you will be answerable for the consequences. He commits crimes and assassinations, and he does it to retain the reins of government; but you contribute your share by obeying the orders of this Cromwell, who is ready to sacrifice the life of the king a thousand times over, if possible, so that he may obtain his wicked ends, and provide for his own security. Instead of acquainting the king with things which nobody knows better than you (for you are cunning enough when it concerns your own interest), you assist this Diedrich Slagheck[9] in arrogating to himself royal authority; in keeping his master under guardianship; in degrading him in the eyes of his subjects, that their love may cease, or at least decrease; and, lastly, as every one says, "in using him personally ill in the bargain." You who can prevent all this and save the king from the hands of this good-for-nothing wretch, and yet are not willing to do it--you, sir, are accountable for it, and deserve greater punishment than the traitor himself; and believe me, as sure as that there is a God, you sooner or later shall pay for it with your head. You see how preposterously business is managed; everything is overthrown and jumbled together in the strangest manner and blended with the highest inconsiderateness, of which there is no parallel instance to be met with in history. 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; in short, people of whom nobody so much as dreamed that they were acquainted even with the first principles of the art of government. For God's sake! what is the meaning that an Oeder and a Struensee, professor of mathematics at Liegnitz, are placed at the head of the board of finances? These men enjoy an annual salary of 3,000 rix dollars, while others who have served forty and fifty years without blame, are now starving, because they could not betray the king and their country, and would not be employed in promoting bad and destructive ends. Yet these ignorant men dare to take on their shoulders a burden under which, particularly in these unhappy times, a man of courage, ability, and experience, would have trembled. However, the wise man knows the danger, and therefore will not hazard the welfare of the nation and his good character, but the ignorant man, who has nothing to lose, does not perceive the unhappy consequences of his inability and ignorance.