The king of Poland, in his distress, did not fail to implore the assistance and mediation of neutral powers. His minister at the Hague presented a memorial to the states-general, complaining that the invasion of Saxony was one of those attacks against the law of nations, which from the great respect due to this law, demanded the assistance of every power interested in the preservation of its own liberty and independency. He observed, that from the first glimpse of misunderstanding between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, he had expressly enjoined his ministers at all the courts of Europe to declare, that it was his firm resolution, in the present conjuncture of affairs, to observe the strictest neutrality. He represented that a free and neutral state had been, in the midst of peace, invaded by an enemy, who disguised himself under the mask of friendship, without alleging the least complaint, or any pretension whatsoever; but founding himself solely on his own convenience, made himself master, by armed force, of all the cities and towns of the electorate, dismantling some and fortifying others; that he had disarmed the burghers; carried off the magistrates as hostages for the payment of unjust and enormous contributions of provisions and forage; seized the coffers; confiscated the revenues of the electorate; broke open the arsenals, and transported the arms and artillery to his own town of Magdeburgh; abolished the privy-council, and, instead of the lawful government, established a directory, which acknowledged no other law but his own arbitrary will. He gave them to understand, that all these proceedings were no other than preliminaries to the unheard of treatment which was reserved for a queen, whose virtues ought to have commanded respect, even from her enemies; that, from the hands of that august princess, the archives of the state were forced away by menaces and violences, notwithstanding the security which her majesty had promised herself under the protection of all laws, human and divine; and notwithstanding the repeated assurances given by the king of Prussia, that not only her person, but the place of her residence, should be absolutely safe, and that even the Prussian garrison should be under her direction. He observed, that a prince who declared himself protector of the protestant religion, had begun the war by crushing the very state to which that religion owes its establishment, and the preservation of its most invaluable rights; that he had broken through the most respectable laws which constitute the union of the Germanic body, under colour of a defence which the empire stood in no need of except against himself; that the king of Prussia, while he insists on having entered Saxony as a friend, demands his army, the administration of his dominions, and, in a word, the sacrifice of his whole electorate; and that the Prussian directory, in the declaration of motives, published under the nose of a prince to whom friendship was pretended, thought it superfluous to allege even any pretext, to colour the usurpation of his territories and revenues.—Though this was certainly the case, in his Prussian majesty’s first exposition of motives, the omission was afterwards supplied, in a subsequent memorial to the states-general; in which he charged the king of Poland as an accomplice in, if not an accessary to, the treaty of Petersburgh; and even taxed him with having agreed to a partition of some Prussian territories, when they should be conquered. This treaty of partition, however, appears to have been made in time of actual war, before all cause of dispute was removed by the peace of Dresden.
IMPERIAL DECREES PUBLISHED AGAINST THE KING OF PRUSSIA.
While the Austrian and Prussian armies were in the field, their respective ministers were not idle at Ratisbon, where three imperial decrees were published against his Prussian majesty; the first, summoning that prince to withdraw his troops from the electorate of Saxony; the second, commanding all the vassals of the empire employed by the king of Prussia to quit that service immediately; and the third, forbidding the members of the empire to suffer any levies of soldiers, for the Prussian service, to be raised within their respective jurisdictions. The French minister declared to the diet, that the proceedings of his Prussian majesty having disclosed to the world the project concerted between that prince and tie king of England, to excite in the empire a religious war which might be favourable to their particular views, his most christian majesty, in consequence of his engagement with the empress-queen, and many other princes of the empire, being resolved to succour them in the most efficacious manner, would forthwith send such a number of troops to their aid, as might be thought necessary to preserve the liberty of the Germanic body. On the other hand, the Prussian minister assured the diet, that his master would very soon produce the proofs that were come to his hands of the plan concerted by the courts of Vienna and Dresden, for the subversion of his electoral house, and for imposing upon him a yoke, which seemed to threaten the whole empire.
DECLARATION OF DIFFERENT POWERS.
About the same time, the Russian resident at the Hague communicated to the states-general a declaration from his mistress, importing, that her imperial majesty having seen a memorial presented at the court of Vienna by the king of Prussia’s envoy extraordinary, was thereby convinced that his Prussian majesty’s intention was to attack the territories of the empress-queen; in which case, she, the czarina, was inevitably obliged to succour her ally with all her forces; for which end she had ordered all her troops in Livonia to be forthwith assembled on the frontiers, and hold themselves in readiness to march; that, moreover, the Russian admiralty had been enjoined to provide immediately a sufficient number of galleys for transporting a large body of troops to Lubeck. The ministers of the empress-queen, both at the Hague and at London, delivered memorials to the states-general and his Britannic majesty, demanding the succours which these two powers were bound to afford the house of Austria by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; but their high mightinesses kept warily aloof, by dint of evasion, and the king of Great Britain was far otherwise engaged. The invasion of Saxony had well nigh produced tragedies in the royal family of France. The dauphiness, who was far advanced in her pregnancy, no sooner learned the distressful circumstances of her parents, the king and queen of Poland, than she was seized with violent fits, which occasioned a miscarriage, and brought her life into the most imminent danger. The Prussian minister was immediately ordered to quit Versailles; and directions were despatched to the French minister at Berlin, to retire from that court without taking leave. Finally, the emperor of Germany concluded a new convention with the French king, regulating the succours to be derived from that quarter; he claimed, in all the usual forms, the assistance of the Germanic body, as guarantee of the pragmatic sanction and treaty of Dresden; and Sweden was also addressed on the same subject.
HIS PRUSSIAN MAJESTY’S ANSWER TO THE SAXON MEMORIAL.
The king of Prussia did not passively bear all the imputations that were fixed upon his conduct. His minister at the Hague presented a memorial, in answer to that of the Saxon resident, in which he accused the court of Dresden of having adopted every part of the scheme which his enemies had formed for his destruction. He affirmed that the Saxon ministers had, in all the courts of Europe, played off every engine of unwarrantable politics, in order to pave the way for the execution of their project; that they had endeavoured to give an odious turn to his most innocent actions; that they had spared neither malicious insinuations, nor even the most atrocious calumnies, to alienate all the world from his majesty, and raise up enemies against him everywhere. He said, he had received information that the court of Saxony intended to let his troops pass freely, and afterwards wait for events of which they might avail themselves, either by joining his enemies, or making a diversion in his dominions; that in such a situation he could not avoid having recourse to the only means which were left him for preventing his inevitable ruin, by putting it out of the power of Saxony to increase the number of his enemies. He asserted, that all the measures he had pursued in that electorate were but the Accessary consequences of the first resolution he was forced to take for his own preservation; that he had done nothing but deprived the court of Saxony of the means of hurting him; and this had been done with all possible moderation; that the country enjoyed all the security and all the quiet which could be expected in the very midst of peace, the Prussian troops observing the most exact discipline; that all due respect was shown to the queen of Poland, who had been prevailed upon, by the most suitable representations, to suffer some papers to be taken from the paper office, of which his Prussian majesty already had copies; and thought it necessary, to ascertain the dangerous design of the Saxon ministry against him, to secure the originals; the existence and reality of which might otherwise have been denied. He observed, that every man has a right to prevent the mischief with which he is threatened, and to retort it upon its author; and that neither the constitutions nor the laws of the empire could obstruct the exertion of a right so superior to all others as that of self-preservation and self-defence; especially when the depository of these laws is so closely united to the enemy, as manifestly to abuse his power in her favour.