No More Learning

) "the sum of 2,940
"thalers, and he has given me back the Topaz, with 60 crowns
"for my trouble. -- Berlin, 19th December 1750. " (Hitherto
in Voltaire's hand; after which Hirsch writes:) "Aprouvi, A.
Hirschel. "* And between these two lines (". . . 1750" and
"Approved. . . "), there is crushed in, as afterthought, "valued
by myself (Hirsch's self), "2,940, add 60, is 3,000. " And, in
fine, below the Hirsch signature, on what may be called the
bottom margin, there is,--1 think, avowedly Voltaire's and
subsequent, -- this: UN. b. that Hirsch's valuing of all the
"jewels"(present lot and former lot), "is, by real estimation,
"between twice and thrice too high:" of which, it is hoped,
your Lordships will take notice!
Was there ever seen such a Paper; one end of it contra-
dicting the other? Payment to M. de Voltaire, and payment
byM. . de Voltaire; with other blottings and foistings, which
print and italics will not represent! Hirsch denies he ever
signed this Paper. Is not that your writing, then: "Aprouvi,
A. Hirschel"? -- "No! " and they convict him of falsity in that
respect: the signature is his, but the Paper has been altered
since he signed it. That is what the poor dark mortal meant
to express; and in his mulish way, he has expressed into a
falsity what was in itself a truth. There is not, on candid
examination of Klein's Facsimiles and the other evidence, the
smallest doubt but Voltaire altered, added and intercalated,
* Sic: that is always his signature; "Abraham Hirschc/," so given by
Klein, while Klein and everybody call him Hirsch {Stan) , as we have done,
-- if only to save a syllable on the bad bargain.
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? CHAP. VII. ] VOLTAIRE HAS A PAINFUL JEW-LAWSUIT. 43
18th Feb. 1751.
in his own privacy, those words which we have printed in
italics; taxes, changed into taxables ("estimated at" into
"estimable at"), him for me, and so on: and above all, the now
first line of the Paper, For paymentof 3,000 thalers by me due,
and in last line, the words valued by myself, &c. , are palpable
interpolations, sheer falsifications, which Hirsch is made to
continue signing after his back is turned!
No fact is more certain; and few are sadder in the history
of M. de Voltaire. To that length has he been driven by
stress of Fortune. Nay, when the Judges, not hiding their
surprise at the form of this Document, asked, Will you swear
it is all genuine? Voltaire answered, "Yes, certainly! " --
for what will a poor man not do, in extreme stress of Fortune?
Hirsch, as a Jew, is not permitted to make oath, where a
Quasi-Christian will swear to the contrary, or he gladly would;
and might justly. The Judges, willing to prevent chance of
perjury, did not bring Voltaire to swearing, but contrived a
way to justice without that.
February 18th, 1751, The Court arrives at a conclusion.
Hirsch's Diamonds, whatever may have been written or
forged, are not, nor were, worth more than their value, think
the Judges. The Paris Bill is admitted to be Voltaire's, not
Hirsch's, continue they; -- and if Hirsch can prove that Vol-
taire has changed the Diamonds, not a likely fact, let him do
so. The rest does not concern us. And to that effect, on the
above day, runs their Sentence: "You Hirsch, shall restore
"the Paris Bill; mutual Papers to be all restored, or legally
"annihilated. Jewels to be valued by sworn Experts, and
"paid for at that price. Hirsch, if he can prove that the
"Jewels were changed, has liberty to try it, in a new Action.
"Hirsch, for falsely denying his Signature, is fined 10 thalers
"(thirty shillings), such lie being a contempt of court, what-
ever more. "
"Ha, fined, you Jew Villain! " hysterically shrieks
Voltaire: "in the wrong, weren't you, then; and fined
thirty shillings? " hysterically trying to believe, and
make others believe, that he has come off triumphant.
'Beaten my Jew, haven't I? " says he to everybody,
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? 44 THE TEN TEARS OP PEACE. [book XVI.
