FREDERICK BAR0^5 TR,ENCK. 
411 
lities, by his faithful servant, who had attended him in his former 
journeyings. 
While absent in his first tour to Turkey, &c. his character for active 
benevolence had so much attracted the public attention, that a sub- 
scription was set on foot to erect a statue to his honour, and in no 
long space fifteen hundred pounds was subscribed for that purpose. 
But in consequence of two letters from Mr. Howard himself to the 
subscribers, inserted in the Gent. Mag. vol. Ivii. p. 101, the design was 
laid aside. It has, however, been resumed since his death ; and 
surely, of all the monuments ever erected by public gratitude to illus- 
trious characters, none was ever erected in honour of worth so admi- 
rable as his — who devoted his time, his strength, his fortune, and 
finally sacrificed his life, in the pursuits of humanity : who, to adopt 
the expressive words of Burke, visited all Europe and the East, not to 
survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples, 
not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient gran- 
deur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art; not to col- 
lect medals or collate mss, ; but to dive into the depths of dungeons, 
to plunge into the infections of hospitals ; to survey the mansions of 
sorrow and of pain ; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, 
depression, and contempt ; to remember the forgotten, to attend to 
the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and collate the 
distresses of all men in all countries. His plan is original, and it is 
as full of genius as it is of humanity. It is a voyage of philanthropy, a 
circumnavigation of charity; and already the benefit of his labour is 
felt more or less in every country.’' 
Frederick Baron Von Trenck. 
This person celebrated by his adventures, and the romantic ac- 
count he has given of his life, was descended from a noble Prussian 
family, and born at Konigsberg in 1726. His father, a major gene- 
ral in the army, pursued, as he says, the best means, and took the 
greatest care, to render him a happy man, and, among other things, 
exercised him in swimming; but too much indulgence on the one 
band, and on the other too much neglect of the most essential rules, 
produced a quite contrary effect. At the age of twelve he was placed 
as R boarder with a schoolmaster named Kowalewsky ; but his 
father dying some months after, and his mother having again married 
and quitted Prussia, Mr. Von Derschau, his maternal grandfather, w ho 
held an official situation at Konigsberg, took him under his care, 
and gave him instructions himself. He, however, always allowed 
him more money than was necessary, and this mistaken kindness only 
served to give an additional stimulus to the impetuosity of his cha- 
racter, as soon appeared by his fighting a duel with a count Wellen- 
rodt. The rector of the university, at the request of his worthy friend 
Kowalewsky, punished him by some hours’ confinement; but his 
grandfather, delighted with this mark of spirit in his grandson, with- 
drew him from the care of Kowalew'sky, and placed him in another 
seminary under Professor Christiana, w'here he maintained theses 
with great approbation. 
