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Mr. Pitt faid he certainly would introduce a regulation relative to public teagardens, &c. by raising the price of the licence, or by fome other way. As to the circumftance of the hofpitals, they did not enter into his calculations, and therefore would make for, and not against them.

Sir Peter Burrell obferved, that if a gentleman was to be charged for two houfes, he could not in fairnels be charged with full confumptiion of tea in both houfes; but as he might refide fometimes in one houfe, and fometimes in the other, he might be fuppofed to confume one half of his tea in one, the other half in the other; but if he fhould be fuppofed to confume as much as if both houfes were at one and the fame time inhabited by equally numerous families, he would then be a lofer, and not a gainer by the new regulation.

Mr. Pitt fet the hon. member right on this head; and he fhewed him, that even upon his own ftatement, he would be a gainer by it: he would fuppofe the moft extreme cafe; that a gentleman Thould have one houfe with 180 windows, and another with 60: the number of perfons in both, might be eftimated together at 50; thefe would confume, one with another, four pounds of tea, the grofs duty on which would be 471.: now the new duty on the 180 windows would be ol. and on the 60, feven pounds: fo that even in this extreme cafe, there would be a faving of 201.

Mr. Huey approved of the principle of the plan; but he doubted the grounds on which the right hon. Gentleman had refted his calculations; but of that he would fpeak when the bills that fhould be brought in, should get into the Com

mittee.

Mr. Dempfter faid the plan was good in as much as it would relieve thofe who drink tea, by the taking off a heavy, and laying on a light tax: but it would be a hardship on thofe who do not drink tea; for the plan would lay upon them a new tax, without taking an old one away. He wished that fome means might be devifed for fettling this plan according to the value of the houfes, and not according to the number of windows, for there were a great many very poor houses, particularly in Scotland, that had as many windows, as houfes of twenty times their 'value in London. The people of Scot-land would therefore be fufferers on this head, as well as by making them compound for drinking their tea cheap, when it was

very well known that great numbers of them never tafte tea.

Mr. Rofe faid, there could not be a more unfatisfactory mode of estimating the quantum to be paid by any one towards the new tax, than by the value of houfes; he could inform the honourable Member, that the Scotch would have very little caufe to complain, as they at prefent pay no more than 3000l. towards the house tax, upon which the new one will be in a great measure modelled.

The refolutions were at length put and carried.

It was then moved and carried, that the feafon being fo far advanced, no more election petitions be tried this feffion after the petition for Hereford, which stands the third from the Bedfordshire petition, for which there is to be a ballot to-morrow. The Houfe adjourned at half past seven.

HOUSE of LORD S.

Tuesday, June 22.

No debate. Adjourned to Friday.
HOUSE of COMMONS.
Tuesday, June 22.

Agreed to the report of the Committee
on the window and tea duties.
Charles Phipps Esq. took his feat for
Minehead.

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Lord Mulgrave for the Petitioner. Right Hon. Thomas Pelham for the fitting member.

Mr. Orde Secretary to the lord lieutenant of Ireland moved for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the poftage of letters from perfons in office, between the two kingdoms. Agreed to.

BRIDGEWATER PETITION.

Mr. Fox informed the Houfe that he was authorized, by the different petitio ners against the return for Bridgewater, to afk leave of the Houfe to withdraw their feveral petitions: and gave notice that it would be debated on Monday.

The Houfe adjourned at half after four o'clock. Memoirs

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF VOLTAIRE.

Taken from the French Work, written by himself.

N the year 1733 I met with a young lady who happened to think nearly as I did, and who took a refolution to go with me and fpend feveral years in the country, there to cultivate her underftanding, far from the hurry and tumult of the world.

