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kings of Brentford, who brought an army in disguise to Knightsbridge.

His Pruffian majesty, having traced all the windings of this mysterious path, proceeds to tell the public that he is fenfibly touched with the misfortunes of the king of Poland; and fuch is his regard for that monarch, that if he would have gone about his business to Warfaw, leaving his hereditary dominions in the hands of his good neighbour, he would have been supplied with neceffaries for his journey, and money to bear his expences upon the road.-Heavens! what generofity! nay even whilst he had the affurance to stay in his own country, his kind vifitor fent him his daily bread, and furnifh'd his queen with money for her fubfiftance; over and above all this tenderness, he took the trouble to manage his finances, and act as prime minifter in the administration of his affairs: He owns indeed, that he has obliged the electorate to furnifh the Pruffian troops with provifion and forage, an rummaged the archives for vouchers to afcertain the truth of the intelligence he had received. But these things are the effects of that dire neceffity to which his Pruffian majefty has been fubjected by the machinations of his enemies.

The fourth piece is a memorial explaining the conduct of the courts of Vienna and Saxony towards the king of Prussia, and their dangerous defigns against him; illuftrated by the original documents. His majefty, in tracing the origin of this dangerous plan which was formed against him, goes back as far as the last war, during which the courts of Vienna and Saxony concluded a treaty of eventual partition, by which the Empress queen fhould poffefs the duchy of Silefia, and the county of Glatz; and the elector of Saxony should retain the duchies of Magdeburg and Croffen, the circles of Zullichow and Swibus, together with the Pruffian part of Lufatia; or only part of thefe provinces, in proportion to their conquefts. Immediately after the peace of Drefden, the court of Vienna proposed to that of Saxony a new treaty of alliance, including a renewal of the eventual partition.-But under correction, we cannot help obferving that, according to the dates, the draught of this treaty was previous to the peace of Drefden; for the draught of the treaty is dated May 18, 1745; whereas VOL II. Novem. 1756. Y

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the peace was not figned till the 25th of December in the fame year. We do not therefore perceive what right his Pruffan majefty has to find fault with fuch a treaty between powers with which he was actually at war; nor do we find that this treaty was ever concluded. Touching the fecret articles in the treaty of Petersburg, we have already given our opinion, that they are warranted by the law of nations, which certainly impowers all states to engage in alliances for their fecurity. The king of Pruffia complains that every war which might arise between him and Ruffia, or the republic of Poland, was to be looked upon as a manifeft infraction of the peace of Drefden, and a revival of the rights of the house of Aufria to Silefia.-Any compact made upon compulfion, is by the law of nature void; because a compact implies an equal confent in the contracting parties; and this can never be the cafe when either fide acts upon compulfion. Suppose the court of Vienna fhould plead, that her dominions were difmembered unjustly by an enemy of fuperior force, but that fhe was compelled to fubfcribe to a difadvantageous peace, which could not be binding by the laws of natural juftice. Suppose she should alledge, that the eventual treaty of paṛtition was founded upon the provifo of his Prussian majesty's breaking the peace by commencing hostilities; in which cafe fhe would be naturally released from the obligation of the agreement between her and that prince; and would have a right to indemnify herself for the expence fhe had undergone, and the loffes fhe had fuftained from his atms.

The king charges the court of Saxony with having accepted the invitation to accede to the treaty of Petersburg; but we : do not find that this acceffion ever took place; though it appears by the documents, that the Saxon minifters at Vienna and Peterburg had negotiated upon this fubject: nor do we think that in fo doing the court of Saxony acted contrary to the pacification of Drefden; as this formidable alliance turned wholly ; upon his being the aggreffor. True it is, the privy council of the king of Poland gave their mafter to underftand, that the king of Pruffia might look upon his majesty's acceffion to the treaty of Peterburg as a violation of the peace of Drefden : but whether or not they themselves thought fo, is another que

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ftion. Be that as it will, the elector of Saxony was restrained from acceding to it by reasons of conveniency. It appears indeed, that count de Bruhl endeavoured by false and malicious aspersions to embroil his Prussian majesty with the empress of Ruffia; that he seemed to lose all fenfe of candour in diffembling with the court of Verfailles, by means of the count de Loofs; that the correfpondence btween Bruhl and Funck smelled ftrongly of a knavish design against his Prussian majesty; and - that he had been grossly abused by false infinuations communicated by the Saxon minifters, to the fieur Gross, the Russian refident at Drefden. Lofs affured the court of Vorfailles, that there were no fecret: articles in the treaty of Petersburg: Funck was the very foul, fpirit, and flavour of the practices against the king of Pruffia at Petersburg. He hinted that the king was forming defigns upon Courland, Polish Prussia, and the city of Dantzick; and that the courts of France, Pruffia, and Sweden, were hatching vaft projects in cafe of a vacancy on the throne of Poland. Yet the count de Bruhl was the principal incendiary. He furnished the materials for Funck; he informed the minifters of Petersburg of commercial regulations, the erection of mints, and armaments in Pruffia: he infinuated that the king had a defign upon Courland; that France and Pruffia had been a long time employed at the Ottoman Porte, in raising up a war against Russia; and that his Prussian majesty had offered his affiftance to the court of Denmark, in acquiring the poffeffion of the duchy of Holstein, under pretence that the great duke of Ruffia had embraced the Greek religion, which was not tolerated in the empire. Funck wrote to Bruhl, that Grofs would do good fervice to the common cause, if he would fend advice to his court, that the king of Pruffia had found a channel in Courland, by which he learned all the fecrets of the court of Ruffia, and that they knew how to make a good use of fuch an advice with the emprefs. By thefe calumnies and impostures the empress of Ruffia was so strongly prejudiced against his Pruffian majefty, that the laid it down as a fundamental maxim of the empire, to crush the king of Pruffia by fuperior force; and in the great council held in the month of October, 1755, it was resolved to attack the king of Pruffia, whether that prince fhould fall upon any of the allies of the Ruffian empire,

