I never noticed any inclination of the sort in Lieutenant-General von Gähler. Since Easter of last year I have never spoken on the subject with any one but the minister of foreign affairs. As regards the Swedish alliance, I believed that it was advantageous, if the king only took that part which the treaty with Russia obliged him to do, but not seek any other influence, especially the influence of money.
These are the true principles on which I acted, although I at times thought and said that the Russian alliance is not the only resource for Denmark, and that it was not well to sacrifice all other considerations to it.
Struensee.
April 14, 1772.
This apology, though obscure in some parts, is decidedly clever and modest. In any ordinary court of justice it ought to have produced its effect, and the minister who could not be condemned for mere errors of judgment, ought to have been acquitted. But it was the old story of the wolf and the lamb, and the bought judges were of opinion that any rope was good enough to hang a dog.
END OF VOL. II.