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72*] ANNUAL REGISTER
one, tow home they will render themselves useful or agreeable. This encourages others to the fame pursuit, and the succession is never at an end.
Struenfee, was the son of a Lutheran clergyman, who is, or was, the superintendent of some churches, in the duchies or Slerwic, or Holstein ; he studied Physic and chymistry, and is said to have been recommended to the present King of Denmark at Hamburgh, as a young man of considerable parts and abilities. He is represented to have been, in reality, a man of insinuating address, some abilities, great ambition, profligate manners, and abandoned his principles.
His progress in favor was so rapid as to amaze every body. He quickly abandoned his profession, became minister of state, and was with his friend and fellow adventurer Brandt, raised at once to the first rank of nobility in the kingdom, they being both created earls. Struenfee also sent for his brother, who was made counsellor of state, and placed either high in, or at the head of the finances. The new favourites, grown giddy by this rapid elevation, loft all appearances of moderation in their prosperity. Count Bernstorff, and the old and faithful servants of the crown, were disgraced and banished from the court; and such of the ancient nobility as did not degrade themselves by their conduct, met with the same fate. 
It is said that Count Brandt shewed from the first, all that insolence and arrogance that seem peculiar to new men, upon a sudden and unexpected rife ; but that Struenfee had more sense and moderation in the beginning, until the shameful adulation and servility of the nobility, made him at length to forget himself so entirely, as the shew the greatest contempt, upon every occasion, for the natives of the country, their language, manners, and even their laws. The King during this time from whatever cause, is represented to have been in a most deplorable state of imbecility, both of body and mind.
It was not to be supposed that such a state of affairs could have been lasting in any country. Every thing was done that could wound the prejudices of the people. Struenfee and Brandt were professed free-thinkers, and publicly laughed at those religious forms and opinions, to which the people were ,out strongly attached. The court was loose and dissolute ; masked balls and entertainments were continually given ; foreign amusements, manners and customs introduced and the plain manners, and sober decorum of the natives, treated with the most sovereign contempt. An ancient and severe law against adultery was repealed, which the people considered in the same light, that they would have done a reward for the committing of it; and this operating upon their already conceived opinions, they concluded that all fences moral and religious were to be broken down.
An attempt to dissolve the King's guards, and to incorporate them into other regiments, precipitated matters to a conclusion, sooner than they probably would otherwise have arrived. The guards stood to their arms, and absolutely refused to submit to the degradation of being incorporated with other troops ; but offered to lay them down, and accept
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For the YEAR 1772. [*73
accept of their discharge, upon obtaining liberty to retire to their respective countries. It was through necessary to accept of this expedient and the guards were accordingly discharged.
This extraordinary measure afforded an opportunity to the party who were concerting the ruin of the favorites, which they did not neglect to make use of. It was whispered that the dismission of those troops, who were the proper guards of the king's person, and whose fidelity and attachment to him were undisputed, was the result of a design which had been laid to secure it, and to compel the King to sign and act of renunciation, and to establish a regency, by which the government was to be totally and finally lodged in the hands of the Queen and the favourites. That the ruin of the kingdom was intended, and that Struensee, who was a tool and a creature to France, had already disgraced Count Bernstorff, who was the upholder of the English and Russian system, in order that the French influence might become supreme in their councils ; that the whole administration would be lodged in the hands of foreigners ; and that insolence and contempt which they already found so intolerable in a few, would then be extended to every department.
These insinuations spread rapidly among the people, while the original authors were totally concealed, and that the aversion to the favourites was so general, that among so many thousand people they had not one friend that would inform them, of what every body thought and talked of. They were accordingly wrapt up in the oct profound security, while those measures were taking with equal silence and secrecy, the effects of which they were so soon and so fatally to experience.
The Queen Dowager, Julia Maria, sister to the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttle, and mother to the King's half brother, Prince Frederick, was at the head of the conspiracy which is now formed. She is represented on the one hand, as an artful, ambitious, and intriguing woman, who having been encouraged from the weakness of administration, to form dangerous designed in favor of her son, who was now arrived in his 19th year, had with that view, under an appearance of the greatest friendship, imposed upon the youth and innocence of the young Queen, and artfully led her into those measures, which were the most exceptionable and unpopular in her conduct ; whole in the mean time, her numerous emissaries were employed, to misrepresent all her actions, and to swell her slightest errors, and the casual inadvertencies of youth, into crimes of the blackest dye; that in the same manner, and with the same design, the practiced upon the weakness of the King, to render him odious to the people; and that even the late measure of incorporating or reducing the guards, had originated from her. On the other hand she is represented, as a princess of extraordinary virtue, resolution and abilities, which she has properly and happily exerted, in rescuing and ignominious foreign yoke. 
A masked ball having been given at court ; the ensuing morning was destined for the execution of the plot.

Jan. 16th 1772.