ajesty was so ill advised as to despatch General Knobelsdorff as his
extra representative, to assist at Napoleon's coronation, a degradation
of lawful sovereignty to which even the Court of Naples, though
surrounded with our troops, refused to subscribe; and, so late as last
June, the same Knobelsdorff did, in the name of his Prince, the honours
at the reviews near Magdeburg, to all the generals of our army in Hanover
who chose to attend there. On this occasion the King lodged in a
farmhouse, the Queen in the house of the curate of Koestelith, while our
sans-culotte officers, Bernadotte & Co., were quartered and treated in
style at the castle of Putzbull, fitted up for their accommodation. This
was certainly very hospitable, and very civil, but it was neither prudent
nor politic. Upstarts, experiencing such a reception from Princes, are
convinced that they are dreaded, because they know that they have not
merit to be esteemed.

Do not confound this Knobelsdorff with the late Field-marshal of that
name, who, in 1796, answered to a request which our then Ambassador at
Berlin (Abbe Sieges) had made to be introduced to him, NON ET SANS
PHRASE, the very words this regicide used when he sat in judgment on his
King, and voted LA MORT ET SANS PHRASE. This Knobelsdorff is a very
different character. He pretends to be equally conspicuous in the
Cabinet as in the field, in the boudoir as in the study. A
demi-philosopher, a demi-savant, a demi-gallant and a demi-politician,
constitute, all taken together, nothing except an insignificant courtier.
I do not know whether he was among those Prussian officers who, in 1798,
CRIED when it was inserted in the public prints that the Grand Bonaparte
had been killed in an insurrection at Cairo, but of this I am certain,
that were Knobelsdorff to survive Napoleon the First, none of His
Imperial Majesty's own dutiful subjects would mourn him more sincerely
than this subject of the King of Prussia. He is said to possess a great
share of the confidence of his King, who has already employed him in
several diplomatic missions. The principal and most requisite qualities
in a negotiator are political information, inviolable fidelity,
penetrating but unbiased judgment, a dignified firmness, and
condescending manners. I have not been often enough in the society of
General Knobelsdorff to assert whether nature and education have destined
him to illumine or to cloud the Prussian monarchy.

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