She Used To Bathe
Him Herself Every Morning; Insisted On His Being Loosely Clad; And
Would Not Permit His Attendants To Injure His Digestion By Humouring
His Appetite.
She was equally careful to prevent his acquiring
haughty airs, and playing the tyrant in leading-strings.
The Queen
Dowager would not permit her to suckle him; but the next child being
a daughter, and not the Heir-Apparent of the Crown, less opposition
was made to her discharging the duty of a mother.
Poor Matilda! thou hast haunted me ever since may arrival; and the
view I have had of the manners of the country, exciting my sympathy,
has increased my respect for thy memory.
I am now fully convinced that she was the victim of the party she
displaced, who would have overlooked or encouraged her attachment,
had not her lover, aiming at being useful, attempted to overturn
some established abuses before the people, ripe for the change, had
sufficient spirit to support him when struggling in their behalf.
Such indeed was the asperity sharpened against her that I have heard
her, even after so many years have elapsed, charged with
licentiousness, not only for endeavouring to render the public
amusements more elegant, but for her very charities, because she
erected, amongst other institutions, a hospital to receive
foundlings. Disgusted with many customs which pass for virtues,
though they are nothing more than observances of forms, often at the
expense of truth, she probably ran into an error common to
innovators, in wishing to do immediately what can only be done by
time.
Many very cogent reasons have been urged by her friends to prove
that her affection for Struensee was never carried to the length
alleged against her by those who feared her influence. Be that as
it may she certainly was no a woman of gallantry, and if she had an
attachment for him it did not disgrace her heart or understanding,
the king being a notorious debauchee and an idiot into the bargain.
As the king's conduct had always been directed by some favourite,
they also endeavoured to govern him, from a principle of self-
preservation as well as a laudable ambition; but, not aware of the
prejudices they had to encounter, the system they adopted displayed
more benevolence of heart than soundness of judgment. As to the
charge, still believed, of their giving the King drugs to injure his
faculties, it is too absurd to be refuted. Their oppressors had
better have accused them of dabbling in the black art, for the
potent spell still keeps his wits in bondage.
I cannot describe to you the effect it had on me to see this puppet
of a monarch moved by the strings which Count Bernstorff holds fast;
sit, with vacant eye, erect, receiving the homage of courtiers who
mock him with a show of respect. He is, in fact, merely a machine
of state, to subscribe the name of a king to the acts of the
Government, which, to avoid danger, have no value unless
countersigned by the Prince Royal; for he is allowed to be
absolutely aim idiot, excepting that now and then an observation or
trick escapes him, which looks more like madness than imbecility.
What a farce is life. This effigy of majesty is allowed to burn
down to the socket, whilst the hapless Matilda was hurried into an
untimely grave.
"As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods;
They kill us for their sport."
Adieu!
LETTER XIX.
Business having obliged me to go a few miles out of town this
morning I was surprised at meeting a crowd of people of every
description, and inquiring the cause of a servant, who spoke French,
I was informed that a man had been executed two hours before, and
the body afterwards burnt. I could not help looking with horror
around - the fields lost their verdure - and I turned with disgust
from the well-dressed women who were returning with their children
from this sight. What a spectacle for humanity! The seeing such a
flock of idle gazers plunged me into a train of reflections on the
pernicious effects produced by false notions of justice. And I am
persuaded that till capital punishments are entirely abolished
executions ought to have every appearance of horror given to them,
instead of being, as they are now, a scene of amusement for the
gaping crowd, where sympathy is quickly effaced by curiosity.
I have always been of opinion that the allowing actors to die in the
presence of the audience has an immoral tendency, but trifling when
compared with the ferocity acquired by viewing the reality as a
show; for it seems to me that in all countries the common people go
to executions to see how the poor wretch plays his part, rather than
to commiserate his fate, much less to think of the breach of
morality which has brought him to such a deplorable end.
Consequently executions, far from being useful examples to the
survivors, have, I am persuaded, a quite contrary effect, by
hardening the heart they ought to terrify. Besides the fear of an
ignominious death, I believe, never deferred anyone from the
commission of a crime, because, in committing it, the mind is roused
to activity about present circumstances. It is a game at hazard, at
which all expect the turn of the die in their own favour, never
reflecting on the chance of ruin till it comes. In fact, from what
I saw in the fortresses of Norway, I am more and more convinced that
the same energy of character which renders a man a daring villain
would have rendered him useful to society, had that society been
well organised. When a strong mind is not disciplined by
cultivation it is a sense of injustice that renders it unjust.
Executions, however, occur very rarely at Copenhagen; for timidity,
rather than clemency, palsies all the operations of the present
Government. The malefactor who died this morning would not,
probably, have been punished with death at any other period; but an
incendiary excites universal execration; and as the greater part of
the inhabitants are still distressed by the late conflagration, an
example was thought absolutely necessary; though, from what I can
gather, the fire was accidental.
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