20th. Feb. 1751.
though inwardly well enough aware how it stands, and
that he is a Phoenix douched, and has a tremor in the
bones! Chancellor Cocceji was far from thinking it
triumphant to him. Here is a small Note of Cocceji's,
addressed to his two colleagues, Jarriges and Loper,
which has been found among the Law Papers:
"Berlin, 20th February 1751. The Herr President von
"Jarriges and Privy-Councillor Loper are hereby officially
"requested to bring the remainder of the Voltaire Sentence
"to its fulfilment: lam myself not well, and can employ my
"time much better. The Herr von Voltaire has given in a
"desperate Memorial (ein desperates Memorial) to this pur-
"port: 'I swear that what is charged to me' (believed of me)
'"in the Sentence is true; and now request to have the Jewels
"' valued. ' I have returned him this Paper, with notice that
''it must be signed by an Advocate. -- Cocceji. "*
So wrote Chancellor Cocceji, on the Saturday,
washing his hands of this sorry business. Voltaire is
ready to make desperate oath, if needful. We said
once, M. de Voltaire was not given to lying; far the
reverse. But yet, see, if you drive him into a corner
with a sword at his throat, -- alas, yes, he will lie a
little! Forgery lay still less in his habits; but he can
do a stroke that way, too (one stroke, unique in his
life, I do believe), if a wild boar, with frothy tusks, is
upon him. Tell it not in Gath, -- except for scientific
purposes! And be judicial, arithmetical, in passing
sentence on it; not shrieky, mobbish, and flying off
into the Infinite!
Berlin, of course, is loud on these matters. "The
man whom the King delighted to honour, this is he,
* Klein, 256.
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? CHAP, vn. ] VOLTAIRE HAS A PAINFUL JEW-LAWSUIT. 45
26th Feb. 1751.
then! " King Friedrich has quitted Town, some while
ago; returned to Potsdam, "January 30th. " Glad
enough, I suppose, to be out of all this unmusical
blowing of catcalls, and indecent exposure. To Voltaire
he has taken no notice; silently leaves Voltaire, in his
nook of the Berlin Schloss, till the foul business get
done. "Voltaire filoute les Juifs (picks Jew pockets),"
writes he once to Wilhelmina: "will get out of it by
some gambade (summerset)," writes he another time;
"but" * -- And takes the matter, with boundless con-
tempt, doubtless with some vexation, but with the
minimum of noise, as a Royal gentleman might. Jew
Hirsch is busy preparing for his new desperate Action;
getting together proof that the Jewels have been
changed. In proof, Jew Hirsch will be weak; but in
pleading, in public pamphlets, and keeping a winged
Apollo fluttering disastrously in such a mud-bath, Jew
Hirsch will be strong. Voltaire, "out of magnanimous
pity to him," consents next week to an Agreement.
Agreement is signed on Thursday, 26th February
1751: -- Papers all to be returned, Jewels nearly all,
except one or two, paid at Hirsch's own price. Where-
by, on the whole, as Klein computes, Voltaire lost
about 150/. ; -- elsewhere I have seen it computed at
187/. : not the least matter which. Old Hirsch has
died in the interim ("Of broken heart! " blubbers the
Son); day not known.
And, on these terms, Voltaire gets out of the busi-
ness; glad to close the intolerable rumour, at some cost
of money. For all tongues were wagging; and, in de-
fect of a Times Newspaper, it appears, there had Pam-
>> "31st December 1750" (CEuvres lie Frederk, xxvn. i. 198); "3d Feb-
ruary 1751" (id. 201). .
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? 46 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
March 1751.
phlets come out; printed Satires, bound or in broad-
side; -- sapid, exhilarative, for a season, and inter-
esting to the idle mind. Of which, Tantale en Proces
may still, for the sake of that Preface to it, be con-
sidered to have an obscure existence. And such, re-
duced to its authenticities, was the Adventure of the
Steuer-Notes. A very bad Adventure indeed; unspeak-
ably the worst that Voltaire ever tried, who had such
talent in the finance line. On which poor History is
really ashamed to have spent so much time; sorting it
into clearness, in the disgust and sorrow of her soul.
But perhaps it needed to be done. Let us hope, at
least, it may not now need to be done again. *
This is the First Act of Voltaire's Tragic-Farce at
the Court of Berlin: readers may conceive to what a
bleared frost-bitten condition it has reduced the first
Favonian efflorescence there. He considerably recovered
in the Second Act, such the indelible charm of the
Voltaire genius to Friedrich. But it is well known,
the First Act rules all the others; and here, accord-
ingly, the Third Act failed not to prove tragical. Out
of First Act into Second the following Extracts of Cor-
respondence will guide the reader, without commentary
of ours.
