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we fear, was on this occasion guided ever good the breakfasts at Dayles by personal considerations, rather than ford may have been, and we are by a regard to the public interest. assured that the tea was of the most The last twenty-four years of his aromatic flavour, and that neither life were chiefly passed at Daylesford. tongue nor venison-pasty was wantHe amused himself with embellishing ing, we should have thought the his grounds, riding fine Arab horses, reckoning high if we had been forced fattening prize-cattle, and trying to to earn our repast by listening every rear Indian animals and vegetables in day to a new madrigal or sonnet comEngland. He sent for seeds of a very posed by our host. We are glad, howfine custard-apple, from the garden of ever, that Mr. Gleig has preserved this what had once been his own villa, little feature of character, though we among the green hedgerows of Alli- think it by no means a beauty. It is pore. He tried also to naturalise in good to be often reminded of the inWorcestershire the delicious leechee, consistency of human nature, and to almost the only fruit of Bengal which learn to look without wonder or disdeserves to be regretted even amidst gust on the weaknesses which are found the plenty of Covent Garden. The in the strongest minds. Dionysius in Mogul emperors, in the time of their old times, Frederic in the last century, greatness, had in vain attempted to with capacity and vigour equal to the introduce into Hindostan the goat of conduct of the greatest affairs, united the table-land of Thibet, whose down all the little vanities and affectations supplies the looms of Cashmere with of provincial blue-stockings. These the materials of the finest shawls. great examples may console the adHastings tried, with no better fortune, mirers of Hastings for the affliction of to rear a breed at Daylesford; nor seeing him reduced to the level of the does he seem to have succeeded better Hayleys and Sewards. with the cattle of Bootan, whose tails are in high esteem as the best fans for brushing away the mosquitoes.

When Hastings had passed many years in retirement, and had long outlived the common age of men, he again Literature divided his attention with became for a short time an object of his conservatories and his menagerie. general attention. In 1813 the charter He had always loved books, and they of the East India Company was rewere now necessary to him. Though newed; and much discussion about not a poet, in any high sense of the Indian affairs took place in Parliaword, he wrote neat and polished lines ment. It was determined to examine with great facility, and was fond of witnesses at the bar of the Commons; exercising this talent. Indeed, if we and Hastings was ordered to attend. must speak out, he seems to have been He had appeared at that bar once bemore of a Trissotin than was to be ex-fore. It was when he read his anpected from the powers of his mind, swer to the charges which Burke had and from the great part which he had laid on the table. Since that time played in life. We are assured in twenty-seven years had elapsed; pubthese Memoirs that the first thing lic feeling had undergone a complete which he did in the morning was to change; the nation had now forgotten write a copy of verses. When the his faults, and remembered only his family and guests assembled, the poem services. The reappearance, too, of a made its appearance as regularly as man who had been among the most the eggs and rolls; and Mr. Gleig re-distinguished of a generation that had quires us to believe that, if from any passed away, who now belonged to accident Hastings came to the break- history, and who seemed to have risen fast-table without one of his charming from the dead, could not but produce a performances in his hand, the omission solemn and pathetic effect. The Comwas felt by all as a grievous disap-mons received him with acclamations, pointment. Tastes differ widely. For ordered a chair to be set for him, and, ourselves, we must say that, how-when he retired, rose and uncovered.

There were, indeed, a few who did not as is rarely enjoyed by those who attain sympathize with the general feeling. such an age. At length, on the twentyOne or two of the managers of the im- second of August, 1818, in the eightypeachment were present. They sate sixth year of his age, he met death in the same seats which they had oc- with the same tranquil and decorous cupied when they had been thanked fortitude which he had opposed to all for the services which they had ren- the trials of his various and eventful life. dered in Westminster Hall: for, by the With all his faults,-and they were courtesy of the House, a member who neither few nor small,-only one cehas been thanked in his place is consi-metery was worthy to contain his redered as having a right always to oc- mains. In that temple of silence and cupy that place. These gentlemen reconciliation where the enmities of were not disposed to admit that they twenty generations lie buried, in the had employed several of the best years Great Abbey which has during many of their lives in persecuting an innocent ages afforded a quiet resting-place to man. They accordingly kept their those whose minds and bodies have seats, and pulled their hats over their been shattered by the contentions of brows; but the exceptions only made the Great Hall, the dust of the illusthe prevailing enthusiasm more re-trious accused should have mingled markable. The Lords received the with the dust of the illustrious accusers. old man with similar tokens of respect. The University of Oxford conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws; and, in the Sheldonian Theatre, the undergraduates welcomed him with tumultuous cheering.