This lady was no other than the Marchionefs de Chatelet, who, of all the women in France, had a mind the moft capable of the different branches of fcience. Her father, the Baron de Breutil, had taught her latin, which fhe understood as perfectly as Madame Dacier. She knew by rote the most beautiful paffages in Horace, Virgil, and Lucretius, and all the philofophical works of Cicero were familiar to her. Her inclinations were more strongly bent towards the mathematics and metaphyfics than any other ftudies, and feldom have there been united in the fame perfon fo much juftness of difcernment, and elegance of tafte, with fo ardent a defire of information.

Yet notwithstanding her love of literature, fhe was not the lefs fond of the world, and thofe amufements which were adapted to her fex and age; the how ever, determined to quit them all, and go and bury herself at Carey, an old ruinous chateau, upon the borders of Champagne and Lorraine, and fituated in a barren and unhealthy foil. This old chateau the ornamented, and embellished it with tolerably pretty gardens; I built a gallery, and formed a very good collection of natural hiftory: add to which, we had a liberary not badly furnished.

We were vifited by feveral of the learned, who came to philofophize in our retreat among others we had the celebrated Koenig for two entire years, who has fince died Profeffor at the Hague, and Librarian to her Highnefs the Princefs of Orange. Maupertuis came alfo, with John Bernouilli; and there it was that Maupertuis, who was born the most jealous of all human beings, made me the object of a paffion which has ever been to him exceedingly dear.

I taught English to Madame du Chatelet, who, in about three months, understood it as well as I did, and read Newton, Locke, and Pope, with equal eafe. She learnt Italian likewife as foon. We read all the works of Taffo and Ariofto together, fo that when Algarotti came to Cirey, where he finished his Vol. VI. June 1784.

Neutonianifmo per le Dame, [The Ladies found her fufciently skilful

in his own language to give him fome very excellent information by which he profited. Algarotti was a Venetian, the fon of a very rich tradefman, and very amiable; he travelled all over Europe, knew a little of every thing, and gave to every thing a grace.

In this our delightful retreat we fought only inftruction, and troubled not our. felves concerning what paffed in the rest of the world.

It was there I compofed Alzire, Merope, l'Enfant Prodigue, and Mahomet. For her ufe I wrote an Effay on Universal Hiftory, from the age of Charlemagne to the prefent. I chose the epocha of Charlemagne, because it was the point of time which Boffuet ftopped at, and because I durft not again treat a fubject already handled by fo great a mafter.

Madame du Chatelet, however, was far from fatisfied with the Univerfal Hiftory of this prelate; fhe thought it eloquent only, and was provoked to find that the labours of Boffuet were all wafted upon a nation fo despicable as the Jewish.

In the year 1740, the unpolished King of Pruffia, Frederic-William*, the most intolerant of all kings, and beyond contradiction the most frugal, and the richest in ready money, died at Berlin. His fon, who has fince gained fo fingular a kind of reputation, had then held a tolerably regular correfpondence with me for above four years. The world never perhaps beheld a father and fon who lefs refembled each other than these two monarchs.

The father was an absolute Vandal, who thought of no other thing during his whole reign, than amaffing of money, and maintaing, at the leaft poffible expence, the finest foldiers in Europe. Never were fubjects poorer, or king more rich. He bought up at a defpicable price the eftates of a great part of the nobility, who foon devoured the little money they got for them, above half of which returned to the royal coffers by means of the duties upon confumption. All the king's lands were farmed out to taxgatherers, who held the double office of excifeman and judge; infomuch, that if a landed tenant did not pay this collector

Father to the prefent king of Prufa. upon

3 M

558 Voltaire's Account of the late King of Pruffia; intended Elopement

upon the very day appointed, he put on his Judge's robe, and condemned the delinquent in double the fum. It must be obferved, that if this fame excifeman and judge did not pay the king by the laft day of the month, the day following he was himfelf obliged to pay double to the king. Did a man kill a hare or lop a tree any where near the royal domains, or commit any other peccadillo? he was inftantly condemned to pay a fine. Was a poor girl found guilty of making a child? the father or the mother, or fome other of the girl's relations, were obliged to pay his Majefty for the fashion.

