [ OEuvres de Frederic, iii. 27.]
Chapter VI.
VOLTAIRE VISITS FRIEDRICH FOR THE FOURTH TIME.
In the last days of August, there appears at Berlin M. de Voltaire,
on his Fourth Visit:--thrice and four times welcome; though this
time, privately, in a somewhat unexpected capacity. Come to try his
hand in the diplomatic line; to sound Friedrich a little, on behalf
of the distressed French Ministry. That, very privately indeed, is
Voltaire's errand at present; and great hopes hang by it for
Voltaire, if he prove adroit enough.
Poor man, it had turned out he could not get his Academy Diploma,
after all,--owing again to intricacies and heterodoxies. King Louis
was at first willing, indifferent; nay the Chateauroux was willing:
but orthodox parties persuaded his Majesty; wicked Maurepas (the
same who lasted till the Revolution time) set his face against it;
Maurepas, and ANC. de Mirepoix (whom they wittily call "ANE" or Ass
of Mirepoix, that sour opaque creature, lately monk), were
industrious exceedingly; and put veto on Voltaire. A stupid Bishop
was preferred to him for filling up the Forty. Two Bishops
magnanimously refused; but one was found with ambitious stupidity
enough: Voltaire, for the third time, failed in this small matter,
to him great. Nay, in spite of that kiss in MEROPE, he could not
get his MORT DE CESAR acted; cabals rising; ANCIEN de Mirepoix
rising; Orthodoxy, sour Opacity prevailing again. To Madame and him
(though finely caressed in the Parisian circles) these were
provoking months;--enough to make a man forswear Literature, and
try some other Jacob's-Ladder in this world. Which Voltaire had
actual thoughts of, now and then. We may ask, Are these things of a
nature to create love of the Hierarchy in M. de Voltaire?
"Your Academy is going to be a Seminary of Priests," says
Friedrich. The lynx-eyed animal,--anxiously asking itself,
"Whitherward, then, out of such a mess?"--walks warily about, with
its paws of velvet; but has, IN POSSE, claws under them, for
certain individuals and fraternities.
Nor, alas, is the Du Chatelet relation itself so celestial as it
once was. Madame has discovered, think only with what feelings,
that this great man does not love her as formerly! The great man
denies, ready to deny on the Gospels, to her and to himself;
and yet, at bottom, if we read with the microscope, there are
symptoms, and it is not deniable. How should it? Leafy May, hot
June, by degrees comes October, sere, yellow; and at last, a quite
leafless condition,--not Favonius, but gray Northeast, with its
hail-storms (jealousies, barren cankered gusts), your main wind
blowing. "EMILIE FAIT DE L'ALGEBRE," sneers he once, in an
inadvertent moment, to some Lady-friend: "Emilie doing? Emilie is
doing Algebra; that is Emilie's employment,--which will be of great
use to her in the affairs of Life, and of great charm in Society."
[Letter of Voltaire "To Madame Chambonin," end of 1742
( OEuvres, Edition in 40 vols., Paris, 1818,
xxxii. 148);--is MISSED in the later Edition (97 vols., Paris,
1837), to which our habitual reference is.] Voltaire (if you read
with the microscope) has, on this side also, thoughts of being off.
"Off on this side?" Madame flies mad, becomes Megaera, at the
mention or suspicion of it! A jealous, high-tempered Algebraic
Lady. They have had to tell her of this secret Mission to Berlin;
and she insists on being the conduit, all the papers to pass
through her hands here at Paris, during the great man's absence.
Fixed northeast; that is, to appearance, the domestic wind blowing!
And I rather judge, the great man is glad to get away for a time.
This Quasi-Diplomatic Speculation, one perceives, is much more
serious, on the part both of Voltaire and of the Ministry, than any
of the former had been. And, on Voltaire's part, there glitter
prospects now and then of something positively Diplomatic, of a
real career in that kind, lying ahead for him. Fond hopes these!
But among the new Ministers, since Fleury's death, are Amelot, the
D'Argensons, personal friends, old school-fellows of the poor
hunted man, who are willing he should have shelter from such a
pack; and all French Ministers, clutching at every floating spar,
in this their general shipwreck in Germany, are aware of the uses
there might be in him, in such crisis. "Knows Friedrich;
might perhaps have some power in persuading him,--power in spying
him at any rate. Unless Friedrich do step forward again, what is to
become of us!"--The mutual hintings, negotiatings, express
interviews, bargainings and secret-instructions, dimly traceable in
Voltaire's LETTERS, had been going on perhaps since May last, time
of those ACADEMY failures, of those Broglio Despatches from the
Donau Countries, "No staying here, your Majesty!"--and I think it
was, in fact, about the time when Broglio blew up like gunpowder
and tumbled home on the winds, that Voltaire set out on his
mission. "Visit to Friedrich," they call it;--"invitation" from
Friedrich there is, or can, on the first hint, at any point of the
Journey be.
