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writing. With regard to a favourite, the very name is unknown in this country. Vol-taire, the Marquis D’Argens , Algarotti, Quintus Icilius, and Baftiani, were only thecompanions of idle hours, and knew lefs of the government than any body, as Voltaire has. often proved by his bon mots. Thefe beaux efprits were obliged to keep withintheir proper fphere, and never could bring the King to be familiar with them, how littlefoever he made them feel the difference of rank in the ordinary affairs of life.
Ihe King poffeffes the rare and great talent of letting himfelf down to every man,without forgetting himfelf in the leaft. His reader and fecretary dare not bring himeither complaint or petition. The King appears to be exceedingly miftruftful of him-felf, and to fear leaft his daily converfation and familiarity with all forts of people Ihouldlead him into error. His fecretary, who paffes fo many hours of every day with him inprivate, mull lay all the bufinefs to be done before him in form. His minifters are theonly perfons he refers to ; they are the executors of his will.
It has been frequently obferved, that no King upon the face of the earth is fo wellferved as the King of Pruffia, though there is none who pays his fervants fo ill. Butthefe good fervants are not to be procured by mere feverity ; they mult have obferved,that the King far excels them in underftanding, and that he himfelf ftridly adheres tothe rules of juftice and equity, which he lays down for the condud of others. Had theydifcovered a weak fide, either in the head or heart of the monarch, there would havebeen an end of their good fervices. It is only to his extreme impartiality, his juftice,and his fuperior underftanding, that we mu ft afcribe the adivity and order in the Pruf-fian courts of juftice. No prince of the blood has the flighteft advantage over a farmerin a law-fuit. When a difpute happens with a fubjed upon any part of the domain orcrown lands, there is no judge who dares have a leaning towards the King’s fide; onthe contrary, in this cafe they are ordered to have a leaning againft him. The fameaverfion to defpotifm leads him to make it no fecret, that he does not think the kingsof the earth are placed here as gods of it, and vicegerents of the Almighty. He looksupon the royal dignity as a ftation, which, like that of a general, and many others, hasbeen eftabliffied through human difpofitions, and to which, in confequence of thefe dif-pofitions, birth alone gives a title. He makes as little ufe of religion as he does of po-litics, to blind his people, or keep up his authority by faith and opinion. The confciouf-nefs that he is capable of no injuftice or ad of power, can alone fet him above thisMachiavelian policy. To conclude my thefts, that the King is nothing lefs than a defpot,I muft obferve, that he has no over-bearing paffton; fame is by no means his purfuit;he defpifes all the applaufe of men from his heart. The great phyfiognomift, Lavater ,muft have obferved in his countenance, that he defpifes man himfelf; at leaft I think Ican affirm, with a degree of fufficient confidence, that the King appears lefs in no man’seyes than he does in his own. Flatterers have very little to exped from him; and thofewho have written againft him with the greateft bitternefs, may be affured that he has nogall againft them. The Abbe Raynal , who is at prefent here, is a fure proof of this.There is no place in the world in which there is lefs noife made about the King’s adionsthan there is at Berlin. None of the newfpapers of the country fay a word about them;and there would not hat^e been a word faid about them at all, if fome patriots of othercountries had not taken it into their heads, of late, to blow the trumpet of fame, Wr. n-ever their governors did any thing that was not palpably abfurd or impertinent. Thfefulfome panegyrifts ftirred up fome Pruffian patriots, who love their King, to fhew theworld, that Frederic, who is fo unknown to moft ftrangers, does more in filence thanhalf a dozen other deini-gods of the earth put together. The world was aftoniffied when itlearned, that for years paft the King had distributed feveral millions amongft his fubjeds,
a and