Sir Lascelles Wraxall

“ Who can believe that a person who considers himself the most honourable man in the country, entertaining the best intentions for the king and the state, but who possesses no religion, and consequently can have no other intentions but the satisfaction of his desires,—that such a man should try to persuade a nation like the Danish and Norwegian that he is the man who will promote everybody's fortunes in the kingdom? ”

“ If we now ask what the facts are, by which an improper intimacy carried to extremes between the queen and Count Struensee can be proved from the evidence of the witnesses, the answer is—None. That the queen showed the count favour and confidence, cannot be denied. But who ever saw or heard that they went beyond the limits of honour? Where is the man who is able to say that the queen has broken the fidelity which she owed to her consort, or can mention a single fact which would prove the certainty of such a crime? ”

“ Some day the king will deliver himself from you, or good fortune will rid him of you, and what will then be your fate? Would it not be best for you to save your head and do your duty at the same time? To build your happiness on a solid and noble foundation, which you will then owe to your zeal, your faithfulness and attachment to your king, who will reward you with riches and honour; and the nation will not think even this an equivalent for your services. You and your present welfare depend on the caprice of a wretch who will abandon you as soon as he is above your assistance. ”

“ You, sir, are a Dane of noble extraction, beloved by our king, to whom you and your family owe so many favours, and yet you keep silence! Do you not blush? and are you not convinced in your conscience that you ought to fall the first sacrifice of such conduct, since you might have prevented it, or had, at least, a thousand opportunities to set matters to rights again? If tumult and rebellion (which God forbid) should be the consequences, whom do you think the exasperated populace would attack first? Would they not secure you first, as you are at least as culpable as Struensee? ”

“ If he turned his attention to affairs of state when he was a doctor of medicine, he was an indolent doctor, for a skilful minister of state does not spring up like a mushroom, and in that case how dared he take on himself to become physician in ordinary? But if he devoted himself to medicine, how could he desire to become the highest and sole authority in the affairs of the country? Can a man be treated mildly whose principle it is that goodness injures a country? through goodness mutual love is acquired. ”

“ The gates of Copenhagen were ordered always to stand open, so that if necessary it might be a refuge for those outside the city.
When his royal Majesty came to the capital, he drove through the streets as if flying before an enemy, so that no one might approach the king, and impart to him his well-meant thoughts.
When Count Struensee's conscience (for that is always found in a man) convinced him that his actions, judging from the value which the inhabitants of the land, high and low, attached to them, would be but badly rewarded, he resolved to venture on extremities. ”

“ My God, what a mockery of so many worthy men, who meant sincerely by the king and country! But to propose his brother as deputy of finances, and to give him 3,000 dollars so that he might not plunder the king in other ways of an equal sum, is so extraordinarily audacious and foolhardy, that it renders Count Struensee most excessively contemptible. Who could invent such motives without prostituting himself, and revealing that in such dealing no true honour was intended! ”

“ Impudence and contempt were emboldened to rise against so highly venerable a royal house. The Almighty and His word were rendered ridiculous. People strove to drive away virtue and honour, and to open a gate to immorality, seeing no shame in it, but evidently seeking honour in it. The audacity was carried so far that the authority which the nation voluntarily committed to Frederick III. and his descendants, was solely exercised by a subject, and was even about to be extended, so that the man who exercised it might be absolute. ”

“ Well may Reverdil say about this indictment that it is impossible to read anything more flat, more clumsy, or more disgusting. It is the style of a lackey amusing himself in a tavern at the expense of a man who is about to be hung. He adds: "Ought not an unhappy man who is pining in fetters to be spared insults useless to the cause? Ought not Wiwet to have reflected that he could not insult the prisoner without failing in respect to the king, who so long honoured him with his confidence, and who signed most of the orders alleged as a crime against Struensee?" ”

“ For what belief can be given to the assurance that he, if the queen thought him worthy of her confidence, should have been so daring as to misuse it in so extreme a way, and that her Majesty should have tolerated it? The honour of a private person, much more that of a queen, could not be affected by it. And how improbable it is, that such a thing should have gone on for two whole years at court, under the eyes of the king, and in the presence of so many spies? They are accusations made by a prisoner not on his oath, and are utterly destitute of probability. ”

“ As husband, he has the right of the compact on his side; as the first of his house, he is bound to guard the antiquity, supremacy, respect, honour, and purity of the Danish royal family. Who is there that is ignorant of the virtues of this exalted royal family! But, if a foreign race were grafted on the royal stem, and the descendants of lackeys were to bear the name and supremacy of the king, would not its antiquity cease, its supremacy disappear, its respect be lost, its honour be insulted, and its purity sullied? ”