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or one of thefe laft fhould begin with him.--This was very hard, if all these suggestions were really calumnies.The court of Ruffia made great armaments both by fea and land: but these were justified by the subsidiary treaty between the czarina and the court of London.-Bohemia and Moravia were crowded with troops camps and magazines were formed, under the apparent pretence of being in a condition to fulfil the engagements the emprefs queen had concluded with England. This was not a bad pretext. Upon combining thefe circumstances toge⚫ther(fays the king of Pruffia) viz. The treaty of Petersburgh,which • authorises the court of Vienna to recover Silefia, as foon as a war • breaks out between Pruffia and Ruffia;-the refolution folemnly taken in Ruffia to attack the king upon the first opportunity, "whether he should be the aggreffor, or be attacked ;— the armaments of the two imperial courts, at a time when neither "of them had any enemy to fear, but when the conjunctures feemed to favour the views of the court of Vienna upon Site'fia ; — the Russian minifters formally owning, that these ar• maments were defigned against the king; -count Kaunitz's tacit avowal; the pains which the Ruffian minifters took • to make out a pretence for accufing the king of having en• deavoured to ftir up a rebellion in Ukraine :-) from the combination of all these circumftances, I fay, there refults a kind • of demonstration of a fecret concert entered into against the king: and the impartial world will judge, whether his majefty, being long informed of all these particulars, could entirely difcredit pofitive advices, which came to him from good quarters, of fuch a concert; and, confequently, whe'ther he was not in the right to demand of the court of F♦ enna friendly explanations and affurances concerning the ob"ject of their armaments.

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Instead of making a fuitable return to this friendly and open way of acting, the empress-queen thought proper to increafe the king's juft fufpicions by an anfwer, which was equally dry, captious, and obfcure; telling the fieur Khin• grafe, That she had taken her measures for her own fecurity, and for that of her allies and friends.' The real view of this anfwer is explained in the following extract of a dispatch from count Flemming, the Saxon refident at Vienna; fpeak

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ing of count Kaunitz, "That minifter (fays he) told me fur"ther, that having, immediately after, fet out for Schonbrun, “he had, in his way thither, turned it in his thoughts, what anfwer he should advise his fovereign to return to monfieur

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de Klingrafe; and that having, as he thought, perceived, "that the king of Pruffia had two objects in view, which "they meant, here, equally to avoid, viz. to bring on confe"rences and explanations, which might, immediately, occa "fion a fufpenfion of those measures, which it was thought "neceffary to continue with vigour; and, fecondly, to bring "things still farther, and to other more eflential proposals and "engagements; he had judged, that the answer ought to be "of fuch a nature, as entirely to elude the king of Prussia's "demand; and without leaving any more room for further "explanations, fhould at the fame time, be firm and civil, "without being fufceptible either of a finifter or a favourable "construction:- that, agreeably to this idea, he thought it "would fuffice, that the emprefs fhould answer fimply, That, in the violent general crisis Europe was in, both her duty, and the dignity of her crown, called upon her, to take fuf"ficient measures for her own fecurity, as well as for that of her friends and allies."

The documents that follow, confift of the treaty of eventual partition between the courts of Vienna and Saxony: the feparate article of the treaty of Petersburg, in 1756: refolutions and inftructions for the count de Vicedom, and the fieur de Pezold, at St. Petersburg: a memorial prefented by the Saxon minifters at Petersburg, in September, 1747: a difpatch from the King of Poland to the count de Loofs, at Vienna, December 21, 1747: extract of the advice of his Polish majesty's privy-council, about the acceffion to the treaty of Petersburg, August 15, 1747 further advice of that council, September 17, 1548: postscript from count de Bruhl to count de Loafs, at Paris, dated June 12, 1747: declaration of count de Loofs, to the French miniftry extract of inftructions given to general Arnim, for his miffion to Petersburg, dated February 19, 1750: memorial delivered to count de Keyferling, the Ruffian minister at Drefden, June 26, 1756: extract of a letter from count de Flemming to count de Bruhl, dated from Vienna, February 28,

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