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M. SCHLÖZER, in the courfe of his work, has frequently likened his hero to Phocion, but not very happily. Grecian ftood up for the rights of the people, the German was apparently an enemy to them. Plutarch, in his life of Timoleon, obferves,

"Two of their popular orators, Laphiftias and Demænetas, attacked Timoleon; and Demænetas, in a full audience of the people, laid feveral things to his charge which he had done while he was General. To this he made a fpirited reply; but shortly after retired from his command, unwilling to be concerned in the broils and tumults of Greece, or to expofe himself to the public envy, that fatal rock which many great commanders run upon, from an infatiable appetite of honour and power."

The conduct of this renowned General might have served as a model for the German Prince. We mean not, however, that he should have fat down quietly with the ftigma fet on him; exactly the reverfe.-And his feceffion muft have anfwered a two-fold purpose: it would have fatisfied the people, and afforded the better opportunity of vindicating himself from the charges preferred against him by his enemies.

But however rigidly, however feverely, we may be inclined to judge of the ufurped power of the Duke of Brunfwic, and confequently to vindicate the magiftrates in their proceedings against him, we yet are unable to pardon the behaviour of thofe magiftrates toward the defcendant of the illuftrious boufe of Naffau: a Prince, whofe privileges (while he himself infringes not the fundamental laws of the ftate) fhould be ftrenuously fupported by every lover of order and good government; and who fhould be carefully protected against the fickleness and inftability of the Hollanders; a ficklenefs which has fo repeatedly fhewn itfelf on the fubject of the Stadholdership; for though, in confequence of the troubles of the times, and finding themfelves without a ruling power, or centre of union, they, about the middle of the prefent century, called William IV. to that high and important office; they yet, within nine or ten years immediately fucceeding, began to exprefs their averfion from the establishment of fuch a power; and ever fince the year 1779 they have regularly continued their perfecution of its prefent poffeffor. The difficulty and danger of ruling over fuch a people are easily feen. But the Prince's authority is once more acknowleged throughout the provinces; and we fincerely hope that his right to exercife it will not again be impeached by the majeflé marchande of Amfterdam (as our Editor has contemptuoufly ftyled its magiftracy), or, indeed, by any of the other ftates.

ART.

ART. XIX.

Effai fur la Vie et le Regne de Frédéric II. Roi de Pruffe, &c.; i. e. A Sketch of the Life and Reign of Frederic the Second, King of Pruffia. Intended to ferve as an Introduction to the Berlin Edition of his Pruffian Majefty's Works. 8vo. Printed at Berlin by Authority. 1788 *.

WIT

ITH much fatisfaction do we now receive, from the hand of authority, an account of the life and reign of Frederic the Great.

The work before us, which comes from the pen of the Abbé DENINA, a gentleman of eminence in the world of letters †, is chiefly confined to the political and military history of the Pruffian monarch, and exhibits him in the double capacity of a statesman and a foldier. It is to be followed by another publication, intitled, La Pruffe Litteraire, ou l' Etat des Lettres et des Arts, fous Frederic II. in which we are to see him in his literary character. This, we doubt not, will be at once both curious and interesting; and we expect it with the highest impatience. With regard to the prefent volume, there is little in it which can properly be termed new; for the matters on which it touches have been repeatedly before the Public. Yet as it places the most important of those matters in a light very different from that in which they are ufually feen, it will undoubtedly command the attention of mankind.

The Abbé commences this his sketch, (Ebauche) as he very modeftly though not very properly terms it,-ince the book deferves a much more diftinguished title-with an abstract of the hiftory of the Houfe of Brandenbourg: an hiftory which we long fince received from the pen of the King (though we did not then believe him to be the author), and which it is unneceffary to dwell on here. He then proceeds to give a relation of Frederic's battles; we cannot fay, indeed, with all the "pomp and circumftance of glorious war," but with a degree of clearnefs and precifion which will no doubt be fatisfactory to the general, if not to the profeffional reader. His majesty's right to fome particular provinces in Silefia, is fully and incontrovertibly proved: the causes of the feven years German war are inquired into, and stated with fairness; and the partition of Poland (that commonly reprobated measure) appears to be not only defenfible, but even to have been a work of neceffity;-a neceffity occafioned

It is imported by Meffrs. Robson and Clarke in London.

