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him, if poffible :-Intimates, that if the Empire were to lose in him the most powerful Protestant Prince, and the firmeft fupport of the German Liberties, the project would be revived which gave occafion to the thirty years war; the undertakers of which would promife themselves fo much the more eafily to fubdue the German Empire: in which cafe, all the laws, civil and ecclefiaftical, which the States had purchafed with their lives and fortunes, would be trampled under foot. Laftly, the King endeavours to induce them to make his cafe their own; to convince them, that their ruin is included in his; and to animate them to become his auxiliaries: promifing them, upon all occafions, an effectual affiftance for the fupport of their liberty, and every right lawfully obtained, which the Aulic Council, too often, trod under foot.-Protefting next, in the ftrongest and moft folemn manner, against every thing contained in the faid Commifforial Decree, injurious to him; and finally referving to himself, in like manner, his rights and liberties, as well as the juft fatisfac tion which a Crowned Head, and an eminent Elector of the Empire, was entitled to demand, according to the Law of Nations, and the fundamental Constitutions of the Empire, from a Council which has fhewn fo little regard for his dignity, at the Diet of Ratifbon.

The third and fourth Parts of this ftate-collection are of Dature and tendency fo fimilar to each other, that both might very eafily have been run into one: and, indeed, if one general ftate had been deduced from the whole, the whole would have been more perfpicuous, and the process more fatisfactory; the repetitions they now abound with, ferving as mucn to perplex fome Readers, as to inform others; and having an obvious tendency to difguft, in fome degree, all. It is true, the cabinets of. Princes are very rarely thus expofed; fo that a very fsmall degree of curiofity, will bring numbers to infpect the contents, and fo far, at least, the Pruffian cause will be undoubtedly ferved by any Expofition, of any kind. But, if the public, from this fpecimen, fhould happen to infer, that all cabinets, as well as all families, may poffibly have their fecrets, which would as ill bear day light; the reputation of Kings and Minifters, and the reverence to be obferved with regard to the mysteries of State, will be but little advanced by it. Leaving, however, to Sove reigns, thofe confiderations which properly belong to them, we shall content ourselves, with treating thefe other two papers in fuch a way as appears to us leaft open to the objections which lie against the papers themfelves.

The first is called, A Memorial in vindication of the King of Pruffia's conduct, from the false imputations of the Court of Saxony. And the laft, A Memorial, fetting forth the conduct of the Courts of Vienna and Saxony towards the King of Pruffia, and their dan gerous defigns against him; together with the original documents in proof of them.

Rsv. Dec. 1756.

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The introductory paragraph to the first of thefe, maintains, "That the King of Pruflia's motives of action

as required darkness rather than here not of fuch a nature

but that his Majefty, in

tendernefs to a Prince, whom he did not defire to treat as an enemy, had only hinted thefe motivés in the declaration he published upon his entrance into Saxony: Flattering himfelf, that by recalling the remembrance of pall times, and infinuating his apprehenfions for the future, the Saxon court would have perceived of itfelf, that his Majetty was well informed of all its fecret machinations; confequently, inflead of oppofing his mealures, would rather have found it their wifeft courfe to have endeavoured to co operate with him in carrying them into execution Adding, that the refillance of that court, the falfe colours they had laid on his conduct, and the calumnies they had raifed, had obliged him to enter into details he would have been glad to fupprefs, for the fake of convincing all Europe, he had done nothing but what found policy, reason, and juftice itfelf had dictated.'

This ferves to account, in fome measure, for the dead filence obferved in the expofition of his Majelly's motives with regard to Saxony; and to obviate a doubt which might otherwife have arifen, that his Majefty had ftruck his blow fift, and had afterwards, by the dint of fearch and re-fearch, difcovered the Saxon provocations.

