[799] “F. O.,” Austria, 14. Keith to Carmarthen, 6th October 1787. On 10th October he reported that France would acquiesce in Joseph’s eastern policy if he would help her against England and Prussia in the Dutch dispute. On 24th October he stated that Austria refused to do so. On 14th November Joseph II informed him privately that he must make war on Turkey.
[800] Nisbet Bain, “Gustavus III and his Contemporaries,” ch. ix.
[801] B.M. Add. MSS., 28063.
[802] Greig and the other Britons had long been in the Russian service. I cannot find that they were recalled.
[803] “F. O.,” Sweden, 7. Keene on 26th August 1788 reported to Carmarthen the facts so far as he knew them, and also in a later “Account.” His bias against the King is obvious, and leads me to discount his assertions, e.g., that of 9th September, that the war with Russia was at an end, owing to the offer of peace to Catharine by the Swedish officers, and had become merely “a domestic quarrel between the King and nation.” Doubtless it was for this and similar statements that Keene was recalled in December 1788, Liston taking his place.
[804] “F. O.,” Turkey, 9. So, too, Lecky, v, 231.
[805] See, too, Frederick William’s words on this topic in Dembinski, “Documents relatifs à l’histoire ... de la Pologne (1788–91),” i, 21.
[806] “F. O.,” Prussia, 13. See, too, “Dropmore P.,” ii, 47.
[807] “F. O.,” Prussia, 14.
[808] “Dropmore P.,” i, 353.