BOOKS.

CARLYLE'S FREDERICK THE GREAT.*

[SECOND NOTICE.]

AMONG Mr. Carlyle's minor heroes and heroines Candidatus Linsenbarth, of Hemmleben, must ever stand out conspicu- ously, on account of the highly artistic manner in which his portrait is wrought. The hero, " a tall, awkward, raw-boned creature, is, for perhaps, near forty years past, a Candidatus, say Licentiate, or Curate without Cure. Subsists, Z should. guess, by schoolmastering,—cheapest schoolmaster conceivable, wages mere nothing,—in the Villages about ; in the Village of Hemmleben latterly ; age, as I discover, grown to be sixty-one." At this mature time of life Herr Linsenbarth was offered a cure, vacant through the decease of Pastor Cannabich, a worthy old man, who "had lived modestly studious, frugal, chiefly on farm produce, with tobacco and Dutch theology ; a modest blessing to his fellow-creatures." But the offer of the cure by the patron, Herr Graf von Werthern, was bound up with the condition that Linsenbarth should marry the lady's-maid of the Frau Griifinn, which the aged Candidatus indignantly refused. This made the village of Hemmleben uncomfortable for the poor Dominie, so that he had to expatriate himself, and fled away to Berlin. Here he arrived on June 20, 1750 ; and the first thing that happened to him was the confiscation, at the custom-house, of his whole fortune. It consisted of " four hundred Thalers (some 601.), all in Nurnberg batzen—quarter groats we may say ; 7} batzen go to a shilling ; what a sack there must have been of them, 9,000 in all, about the size of herring-scales, in bad silver ; fruit of Lin- senbarth's stern thrift from birth upwards :—all snatched from him at one swoop." The confiscation was owing to a decree of Frederick, which forbad the entrance of foreign, that is, non- Prussian money into the kingdom, so as not to compete with the copper-silvered coins of his Majesty, issued for financial and warlike purposes. Deep distress on the part of the poor Can- didatus was the immediate result. After trying vainly to get his hoard back by petition to the Ministers, he at last, at the end of eight weeks, determined to lay his sad ease before the King's dread Majesty in proprici persona. With fear and trembling he went to Potsdam, and was lucky enough to espy King Frederick in the garden, with some good-natured officers at hand, who amused themselves by pushing Candidatus Linsenbarth into the • History of Friedrich IL of Prussia, calls t Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlyle. Vol. IV. London: Chapman and Hall.

high-mighty presence. The King at once sat to examine and cross- examine the Candidatus, as was his wont. Having elicited the dismal story of the 9,000 batzen, his Majesty asked the name of the professors under whom he studied at the University at Jena. "Linsenbarth names famed men ; sunk now, mostly, in the bottomless waste-basket:' Buddaus' (who did a Dictionary of the Bayle sort, weighing four stone troy, out of which I have learned many a thing), ‘Buddius,' Danz," Weissenborn; Wolf' (now back at Halle, after his tribulations,—poor man, his immortal System of Philosophy, where is it!) " And the King inquired further :—

" 'What other useful Course of Lectures (Collegia) did you attend "Linsenbarth :—Thetics and Exegetics with Fortsch ; Hermeneutics and Polemics with Walch ; Hebraics with Dr. Danz; Homiletics with Dr. Weissenborn ; Pastorale (not Pastoral Poetry, but the Art of Pastor- ship) and Morale with Dr. Buddaus. (There your Majesty !—what a glimpse, as into infinite extinct Continents, filled with ponderous thorny inanities, invincible nasal drawling of didactic Titans, and the awful attempt to spin, on all manner of wheels, road-harness out of split cob- webs : Hoorn! Hoom-m-m! Harness not to be had on those terms. Let the dreary Limbus close again, till the general Day of Judgment for all this.)" King Frederick, "glad to get out of the Limbus," now hurried into the palace to take his soup, and Candidatus Linsenbarth was left standing in the garden,not knowing what to do next. Suddenly there appeared before him the King's valet, with a message to take dinner, which order the poor Candidates, who had not tasted food for twenty-seven hours, was but too glad to obey. Dinner over, Herr Linsenbarth was put into a luggage-van and carried to Berlin, with a note iu his hand ordering the custom-house officials to return his hoard, as well as to pay the expenses of his eight weeks' lodging at the inn. This was punctually done, " and our gray-whiskered, raw-boned, great-hearted Candidatus lay down to sleep, at the White Swan, probably the happiest man in all Berlin for the time being."

