Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-06-27
SOME RACY MEMOIRS
BERLlN'S COUR~ ONE HUNDRED
YEARS AGO
AS VIEWED BY M. MIRABEAU
Frederick the Great and His Successor,
Frederick William II--Gossip and
Scandais-The Great Grandfather of
the Present Emperor Submitted to
a Searching Reyis@.

The world has an attentive ear ever
open to tie scandllous chronicles OF
courts and TO gossip and anecdote
about the famous men and women in
the past or the present. Messcs.
Nichols & Co.. of London, seem, there
fore, at the first blush to have done
good stroke Of business in republish-
ing in two handsome volumes the
famous suppressed book by Mirabaau
entitled Secret History of the Court Of
Berlin, especially IN view Of the al.
tentative title they have pretixed 70 it,
The Character of the King Of Prussia;
His Ministers, MiStresses, Generals,
Courtiers, Favnriles and the Royal
Family of Prussia, with numerous
anecdotes of the potentates of Europe,
especially of the late Frederick II.
Mira beau was 4 sllrewd observer, a
keen judge of human nature, a writer
of remarkable brilliancy. In 1886 he
was sent ON a secret mission to the
court of Berlin Frederick the Great
was at that time on his last legs. IT
was Mrabeau's duty TO watch over
, the court during the period of his dis
solution, to take note Of the forces
that would be brought into play to in
fiuence his successor, ANONYMOUSLY
known as Frederick the Fat, and TO
watch for opportunity of increasing the
French influence over the latter prince.
This mission resulted in a series of
letters from the count to M. de Ca
I Tonne These letters deal no less COM
prehensively than incisively with the
eventful period of Prussian history in
tervening between July 5, 1856, and
January 10, 1877.
I By a singular accident, the singular
! ity of which the enemies of Mirabea u
have attempted to minimize by various
hints of cOllusiOn, sixty-siX of these
letters fell, in 1889, into the hands Of
one NIalassio, an Alencon printer. He
su'-reptitiollsly published them and
succeeded in disposing of some 10000
copies before the court of parlia ment,
! alarmed at its ScandalOuS ma ture 81
and burned by the public executioner
at the foot of the grand staircase in
! the Palais de Justice. Everybody who
had bought a copy was ordered to send
it to the eXecutiOner. Nevertheless a
few copies survived the flames. The
present work is a somewhat carelesSly
executed translation made from one OF
these survivors.
From the outset Mirabeau was beSet
with gloomy surmises as to what
would be the condition of Prussia
after the death of the great Frederick
That monarch had himself small faith
! in his nephew, who afterWard sue
ceeded Frederick William II, and wnC
was the great-STeat-gr grandfather of the
present German emperor. he spoke
Of him, says Mirabeau, lin outrageous
! terms" MiIabeau does not deny the
appositeneSS of this characterization
THE successor" he says, ''Seems t
have every symptom of the most II
:. durable weakness-the most cOrrup
, among the persons by whom he is sur
rounded daily increase in power" He
-, tells the story of how the prince iIaG
written to Boden to inquire what the
people Of Paris thought of him.
THAT You will be feeble, ignorant
and governed was the substance o1
Boden's not very courtly reply.
The prince stamped his foot ON the
j ground when lie read this, and eX
claimed, BY C.! have suffered by
myself and L will reign by myseE!'
Here is full length portrait, drawn
by Mirabeau, after the prince had lie
come a king:
! You may take it for granted thai
there are Lnree principal shades in tue
character Of the kIng-deceit, which
he believes to be Art, iraSclble vanity
| whenever the least remonsuance is
made TO him; and the accumulation Oh
I money, which is not So much ayarice
in him as the passion of possessing
/ The first of these vices has rendered
him suspicious, for he who deceiveS by
| system continually imagIneS he is De
ceived. The second induces him Il
prefer people of middling or inferior
| abilities, anu the laUIer contributes tC
make HIM lead an obscure and solitary
| life, by which the two former are
strengthened. Violent IN private, lm
T.! penetrable in public, little animated by
the love Of fame in reality, and MAX
ing this love to consist chiefly III lead
! ing the world to suppose he is not gov
erned; rarely troubling himself with
! foreign politics; a soldier from neces-
I sity, and not from inclination; disposed
to favor the mystics, not from conVlc-
ton, but beca use he believes he shall,
! by their aid, examine the consciences
and penetrate the hearts Of men-such
is the outline of the man.
The revenues are upward of twenty
seven millions of crowns, including the
/ customs; or about one hundred and
eight millions of French livres -four
millions and a half sterling). The ey-
pense of the army is twelve millions
and a half of CROWNS; of the civil add
ministration, two millions three hun
| dred thousand -crowrs; of the kings,
! the queens and the princes household,
one million two hundred thousand
crowns, and one hundred and thirty
thousand for the payment of pensions.
l am not acquainted with all the in
feriOr expenses, but when, for ex-
ample, we know that the legal ien
chest does not absorb more than sew
enty-fve thousand crowns, and that
IL.