luxury, was maintained by Frederick as long as he lived. The following account, likewise from Voltaire, will give an idea of his manner of living. He rose at 5 A. M. in summer, and 6 in winter. A lacquey came to light his fire, and dress and shave him; though indeed he almost wholly dressed himself. His room was not inelegant. A rich balustrade of silver, ornamented with little cupids, seemed to enclose an alcove bed, the curtains of which were visible; but behind them, instead of a bed, there was a library; the king slept on a truckle bed with a slight mattress concealed behind a screen. Marcus Aurelius and Julian, those apostles of Stoicism, did not sleep in a more homely manner. At seven his prime minister arrived with a great bundle of papers under his arm. This prime minister was no other than a clerk, who had formerly been a soldier and valet-de-chambre. To him the secretaries sent all their despatches, and he brought extracts of them, to which the king wrote answers in two words on the margin: and thus the affairs of the whole kingdom were expedited in an hour. At eleven the king put on his boots, reviewed his regiment of guards in the garden, and at the same hour the colonels were following his example in their respective provinces. The princes his brothers, the general officers, and one or two chamberlains, dined at his table; which was as good as it could be in a country where there is neither game, tolerable butcher's meat, nor a pullet, and where the very wheat is brought from Magdebourg. After the repast he retired alone into his cabinet, where he made verses till five or six o'clock. Then came a young man named D'Arget, who read to him. A little concert began at seven, in which the king played on the flute with as much skill as the first performer; and pieces of his composition were frequently executed. Supper was served in a little hall, the most singular and striking ornament of which was a fine picture of Priapus. These repasts were not in general the less philosophic on that account. Never did men converse in any part of the world with so much liberty respecting all the superstitions of mankind, and never were they treated with more pleasantry and contempt. God was respected: but none of those who had deceived men in his name were spared. Neither women nor priests ever entered the palace. In a word, Frederick lived without a court, without counsel, and without religious worship.' As Frederick had espoused his princess contrary to his inclination, it was imagined, that on his accession, he would set himself free from engagements so disagreeable to himself. The queen impressed with suspicions of this kind, was on the point of fainting away when he made his first visit to her. To the surprise of all parties, however, he made her a very affectionate speech, apologising for his indifference, and inviting her to participate with him the throne of which she was worthy. In the first year of his reign, he restored the academy of sciences at Berlin. See ACADEMY. His war with the queen of Hungary, however, which took place almost immediately after his accession, for some time prevented him from taking such an active part in literary matters as he was inclined to do.

After the peace, he gave full scope to his passion for literature; and, in the interval betwixt the conclusion of the first war and beginning of that of 1756, he composed most of his works; particularly his History of My own Time. Voltaire was his principal literary correspondent, whom he invited to reside with him. Afraid of losing his liberty, that philosopher hesitated, excused himself, and entered into pecuniary treaties. At last he was determined by seeing a poem from Frederick to M. D'Arnaud, in which the latter was compared to the rising, and Voltaire to the setting, sun. By this Voltaire was so much piqued, that he set out for Berlin without delay, and arrived there in June 1750. He was received in the most magnificent and affectionate manner, and for some time his situation was very agreeable; but the disputes and rivalship which took place betwixt him and Maupertuis soon threw every thing into confusion. In these the king interfered in such a manner as was certainly below his dignity; and he often exercised himself in making a jest of the other men of letters, in a way which induced many of them to leave him. The squabbles with Voltaire were sometimes very diverting. See VOLTAIRE. They ended at last in a final quarrel with that wit, and his departure from the kingdom. The restless disposition of Frederick showed itself after his departure by his attempts to provoke the literati who remained at his court, to quarrel with him as Voltaire had done. But they were of too passive a disposition to gratify him in this respect, choosing rather to suffer the most mortifying strokes of raillery, or to leave the kingdom, than to contend with him. This proved so uneasy to the king, that he one day exclaimed, 'Shall we have no more quarrels then!' The breaking out of the war in 1756, however, put a stop to this diversion, and afforded him as many enemies as he could wish. The exploits he performed, during the seven years which this unequal contest lasted, are almost incredible (See PRUSSIA); and it is amazing how the fortitude and resolution of any man could enable him to sustain the difficulties which during this period he encountered. Once however even the resolution of Frederick was on the point of giving way. After the battle of Colin, when his affairs seemed altogether desperate, he wrote to his sister at Bareith that he was on the point of putting an end to his own life. And, as he wished to have it said that he made verses even on the brink of the grave, he wrote a long poetical epistle to the marquis d'Argens, in which he communicated to him his design, and bade him farewell. His affairs, however, took a better turn, and such desperate thoughts were laid aside. But his constitution was irreparably injured by the excessive fatigues he had sustained. Soon after the peace, his body began to bend, and his head to incline to the right side: by degrees he became very infirm; he was tormented with the gout, and subject to frequent indigestion. All his distempers, however, were borne with invincible patience; and, till a very short time before his death, he never ceased to attend his reviews, or visit the provinces. He has been known to review his troops, and gallop through all the ranks, as if he felt no pain, while

