From The Christian Observer.
MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENS OF PRUSSIA.

Memoirs of the Queens of Prussia. By E. W.
W. Kent & Co.

Atkinson. One Vol. 8vo.
1858.

ENGLAND has a national interest in the history of Prussia. It is not yet two years ago since she consigned to the heir apparent of the Prussian throne the princess royal of England; and from the affectionate interest which the nation took in the event, it seemed as if each family was sending forth the first and best-beloved of their daughters, and were following her with the tearful interest of a family. The rough sailors, who parted from the princess at Gravesend with moist eyes, and bade her husband tend her carefully and treat her well, on pain of their displeasure, expressed the national desire that her future fortunes among a strange people might be as happy as her childhood. Nor was it without anxiety that, amidst many omens of happiness, the nation, who had watched her youth, and rejoiced in her opening promise, saw her transplanted into a foreign continental court. He who is on the throne of an absolute government, or stands on its steps, is not likely to be left untried. Nor is the history of any despotic country without its warning, that the most favorable promise of princes may be blighted by the intrigues of those who would rise to power through the weakness of the sovereign.

she grew into the matured and intelligent She became versed in the literary woman. subjects which occupied Frederick. She read and thought and listened. With a woman's tact, she penetrated the character of the men who frequented the prince's society; and, while Frederick was bandying flattery with Voltaire, his princess detected the baseness which lurked under that French polish of wit and genius. But while her position was apparently strong, and her husband's esteem manifest, the loving heart discovered that there was no return to her deep affection. It does not appear that Frederick was naturally heartless; his feeling towards both his parents refutes this. But he had entered on two courses of life which are sure to blunt affection, and to harden the heart. He threw off belief in Christianity, and he allowed himself the free indulgene of vice. Sadly in his later years, when the contrast of old Žiethen's piety was presented to him, did he confess his error and repent it; but he said it was then too late to change. The affection of a true-hearted wife was neglected, till he left himself morose, sullen, and dissatisfied, to pass his old age in the company of his dogs; with many admirers, but with scarce a friend. The affection, indeed, from which he isolated himself, remained on the part of his wife, invariably true. The prince of her young affection remained throughout her life the idol of her heart. All his chilling coldness, his neglect of his wife, while he paid attention to The kingdom of Prussia only dates from his mother and sisters; her seclusion, left solthe beginning of the last century; yet, though itary in the capital while Frederick gathered no long line of kings has occupied the throne, his family round him at Rheinsberg; his indifthe fate of their consorts has not been envia- ference to her feelings when she lost her ble. Two of the Prussian sovereigns, the favorite brother in his wars; his determinasecond and the fifth, made the life of their tion not to confide to her either his pleasures consorts unhappy by their vices. The tem- or his sorrows; his court at Charlottenburg, per of the third king, who, with some estima- where his queen was only suffered to spend ble qualities, had a roughness which amounted the day, and had to return at night to Berlin; to mania, has been made familiar to us in these things, hard as they were, could not Mr. Carlisle's history. The queen of his cele- shake an affection which was fixed. In debrated successor, Frederick the Great, was a feat, as in victory, when she was a fugitive princess of Brunswick Bevern, and was forced from the capital, or when she welcomed her upon the prince by the peremptory commands husband's return as conqueror; surrounded of his father. He discovered, indeed, under at times with a blaze of state; admired for the shyness of her first appearance, occasioned her beauty; reviewing by the side of her husby circumstances so unfavorable, a mind wor- band his gallant troops, and partaking of his thy of esteem and a heart full of affection. It triumphs with an exulting people; or when was not her fault that she was thoroughly she had to melt down the silver ornaments of loved; and, indeed, during the few years the palace to send her husband supplies; and spent by the crown prince and her at Rheins- when she fled to Magdeburg, while the eneberg, in the literary retirement which Fred- my laid waste her summer retreats,- Elizaerick affected, there was an interval of do- beth Christina remained the same simple, mestic union which rendered more trying the earnest, and faithful woman. In the year estrangement of later years. Nor was this 1747, we find her writing to her brother: estrangement due to the wife. She raised "I can now write with a more tranquil heart herself to be the worthy partner of her hus- that I did; for, God be praised, our dear king band. His love was the spell which devel- is again better, and out of all danger; he has oped her faculties. From an untaught girl been very ill, and I have suffered a thousand