The Baronnefs of Kniphauffen, who at that time was the richest widow in Berlin, that is to fay, fhe had between three and four hundred a year, was accufed of having brought one of the king's fubjects clandeftinely into the world in the fecond year of her widowhood. His Majefty thereupon wrote her a letter, with his own hand, wherein he informed her it was neceflary, if he meant to fave her honour, and preferve her character, the muft immediately fend him thirty thousand livres (1250l.) This fum the was obliged to borrow, and was ruined.

He had an ambailador at the Hague, whose name was Luifius; and certainly of all the ambaladors that appertained to royalty, he was paid the woft. This poor man, that he might be able to keep a fire, had cut down fome trees in the garden of Hous-lardick, which then appertained to the Royal-houfe of Pruffia. His next difpatches brought him word that the king, his gracious Sovereign, had ftopped on this account a year's falary to defray his damages, and Luinius, in a fit of despair, cut his throat with the only razor he had. An old valet, happening to come in, called affiftance, and unhappily for him faved his life. I afterwards met with his excellency at the Hague, and gave him alms at a gate of the Palace, which is called the Old Court, and which belonged to the King of Pruffia, where this poor ambaffador had lived twelve years.

Turkey it must be confeffed is a republic, when compared to the defpotifin exercifed by this Frederic-William.

It was by fuch like means, only, that he could in a reign of twenty-eight years load the cellars of his Palace at Berlin with a hundred and twenty millions of crowns (fifteen millions ferling), all well cafked up in barrels, hooped with iron.

The Monarch ufed to walk from his

Palace cloathed in an old blue coat, with copper buttons, halfway down his thighs, and when he bought a new one, thefe buttons were made to ferve again. It was in this drets that his Majefty, armed with a huge ferjeant's cane, marched forth every day to review his regiment of giants. Thefe giants were his greatest delight, and the things for which he went to the heaviest expence.

The men who stood in the first rank of this regiment were none of them less than feven feet high, and he fent to purchase them from the farther parts of Europe to the borders of Afia. I have seen some of them fince his death.

After Frederic-William had reviewed his giants, he ufed to walk through the town, and every body fled before him full fpeed. If he happened to meet a woman, he would demand why the staid idling her time in the streets, and exclaim, Go-get home with you, you lazy huffy; an honefi woman has no business over the threshold of her own door; which remonstrance he would accompany with a hearty box on the ear, a kick in the groin, or a few well applied ftrokes on the fhoulders with his cane.

The holy minifters of the gofpel were treated alfo exactly in the fame style, if they happened to take a fancy to come upon the parade.

We may cafily imagine, what would be the aftonifhment and vexation of a Vandal like this, to find he had a fon endowed with wit, grace, and good breed. ing; who delighted to pleafe, was eager in the acquifition of knowledge, and who made verles, and afterwards fet them to mufic. If he caught him with a book in his hand, he threw it in the fire; or playing on the flute, he broke his inftrument; and fometimes treated his Royal Highness, as he treated the ladies and the preachers when he met with them on the parade.

The Prince, weary of the attentions of fo kind a father, determined one fine morning, in 1730, to elope, without well knowing whether he would fly to France or England.

Two young gentlemen, both very amiable, one named Kat, the other Keit, were to accompany him. Kat was the only son of a brave general officer, and Keit had married the daughter of the fame baronnets of Kniphauffen, who had paid the ten thousand crowns about the child-making bufinefs before mentioned. The day and hour were appointed; the father was informed of the whole affair,

and

of his Son the prefent King, and the Punishment inflicted on him. 559

and the Prince and his two travelling companions were all three put under an arreft.

