Most of the nobility and the greater part of the General and field officers
are however inveterate aristocrats.
You have heard, I dare say, of the attempt made by some officers among the
nobility to exclude from the service, after the peace, those officers who
were not noble. When it is considered that their best and most zealous
officers sprung from the burghers, and that Prussia, when abandoned by her
King and nobles, was saved from permanent subjection only by the
unparalleled exertions of her burghers and peasantry, one is shocked at
such ingratitude and absurdity. But the officers of the Royal Guard went so
far as to draw up a petition to the King, requesting him to dismiss all the
officers of the corps who were not noble, and Blucher was applied to to
present this petition to the King. Blucher read the paper and ordered all
the officers to assemble on the parade and thus addressed them: "Gentlemen,
I have received your paper and read its contents with the utmost
astonishment. All the remarks that I shall permit myself to make on the
subject of this petition, are, that it makes me ashamed of being myself a
noble." He then tore the petition in pieces and dismissed them.
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