INTERPOSITION OF THE KING OF PRUSSIA.
This declaration, in all probability, did not produce such effect as the interposition of his Prussian majesty, the most enterprising prince of his time, at the head of one hundred and forty thousand of the best troops that Germany ever trained. Perhaps he was not sorry that the empress of Muscovy furnished him with a plausible pretence for maintaining such a formidable army, after the peace of Europe had been ascertained by a formal treaty, and all the surrounding states had diminished the number of their forces. He now wrote a letter to his uncle the king of Great Britain, complaining of the insults and menaces which had been offered by the czarina to Sweden; declaring, that he was bound by a defensive alliance, to which France had acceded, to defend the government at present established in Sweden; and that he would not sit still, and tamely see that kingdom attacked by any power whatsoever, without acting up to his engagements; he therefore entreated his Britannic majesty to interpose his good offices, in conjunction with France and him, to compromise the disputes which threatened to embroil the northern parts of Europe. By this time the Russian army had approached the frontiers of Finland: the Swedes had assembled their troops, replenished their magazines, and repaired their marine; and the king of Denmark, jealous of the czarina’s designs with regard to the duchy of Sleswick, which was contested with him by the prince-successor of Russia, kept his army and navy on the most respectable footing. At this critical juncture the courts of London, Versailles, and Berlin, co-operated so effectually by remonstrances and declarations at Petersburgh and Stockholm, that the empress of Russia thought proper to own herself satisfied, and all those clouds of trouble were immediately dispersed. Yet, in all probability, her real aim was disappointed; and, however she might dissemble her sentiments, she never heartily forgave the king of Prussia for the share he had in this transaction. That monarch, without relaxing in his attention to the support of a very formidable military power, exerted very extraordinary endeavours in cultivating the civil interests of his country. He reformed the laws of Brandenburgh, and rescued the administration of justice from the frauds of chicanery. He encouraged the arts of agriculture and manufacture; and even laid the foundation of naval commerce, by establishing an East-India company in the port of Embden.
Nor did the French ministry neglect any measure that might contribute to repair the damage which the kingdom had sustained in the course of the war. One half of the army was disbanded: the severe imposition of the tenth penny was suspended by the king’s edict: a scheme of economy was proposed with respect to the finances; and the utmost diligence used in procuring materials, as well as workmen, for ship-building, that the navy of France might speedily retrieve its former importance. In the midst of these truly patriotic schemes, the court of Versailles betrayed a littleness of genius, and spirit of tyranny, joined to fanaticism, in quarreling with their parliament about superstitious forms of religion. The sacraments had been denied to a certain person on his death-bed, because he refused to subscribe to the bull Unigenitus. The nephew of the defunct preferred a complaint to the parliament, whose province it was to take cognizance of the affair; a deputation of that body attended the king with the report of the resolutions; and his majesty commanded them to suspend all proceedings relating to a matter of such consequence, concerning which he would take an opportunity of signifying his royal pleasure. This interposition was the source of disputes between the crown and parliament, which had like to have filled the whole kingdom with intestine troubles.