Note 14 — Chapter II · THE TWO COUNTS.

The order concerning this reform is the only one which Struensee was accused of having issued without the king's privity. The War Department, of which I was a member, received on December 21 the Minutes of this order for the disbandment of the Foot Guards; it made no protest; it did not ask that the minute should be signed by the king, which was not necessary; the patent was immediately drawn up, and addressed, according to custom, to the king, that it might receive his signature and seal; the king signed this patent on December 23; such is the exact truth. How could it be stated in the sentence that the king had no cognizance on December 21 of a minute the patent of which he ratified on the 23rd by his signature? How could he be ignorant on December 24 of an order he had signed on the 23rd?—Falckenskjold, p. 209.