THE MASTER OF REQUESTS.
EDUCATION OF THE CROWN PRINCE--FREDERICK THE SIXTH--CONDITION OF
THE KING--A ROYAL SQUABBLE--THE SWEDISH PRINCES--THE FOUNDLING
HOSPITAL--COUNT VON DER OSTEN--THE EMPRESS CATHARINE--SUPPRESSION
OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL--THE GRAND VIZIER--THE COUNCIL OF
CONFERENCES--THE FREE PRESS.
While the royal family were residing at Hirschholm, the training of the
crown prince was a subject of discussion between the queen, Struensee,
Berger, and others. The boy, who was now nearly three years of age, had a
weak constitution and a tendency to consumption. He was obstinate; given
to screaming; would not walk; insisted on being constantly carried; and
attached himself to certain persons. He would never play by himself; he
had to be scolded in order to make him be quiet, and wanted people to be
continually singing and dancing to him.
The following methods were employed to overcome the boy's weakness:--He
was given very simple fare, consisting of vegetables, rice boiled in
water, bread, water, milk and potatoes, but all cold. At first, he was
bathed twice or thrice a day in cold water; and he soon became so fond
of it that he went into the bath of his own accord. When he was not with
the queen, he remained in a cold room, wore light silk clothes, and
generally ran about barefooted. He had only one playmate of his own age,
the natural son of a surgeon, called little Karl. No difference was made
between them; and they helped each other in dressing and undressing.
They climbed about; shouted; broke whatever they liked; and did what
they pleased generally, care being taken to remove anything with which
they might hurt each other. If the little prince cried for anything, it
was not given him unless he really wanted it; but he was not consoled
or reproved. If one of the boys fell, he had to get up by himself, and
never thought of making a fuss about it.[136] Generally, the lads were
allowed to help themselves. If one of them was hurt, nobody pitied him;
and if they quarrelled, they were allowed to fight it out, while none of
the valets were suffered to speak or play with them. So strictly was the
latter rule kept, that one day, at the Frederiksberg Palace, the young
prince, happening to fall in the garden and hurt himself, Struensee's
favourite valet picked him up, and ventured to soothe him. For this, the
culprit was sent to the Blue Tower, a civic prison for disorderly persons.
The two little men frequently contended for the mastery. Once, when they
had fought with greater fury than usual, Frederick asked Karl how he
dared raise his hand against his prince?
"A prince!" the other answered; "I am as much a prince as you."
"Yes; but I am a prince royal," Frederick rejoined, and fell upon his
opponent again, after he had owned himself conquered. The queen, hearing
of this, sent for the lads to her apartment, and insisted on Frederick
begging his playmate's pardon. Frederick refused to submit; and the
queen, provoked by his stubbornness, beat him severely. He was conquered,
but not subdued. By such severity, there is reason to fear that Caroline
Matilda lost her son's affection in his childhood; so much so, that if
he were very unruly, his attendants, as much, perhaps, from malignity as
ignorance, used to threaten to take him to the queen. There is no doubt
that Struensee had advised this strict treatment of the crown prince,
and that his royal mother fully agreed in his views, even though she had
not read "Emile," probably, and was no admirer of the paradoxes of Jean
Jacques.
Still, Struensee found objections raised to the exaggeration of his
treatment of the crown prince by his colleague Berger; and, owing to the
latter, the prince was allowed to wear shoes and stockings; received
warmer clothing; and had his rice boiled in broth. In the cold season,
his room was slightly warmed in the morning; and he had meat soup twice
a week for dinner.
It seems that the servants, in their indolence, at times greatly
neglected their duties to the young prince. In the autumn of 1770,
while the court were enjoying the chase, the stag ran to the woods of
Frederiksborg and Fredensborg, which were about fifteen miles to the
north of Hirschholm. The hunting party returned home at a late hour; and
when the young prince was looked after, he was found breathless, and
half dead with cold. He was put to bed with a woman, who took him in
her arms, and gradually brought him round. The crown prince's room at
Hirschholm consisted of a ground-floor apartment, forty feet in length.
On the garden side, it was closed in by an iron trellis-work, which gave
Struensee's accusers an opportunity for alleging that he shut the heir to
the throne up in a cage. After the favourite's downfall, a wooden bowl
was shown as a relic, in which it was stated that the food was given to
the crown prince while at Hirschholm.
