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 Icapable 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 yon refuse to pronounce 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 (CASSIRT), 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 (ININTEGRUM RESTITUIRT).
"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 passage 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, entitled BALANCEDE 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 DESANS-SOUCI (Comedy or farce, of I know not what year); Andrieux, LEMOULIN DE SANS-SOUCI ("Poem," at INSTITUT NATIONAL 15 GERMINAL, AN5), &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 cashierment of the wigged Gentlemen, and imprisonment till their full term ran.