This was not to be. Yet the place of interment was not ill chosen. Behind the chancel of the parish church of Daylesford, in earth which already held the bones of many chiefs of the house of Hastings, was laid the coffin These marks of public esteem were of the greatest man who has ever soon followed by marks of royal fa- borne that ancient and widely extended vour. Hastings was sworn of the name. On that very spot probably, Privy Council, and was admitted to a fourscore years before, the little Warlong private audience of the Prince ren, meanly clad and scantily fed, had Regent, who treated him very gra- played with the children of ploughciously. When the Emperor of Rus- men. Even then his young mind had sia and the King of Prussia visited revolved plans which might be called England, Hastings appeared in their romantic. Yet, however romantic, it train both at Oxford and in the Guild- is not likely that they had been so hall of London, and, though sur- strange as the truth. Not only had rounded by a crowd of princes and the poor orphan retrieved the fallen great warriors, was every where re- fortunes of his line-not only had he ceived with marks of respect and ad- repurchased the old lands, and rebuilt miration. He was presented by the the old dwelling-he had preserved Prince Regent both to Alexander and and extended an empire. He had to Frederic William; and his Royal founded a polity. He had adminisHighness went so far as to declare in tered government and war with more public that honours far higher than a than the capacity of Richelieu. seat in the Privy Council were due, had patronised learning with the juand would soon be paid, to the man dicious liberality of Cosmo. He had who had saved the British dominions been attacked by the most formidable in Asia. Hastings now confidently combination of enemies that ever sought expected a peerage; but, from some the destruction of a single victim; and unexplained cause, he was again dis-over that combination, after a struggle appointed. of ten years, he had triumphed. He had at length gone down to his grave in the fulness of age, in peace, after so many troubles, in honour, after so much obloquy.

He lived about four years longer, in the enjoyment of good spirits, of faculties not impaired to any painful or degrading extent, and of health such

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Those who look on his character | population and revenue the fifth among without favour or malevolence will pro- them, and in art, science, and civilisanounce that, in the two great elements tion entitled to the third, if not to the of all social virtue, in respect for the second place, sprang from a humble rights of others, and in sympathy for origin. About the beginning of the the sufferings of others, he was de- fifteenth century, the marquisate of ficient. His principles were somewhat Brandenburg was bestowed by the lax. His heart was somewhat hard. Emperor Sigismund on the noble family But though we cannot with truth de- of Hohenzollern. In the sixteenth censcribe him either as a righteous or as a tury that family embraced the Lutheran merciful ruler, we cannot regard with- doctrines. It obtained from the King out admiration the amplitude and fer- of Poland, early in the seventeenth tility of his intellect, his rare talents century, the investiture of the duchy of for command, for administration, and Prussia. Even after this accession of for controversy, his dauntless courage, territory, the chiefs of the house of his honourable poverty, his fervent zeal Hohenzollern hardly ranked with the for the interests of the state, his noble Electors of Saxony and Bavaria. The equanimity, tried by both extremes of soil of Brandenburg was for the most fortune, and never disturbed by either. part sterile. Even round Berlin, the capital of the province, and round Potsdam, the favourite residence of the Margraves, the country was a desert. In some places, the deep sand could with difficulty be forced by assiduous tillage to yield thin crops of rye and Frederic the Great and his Times. Edited, oats. In other places, the ancient fowith an Introduction, by THOMAS CAMP-rests, from which the conquerors of the BELL, Esq. 2 vols. 8vo. London: 1842. Roman empire had descended on the Tis work, which has the high honour Danube, remained untouched by the of being introduced to the world by hand of man. Where the soil was rich the author of Lochiel and Hohenlin- it was generally marshy, and its insaden, is not wholly unworthy of so dis-lubrity repelled the cultivators whom tinguished a chaperon. It professes, its fertility attracted. Frederic Wilindeed, to be no more than a compila- liam, called the Great Elector, was the tion; but it is an exceedingly amusing prince to whose policy his successors compilation, and we shall be glad to have agreed to ascribe their greatness. have more of it. The narrative comes He acquired by the peace of Westdown at present only to the commence-phalia several valuable possessions, and ment of the Seven Years' War, and therefore does not comprise the most interesting portion of Frederic's reign.

