round, with a sudden new thought,
"No, we will not have our WILL done; it shall be the other way, the way
it WAS,--now that we bethink ourselves, after all this fighting for our
will!" And make Peace on those terms, as if no war had been; and accuse
the great Marlborough of many things, of theft for one. A wonderful
People; and in their Continental Politics (which indeed consist chiefly
of Subsidies) thrice wonderful. So the Treaty of Utrecht is transacting
itself; which that of Rastadt, on the part of Kaiser and Empire,
unable to get on without Subsidies, will have to follow: and after
such quantities of powder burnt, and courageous lives wasted, general
AS-YOU-WERE is the result arrived at.

Old Friedrich's Ambassadors are present at Utrecht, jangling and
pleading among the rest; at Berlin too the despatch of business goes
lumbering on; but what thing, in the shape of business, at Utrecht or at
Berlin, is of much importance to the old man? Seems as if Europe itself
were waxing dim, and sinking to stupid sleep,--as we, in our poor royal
person, full surely are. A Crown has been achieved, and diamond buttons
worth 1,500 pounds apiece; but what is a Crown, and what are buttons,
after all?--I suppose the tattle and SINGERIES of little Wilhelmina,
whom he would spend whole days with; this and occasional visits to a
young Fritzchen's cradle, who is thriving moderately, and will speak
and do aperies one day,--are his main solacements in the days that are
passing. Much of this Friedrich's life has gone off like the smoke of
fire-works, has faded sorrowfully, and proved phantasmal. Here is an old
Autograph Note, written by him at the side of that Cradle, and
touching on a slight event there; which, as it connects two venerable
Correspondents and their Seventeenth Century with a grand Phenomenon of
the Eighteenth, we will insert here. The old King addresses his older
Mother-in-law, famed Electress Sophie of Hanover, in these terms
(spelling corrected):--

"CHARLOTTENBURG, den 30 August, 1712.

"Ew. Churf. Durchlaucht werden sich zweifelsohne mit uns
erfreuen, dass der kleine Printz (PRINZ) Fritz nuhnmero (NUNMEHR) 6
Zehne (ZAHNE) hat und ohne die geringste incommoditet (-TAT). Daraus
kann man auch die PREDESTINATION sehen, dass alle seine Bruder haben
daran sterben mussen, dieser aber bekommt sie ohne Muhe wie seine
Schwester. Gott erhalte ihn uns noch lange zum trohst (TROST), in dessen
Schutz ich dieselbe ergebe und lebe