History of Friedrich II of Prussia Volume XXI Part 20

"Besides us, there was present in the room the Cabinets-Rath Stellter [of the short-hand], who stood at a desk, and was getting ready for writing. The King looked at us, saying, 'Come nearer!' Whereupon we advanced another step, and were now within less than two steps of him.

He addressed himself to us three Raths, taking no notice at all of the Grand-Chancellor:--

KING. "'Is it you who drew up the judgment in the Arnold case?'

WE (especially I, with a bow). "'Yea.'

"The King then turned to the Rath Friedel [to Friedel, as the central figure of the Three, perhaps as the portliest, though poor Friedel, except signing, had little cognizance of the thing, in which not he but Rannsleben was to have been spokesman], and addressed to Friedel those questions, of which, with their answers, there is Protocol published, under Royal authority, in the Berlin newspapers of December 14th, 1779;"

[VON SEINER KONIGLICHEN MAJESTAT HOCHSTSELBAT ANGEHALTENES PROTOCOLL: "Protocol [Minute of Proceedings] held by Royal Majesty's Highest-self, on the 11th December, 1779, concerning the three Kammergerichts-Raths, Friedel, Graun and Rannsleben:" in PREUSS, iii. 495.] Shorthand Stellter taking down what was said,--quite accurately, testifies Rannsleben. From Stellter (that is to say from the "Protocol" just mentioned), or from Stellter and Rannsleben together, we continue the Dialogue:--

KING to Friedel [in the tone of a Rhadamanthus suffering from gout].

"'To give sentence against a Peasant from whom you have taken wagon, plough and everything that enables him to get his living, and to pay his rent and taxes: is that a thing that can be done?'

FRIEDEL (and the two Mutes, bowing). "'No.'

KING. "'May a Miller who has no water, and consequently cannot grind, and, therefore, not earn anything, have his mill taken from him, on account of his not having paid his rent: is that just?'

FRIEDEL (and Mutes as aforesaid). "'No.'

KING. "'But here now is a n.o.bleman, wis.h.i.+ng to make a Fish-pond: to get more water for his Pond, he has a ditch dug, to draw into it the water from a small stream which drives a water-mill. Thereby the Miller loses his water, and cannot grind; or, at most, can only grind in the spring for the s.p.a.ce of a fortnight, and late in the autumn, perhaps another fortnight. Yet, in spite of all this, it is pretended that the Miller shall pay his rent quite the same as at the time when he had full water for his mill. Of course, he cannot pay his rent; his incomings are gone!

And what does the Custrin Court of Justice do? It orders the mill to be sold, that the n.o.bleman may have his rent. And the Berlin Tribunal'"--Chancellor Furst, standing painfully mute, unspoken to, unnoticed hitherto, more like a broomstick than a Chancellor, ventures to strike in with a syllable of emendation, a small correction, of these words "Berlin Tribunal"--

FURST (suggestively). "'Kammergericht [mildly suggestive, and perhaps with something in his tone which means, "I am not a broomstick!"]: Kammergericht!'

KING (to short-hand Stellter). "'Kammergerichts-Tribunal:--[then to Furst] Go you, Sir, about your business, on the instant! Your Successor is appointed; with you I have nothing more to do.

Disappear!'"--"Ordered," says Official Rannsleben, "ordered the Grand-Chancellor, in very severe terms, To be gone! telling him that his Successor was already appointed. Which order Herr von Furst, without saying a word, hastily obeyed, pa.s.sing in front of us three, with the utmost speed." In front,--screen, I suppose, not having room behind it,--and altogether vanishes from Friedrich's History; all but some GHOST of him (so we may term it), which reappears for an instant once, as will be noticed.

KING (continues to Friedel, not in a lower tone probably):--"'the Kammergerichts-Tribunal confirms the same. That is highly unjust; and such Sentence is altogether contrary to his Majesty's landsfatherly intentions:--my name [you give it, "In the King's Name," forsooth]

cruelly abused!'"

