under its usually concurrent circumftances, has generally proved: for, furrounded as he was by great and jealous potentates, poffeffed of immenfe ftanding armies, and at a timé when difcipline and the art of war were fuppofed to have been already carried to their ultimate point of perfection, he, merely by the powers of fuperior genius and ability, raised a scattered, ill-forted, disjointed dominion, into the first rank of power, glory, and renown; and the newly-founded kingdom of Pruffia foon became, under his aufpices, the terror or admiration of mankind.

But though he must always be confidered as one of the greatest captains and masters of the art of war that ever lived, and as having carried military difcipline and field evolution to a degree of perfection before unthought of, and which is now the great object of imitation with all martial nations; his mind was too comprehenfive, and his genius too vaft, to be confined to tactics, or the bufinefs of the field; and he fhone forth at the fame time with no less ambition of fame, in all the different characters of legiflator, hiftorian, poet, and philofopher.

In the courfe of his long and exceedingly hard fought wars, contending against a combination of power which has feldom been equalled, and with fome of the first generals and greateft nations, he fuftained with unfailing conftancy, and an unconquerable fortitude, the moft difmal reverfes of fortune that perhaps have ever been experienced and recovered by any commander; he having been repeatedly and fuddenly depreffed from the higheft pinnacle of fuccefs to the loweft ex

treme of diftress and adversity; infomuch, that even the continuance of his exiftence as a fovereign was more than once a question fufficiently dubious. Through a noble perfeverance, and the ftrenuous exertions of his admirable genius, he ftill furmounted his difficulties and dangers: fortune again fmiled, and feemed only to plunge him in adverfity, that he might rife with brighter glory.

In eftimates of real character we muft neceffarily take mankind fuck as they are, compounds of good and of evil, of great and of little; we thould in vain look for refemblances to thofe imaginary heroes, who are reprefented as fo bedizened with virtues, that nothing like nature or truth can be perceived about them; and the picture exhibits, as the poet happily obferves," those faultlefs monsters which the world ne'er faw." On the contrary, the fhades in Frederick's character were as ftrongly marked as the bright parts, and we fhall perhaps find that his great qualities had even more than their due proportion of alloy. There certainly have been great captains and conquerors, who afforded fuperior inftances of a noble

and generous nature to any that he had the fortune of exhibiting; who were happily better calculated to excite the affection as well as the admiration of mankind;, and who were free from many of the defects of his character.-To fay that his ambition was boundlefs, would be no more than faying that he held the vice common to great fitua tions; but his ambition afforted too much with rapacity to captivate the imagination, as it otherwife might have done; and he looked more to his intereft than his fame in the

means

means which he fometimes used for the attainment of his objects. A trict economy, indeed, was indifpenfably neceffary to the peculiarity of his fituation, and to the fupport of fuch prodigious armies, with means which would have been totally inadequate in any other hands; but he pushed this virtue too far towards the oppofite extreme, so as to carry too much the appearance of a degrading parfimony; and it muft be acknowledged, by thofe who pay the greatest respect to his eminent qualities, that he was more fond of gold than correfponds with the eftablished ideas of a great man.

Frederick could brook no oppofition to his will either in word or in action; was to the laft degree implacable in his refentments; and inheriting from nature, as well as deriving from education and example, a difpofition extremely harth, defpotic, and occafionally cruel, it could not be expected that it would have been leffened by the horrors and carnage of war, any more than by the continual perfonal enforce ment in peace of that auftere military difcipline eftablished by himfelf, which was as unequalled in its rigour and feverity, as in all other refpects; and by which, man being reduced to the fate of a living machine, was confidered and treated merely as iuch.