The story of Candidatus Linsenbarth, which fills about a dozen pages, is very characteristic of Mr. Carlyle, not only as regards the style, which is really charming in all its rugged picturesqueness, butalso as giving the key-note of the author's admiration o f his hero- king. In this story, as throughbut the book, Frederick is the dens ex machine who sets Prussia to rights; the Haroun-al-Rashid who is both generous and just, balancing equally the scales of strict law and lofty mercy. However, the thinking reader will not be be- witched even by Mr. Carlyle's wonderful art of telling his story into admiration of the Prussian hero-king. The case of Candi- datus Linsenbarth, stripped of all its amusing details, is but another illustration of the contemptible despotism of the Great Frederick. A most arbitrary, if not most stupid and unjust, decree Was issued by the King forbidding the entrance of foreign money into his dominions, as well as the issue therefrom of Prus- sian coin. The fact of the arrival at Berlin of poor Linsenbarth with his big bag of coppers shows that this despotic and foolish ordinance was not known in the neighbouring German States, and consequently made to entrap not a few guileless victims. Many were ruined by it, undoubtedly ; and it was only by the merest chance that the "tall, awkward, raw-boned creature" escaped starvation in consequence of it. In his case, fortunately, the dens ex machina stepped in at the right time, repairing an un- just law by committing another piece of injustice. The custom- house officials at Berlin, who, after all, had but done their duty as regards the 9,000 batzen, received orders not only to pay this sum back immediately to the Potsdam visitor, but to discharge, over and above, the cost of his eight weeks' board and lodging. It was a heavy fine, to be paid out of their own pockets, as a punishment for having carried out the law in its strictness. But all this is not deserving of a moment's consideration to the admiring biographer of Frederick. He chuckles over the discomfiture of the custom officials ; sneeringly and patronizingly pats the poor Candidatus on the back ; and at the expense of all parties lifts his Prussian Haroun-al-Rashid up into the clouds. The chapter of Candidatus Linsenbarth is given expressly in illustration and admiration of Frederick's kingship, " a thing visible, palpable, as it worked and lived." How many raw-boned and other wretches, not lucky enough to meet the Great Frederick in the Potsdam gardens, were ruined by the Royal decree forbidding the circula- tion of coin, the author does not tell.

The short-sighted military-commercial despotism of King Frederick receives some very distinct and direct praise from the hands of Mr. Carlyle :-

"To prevent disappointment, I ought to add that Friedrich is the re- verse of orthodox in ' Political Economy;' that be had not faith in Free- Trade, but the reverse ;—nor had ever heard of these Ultimate Evangels, unlimited Competition, fair Start, and perfervid Race by all the world (towards Cheap-and-Nasty,' as the likeliest winning-post for all the world) which have since been vouchsafed us. Probably in the world there was never less of a Free-Trader! Constraint, regulation, encour- agement, discouragement, reward, punishment ; these he never doubted were the method, and that government was good everywhere if wise, bad only if not wise. And sure enough these methods, where human justice and the earnest sense and insight of a Friedrich preside over them, hare results which differ notably from opposite cases than can be imagined. The desperate notion of giving up government altogether, as a relief from human blockheadism in your governors, and their want even of a wish to be just or wise, had not entered into the thoughts of Friedrich."

The sentiments here expressed will make Mr. Carlyle a fit biographer, in the laudatory style, of King Bomba of Naples, Louis Napoleon, and the Sultan of Dahomey. For the one great link which connects despotism all over the world is its dis- regard of a higher moral power as incentive in the actions of men, and its belief that human beings can be guided only, as Mr. Carlyle says, by "constraint, regulation, encouragement, dis- couragement, reward, punishment." To discuss these views, as well as Mr. Carlyle's raillery at free trade and political economy, would be as useless as to argue against his formerly expressed famous opinions on the " nigger question."

The beginning of the Seven Years' War, the sketch of which forms the latter part of the present volume, is passed over some- what rapidly by Mr. Carlyle. The whole responsibility of this new European conflagration is thrown upon Count Briihl, the Saxon Minister. He personally hated Frederick, and " like a famishing dog in sight of a too dangerous leg of mutton," tried to get the newly conquered Silesia back from Prussia.

"A famishing dog in the most singular situation. What he dare do, he does, and with such a will. Bat there is almost only one thing safe to him : that of egging-on the Czarina against Friedrich ; of coining lies to kindle Czarish Majesty ; of wafting on every wind rumours to that end, and continually besieging with them the empty Czarish mind. . . . Fancy a poor fat Czarina, of many appetites, of little judgment, continually beaten upon in this manner by these Saxon-Austrian artists and their Russian service-pipes. Bombarded with cunningly-devised fabrications, every wind frighted for her with phantasmal rumours, no ray of direct daylight visiting the poor Sovereign Woman ; who is lazy, not malignant if she could avoid it ; mainly a mass of esurient oil, with alkali on the back of alkali poured in, at this rate, for ten years past ; ftrilol,b.3; pouring and by stirring, they get her to the state of soap and th

At last it was reported to the Czarina that Frederick had written satirical verses against her.

"To all her other griefs against the bad man, this has given the finish in the tender Czarish bosom ; and like an envenomed drop has set the sopanaceous oils (already dosed with alkali, and well in solution) foam- ing deliriously over the brim, in never-imagined deluges of a hatred that is unappeasable ; very costly to Friedrich and mankind."