So far is set forth in the "Royal Protocol printed next Tuesday," as well as in Rannsleben. But from this point, the Dialogue--if it can be called Dialogue, being merely a rebuke and expectoration of Royal wrath against Friedel and his Two, who are all mute, so far as I can learn, and stand like criminals in the dock, feeling themselves unjustly condemned--gets more and more into conflagration, and cannot be distinctly reported. "MY name to such a thing! When was I found to oppress a poor man for love of a rich? To follow wiggeries and forms with solemn attention, careless what became of the internal fact? Act of 1566, allowing Gersdorf to make his Pond? Like enough;--and Arnold's loss of water, that is not worth the ascertaining; you know not yet what it was, some of you even say it was nothing; care not whether it was anything. Could Arnold grind, or not, as formerly? What is Act of 1566, or any or all Acts, in comparison? Wretched mortals, had you wigs a fathom long, and Law-books on your back, and Acts of 1566 by the hundredweight, what could it help, if the right of a poor man were left by you trampled under foot? What is the meaning of your sitting there as Judges? Dispensers of Right in G.o.d's Name and mine? I will make an example of you which shall be remembered!--Out of my sight!" Whereupon EXEUNT in haste, all Three,--though not far, not home, as will be seen.

Only the essential sense of all this, not the exact terms, could (or should) any Stellter take in short-hand; and in the Protocol it is decorously omitted altogether. Rannsleben merely says: "The King farther made use of very strong expressions against us,"--too strong to be repeated,--"and, at last, dismissed us without saying what he intended to do with us. We had hardly left the room, when he followed us, ordering us to wait. The King, during the interview with us, held the Sentence, of my composition, in his hand; and seemed particularly irritated about the circ.u.mstance of the judgment being p.r.o.nounced in his name, as is the usual form. He struck the paper again and again with his other hand,"--heat of indignation quite extinguis.h.i.+ng gout, for the moment,--"exclaiming at the same time repeatedly, 'Cruelly abused my name (MEINEN NAMEN CRUEL MISSBRAUCHT)!'" [Preuss, iii. 495-498.]--We will now give the remaining part of the Protocol (what directly follows the above CATECHETICAL or DIALOGUE part before that caught fire),--as taken down by Stellter, and read in all the Newspapers next Tuesday:--

"PROTOCOL [of December 11th, t.i.tle already given; [Supra, p. 439 n.]

Docketing adds], WHICH IS TO BE PRINTED."

... (CATECHETICS AS ABOVE,--AND THEN): "The King's desire always is and was, That everybody, be he high or low, rich or poor, get prompt justice; and that, without regard of person or rank, no subject of his fail at any time of impartial right and protection from his Courts of Law.

"Wherefore, with respect to this most unjust Sentence against the Miller Arnold of the Pommerzig Crabmill, p.r.o.nounced in the Neumark, and confirmed here in Berlin, his Majesty will establish an emphatic example (EIN NACHDRUCKLICHES EXEMPEL STATUIREN); to the end that all Courts of Justice, in all the King's Provinces, may take warning thereby, and not commit the like glaring unjust acts. For, let them bear in mind, That the least peasant, yea, what is still more, that even a beggar, is, no less than his Majesty, a human being, and one to whom due justice must be meted out. All men being equal before the Law, if it is a prince complaining against a peasant, or VICE VERSA, the prince is the same as the peasant before the Law; and, on such occasions, pure justice must have its course, without regard of person: Let the Law-Courts, in all the Provinces, take this for their rule. And whenever they do not carry out justice in a straightforward manner, without any regard of person and rank, but put aside natural fairness,--then they shall have to answer his Majesty for it (SOLLEN SIC ES MIT SEINER KONIGLICHEN MAJESTAT ZU THUN KRIEGEN). For a Court of Law doing injustice is more dangerous and pernicious than a band of thieves: against these one can protect oneself; but against rogues who make use of the cloak of justice to accomplish their evil pa.s.sions, against such no man can guard himself.