inquietudes. If I had dared, I should have unhappy union was committed by Frederick gone to Potsdam myself to see him." Again she says: "I have received a most obliging and gracious letter from the dear master, apologizing for not alighting here as he passed, and giving me notice that he will come and see me here some day." From her solitude at Schönhausen she writes that people avoid her, and that she is not included in the invitations to Potsdam. "Yet it is not all this magnificence which attracts me, but the dear master who inhabits the place. I still think with pleasure of the times of Rheinsberg, when I enjoyed perfect contentment, having been kindly received by a master whom I cherish, and for whom I would sacrifice my life. Ah! what regret do I feel now when all is changed; but my heart will always be the same, and I hope that all will again be as of old; this sole hope supports me."

But though the neglected queen could not but feel this usage, she bore it without a murmur. Some longings to be with her husband, in place of those courtiers who cared little for him, escaped her; but she acquiesced in his will; and her delight that her sister, who had married the prince of Prussia, should be admitted to the court-circle from which she was excluded, was unselfish and generous. She occupied herself in works of charity, and was the munificent friend of the distressed. She followed her husband in her thoughts through the long struggle of the seven years' war; and while others were cast down by defeat, her strength of mind and piety were never shaken. In the midst of danger she lived in her tranquil thoughts; finding the company of her books better than that of her train, and seeking that peace which the mind that seeks is sure to find. The veneration with which she was regarded by the people followed her everywhere. "Never," says one of the great Prussian preachers, "shall I forget those stormy Magdeburg hours in which her majesty, during the wars, set an example of the highest piety and most heroic confidence in God. When the prudent and the cowardly trembled, she alone was unshaken in her glad hope for the future." The sermon which hailed the restoration of peace expressed the general feeling: "God preserve the mother of this land, who prayed for us in time of need."

This life, so tried by private sorrow and public trouble, had other afflictions. She had seen her sister happily married to the prince of Prussia. But the prince had died brokenhearted; and his son, who had succeeded to his expectations and had married the queen's niece, had brought on himself calamities, which were all the heavier that they were the effect of his vices and entailed the ruin of his unfortunate wife. The offspring of this

to his queen, and by her was brought up with tender care. The child requited this with the strongest affection; and her letters, when she became duchess of York, showed that her regard remained unabated. The last years of the queen's life were spent at Schönhausen, where Frederick visited her once a year on her birthday. Death carried off her most intimate friends; and, at length, in 1786, her husband followed. He died forsaken, as he wrote, by all the world, but retaining his esteem for his wife, requiring that every one should treat her with attention, and bequeathing her to his nephew with the strongest testimonies of regard. The rest of her life glided tranquilly away, comforted by the respect and affection both of courtiers and people. No marriage of any note was considered satisfactory unless the old queen was present; and parents sought her benevolent smile at the baptism of their children. The walks round her park were open to the citizens; one-half of her income was spent in charity, and a colony of Bohemian exiles found a refuge near the walls of her palace. As the trees had been felled during the wars, she replanted them in her old age; "for, though I shall never see the trees grow up, it will please me to watch the young plants, and to think that the place will be charming after I am gone." At the age of eighty-one, with few dry eyes that day in Berlin, she was carried to her rest; but not till she had blessed her greatnephew at the most important crisis of his life, and welcomed his young and blooming bride, whose life we must now relate.

The

The reign of the fifth king of Prussia, which began in 1786 and ended in November 1797, had been scandalous from its vices, and had, by the natural influence of example, corrupted Prussian society to the core. avowed scepticism of Frederick the Grant had tainted the opinions of his court; and the vices which had begun in infidelity flourished luxuriantly under the reign of his successor, Frederick William II. He did not preserve the military reputation of his country, and his campaign against the French, after the Revolution, brought on him defeat and disgrace. His sons, as they grew to manhood, witnessed with shame the transgressions of their father. The state of the court, and the wrongs done to their mother, moved them; and the eldest prince felt them the more keenly, after he and his brother had met, in their passage through Frankfort, the two princesses of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and had chosen them for their wives. It was in 1793, whilst the horrors of the French revolution were running their course, and those passions were boiling which were to scathe the whole of Europe, that the young princes met their