“ At court you are laughed at and entertained with vain hopes; an imaginary greatness is shown you. You are treated with the empty title of Count, which will remain a monument of your want of faith, your weakness, your meanness, and your reproachful conduct. In the meantime, Struensee insults the king and the whole of the royal family, not because they have offended him, but only to show his unlimited power. He arrogates all honours to himself; he makes himself master of the kingdom, the concerns of the government, and of the king, whom he dishonours before the whole world ”

“ Everybody knows that a king should never love hypocrisy. But truth can be expressed in various ways. A truth urged in a coarse manner is an insult; an attempt to apply it sarcastically is a mockery; but when expressed with honourable straightforwardness, it is useful, and the latter is the duty of an honest subject. Count Struensee, however, was so daring as to take on himself the functions of many men. ”

“ The most honest people who have served the kingdom such a long while, and so faithfully that even envy itself could not blame them, are removed to a great distance; they are turned away in the most shameful manner if they will not fall in with the measures of this doctor of physic. As if he were afraid of their honesty, their places are filled up with wretches who know nothing of the constitution of the kingdom and the situation of affairs; who know nothing of the business annexed to their offices ”

“ 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. ”

“ I could name these persons, but the nation will do it for me; they ought to be persons acquainted with government, that they may advise according as the present situation of affairs requires: but it must not be Rantzau, or Gähler, or Von der Osten, for these three the nation equally detests, and they, therefore, would frustrate the whole design.
For God's, your king's, your country's, your family's, your own sake—consider all this well; and do not delay any longer to hasten to the assistance of your unhappy country. ”

“ When reason afterwards comes to his help, when love has become friendship, then he sees things in their true light. Now, I ask myself, what would have afforded me any consolation in this unhappy position? and have only the answer—Struensee's friendship and kind conduct towards me. The former no longer exists, for you treat me with rusticity and arrogance. No mortal man has ever before dared to behave to me in such a way. At the play table, in company and everywhere, you decide everything yourself, and are only satisfied when you have humiliated other men. ”

“ For no one will give us credit for actions which cost us no trouble, or which we undertake for our own pleasure. The satisfaction which it will cause the queen if you succeed in your task, and the unmistakable proofs of it which you have already received, will be your reward. All that you say in addition would cause me no suspicion, if I were only convinced that it merely emanated from your zealousness; but I am morally convinced that it flows from an entirely different source. Since your amour (with Frau von Holstein) , you have altered your principles, mode of thought, and views. ”

“ The royal law must so remain unchanged that Count Struensee can introduce no other form of government but that prescribed by it. The apology with which Count Struensee tries to excuse his enterprise I need not contradict, for the king cannot forgive his audacity. The honour, life, and property of the people, were entrusted to the autocracy of the descendants of Frederick III., but to no one else. Any one, therefore, who attempts to appropriate this power, offends against the reverence which he owes the king. ”

“ After ninety-two years posterity gazes with compassion on the historical picture of the royal martyr who, in the first bloom of youth, fettered through political motives to a husband, from whom all eyes were averted with feelings of anger and disgust, certainly committed no other crime than that of taking pleasure in the society of the only man who seemed her sincere friend, a man who had a heart for her connubial sufferings, who ever tried to alleviate them, and to whom alone she dared impart her wrongs. ”

“ It was very easy to heighten the merit of such conduct by comparing it with that of previous ministers; by placing in its true light that royal law by virtue of which every Danish monarch binds himself on ascending the throne not to suffer any attack on his power, and to maintain it in its integrity. It was not sufficient to say, as if en passant, that the will of the king covered the acts of Struensee's administration with an inviolable defence; he ought to have made those who attacked them feel the consequences to which they exposed themselves ”

“ Our eyes swim in tears day and night. Our souls cry for mercy to God without ceasing. But I will speak no more of this. There is but one thing that lies heavy on my mind, and that of your much afflicted mother. You know our sentiments. You know our intentions when we educated you. You remember how often and how seriously we inculcated this great truth, that godliness is profitable unto all things. ”

“ The life and health of the king, together with the welfare of the kingdom, are in your hands: act in such a manner as you can answer for before your fellow-citizens. I do not say before God, for I do not know what your idea of God may be; though I have reason to think, from what you told me once in your apartments at Christiansborg, and afterwards at Hirschholm, that your notions are not altogether what they should be. ”