an abscess, which approached to a suppuration, touched the saddle. In August, 1785, he impaired his health still farther by assisting at a review, where he was exposed without a cloak to a heavy rain for four or five hours. On his return to Potsdam he was seized with a fever; and, for the first time, became unable to assist at the military exercises. His malady, however, did not prevent him from dictating the disposition of these exercises during the three days they lasted. About the end of autumn the fever left him, but was succeeded by a violent cough; by which he was greatly weakened and prevented from sleeping; but this did not interrupt either the execution of business, or the routine of his literary exertions; wherein he continued to employ himself till the day before he died. On the 17th and 18th of May, 1786, he was unable to assist at the ordinary reviews. At last his disorder terminated in a dropsy. Being now no longer able to remain in bed, he sat day and night in an arm-chair with springs, which could be moved at pleasure. For nearly a month before his death the swelling of his feet gave him violent pain, so that he wished an incision to be made; but the surgeon refused to perform the operation, suspecting that it might hasten his death. Nature, however, accomplished his desires; his right leg opened, and discharged such a quantity of matter, that he was greatly relieved. But on the 16th August, 1786, his throat began to rattle violently; and he soon after fell into a stupor; though from this he recovered so far as to be able to speak. His respiration and voice became gradually more feeble; and he expired on the morning of the 17th, at nineteen minutes after two, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and forty-seventh of his reign. This great monarch was of the middle size, had large blue eyes and a piercing look. He spoke German incorrectly and in a very rough manner; but talked French very fluently and agreeably. His constitution was naturally feeble, but he had greatly improved it by his laborious life. He had the art of relieving every one from that embarrassment, which is apt to occur in accosting a monarch. His universal knowledge enabled him to converse on all subjects. He talked of war with military men, of verses with the poet, of agriculture with the farmer, of jurisprudence with the lawyer, of commerce with the merchant, and politics with the Englishman. He had a very retentive memory; was fond of solitude and gardening; and took great pleasure in dogs, of which animals he constantly kept a number about him, giving them little balls to play with. In company he was fond of asking questions and jesting; in which last he proceeded such lengths as undoubtedly were unbecoming in a superior towards his inferious. In military affairs he was excessively severe, not to say cruel; of which the following anecdote may serve as an instance. In the first war of Silesia, wishing to make some alteration in his camp during the night, he forbade every person, under pain of death, to keep, after a certain hour, a fire or other light in his tent. He himself went the rounds; and in passing the tent of a captain Zittern he perceived a light. Enterin the tent, he found the captain sealing