FREDERIC THE GREAT.

(APRIL, 1842.)

among them the rich city and district of Magdeburg; and he left to his son Frederic a principality as considerable as any which was not called a kingdom.

It may not be unacceptable to our readers that we should take this oppor- Frederic aspired to the style of roytunity of presenting them with a slight alty. Ostentatious and profuse, negsketch of the life of the greatest king ligent of his true interests and of his that has, in modern times, succeeded high duties, insatiably eager for frivoby right of birth to a throne. It may, lous distinctions, he added nothing to we fear, be impossible to compress so the real weight of the state which he long and eventful a story within the governed: perhaps he transmitted his limits which we must prescribe to our-inheritance to his children impaired selves. Should we be compelled to rather than augmented in value; but break off, we may perhaps, when the he succeeded in gaining the great obcontinuation of this work appears, re-ject of his life, the title of King. In turn to the subject. the year 1700 he assumed this new The Prussian monarchy, the youngest dignity. He had on that occasion to of the great European states, but in undergo all the mortifications which

fall to the lot of ambitious upstarts. of a member of the Roxburghe Club Compared with the other crowned heads for Caxtons. While the envoys of the of Europe, he made a figure resembling Court of Berlin were in a state of such that which a Nabob or a Commissary, squalid poverty as moved the laughter who had bought a title, would make in of foreign capitals, while the food placed the company of Peers whose ancestors before the princes and princesses of the had been attainted for treason against blood-royal of Prussia was too scanty the Plantagenets. The envy of the to appease hunger, and so bad that even class which Frederic quitted, and the hunger loathed it, no price was thought civil scorn of the class into which he too extravagant for tall recruits. The intruded himself, were marked in very ambition of the King was to form a significant ways. The Elector of Saxony brigade of giants, and every country at first refused to acknowledge the new was ransacked by his agents for men Majesty. Lewis the Fourteenth looked above the ordinary stature. These redown on his brother King with an air searches were not confined to Europe. not unlike that with which the Count No head that towered above the crowd in Molière's play regards Monsieur in the bazaars of Aleppo, of Cairo, or Jourdain, just fresh from the mum- of Surat, could escape the crimps of mery of being made a gentleman. Frederic William. One Irishman more Austria exacted large sacrifices in re- than seven feet high, who was picked turn for her recognition, and at last up in London by the Prussian ambasgave it ungraciously. sador, received a bounty of near thirteen hundred pounds sterling, very much more than the ambassador's salary. This extravagance was the more absurd, because a stout youth of five feet eight, who might have been procured for a few dollars, would in all probability have been a much more valuable soldier. But to Frederic William, this huge Irishman was what a brass Otho, or a Vinegar Bible, is to a collector of a different kind.

Frederic was succeeded by his son, Frederic William, a prince who must be allowed to have possessed some talents for administration, but whose character was disfigured by odious vices, and whose eccentricities were such as had never before been seen out of a madhouse. He was exact and diligent in the transacting of business; and he was the first who formed the design of obtaining for Prussia a place among the European powers, alto- It is remarkable, that though the gether out of proportion to her extent main end of Frederic William's adand population, by means of a strong ministration was to have a great milimilitary organization. Strict economy tary force, though his reign forms an enabled him to keep up a peace estab-important epoch in the history of mililishment of sixty thousand troops. These troops were disciplined in such a manner, that placed beside them, the household regiments of Versailles and St. James's would have appeared an awkward squad. The master of such a force could not but be regarded by all his neighbours as a formidable enemy and a valuable ally.