These are worse than the greatest knaves the world contains, and deserve double punishment.

"For the rest, be it also known to the various Courts of Justice, That his Majesty has appointed a new Grand-Chancellor." Furst dismissed. "Yet his Majesty will not the less look sharply with his own eyes after the Law-proceedings in all the Provinces; and he commands you"--that is, all the Law-courts--"urgently herewith: FIRSTLY,"--which is also lastly,--"To proceed to deal equally with all people seeking justice, be it prince or peasant; for, there, all must be alike. However, if his Majesty, at any time hereafter, come upon a fault committed in this regard, the guilty Courts can now imagine beforehand how they will be punished with rigor, President as well as Raths, who shall have delivered a judgment so wicked and openly opposed to justice. Which all Colleges of Justice in all his Majesty's Provinces are particularly to take notice of."

"MEM. By his Majesty's special command, measures are taken that this Protocol be inserted in all the Berlin Journals." [In _Berlin'sche Nachrichten von Staats und Gelehrten Sachen,_ No. 149, "Tuesday, 14th December, 1779." Preuss, iii. 494.]

The remainder of Rannsleben's Narrative is beautifully brief and significant.--"We had hardly left the room," said he SUPRA, "when the King followed us," lame as he was, with a fulminant "Wait there!"

Rannsleben continues: "Shortly after came an Aide-de-Camp, who took us in a carriage to the common Town-prison, the Kalandshof; here two Corporals and two Privates were set to guard us. On the 13th December, 1779," third day of our arrest, "a Cabinet-Order was published to us, by which the King had appointed a Commission of Inquiry; but had, at the same time, commanded beforehand that the Sentence should not be less than a year's confinement in a fortress, dismissal from office, and payment of compensation to the Arnold people for the losses they had sustained." Which certainly was a bad outlook for us.

Precisely the same has befallen our Brethren of Custrin; all suddenly packed into Prison, just while reading our Approval of them;--there they sit, their Sentence to be like ours. "Our arrest in the Kalandshof lasted from 11th December, 1779, till 5th January, 1780," three weeks and three days,--when (with Two Exceptions, to be noted presently) we were all, Kammergerichters and Custriners alike, transferred to Spandau.

I spoke of what might be called a ghost of Kanzler Furst once revisiting the glimpses of the Moon, or Sun if there were any in the dismal December days. This is it, witness one who saw it: "On the morning of December 12th, the day after the Grand-Chancellor's dismissal, the Street in which he lived was thronged with the carriages of callers, who came to testify their sympathy, and to offer their condolence to the fallen Chancellor. The crowd of carriages could be seen from the windows of the King's Palace." The same young Legal Gentleman, by and by a very old one, who, himself one of the callers at the Ex-Chancellor's house that day, saw this, and related it in his old age to Herr Preuss, [Preuss, iii. 499, 500.] remembers and relates also this other significant fact:--

"During the days that followed" the above event and Publication of the Royal Protocol, "I often crossed, in the forenoon, the Esplanade in front of the Palace (SCHLOSSPLATZ), at that side where the King's apartments were; the same which his Royal Highness the Crown-Prince now [1833] occupies. I remember that here, on that part of the Esplanade which was directly under Friedrich's windows, there stood constantly numbers of Peasants, not ten or twelve, but as many as a hundred at a time; all with Pet.i.tions in their hands, which they were holding up towards the window; shouting, 'Please his Majesty to look at these; we have been still worse treated than the Arnolds!' And indeed, I have understood the Law-Courts, for some time after, found great difficulty to a.s.sert their authority: the parties against whom judgment went, taking refuge in the Arnold precedent, and appealing direct to the King."