a letter to his wife, for whom he had a great affection. What are you doing there?' said he, 'do not you know the order?' The captain fell on his knees and asked pardon. Sit down,' cor. tinued the king, and add a few words I am going to dictate to you.' Zittern obeyed; and the king dictated 'To morrow I shall die on a scaffold.' The unfortunate man wrote them, and. next day was executed. His cruel treatment of Baron Trenck is well known. In matters of domestic legislation, he was more arbitrary than just; of which we have a notable example in the famous case of Arnold the miller. This man had refused to pay the rent of his mill, on pretence that the stream which turned it had been diverted into a fish-pond. But as the water which ran into the pond also ran out of it into the same channel as before, the miller evidently suffered no damage. The judges therefore gave sentence against him, but the king not only reversed their sentence but disgraced them. For this he was celebrated through all the newspapers in Europe; and yet he was in the wrong, and afterwards even acknowledged nimself to have been so: but, notwithstanding this, he not only made no reparation to the parties injured, but allowed them to lie in prison all his life-time. He entertained most unaccountable prejudices against certain places and persons, which neither conduct nor merit could eradicate. One of these unfortunate places was Westphalia, on which he never conferred any bounty; and one day a native of that country, a man of great merit, being proposed to him for a place, he refused, saying, 'He is a Westphalian; he is good for nothing.' Voltaire justly accuses him of ingratitude to the count de Seckendorf; who saved his life, and against whom he conceived the most implacable hatred. His neglect of others who afforded him the most essential service was shameful. When a robust butcher prevented him from falling, horse and all, over a precipice, where both would undoubtedly have been killed, the king only turned about and saying, Thank you friend, rode off without ever enquiring farther about his preserver. With regard to his literary merits, Voltaire boasts of having corrected his works, and others of having furnished him with materials for his history. He has been accused of stealing whole hemistichs of poetry from Voltaire, Boileau, Rousseau, and others; nor does the charge seem void of foundation. Such of his verses, as have undergone no correction, are very indifferent. But while we thus mention the foibles of Frederick, it 13 but just to record his acts of virtue. Upon his accession he treated his mother with great respect; ordered that she should bear the title of queen mother, and that instead of addressing him as his majesty she should call him son. As he was passing soon after between Berlin and Potsdam, 1000 boys, who had been marked out for military service by his father, surrounded his coach, and cried out Merciful king deliver us from our slavery.' He promised them their liberty, and next day ordered their badges to be taken off. He granted a general toleration of religion; and among other concessions allowed the profession of free-masonry. The reign of this monarch was illustrious, as well for the variety of charac

ters he sustained, as for the important vicissitudes he experienced. But the pacification of Dresden, in 1745, enabled him to appear in a character far more glorious than that of the conqueror of Silesia. He was now entitled to the noblest eulogy, as the wise legislator of his country. Exclusive of his general attention to agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, he peopled, in particular, the deserts of Pomerania, by encouraging, with royal bounties, a great number of industrious emigrants to settle in that province; the face of which, in a very few years, underwent the most agreeable alteration. Above sixty new villages arose amidst a barren waste; and every part of the country exhibited marks of successful cultivation. Those desolate plains, where not a footstep had been seen for ages, were now converted into fields of corn; and the happy peasants, under the protection of a patriot king, sowed their grounds in peace, and reaped their harvests in security.

FREDERICK (Colonel), the son of Theodore, king of Corsica, by an Irish lady, was born in Spain. He came to England in 1754, and taught the Italian language for some years. He afterwards went to the continent, where he obtained the rank of Colonel, and the cross of merit, from the late duke of Wirtemberg; for whom he acted as agent, upon his return, and disposed of a regiment to the East India Company. He married a German lady while abroad, by whom he had a son, who fell in the American war, and also a daughter. His finances falling low at last, he shot himself, at Westminster Abbey, on the 1st February 1796. He was a man of general knowledge, and considerable talents. He wrote 1. Memoires pour servir l'histoire de Corse, 8vo. 1768. 2. The description of Corsica; with an account of its union to the crown of Great Britain, 8vo. &c. 1796.

FREDERICK, a county of Maryland, bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, east by Baltimore, south-west by the Potomac, and west by Washington; extending thirty miles every way. Fredericktown is the capital.