Voltaire, left languishing at Berlin, has fallen sick,
now that all is over; -- no doubt, in part really sick,
the unfortunate Phoenix-Peafowl, with such a tremor
* Besides the Klein, the Tantale en Proces, and the Voltaire Letters
cited above, there is (in (Euvres de Voltaire, lxiv. pp. 61-106, as Supplement
there written offhand, in the very thick of the Hirsch Affair, a considerable
set of Notes D'Arget, which might have been still more elucidative; but
are, in their present dateless topsy-turvied condition, a very wonder of
confusion to the studious reader!
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? CHAP. vn. J VOLTAIRE HAS A PAINFUL JEW-LAWSUIT. 47
March 1751.
in his bones; -- and would fain be near Friedrich and
warmth again; fain persuade the outside world that all
is sunshine with him. Voltaire's Letters to Friedrich,
if he wrote any, in this Jew time, are lost; here are
Friedrich's Answers to Two, -- one lost, which had
been written from Berlin after the Jew Affair was out
of Court; and to another (not lost) after the Jew affair
was done.
1". King Friedrich to Voltaire at Berlin.
"Potsdam, 24th February 1751.
"I was glad to receive you in my house; I esteemed your
"genius, your talents and acquirements; and I had reason to
"think that a man of your age, wearied with fencing against
"Authors, and exposing himself to the storm, came hither to
"take refuge as in a safe harbour.
"But, on arriving, you exacted of me, in a rather singular
"manner, Not to takeFrdron to write me news from Paris;
"and I had the weakness, or the complaisance, to grant you
"this', though it is not for you to decide what persons I shall
"take into my service. D'Arnaud had faults towards you;
"a generous man would have pardoned them; a vindictive
"man hunts down those whom he takes to hating. In a
"word, though to me D'Arnaud had done nothing, it was on
"your account that he had to go. You were with theRussian
"Minister, speaking of things you had no concern with"
(RussianExcellency Gross, off home lately, in sudden dudgeon,
like an angry skyrocket, nobody can guess why! *) -- "and
"it was thought I had given you Commission. "You have
"had the most villanous affair in the world with a Jew. It
"has made a frightful scandal all over Town. And that
"Steuer-Schein business is so well known in Saxony, that
"they have made grievous complaints of it to me.
"For my own share, I have preserved peace in my house
"till your arrival: and I warn you, that if you have the pas-
"sion of intriguing and caballing, you have applied to the
? Adelung, vn. 133 (about 1st December 1750).
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? 48 THE TEN TEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
March 1751.
"wrong hand. I like peaceable composed people; who do
"not put into their conduct the violent passions of Tragedy.
"In case you can resolve to live like a Philosopher, I shall be
"glad to see you: but if you abandon yourself to all the
"violences of your passions, and get into quarrels with all the
"world, you will do me no good T>y coming hither, and you
"may as well stay in Berlin. * -- F.
To which Voltaire sighing pathetically in response,
"Wrong, ah yes, your Majesty; and sick to death"
(see farther down), -- here is Friedrich's Second in
Answer:
2? . Friedrich to Voltaire again.
"Potsdam, 28th February 1751. "If you wish to come hither, you can do so. I hear nothing
"of Lawsuits, not even of yours. Since you have gained it,
"I congratulate you; and 1 am glad that this scurvy affair is
"done. I hope you will have no more quarrels, neither with
"the Old nor with the New Testament.
Such worryings (ces
"sortes de compromis) leave their mark on a man; and with
"the talents of the finest genius in France, you will not cover
"the stains which this conduct would fasten on your reputa-
tion in the long-run. A Bookseller Gosse" -- (read Jore,
your Majesty? Nobody ever heard of Gosse as an extant
quantity: Jore, of Rouen, you mean, and his celebrated Law-
suit, about printing the Henriade, or I know not what, long
since** -- "a Bookseller Jore, an Opera Fiddler" (poor
Travenol, wrong dog pincered by the ear), "and a Jeweller
"Jew, these are, of a surety, names which in no sort of busi-
"ness ought to appear by the side of yours. I write this
"Letter with the rough common-sense of a German, who
"speaks what he thinks, without employing equivocal terms,
* Preuss, xxn. 262 (wanting in the French Editions).
** Unbounded details on the Jore Case, and from 1731 to 1738, continual
Letters on it, in (Euvres de Voltaire; -- came to a head in 1736 (ib. lxix.
375); Jore penitent, 1738 [ib. I. 262), &c. &c.