The best proof of what little real value these charges had, is simply
found in the fact that the future king, Frederick VI., was able to endure
fatigue at a very advanced age which completely knocked up younger
men; he indubitably owed this to the early hardening of his frame and
the frugality of his mode of life when a child. While his grandfather
and great-grandfather only lived to the age of forty odd, he attained
the ordinary range of human life. It is evident, too, that the prince,
long after he had grown his own master, must have considered his early
moderation in eating and drinking as good for him, because he adhered
to it through his youth; and even when he became king, his table was
remarkable for its simplicity. But we shall have an opportunity of
reverting to this subject when excellent Reverdil returns to court next
year.
At the end of October, the court removed to the palace of Frederiksberg.
Here it was arranged that, on every Monday afternoon, there should be
a court at the Christiansborg Palace, in town, and on every Thursday
evening a concert in the park of Frederiksberg. For a long time, no court
had been held; and the king only appeared there for a few minutes, and
addressed nobody. Hence the queen had to receive the respects of the
company alone, and make her observations on the faces of the ladies and
gentlemen.
The condition of Christian had by this time become hopeless, and
arrangements had to be made to keep the people as much as possible
from a sight of a king of this sort. Adam Oehlenschläger, in his "Life
Recollections," has given us the following characteristic traits of the
king's malady:--At times it was found difficult to induce him to perform
the royal duty of signing; but when the word "deposition" was menacingly
whispered in his ears, the poor simpleton became terrified, and signed
anything and everything. Precautions were taken to prevent any violent
outbreaks of his mania. Thus the pages were instructed to hold his chair
at table, where he at times tried to rise and prevent others from eating.
It was forbidden at court to speak to or answer him, in order to prevent
any unpleasant expressions of that absolutism which still nominally
existed. At times, though, remarkable claims were made upon him; thus an
impudent page once drove the king into a corner, and said to him there,
"Mad Rex, make me a groom of the chamber." Another time the king really
created a chamberlain. He had been compelled to sign an appointment
as chamberlain for a man he could not bear. A moment after one of the
stove-heaters came into the room, dressed in his yellow jacket, and with
a bundle of wood on his back.
"Listen, you fellow," said the king; "will you be a chamberlain?"
"H'm! that wouldn't be so bad; but how am I to manage to become one?"
"Oh, nothing is easier; come with me." And the king took the man, just
as he stood, by the hand, and led him from his cabinet into the hall,
where the whole court was assembled. He walked with his client into the
middle of the assembly, and shouted in a loud voice, "I appoint this man
a chamberlain."
As the fiction that Christian VII. was absolute ruler must be kept up,
they had to acknowledge this appointment, in which the humour of insanity
was expressed; but the title was bought back of the lucky fellow at the
price of a small freehold farm.
The king was generally left to the company of a black boy, introduced
by Brandt, who became Christian's inseparable companion. Children and
fools, it is notorious, have an equal propensity for mischief. Christian
consequently found great delight in smashing the windows and china, with
the black boy's assistance, and beheading the statues in the garden. As
a change, he rolled on the floor with the lad, biting and scratching
him. From time to time, however, there was something that resembled a
lucid interval. Thus the king one evening suddenly appeared at a court
party, waved his hand to the company, and imperiously ordered "silence."
The whole of the guests stopped and stared, and then the poor gentleman
delivered, with great earnestness and deep pathos, Klopstock's warning
ode "to the princes." This finished, he clapped his hands, burst into a
loud laugh, turned on his heel, and went away.
After reading such an account of the husband to whom Caroline Matilda
was unhappily bound, we can hardly feel surprised that she sought refuge
in dissipation, and for this Struensee amply provided. The Royal Theatre
was enlarged and embellished, and Sarti, the Capellmeister, was ordered
to get up operas under the superintendence of Brandt. Further on in
the season performances were also given on Sunday, which caused great
annoyance among the clergy, and justly so; for though Struensee, as a
German, was accustomed to such a desecration of the Sabbath, Caroline
Matilda had been brought up in the Anglican faith, and ought not to
have sanctioned such proceedings by her presence. The only way in which
this sudden change in the queen, which was so utterly at variance with
her previous blameless life, can be accounted for, is, that she was
intoxicated by the homage that now surrounded her, and formed such a
contrast with the early part of her reign.
