The late general Homaging at Breslau, and solemn Taking Possession
of the Country by King Friedrich, under such peaceable omens, had
straightway, as we gather, brought about, over Silesia at
large, or at least where pressingly needful, various little
alterations,--rectifications, by the Prussian model and new rule now
introduced. Of which, as it is better that the reader have some dim
notion, if easily procurable, than none at all, I will offer him one
example;--itself dim enough, but coming at first-hand, in the actual or
concrete form, and beyond disputing in whatever light or twilight it may
yield us.
At Landshut, a pleasant little Mountain Town, in the Principality of
Schweidnitz, high up, on the infant River Bober, near the Bohemian
Frontier--(English readers may see QUINCY ADAMS'S description of it, and
of the long wooden spouts which throw cataracts on you, if walking the
streets in rain [John Quincy Adams (afterwards President of the United
States), _Letters on Silesia_ (London, 1804). "The wooden spouts are
now gone" (_Tourist's Note, of_ 1858).]): at Landshut, as in some other
Towns, it had been found good to remodel the Town Magistracy a little;
to make it partly Protestant, for one thing, instead of Catholic
(and Austrian), which it had formerly been. Details about the "high
controversies and discrepancies" which had risen there, we have
absolutely none; nor have the special functions of the Magistracy, what
powers they had, what work they did, in the least become distinct to us:
we gather only that a certain nameless Burgermeister (probably Austrian
and Catholic) had, by "Most gracious Royal Special-Order," been
at length relieved from his labors, and therewith "the much by him
persecuted and afflicted Herr Theodorus Spener" been named Burgermeister
instead. Which respectable Herr Theodorus Spener, and along with him
Herr Johann David Fischer as RATHS-SENIOR, and Herr Johann Caspar
Ruffer, and also Herr Johann Jacob Umminger, as new Raths (how many
of the old being left I cannot say), were accordingly, on the 4th of
December, 1741, publicly installed, and with proper solemnity took
their places; all Landshut looking on, with the conceivable interest
and astonishment, almost as at a change in the obliquity of the
ecliptic,--change probably for the better.
Respectable Herr Theodorus Spener (we hope it is SpeNer, for they print
him SPEER in one of the two places, and we have to go by guess) is ready
with an Installation Speech on the occasion; and his Speech was judged
so excellent, that they have preserved it in print. Us it by no means
strikes by its Demosthenic or other qualities: meanwhile we listen to
it with the closest attention; hoping, in our great ignorance, to gather
from it some glimmerings of instruction as to the affairs, humors,
disposition and general outlook and condition of Landshut, and Silesia
in that juncture;--and though a good deal disappointed, have made an
Abstract of it in the English language, which perhaps the reader too, in
his great ignorance, will accept, in defect of better. Scene is Landshut
among the Giant Mountains on the Bohemian Border of Silesia: an old
stone Town, where there is from of old a busy trade in thread and linen;
Town consisting, as is common there, of various narrow winding
streets comparable to spider-legs, and of a roomy central Market-place
comparable to the body of the spider; wide irregular Market-place with
the wooden spouts (dry for the moment) all projecting round it. Time,
4th December, 1741 (doubtless in the forenoon); unusual crowd of
population simmering about the Market-place, and full audience of
the better sort gravely attentive in the interior of the Rathhaus;
Burgermeister Spener LOQUITUR [_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 416.] (liable to
abridgment here and there, on warning given):--
"I enter, then, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, upon an Office, to
which Divine Providence has appointed, and the gracious and potent hand
of a great King has raised me. Great as is the dignity [giddy height of
Mayoralty in Landshut], though undeserved, which the Ever-Merciful has
thus conferred upon me, equally great and much greater is the burden
connected therewith. I confess"--He confesses, in high-stalking earnest
wooden language very foreign to us in every way: (1.) That his shoulders
are too weak; but that he trusts in God. For (2.) it is God's doing; and
He that has called Spener, will give Spener strength, the essential work
being to do God's will, to promote His honor, and the common weal. (3.)