+ See, particularly, our account of his Revoluzioni d'Italia, Rev. vol. xliii. xliv. Of his work on the Ancient Republics of Italy, Rev. vol. xlix.; and of his Iftoria politica e literaria della Grecia, Rev, vol. Ixvi. See alfo Rev. vol. xlv. p. 414.

See Rev. vol. iv. p. 201.

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by the actual state of the country, torn as it was by civil diffenfions, and eager to change its masters.

We have already delivered our fentiments on the preceding particulars with franknefs (fee Rev. for December laft, p. 485, et feq.), and are happy to find them every way coincident with thofe of the prefent well-informed, and, generally (peaking, impartial narrator. It is therefore needlefs to speak more fully to them, except in one particular inftance.-It is urged, by the enemies of Frederic, that his infraction of the articles of the treaty of peace as fettled at Drefden in 1745, is altogether unjuftifiable: for that though the courts of Vienna and Saxony bad entered into a confederacy for their mutual defence, and in oppofition to the power of the King; yet the cafus fœderis being always with provifo of an attack on the part of Pruffia, it remained entirely with that power either to maintain or diffolve the peace. But this ftipulation, this conditional article, as M. DENINA has well obferved, exhibits merely the fhadow of justice; for what could be more easy, whenever those courts were difpofed for war, than to drive the King to extremities, and force him, as it were, to become the aggreffor? Nay, fuch, in fact, was the conduct of the Emprefs queen; for when Frederic, alarmed at the warlike preparations of the court of Vienna, and having ac

*We obferve with no little pleasure, likewise, that this writer entertains the fame opinion which we have taken up refpecting the Baron Trenck; (fee Rev. vol. lxxix. p. 255); and that, as was the cafe with us, from nothing but a perufal of his hiftory as penned by the Baron himself. His words are to the following effect: M. de Trenck affures us, in his Memoirs, that the accufation brought against him of holding a traiterous correfpondence with the enemy, was altogether unjust. Be this, however, as it may, thofe very memoirs fufficiently prove the neceffity which the king was under of arrefting the Baron, whom he carefully kept in prifon during the whole of the wars in which he was engaged.' Setting afide the traiterous part of the bufinefs, in the first inftance, and confidering him as punished for a mifdemeanor only, (though it must not be forgotten that after his efcape from confinement at Glatz, he took up arms against his fovereign, and for which, by the way, a lefs merciful fovereign would, on feizing him, have taken his head)-the matter is fimply this. The King of Pruffia and Baron Trenck were contending for confequence; (a notable contention!) neither being willing to fubmit to the other. Such, however, is the fact. “Ĭ would not ask pardon of the king; my resolution increased his obstinacy. But in the difcuffion of the caufe, our power was very unequal." Life of Trenck. We cannot better illuftrate this fact than by quoting an old faying, When two men ride upon one borse, one of them must ride behind. So fays honeft Dogberry. Baron Trenck was for riding foremoft: with what propriety we leave to the reader to judge.

tually

tually in his poffeffion copies of the papers of the fecret negociations and confpiracy entered into againft him with the court of Saxony, and which he had obtained by means of bribery *:when, we fay, he demanded from Maria Therefa a formal decla-. ration of her intentions, at the fame time offering, if fhe would difcontinue fuch her preparations, to bind himself by the most folemn engagements, to a due obfervance, on his part, of every particular in the articles of the aforefaid treaty, the gave him an haughty and unfatisfactory anfwer, at the fame time augmenting her army, with a diligence and rapidity rarely feen.

As Frederic has been cenfured by many for his feeming predilection for war, we will lay before our readers the fentiment of the great Lord Bacon on the fubject of necessary wars: a fentiment which may properly be confidered as a ftate maxim, founded, as it undoubtedly is, in truth.

