Daily Globe

King and Miller.

Arnold, a miller of Pomerania, had a lawsuit with a nobleman about a stream of water, which Arnold alleged had been unjustly diverted from his mill. This lawsuit he lost, and petitioned Frederick the Great, alleging that justice had not been done him. The King ordered the case to be remitted to the second court, where the chancellor and three judges sat. He in the meantime ordered inquiries to be made upon the spot, and was informed that Arnold was the injured party. But the miller was no more successful in his appeal than in the original trial. Upon this being intimated to the king, he sent for the chancellor and judges, and, without allowing them to vindicate themselves, called them perverters of the law. He took a pen and with his left hand (for he had the gout in the right) wrote a sentence that condemned the nobleman to restore the water to its former course; to pay all the costs of the two lawsuits; and lastly, to pay such a sum to the miller as should make him reparation for the injury he and his family had sustained. When he had finished, he turned with fury to the chancellor whom he dismissed from his service, and ordered the three judges to prison, kicking them all with violent indignation out of the room. It turned out subsequently that Arnold was a man of the worst character, had entirely imposed upon the king. The nobleman was quite innocent of the charge of turning the water-course since his lands were further down the stream than Arnold's mill. Thus Frederick, in his violent and summary interference, perpetrated the grossest injustice, even where his intentions were good.

Frederick was both blamed and ridiculed on account of this transaction, though he never would consent to reverse the proceedings, exhibiting his usual obstinacy even in the commission of injustice. His nephew, however, upon his accession to the throne, ordered strict justice to be done between the parties, and thus this extraordinary affair was brought to a close.