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? CHAP. vn. ] VOLTAIRE IIAS A PAINFUL JEW-LAWSUIT. 49
March 1751.
"andloose assuagements which disfigure the truth: it is for
"you to profit by it. -- F. " *
So that Voltaire will have to languish: "Wrong,
yes; -- and sick, nigh dead, your Majesty! Ah, could
not one get to some Country Lodge near you, 'the
Marquisat,' for instance? Live silent there, and see
your face sometimes? "** Languishing very much; --
gives cosy little dinners, however. Here are two other
Excerpts; and these will suffice:
Voltaire to Formey ("Berlin Palace;" datable, first days of
March ): "Will you, Monsieur, come and eat the King's roast
"meat (rot du Roi), to-day, Thursday, at two o'clock, in a
"philosophic, warm, and comfortable manner (philosophique-
"ment, et chaudement, et doucement). A couple of philosophers,
"without being courtiers, may dine in the Palace of aPhilo-
"sopher-King: I should even take the liberty of sending one
"of his Majesty's Carriages for you, -- at two precise. After
"dinner, you would be at hand for your Academy meet-
"ing. "*** -- V. How cosy! --And King Friedrich has re-
lented, too; grants me the Marquisat; can refuse me no-
thing!
Voltaire to D'Argental (Potsdam, 15th March 1751"). * *
"I could not accompany our Chamberlain" (Von Ammon,
gone as Envoy to Paris, on a small matter j-), "through the
* (Euvres de Frederic, xxn. 265.
** In (Euvres de Frederic, (xxu. 259-261, 263-266) are Four lamenting
and repenting, wheedling and ultimately whining, Letters from Voltaire,
none of them dated, which have much about "my dreadful state of health,"
my passion "for reposing in that Marquisat" &c. ; -- to one of which Four,
or perhaps to the whole together, the above No. 2 of Friedrich seems to
have been Answer. Of that indisputable "Marquisat" no Nicolai says a
word; even careful Preuss passes " Gosse" and it with shut lips.
**? Formey, i. 234. f "Commercial Treaty;" which he got done. See Longchamp, if any
one is curious otherwise about this Gentleman: "D'Hamon," they call
Carlyle, Frederick the Great, IX. 4
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? 50 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
March 1751.
"muds and the snows, -- where I should have been buried;
"I was ill," and had to go to the Marquisat. "D'Arnaudand
"the pack of Scribblers would have been too glad. D'Arnaud,
"animated with the true love of glory, and not yet grown
"sufficiently illustrious by his own immortal Works, has done
"one of that kind," -- by his behaviour here. Has behaved
to me -- oh, like a miserable, envious, intriguing, lying little
scoundrel; and made Berlin too hot for him: seduced Tinois
my Clerk, stole bits of the Pucelle (brief sight of bits, for
Prince Henri's sake) to ruin me.
"D'Arnaud sent his lies to Fre'ron for the Paris meridian"
(that is his real crime); "delightful news from canaille to
"canaille: 'How Voltaire had lost a great Lawsuit, respect-
"' able Jew Banker cheated by Voltaire; that Voltaire was
'"disgraced by the King,' who of course loves Jews; 'that
'"Voltaire was ruined; was ill; nay at last, that Voltaire
"'was dead. '" To the joy of Freron, and the scoundrels
that are printing one's Pucelle.
"Voltaire is still in life, however, my angels; and the
"King has been so good to me in my sickness, I should be the
"ungratefullest of men if I didn't still pass some months with
"him. When he left Berlin" (30th January, six weeks ago),
"and I was too ill to follow him, I was the sole animal of my
"species whom he lodged in his Palace there" (what a beauti-
ful bit of colour to lay on! ) -- "Heleft me equipages, cooks
"et cetera; and his mules and horses carted out my temporary
"furniture (meubles de passade) to a delicious House of his,
"close by Potsdam" (Marquisat to wit, where I now stretch
myself at ease; Niece Denis coming to live with me there, --
talks of coming, if my angels knew it), -- "and he has re-
"served for me a charming apartment in his Palace of Pots-
"dam, where I pass a part of the week.
"And, on close view, I still admire this Unique G-enius;
"and he deigns to communicate himself to me; -- and if
"I were not 300 leagues from you, and had a little health,
him, and sometimes 'Damon? --to whom Niece Denis wanted to be Phyllis,
according to Longchanip.
