politics of Berlin have continued to remain in _statu quo_; how
much more occupied they are in enumerating the follies and
disgraces of Austria, than in adapting their own conduct to any
wise system or any liberal principles, and how little applicable
are the measures which they take, either to the danger which they
fear, or to the hopes which they entertain. Their fear of France
is, however, not dissembled by them, and certainly is not affected
by them; it engrosses all their attention, and furnishes to them
great and constant disquietude in the present, and serious
apprehension for the future. But as there is no man of leading and
commanding talents enough to show them the greatness of their
danger, and to provoke from the public the adequate means of
resisting it, there is nothing done by the Government, and they are
living on from day to day, conscious of all they have to fear, but
destitute of energy and activity, and submitting to a state of
things which could only be produced by the most extreme weakness
and incapacity; for you will certainly have remarked that the
little influence which Prussia exercises, either from her hopes or
fears, in Europe, is not owing to the defeat of any great and
ambitious projects, is not to be attributed to the disappointment
of any great plans, civil or military, but to a total absence of
any leading and governing talents in those who direct the measures
which prevail here.

It has been the fashion, I know, to consider the influencing men
here as having views and principles of a bad description, and as
being engaged in a systematic course of conduct pursued by them
with great address and dissimulation. It is perhaps presumptuous in
a stranger, as I am, to trust to any opinion formed upon so short a
residence amongst them, but if I am sure of anything, I tell myself
I may be sure that the miserable policy which is seen here is very
much more weak than wicked, and the wretched state of Government
much more to be attributed to the absence of great talents than the
influence of deep and dangerous designs. Whatever be the cause, the
effect is the same; and although it seems to be a pretty universal
opinion that Prussia must and will at length be driven into war,
they are content rather to let their enemy choose that