A regulation about the boxes at the Royal Theatre produced a fresh
grievance among the already disunited family. A separate box was given to
the hereditary Prince Frederick, who had hitherto been accustomed to sit
with the king; because, so the excuse was, the king did not care to have
the prince's suite about him. On this affair a correspondence took place
between the prince's chamberlain and Brandt, but the regulation was not
rescinded. On the other hand, Struensee and Brandt appeared in the royal
box, sometimes seating themselves behind the king and queen. Masquerades
were now also given in the king's theatre, and on the 18th December the
king gave one, to which everybody was admitted. Probably with the object
of extending public liberty, persons in carriages and on foot, without
distinction, were allowed to use torches at night. Mobs, doubtless hired
for the purpose, once took advantage of this permission to make a riot,
but did so only once, as the police interfered very sharply. From this
time only few employed the permission granted them.
During the last year the country had suffered from a bad harvest, in
consequence of which the price of bread and flour reached an unheard-of
height. In order to prevent the threatening results of this evil as
far as possible, Struensee issued, early in November, an edict against
exporting corn, while the importation from the duchies, and from one
inland province to another, was encouraged. Many thousand loads of grain
of every description were brought from the provincial granaries to the
capital, and, when a severe winter followed, Struensee sold flour at half
the ordinary price to the inhabitants, caused bread to be sold at the
same rate to the poor, and prohibited the distillation of spirits from
corn.
In this period of universal necessity the court received a visit from the
crown prince of Sweden, the future king, Gustavus III., and his younger
brother, the hereditary prince, Frederick Adolphus. The princes were
present at a masquerade, and in honour of them some of Holberg's plays
were performed, and other court festivals arranged. The elder prince was
not particularly pleased at his reception; having been invited to dine
at the king's table with one or two merchants' wives, he asked if there
were not Jews in the company too. One of these ladies having scolded
him politely for not paying her a visit, though she was his neighbour,
he replied, that he would severely reprimand the minister of his court,
whom he had requested to present him to all ladies of distinction.[137]
After a fortnight's stay, the princes continued their journey to Paris,
but paid a visit of some days to their relations at Gottorp. To them
they expressed their dissatisfaction at their reception in Copenhagen;
but though it had been cooler than it should have been between such
close connexions, it was explained by the fact that the Prince of Sweden
neglected his wife most shamefully, and this was well known in Copenhagen.
The reforms which had been interrupted by this visit, were carried on
with increased zeal after the departure of the royal guests. Struensee
appears to have had great sympathy with suffering humanity, as a decree
of December 7, 1770, proves. In it the establishment of a hospice for 600
poor children of both sexes was ordered, and to cover the expense a tax
was laid on all carriage and saddle horses in the capital.
The next steps that Struensee took appear to me to have been of a very
serious nature, and to have resulted from his erroneous views about
population. It is quite true that secret births, infanticide, and the
exposure of infants, were common in Copenhagen. In order to prevent these
unnatural crimes, Struensee ordered a drawer containing a mattress to
be placed at a window of the Lying-in Hospital looking on the street,
in which unfortunate mothers could lay their children to be taken care
of by the state. After this had been carried into effect, twenty-four
children were placed in the _crèche_ during the first four days. Aiding
foundlings is a duty which government cannot neglect without violating
the laws of humanity, but detecting and punishing parents who desert
their children is no less obligatory. The clergy were therefore in the
right when they denounced the new state of things, and stated that it
favoured debauchery and indolence, degraded marriage, and enfeebled the
advantages and rights that ought to encourage it: that it was rearing,
at the cost of the industrious classes, a race of wretches, who would
only increase the duties of the police and the expenses of the state. But
Struensee was of the same opinion as Frederick the Great, who only saw in
the human species a mode of producing soldiers: taking the increase or
diminution of the population as a positive index of a state of prosperity
or decay, Struensee--instead of merely favouring it indirectly, by
causing good order and diminishing the impediments that checked the
industry of private persons, and prevented them from attaining a
competency--persuaded himself that the increased multiplication of
children was the most efficacious method of augmenting the public
prosperity; or, in other words, he confounded the effect with the cause.
Hence it is a remarkable circumstance that the Foundling Hospital was
almost the only one of Struensee's institutions that survived his fall.
Foreign affairs had during the last year attracted general attention.