King Frederick, as is generally believed, but not historically established, got notice, through some stolen despatches, of the Austro-Russian alliance forming against him, and thinking energy of action the best policy under these circumstances, he decided to fall upon his enemies before they could fall upon him. At the end of August, 1756, a Prussian army of 85,000 men, commanded by the King in person, invaded Saxony, while a second corps of 40,000 soldiers broke from Silesia, through the Glatz Mountains, into Bohemia. The movements of these two armies, particularly the former, are described in a most graphic manner, the geographical and even geological aspect of the countries traversed by the Prussian troops being sketched in that gorgeous style of word-painting in the art of which Mr. Carlyle is truly inimitable.

" Elbe sweeps freely through this Country [Southern province of Saxony] for ages and aeons past; curling himself a little into snake- figure, and with increased velocity, but 'silent mostly, and trim to the edge, a fine flint-coloured river ;—though in aeons long anterior, it must have been a very different matter for torrents and water-power. The Country is one huge Block of Sandstone, so many square miles of that material ; ribbed, channelled, torn and quarried, in this manner,— by the everlasting elements, for millions of Ages past ! . . Elbe has now a trim course ; but Elbe too is busy quarrying and mining, where not artificially held in ; and you notice at every outlet of a Brook from the interior, north side and south side, how busy the Brook has been. Boring, grinding, undermining; much helped by the frosts, by the rains. Aeons ago, the Brook was a lake in the interior; but was every moment Libouriug to get out; till it has cut for itself that mountain gullet, or sheerdown chasm, and brought with it an Alluvium or Delta, on which, since Adam's time, human creatures have built a hamlet."

The only great event of the Seven Years' War described in this volume is the battle of Lobositz, which took place on the 1st of October, 1756, immediately after the opening of the war. The sketch of the village of Lobositz and of the chief battle scenes is very fine. "The mountain gorges of Prag and Moldau River, south of Melnick, lie hidden under the horizon, or visibly only as peaks, thirty miles and more to south-eastward ; a bright country intervening, sprinkled with steepled towns. To north- westward, far away, are the Lausitz Mountains, ranked in loose

order, but massive, making a kind of range ; and as outposts to them in their scattered state, Hills of good height and aspect are scattered all about." The battle was begun by the Austrians, under General Browne—" the flower of all the Irish Brownes (though they have quite forgotten him, in our time), and of all these Irish Exiles then tragically spending themselves in Austrian quarrels "—who ordered his Pandour battalions for- ward to the attack. But " the Pandour firing, except for the noise of it, does not amount to much ;" and " weary of such idle business, Frederick orders forward Twenty of his Squadrons

from the centre station : Charge me those Austrian Horse, and let us finish this.' The Twenty Squadrons, preceded by a pair

of field-pieces, move down hill; storm-in upon the Austrian party, storm it furiously into the mist ; are furiously chasing it, when unexpected cannon-batteries, destructive case-shot, awaken on their left flank (batteries from Lobositz, one may guess) ; and force them to draw back. To draw back, with some loss ; and rank again, in an indignantly blown condition, at the foot of their hill. Indignant; after brief breathing, they try it once more." The first part of the battle seemed lost to the Prussians, but they gained the day, as often happens on the military chessboard, in the second act.

" After some three hours more of desperate tugging and struggling, cannon on both sides going at a groat rate and infinite musketry (ninety cartridges a man on our Prussian side, and ammunition falling done), not without bayonet-pushings, and smitings with the butt of your musket, the Austrians are driven into Lobositz, are furiously pushed there, and, in spite of new battalions coming to the rescue, are fairly pushed through. These Villsge-streets are too narrow for new batta- lions from Browne ; much of the Village should have been burnt before- hand, say cool judges. And now, sure enough, it does get burnt ; Lobositz is now all on fire, by Prussian industry."

" All on fire, by Prussian industry." It is sad that a writer Eke Mr. Carlyle should spend his eloquence in praising such "industry ;" sadder that he should do so at a moment when the "infinite musketry on our Prussian side" is once more setting Europe in flames. About the extreme talent, nay, genius, of Mr. Carlyle's art of word-painting there can be but one opinion ; but there can be but one opinion also, at least in this country, about the utter perversion of truth and justice in setting up as a world- hero the third King of Prussia ; the man who robbed Silesia from Austria ; who sought the alliance, first of Franca, and then of Russia, to gain his own selfish ends, and whose chief claim to respect, even in the eyes of his admiring biographer, is that he was " full of silent finesse," with "a cunning sharp as the vulpine," and altogether "the stoutest king walking the earth." It requires implicit faith in the new precept that might is right, and that the world is ruled by physical force, to admire such a hero. May the day he distant that England is brought to believe in this gospel of hero-worship, as expounded in the History of Friedrich 11. of Prussia, called Frederick the Great I