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? CHAP. VII. ] VOLTAIRE HAS A PAINFUL JEW-LAWSUIT. 51
March 1751.
"I should be the happiest of men. "f * * Oh my
angels --
And, in short, better or worse, my Second Act is begun,
as you perceive! -- And certain readers will be apt to
look in again, before all is over.
* (Euvres de Voltaire, lxxiv. 320.
4*
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? 52 THE TEN YEARS OP PEACE. [BOOK XVI.
April--July 1751.
CHAPTER VIII.
OST-FRIESLAND AND THE SHIPPING INTERESTS.
Two Foreign Events, following on the heel of the
Hirsch Lawsuit, were of interest to our Berlin friends,
though not now of much to us or anybody. April 5th,
1751, the old King of Sweden, Landgraf of Hessen
Cassel, died; whereby not only our friend Wilhelm, the
managing Landgraf, becomes Landgraf indeed (if he
should ever turn up on us again), but Princess Ulrique
is henceforth Queen of Sweden, her Husband the new
King. No doubt a welcome event to Princess Ulrique,
the high brave-minded Lady; but which proved intrin-
sically an empty one, not to say worse than empty, to
herself and her friends, in times following. Friedrich's
connexion with Sweden, which he had been tightening
lately by a Treaty of Alliance, came in the long-run
to nothing for him, on the Swedish side; and on the
Russian, has already created umbrages, kindled abstruse
suspicions, indignations, -- Russian Excellency Gross,
abruptly, at Berlin, demanding horses not long since,
and posting home without other leave-taking, to the
surprise of mankind; -- Russian Czarina evidently in
the sullens against Friedrich, this long while; dull im-
penetrable clouds of anger lodging yonder, boding
him no good. All which the Accession of Queen
Ulrique will rather tend to aggravate than otherwise. *
* Adclung, vn. 205 (Accession of Adolf Friedrich); ib. 133 (Oross's
sadden Departure).
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? chAp, vra. 1 OST-FKIESLAND. 53
April--July 1751.
The Second Foreign Event is English, about a
week prior in date, and is of still less moment: March
31st, 1751, Prince Fred, the Royal Heir Apparent, has
suddenly died. Had been ill, more or less, for an
eight days past; was now thought better, though "still
coughing, and bringing up phlegm," -- when, on "Wed-
nesday night between nine and ten," in some lengthier
fit of that kind, he clapt his hand on his breast; and
the terrified valet heard him say, "Je suis mortl" --
and before his poor Wife could run forward with a
light, he lay verily dead. * The Rising Sun in Eng-
land is vanished, then. Yes; and with him his Moons,
and considerable moony workings, and slushings hither
and thither, which they have occasioned, in the muddy
tide-currents of that Constitutional Country. Without
interest to us here: or indeed elsewhere,-- except per-
haps that our dear Wilhelmina would hear of it; and
have her sad reflexions and reminiscences awakened
by it; sad and many-voiced, perhaps of an almost dole-
ful nature, being on a sick-bed at this time, poor Lady.
She quitted Berlin months ago, as we observed, -- her
farewell Letter to Friedrich, written from the first
stage homewards, and melodious as the voice of sor-
rowful true hearts to us and him, dates "November
24th," just while Voltaire (whom she always likes, and
in a beautiful way protects, "Frere Voltaire," as she
calls him) was despatching Hirsch on that ill-omened
Predatory ASWer-Mission. Her Brother is in real alarm
for Wilhelmina, about this time; sending out Cothenius
his chief Doctor, and the like: but our dear Princess
reemerges from her eclipse; and we shall see her again,
several times, if we be lucky.
* Walpole, George the Second, i. 71.
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? 54 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
31st May 1751.
And so poor Fred is ended; -- and sulky people
ask, in their cruel way, "Why not? " A poor dissolute,
flabby fellow-creature; with a sad destiny, and a sadly
conspicuous too. Could write Madrigals; be set to
make Opposition cabals. Read this sudden Epitaph in
doggerel; an uncommonly successful Piece of its kind;
which is now his main monument with posterity. The
"Brother" (hero of Culloden), the "Sister" (Amelia,
our Friedrich's first love, now growing gossipy and
spiteful, poor Princess), are old friends:
'Here lies Prince Fred, 'Had it been his Sister,
'Who was alive and is dead: * There's no one would have missed her;
'Had it been his Father, 'Had it been his whole generation,
'I had much rather; 'Best of all for the Nation:
'Had it been his Brother, 'But since it's only Fred,
'Sooner than any other; 'There's no more to be said. ' *
Friedrich visits Ost-Friesland.
