Blucher Read The Paper And Ordered All
The Officers To Assemble On The Parade And Thus Addressed Them:
"Gentlemen,
I have received your paper and read its contents with the utmost
astonishment.
All the remarks that I shall permit myself to make on the
subject of this petition, are, that it makes me ashamed of being myself a
noble." He then tore the petition in pieces and dismissed them.
I have been once at the theatre. Lodoiska was performed. I saw a number
of fine women in the boxes. Formerly gallantry and pleasure were the order
of the day at Berlin; but now, the Court assuming the exterior of rigid
morality and strictly exercised religious devotion, mystic cant and
dullness is the order of the day. The death of the Queen of Prussia threw a
great damp over the amusements of the Court. At Charlottenburg, which is a
short distance from Berlin, in the grounds there, they point out to you her
favourite spots. She was a most amiable Princess, and united to great
personal beauty so much grace and fascination and so many good qualities
that she was beloved by all, and the breath of calumny never ventured to
assail her.
The alley Unter den Linden in the evening presents a great assemblage of
Cyprian nymphs, who promenade up and down; they dress well and are
perfectly well behaved. There is a superb establishment of this kind at
Berlin, which all strangers should visit out of curiosity. It is not
indispensably necessary to sacrifice to the Goddess whose worship is
carried on there; but you may limit yourself to admire the temple, call for
refreshments and contemplate the priestesses.
There is the utmost moral and political freedom at Berlin, and tho' the
Government is despotic in form, freedom of speech is allowed. An army of
200,000 men admirably disciplined and armed, of these a garrison of 15,000
men in Berlin and as many at Potsdam, are quite sufficient to keep in check
all attempts to put political theories and speculations into practice.
Indeed, it would be very difficult to excite a revolt; the various German
governments are carried on very paternally and the government is scarcely
felt; habits of obedience have taken deep root among the people, and a
German peasant as long as he gets enough to eat and drink, does not
conceive himself unhappy, or thinks of a change. I could not help laughing
the other day, at a little village near Berlin, when I heard some peasants
talking of Napoleon; one of them, who seemed to have some partiality for
him, exclaimed, meaning to blame him for leaving Elba: Aber warum verliess
er seine Insel? Er hatte doch zu essen und trinken so viel er wolte (Why
did he leave Elba? He had surely plenty to eat and drink). This good
peasant could not conceive that a man blessed with these comforts should
like to change his situation or run any risks to do so.
French as well as German is commonly spoken in Berlin, and I am glad to see
that the prejudice against the French is wearing off. If the French and
Prussians could understand one another, and knew their own interests, or if
the French had a liberal national Government, I mean, one more identified
with the interests of the people than the present one is, what advantage
might not rise therefrom? They are natural allies, and united they might be
able effectually to humble the overbearing insolence and political
coxcombry of the Czar, shake to its centre the systematic despotism and
light-fearing leader of Austria, and keep in check the commercial
greediness, monopolizing spirit and Tory arrogance of England. The German
political writers duly appreciate the illiberal policy of England towards
the continental nations, by which she invariably helps to crush liberty on
the Continent in the hopes of paralysing their energies and industry, in
order to compel them to buy English manufactures, and in fine to make them
dependent on England for every article of consumption. England, ever since
the beginning of the reign of George III to the present day, has been
always ready to lend a hand to crush liberty, to perpetuate abuses and to
rivet the fetters of monarchial, feudal and ecclesiastical tyranny.
These are facts and cannot be denied. The English people have been taxed to
the last farthing to support a war of privileges against Freedom; and
Europe is in consequence prostrate at the feet of an unprincipled
coalition, thro' England's arms and England's gold; and then an English
minister, and his vile hireling journals, tell you that the continental
nations are not ripe for and do not deserve liberty. Even the Pope and
Grand Turk, both so much dreaded by our pious ancestors, have been
supported, caressed and subsidized, in order to help to put down all
efforts made to obtain rational liberty, which the courtiers always affect
to stigmatize with the name of "Jacobinism," while a number of needy
individual have enriched themselves by the public plunder and byaiding and
abetting the system, all novi homines, men who, had there been more to
gain on the other side than by espousing Toryism, would not have been
backward; men who are Jacobins in the real sense of the word, however they
cloak themselves under the specious names of Church and King men; upholders
of Pitt and his system, for which they affect a veneration they are far
from really feeling; men, in fact, whose political scruples of whatever
nature they be, would soon melt away.
DRESDEN, 5th October.
I have been fortunate in getting into very comfortable lodgings, having two
rooms and as much firing as I chuse for eight Reichsthalers per month.
Coffee is made for me at home in the morning, and I generally dine and sup
at a restaurant close by near the bridge. The Platz in the Neustadt is
close to my lodgings, and being very large and well paved and lined with
trees, it affords a very agreeable promenade.
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