"No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic; and certainly to a kingdom or eftate a juft and honour able war is the true exercife. A civil war indeed is like the heat of a fever, but a foreign war is like the heat of exercise, and ferveth to keep the body in health: for in a flothful peace both courages will effeminate, and manners corrupt."

That the Pruffian monarch would be aut Cæfar aut nihil→ in other words, that he ftrove to be fupreme in all things (though from a very different principle to that which actuated the Roman, in his career of glory)-is evident from the whole of his hiftory. It fhould at the fame time be remembered, as is just before hinted, that there are two kinds of ambition: one which has virtue for its bafis, and another which is established in vice. The firft is an undaunted spirit leading to great and honourable undertakings: the second is merely a refleffnefs which repines at the fucceffts of others, and originating in nothing but a love of conqueft and tyrannic fway. But enough of this. We will now difmifs the hero, and attend to the man and the king.

The political, legislative, and commercial hiftory of Pruffia, is, in the prefent volume, detailed with admirable perfpicuity and neatness. It is here, indeed, that the character of Frederic rifes on us, to an astonishing height! Nothing that could be any way conducive to the welfare and happiness of his people, appears to have been neglected by him. Himfelf a lawgiver; himself a director and referee in judiciary proceedings; scarcely any one had ever occafion to murmur at his ordinances, or at his final decrees. In a word, his humanity, and love of juf tice, together with his attention to domeftic regulation and inftitutions of every kind, are almost fufficient to make us enamoured of defpotic power, while, as Englishmen, we can have *See a paragraph or two from these papers, in Rev. for Dec. laft, P. 488,

nothing

nothing to say in its commendation. We may, however, obs ferve, as we proceed, that as it is only in a limited government that the fubject can be truly fecure, fo it is only in an absolute one that the fovereign can be truly great. How unbounded, then, fhould be our praife of him, who having the power and the privilege, and, it may be, occafionally, the temptation, of doing wrong, is only ambitious, in proportion to the greatness and extenfivenefs of that power, of exercifing right!

Though it is the intention of M. DENINA to give the literary hiftory of Frederic, and of the Literati with whom he affociated; he yet, in the prefent performance, has touched on the merits of the King as an author, and on the ftate of learning in Germany, with no inconfiderable degree of acutenefs and care. His majefty's attachment to the literature of France is accounted for on juft and rational principles; as originating in refinement and elegance of tafte, and not in whim or prejudice of any kind. The Abbé acknowleges that his royal mafter was as well acquainted with the German language as most of the princes of the country; but that it was impoffible for fuch a man as Frederic to be pleafed with its writers, whofe works, with the exception of only five or fix, were, at the time of his accession to the throne, confidered as the dulleft and moft infipid in the world, We now, however, begin to perceive, among the German authors, the emanations of genius; and the examples of a GESNER, a KLOPSTOCK, &c. will probably lead to fomething which may place them above the rank of fimple gloffateurs, as our author terms them; the only line in which they have hitherto been principally known.

After the King had fettled the peace of Drefden, he composed his Hiftory of the Houfe of Brandenbourg, &c. and at nearly the fame period he revived the Academie des Sciences*, founded by Frederic I. and which had been abolished by his fon and fucceffor. On his attention to the advancement of literature and fcience, M. DENINA juftly obferves, that, amid the most weighty and important concerns of ftate, his majefty never entirely relinquished his literary pursuits.

In what manner Frederic had offended his father, who, it may be remembered, earnestly laboured to bring him to the block, has never been thoroughly known. His intention of quitting Berlin, and for which he was unexpectedly arrested, muft have involved in it fomething of a criminal nature; fince his younger brother, Auguftus William, was the favourite of the King, who, in confequence of fuch his partiality, had frequently

Leibnitz was originally at the head of this inftitution, and, afterward, Maupertuis. On the death of the latter, the King himself became its prefident.

urged

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