A thing of more importance to us, two months
after that catastrophe in London, is Friedrich's first
Visit to Ost-Friesland. May 31st, having done his
Berlin-Potsdam Reviews and other current affairs, Fried-
rich sets out on this Excursion. "With Ost-Friesland
for goal, but much business by the way. Towards
Magdeburg, and a short visit to the Brunswick Kindred,
first of all. There is much reviewing in the Magde-
burg quarter, and thereafter in the Wesel; and re-
viewing and visiting all along: through Minden, Biel-
feld, Lingen: not till July 13th, does he cross the
Ost-Friesland Border, and enter Embden. His three
Brothers, and Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick were
* Walpole, I. 436.
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? CHAP. vm. ] THE SHIPPING INTERESTS. 55
13th-16th July 1751.
with him. * On catching view of Ost-Friesland Border,
see, on the Border-Line, what an Arch got on its feet:
Triumphal Arch, of frondent ornaments, inscriptions
and insignia; "of quite extraordinary magnificence-," Arch which "sets every one into the agreeablest ad-
miration. " Above a hundred such Arches spanned the
road at different points; multitudinous enthusiasm re-
verently escorting, "more than 20,000" by count; till
we enter Embden; where all is cannon-salvo, and three-
times-three; the thunder-shots continuing, "above 2,000
"of them from the walls, not to speak of response from
"the ships in harbour. " Embden glad enough, as
would appear, and Ost-Friesland glad enough, to see
their new King. July 13th, 1751; after waiting above
six years.
Next day, his Majesty gave audience to the new
"Asiatic Shipping Company" (of which anon), to the
Stande, and Magisterial persons; -- with many ques-
tions, I doubt not, about your new embankments, new
improvements, prospects; there being much procedure
that way, in all manner of kinds, since the new Dynasty
came in, now six years ago. Embankments on your
River, wide spaces changed from ooze to meadow; on
the Dollart still more, which has lain 500 years hidden
from the sun. Does any reader know the Dollart?
Ost-Friesland has awakened to wonderful new indus-
tries within these six years; urged and guided by the
new King, who has great things in view for it, besides
what are in actual progress.
That of dikes, sea-embankments, for example; to
* Helden- Geschichte, ra. 506; Seyfarth, n. 145; llodenbeck, i. 216 (who
gives a foolish German myth, of Voltaire's being passed off for the King's
Baboon, &c. ; Voltaire not being there at all).
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:31 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijh Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 56 THE TEN YEARS OF PEACE. [book XVI.
13th-16th July 1751.
Ost-Friesland, as to Holland, they are the first condi-
tion of existence; and, in the past times, of extreme
Parliamentary vitality, have been slipping a good deal
out of repair. Ems River, in those flat rainy countries,
has ploughed out for itself a very wide embouchure, as
boundary between Groningen and Ost-Friesland.
Muddy Ems, bickering with the German Ocean, does
not forget to act, if Parliamentary Commissioners do.
These dikes, 120 miles of dike, mainly along both
banks of this muddy Ems River, are now water-tight
again, to the comfort of flax and clover: and this is
but one item of the diking now on foot. Readers do
not know the Dollart, that uppermost round gulf, not
far from Embden itself, in the waste embouchure of
Ems with its continents of mud and tide. Five hun-
dred years ago, that ugly whirl of muddy surf, 100
square miles in area, was a fruitful field, "50 Villages
"upon it, one Town, several Monasteries, and 50,000
"souls:" till on Christmas midnight, A. d. 1277, the
winds and the storm-rains having got to their height,
Ocean and Ems did, "about midnight," undermine the
place, folded it over like a friable bed-quilt, or mon-
strous doomed griddle-cake, and swallowed it all away.
Most of it, they say, that night, the whole of it within
ten years coming;* -- and there it has hung, like an
unlovely goitre at the throat of Embden, ever since.
One little dot of an Island, with six houses on it, near
the Embden shore, is all that is left. Where probably
his Majesty landed (July 15th, being in a Yacht that
day); but did not see, afar off, the "sunk steeple-top,"
which is fabled to be visible at low-water.
* BUsching, Erdbeschreibung, v.