That he comes out of a smaller Office (Office not farther specified,
probably exterior to the RATHS-COLLEGE, and subaltern to the late
tyrannous Mayor and it), and has taken upon him the Mayoralty of this
Town (an evident fact!); but that the labor and responsibility are
dreadfully increased; and that the point is not increase of honor, of
respectability or income, but of heavy duties. (A sonorous, pious-minded
Spener; much more in earnest than readers now think!)
It is easy, intimates he, to govern a Town, if, as some have perhaps
done, you follow simply your own will, regardless of the sighs and
complaints your subjects utter for injustice undergone,--indifferent to
the thought that the caprice of one Town Sovereign is to be glorified by
so many thousand tears (dim glance into the past history of Landshut!).
Such Town Sovereign persecutes innocence, stops his ears to its cry;
flourishes his sharp scourge;--no one shall complain: for is it not
justice? thinks such a Town Sovereign. The reason is, He does not know
himself, poor man; has had his eye always on the duties of his subjects
towards him, and rarely or never on his towards them. A Sovereign Mayor
that governs by fear,--he must live in continual fear of every one, and
of himself withal. A weak basis: and capable of total overturn in one
day. On the contrary, the love of your burgher subjects: that, if you
can kindle it, will go on like a house on fire (AUSBRUCH EINES FEURES),
and streams of water won't put it out.... "And [let us now take Spener's
very words] if a man keep the fear of God before his eyes, there will be
no need for any other kind of fear.
"I will therefore, you especially High-honored Gentlemen, study to
direct all my judicial endeavors to the honor of the great God, and to
inviolable fidelity towards my most gracious King and Lord [Friedrich,
by Decision of Providence--at Mollwitz and elsewhere].
"To the Citizens of this Town, from of old so dear to me, and now by
Royal grace committed to my charge, and therefore doubly and trebly
to be held dear, I mean to devote myself altogether. I will, on every
occasion and occurrence, still more expressly than aforetime, stand by
them; and when need is, not fail to bring their case before the just
Throne of our Anointed [Friedrich, by Decision of Providence]. Justice
and fairness I will endeavor, under whatever complexities, to make
my loadstar. Yes, I shall and will, by means of this my Office, equip
myself with weapons whereby I may be capable to damp such humors
(INTELLIGENTIEN), should such still be (but I believe there are now none
such), as may repugn against the Royal interest, with possibility of
being dangerous; and to put a bridle on mouths that are unruly. And, to
say much in little compass, I will be faithful to God, to my King and to
this Town.
"Having now the honor and happiness to be put into Official friendship
with those Gentlemen who, as Burgermeisters, and as old and as new
Members of Council, have for long years made themselves renowned
among us, I will entertain, in respect of the former [the old] a firm
confidence That the zeal they have so strongly manifested for behoof of
the most serene Archducal House of Austria will henceforth burn in them
for our most Beloved Land's Prince whom God has now given us; that the
fire of their lately plighted truth and devotion, towards his
Royal Majesty, shall shine not in words only, but in works, and be
extinguished only with their lives. [Can that be, O Spener or Speer? Are
we alarm-clocks, that need only to be wound up, and told at what hour,
and for whom?] God, who puts Kings in and casts them out, has given to
us a no less potent Sovereign than supremely loving Land's-Father, who,
by the renown of his more than royal virtues, had taken captive the
hearts of his future subjects and children still sooner than even by his
arms, familiar otherwise to victory, he did the Land. And who shall
be puissant and mighty enough, now to lead men's minds in a contrary
direction; to control the Most High Power, ruler over hearts and Lands,
who had decreed it should be so; and again to change this change? [Hear
Spener: he has taken great pains with his Discourse, and understands
composition!]
