as ments that mutilate; torture; confifcation of goods, and forfeiture of eftates; and, finally, treafons of every kind, equalling them to crimes against individuals. It then proportions the following punishments to the nature of the crimes: trifling fines, in no cafe exceeding 300 crowns; private whipping; imprifonment, never to exceed a twelvemonth; banishment to a lefs or greater diftance; pillory without banishment; pillory with banishment; public whipping; public whipping on an afs: for the women, confinement in the house of correction from one year upwards; if for life, the fubftitute for death, the criminal to have a different dress, on which are to be fewed the words ultimo fupplizio: for the men, condemnation to the public works, in the mines in the ifle of Elbo, the fcoop-boats of Leghorn, &c. from three years upwards; if for life, a different drefs like that for the women, and, befides a ring to the leg, a double chain, naked feet, and the kind. Befides the trials are fimpliemployment of the most fatiguing fied; the prifoner has many advantages he had not before; the frequency of oaths is diminished, all evidence being to be given without, except on the prifoner's requiring an oath to be adminiftered to any fufpected witnefs, when it is to be performed in a folemn manner. And even the few fines that are to be levied are not to go to the treafury, but to make a fund for the indemnification of those who have fuffered by infolvent or fugitive criminals. 1 CHARACTER S. Portrait of Frederic the Second, late King of Pruffia, when Prince Royal; by M. De Suhm, April 2d, 1740. From the Familiar Correspondence of Frederic the Second with that Gentleman. HE honour I have had of I believe his greateft paffion is that of fame, which he makes to confift in always acting conforma bly to ftrict reason, in carefully di vefting the mind of all prejudices, and as much as poffible, in never fuffering them to enter it. He Tfrequently making my court fout is not to be taken in his re to the prince royal of Pruffia, and of having had reafon to flatter myfelf with that of his good graces, may have given me fome juft ideas on this prince's manner of thinking: but I am very cautious in undertaking to draw his portrait, in which I have reafon to think but few would fucceed. Were he not born a great prince, his fituation and misfortunes would have taught him to diffimulate; and it is by this that perfons have been hither to deceived, who upon a word have hazarded judgments on the character of a prince, who never speaks without reflection, and fays nothing but what he means to fay. To avoid this fault, I will fpeak but in general terms, of a character which at prefent may be looked on as impenetrable, and to proceed with certainty. I will content myfelf with speaking of the qualities I have remarked in him, and which are founded upon the fentiments I have conftantly heard him profefs. VOL. XXIX. after mature reflection; and he has given proofs of his firmness and elevation of mind, on the melancholy occafions he has had to exercife them, and in which he never abandoned himself for a moment. He is good, generous, and liberal; fenfible and compaffionate to the misfortunes of others, and holds injuftice in horror. In his early youth, I remarked that he was fond of expofing the defects and ridiculous manners of others. I have found him quite changed from this, and he is now the first to blame those of such a difpofition; he detefts calumny and calumniators above every thing. I will not enter into a greater detail of the good qualities of this prince, who feriously endeavours to acquire them all; which induced me to fay to him one day, that he propofed to himself an end to which he would never attain, viz. perfection; he answered me, that " it was like the philofopher's ftone, and B thofe those who fought for it, were rewarded for their pains by finding many good things in the way;" and as I took the liberty to add, that provided he preferved the half of the great fentiments which I knew he poffeffed, he would always be a great king; he replied, "he fhould be very forry ever to change his manner of thinking; but that this did not yet prove what I had said," and modeftly finished by quoting to me the following verfe from Voltaire. Tel brille au second range, qui s'eclipfe au premier. This prince particularly prides 'himfelf on a great firmnefs in his friendships and attachments; and I remember on taking final leave of him, having previously fhewn fome inquietude about what I had remarked, that a certain perfon of diftinction was no longer in his good graces, he wifhed to tell me the reafons which had induced him to put him at a diftance from his perfon, graciously adding, that he owed me this detail, in order to leave me no fufpicion on the folidity of his friendship. It has been remarked on the Rhine, that this prince has much valour. On one occafion among others, when he went to reconnoitre the lines of Philipsburgh, followed by a confiderable number of troops; palling on his return by a thin wood, the cannon of the lines inceffantly accompanied him, and thattered feveral trees by his fide, without his horfe's going, on account of it, out of his pace, or the hand which held the bridle betraying in him the leaft extraordimary emotion. Those who obferved this, remarked on the contrary, that he continued to fpeak with great tranquillity to fome general officers who accompanied him, and admired his countenance in a moment of danger, with which he had not yet had an opportunity of familiarifing himself. I learned this anecdote from the prince de Litchtenftein. I will not speak of his mind; it is well known he has adorned it by reading and continued reflection. This is what makes him love converfation, into which he never introduces public affairs, which he looks upon as matters which do not yet concern him. Those who have attributed to him difpofitions of hatred or friendship