FREDERICK, a county of Virginia, bounded on the north by Berkley, east and south by the Shanandoah, and west by Hampshire; thirty miles long, and twenty broad. It abounds with limestone and iron ore; iron works have been erected in various parts. Winchester is the

chief town.

FREDERICKSBURG, a town of Virginia, in Spotsylvania county, on the south-west bank of the Rappahannock, 110 miles from its mouth. The chief street runs parallel with the river. It is fifty miles S. S. W. of Alexandria.

FREDERICKSHALL, a town of Norway in the province of Aggerhuys, on the frontiers of Sweden, and on the extremity of the Swinesund, at the mouth of the Tiste. The harbour is safe and commodious; but the saw-dust brought down the river from the mills occasions an annual expense to clear it. It contains 3000 inhabit ants; and lies thirty-one miles south-east of Christiania, and fifty north of Uddevalla.

FREDERICKSTADT, a respectable manufacturing town of Denmark, in the duchy of Sleswick, at the confluence of the Treen and Eyder. Silk,

woollen, starch, and oil, are its chief manufactures. It was founded in 1621, by a body of Arminians who emigrated from Holland upon the decisions of the synod of Dort. Population 2200. Eighteen miles W. S. W. of Sleswick.

FREDERICKSTEIN, a strong fortress of Norway, on the summit of a rock, which overhangs Frederickshall; famous for the death of Charles XII. killed while besieging it, in 1718. FREDERICKSWERK, a sea-port of Denmark, in a bay on the north coast of the island of Zealand. Here are a cannon foundry, and manufactures of various military articles, established in the year 1756, by general Classen.

FREDERICKTOWN, a flourishing town of Maryland, capital of Frederick county seated on Caroll's creek, &c. It is forty-seven miles west by north of Baltimore, and 148 south-west of Philadelphia. FREE, adj. & v.a. FREE DOM, N. s. FREE'LY, adv.

FREE NESS, n. s.

Sax. Fɲeah, Fɲeo; Bel. vry; Goth. fri; Teutonic frey. We shall give the numerous applications of this word, and the illustrations in the usual order, and then present it distinctly in every word in which it is used in composition. At liberty; not a vassal; not enslaved; not a prisoner; not dependent; uncompelled; unrestrained: of choosing, as opposed to bondage or necessity; permitted; allowed; licentious; open; ingenuous; frank; without reserve; liberal; spontaneous; clear from; guiltless; innocent; exempt from; invested with franchises; possessing any thing without vassalage; admitted to the privileges of any body corporate; without expense; a free-school, is a charity-school; to set at liberty; to rescue from slavery or captivity; to manumit; to loose; to rid from; to clear from any thing ill with of or from; to clear from impediments or obstructions.

-This song I have heard say
Was inaked of our blisful lady fre,
Hire to salue, and eke hire for to prey
To ben our help, and socour, whan we dey.
Chaucer. The Prioresses Tale
And Jason is as coy as is a maide;
He looked pitously, but nought he saiede:
But frely yave he to hire counsailers
Yeftes full grete and to hire officers :
As would God, that I leser had and time
By processe, all his woeing for to rime

Id. Legend Hypsipyle and Medea.
In prison though thy bodie be
At large kepe thine herte fre
A trewe hert ne will not plie,
For no manace that it mai drie.
Id. Romaunt of the Rose,
Yet shall they not escape so freely all;
For some shall pay the price of others guilt:
And he, the man that made Sansfoy to fall,
Shall with his owne blood price that he hath spilt.
Spenser's Faerie Queene.
The laws themselves they do specially rage at, as
most repugnant to their liberty and natural freedom.
Spenser on Ireland.

Their use of meats was not like unto our ceremo nies, that being a matter of private action in common life, where every man was free to order that which himself did; but this is a publick constitution for the ordering of the church.

Hooker.

