2. No other trait in Struensee's life denotes an ignoble scamp or vile man: his character was rather to carry frankness to the verge of effrontery and hardness.
3. On the other hand, it lay in the king's character to refuse any pecuniary favour as long as he could, but he had no idea of the value of money, so that it was as easy to obtain from him 60,000 crowns as 6,000. They had the bad faith to take his evidence in this affair, and he declared that he remembered perfectly well having only given 6,000 crowns to each of the counts; but, with his malicious mania and his hatred for Brandt, it was impossible to trust to the fidelity of his memory, or the truth of his declarations.
4. Struensee replied to the charge with a good deal of candour; that appearances, it is true, were against him, but they were deceitful; and that, as he had already confessed more faults than were needed to destroy him, he would not deny this one, if he had committed it. He persisted in this language, without variation, to the end.
Still, while Reverdil acquits the favourites of the forgery, he has no excuse for the affair itself. To obtain so large a sum from an imbecile king, who was not of a generous temper: to obtain it at a time when the Treasury was exhausted, the state loaded with debt, and when, under pretext of economy, the favourites were making hundreds of families miserable by arbitrary retrenchments, was no better than a swindle. Reverdil was the more revolted when the trial made the fact known, because he had heard Struensee and Brandt a thousand times upbraid the prodigalities of the old court, and the presents lavished on the favourites, especially Counts von Moltke and Holck. But neither of them had received so large a sum in so short a time. The former enriched himself in twenty years of constant favour, but a considerable portion of his fortune consisted of the savings of his income, when he lived cost free at court, as grand marshal: while the new favourites, after expelling everybody, had established themselves at court, without any apparent duties.
At those Hirschholm breakfasts, when only the elect were present, and the guests liked so much to talk about the old ministry, as an occasion to applaud the present saving, Reverdil frequently heard it mentioned, as an extraordinary instance of profusion, that during the king's stay at Paris, Bernstorff, aware that Count von Holck, the most extravagant of men, was on his last legs, promised him 30,000 crowns, so that he might not yield to the seductions of the French court, who wished to employ him in detaching the king from the Russian alliance. It would have been ridiculous for any other king to pay his favourite, lest he should propose absurd and dangerous acts to him; but this conduct, when recommended to Christian VII., was founded on reason, as a bounty of 30,000 crowns, at such a moment, might save the state.
In this case, at least, the form was decent: a perfectly upright minister solicited the king in favour of a third party, and the treasurer received his Majesty's orders to pay. But the gratification granted to Struensee and Brandt had an entirely different character. The same person solicited, decided, and countersigned. It was of no use for him to say that it was once for all, and for the purpose of securing an independent position. Who could answer that avidity was not augmented by enjoyment? and with what face could the same man, who forced the king to sign a decree that, henceforth, no retiring pension should exceed 1,000 crowns, secure, after six months' office, the capital of thrice as large an income? Such is the dangerous seduction of unlimited power. Struensee, before he attained it, was not only honourable, but noble and liberal, though his circumstances were exceedingly limited.
No time was lost in the trial of the accused minister, for on April 23 the Fiscal General handed in his reply to Uldall's defence.
Wiwet's Reply.
The order which his Majesty the King most graciously sent to me on March 23, commanded me to indict Count Struensee for his crimes, without mentioning in what they consisted: as I was able to learn them, however, from the examinations and questions laid before the court, I do not understand what Advocate Uldall means by his remarks, that most of the imputations against Struensee exceed that which his Majesty commanded this commission to investigate, for I believe I have a right to answer everything that the commissioners considered themselves empowered to ask.
Advocate Uldall also does me injustice when he carps at my historic account of Count Struensee's behaviour, and for trying to make him in every way ridiculous and contemptible. But Count Struensee finds my reasons in my brief. It is my duty to give an historical introduction to the facts, which are to be afterwards proved.