Far graver than this Spectre of Furst, Minister Zedlitz hesitates, finally refuses, to p.r.o.nounce such a Sentence as the King orders on these men of Law! Estimable, able, conscientious Zedlitz; zealous on Education matters, too;--whom I always like for contriving to attend a Course of Kant's Lectures, while 500 miles away from him (actual Course in Konigsberg University, by the ill.u.s.trious Kant; every Lecture punctually taken in short-hand, and transmitted to Berlin, post after post, for the busy man). [Kuno Fischer, _Kant's Leben_ (Mannheim, 1860), pp. 34, 35.] Here is now some painful Correspondence between the King and him,--painful, yet pleasant:--

KING TO MINISTER VON ZEDLITZ, WHO HAS ALARMING DOUBTS (Berlin, 28th December, 1779).--"Your Report of the 20th instant in regard to Judgment on the arrested Raths has been received. But do you think I don't understand your Advocate fellows and their quirks; or how they can polish up a bad cause, and by their hyperboles exaggerate or extenuate as they find fit? The Goose-quill cla.s.s (FEDERZEUG) can't look at facts.

When Soldiers set to investigate anything, on an order given, they go the straight way to the kernel of the matter; upon which, plenty of objections from the Goose-quill people!--But you may a.s.sure yourself I give more belief to an honest Officer, who has honor in the heart of him, than to all your Advocates and sentences. I perceive well they are themselves afraid, and don't want to see any of their fellows punished.

"If, therefore, you will not obey my Order, I shall take another in your place who will; for depart from it I will not. You may tell them that.

And know, for your part, that such miserable jargon (MISERABEL STYL) makes not the smallest impression on me. Hereby, then, you are to guide yourself; and merely say whether you will follow my Order or not; for I will in no wise fall away from it. I am your well-affectioned King,--FRIEDRICH."

MARGINALE (in Autograph).--"My Gentleman [you, Herr von Zedlitz, with your dubitatings] won't make me believe black is white. I know the Advocate sleight-of-hand, and won't be taken in. An example has become necessary here,--those Scoundrels (CANAILLEN) having so enormously misused my name, to practise arbitrary and unheard-of injustices. A Judge that goes upon chicaning is to be punished more severely than a highway Robber. For you have trusted to the one; you are on your guard against the other."

ZEDLITZ TO THE KING (Berlin, 31st December, 1779).--"I have at all times had your Royal Majesty's favor before my eyes as the supreme happiness of my life, and have most zealously endeavored to merit the same: but I should recognize myself unworthy of it, were I capable of an undertaking contrary to my conviction. From the reasons indicated by myself, as well as by the Criminal-Senate [Paper of reasons fortunately lost], your Majesty will deign to consider that I am unable to draw up a condemnatory Sentence against your Majesty's Servants-of-Justice now under arrest on account of the Arnold Affair. Your Majesty's till death,--VON ZEDLITZ."

KING TO ZEDLITZ (Berlin, 1st January, 1780).--"My dear State's-Minister Freiherr von Zedlitz,--It much surprises me to see, from your Note of yesterday, that you refuse to p.r.o.nounce a judgment on those Servants-of-Justice arrested for their conduct in the Arnold Case, according to my Order. If you, therefore, will not, I will; and do it as follows:--

"1. The Custrin Regierungs-Rath Scheibler, who, it appears in evidence, was of an opposite opinion to his Colleagues, and voted That the man up-stream had not a right to cut off the water from the man down-stream; and that the point, as to Arnold's wanting water, should be more closely and strictly inquired into,--he, Scheibler, shall be set free from his arrest, and go back to his post at Custrin. And in like manner, Kammergerichts-Rath Rannsleben--who has evidently given himself faithful trouble about the cause, and has brought forward with a quite visible impartiality all the considerations and dubieties, especially about the condition of the water and the alleged hurtfulness of the Pond--is absolved from arrest.

