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. In my historical preface, I have called attention to the fact, how strange it appeared to all who are aware that a knowledge of the welfare of kingdoms cannot be acquired by whistling or dancing, when he attained the most gracious royal order and instruction of July 14, 1771, to be privy cabinet minister. From this instruction, which was communicated to the colleges, we learn that Count Struensee not only exercised a power which not even the great chancellor of the kingdom possessed in former times, but exercised it as fully as only his royal Majesty could do himself. It is true there was an appearance as if everything still depended on his Majesty's approbation; but if the matter is looked into more closely, this is only delusion and juggling. For if everything in the cabinet is decided by Count Struensee, and his orders and regulations are to have the same value as the king's commands, it is clear that if anything was issued from the cabinet which opposed existing regulations and resolutions, and that this should be returned to the cabinet for alteration, the eventual decision depended on the count himself. And what assurance was given the king and his subjects that nothing wrong would be done by the cabinet minister when he possessed the power himself to examine, defend, and approve everything he had resolved on?