"This change, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic persuasion], is
also for you a not unhappy one. For our now as pious as wise King will,
especially in one most vital point, take pattern by the King of all
Kings; and means to be lord of his subjects only, not of the consciences
of his subjects. He requires nothing from you but what you are already
bound by God, by conscience, and duty, to render: to wit, obedience and
inviolable unbroken fidelity. And by that, and without more asked than
that, you will render yourselves worthy of his protection, and become
partakers of the Royal favor. Nay you will render yourselves all the
worthier in that high quarter, and the more meritorious towards our
civic commonweal, the more you, High-honored Gentlemen [of the Catholic
persuasion], accept, with all frankness of colleague-love and amity,
me and the Evangelical brother Raths now introduced by Royal grace and
power; and make the new position generously tenable and available to
us;--and thereby bind with us the more firmly the band of peace and
colleague-unity, for helping up this dear, and for some years greatly
fallen, Town along with us.
"We, for our poor part, will, one and all, strive only to surpass each
other in obedience and faith to our Most Gracious King. We will, as
Regents of the Citizenry committed to us, go before them with a good
example; and prove to all and every one, That, little and in war
untenable as our Landshut is, it shall, in extent and impregnability
of faith towards its Most Dearest Land's-Prince, approve itself
unconquerable. As well I as"--Professes now, in the most intricate
phraseology, that he, and Fischer and Umminger (giving not only the
titles, but a succinct history of all three, in a single sentence,
before he comes to the verb!), bring a true heart, &c. &c.--Or would
the reader perhaps like to see it IN NATURA, as a specimen of German
human-nature, and the art these Silesian spinners have in drawing out
their yarns?
"As well I as [1.] The Titular Herr Johann David Fischer, distinguished
trader and merchant of this Town, who, by his tradings in and beyond
our Silesian Countries, has made himself renowned, and by his merit and
address in particular instances [delicate instances known to Landshut,
not to us] has made himself beloved, who has now been installed as
Raths-Senior; and also as [2.] The Titular Herr Johann Caspar Ruffer,
well-respected Citizen, and Revenue-office Manager here, who for many
years has with much fidelity and vigilance managed the Revenue-office,
and who for his experience in the economic constitution of this Town has
been all-graciously nominated Raths-Herr;--and not less [3.] The Titular
Johann Jacob Umminger, whilom Advocate at Law in Breslau, who, for his
good studies in Law, and manifested skill in the practice of Law,
has been an all-graciously nominated Supernumerary Councillor and
Notary's-Adjunct among us:--As well I as these Three not only assure
you, High-honored Gentlemen, of all imaginable estimation and return
of love on our part; but do likewise assure all and sundry these
respectable Herren Town-Jurats [specially present], representing here
the universal well-beloved Citizenry of our Town,--that we bring a heart
sincere, and intent only on aiming at the welfare of a Citizenry so
loveworthy. We have the firm purpose by God's grace, so to order our
walk, and so to conduct our government that we may, one day, when
summoned from our judgment-seats to answer before the Universal
Judgment-seat of Christ, be able to say, with that pious King and Judge
of Israel: 'Lord, thou knowest if we have walked uprightly before thee.'
And we hope to understand that the rewards of justice, in that Life,
will be much more than those of injustice in this.
"We believe that the Most High will, in so far, bless these our honest
purposes and wholesome endeavors, as that the actual fruits thereof will
in time coming, and when Peace now soon expected (which God grant) has
returned to us, be manifest; and that if, in our Office, as is common,
we should rather have thorns of persecution than roses of recompense to
expect, yet to each of us there will at last accrue praise in the Earth
and reward in Heaven. [Hear Spener!]
"Meanwhile we will unite all our wishes, That the Almighty may vouchsafe
to his Royal Majesty, our now All-dearest Duke and Land's-Father, many
long years of life and of happy reign; and maintain this All-highest
Royal-Prussian and Elector-Brandenburgic House in supremest splendor and
prosperity, undisturbed to the end of all Days; and along with it,
our Town-Council, and whole Merchantry and Citizenry, safe under this
Prussian Sceptre, in perpetual blessing, peace and unity [what a
modest prayer!]: to all which may Heaven speak its powerful Amen!"
[_Helden-Geschichte,_ ii. 416-422.]--
Whereupon solemn waving of hats; indistinct sough of loyal murmur from
the universal Landshut Population; after which, continued to the due
extent, they return to their spindles and shuttles again.