Voltaire has lingered long on the road; left Paris, middle of June;
[His Letters ( OEuvres, lxxiii. 42, 48).] but
has been exceedingly exerting himself, in the Hague, at Brussels,
and wherever else present, in the way of forwarding his errand,
Spying, contriving, persuading; corresponding to right and left,--
corresponding, especially much, with the King of Prussia himself,
and then with "M. Amelot, Secretary of State," to report progress
to the best advantage. There are curious elucidative sparks, in
those Voltaire Letters, chaotic as they are; small sparks,
elucidative, confirmatory of your dull History Books, and adding
traits, here and there, to the Image you have formed from them.
Yielding you a poor momentary comfort; like reading some riddle of
no use; like light got incidentally, by rubbing dark upon dark (say
Voltaire flint upon Dryasdust gritstone), in those labyrinthic
catacombs, if you are doomed to travel there. A mere weariness,
otherwise, to the outside reader, hurrying forward,--to the light
French Editor, who can pass comfortably on wings or balloons!
[ OEuvres, lxxiii. pp. 40-138. Clogenson, a
Dane (whose Notes, signed "Clog.," are in all tolerable recent
Editions), has, alone among the Commentators of Voltaire's LETTERS,
made some real attempt towards explaining the many passages that
are fallen unintelligible. "Clog.," travelling on foot, with his
eyes open, is--especially on German-History points--incomparable
and unique, among his French comrades going by balloon; and drops a
rational or half-rational hint now and then, which is meritoriously
helpful. Unhappily he is by no means well-read in that German
matter, by no means always exact; nor indeed ever quite to be
trusted without trial had.] Voltaire's assiduous finessings with
the Hague Diplomatist People, or with their Secretaries if
bribable; nay, with the Dutch Government itself ("through channels
which I have opened,"--with infinitesimally small result); his
spyings ("young Podewils," Minister here, Nephew of the Podewils we
have known, "young Podewils in intrigue with a Dutch Lady of rank:"
think of that, your Excellency); his preparatory subtle
correspondings with Friedrich: his exquisite manoeuvrings, and
really great industries in the small way:--all this, and much else,
we will omit. Impatient of these preludings, which have been many!
Thus, at one point, Voltaire "took a FLUXION" (catarrhal, from the
nose only), when Friedrich was quite ready; then, again, when
Voltaire was ready, and the fluxion off, Friedrich had gone upon
his Silesian Reviews: in short, there had been such cross-purposes,
tedious delays, as are distressing to think of;--and we will say
only, that M. de Voltaire did actually, after the conceivable
adventures, alight in the Berlin Schloss (last day of August, as I
count); welcomed, like no other man, by the Royal Landlord there;
--and that this is the Fourth Visit; and has (in strict privacy)
weightier intentions than any of the foregoing, on M. de
Voltaire's part.
Voltaire had a glorious reception; apartment near the King's;
King gliding in, at odd moments, in the beautifulest way; and for
seven or eight days, there was, at Berlin and then at Potsdam, a
fine awakening of the sphere-harmonies between them, with touches
of practicality thrown in as suited. Of course it was not long
till, on some touch of that latter kind, Friedrich discerned what
the celestial messenger had come upon withal;--a dangerous moment
for M. de Voltaire, "King visibly irritated," admits he, with the
aquiline glance transfixing him! "Alas, your Majesty, mere excess
of loyalty, submission, devotion, on my poor part! Deign to think,
may not this too,--in the present state of my King, of my Two
Kings, and of all Europe,--be itself a kind of spheral thing?"
So that the aquiline lightning was but momentary; and abated to
lambent twinklings, with something even of comic in them, as we
shall gather. Voltaire had his difficulties with Valori, too;
"What interloping fellow is this?" gloomed Valori, "A devoted
secretary of your Excellency's; on his honor, nothing more!"
answered Voltaire, bowing to the ground:--and strives to behave as
such; giving Valori "these poor Reports of mine to put in cipher,"
and the like. Very slippery ice hereabouts for the adroit man!
His reports to Amelot are of sanguine tone; but indicate, to the
by-stander, small progress; ice slippery, and a twinkle of the
comic. Many of them are lost (or lie hidden in the French Archives,
and are not worth disinterring): but here is one, saved by
Beaumarchais and published long afterwards, which will sufficiently
bring home the old scene to us. In the Palace of Berlin or else of
Potsdam (date must be, 6th-8th September, 1743), Voltaire from his
Apartment hands in a "Memorial" to Friedrich; and gets it back with
Marginalia,--as follows:
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