THE GREAT RECRUITER.*
OF all the manias that afflict mankind the most ancient and curious is probably the mania for collecting. The victims of this craze collect pretty nearly everything, from books to shoe-buckles, and from pots to postage-stamps, bat so far as we know the only person who has made, giant-collecting the chief business of his life was Frederick William I., King of Prussia. Nature designed him for a recruiting-officer, destiny made him a Monarch. He was a Royal Sergeant Pike, a crowned hunter of men. When he came to the throne the Prussian Army was fifteen thousand strong; he raised it by fair means and foul, mostly the latter, to a strength of nearly ninety thousand, of whom the great majority were impressed. Frederick William anticipated his successors by making mili- tary service universal and compulsory. No able-bodied male was sure of his liberty for a day. Every boy, not being a cripple or a dwarf, had to wear a perpetual reminder of the fate in store for him in the shape of a regimental stock. "Even children of five years and under were enrolled as future food for powder, and their parents obliged to give security for their appearance when called for," writes Mr. Hutchinson. When these measures failed to fill up the gaps caused by deaths and desertion, the King sent emissaries abroad with orders to bring him all the likely men whom they could kidnap or cajole, and in this way there were obtained during his reign no fewer than forty thousand recruits, including giants, most of whom came from foreign parts. These men of many cubits were formed into a regiment, known variously as the Great Grenadiers, the Big Prussian Blues, the Potsdam Giants, and the Means of Grace, the last a term invented by the witty Princess Wilhelmine, daughter to the King. For the way, almost the only way, of securing his favour was to find him a long-legged recruit. "He who sends me tall soldiers," said his Majesty, "can do with me what he likes." Peter the Great of Russia, who for divers good and sufficient reasons desired to stand well with his Prussian confrere, sent him "eighty Muscovites notable for their tallness." As one good turn deserves another, he presented Peter with "a quantity of rare statuary, a priceless cabinet of amber curios, and a Dutch pleasure-yacht, said to be worth 250,000 of present-day money;" and as the four- score giants probably cost the Czar nothing beyond their travel- ling expenses, he did a very good stroke of business. Though Frederick William was as miserly as the late John Elwes, and called himself a Christian, he stuck at nothing when it was a question of adding to his gigantesque collection, and to that end spared neither expense nor trouble. All were fish who came to his net—Saxons, Austrians, Hessians, Turks, Swedes, Englishmen, Irishmen, Africans—provided they were at least 2 yards long. Some of his specimens were 7 ft.; now and then he obtained one still more prodigious. "The Saxon Cabinet Minister Wackerbarth, foreseeing the possible advantages of standing well with so near a neighbour, in 1715 despatched to Berlin a recognition of his Prussian Majesty's birthday, August 14, no less flattering than unique, since it consisted of a large bundle of tobacco leaves, two handsome Turkish pipes, and a bagful of fragrant Latakia, all committed to the hands of a seven-foot messenger, with a missive imploring the King's gracious acceptance of these trifles and the Cupid who bore them." His father-in- law, the King of England, sent him fifteen strapping Irishmen, who, it was to be presumed, were obtained by fair means. Frederic William delighted in long-legged Irishmen, also in Englishmen, when he could get them, no matter how. He had pimps and recruiting agents all over Europe, and had be known there were giants in Pata- gonia, would no doubt have despatched a man-hunting expedition to that far country. But there is nothing to show that his maniacal Majesty ever succeeded in in- veigling Scotsmen into his service. They were too canny to be caught. Irishmen were beguiled with comparative ease. A nice little douceur down, a promise of good pay, a fine uniform, plenty to eat and drink, with nothing much to do, won their generous hearts, and they went willing victims to the sacrifice, • The Romance of a Regiment being the True and Diverting Story of the Giant Grenadiers of Potsdam, how they were Caught and Held in Captivity. By J. B. Hutchinson, B A. London; Sampson Low, Marston, and Co. 'or once at Potsdam they were slaves for life. "Once a i_erenadier, always a Grenadier," said the King, and release from his service was only to be obtained by death. In the end the English Government had to intervene and put a stop to the unworthy trade of debauching and seducing his Britannic Majesty's subjects, and towards the end of his reign Frederick William found himself in very hot water on this score with several other Governments. Officers who could not show a goodly number of tall recruits at every review were "broken like glass" or sent to Spandau. "One captain at Magdeburg was obliged to give 4,000 dollars and a substantial monthly pension in exchange for the only make- shift upon whom he could lay hands,—the seventeen-year-old abnormally overgrown son of an Austrian gentleman who was not above selling the youthful prodigy into a state worse than slavery." All this cost a sight of money, naturally, but the King, who would not give his children enough to eat and bea.rndged every mouthful of food they took, was recklessly lavish in aught that concerned the gratification of his ruling passion. Anybody who brought him a big fellow, well set up, was sure of a handsome reward. He had a thousand recruiting agents scattered over Europe, and crimping giants for the Means of Grace became as lucrative a business as purveying negro slaves for the West -Indies and the Brazils. Between 1713 and 1735 the King sent abroad for foreign recruits a sum equivalent to nearly two millions sterling. James Kirkland, a strapping Irishman, stood him in £1,260 before he was safely lodged in Potsdam barracks. One tall Austrian cost £1,100; another, £719; still another, £314. 