EAELY HOME. 9 



classes. His death, which occurred on the 6th of January, 

 1779, at the age of 59, was an event universally deplored.' 



The 'Vossische Zeitung,' of January 9, laments his loss in 

 these terms : ' Not only the highest in the State, but the people 

 also mourn in him a- friend, and the country a patriot.' 



To these admirable qualities is to be ascribed the confidential 

 relationship in which Major von Humboldt stood towards the 

 Great King, with whom, as Adjutant to the Duke of Bruns- 

 wick, during the worst times of the Seven Years' War, he fre- 

 quently held personal intercourse. In a letter concerning 

 Wedel's disaster, the king writes, ' I have told Humboldt all 

 that there is to be told at this distance.' 



Even his retirement from the prince's court at Potsdam, in 

 consequence of the domestic troubles of the heir-apparent, 

 did not impair this confidence that was so honourable to 

 Humboldt. In a letter from the English ambassador, in the 

 year 1776, Major von Humboldt is described as c a man of good 

 understanding and estimable character,' and pointed out as one 

 of the foremost in the list of capable men who might be 

 expected to occupy the post of Minister in the future reign of 

 Frederick William II. 1 



His various connections with the courts of the other princes,, 

 especially with that of Prince Ferdinand, procured him, among 

 other undertakings, an interest in the farming of Lotteries,, 

 which subsequently became very lucrative, both to him and his 

 heirs ; he was also concerned in a tobacco-magazine enterprise 

 (for leasing the sale of tobacco), which since November 1,, 

 1766, had been undertaken by the ministers Count Eetiss and 

 Count Eickstadt and the chamberlain Baron von (render. 



Major von Humboldt entered upon domestic life, as already 

 stated, in 1766, by his marriage with the widow of Captain 

 Ernst von Hollwede, who was but recently deceased ; she was 

 the daughter of Johann Heinrich von Colomb, Director of the 

 East Friesland Chamber, and was cousin to the lady who sub- 

 sequently became Princess of Bliicher. To her mainly did the 

 family of Humboldt owe the possession of their considerable 

 landed property : from her mother she inherited, in 1764, the 



1 'Briefe von Alexander von Humboldt an Vamhagen/ p. 113. 'Briefe 

 von Chainisso, Gneisenau, Haugwitz, W. v. Humboldt, &c.,' vol. i. p. 5. 