The King believed at firft, that the Princefs Wilhelmina, his daughter, who was afterwards married to the Prince Margrave of Bareith, was concerned in the plot and as he was remarkable for difpatch in the executive branch of justice, he proceeded to kick her out of a large window, which opened from the floor to the ceiling. The Queen-Mother, who was prefent at this exploit, with great difficulty faved her, by catching hold of her petticoats at the moment the was making her leap. The Princefs received a contufion on her left breaft, which remained with her during life, as a paternal affection, and which fhe did me the honour to thew me.

The Prince had a fort of miftrefs, the daughter of a school-matter of the town of Brandebourg, who had fettled at Potzdam. This girl played tolerably ill upon the harpsichord, and the Prince accompanied her with the flute. The King, his father, thought proper that the damfel should make the tour of Potzdam, conducted by the hangman, and ordered her to be whipped in prefence of his fon.

After he had regaled him with this diverting fpectacle, he mude a transfer of him to the citadel of Cuftrin, which was fituated in the midst of a marfh. Here he was fhut up, without a fingle fervant, for the fpace of fix months, in a fort of dungeon, at the end of which time he was allowed a foldier as an attendant.

The Prince had been fome weeks in his palace at Cuftrin, when one day an old officer, followed by four grenadiers, immediately entered his chamber, melted in tears. Frederic had no doubt he was going to be made a head fhorter, but the officer ftill weeping, ordered the grenadiers to take him to the window, and hold his head out of it, that he might be obliged to look on the execution of his friend Kat, upon a scaffold exprefsly built there for that purpofe. He faw, fetched out his hand, and fainted. The father was prefent at this exhibition, as he had been at that of the girl's whipping-bout.

Keit, the other confidant, had escaped and fled into Holland, whither the King difpatched his military meflengers to feize him. He escaped merely by a minute, embarked for Portugal, and there remained till the death of the most clement Freedric-William.

It was not the King's intention to have ftopped there; his defign was to have be

headed the Prince. He confidered that he had three other fons, not one of whom wrote verfes, and that they were fufficient to fuftain the Pruffian grandeur. Meafures had been already concerted to make him fuffer, as the Czarovitz, eldest fon to Peter the Great, had done before.

The Emperor Charles the Sixth, however, pretended that the Prince Royal, as a Prince of the Empire, could not fuffer condemnation but in a full diet; and fent the Count de Sekendorf to the father, in order to make very ferious remonftrances on that fubject.

The Count de Sekendorf, whom I have fince known in Saxony, where he lives retired, has declared to me, it was with very great difficulty indeed, that he could prevail with the King not to behead the Prince. This is the fame Sekendorf who has commanded the armies of Bavaria, and of whom the Prince, when he came to the throne, drew a hideous portrait, in the hiftory of his father.

After eighteen months imprifonment, the folicitations of the Emperor, and the tears of the Queen, obtained the Prince his liberty; and he immediately began to make verfes, and write mufic more than ever. He employed his leilure in writing to thofe men of letters in France, who were fomething known in the world. Thefe letters were fome in verfe, and others were treatifes of metaphyfics, hiftory, and politics. He treated me as a fomething divine, and I him as a Solomon. Epithets coft us nothing.

Had I been inclined to indulge perfonal hopes, I had great reafon fo to do; for my Prince always called me his dear friend, in his letters, and poke frequently of the folid marks of friendship which he defigned for me as foon as he should mount the throne.

The throne at laft was mounted, while I was at Brufels, and he began his reign by fending an amballador extraordinary to France; one Camas, who had loft an arm, formerly a French refugee, and then an officer in the Pruffian army. He faid that, as there was a Minifter from the French court at Berlin, who had but one hand, he, that he might acquit himfelf of all obligation towards the Moft Chriftian King, had fent him an ambassdor with only one arm.

My Solomon was then at Strafbourg: the whim had taken him while he was vifiting his long and narrow land, which extends from Guelders to the Baltic octan that he would come incognito to view the

frontiers

frontiers and troops of France. This pleasure he enjoyed at Strafbourg, where he went by the name of Count du Four, a Lord of Bohemia. His brother, the Prince Royal, who was with him, had alfo his travelling title; and Algaroti, who already had attached himself to him, was the only one who went unmasked.