'The lion's share of these payments probably went into the pockets of pimps and procurers. On the Continent, in Germany, Holland, Poland, and Sweden, men who could not be obtained in any other fashion were kidnapped; priests were torn from the altar, tall monks who ventured out- side the walls of their monasteries were seized by armed agents of the crazy King, bound, gagged, and carried off. Where force was not possible, as in England, fraud was practised. Operations there and in Ireland were directed by Borcke, the Prussian Minister in London, one of whose understrappers was a certain Hugh Montgomery. This gentleman made it his business to obtain involuntary recruits for the "King's Own." His methods are illustrated by the sad case of William Willis, of Barford, in Bedfordshire. Strolling one day in the market-place, Willis fell in with a polite stranger who "stood treat," and produced a letter from his master, an Irish Lord, saying that he wanted, as second porter, a young fellow measuring 6 ft. 4 in. in his stockinged feet. This chanced to be exactly the yokel's height, and the terms offered, £20 a year and 14s. a week for board, being satisfactory, he agreed to accompany Mont- gotnery to London, where, on arriving, they were informed by Herr Borcke that his lordship was gone to the Hague, whither Willis went, accompanied by Kruger, another recruiting agent, who figured as the Minister's valet. At the Hague they heard that the Irish Lord had started for Berlin, and thither followed him, where Willie was handed over to the guard and taken nolen.s volens to Potsdam. At Potsdam he found one Evans, a fellow countryman, who had been inveigled in like manner with himself. These two, .making common cause, refused to take the oath of allegiance, for which they were severely bastinadoed. A few days later Kruger appeared on the parade-ground, whereupon Willis sprang out of the ranks and gave the rascal a sound thrashing. For this breach of discipline he was again bastinadoed. When these things came to the knowledge of the British Government, they endeavoured to obtain the victims' release ; but Frederick William absolutely refused to let them go, and as British troops could not very well march to Berlin, England had to pocket the affront. But prompt measures were taken to stop the further trepanning of British subjects. The Government refused to have aught more to do with Herr Borcke. Montgomery and Stroemblo, another of his agents, were punished with fine and imprison- ment, and the parents of Fitzgerald, a third agent, who bad managed to escape, were sentenced to a long term of im- prisonment for harbouring Prussian recruits. Frederick William, wild with rage, threatened terrible things, without, however, doing anything, England being beyond his reach. On the other hand, when Hanover laid some of his recruiters by the heels, he threatened to make a breakfast of it, and mobilised his army ; but as the Emperor viewed this proceed-
ing with disfavour, and his Prussian Majesty was at heart a poltroon he climbed down, and Hanover was not eaten. Holland also clapped some of his agents in limbo, on which he had a stormy interview with Ginkel, the Dutch Envoy, whom he threatened with his stick, on which Ginkel laid his hand on his sword, and the stick was incontinently dropped. The Dutchman afterwards declared that had the King struck him he would have run his Majesty through. The wonder was that neighbouring Governments tolerated his man- hunting so long as they did. But the weaker of them stood in awe of his army, the best disciplined in Europe, and the stronger, having a view to his alliance in certain eventualities, thought it well to keep on friendly terms with him ; and the King regarded as personal enemies all who interfered with his agents. It was a still greater wonder that his people did not rebel, and that his soldiers, especially his big Grenadiers, did not mutiny. Though well treated as touching pay, rations, and drink, they were severely drilled, and when they misbehaved cruelly punished. The ordinary punishments were the bastinado and running the gauntlet. The penalty of desertion was generally death, sometimes the cutting off of ears and nose, and lifelong incarceration in a fortress. Yet though many deserted, only one man of the Guard succeeded in getting away with a whole skin. Roll was called at short intervals, the giants were strictly watched and strictly guarded, and they were too remarkable by their stature to get across the frontier unob- served. The King's officers had imperative orders to seize every tall man whom they saw, whether a native or a foreigner, and once in his power their doom was sealed. Yet there were attempts at revenge. He was once wounded on parade by a Grenadier, who could not be identified; another shot a ramrod at him, which unfortunately hit some- body else. But though there was no general mutiny, nine Englishmen quartered at Frankfort-on-the-Oder, who had been enticed into the service and were not ling enough for the Prussian Blues, made a bold bid for liberty. Attacking the Guard at one of the gates, they forced their way out at the point of the bayonet, and being pursued, entrenched them- selves in a strong position, resolved to resist to the death. A fierce fight followed, and not until they had laid low a dozen of their assailants and mortally wounded an officer did the survivors, four in number, surrender on a promise of quarter. Three of them were afterwards executed by order of the King. Why such creatures as Frederick William I. are permitted to reign, either by God or man, is one of the many things that are past finding out. He must have been insane. Besides being a cruel and capricious tyrant, he was a glutton and a drunkard, and probably the craziest crank who ever wore a crown. He oppressed his subjects outrageously, treated his wife and children worse than he treated his dogs, and but for the intercession of foreign Courts, would have put his own son to death for attempting to escape from his clutches. Happily, such Sovereigns as he are no longer possible, even in Prussia, for it is hardly conceivable that. Prussians would tolerate the impish pranks of a second Great Recruiter.
Let us, in conclusion, say a word in commendation of Mr. Hatchinson's book. Though based on documents well known to students of modern history, and thus not a work of original research, it is agreeably written, and as it abounds in good stories, both amusing and interesting.
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