Having now, Sir, gone through the Royal Family, I shall speak of their fine country, which I believe produces more to its sovereign than any other district of land of the same size in Europe. The last grant of the Diet of Saxony was between eight and nine millions of dollars (each dollar exactly three shillings and sixpence English money) per annum for nine years; yet ’tis likely that the whole may be anticipated and spent in five, and then the King calls a new Diet, and gets fresh supplies, so that ’tis not possible to say exactly what the King’s revenues are; but everybody must see that they are very large, and how the people will continue such payments begins to be a question. It is certain this country grows daily poorer, which is very visible by the decay of Leipsick fair. Everybody agrees that the last Easter fair was not half so good as it used to be; and this fair is the touchstone of the trade and money in this Electorate. The loss and expenses their own bad politics have drawn them into during this war have been very great; and the visit the King of Prussia made to Dresden was very expensive to this country; but above all, the visible decay of their linens and tinned iron manufactures (which England has been wise enough not to want any longer in such great quantities from foreign countries,) is a blow that is felt more severely than can be expressed. The Stier Bills, which are the funds here, and which always used to bear a premium, are now at 5 and 6 per cent. discount, and ’tis very difficult to negotiate them even at that price, though they carry 5 per cent. interest. I have been offered some, whose principal is due at Michaelmas, 1748, at 7 per cent. discount. This being so, you see that their credit is exhausted, and that they would hardly be able to borrow under 10 per cent.; and yet they must take up money, or their Army will mutiny, for their officers are most of ’em twelve or fifteen months in arrear. In the midst of all these difficulties the Court has squandered away above 200,000l. sterling at the late double marriages; given 100,000l. sterling for the Duke of Modena’s gallery of pictures; and Count Bruhl alone cannot spend so little as 60,000l. sterling a year. The pensions also that the King gives in Poland exceed the revenues he receives from thence by full 50,000l. per annum.
It is now necessary I should say something of the person to whom the King commits the entire care of this country. Count Bruhl is originally of a good family, but as he was a Page to the late King, so he had the education of a Page. His natural parts, without being very good, are certainly better than any other person’s I have hitherto conversed with at this Court. He was employed by the late King in high employments, but never touched the zenith of power till after the fall of Monsieur Sulkowsky, who was his predecessor in the present King’s favour. Sulkowsky lost it by absenting himself from the King’s person to make campaigns in Hungary and upon the Rhine. As Count Bruhl profited by this false step of Sulkowsky, he is resolved no person shall ever have such an advantage over him. He is never absent from the King’s person, and he pays the closest attention to every thing his Majesty says or does, though he himself is naturally very idle. His every day is passed in the following manner: he rises before six in the morning, then Father Guerini comes to him to talk upon business, and to read over whatever letters they receive, and then they send such of them as they please to the Privy Council; but if anybody comes in, business is laid aside, and he is very ready to talk upon indifferent matters. Afterwards he dresses, which takes up above an hour, and he is obliged to be with the King before nine. He stays with him till his Majesty goes to mass, which he does exactly at eleven; and then Count Bruhl goes to the Countess Moyenska, where he stays till twelve; from thence he goes either to dinner with the King, or to his own house, with a few of the lowest and worst people of this Court.
After dinner he undresses and goes to sleep till five, when Father Guerini comes and sits with him while he dresses, and at six he goes again to the King, with whom he stays till after seven; from thence he goes to some assembly, where he plays at cards very deep, the Countess Moyenska being always of the party, who plays very well, and wins considerable sums of the Count; rather before ten he sits down to supper, and from thence he goes to bed about twelve.
