volume, page 293, of his work, that on the Great Frederick's death, in 1786, the population of Prussia was seven millions-the revenue thirty-one millions of dollars, or £4,464,000 sterling-(111,600,000 francs,) and the treasure 70 millions of dollars (252,000,000 of francs, or about £10,800,000 sterling) — thus greatly reducing Lord Brougham's exaggeration, and that on the best authority. In further reference to Frederick, the misdirection of the emphatic distinction of GREAT, almost exclusively to men and deeds of blood, provokes his lordship's just and severest strictures, which will be found in perfect accord with Voltaire's sentiments, expressed, in his epistle to that same monarch, on his accession to the crown, in 1740. "Jérusalem conquise, et ses murs abattus, N'ont point éternisé le grand nom de Titus: O vous qui l'imitez; vous son rival aimable," &c. If, indeed, as here asserted, the Prussian assumed the Roman sovereign as his model, the effort of imitation was of short endurance; though, how long the imperial prototype would have continued to be the examplar of perfection, "the delicia humani generis," cannot now be determined; for the first years even of Nero, when yet controled by Burrus and Seneca, were not without commendation; while, from the profligacy of his youth, Dio-Cassius scruples not to pronounce the brief duration of his empire favorable to the memory of Titus. And so, likewise, was it viewed by the poet Ausonius: "Felix imperio, felix brevitate regendi." 1 A noble act of Titus, perhaps the most creditable to his fame, and not inferior, for forbearance and selfconquest, to that of Augustus towards Cinna, as related by Seneca, De Clementia, cap. ix. and dramatised by Corneille, (Gent. Mag. for Jan. 1842, p. 34,) will be found in Suetonius, cap. ix. It forms the subject of one of Metastasio's finest productions, "La Clemenza di Tito," as the loves of Titus and Berenice furnished to Racine the plot of his tragedy under the title of this Jewish Princess. Among the triumphant efforts of Mozart's genius will ever be prominently placed the music of Metastasio's opera, first executed in 1791, as the great master's life was at its ebb, while his spirit flowed in fulness of power. But little sympathy, in truth, can be traced between Titus and Frederick, in the rule or policy of their minds and government, though for the belligerent monarch alone has the title of GREAT been reserved; a title which, with its exciting recollections, and arrogant inspirations of their own invincibility, notwithstanding their humiliating repulse from France in 1792, contributed, in no small degree, to the easy overthrow of the Prussians in 1806. So, likewise, remarked Goëthe, from personal observation, as we are informed by Eckerman in his "Gespräche," under date of 25th February, 1824, when even their own bards, with Kotzebue at their head, not only sounded the trumpet, but attempted to wield the sword of war. Of such champions, however, one of their own body, the Prussian Grenadier, as from a poem with that name he was denominated, J. G. L. Gleim, the Tyrtæus of his Fatherland, had sung in a strain little flattering to poetic valor, exemplified possibly in his own person, or manifest to his experience, and seemingly sanctioned by Horace's avowal, at least in the usual, though, possibly, erroneous interpretation of the words, "relictâ non bene parmulâ." (Od. lib. ii. Ode 1.) "Sie singen laut in hohen Chor Vom Tod für's Vaterland uns vor, The amiability ascribed, in Voltaire's above-cited "La guerre est ma patrie, Mon harnois, ma maison; Et, en toute saison, Combattre, c'est ma vie." And, like Tilly, the imperial general of the "thirty years' war," his bosom appeared, if not wholly closed, little accessible to the more endearing sensibilities or softer emotions of our nature. So the following epigram, the composition, it is also supposed, of Turgot, energetically declares— “Haï du Dieu d'amour, cher au Dieu des combats, Et pas un n'en reçut la vie." The desires or capacity refused to him by nature, or impaired by accident, he little valued. "Allez," said he, (as we are told by Thiébauld, in his "Souvenirs de Vingt Ans,") to his brother, the father of his successor, whom he reproached with some military faults, "Allez, vous n'êtes bon qu'à faire des enfants." This was after his defeat at Kolin, in 1757, when, reduced to the greatest straits, he contemplated death as his sole resource against continued misfortune, and signified to the Marquis d'Argens, generally the object of his jests and humour, but here the depository of solemn thought, his determination not to survive another adverse combat. His resolution is thus expressed; for, like Ovid, no castigation could subdue his versifying rage, and, though already quoted in the article of Voltaire, its repetition may be allowed here "Pour moi, menacé du naufrage, Je dois, en affrontant l'orage, The corresponding, and probably suggestive, sentiments of Voltaire's tragic muse will here naturally occur to the reader "Lorsqu'on a tout perdu, qu'il n'y a plus d'espoir, Words, which I heard a young royalist officer in 1792, at a table d'hôte, in Avignon, most vehemently repeat, after a political altercation with the celebrated revolutionist, Dubois de Crancé, who coolly, or rather contemptuously, answered, "Mourez donc, Monsieur." The young man was proceeding to join the French Princes on the Rhine, as the peculiar division of his hair, then a distinctive mark, sufficiently proved; but the Revolution, though far from unstained, particularly in that department, (Vaucluse,) had not yet sunk into the frightful abyss of crime and blood which marked its subsequent horrors; and some freedom of discussion, certainly not without danger, still existed. An additional inadvertence of the learned lord has struck me at page 679 of his book, where he states, "that the small principality of Monaco has been under the Grimaldi family since the fourteenth century.... The Prince is Duke of Valentinois, in France, where he resides," &c. But the male branch of the Grimaldi family, it is quite certain, became extinct, at least in that primogenial line, above a century ago. The last of the name, great-grandson of Honoré, who, in 1641, had placed his principality under the protection of Louis XIII., and forfeited, in consequence, to the Spanish crown, large possessions in Naples, for which he received an equivalent territory in France, with the dukedom of Valentinois, had an only child, *On a former occasion, (vol. i., page 342, &c.,) I briefly enumerated the anterior possessors of this title, among whom was Diane de Poitiers, whose distinctive emblem, a Crescent, with the Goddess Diana, in the attire of a huntress, decorates many a noble volume in the Royal Library of VOL. II. 2 D |