"2. As for the other arrested Servants-of-Justice, they are one and all dismissed from office (Ca.s.sIRT), and condemned to one year's Fortress-Arrest. Furthermore, they shall pay to Arnold the value of his Mill, and make good to him, out of their own pocket, all the loss and damage he has suffered in this business; the Neumark KAMMER (Revenue-Board) to tax and estimate the same. [Damage came to 1,358 thalers, 11 groschen, 1 pfennig,--that is, 203 pounds 14s. and some pence and farthings; the last farthing of which was punctually paid to Arnold, within the next eight months;] [Preuss, iii. 409.]--so that

"3. The Miller Arnold shall be completely put as he was (IN INTEGRUM RESt.i.tUIRT).

"And in such way must the matter, in all branches of it, be immediately proceeded with, got ready, and handed in for my Completion (VOLLZIEHUNG) by Signature. Which you, therefore, will take charge of, without delay.

For the rest, I will tell you farther, that I am not ill pleased to know you on the side you show on this occasion [as a man that will not go against his conscience], and shall see, by and by, what I can farther do with you. [Left him where he was, as the best thing.] Whereafter you are accordingly to guide yourself. And I remain otherwise your well-affectioned King, FRIEDRICH." [Ib. iii. 519, 520; see ib. 405 n.]

This, then, is an impartial account of the celebrated pa.s.sage between Friedrich and the Lawyers known by the name of "the MILLER-ARNOLD CASE;"

which attracted the notice of all Europe,--just while the decennium of the French Revolution was beginning. In Russia, the Czarina Catharine, the friend of Philosophers, sent to her Senate a copy of Friedrich's PROTOCOL OF DECEMBER 11th, as a noteworthy instance of Royal supreme judicature. In France, Prints in celebration of it,--"one Print by Vangelisti, ent.i.tled BALANCE DE FREDERIC,"--were exhibited in shop-windows, expounded in newspapers, and discoursed of in drawing-rooms. The Case brought into talk again an old Miller Case of Friedrich's, which had been famous above thirty years ago, when Sans-Souci was getting built. Readers know it: Potsdam Miller, and his obstinate Windmill, which still grinds on its knoll in those localities, and would not, at any price, become part of the King's Gardens. "Not at any price?" said the King's agent: "Cannot the King take it from you for nothing, if he chose?" "Have n't we the Kammergericht at Berlin!"

answered the Miller. To Friedrich's great delight, as appears;--which might render the Windmill itself a kind of ornament to his Gardens thenceforth. The French admiration over these two Miller Cases continued to be very great. [Dieulafoi, LE MEUNIER DE SANS-SOUCI (Comedy or farce, of I know not what year); Andrieux, LE MOULIN DE SANS-SOUCI ("Poem," at INSt.i.tUT NATIONAL 15 GERMINAL, AN 5), &c. &c.: Preuss, iii. 412, 413.]

As to Miller Arnold and his Cause, the united voice of Prussian Society condemned Friedrich's procedure: Such harshness to Grand-Chancellor Furst and respectable old Official Gentlemen, amounting to the barbarous and tyrannous, according to Prussian Society. To support which feeling, and testify it openly, they drove in crowds to Furst's (some have told me to the Prison-doors too, but that seems hypothetic); and left cards for old Furst and Company. In sight of Friedrich, who inquired, "What is this stir on the streets, then?"--and, on learning, made not the least audible remark; but continued his salutary cas.h.i.+erment of the wigged Gentlemen, and imprisonment till their full term ran.

My impression has been that, in Berlin Society, there was more sympathy for mere respectability of wig than in Friedrich. To Friedrich respectability of wig that issues in solemnly failing to do justice, is a mere enormity, greater than the most wigless condition could be.

Wigless, the thing were to be endured, a thing one is born to, more or less: but in wig,--out upon it! And the wig which screens, and would strive to disguise and even to embellish such a thing: To the gutters with such wig!

