Pictures of German Life in the XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries Volume Ii Part 13

[Footnote 25: The complaints are very frequent. Compare v. Liebenrothe Fragm. p. 59.]

[Footnote 26: Much, that is interesting concerning the social condition of the North of Germany after 1790 is to be found in "Der Schreibtisch," by Caroline de la Motte Fouque, pp. 46.]

[Footnote 27: Kant's works, xi. 2, p. 80. The man in question was one of doubtful reputation.]

[Footnote 28: The drinkers were Klopstock and his friends.]

[Footnote 29: The travellers were Fritz Jacopi and his brother.]

[Footnote 30: The new guest was Wieland; the hosts, Sophie Laroche and her husband; and the narrator, Fritz Jacopi.]

[Footnote 31: Leuckhardt relates this in his "Lebensbeschreibung," and there is no ground to doubt what is imparted by this disorderly man.]

[Footnote 32: "Reise von Mainz nach Coln im Jahre, 1794," p. 222; "Briefe eines reisenden Franzosen, 1784," ii., p. 258. Both books are only to be read with caution.]

[Footnote 33: Slang terms of the period, ridiculing their keen appet.i.tes and grotesque uniforms.--_Tr_.]

[Footnote 34: "Schilderung der jetzigen Reichsarmee," 1796-8. This interesting description is often quoted, but it is not quite trustworthy. The author is that Lauckhart, a disorderly theologian, who made the Rhine campaign as a musketeer in the regiment Thadden. His autobiography is as instructive as it is repulsive.]

[Footnote 35: That this description is not too strong, we have sufficient warrant in the many accounts of that time. In "Reise von Mainz nach Coln im Fruhjahr," 1794; "Lafonteine Leben," p. 154. The description also which Lauckhart gives of the emigrants in his autobiography may be examined. These French doings excited disgust and horror even in him.]

[Footnote 36: Officials, a.n.a.logous to the Prefet.]

[Footnote 37: Von Held's writings were, "Das Schwarzebuch"--now very rare--"Die Preussischen Jacobiner," and the "Gepriesene Preussen," the most notorious. They and their refutations give us the impression that the author, as is frequent in such cases, had written many things correctly, others inaccurately, but on the whole honestly; but he was not to be depended on as a judge of his opponents. Varnhagen knew him, and wrote his life.]

[Footnote 38: "Grundliche Widerlegung des gepriesenen Preussens,"

1804.]

[Footnote 39: "Buchholz, Gemalde des gesellschaftlichen Zustandes in Preussen," i.]

[Footnote 40: The narrator is Adelbert von Chamisso. His letter of 22nd Nov., 1806, is one of the most valuable relics of that true-hearted man. The concluding words deserve well to be remembered by Germans.

"Oh, my friends, I must atone by a free confession for the secret injustice that I have done this brave, warlike people. Officers and soldiers, in the harmony of a high enthusiasm, cherished only one thought: it was, under the pressure of external and internal enemies, to maintain their old fame, and not a recruit, not a drummer-boy would have fallen away. Indeed, we were a firm, faithful, good, stout soldiery. Oh, if we had but had men to lead us."]

[Footnote 41: The following is taken from an autobiography which he left in ma.n.u.script for his children. The editor has to thank the family of the deceased for it.]

[Footnote 42: In the old Prussian Rhine country stones were beginning to be used for the _chaussees_.]

[Footnote 43: The three officers were, Lieutenants von Blucher, von Lepel, and von Treskow; the three Prebendaries, von Korff, von Bosclager, at Eggermuhlen, and von Merode.]

[Footnote 44: Ministerial decrees setting aside the course of justice.]

[Footnote 45: Vinke had succeeded Stein as First President.]

[Footnote 46: Alliance of students in Germany.]

[Footnote 47: In the number of 247,000 soldiers the volunteers are not included, because they in general consisted of those who were not native Prussians. Beitzke's calculation, which we here take because it is lowest, undoubtedly includes the Landwehr, and the squadrons which, in the course of the campaign, were formed on the other side of the Elbe; there are, therefore, about 20,000 men to be abstracted from his amount. But as his reckoning only comprehends, the strength of the army in the field, which up to the battle of Leipzig was almost entirely gathered from the old Prussian territory, his figures may be considered rather too low than too high. In 1815, the proportion of soldiers to population was still more striking. East Prussia contributed then seven per cent, of its inhabitants, each seventh man was sent to the war; there remained scarcely any but children and old people in the country, very few from 18 to 40.