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What immediately follows, is a charge of ingratitude against the court of Saxony, for having fo foon forgot the obligations they acknowleged in the treaty of Drefden; a repetition of that other charge, already recited, concerning the concert for dividing the Pruffian dominions, together with a re fpecification of what was to be the Saxon fhare of them; a pretty ftrong invective against Count Bruhl, for propofing it as the price of his mafter's friendfhip to every power that made application for it; a reference to a letter from Count Rutowfki to Marthal Brown, relating to the prefent circumflances, which accidentally fell into the King's hands; Count Fleming's negotiations at Vienna, as proofs that a fecret concert was forming between the two courts: affertion upon affertion, that the King was able to fupport all he had alleged by authentic vouchers, then in his hands; and an appeal to the impartial world, whether his Majefty, thus provoked and endangered, could, or ought to, have done lefs for his own prefervation. So far, then, it must be underttood, the memorial turns upon what preceded his Majefty's entrance into Saxony; and if he had fufficient reafons to warrant that ftep before he took it, it is farther faid, that he met with abundant corroboratives afterward-Such as the magazines which had been long forming, and by which the Saxon troops were then fubfifted; the refolution taken by the King of Poland to put himself at the head of his army, and to poft himfelf in fuch a manner as might bell facilitate his junction with the Auftrian army; and the difcovery of a road lately cut through the mountains of Bohe

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mia, and marked at certain diftances with pofts, bearing this remarkable infcription, The Military Road.

The remaining topics are all, or most of them, fuch as have been touched upon before.-As, the infufficience and infecu. rity of the Saxon offer of neutrality; the neceflity of difarming fo determined and fo infidious an enemy; his Majefty's extreme fenfibility of the King of Poland's fituation; afcriptions of it to the pernicious councils of Count Bruh!; the falfhood of the reports fpread by that Minifter concerning the exceffes committed by the Pruffians; the fufferings of the Saxons; the indignities faid to be offered to the Queen; the removal of the Archives, &c. 1 D And in the clofe, the King avows, That he has no defign againft the King of Poland, or his dominions; that he lays no claims, pretends to no acquifitions, no, not of an inch of ground there; and that tho' it be true, that the proceedings of the Saxon court gave his Majefty an indifputable right to deal quite otherwife with him, he would, neverthelefs, perfift firmly in his refolution of reftoring the King of Poland to the full and peaceable pofieffion of all his dominions, as foon as it could be done without endangering his own.

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We are now come to the fourth and laft of thefe pieces, which, it must be owned, belong rather to the political than the literary 3. province; but which muit, nevertheless, have a place in the reading of the times. And herein we are not only furnished with the fame courfe of facts, politions, arguments, and conclufions, made current through fuch a variety of channels before; but also with a feries of vouchers, drawn from originals, now refting in his Pruffian Majefty's cuftody, to fupport them; fo introduced, arranged, and commented upon, at first, as may beft ferve the Pruffian caufe; but afterwards annexed at large, for the common ufe of the common world.

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The eventual treaty of partition between the courts of Vienna c and Drefden, of May the 18th, 1745, is given as the bafis of the whole building;-and it is faid, the treaty of Drefden, of Dec. 25, the fame year, was, perhaps, but a few days old, before the court of Vienna made no feruple to propofe to that of Saxony, a new treaty of alliance, in which the contracting parties were likewife to renew the faid treaty of eventual partition: which fact, it is alfo faid, can be proved by the very draught of it then delivered at Drefden;--and this propofal, it feems, the Saxon miniftry did not decline, but only demurred to; thinking it would better confolidate their plan, if they could act under the counte nance of a defenfive alliance between the two courts of Vienna and Peterfburgh.-This, however, is no otherwife proved, than by the fpecification of fuch a treaty, which did actually take place on the 22d of May, 1746, following. The body, or oftenfible part of this treaty, is alfo admitted to be innocent enough for public infpection; being calculated only to ferve as a freen for fix fecret articles, of which the fourth was levelled fingly against

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Pruffia, as by the article itself, inferted among the vouchers or documents, is apparent for though the Emprefs-Queen fets out with a proteftation, that the will religioufly obferve the treaty of Dreiden, fhe afterwards explains how little religion would ferve for fuch a purpofe, viz." If the King of Pruffia fhould be the firft to depart from this peace, by attacking either her Majesty the Emprefs Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, or her Majefty "the Emprefs of Ruffia, or even the republic of Poland, in all which cafes the rights of her Majefty the Emprefs-Queen to Silefia, and the county of Glatz, would again take place, and recover their full effect, the two contracting parties fhall mutually affit each other, with a body of 60,000 men, to reconquer "Silefia, &c." The obfervations made upon this article are, That thefe were the titles of which the Emprefs-Queen propofed to avail herself, for the recovery of Silefia:-that every war,. in which Pruffia could be concerned with Ruffia or Poland, was to be deemed an infraction of the treaty of Drefden, though neitherof thofe powers had any concern in that treaty; and though the latter was not even in alliance with the court of Vienna-that by comparing the conduct of that court with this article, from its date, it is very vifible, fhe thought to attain her end, either by provoking the King to commence a war against her, or by kindling one between his Majefty, or one of the other two before mentioned powers, by her fecret intrigues and machinations and that, confequently, it was no wonder, that the treaty of Petersburgh has ever fince been the hinge on which the Austrian politics have turned; or that their negociations have been principally directed to strengthen it by the acceflion of other Powers.