for certain interefts of princes, have certainly founded their conjectures upon vain appearances, from which they have drawn falfe conclufions. If he speaks in a friendly manner of a prince, they conclude from this, that he would arm for his interests, if he could do it. But this is an argument very subject to caution, with refpect to a prince who never acts from caprice, but will be guided by reason. He told me even one day," that being a king, he thought he could make war against a prince for whom he should have the greatest affection; and that he could enter into the closeft alliance with another whom he did not like at all." As to the judgment of the prince royal, it is fo much the more just, as he never concludes haftily, unlefs he can immediately give a reafon for fo doing. To give a flight instance of this, I remember being at fupper with the field marfhal Grumkaw, where the prince Eugene, who died on the Rhine, was fpoken of; the question whether this prince would would in time have poffeffed great qualities and have become a great man, was agitated? The prince royal decided to the contrary; because, faid he, he would never have known how to make a friend, who would have dared to tell him the truth. the buildings nor the fituation were What I have faid, will, I ima- I therefore conclude, that great and good things may be done with him, if they be properly undertaken; and that as bad ones will be the refult of an improper method of proceeding.< The following Anecdotes and Remarks on the Character of the late King of Pruffia, when at an advanced period of his life, are extracted from Iravels through Germany, by the Baron Riefbeck, and tranflated from the German by the Rev. Mr. Maty. All the prints I have hitherto feen of him are only half lengths; but there are many copies of a very good picture, in which he is drawn at full length. You may fee one of these at Madam S-'s, at Paris, and they are fo common here, that you meet with them in feveral inns. The original was painted by an Italian, who having been extremely fortunate in hitting off the likeness, ture to be taken by many good the king fuffered copies of the picmafters here, and made prefents of them to feveral German princes, and thus the copies have become common. Heavily as the hand of age now feems to lie on this immortal man, the very strong likenefs of the face ftill remains. The king of Pruffia is hardly of the middling fize, but ftrong built and thick fet. His body is now much bent, and his head thakes, but his eyes are ftill piercing, and roll about when he is obferving. Peace, order, refolution, and earneftness are marked upon his face. There B 2 is is likewife that particular look about him, which is common to all great perfonages, and which I should call indifference to all that furrounds him, were it not that you see evidently, that he takes an uncommon intereft in the things which he conceives fpecially to belong to his province. The editor of Voyages en differents Pays de l'Europe, Mr. Pilati, fays, that every thing at Berlin and Potsdam is carried on in filence, and that nothing can be known either of the king's private life, or of his public affairs. There is an univerfal opinion of the kind gone out about this court: if you will believe fome Englishmen, especially Mr. Wraxall, the genius which animates the Pruffian monarchy, is a man-hating, light-fhunning genius, who in imperceptible darknefs ftrikes constantly at the estates of the subjects, and lays fnares for them. It is impoffible to form a falfer judgment of the king. Mr. Pilati, who contradicts himself in more places than one, fays in another part of his letters, that the king's hours are fo regularly diftributed, that at any time you may know what he is then doing. In deed the true caufe why fo little is to be faid of the king's private life, is the great fimplicity and regularity of it. Here is no minifter to enter into intrigues with, to ruin a man of honour who ftands in his way; no mistress whose humour a man muft ftudy to get the favourable minute to obtain a right, or have juftice done him for an injury, or of whose adventures he must keep a register, to revenge himself on her by bon-mots, epigrams, and anecdotes;-no queen to puzzle and perplex the court every morning with the very great problem, whether she has slept with her hufband or not, whether the is breeding or not, and whether the fashion will not undergo fome revolution, commanded by her majefty, in the courfe of the enfuing week. The princes and princeffes of the blood have neither disputes for precedency to fettle, nor cabals to contrive, nor large play debts to discharge, nor any of the mighty bufineffes which are the daily occupations of other courts to difpatch; the king neither hunts nor goes to balls or theatres (a few operas only excepted); he has no occafion to advise with a minifter of finance, how, or from what funds the mistress's new drefs, or her new house, or her new garden, or her journey to-fhall be paid;-nothing is undertaken here for which the money is not ready. The king of Pruffia has neither favourite, nor confeffor, nor court fool, (who, mutatis mutandis, is ftill in good credit in the other courts of Germany, and whofe part the confeffor moftly plays). Under thefe circumstances the court anecdotes of the day must neceffarily be very few; but yet the king gives himself fo little trouble to be concealed, that as the Englishman, Moore, observes, it is no difficult matter to arrive at his bed-chamber unperceived: he is furrounded neither by a guard or a fwarm of footmen and valets de chambre; he often walks alone in the gardens of Sans-Soucy, and wherever he is, except at a review, no man is kept at a distance. It is owing to the fame fimplicity and order which obtains in his private life, that the operations of the king of Pruffia's government make fo little noife. Whoever confiders his administration as myfterious, or |