The troops were drawn up in one line along the summits of some hills. From this situation they descended over very unequal and rough ground, firing in grand divisions all the way, till they came to the plain, where they went through various evolutions. But as we were to set out in a little time for Berlin, where the grand reviews of that garrison are to take place, I shall say no more on the subject of reviews till then.
Our mornings, since we came hither, have always been passed with the troops in the field. The forenoons we have spent in looking at every thing curious in the town. The houses are built of a fine white free-stone, almost all of them new, and nearly of the same height. The streets are regular and well paved, and there are some very magnificent public buildings; so that Potsdam has every requisite to form an agreeable town, if by that word is meant the streets, stone-walls, and external appearance. But if a more complex idea be annexed to the word, and if it be thought to comprehend the finishing, furniture, and conveniencies within the houses, in that case Potsdam is a very poor town indeed.
The King having expressed a great inclination to see this town increase, several monied people built houses, partly to pay their court to his Majesty, and partly because, by letting them, they found they would receive very good interest for their money. But as the town did not augment so quickly as he wished, his Majesty ordered several streets to be built at once, at his own expence. This immediately sunk the value of houses, and the first builders found they had disposed of their money very injudiciously.
Towns generally are formed by degrees, as the inhabitants increase in numbers; and houses are built larger and more commodious as they increase in riches; for men’s ideas of conveniency enlarge with their wealth. But here the matter is reversed: the houses are reared in the first place, in hopes that their fair outsides, like the nymphs of Circe, will allure travellers, and attract inhabitants. Hitherto their power of attraction has not been strong; for few towns are worse inhabited than Potsdam, though the houses are let to merchants and trades-people at very small rents.
I was not a little surprised, while I walked through the town, to see buff-belts, breeches and waistcoats, hanging to dry from the genteelest looking houses, till I was informed, that each housekeeper has two or more soldiers quartered in his house, and their apartments are, for the most part, on the first floor, with windows to the street; which I am told is also the case at Berlin. The King chooses that his soldiers should be quartered with the citizens, rather than in barracks. This ought to be a sufficient answer to those military gentlemen, who insist on building barracks for the soldiers in Britain, upon the supposition, that our army cannot be well disciplined without them. For it could scarcely be expected, or wished, that the British army were under more rigid discipline than the Prussian.
I imagine the Prussian soldiers are quartered in private houses rather than barracks, from considerations diametrically opposite to those which produce the same effect in England.—The British parliament have always shown an aversion to lodging the military in barracks, and have preferred quartering them in the citizens’ houses, that a connection and good-will may be cultivated between the soldiers and their fellow-citizens; and that the former may not consider themselves as a distinct body of men, with a separate interest from the rest of the community, and whose duty it is implicitly to obey the will of the crown at all times, and upon all occasions.
Whereas here it may not be thought expedient, to lodge great bodies of armed men together in barracks, lest they should, during the night, form combinations destructive of discipline, and dangerous to government. This cannot happen in the day-time, because then the officers are present, and the soldiers are not allowed even to speak to each other when under arms; and while off duty, their time is wholly filled up in cleaning their arms, accoutrements, and clothes, and preparing for the next guard.—I imagine these may be part, at least, of the reasons which induce the King of Prussia to prefer quartering his men in private houses; for in all other respects, lodging them together in barracks would be more convenient, and more agreeable to the genius of his government.
The palace at Potsdam, or what they call the castle, is a very noble building, with magnificent gardens adjacent. I shall not trouble you with a description of either, only it struck me as a thing rather uncommon in a palace, to find the study by far the finest apartment in it. The ornaments of this are of massy silver. The writing-desk, the embellishments of the table, and the accommodations for the books, were all in fine taste.