But the latter part of his life feemed calculated to make amends to mankind for all the ravage and defolation which his ambition had occafioned in the foregoing; to give a new colour to his character; and to caft a foftening thade of benignity over all its parts. He became the father as well as the legiflator of his fubjects; and to them the milk of human nature feemed overflowing in his compofition. The

extraordinary expences to which he went in peopling and cultivating the fterile or defart waftes which extended over fuch vaft tracts of his dominions, were only limited by the extent and number of the objects to which they were applicable. For though his attention was in a confiderable degree directed to almost every branch of improvement, yet agriculture was his great and favourite object; and he accordingly adopted every measure that could render the hufbandman easy and comfortable in his circumstances, and fecure in the poffeffion of his property. And if he deferves praise for having attained thefe ends in the latter and more ferene parts of his career, it must furely be confidered as the greater glory of his reign, and one peculiar to himself, that when moft unfortunate in war, and when moft oppreffed by an unequalled combination of hoftile power, yet, that in all the fingular diftreffes to which he was at thofe feafons reduced, his provident forefight had provided fuch ample refources for every evil that could enfue, that he never burthened his fubjects with the addition of a single tax, or the demand of a benevolence; fo that his dominions, if it had not been for the cruel depredations of his numerous enemies, would have borne the fame appearance as in a feason of profound peace.

And when, latterly, the dreadful inundations and other calamitous effects of unufual and untoward feafons, had fpread ruin and defolation as well through his dominions, as all the regions of the north and center of Europe, the fums of money which he bestowed, not merely to relieve but to restore the num

berlefs fufferers, and, as it were,

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completely to remedy the evils of nature, were fo immenfe, as nearly to exceed credibility; and perhaps exceeded any former known inftance of royal benevolence. It feemed indeed fcarcely credible, that the fame hand which had fo long been charged with a contracted parfimony, should now, when the great occafion offered, exceed all others in munificence and bounty. It muft likewise ever be received as a standing monument both of attention to the good of his subjects, and of the excellent principles of his adminiftration, that notwithstanding the length and peculiar circumftances of his wars, the population of his dominions had been more than doubled in his reign, and that a far greater proportional increase took place in their foreign trade, and in the number and tonnage of their fhipping.

As we never had before, and as our age will hardly again afford us an opportunity of defcribing another fuch man, we are the leis apprehenfive of having dwelt too long upon fo favourite a fubject.

This great prince departed the prefent life on the 17th of Auguft, 1786, in the 75th year of his age; a furprifing age, whether we confider it with respect to the greatnefs, number, and fplendour of its actions, the dangers to which it had been expofed, or the unequalled exertions of body and mind, by which, through a long reign of more than forty-fix years, it had been continually exhausted.

His decline had for fome time been fo rapid, that the event was eafily forefeen; yet, under the joint preffure of an afthma, dropfy, and lethargy, the former of which had for fome time rendered him incapable of repofe in a bed, he dif

played in the intervals his priftine vigour of mind, and all his ufual ferenity and chearfulnefs in converfation; never uttering the least complaint, nor fhewing the smallest degree either of regret or impatience at his condition; and on the 15th, only two days before his death, he fent for his cabinet fecretaries at four o'clock in the morning, and tranfacted business for three hours with them; but in the evening of that day the fomnolency returned, and he continued nearly in a state of infenfibility until his death.

It was a curious if not fingular circumftance, that as the king began himself perfonally to feel the infirmities and incommodities of age, it touched his fympathy fo ftrongly for the diftreffes of the unprovided in that calamitous condition, that he immediately founded two hofpitals in Berlin for the reception of helplefs old age, in all cales whatever, without regard to nation, religion, or fex.

There were numerous other inftances of his temper and difpofition being greatly foftened by age; a circumftance very unusual in mankind, and almoft without example in conquerors who fo generally become more rigid, harth, and oppreffive, and too frequently degenerate into abfolute cruelty at that feason of life.

The attention of all Europe had been long drawn to the contemplation of this expected event, and of its probable or poffible confequences. Many apprehended that it would prove the fignal for immediate war, and perhaps lead to great political revolution. The character of his nephew and fuc ceffor, the prefent king, was not yet much developed; and it was eafily feen that a new kingdom

which

which had rifen fuddenly to fuch unexampled power and greatness as ferved to excite the jealoufy or apprehenfion of all its neighbours, merely through the abilities of one man, would require abilities not much inferior to withstand the thocks, to which it might be liable upon the lofs of its tutelary guardian and genius. The danger appeared the greater, as its nearest and moft potent neighbour, befides other great political differences, and his finding Pruffia almoft conftantly in his way in the profecution of his ambitious views, was himself the greateft fufferer by her greatnefs; and was well known to be of a character not much difpofed to forgive or forget fo grievous a lofs as that of Silefia.

