I appeal to the memory and feeling of the king whether the changes I carried out or occasioned produced an unpleasant impression on his Majesty, and I know of no disorders which originated from them. For the dissatisfaction of individuals is of no effect in this matter. It was ever my opinion that I owed the king alone an account of my actions, and it was easy to explain them to the king as the affairs came so repeatedly before him. Not a trace will be found that I wished to exercise an influence over the representations of the departments, or give a false appearance to affairs, as in my time every deputy of a college was allowed to give his vote. The first changes occurred in the vicinity of the king, and it would certainly not have been wise to begin with the council and the court, if his Majesty's conviction, will, and assent, had not agreed with it. No one was prevented from attending court but Count Laurvig; nor was any one sent from Copenhagen with orders not to return; or any dismissed minister prevented from having an audience of the king. All those persons whom I knew to have lost their liberty through their employment about the king's person, or who were forbidden to reside in Copenhagen, were liberated on my representations. No private cause was ever decided or protected by the cabinet. Count Rantzau's affair with the agent Bodenhoff will prove how little influence friendship had. If, in custom-house disputes, in royal contracts, and in cases which were clear, the royal resolution was carried out on the representation of a college, any man who considered himself injured by it was at liberty to seek justice in the ordinary course. I do not believe that in this any inclination to despotism will be found. Despotism, in my opinion, consists in the king deciding about the rights, liberties, fortunes, and lives of his subjects arbitrarily, without examination, and without regard to established forms. Those royal officials who were dismissed through the changes received pensions, and would have the first claim to vacancies. If any one was dismissed from a college for proved negligence, unfaithfulness, or other offences, I did not believe that a judicial process was requisite, which could only take place if he deserved further punishment; and every man was at liberty to defend himself legally, if injustice had been dealt to him by the college.