The insulting pretensions of the Court of Petersburg had been broken by
Bernstorff's dismissal. Up to this time, Filosofow only required to utter
the threat, "Well, the treaty for the exchange of territory will not be
ratified," in order to obtain what he required. Now, the arrangement by
which the foreign envoys had to apply in writing to the king, cut off
all opportunity for personally approaching the king, and we have seen
how angry Filosofow was at the change. At the same time as he sent off
his courier to Petersburg, however, the Danish government despatched
Aide-de-Camp von Warnstedt with a letter from the king to the empress,
notifying the dismissal of Bernstorff, and containing the assurance that
the change would in no way affect the friendly relations between the two
courts.
Struensee, who drew up the letter, was so ignorant of usages, or
neglected to follow them to such an extent, that he simply began "Madam,"
instead of "Madam, my sister," and ended in the ordinary style, "I have
the honour to be, Madam, your Imperial Majesty's very humble and obedient
servant." The real writer of the letter could not refrain, either, from
displaying in it the superiority of his views, for he mixed up in it
some salutary lessons on politics. Such was the apparent message; but
Warnstedt was secretly entrusted with letters for the Orlows, who were
the enemies of Panin, the Russian minister, and friends of Filosofow
and Saldern. He talked foolishly about the latter commission, so that
it reached the ears of Mestmacher, the Russian chargé d'affaires at
Copenhagen, and the Petersburg court knew before Warnstedt arrived of
what letters he was the bearer.
When the envoy arrived at St. Petersburg, he learned that the empress
was so unfavourably disposed toward Denmark, that for some time past she
had not invited the Danish ambassador, Count Scheel, and his wife to
her evening circle. The envoy extraordinary could only obtain a public
audience from the empress, who received the letter from his hands, and
conversed graciously with him, but no answer was given him. As for
the private letters, very good care was taken that they should not be
delivered. When Warnstedt returned to Copenhagen he was put under arrest,
as a satisfaction for the Russian minister, though it was publicly stated
that he had spoken incautiously about Christian VII. while in Petersburg.
He was, however, liberated soon after.
This treatment of Warnstedt led to the belief in Copenhagen that the
government was angry at the answer received from Petersburg; and Count
Rantzau, the old foe of the Petersburg cabinet, began publicly rejoicing
that the Russian yoke which Denmark had borne too long, was now shaken
off. But Struensee behaved in the affair with statesmanlike demeanour
and caution, so that Filosofow quite lost his head, and even displayed
traces of insanity. He requested his recall, and it was granted. Before
he left, he desired a private audience from Christian, and was told that
he could only see the king in the apartment, and could take leave there.
He replied that his health did not allow him to be present, and he went
away without taking leave of a single member of the royal family.[138]
The Foreign Office was next given to Count VON DER OSTEN, who had been
Danish envoy at Naples. As he plays an important part in the narrative,
I will say a few words here about his birth and chequered fortunes.
Being without a patrimony, he was educated at court as page in the
house of Frederick V. As he evidenced talent and cunning, Count von
Moltke granted him a pension to study abroad. During his first journey
to Leipzig, he made the acquaintance of Count Stanislaus Poniatowski,
afterwards King of Poland, and they even slept in the same bed. On
returning home, the first use Osten made of his talents was to induce
the page of the chamber to deliver to the king a memorial against Count
von Moltke and his administration, and against Bernstorff, who had
the confidence of the king and his favourite. The king, instead of
dismissing his favourite and his minister, showed them the libel, and
as they soon saw that the person who handed it in was not capable of
composing it, they urged him to reveal the real author. Moderate and
honourable as they were, they took no further vengeance than sending
their young adversary to take some lessons in politics, and for this
purpose entrusted him to Malzahn, at that time minister in Russia.
Although Von der Osten was not given an official post, he contrived to
seize on one. Malzahn died, and the secretary to the embassy being ill,
Osten took upon himself to seal up the archives, receive despatches,
and confer with the Russian ministers. Bernstorff confirmed him in
the appointment he had seized, and sent him his instructions, which
were, among other things, that he must humour the grand duchess, whose
elevation the Copenhagen cabinet already foresaw. Von der Osten paid his
court to her, by telling her all he could learn about foreign politics.
This young princess was silently preparing to play a part, though I
cannot affirm whether she flattered herself with the hope of managing her
husband, or that she thought even then of getting rid of him.