In support of their feeling for Furst and Company, Berlin Society was farther obliged to p.r.o.nounce the claim of Miller Arnold a nullity, and that no injustice whatever had been done him. Mere pretences on his part, subterfuges for his idle conduct, for his inability to pay due rent, said Berlin Society. And that impartial Soldier-person, whom Friedrich sent to examine by the light of nature, and report? "Corrupted he!" answer they: "had intrigues with--" I forget whom; somebody of the womankind (perhaps Arnold's old hard-featured Wife, if you are driven into a corner!)--"and was not to be depended on at all!" In which condemned state, Berlin Society almost wholly disapproving it, the Arnold Process was found at Friedrich's death (restoration of honors to old Furst and Company, one of the first acts of the New Reign, sure of immediate popularity); and, I think, pretty much continues so still, few or none in Berlin Society admitting Miller Arnold's claim to redress, much less defending that onslaught on Furst and the wigs. [Herr Preuss himself inclines that way, rather condemnatory of Friedrich; but his Account, as usual, is exact and authentic,--though distressingly confused, and scattered about into different corners (Preuss, iii.

381-413; then again, ibid. 520 &c.). On the other hand, there is one Segebusch, too, a learned Doctor, of Altona, who takes the King's side,--and really is rather stupid, argumentative merely, and unilluminative, if you read him: Segebusch, _Historischrechtliche Wurdigung der Einmischung Friedrich's des Grossen in die bekannte Rechtssache des Mullers Arnold, auch fur Nicht-Juristen_ (Altona, 1829).]

Who, from the remote distance, would venture to contradict? Once more, my own poor impression was, which I keep silent except to friends, that Berlin Society was wrong; that Miller Arnold had of a truth lost portions of his dam-water, and was ent.i.tled to abatement; and that in such case, Friedrich's horror at the Furst-and-Company Phenomenon (horror aggravated by gout) had its highly respectable side withal.

When, after Friedrich's death, on Von Gersdorf's urgent reclamations, the case was reopened, and allowed to be carried "into the Secret Tribunal, as the competent Court of Appeal in third instance," the said Tribunal found, That the law-maxim depended upon by the Lower Courts, as to "the absolute right of owners of private streams," did NOT apply in the present case; but that the Deed of 1566 did; and also that "the facts as to pretended damage [PRETENCE merely] from loss of water, were satisfactorily proved against Arnold:" Gersdorf, therefore, may have his Pond; and Arnold must refund the money paid to him for "damages" by the condemned Judges; and also the purchase-money of his Mill, if he means to keep the latter. All which moneys, however, his Majesty Friedrich Wilhelm II., Friedrich's Successor, to have done with the matter, handsomely paid out of his own pocket: the handsome way of ending it.

In his last journey to West-Preussen, June, 1784, Friedrich said to the new Regierungs-President (Chief Judge) there: "I am Head Commissary of Justice; and have a heavy responsibility lying on me,"--as will you in this new Office. Friedrich at no moment neglected this part of his functions; and his procedure in it throughout, one cannot but admit to have been faithful, beautiful, human. Very impatient indeed when he comes upon Imbecility and Pedantry threatening to extinguish Essence and Fact, among his Law People! This is one MARGINALE of his, among many such, some of them still more stinging, which are comfortable to every reader. The Case is that of a murderer,--murder indisputable; "but may not insanity be suspected, your Majesty, such the absence of motive, such the--?" Majesty answers: "That is nothing but inanity and stupid pleading against right. The fellow put a child to death; if he were a soldier, you would execute him without priest; and because this CANAILLE is a citizen, you make him 'melancholic' to get him off. Beautiful justice!" [Preuss, iii. 375.]

Friedrich has to sign all Death-Sentences; and he does it, wherever I have noticed, rigorously well. For the rest, his Criminal Calendar seems to be lighter than any other of his time; "in a population of 5,200,000," says he once, "14 to 15 are annually condemned to death."