Equally improbable is the other charge that I entertained designs against the king's person. With every one prejudiced against me, without a party, even hated by the public, how could I have formed the idea of undertaking such a thing? and if I had formed it, how could I take such bad measures? All my security consisted in the person of the king and his authority. Whose authority could have been substituted for that of the king? The regulations which aroused suspicion were hardly sufficient to check the disturbances and a revolt of the populace if such had broken out; and it would have been quite impossible to carry out a plan which must displease the people. At least, there is no political probability in all this that such an idea existed. And what moral reason could arouse suspicion against those persons, who must necessarily have been acquainted with it, that they would have been capable of forming such a detestable resolution? A careful investigation, on the contrary, will prove the excellent sentiments all my friends entertained for the king's person. I do not deny that measures were taken to check any violent attacks of the people; and I do not believe that a government would be justified in allowing changes in its administration to be effected by such means.
If everything which I have said conscientiously and in accordance with the truth about the intentions and motives of my actions be carefully examined, more political faults and moral errors will be found in my conduct than crimes worthy of punishment. Those persons who knew me, and watched me closely, can judge and bear witness how far I have spoken the truth. If I had sought money and personal distinctions, my situation afforded much easier ways of acquiring them than the one I selected. The desire of making my fortune was a more remote impulse, and I merely wished to owe it to the services I rendered the king. My readiness to carry out whatever the king desired, and his Majesty's willingness to accept my advice, cannot justify me, but they serve as my excuse, even if, through my error, evil results for the king's interest were produced by them.
I appeal to the memory and feeling of the king whether the changes I carried out or occasioned produced an unpleasant impression on his Majesty, and I know of no disorders which originated from them. For the dissatisfaction of individuals is of no effect in this matter. It was ever my opinion that I owed the king alone an account of my actions, and it was easy to explain them to the king as the affairs came so repeatedly before him. Not a trace will be found that I wished to exercise an influence over the representations of the departments, or give a false appearance to affairs, as in my time every deputy of a college was allowed to give his vote. The first changes occurred in the vicinity of the king, and it would certainly not have been wise to begin with the council and the court, if his Majesty's conviction, will, and assent, had not agreed with it. No one was prevented from attending court but Count Laurvig; nor was any one sent from Copenhagen with orders not to return; or any dismissed minister prevented from having an audience of the king.
All those persons whom I knew to have lost their liberty through their employment about the king's person, or who were forbidden to reside in Copenhagen, were liberated on my representations. No private cause was ever decided or protected by the cabinet. Count Rantzau's affair with the agent Bodenhoff will prove how little influence friendship had. If, in custom-house disputes, in royal contracts, and in cases which were clear, the royal resolution was carried out on the representation of a college, any man who considered himself injured by it was at liberty to seek justice in the ordinary course. I do not believe that in this any inclination to despotism will be found. Despotism, in my opinion, consists in the king deciding about the rights, liberties, fortunes, and lives of his subjects arbitrarily, without examination, and without regard to established forms. Those royal officials who were dismissed through the changes received pensions, and would have the first claim to vacancies. If any one was dismissed from a college for proved negligence, unfaithfulness, or other offences, I did not believe that a judicial process was requisite, which could only take place if he deserved further punishment; and every man was at liberty to defend himself legally, if injustice had been dealt to him by the college.
I have the following remarks to make about the education of the crown prince. I derived the principles on which it was established from the king's wishes, and the queen desired and herself carried them out. The crown prince, when the system was commenced, had a weak constitution, a tendency to rickets, a great deal of obstinacy, continually cried, would not walk alone, but must always be carried, attached himself to certain persons, would not play by himself, but must have people to sing and dance to him, and had been taught a certain fear of the queen, as his nurses used to threaten that his mamma would come if he were not good. In order to prevent all this, the following means were employed:—his royal highness only had simple food given him, gruel, bread, water, rice, milk, and afterwards potatoes, but all cold. At first, he was bathed twice or thrice a day in cold water, and at last went daily into his bath of his own accord. Last winter, he remained in a cold room when he was not with the queen, was only lightly clad, and went nearly the whole of the previous winter without shoes or stockings. He was allowed to do everything that he could effect with his own strength, but when he cried or obstinately desired anything which was not absolutely necessary, it was not given him, but he did not, on that account, receive any punishment, scolding, or threats; on the other hand, he was never pacified by soothing. He played alone with his companion, and no distinction was made between them, and they helped one another at meals and in undressing. They climbed, broke, and did what they pleased, but everything with which they might hurt themselves was kept from them. They generally remained alone, even in the dark. If they hurt themselves they were not pitied, and if they quarrelled, they made it up between themselves, for the lackeys were forbidden speaking or playing with them. The prince's education was to begin in his sixth or seventh year. Up to that time it was considered sufficient to allow his ideas and abilities to be developed by habit and experience. The result has been, that the crown prince's constitution is now as strong and good as might be naturally expected. His royal highness has never been ill, except in a few trifling cases; he got over the inoculation for the small-pox with the greatest ease; he knows the use and employment of his limbs, as is suited to his age; he dresses and undresses himself, can go up and down stairs without assistance, and knows how to guard himself from injury. He has none of that timidity which arises from repeated warnings, is not shy in society, obstinate, or capricious. If mental knowledge, or a morality which is based on assumed customs, is left out of the question, little will be missed in the prince royal, which can be demanded from a child of five years of age. If it is advantageous that a prince should have his first education in common with that of all other men, that he should acquire the strength which such a ripe training produces, that he should know how to do little matters for himself, without growing accustomed to be dependent on others; that he should not at too early an age learn the external insignia of his rank, which might render him lax in his duties, or imbue him with a vanity which would have eventually to be checked by moral principles; and if, lastly, that mode of education is the best in early years which is nearest to the natural one, I believe that the one applied to the crown prince will not be considered absurd. The only punishment inflicted on him was that he had no breakfast, or was left by himself in a room if he was naughty.
As regards the alleged forgery of the document to prove the receipt of the 60,000 dollars from the king, I declare most sacredly that I intended no fraud in drawing it up, and was not guilty of forgery; that, before his Majesty signed the document, I wrote the whole account in his presence, and that I expressly asked the king for 50,000 dollars for Count Brandt and for myself, and his Majesty granted them; and that I could not notice at this time, nor when he signed the document, the slightest disinclination on the part of the king to our receiving such a sum. With the same certainty I can declare that everything which this memoir contains relating to the motives and inducements of my actions, and the occurrences in which I took part, has been most conscientiously recorded by me, as well as my memory enabled me to recall it. This was not the place to speak about morality, hence I shall not be suspected of having wished to bring forward anything in my excuse in this respect.
Postscript.
Perhaps it will not be superfluous to add an accurate and definite explanation of my sentiments with regard to the Russian alliance. I was ever of opinion that the king ought to maintain it, and although I was not at first so convinced as I afterwards was of the advantage of the Holstein negociation, still my advice was not to listen to any other propositions in this matter, and to carefully avoid arousing any suspicion of the sort at the Russian court. The insinuations and opinions of others, especially of Count Rantzau, produced but slight impression on me, and much less did I follow them. They were to the effect that we ought not to trust solely to the Russian court, but draw nearer to others, especially the Swedish.