Do faithful homage, and receive free honours, All which we pine for now. Shakspeare. Macbeth. Glo'ster too, a foe to citizens,

O'erchanging your free purses; with large fines, That seeks to overthrow religion. Shakspeare. If my son were my husband, I would freelier rejoice in that absence wherein he won honour, than in the embracements of his bed, where he would show most love. Id. Coriolanus.

Who alone suffers, suffers most i' th' mind, Leaving free things and happy shows behind.

Shakspeare.

Make mad the guilty, and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant.
Id. Hamlet.

The child was prisoner to the womb, and is
By law and process of great nature thence
Freed and enfranchised; not a party to
The anger of the king, nor guilty of,

If any be, the trespass of the queen. Shakspeare.
These

Are such allowed infirmities, that honesty
Is never free of.
Id. Winter's Tale.
"Tis not to make me jealous;

To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves company,
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well,
Where virtue is, these make more virtuous.

Shakspeare. Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me as for you? Id. Taming of the Shrew. We may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights, Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives.

Shakspeare.

By our holy Sabbath have I sworn
To have the due and forfeit of my bond:
If you deny it, let the danger light

Upon your charter and city's freedom. Id. We wanted words to express our thanks; his noble free offers left us nothing to ask.

And ever since I strive in vain
My ravished freedom to regain.

Bacon.

Cowley.

It is no marvail, that he could think of no better way to be freed of these inconveniences the passions of those meetings gave him, than to dissolve them. Clarendon.

Defaming as impure what God declares Pure; and commands to some, leaves free to all. Milton.

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love, Where only what they needs must do, appeared; Not what they would? Milton's Paradise Lost.

Dryden.

From which the happy never must be free.

Their steeds around, Free from the harness, graze the flowery ground. Id. The reader may pardon it, if he please, for the freeness of the confession.

The path to peace is virtue: what I show, Thyself may freely on thyself bestow; Fortune was never worshipped by the wise; But, set aloft by fools, usurps the skies.

He therefore makes all birds of every sect Free of his farm, with promise to respect Their several kinds alike, and equally protect. VOL. IX.

Id.

Id.

Id.

My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.

Id.

Id.

O freedom! first delight of human kind! Not that which bondmen from their masters find, The privilege of doles; nor yet to inscribe Their names in this or t' other Roman tribe: That false enfranchisement with ease is found; Slaves are made citizens by turning round. Id. The will, free from the determination of such desires, is left to the pursuit of nearer satisfactions. Locke.

How can we think any one freer than to have the power to do what he will? Id.

I hope it will never be said that the laity, who by the clergy are taught to be charitable, shall in their corporations exceed the clergy itself, and their sons, in freeness of giving. Sprat.

By nature all things have an equally common use: nature freely and indifferently opens the bosoms of the universe to all mankind. South.

In every sin by how much the more free will is in its choice, by so much is the act the more sinful, and where there is nothing to importune, urge, or provoke the will to any act, there is so much an higher and perfecter degree of freedom about that act.

Id.

I know there are to whose presumptuous thoughts Those freer beauties, e'en in them, seem faults. Id. To gloomy cares my thoughts alone are free, Ill the gay sports with troubled thoughts agree. Id.

Let such teach others who themselves excel, And censure freely who have written well. Id. Alexandrian verses, of twelve syllabies, should never be allowed but when some remarkable beauty or propriety in them atones for the liberty: Mr. Dryden has been too free of these in his latter works. Id.

This prince first gave freedom to servants, so as to become citizens of equal privileges with the rest, which very much increased the power of the people. Swift.

FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE. See TOLERATION. FREEDOM OF A CORPORATION. See CORPORATION. The freedom of cities, and other corporations, is regularly obtained by serving an apprenticeship: but it is also purchased with money, and sometimes conferred by way of compliment.

FREE-BENCH. See BENCH, FREE. FREE BOOTER, n. s. ? Free and booty. FREE BOOTING, n. s. SA robber; a plunderer; a pillager; robbery; plunder; the act of pillaging.

Under it he may cleanly convey any fit pillage, that cometh handsomely in his way; and when he goeth abroad in the night on freebooting, it is his best and surest friend. Spenser.