Now as everything of the kind, from the highest affairs of state down to operas and hunting, are all in Count Bruhl’s immediate care, I leave you to judge how his post is executed, by the time he takes to do business in. His expenses are immense. He keeps three hundred servants and as many horses. His house is in extreme bad taste and extravagance. He has, at least, a dozen country seats, where he is always building and altering, but which he never sees. It is said, and I believe it, that he takes money for everything the King disposes of in Poland, where they frequently have very great employments to bestow. Everybody here reckons that he is not sincere, but for my own part I have as yet no great reason to think so. He is very communicative to me, and very patient to hear whatever I have to say. He is certainly not an ill-natured man, having never done a hard or cruel thing to any person that I heard of since he has been in power. He is very vain, and a little flattery is absolutely necessary for those who intend being well with him; and my notion of the duty of a Foreign Minister is, that after serving his master to the utmost of his power and ability, he ought to make himself as agreeable as possible at the Court he is sent to. From this way of thinking, I have endeavoured to cultivate the King of Poland and his Minister as much as possible, because a time may come when my being well with this Court may be of some small service to the King my master.
Count Bruhl is polite, civil, and very ready to oblige, and, after the first ceremonies are over, without any forms. If he has any principle in politics, ’tis certainly favourable to the House of Austria. That, indeed, is not much, but it is more than any other person has that belongs to this Court, and whenever he falls we shall fall into worse hands. He has been very negligent of support at Court, having never, during his long Administration, made himself one friend of any great consequence. The clamours now against him are very high, for the two reasons of the fall of the Stier Bills, and the non-payment of the Army. The man that heads these complaints, and whom ’tis possible his Majesty may remember to have seen at Hanover, is one Count Linard, a Saxon, whom I take to be thoroughly in the French interests. He has but moderate parts, and very little literature, but in Saxon learning he is very deep. He rides, shoots, and dances better than anybody here, and by these accomplishments he has got himself into a good degree of the King’s favour, and flatters himself that whenever the Minister falls, he is the man that is to succeed him. I know he has been contriving to get a body of officers to throw themselves at the King’s feet to complain of Count Bruhl, and to demand their pay. By means of a spy that I had at Court I discovered this affair, and told Count Bruhl of it. He owned things were as I said, and added, that he did not expect nor deserve such usage from Count Linard; but two days afterwards he told me that my information was very true, and that he had taken such measures upon it as would perfectly secure him. I have since had the misfortune to lose my spy, who is fled for having got a woman with child, he being a married man, and adultery in this country is punished with death.
The next person I shall speak of is father Guerini, a Jesuit, who is more in the King’s favour than in any credit. He has been long in the service, and is now kept, like an old horse, for what he has formerly done. He is Count Bruhl’s absolute creature, and has his confidence. He is perpetually with the King and Queen, and constantly employed in making up some quarrel among the singers and dancers. If he ever had any parts, they were gone before I came; but he is a good, trifling old man, and, though a priest, has no ambition. He has twice refused a Cardinal’s hat; and the last time, which was not above half a year ago, the King pressed him to it very much, but in vain. I go to him very often; for he often comes out with things that he is trusted with, and which I am sure he ought not to tell.
The next person to Count Bruhl in business is one Heinnech, a low man, who once wore a livery, though he now wears the Blue Riband of Russia. He talks no French, and we converse in Latin; but Monsieur Heinnech has so quarrelled with all moods and tenses, numbers and cases, that it is with difficulty I understand him. If I guess right at what he says to me, he is very ignorant of the affairs I talk about. He is Chef des finances; and it is said that Count Bruhl and he know so many had things of each other with respect to the disposal of public money, that it is impossible they should ever quarrel. He is the Minister’s right hand for domestic affairs, as Mr. Saul is for foreign ones, who in that province does everything. He is also a very low man; but he has parts, quickness, and knowledge without the least appearance of fashion or manners of a gentleman. There is not a man in Saxony that does not detest him, except his patron, Count Bruhl, to whom he is certainly very useful. Heinnech went so far once as to propose in the Privy Council to hang him. He has very strange schemes in his head; he is certainly for the House of Austria, but in a manner peculiar to himself; for he wishes to see that House strictly united with that of Bourbon, and believes that a[93] practicable business. He is secretary to the Cabinet Council, in conjunction with Mr. Walter, who is a very honest knowing man, well-intentioned, and quite in the true system, but at present hardly employed at all, to our great misfortune.
These persons govern under Count Bruhl, as the Countess Moyenska does over him—
... orbi
Jupiter imponit jura, sed illa Jovi.