Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-08-05

neither dinners nor Mondays, but tOlleu
month after month and year after year
under the eye of q taskmaster whom no
trick, however sharp, could deceive. He
was accustomed to take from the heap a
dozen or fifty letters at random, scan
them closely to see if his instructions
had been strictly obeyed, and if he de-
tected an error, woe to the unfortunate
scribblerg When all were completed to
his mind, he signed them, and they were
nations Like his father, Frederic cut
down al other expenditures for the
sake of the army; he had no navy,
no colonies; he paid his judges and
diplomatic agents the smallest possible
! salaries; he knew the cost of every dish
on the royal table, and no bottle of wine
vas ever opened without his express
permission. He never had but one court
suit, and that lasted him through life;
his ordinary dress was such as could not
be sold at secondhand clothing store
AN old rusty coat, vest stained with
soup and snuff, and pair of jack boots
guiltless Of backing and grim with old
age and hard service. But in spite of
his close pocket, iron hand end shabby
wardrobe, Frederic, in the main, was a
good ruler, and his people loved him.
! He paid no attention to the caricatures
and libels which some of his disafected
subjects scattered through Berlin One
of these, posted high upon wall, was
once shown him, and, instead of being
angy, he ordered his attendants to put it
down lower, so that the passers-by could
see it more easily my people, he
used to say, have come to an agreement
which satisfies us both. They are to
say whatthey please, and / am to do as
/ please" His administration of civil
Justice was rigid and impartial, though
he governed the army with merciles
severity, and religious persecution was
comparatively unknown. Singularly
enough, he retained his love for music for
books, and fer poetry, and all his leisure
time was devoted to these. Hesurrounded
himself with asmall circle of kindred
spirits, whom he alternately caressed
and bullied, and at last, after much per-
suasion, induced Voltaire to leave Paris
and take up his abode in Berlin. But
the author of the Henriade and the mas
ter of Potsdam could not long agree;
Voltaire was great writer, Frederic a
small one; Voltaire was greedy after
money and SO was Frederic; and after
pickering and quarreling for months
they bade each other adieu, and the phi
losopher departed from Prussia. 1t
seems that Intentionally or otherwise,
Voltaire carried away with him amanu-
script volume of Frederic's rhymes, and
!. on his arrival at Frankfort found him
self under arrest. The book was given
up, but this did not suffice. He was
thrown into dirty guardhouse, watched
over by sentinels for twelve days, and
finally forced to pay ransom Of $1,000
to secure his release from the ignomini-
GUS confinement. From that day for
ward, it was a part of the very little re-
ligion WHICH Voltaire possessed to hate
Frederic, and though intercourse was
afterward resumed between them, they
never met, and the breach was never
healed.
In 1856 the seven years war com
menced. Maria Theresa had not forgot
ten Siesia, or the man who stole it, and
for years had been preparing to wreak a
fire Of revenge. She had hoped to take
Frederic lpawares, but he was far too
keen-eyed politician not to see the
storm brewing in the Apstrinn horizon.
In August he assumed the offensive, and
poured sixty Thousand troops into sax
ony, blockaded Pima, and captured
Dresden. An Austrian army under
Marshal Brown, advanced to the rescue
of Pima; Frederic met the enemy at
Lowositz and defeated him. This made
the victor supreme master of Saxony. In
1856 he fought the battle of Prague and
defeated Brown again, but was in turn
defeated on the 18th Of June ut Kolin
by the Austrian Marshal Daun. This
forced him to abandon the siege Of
Prague, and retreat from Bohemia as
rapidly as possible, Beset on all sides,
his army discouraged, his kingdom
overrun, his prestige gone, he almost
gave up in despair; but on two points
he was resolved, first, never to be taken
alive, and second, never to make dis
honorable peace. so he fought on, us
one of his biographers remarks, with a
quire of bad verses in one pocket, and
an ounce of poison in the other" But
Frederic was not doomed to sacrifice his
power or swallow bis corrosive sublimate.
In November, 1857, he defeated the
French army under Marshal Loubise, at
the famous battle of Rosbach, and one
month later demolished the Austrian
army under Prince Charles, at Leuthen,
in Silesia. This last contest Napoleon
pronounced military masterpiece
"enough of itself to entitle Frederic to
place in the first rank of generals.
But if Leuthen established the fame of
Frederic, it was Rosbach which laid the
foundations of that united Germany
which to-day faces France ON the banks
of the Rhine. The Prussian triumph
of one hundred and thirteen years
ago was the birth of that confederation
which now holds the heart of Europe,
and ia preparing TO fly its banners from
the Baltic to the Adriatio. Early in
1853 Frederic marched against the Rus
slams and defeated them at Zorndorf, but
this was the last of his victories for a
time, The subsequent campaigns of
l75s, SO and the fpst part of l760 went
heavily against him; Prussia was over
run, Berlin plundered, and the entire
country swept with fire and sword.
EveTy available man and horse was put
into the field, the last dollar was drawn
from the treasury, the last cannon and
musket from the arsenals, and the stub
born old hero, consoled by his poison
and his poetry, and sustained by q
ouenchless will, infamed by vindictive
hate, ietsFhinel TO die in the last ditch |
Writing 10 friend be said; z 4 am a
mar, and therefore born to suffer. To
the rigor of destiny / oppose my own
constancy; menaced with shipwreck, i |
VIII bssF the storm; ! will be a king in |