From Strafbourg he went to vifit his territories in the Lower Germany, and fent me word he would come incognito to fee me at Bruffels. We prepared elegant apartments for him in the little Chateau de Meufe, two leagues from Cleves.

Maupertius, who had already formed his plan, having the mania of becoming prefident of an academy upon him, had prefented himself, and was lodged with Algaroti and Keizerling in one of the garrets in the palace. One foldier was the only guard I found. The Privy-Counfellor and Minifter of State, Rambonet, was walking in the court-yard, blowing his fingers. He had on a pair of large, dirty, coarfe ruffles, a hat all in holes, and an old judge's wig, one fide of which hung into his pocket, and the other fcarcely touched his fhoulder. They informed me, this man was charged with a ftate affair of great importance, and fo indeed he was.

I was conducted into his Majefty's apartment, in which I found nothing but four bare walls. By the light of a bougie, I perceived a fmall truckle bed, of two feet and a half wide, in a clofet, upon which lay a little man, wrapped up in a morning gown of blue cloth. It was his Majefty, who lay fweating and fhaking, beneath a beggarly coverlet, in a violent ague fit. I made my bow, and began my acquaintance by feeling his pulfe, as if I had been his firft phyfician.

The fit left him, and he rofe, dreffed himfelf, and fat down to table with Algaroti, Keizerling, Maupertuis, the Ambaffador to the States-General, and my felf. While we were at fupper, we treated moft profoundly on the immortality of the foul, natural liberty, and the androgines of Plato.

While we were thus philofophizing upon freedom, the Privy-Counfeller Rambonent, was mounted upon a post-horse, and riding all night towards Liege, at the gates of which he arrived the next day, where he proclaimed, with found of trumpet, the name of the King his mafter, while two thousand foldiers from Vefel, was laying the city of Liege under contribution. The pretext for this pretty expe

dition was certain rights, which his Majefty pretended to have over the fuburbs. It was to me he committed the task of drawing up the manifefto, which I performed as well as the nature of the cafe would let me; never fufpecting that a King, with whom I fupped, and who called me his friend, could poffibly be in the wrong. The affair was foon brought to a conclufion, by the payment of a million of livres, which he exacted in good hard ducats.

I foon felt myself attached to him, for he had wit, an agreeable manner, and was moreover, a King; which is a circumftance of feduction hardly to be vanquifhed by human weakncfs. Generally fpeaking, it is the employment of men of letters to flatter Kings; but in this inftance, I was praifed by a King, from the crown of my head to the fole of my foot.

Some time before the death of his father, the King of Pruffia thought proper to write against the principles of Machiavel. Had Machiavel had a Prince for a pupil, the very first thing he would have advised him to do, would have been fo to write. The Prince Royal, however, was not mafter of fo much fineffe; he really meant what he writ; but it was before he was a King, and while his father gave him no great reafon to fall in love with defpotic power.

I could not help feeling fome remorse, at being concerned in printing this AntiMachiavelian book, at the very moment the King of Pruffia, who had a hundred millions in his coffers, was robbing the poor people at Liege of another, by the hands of the Privy-Counsellor Rainbonet.

While I was in Holland, occupied in this bufinefs, Charles the Sixth died, in the month of October, 1740, of an indigeftion, occafioned by eating champignons, which brought on an apoplexy, and this place of champignons changed the destiny of Europe. It was prefently evident, that Frederic the third, King of Pruffia, was not fo great an enemy to Machiavel as the Prince Royal appeared to

have been.

He had already affembled his troops, yet not one of his generals or minifters could penetrate into his designs.

I had more reafon than any person to fuppofe that he meant to espouse the Queen of Hungary's party; for three months before, he had fent me a political differtation after his manner, wherein he confidered France as the natural enemy and depredator of Germany. But it was

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