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146 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY...
The minifters were dazzled, like the Elector, with outfide fhew and fplendour; they
wanted to give themfelves airs of confequence, and embarked in enterprizes to which
the impoverifhed {tate of the country was not equal; the refult was, that they got into
a confufion which prevented them from knowing either their own ftrength, or that of
the other powers they had to contend with. Univerfal diflipation produced falfehood,
treachery, and every other vice; the moft important pofts were fold or given to flattery
and intrigue ; one was made a privy-counfellor, becaufe he danced well, and another a
general, becaufe he could blow the flute. I need not add, that women are ultimately
the grand movers of the politics of fuch a court.
It is generally agreed on, that the EleGtor himfelf loved fhew and expence more than
he did women; but the fcandalous chronicle of his court goes beyond all that has ever
been heard of the kind, and his love of fhew encouraged, at lea(t, if it did not produce,.
the diffolutenefs of his fubjects. Amidft the intoxication of profperity, the minifter
adopted a plan of operations it was impoflible he fhould fee the end of, and which left
him at the difcretion of the more powerful monarch, with whom he entered into a
league againft a dangerous neighbour. This was probably one of the moft impolitic
treaties which hiftory has to recount. The Saxons entered into an alliance with Ruffia,
which was fo formidable to Poland; they attached themfelves to Auftria, which without
them was ftronger than the King of Pruflia; and they endeavoured to weaken the
power of this laft named monarch, who was able to maintain the balance of power in
Germany. In all thefe three things they broke through the firft maxim of a nation,
which is in the midft of others, never to take the part of the f{trongeft, but always that
of the weakeft. | A minifter whofe preparatives were fo weak, could not be expected
to do much when he came to action. ‘Ihe King of Pruilia fell upon the country as.
Charles XII, had fallen upon Poland, under Auguftus the Second. The army, which
was feventeen thoufand men ftrong, and which was expected to do fuch mighty things,
furrendered without ftriking a ftroke, and no wonder, for fome of the colonels were
eunuchs.
This total rout by degrees waked the genius of Saxony from his flumbers ;. all the
gentry of the country, excepting only the creatures of the minifter, were in a flame 5
and now there was a chorus of creditors and complainants of ail orders, who made a
horrid diffonance with the Bacchanalian revels of former days.
All the world gave the couatry over for loft, nor could it have been faved but for
the free courfe given to the extraordinary {pirit of frugality and induftry, which marks
the people ; and for a minifter, who was as aCtive and pairiotic as the other had been
diflolute and cowardly. In one of my future letters I will give you an exact account of
the prefent itace of the country.
One of the wonders which makes the moft noife here, is the celebrated green vault,
or private treafury in the electoral palace. You would naturally mmagine they would
be fhy of fhewing it to ftrangers, till what was carried to, Holland and feld there during
the laft Silefian war was replaced; no fuch thing, they made no difficulties whatever;
but the man who fhewed it me, and two Ruffian noblemen in my company, aflured me,
that things were exa@ly in atu quo. The collection, afterall, is ftill admirable; I am
however of opinion, that the treafures of Vienna and Munich are but little inferior 5.
andI am much deceived, if thofe of fome cathedrals I haye feen are not fully equals.
The picture gallery, the collection of antiques, the prints, and the collection of natural
hiftory, are much greater objects of curiofity, in my eyes, than the green vault. ; The
_ picture gallery is the moft remarkable in Europe; befides the pictures m/water-colours,
it contains twelve hundred. pieces of the beft mafters,. Amongft them is the famous
Eg birth.
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