brides at Potsdam, and made their entrance the sovereigns to the provinces, after their into Berlin on a winter's day in December. accession, left strong impressions on the minds Statesmen as well as poets, old rough war- of their subjects; acts of the kindest considerriors and gentle women, were alike enchant- ation, on the part of the queen, endeared her ed by the young princess who had married to young and old. Her impressions of delight, the crown prince. In describing her, the when she visited the Silesian mountains, were most prosaic became poetical; and Goethe remembered long after by those who witcelebrated her as a heavenly vision. There nessed them. Old men, who had ferried her never was a marriage more auspicious. It through the subterranean lakes in the mines, was grounded on pure affection, a love who had seen her grasp her husband's hand, which lasted through life. The differences and heard her, as she received vivid impresof character were happily met his gravity sions of awe and delight, whisper, "Slowly, by her loveliness, his reserved silence by her good steersman; oh! slowly," treasured up the cheerful candor; her brighter hopes cheered recollection for their later life; recalled that his anxieties, and her sanguine temperament thoughtful and beautiful face, "grand like a checked his disposition to melancholy. It is queen, yet as simple as a child;" and said, true that the courtiers were greatly disquieted with tears trickling down their cheeks, "that when they saw etiquette grievously set at in all their lives they had never seen a woman naught by the young couple. The princess with such a face as hers; why did the gcod horrified her stiff, grim old attendant, when God let her die so early?" Whatever were she snatched one of the fifty girls who wel- the defects in the king's character as a politicomed her with flowers, and kissed the wan- cian, our esteem for the man remains; the dering child; and, shocking to say, when deep piety which both he and the queen manBerlin wished to illuminate in honor of the ifested is recorded to us by attentive witmarriage, the crown prince begged the citi- nesses, and the sketch which Bishop Egbert zens to give the money meant for the illumina- gives of their domestic habits is a picture to tion to the poor. They persisted in calling dwell upon. each other thou;" walked hand in hand in We turn back, before entering on rougher their garden, without their suite; and the scenes, to the incident of the poor woman, prince would drive his wife in an open car- who had wandered into the queen's seat at raige without a retinue. When the king, church, and at the sign of the kind lady sat who, in spite of his vices, had a warm heart, down unconscious. Afterwards reproached presented his daughter-in-law, on her birth- by the grand-marshal, she retired in disquiet; day, with Oranienberg, the princess, desirous but the queen could not be satisfied till that the poor should share in her pleasure, ex- Bishop Egbert went and comforted her. We claimed," Now I only want a handful of gold think of that sabbath evening, when in the for the poor of Berlin." "And how big society of a few friends, while dwelling on the would the birthday child like the handful to sermon they had heard from the story of be?" said the king. "As big as the heart of Ruth, they had sunk into solemn reflection, the kindest of kings," was her prompt reply. till the king rose and whispered to his wife, Oranienberg was found too large for their "I and my house, we will serve the Lord," small income and simple tastes; and on the and withdrew to meditation and prayer. But farm of Paretz, near Potsdam, in a moderate-this life of peace was cast on the most troubled sized house, without state, their life, before period of European history, and was tried by they ascended the throne, was passed. It some of the sorest disasters that ever befell was there that their eldest son, afterwards Prussia. king of Prussia, was born, and that they had Frederick William succeeded to an emto mourn the untimely death of the crown barrassed exchequer. The reputation of the prince's brother, and the death of the queen Prussian armies had suffered during the dowager in a ripe old age. In the autumn French revolutionary wars. The ambition of 1797, Frederick William succeeded his of Napoleon, when he was embarking in his father on the throne; but though their resi- | wars of aggression, found in Prussia disordered dence and position were changed, the new finances and divided councils. The three minSovereigns retained their simple habits, walked isters who were placed at the head of the the streets like their subjects, made purchases Prussian cabinet were men of worthless charin the fair, and allowed the citizens to witness acter, two of them foreigners. Over such the pure taste and affection which character- a ministry, influenced by their sympathies, ized their rulers. The example was not lost some, at least, gained by bribes, Napolcon exon the citizens; and, though the courtiers, crcised an easy command. The cousin of the tainted by the infidelity and vice of two king, Prince Louis Ferdinand, was a man of reigns, declined this new standard of purity, great ability, prompt in action, and of firm the homely virtues of the middle classes were decision. He had much respect for the king's strengthened by the example. The visit of abilities, and, mourned that his want of con

MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENS OF PRUSSIA.

cacy, that it was impossible to take offence. The In her interviews with Napoleon, she pleaded with warm eloquence the cause of her country; she conjured him to prove himself a hero, by showing magnanimity to a vanquished foe, to grant her the happiness of being able to assure him that he had won her esteem, and at least to give back Magdeburg. Napoleon was moved for a moment; his resolution was shaken, but the blight of Talleyrand's influShall posterity say that ence interposed. Napoleon sacrificed his greatest conquest to a pretty woman?" Before her departure, the unhappy queen made a last effort; and then finding it useless, threw herself sobbing into her carriage, overwhelmed with the convic tion of the useless degradation to which she had submitted.