The new government was, how ever, conducted with fo much regularity and steadiness, and retained fo much of its ancient appearance and character, that no opening was made,, nor encouragement given, for any of the apprehended dangers or evils to take place. Indeed the late king had bequeathed the most effectual fecurities to his fucceffor for the prefervation of his dominions, which human wisdom could provide or devife, by leaving him a full treafury, the fineft army, without exception, in the world, and a people enthusiastically attached to his government and memory. A ftriking inftance of the latter was afforded in the difpofal of his old wardrobe, which was fo meanly provided, that the whole, including ftate clothes and linen, was fold to the Jews for 400 rix-dollars *; but the eagerness of the people to poffefs

any thing that had once belonged to their old hero was fo great, that the Jews made more than as many thoufands of their purchase; and the smallest article of his wear was preferved as an invaluable relick.

As novelty poffeffes charms that captivate all mankind, so innovations, in a certain degree, are perhaps adopted with propriety at the acceffion of a new fovereign, especially after a long reign; and whatever the wisdom of the preceding administration may be, there ever will be particular inftances in which they may be neceffary, and accordingly adopted with advantage. Popularity was likewife the more neceffary in the prefent inftance, not only from the predilection of the people for the late reign, but that the prefent fovereign had hitherto no opportunity of difclofing his public difpofition and character.

No event or act of the late reign was fo universally unpopular throughout Germany, as his predilection for the French language, and the decided preference which he upon all occafions gave to the literature of that nation. The numerous German literati in particular could not but be grievously affected by it, and indeed every true patriot, from whatever part of that wide empire he derived his existence, mult have felt it fenfibly, as an infult offered, and a glaring contempt fhewn to his language and country. This predilection the king derived from his early acquaintance and intercourfe with French poets and philofophers of the modern ftamp, to whom he was likewife indebted for other prejudices and prin

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ciples ftill more injurious and unfortunate; particularly that indif ference (to call it by the foftest name) with respect to religion, which fuck to him through life, and was the great blemish of his character

It must, however, be remembered, that the German writers in the late king's earlier days, were of a very different caft and character from those who have fince fo far advanced literature and fcience, have done fo much honour to their country by their genius and refearches, and who by their fuccefsful introduction of the poetic mufes have used the moft effectual means for foftening and wearing down the roughness of their native tongue. On the contrary, at and for a confiderable time after his acceffion, laboriousness and fidelity were the chief praises that could be beftowed on the German writers; their works were proverbially verbofe and heavy; they had not yet applied with any fuccefs to the Belles Lettres; and their poetry, particularly the dramatic, was barbarous. Early prejudices are with difficulty fhaken off, and as life advances, the difpofition to that endeavour generally Jeffens. Frederick had early made himself a party in the affair, by criticifms on, and himself writing againft, the German ftudies and literature. Having thus declared himfelf, he was too proud and too tenacious of his opinion ever to relinquifh it, and would neither obferve or examine the wonderful change and improvement which was taking place in both. And fo far was he from affording favour or encourage ment to the writers who were thus reforming the language and taste of their country, that it is faid, he

would not even read their productions if in the vernacular tongue.

Nothing then could be more popular, or more generally gratify ing, than the new king's declaration in council, that Germans we are, and Germans I mean we fhall continue;" at the fame time giving directions that their native language fhould refume its natural rank and ftation, from which it had been for near half a century degraded by the ufurping French; the latter only having been during that time fpoken at court, addreffed in letters to the king, ufed in all public offices and transactions, and even in the academies. Of these, the royal academy of fciences was compoled almost entirely of Frenchmen; but the king now ordered three Germans to be received in it, and public difcourfes to be occafionally delivered in the Teutonic, To fhew his attention to the native literature, he fettled a handfome penfion for life upon Mr. Ramler, the celebrated German lyric poet; and received in the most favourable manner the congratulatory verfes which were addreffed to him by profeffor Gleim, and other men of learning, who all made it a point to write them in the native language. The late king had likewife placed the collection of the taxes and duties, particularly those on tobacco, almost exclufively in the hands of Frenchmen; but they were now generally, if not univerfally, replaced by Germans, and the foreigners humanely allowed penfions.

The new king ftrictly prohibited all publications tending to excite a contempt or indifference for religion: oblerving that he had marked with great concern the progrefs of

impiety