Berlin.
The day after the reviews, the King, attended by his nephew, the
Prince of Prussia, and the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, set out for
Magdeburg, where there is a camp of 15,000 men. He afterwards will
proceed to Silesia, and his new acquired dominions in Poland, and is not
expected at Potsdam for six weeks at least.
His Majesty makes the same circuit twice every year.—Surely no King in
Europe can have such a thorough knowledge of his dominions and subjects
as this monarch.—His absence from Berlin has made but little relaxation
in the duty, and none in the discipline of the troops. The reviews were
scarcely over, when field-days began. There are 1500 or 2000 of the
troops belonging to this garrison, exercised in the park almost every
morning, besides those who appear on the parade for the ordinary guards.
A review, such as that which I endeavoured to describe, is undoubtedly
one of the finest shows that can be exhibited: but when a spectator of
sensibility reflects on the means by which these poor fellows are brought
to this wonderful degree of accuracy, he will pay a severe tax for
this splendid exhibition.—The Prussian discipline on a general view is
beautiful; in detail it is shocking.
When the young rustic is brought to the regiment, he is at first treated
with a degree of gentleness; he is instructed by words only how to
walk, and to hold up his head, and to carry his firelock, and he is not
punished, though he should not succeed in his earliest attempts:—they
allow his natural aukwardness and timidity to wear off by degrees:—they
seem cautious of confounding him at the beginning, or driving him to
despair, and take care not to pour all the terrors of their discipline
upon his astonished senses at once. When he has been a little
familiarised to his new state, he is taught the exercise of the firelock,
first alone, and afterwards with two or three of his companions. This is
not entrusted to a corporal or serjeant; it is the duty of a subaltern
officer. In the park at Berlin, every morning may be seen the Lieutenants
of the different regiments exercising with the greatest assiduity,
sometimes a single man, at other times three or four together; and now,
if the young recruit shows neglect or remissness, his attention is roused
by the officer’s cane, which is applied with augmenting energy, till he
has acquired the full command of his firelock.—He is taught steadiness
under arms, and the immobility of a statue;—he is informed, that all
his members are to move only at the word of command, and not at his own
pleasure;—that speaking, coughing, sneezing, are all unpardonable crimes;
and when the poor lad is accomplished to their mind, they give him to
understand, that now it is perfectly known what he can do, and therefore
the smallest deficiency will be punished with rigour. And although he
should destine every moment of his time, and all his attention, to
cleaning his arms, taking care of his clothes, and practising the manual
exercise, it is but barely possible for him to escape punishment; and
if his captain happens to be of a capricious or cruel disposition, the
ill-fated soldier loses the poor chance of that possibility.
As for the officers, they are not indeed subjected to corporal
punishment, but they are obliged to bestow as unremitting attention
on duty as the men. The subalterns are almost constantly on guard, or
exercising the recruits: the Captain knows, that he will be blamed by his
Colonel, and can expect no promotion, if his company be not as perfect
as the others: the Colonel entirely loses the King’s favour if his
regiment should fail in any particular: the General is answerable for the
discipline of the brigade, or garrison, under his immediate command. The
King will not be satisfied with the General’s report on that subject,
but must examine every thing himself; so that from his Majesty, down to
the common centinel, every individual is alert. And as the King, who
is the chief spring and primum mobile of the whole, never relaxes, the
faculties of every subordinate person are kept in constant exertion: the
consequence of which is, that the Prussian army is the best disciplined,
and the readiest for service at a minute’s warning, of any now in the
world, or perhaps that ever was in it. Other monarchs have attempted
to carry discipline to the same degree of perfection, and have begun
this plan with astonishing eagerness. But a little time and new objects
have blunted their keenness, and divided their attention. They have
then delegated the execution to a commander in chief, he to another of
inferior rank, and thus a certain degree of relaxation having once taken
place, soon pervades the whole system; but the perseverance of the King
of Prussia is without example, and is perhaps the most remarkable part of
his extraordinary character.
That degree of exertion which a man of a vigorous mind is capable of
making on some very important occasion, the King of Prussia has made
for thirty years at a stretch, without permitting pleasure, indolence,
disgust, or disappointment, to interrupt his plan for a single day.—And
he has obliged every person through the various departments of his
government to make, as far as their characters and strength could go, the
same exertions.—I leave you to judge in what manner such a man must be
served, and what he is capable of performing.