As the grand duchess had no children, the Empress Elizabeth declared to
her some time after that there must absolutely be a successor to the
empire, and pointed out to her the man who might cure her sterility. This
proposal at first revolted Catharine, and she rejected it as an insult.
But when it was added that such respectable scruples might cause her
to be sent away, her hesitation ceased, and after awhile there was no
necessity to force lovers upon her. While Von der Osten was envoy at
Petersburg, he received a visit from the young Poniatowski, whom he had
known at Leipzig. Poniatowski was at first only a simple companion and
intimate friend of Hanbury Williams, the English envoy; but during a
lengthened residence at Petersburg he was entrusted with a commission by
Augustus III. of Poland. He was handsome, well-informed, eloquent--in
a word, made to please; and the grand duchess accepted his homage. Von
der Osten was their confidant, and either acting in conformity with the
intentions of his court, or through friendship for Poniatowski, he did
not refuse them his good offices, but offered to cover the _liaison_,
by lending his hotel as their rendezvous. Poniatowski came there
_incognito_, and the princess, disguised as a man, escaped from her
palace, and got into a hired carriage, in which the Secretary von der
Osten received and accompanied her.
An intrigue, or some other cause, removed Von der Osten from Petersburg,
but he was employed at Dresden in 1762. When the revolution rendered the
empress independent, and removed the necessity for mystery, she begged
the King of Denmark to send Von der Osten back to her court. For two
years she not only granted him greater access and favours than a foreign
minister could claim, but consulted him on the affairs of the empire,
and admitted him to the conferences held in her presence between her
ministers and her general officers. He fell from this elevation most
suddenly; the Russian minister informed all the foreign envoys, by a
circular note, that the empress had withdrawn her favour from Herr von
der Osten, and regarded him as a vile and odious person. He remained some
time at Petersburg, going to court, where nobody spoke to him, and not
seeking to justify himself. Business no longer passed through his hands:
the secretary to the embassy received the despatches from his court, and
answered them without Osten's participation.
This took place in 1764, or about the period of the Polish throne being
vacant. Von der Osten had received orders to make common cause with the
dissidents, who desired the election of Stanislaus; but he was of a
different opinion, and worked against his old friend in favour of a Count
Oginsky, who was younger and handsomer, and whom he tried to please by
dyeing his red eyebrows black. This attachment so blinded him, that, in
the ante-chamber of the empress, and at the time when he was in favour,
he offered to bet on the election of Oginsky against that of Stanislaus.
Oginsky paid him for such warm protection, and I have no doubt gave but
slight attention to the colour of his eyebrows. The publicity which the
Russian court gave to Osten's disgrace refers to some secret infamy,
and not to the two Polish rivals. It is supposed that, having succeeded
in attaining a position by the help of Madame Bestucheff, who was a
Dane, he eventually committed some signal act of treachery against her
husband. It must have been during the period of his favour at Petersburg
that Osten obtained the title of Count, for he was not so by birth. At
the same period he asked for the order of the Dannebrog, but Bernstorff
answered him that he had been a page too recently; and for this refusal
Von der Osten never forgave the Danish minister.
After so many causes of bitterness, old and new, Bernstorff, not wishing
to avenge himself by disgracing Osten, or recall to court an enemy whose
talent for intrigue had become notorious, sent the count to Naples.
After awhile, as the count did not cease to complain of an employment
which he regarded as an exile, the minister had the complaisance to
nominate him for Paris _vice_ Von Gleichen; but at the first hint the
French court received of this, it ordered the Marquis de Blosset to
protest at Copenhagen against this choice. Then Bernstorff destined him
for the Hague; but, his own power ceasing shortly after, he saw himself
succeeded by the man whose friendship he had only been able to gain by
such indulgence and kindness.
Von der Osten's conduct in his new post was not deficient in skill
or dignity, but Struensee's hope of moving the Russian court by this
appointment failed. The new minister's first measure on taking office was
one in which his character could be plainly read. He wished to flatter
the Russian court, and yet not displease the party that ruled at his
own. He sent to the former a species of apology about the great changes
that had taken place at his court, and displayed considerable eloquence
in it. This document met with a better fate at Petersburg than the king's
letter, and many people applauded it. It may be assumed that the Russian
court, whose pride had been terribly hurt by the loss of its influence
in Danish affairs, was glad to avenge itself on the King of Denmark by
this little humiliation, and to be able to withdraw from the whole affair
with an appearance of honour; at any rate, the empress adhered to her
decision, and declared openly that so long as foreign affairs were in the
hands of Von der Osten, the alliance and negotiations with Denmark would
be broken off.