tary discipline, and though his dominant passion was the love of military display, he was yet one of the most pacific of princes. We are afraid that his aversion to war was not the effect of humanity, but was merely one of his thousand whims. His feeling about his troops seems to have resembled a miser's feeling about his money. Ho But the mind of Frederic William loved to collect them, to count them, was so il regulated, that all his incli- to see them increase; but he could not nations became passions, and all his find it in his heart to break in upon passions partook of the character of the precious hoard. He looked formoral and intellectual disease. His ward to some future tine when his parsimony degenerated into sordid ava-Patagonian battalions were to drive rice. His taste for military pomp and hostile infantry before them like sheep: order became a mania, like that of a but this future time was always recedDutch burgomaster for tulips, or that ing; and it is probable that, if his life

had been prolonged thirty years, his | between the puffs of the pipe, to play superb army would never have seen any backgammon for three halfpence a harder service than a sham fight in the rubber, to kill wild hogs, and to shoot fields near Berlin. But the great mili- partridges by the thousand. The Prince tary means which he had collected were Royal showed little inclination either destined to be employed by a spirit far for the serious employments or for the more daring and inventive than his own. amusements of his father. He shirked Frederic, surnamed the Great, son of the duties of the parade: he detested Frederic William, was born in January, the fume of tobacco: he had no taste 1712. It may safely be pronounced either for backgammon or for field that he had received from nature a sports. He had an exquisite ear, and strong and sharp understanding, and a performed skilfully on the flute. His rare firmness of temper and intensity earliest instructors had been French of will. As to the other parts of his refugees, and they had awakened in character, it is difficult to say whether him a strong passion for French litethey are to be ascribed to nature, or to rature and French society. Frederic the strange training which he under- William regarded these tastes as effewent. The history of his boyhood is minate and contemptible, and, by painfully interesting. Oliver Twist in abuse and persecution, made them still the parish workhouse, Smike at Dothe- stronger. Things became worse when boys Hall, were petted children when the Prince Royal attained that time of compared with this wretched heir ap- life at which the great revolution in parent of a crown. The nature of the human mind and body takes place. Frederic William was hard and bad, He was guilty of some youthful indisand the habit of exercising arbitrary cretions, which no good and wise papower had made him frightfully savage. rent would regard with severity. At His rage constantly vented itself to a later period he was accused, truly or right and left in curses and blows. falsely, of vices from which History When his Majesty took a walk, every averts her eyes, and which even Satire human being fled before him, as if a blushes to name, vices such that, to tiger had broken loose from a mena- borrow the energetic language of Lord gerie. If he met a lady in the street, Keeper Coventry, "the depraved nahe gave her a kick, and told her to go ture of man, which of itself carrieth home and mind her brats. If he saw a man to all other sin, abhorreth them." clergyman staring at the soldiers, he But the offences of his youth were not admonished the reverend gentleman to characterized by any peculiar turpibetake himself to study and prayer, and tude. They excited, however, transenforced this pious advice by a sound ports of rage in the King, who hated caning, administered on the spot. But all faults except those to which he was it was in his own house that he was himself inclined, and who conceived most unreasonable and ferocious. His palace was hell, and he the most execrable of fiends, a cross between Moloch and Puck. His son Frederic and his daughter Wilhelmina, afterwards Margravine of Bareuth, were in an especial manner objects of his aversion. His own mind was uncultivated. He despised literature. He hated infidels, papists, and metaphysicians, and did not very well understand in what they differed from each other. The business of life, according to him, was to drill and to be drilled. The recreations suited to a prince, were to sit in a cloud of tobacco smoke, to sip Swedish beer

that he made ample atonement to
Heaven for his brutality, by holding
the softer passions in detestation. The
Prince Royal, too, was not one of those
who are content to take their religion
on trust. He asked puzzling questions,
and brought forward arguments which
seemed to savour of something dif-
ferent from pure Lutheranism. The
King suspected that his son was in-
clined to be a heretic of some sort
or other, whether Calvinist or Atheist
his Majesty did not very well know.
The ordinary malignity of Frederic
William was bad enough.
He now
thought malignity a part of his duty

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