aithfully provided a Crown-Prince
Palace at Berlin; all trimmed and furnished, for occasional residences
there; the late "Government House" (originally SCHOMBERG House),
new-built,--which is, to this day, one of the distinguished Palaces
of Berlin. Princess-Royal had Schonhausen given her; a pleasant Royal
Mansion some miles out of Berlin, on the Ruppin side. Furthermore, the
Prince-Royal, being now a wedded man, has, as is customary in such case,
a special AMT (Government District) set apart for his support; the "Amt
of Ruppin," where his business lies. What the exact revenues of Ruppin
are, is not communicated; but we can justly fear they were far too
frugal,--and excused the underhand borrowing, which is evident enough
as a painful shadow in the Prince's life henceforth. He does not seem to
have been wasteful; but he borrows all round, under sevenfold secrecy,
from benevolent Courts, from Austria, Russia, England: and the only
pleasant certainty we notice in such painful business is, that, on his
Accession, he pays with exactitude,--sends his Uncle George of England,
for example, the complete amount in rouleaus of new coin, by the first
courier that goes. [Despatch (of adjacent date) in the State-Paper
Office here.]
A thought too frugal, his Prussian Majesty; but he means to be kind,
bountiful; and occasionally launches out into handsome munificence.
This very Autumn, hearing that the Crown-Prince and his Princess fancied
Reinsberg; an old Castle in their Amt Ruppin, some miles north
of them,--his Majesty, without word spoken, straightway purchased
Reinsberg, Schloss and Territory, from the owner; gave it to his
Crown-Prince, and gave him money to new-build it according to his mind.
[23d Oct. 1733-16th March, 1734 (Preuss, i. 75).] Which the Crown-Prince
did with much interest, under very wise architectural advice, for the
next three years; then went into it, to reside;--yet did not cease
new-building, improving, artistically adorning, till it became in all
points the image of his taste.
A really handsome princely kind of residence, that of Reinsberg:--got up
with a thrift that most of all astonishes us. In which improved locality
we shall by and by look in upon him again. For the present we must to
Warsaw, where tragedies and troubles are in the wind, which turn out to
be not quite without importance to the Crown-Prince and us.
Chapter VIII. -- KING AUGUST DIES; AND POLAND TAKES FIRE.
Meanwhile, over a
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