After the rescript about the new organization of the privy council
had been issued, Privy Councillor Schack, Lieutenant General Gähler,
Vice Admiral Römeling, and Count Rantzau-Ascheberg, were formed into
a committee to make a further proposition about it. By this rescript
the power of the council had been considerably restricted, and further
limitations appeared to be impending. Schack opposed this reform, and
when he found it was of no use, he retired without a pension to his
estate in Jütland. As we stated, the discussions and proposals of the
privy council were to be sent in writing to the king, and when Struensee
was appointed Maître des Requêtes, on December 18, 1770, it was his duty
to read to the king the reports of the privy council. But a very few days
later, the council received a death-blow through the following decree
written and signed by the king:--
We, Christian VII., by grace of God King of Denmark, Norway, of the Goths
and Wends, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn and the Dittmarsches,
Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, &c., decree and announce herewith.
As the affairs of state in an absolute government are only confused
and delayed when many persons of high rank take part in them, owing to
the respect which the latter acquire with the course of time, and the
settlement of business is thus retarded: we, however, who have nothing
so much at heart as a zealous promotion of the public welfare, will not
let ourselves be checked or hindered in those measures and arrangements
that tend to this object: we have therefore thought proper to abolish and
absolutely suppress our former privy council; in doing which, our object
is to restore to the constitution of the state all its purity and to
maintain it. Thus, then, the said form of government will be and remain
exactly as it was handed to our ancestors of glorious memory by the
nation, and not the slightest appearance will be left, as if we wished
to depart from the sense and intention with which the nation transmitted
it to our ancestors. In further confirmation of the above, we have had
the present decree drawn up in duplicate, in Danish and German, and the
articles shall be preserved for ever in the archives of the Chanceries.
Given under our royal hand and seal, at our castle of Frederiksberg,
this 27th December, 1770.
CHRISTIAN.
FABRICIUS. A. G. CARSTENS
* * * * *
This singular edict was generally attributed to Rantzau, but the avowed
motive lay as much in the king's character as in Struensee's: neither of
them liked people of consequence, but how could they suppose that they
had disarmed the nobility, by discharging those who had acquired credit
and consideration? After all, it is power that rules, and this power
must be in the hands of somebody. Frederick the Great found a way of
diminishing the power of his ministers, by being his own minister, and
this was what was intended at Copenhagen. But what resemblance was there
between the two kings? Struensee, by making himself the inspirer, could
not hope to remain long concealed; in fact, everybody saw his movements
already. The king, who eagerly took up the idea of imitating his brother
of Prussia, ere long had a stereotyped answer for everything: "Apply to
Struensee." Hence, there was a Grand Vizier, and surely the nation did
not gain much by suppressing four ministers assembled in council, and
giving the power to one man.
This decree appeared to be greeted with applause by all save the old
nobles, for the heavy taxes which weighed down the country, were placed
to the account of the privy council, and people were offended by the
arrogance with which several members looked down on other persons, while
they did not hesitate to render themselves the tools of licentious
favourites. With the suspension of the council, the members were
dismissed from their other offices as well. Rosenkrantz alone received
a pension, which he owed to the intercession of his friend Frau von
Gähler,--a proof of the still existing influence of certain ladies
of the court on public affairs, although it had been announced that
firm principles would be followed in everything. Rosenkrantz was also
14,000 dollars in debt to the Treasury. After their dismissal, the four
ministers quitted the capital and retired to their estates.[139]
On the day after the suppression of the privy council, a privy council of
conferences was established. The idea of this council seems to have been
derived from what took place in Russia during the reign of the Empress
Anne, but it never attained any importance. The members met whenever
requested to do so by the king, and then expressed their opinion about
matters laid before them.
The power was now once more collected in the sole person of the king, as
had been the case with the first absolute monarch of Denmark and Norway,
in 1660. His advisers in public business were, on the one hand, a man of
bourgeois birth, who had not been trained as a statesman, but had risen
rapidly; on the other, men, who liked reforms, and hence were regarded
with hateful glances by all those whose interests they attacked. The
results, however, attained by these advisers displayed some amount of
talent. It seemed as if fresh life and order were being re-introduced
into the state, if we can admit that such things ever before existed.
