should be paid
in good coin, lest, for bad money, he should give him bad flutes. Royal
architecture is not always fortunate. It is observed that Louis XIV.
built his famous Versailles in a swampy hollow, when he had the noble
terrace of St Germain before him. Frederick built his Sans-Souci in a
marshy meadow, while he had a fine hill within sight. Unhappily _we_
have but little to boast of in the location of our modern palaces. The
site of Buckingham Palace seems to have been chosen with no other object
than to discover which was the superior annoyance, the smoke of
steam-engines or the vapours of a swamp; and this was chosen with one of
the finest possible situations within half a mile of it, in the centre
of Hyde Park. Her Majesty's palace at Brighton has been located with
exactly the same curious perversion of taste; the hills to the north of
that very handsome town offering one of the noblest situations that can
be conceived--a fine land view, and an unobstructed sweep of the ocean:
but the evil genius of building prevailed, and the palace is fixed in a
gloomy bottom, from which it can be overlooked by every body, and from
which nothing can be seen. Frederick, though sometimes superb in his
expenses, was habitually penurious. He seems to have thought that war
was the only thing on which it was worth his while to spend money. The
salaries of his gentlemen and attendants were all on the narrowest
scale. Lord Malmesbury observes that even the Prince of Dessau's
marriage, at which he was present, exhibited this penury. All the
apartments, except those immediately used for supper or cards, were
lighted with a single candle. The supper had no dessert; the wines were
bad; their quantity stinted. On his asking, after dancing, for some wine
and water, he was answered--"the wine is all gone, but you may have some
tea;" and this was a peculiarly distinguished party. He saw the king
himself directing the servants in lighting up the ball-room, and telling
them where to put the candles. Whilst this operation was performing, the
queen, the royal family, and the company, were waiting literally in the
dark; as the king did not begin this ceremony till supper was finished,
and no one dared to give orders to have it done. Frederick, when a young
man, was intended for the husband of a British princess. This was a
match of his mother's construction. But the old king, who hated George
II., threatened to cut off his son's head for his presu