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humanity fills up her days. She seeks, so She arrived on the 5th of July, at Tilsit, and far as her sex permits, to alleviate the mis- was received by Napoleon with outward cour At dinner she was seated between the eries occasioned by war; she provides, with tesy. incessant efforts and with considerable con- two emperors, and Napoleon paid her the tributions, for the wounded and the needy. utmost attention. He admitted afterwards She visits no theatres, gives no concerts nor not only her singular beauty, but her bewitchballs; but every one who, like myself, has ing power; that in spite of all his efforts she the pleasure of approaching her, must ac- constantly led the conversation, returned at knowledge that she, or else no woman upon pleasure to her subject, and directed it as she earth, realizes the high idea of fairest woman-chose; but still with so much tact and delihood. Not striking but softly magical is the impression which she makes on all. calm, the resignation, with which she bears her misfortunes, deeply touches the heart." From these scenes of suffering, but of tranquil patience, she was led to a sharper trial. The defeat of the Russian forces disposed the emperor of Russia to make peace; and the temptations which Napoleon held out to him on the side of ambition, drew both emperors into a close friendship. Prussia had now to learn how much her confederacy with Russia cost her. The assistance of Russia had been fruitless, her desertion was fatal. Happily, however, the designs of Napoleon were too openly made known. He himself had stated that his intention was to name Jerome Buonaparte king of Prussia, and to expel the royal The Elbe became the boundary of Prussia, family. Even to Alexander he divulged his project of crushing the Prussian throne and and an enormous sum was laid upon the imleaving the sovereign scarcely a margrave of poverished country. The king and queen Brandenburg. But such projects alarmed returned to Memel, where in a country town Alexander; to have on his frontier such a and in a private house, they passed a life of neighbor as Napoleon was seriously to be the strictest economy. Many a citizen was deprecated. What fidelity to treaties would better lodged, and kept a better table; the not make him do was suggested by his own golden plate of the great Frederick was interest. He exerted himself to preserve melted down; and loans and gifts from their Prussia; and, as he hoped much from the sympathizing subjects were received in order talent and fascination of the queen, he invited to meet the French contribution. The king her to Tilsit. It was a bitter trial to meet and queen were much affected by letters "Our the usurper who had conquered her country, from their subjects in Lower Westphalia, and the slanderer who had defamed her whom they were obliged to abandon. character. "What struggles it has cost me," hearts were nigh to break," so the latter ran, she writes in her diary, "God only knows!" when we read thy farewell to us; we could It will cost me much to be courteous to him; not persuade ourselves that we should cease but the hardship is required of me, and I am to be thy true subjects, we who loved thee used to make sacrifices." Her presence was always so much." indeed necessary; for the king of Prussia, naturally dejected, and now depressed by -a sad and helpless misfortune, was present, spectator of arrangements which he could not influence. When he spoke to Napoleon of the pain of losing hereditary provinces, Napoleon answered with contempt, "Such losses are common in the chances of war." When he answered, "That one could not forget them any more than one can forget his cradle;" "The camp should be the cradle," answered Napoleon; a man has no time to think of such things." With these dispositions, and this insolence of conquest, it was not likely that a woman's influence could prevail. Yet the queen did all in her power.

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"The

Under this cloud the faith of the queen did not fail, nor her strength of mind. king," she writes, "is greater than his opponent; he has refused a confederacy with evil, and this will bring Prussia a blessing some day." The king derived comfort from lis wife's strength of mind, and from the consolations of his friend Bishop Borowski. opened to him the counsels of God from His word, and led him to see through this sore discipline a vista of future blessings. In every thing the vigor of the queen's mind was felt. Hardenburg and Stein were the ablest ministers of Prussia. Stein had been unjustly dismissed early in 1807, through the cabal of a rival minister. Hardenburg had been sacri