A very wide field was also opened for ideas by the free Press. Still,
months passed ere people ventured to employ it in discussing affairs of
state. Numerous pamphlets appeared, but were of slight value. Gradually,
however, learned men took up the pen, in order to take advantage of the
liberty granted them, and publicly discussed important state matters,
such as serfdom, corvées, the system of guilds, monopolies, the bank, the
army, the university, Norway, Zeeland, &c. Most of these _litterateurs_
were anonymous, but among them were men of scientific reputation, such
as Jacob Baden, Fleischer, Schumacher, &c. The majority of these essays
clearly proved, however, how few sound and correct views about government
had gained admission into Denmark at that period. That the press should
also produce a countless number of pasquinades and abusive pamphlets, was
only what was expected, and the good sale of such things, although their
price was raised, at any rate furnished proof of a desire to read being
aroused among the people, which in the end led to the perusal of better
literature.
But the general joy at the liberty of the press and other excellent
regulations was greatly damaged by the fact that all the cabinet orders
appeared in German. It is true that the court had been, for centuries,
the centre of Germanism in Denmark, and this fact, even in the reign of
Christian VI., had caused a German to remark to that king, who was a Dane
all over, "It is strange that your Majesty should be the only foreigner
in your own house;" and under the seventh Christian, it was also the
fact that the higher classes could neither speak nor write Danish; while
there were high officials, who, in spite of a lengthened residence in
Copenhagen, could not speak Danish. The army was drilled and commanded
after the German regulations; and the courts-martial were minuted in
German. As, however, the public were aware that the present king spoke
and wrote Danish well, and as it had not hitherto been customary to
publish any decrees or government regulations, save those intended for
the duchies, in German, an insult to the Danish nation was seen in
Struensee's German decrees, as he addressed them in a foreign language.
Hence it was natural that this mistake produced Struensee many enemies,
who, solely on that account, became his political opponents. Struensee
apologized for his error by saying that he had no time to learn Danish;
but surely there was nothing to prevent him from having his cabinet
orders translated into Danish.
A curious instance of a mistake occasioned by Struensee's use and abuse
of German is preserved for us by Reverdil. An individual in Norway,
whose house stood on a very rapid river, down which wood was floated to
the sea, had put up in front of his house a stockade to stop the wood,
and agreed with the woodmen as to the price they should pay for the use
of his establishment. The persons interested, desiring to render their
contract more solemn, requested the king to ratify it, according to a
received custom. This request was sent from the Danish Chancery to the
cabinet with a favourable report. The clerk who had to translate the
documents into German did not understand the word _flaxboom_, by which
the stockade was designated; and as he saw that the affair related to the
right of passage on the river, and as _flachs_ meant flax in German, he
assumed that these persons were arranging a tax to be paid on all flax
brought down the river. This offended Struensee, who at once addressed
a reprimand to the Chancery, on its proposition to establish a toll
which would be very onerous upon the flax trade, and contrary to all the
principles of political economy. The Chancery replied, that his Majesty
had doubtless been deceived by his German translator; that no flax came
down the river; and, in a word, cleared up the misunderstanding. The
explanation gained the department a fresh reprimand, for having the
audacity to suppose that his Majesty had Danish reports translated, and
did not understand his own language.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 136: An affecting trace of this training was seen on the
very last day of the life of Frederick VI. As is well known, he died
of entire loss of strength; but on the afternoon before his death, he
gave the parole for the day in his audience-room. While doing so, his
three-cornered hat fell from his grasp; but he would not allow any one to
pick it up, but did so himself with the utmost difficulty.]
[Footnote 137: Reverdil, p. 224.]
[Footnote 138: "Authentische Aufklärungen," p. 72.]
[Footnote 139: After the palace revolution of 1772, Thott joined the
newly-formed ministry. Moltke Bregentved accepted no office, and died
in 1793, at the age of 83. Reventlow eventually became curator of Kiel
University, where he died in 1783. Rosenkrantz was recalled to the privy
council in 1784, when the crown prince broke up Guldberg's ministry and
became prince regent, but he was dismissed again in 1788. He died in
1802.]