Perkin was not followed by any English of name, his forces consisted mostly of base people and freebooters, fitter to spoil a coast than to recover a kingdom.

Bacon.

The earl of Warwick had, as often as he met with any Irish frigates, or such freebooters as sailed under their commission, taken all the seamen. Clarendon 2 R

FREEHOLD, n. s. Free and hold. That land or tenement which a man holdeth in fee, fee-tail, or for term of life. Freehold in deed is the real possession of lands or tenements in fee, fee-tail, or for life. Freehold in law is the right that a man has to such land or tenements before his entry or seizure. Freehold is sometimes taken in opposition to villenage. Land, in the time of the Saxons, was called either bockland, that is holden by book or writing, or foreland, that is holden without writing. The former was held by far better conditions, and by the better sort of tenants, as noblemen and gentlemen, being such as we now call freehold. The latter was commonly in the possession of clowns, being that which we now call at the will of the lord.

FREEHOLD is extended to offices, which a man holds either in fee, or during life; and, in the register of writs, it is said, that he who holds land upon an execution of a statute-merchant until he is satisfied, the debt holds as freehold to him and his assigns, and the same of a tenant by elegit; but such tenants are not in fact freeholders, only as freeholders for their time, till they have received the profits of the land to the value of their debt. Reg. Judic. 68. 73.

A lease for ninety-nine years, &c., determina ble upon a life or lives, is not a lease for life to make a freehold, but a lease for years, or chattel determinable upon life or lives; and an estate for 1000 years is not a freehold, or of so high a nature as an estate for life. Co. Lit. 6. He that hath an estate for the term of his own life, or the life of another hath a freehold, and no other of a less estate; though they of a greater estate have a freehold, as tenant in fee, &c., Lit. 57.

FREEHOLD, or frank tenement; liberum tenementum. See FEE and TAIL.

A FREEHOLD, by the common law, cannot commence in futuro; but it must take effect presently, either in possession, reversion, or remainder. Whatever is part of the freehold goes to the heir; and things fixed thereto may not be taken in distress for rent or in execution, &c. No man shall be disseised of his freehold by statute Magna Charta, cap. 29, but by judgment of his peers, or according to the laws of the land: nor shall any distrain freeholders to answer for their freehold in any thing concerning the same without the king's writ. Freehold estates, of certain value, are required by statutes to qualify jurors, electors of the knights of the shire in parliament, &c.

FREEHOLD, in geography, a town of New Jersey, in Monmouth county, fifteen miles west of Shrewsbury, twenty south-east by south of New Brunswick, and forty-four north-east of Philadelphia. It has an academy. A bloody battle was fought here between the British under Sir H. Clinton, and the Americans under general Washington, on the 28th June, 1778.

FREEHOLDER, n. s. From freehold. One who has a freehold.

No alienation of lands holden in chief should be available, touching the freehold or inheritance thereof, but only where it were made by matter of record. Bacon's Office of Alienation.

As extortion did banish the old English freeholder, who could not live but under the law; so the law did banish the Irish lord, who could not live but by extortion. Davies.

There is an unspeakable pleasure in calling any thing one's own: a freehold, though it be but in ice and snow, will make the owner pleased in the possession, and stout in the defence of it. Addison.

My friends here are very few, and fixed to the freehold, from whence nothing but death will remove them. Swift.

I should be glad to possess a freehold that could not be taken from me by any law to which I did not give consent.

Id.

FREEHOLDERS, in the ancient laws of Scotland, are called milites, knights. In Reg. Judicia, it is expressed, that he who holds lands upon an execution of a statute merchant, until he hath satisfied the debt, tenet ut liberum tenementum sibi et assignatis suis; and the same of a tenant per elegit; the meaning of which seems to be, not that such tenants are freeholders, but as freeholders for the time, till they have received profits to the value of their debt.

FREEMAN, n. s. Free and man. One not a slave; not a vassal; one partaking of rights, privileges or immunities.