A COUNTER-MEMORIAL PRESENTED BY THE FRENCH MINISTER.
This memorial seems to have made some impression on the states-general, as they scrupled to allow the artillery and stores belonging to the French king to be removed from Amsterdam; but these scruples vanished entirely on the receipt of a counter-memorial presented by the count d’Affrey, the French ambassador, who mingled some effectual threats with his expostulation. He desired them to remember, that, during the whole course of the war, the French king had required nothing from their friendship that was inconsistent with the strictest impartiality; and, if he had deviated from the engagements subsisting between him and the republic, it was only by granting the most essential and lucrative favours to the subjects of their high mightinesses. He observed, that the English, notwithstanding the insolence of their behaviour to the republic, had derived, on many occasions, assistance from the protection their effects had found in the territories of the United Provinces; that the artillery, stores, and ammunition belonging to Wessel were deposited in their territories, which the Hanoverian army in passing the Rhine had very little respected; that when they repassed that river, they had no other way of saving their sick and wounded from the hands of the French, than by embarking them in boats, and conveying them to places where the French left them unmolested, actuated by their respect for the neutrality of the republic; that part of their magazines was still deposited in the towns of the United Provinces, where also the enemies of France had purchased and contracted for very considerable quantities of gunpowder. He told them that, though these and several other circumstances might have been made the subject of the justest complaints, the king of France did not think it proper to require that the freedom and independency of the subjects of the republic should be restrained in branches of commerce that were not inconsistent with its neutrality, persuaded that the faith of an engagement ought to be inviolably preserved, though attended with some accidental and transient disadvantages. He gave them to understand, that the king his master had ordered the generals of his army carefully to avoid encroaching on the territory of the republic, and transferring thither the theatre of the war, when his enemies retreated that way before they were forced to pass the Ehine. After such unquestionable marks of regard, he said, his king would have the justest ground of complaint, if, contrary to expectation, he should hear that the artillery and stores belonging to him were detained at Amsterdam. Thirdly, he declared that such detention would be construed as a violation of the neutrality; and demanded, in the name of the king his master, that the artillery and stores should, without delay, be forwarded to Flanders by the canals of Amsterdam and the inland navigation. This last argument was so conclusive, that they immediately granted the necessary passports; in consequence of which the cannon were conveyed to the Austrian Netherlands.
DEATH OF THE KING OF SPAIN.
The powers in the southern parts of Europe were too much engrossed with their own concerns, to interest themselves deeply in the quarrels that distracted the German empire. The king of Spain, naturally of a melancholy complexion and delicate constitution, was so deeply affected with the loss of his queen, who died in the course of the preceding year, that he renounced all company, neglected all business, and immured himself in a chamber at Villa-Viciosa, where he gave a loose to the most extravagant sorrow. He abstained from food and rest until his strength was quite exhausted. He would neither shift himself, nor allow his beard to be shaved; he rejected all attempts of consolation; and remained deaf to the most earnest and respectful remonstrances of those who had a right to render their advice. In this case, the affliction of the mind must have been reinforced by some peculiarity in the constitution. He inherited a melancholy taint from his father, and this seems to have been dreaded as a family disease; for the infant don Louis, who likewise resided in the palace of Villa-Viciosa, was fain to amuse himself with hunting and other diversions, to prevent his being infected with the king’s disorder, which continued to gain ground notwithstanding all the efforts of medicine. The Spanish nation, naturally superstitious, had recourse to saints and relics; but they seemed insensible to all their devotion. The king, however, in the midst of all his distress, was prevailed upon to make his will, which was written by the count de Valparaiso, and signed by the duke de Bejar, high-chancellor of the kingdom. The exorbitancy of his grief, and the mortifications he underwent, soon produced an incurable malady, under which he languished from the month of September in the preceding year till the tenth of August in the present, when he expired. In his will he had appointed his brother don Carlos, king of Naples, successor to the crown of Spain; and nominated the queen-dowager as regent of the kingdom until that prince should arrive. Accordingly, she assumed the reins of government, and gave directions for the funeral of the deceased king, who was interred with great pomp in the church belonging to the convent of the Visitation at Madrid.
DON CARLOS SUCCEEDS TO THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN.
As the death of this prince had been long expected, so the politicians of Europe had universally prognosticated that his demise would be attended with great commotions in Italy. It had been agreed among the subscribing powers to the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, that in case don Carlos should be advanced in the course of succession to the throne of Spain, his brother don Philip should succeed him on the throne of Naples; and the duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla, which now constituted his establishment, should revert to the house of Austria. The king of Naples had never acceded to this article; therefore he paid no regard to it on the death of his elder brother, but retained both kingdoms, without minding the claims of the empress-queen, who he knew was at that time in no condition to support her pretensions. Thus the German war proved a circumstance very favourable to his interest and ambition. Before he embarked for Spain, however, he took some extraordinary steps, which evinced him a sound politician and sagacious legislator. His eldest son don Philip, who had now attained the thirteenth year of his age, being found in a state of incurable idiotism [529] [See note 4 F, at the end of this Vol.], he wisely and resolutely removed him from the succession, without any regard to the pretended right of primogeniture, by a solemn act of abdication, and the settlement of the crown of the two Sicilies in favour of his third son don Ferdinand. In this extraordinary act he observes, that according to the spirit of the treaties of this age, Europe required that the sovereignty of Spain should be separated from that of Italy, when such a separation could be effected, without transgressing the rules of justice: that the unfortunate prince-royal having been destitute of reason and reflection ever since his infancy, and no hope remaining that he could ever acquire the use of these faculties, he could not think of appointing him to the succession, how agreeable soever such a disposition might be to nature and his paternal affection: he was therefore constrained, by the Divine will, to set him aside in favour of his third son don Ferdinand, whose minority obliged him to vest the management of these realms in a regency, which he accordingly appointed, after having previously declared his son Ferdinand from that time emancipated and freed, not only from all obedience to his paternal power, but even from all submission to his supreme and sovereign authority. He then declared that the minority of the prince succeeding to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies should expire with the fifteenth year of his age, when he should act as sovereign, and have the entire power of the administration. He next established and explained the order of succession in the male and female line; on condition that the monarchy of Spain should never be united with the kingdoms of the Two Sicilies. Finally, he transferred and made over to the said don Ferdinand these kingdoms, with all that he possessed in Italy; and this ordinance, signed and sealed by himself and the infant don Ferdinand, and countersigned by the counsellors and secretaries of state, in quality of members of the regency, received all the usual forms of authenticity. Don Carlos having taken these precautions for the benefit of his third son, whom he left king of Naples, embarked with the rest of his family on board a squadron of Spanish ships, which conveyed him to Barcelona. There he landed in the month of October, and proceeded to Madrid; where, as king of Spain, he was received amid the acclamations of his people. He began his reign, like a wise prince, by regulating the interior economy of his kingdom; by pursuing the plan adopted by his predecessor; by retaining the ministry under whose auspices the happiness and commerce of his people had been extended; and with respect to the belligerent powers, by scrupulously adhering to that neutrality from whence these advantages were in a great measure derived.