SECT. XXI.

OF THE HEREDITARY PRINCE OF PRUSSIA.

THE Hereditary Prince of Prussia lives in a small house in the town of Potsdam. His appointments do not admit of that degree of magnificence, which might be expected in the heir of the crown ;-but he displays a spirit of hospitality far more obliging than magnificence, and doubly meritorious, considering very moderate revenue allowed him. We generally sup there two or three times a week.

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The prince is not often of the King's parties, nor is it imagined that he enjoys a great share of his uncle's favour. In what degree he possesses the talents of a general is not known, as he was too young to have any command during the late war.

But he

certainly has a very just understanding, which has been improved by study. He has taken some pains to acquire the English language, to which he was induced by an admiration of several English authors, whose works he had read in French and German. He is now able to read English prose with tolerable facility, and has been of late studying Shakspeare, having actually read two or three of his plays.

I took the liberty to observe, that as Shakspeare's genius had traced every labyrinth, and penetrated into every recess of the human heart, his sentiments could not fail to please his Royal Highness; but as his language was uncommonly bold and figurative, and full of allusions to national customs, and the manners of our island two centuries ago, the English themselves, who had not made a particular study of his works, did not always comprehend their fall energy. 1 added, that to transfuse the soul of Shakspeare into a translation, was impossible; and to taste all his beauties in the original, required such a knowledge of the English manners and language, as few foreigners, even after a long residence in the eapital, could attain.

The Prince said he was aware of all this; yet he was determined to struggle hard for some acquaintance with an author so much admired by the English nation; that though he should never be able to taste all his excelleneies, he was convinced he should understand enough to recompence him for his trouble; that he had already studied some detached parts, which he thought superior to any thing he had ever met with in the works of any other poet.

His Royal Highness attends to military business with as much assiduity as most officers of the same rank in the army; for in the Prussian service, no degree of eminence in the article of birth can excuse a remission in the duties of that profession. He is much esteemed by the army, and considered as an exceeding good officer. To the frankness of a soldier he joins the integrity of a German, and is beloved by the public in general, on account of his good nature, affability, and humane turn of mind. DR. MOORE

OF THE EMPEROR OF GERMANY.

THE Emperor is of a middle size, well made, and of a fair complexion. He has a considerable resemblance to his sister, the queen of France, which in my opinion, is saying a great deal in favour of his looks. Till I saw something of his usual behaviour, I did not think it possible for a person in such an elevated situation, to put every body with whom he conversed upon so easy a footing.

His manner is affable, obliging, and perfectly free from the reserved and lefty deportment assumed by some on account of high birth. Whoever has the honour to be in company with him, so far from being checked by such despicable pride, has need to be on his guard, not to adopt such a degree of familiarity as, whatever the condition of the one might permit, would be highly improper in the other to use.

He is regular in his way of life, moderate in his pleasures, steady in his plans, and diligent in business. He is fond of his army, and inclines that the soldiers should have every comfort and necessary consistent with their situation. He is certainly an œconomist, and lavishes very little money on useless pomp, mistresses, or favourites; and it is, I suppose, on no better foundation than this, that his enemies accuse him of avarice.

I cannot help regarding economy as one of the most useful qualities in a prince. Liberality, even when pushed to an imprudent length, may, in a private person, proceed from a kind of greatness of mind, because his fortune is in every sense his own, and he can injure no body but himself in lavishing it away. He knows that when it is gone, nobody will reimburse him for his extravagance.

He seems,

therefore, to have taken the resolution to submit to the inconveniency of future poverty, rather than renounce the present happiness of acting with a magnificent liberality, and bestowing on others more than he can afford.

This is not the case with a prince. What he squanders is not his own, but the public money. He knows that his pomp and splendour will be kept up, and that his subjects, not himself, are to feel the inconveniences of his prodigality. When I hear therefore, that a king has given great sums of money to any particular person; from the sums given, the person who receives it, the motive for the gift, and other circumstances, I can judge whether it is well or ill disposed of; but, in either case, it cannot be called generosity.

The virtue of generosity consists in a man's depriving himself of something for the sake of another. There can be uo generosity in giving to John what James must replace the next moment. What is called generosity in kings, very often consists in bestowing that money on the idle part of their subjects which they have squeezed from the industrious. I

have heard a parcel of fiddlers and opera daneers praise a prince for his noble and generous behaviour to them, while men near his person, of useful talents and real worth, were distressed for bread. The emperor certainly has none of that kind of generosity. His usual dress (the only one indeed in which I ever saw him, except at the feast of the knights of St. Stephen) is a plain uniform of white, faced with red. When he goes to Laxenberg. Schonbrun, and other places near Vienna, he generally drives two horses in an open chaise, with a servant behind, and no other attendant of any kind. He very seldom allows the guard to turn out, as he passes through the gate. No body ever had a stronger disposition to judicious enquiry. He is fond of conversing with ingenious people. When he hears of any person of whatever rank or country, being distinguished for any particular talent, he is eager to converse with him, and turns the conversation to the subject on which the person is thought to excel, drawing from him all the useful information he can. Of all the means of knowledge, this is perhaps the most powerful, and the most proper that can be used by one whose more necessary occupations do not leave him much time for study.

He seems to be of opinion, that the vanity and ignorance of many princes are frequently owing to the forms in which they are entrenched, and to their being deprived of the advantages which the rest of mankind enjoy from a free comparison and exchange of sentiment. He is convinced, that, unless a king can contrive to live in some societies on a footing of equality, and can weigh his own merit, without throwing his guards and pomp into the scale, it will be diffi cult for him to know either the world or himself.

One evening at the countess Walstein's the conversation leading that way, the some remarkable and ludicrous instances of the inemperor enumerated conveniences of etiquette, which had occurred at a certain court. One person hinted at the effectual

means his majesty had used to banish every inconveniency of that kind from the court of Vienna; to which he replied, it would be hard indeed, if, because I have the ill fortune to be an emperor, I should be deprived of the pleasures of social life, which are so much to my taste. All the grimace, and parade to which people in my situation are accustomed from their cradle, have not made me so vain, as to imagine that I am in any essential quality superior to other men; and, if I had any tendency to such an opinion, the surest way te get rid of it is the method I take of mixing in society, where I have daily occasions of finding myself inferior in talents to those I meet with. Conscious of this, it would afford me no enjoyment to assume airs of a superiority, which I feel does not exist. I endeavour therefore to please, and to be pleased; and as much as the inconveniency of my situation will permit, to enjoy the blessings of society like other men, convinced that the man who is secluded from those, and raises himself above friendship, is also raised above happiness, and deprived of the means of acquiring knowledge.

This kind of language is not uncommon with poor philosophers; but I imagine it is rarely held by princes, and the inferences to be drawn from it more rarely put in practice.

A few days after this, there was an exhibition of fire-works on the Prater. This is a large park, planted with wood, and surrounded by the Danube, over which there is a wooden bridge. No carriages being allowed to pass, the company leave their coaches at one end, and walk. There is a narrow path

railed off on one side of the bridge. Many people very injudiciously took this path, to which there is an easy entrance at one end, but the exit is difficult at the other; for only one person can go out at a time. The path, therefore, was very soon choaked up; the unfortunate passengers crept on a snail's pace, and in the most straitened and disagreeable manner imaginable; whilst those who had kept the wide path I

VOL. I.