The amount of the population is reckoned according to the last official census of 1810. Prussia, after the peace of Tilsit, had been obliged to cede New Silesia to Poland, and thus since 1806 had lost more than 300,000 men. No increase, therefore, of the population can be a.s.sumed up to the spring of 1813. The chief fortresses, also, were in the hands of the French, and their inhabitants should be deducted from any calculation of the efforts of the people. According to the proportion of 1813, Berlin as at present, could bring into the field an army of from 23,000 to 25,000 men; Leipzig, four battalions; and the Dukedom of Coburg-Gotha seven battalions, amounting to 1000 men.]

[Footnote 48: Schlosser, "Erlebnisse inns Sachsischen Landpredigers,"

from 1806 to 1815, p. 66. The foreign nations, Portuguese and Italians, were more moderate.]

[Footnote 49: Schlosser, "Erlebnisse," p. 129.]

[Footnote 50: It may be allowable to introduce here some extracts from the receipts which Heun brought forward in the newspapers. What was placed at the head of them was accidental, especially as his lists only enumerate a very small number of the donations, none of those from East Prussia are mentioned. We must begin with the first patriotic gift, which was announced publicly in 1813. About New Year's Day, long before the volunteer rifles were equipped, the Roman Catholic community at Marienburg, in West Prussia, placed all the plate of their church that could be dispensed with at the disposal of the State (it was about 100 marks), begging, as they could not give away church property, for the interest of the value of the silver in the future. But the first money contribution noted down by Heun, was from a master tailor, Hans Hofmann, at Breslau, 100 thalers. The first who gave horses were the peasants Johann Hinz, in Deutsch-Borgh, Bailiwick of Saarmund, and Meyer, at Elsholz, of the same Bailiwick; the last had only two horses.

The first who gave oats, 100 scheffel, was one Axleben. The first who sent their golden wedding-rings, expressing the hope that much gold might be collected if all would do the same, were the lottery-collector Rollin and his wife, at Stettin. The first officials who resigned a part of their salary were Professor Hermbstadt, at Berlin, 250 thalers; Professor Gravenhorst, at Breslau, the half of his salary, and Professor David Schultz, 100 thalers. The first who gave a portion of his fortune was an unnamed official; of 4000 thalers he gave 1000. The first who sent his plate was Count Sandretzky, at Manze, in Silesia, value 1700 thalers, besides three beautiful horses; a servant of the chancery, four silver spoons; anonymous, 2000 thalers; an old soldier, his only gold piece, value forty thalers; anonymous, three gold snuff-boxes, with diamonds, value 5300 thalers; an old woman, from a little town, a pair of woollen stockings.]

[Footnote 51: 10,000 volunteer riflemen, and about the half of the irregulars, amounting to 2500 men, were equipped in the old provinces, together with 1500 horses. Putting the cost of each foot-rifleman at 60 thalers, and that of a horseman at 230 thalers,--the price of horses was high,--the amount is 1,150,000 thalers, which is certainly too low.

And the pay and extras, given by private persons to individual riflemen, are not reckoned.]

[Footnote 52: The Editor is indebted for much of this to a record of the worth Oberregierungsrath Hackel.]

[Footnote 53: From Family Reminiscences.]

[Footnote 54: Record of the Appellations-gerichtsrath Tepler, who himself, as a boy, went to the field with the Landsturm against the French at Magdeburg.]

[Footnote 55: She lives in Berlin, and is now mother of a large family.]

[Footnote 56: From the diary of the pastor, Frieke, at Bunzlau.]

[Footnote 57: Scene from the fight at Goldberg, on the 23rd August, from the account of an eye-witness.]

[Footnote 58: Thus, on the 22nd of May, at Bunzlau, during the retreat after the battle of Bautzen, the prisoners, red Hussars, lay in the suburb near the Galgenteich.]

[Footnote 59: Vossische Zeitung, No. 45, from the 15th April.]

[Footnote 60: Now a practising doctor at Halle. The account is from the mouth of the worthy man.]

THE END.