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The facts next advanced are, That the court of Saxony was the firft power invited into it: that this invitation was made in the beginning of the year 1747, and that the faid court eagerly accepted the invitation: as appeared by their furnishing Count de Vicedom, and the Sieur Pezold, their Minifters at Petersburgh, with the neceffary full powers for that purpofe; by ordering them to declare, that their court was not only ready to accede to the treaty itself, but also to the fecret article against Pruffia, and to join in the arrangement made by the two crowns; provided meafures were better taken than before, as well for the fecurity and: defence of Saxony, as for its indemnification and recompence, in proportion to the effort and progrefs which should be made by farther fpecifying, that if, upon any fresh attack from the King of Pruffia, the Emprefs Queen fhould, by their affiftance, happen not only to reconquer Silefia, and the county of Glatz, bat alfo reduce him within narrow bounds,the King of Poland, as Elector of Saxony, would ftand to the partition flipulated between his Polish Majefty and the Emprefs Queen, by the convention figned at Leipfic, May 18, 1745 and by charging Count Lofs, the Saxon Minifter at Vienna, at the fame time, to open a private negotiation for an eventual partition of the conquefts which should

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be made on Pruffia, by laying down, as the bafis of it, the faid partition-treaty of Leipfic. The particulars of all which are to be feen in the documents annexed; that is to fay, in the inftructions given, May 23, 1747, to the Saxon Minifters at Petersburgh; in the memorial accordingly delivered by thofe Minifters to the Ruffian court, Sept. 25, 1747; and in the inftructions given to Count Lofs, at Vienna, Dec. 21, 1747.

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The memorial then proceeds in thefe words: "It has, indeed, been affectedly fuppofed, throughout this negotiation, that the King would be the aggreffor against the court of Vienna. But what right can the King of Poland draw from thence to make conquefts upon the King? Or, if his Polith Majefty, in the quality of an auxiliary, will alfo become a belligerant party, it cannot be taken amifs, that his Majesty should treat him ac"cordingly, and regulate his conduct by that of Saxony. This

is a truth which has been acknowleged even by the King of "Poland's own privy council, in the opinion they gave when "confulted upon the acceffion to the treaty of Petersburgh; wit **nefs the two extracts, (alfo added to the documents) wherein the "faid privy council gave the King to underfland, That the principle laid down in the fourth fecret article of the treaty of Peterburgh, went beyond the common rules: and that if his Polish Majefty fhould approve of it, by acceding thereto, "his Pruffian Majefty might look upon it as a violation of the treaty of Drefden."

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What follows next, is a courfe of Saxon artifices, to keep the negotiation in hand, without putting the latt hand to it: At Paris, declaring, folemnly, the treaty of Petersburgh contained nothing more than was in the German copy, which had been communicated to the court of France; no fecret or feparate article having been communicated to the King of Poland: At Petersburgh, profeffing always a readiness to accede in form to the faid treaty; but always finding fome pretence to poftpone it. Thus, when invited afresh in the year 1751, they fent powers and instructions to the Sieur Funck at Petersburgh accordingly; but withal required, that the King of England, as Elector of Hanover, fhould be induced to accede firft.-And when his Britannic Majefly declined all concern in that mystery of iniquity, recommended another alliance, of a nature innocent enough to bear being produced and avowed: Retaining, neverthelets, their original purpose, to put in for a fhare of the Pruffian fpoils, whenever the proper opportunity fhould offer. In proof of which feveral claufes out of the Saxon difpatches are produced. But then it is not unfit to be ob served by the way, that neither the difpatch of June 16, 1756, from Count Flemming, the Saxon Minister at Vienna, to Count Bruhl, nor that of the Sieur Funck at Petersburgh, of June, 1753, [it is in this order they are ranged in the memorial] out of which the two following claufes are faid to be taken, are annexed to the documents." Your Excellency knows," (fays Count Flem

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