Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/215

 STATE PAPERS.

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duel of Hanover, with relation to the convention of Clofter-feven, they proceed as follows :

«* As it is chiefly from the king's alliance wiih the Emprefs Queen f Hungary and Bohemia, that the King of England, Elec- tor of Hanover, has fought to take advantage for ftirring up the ftares of Germany againft their moli Chriftian and Imperial Ma- jefties, and cover with a fpecious pretext his pernicious attempts againll: the quiet and fafety of the empire ; the firll thing mud be to deface the falfeimpreffions intend- ed by him to be made on the pub- lic.

To this end it will be demon- ftraied, that this alliance which his Britannic majefty has pretended to be fo very unnatural and fo dan- gerous for the Germanic liberty, has, on the contrary, been quite natural ; that the kings of England and Pruflia have themfelves ren- dered it neceflary, and that if the liberty of the Empire is threatened v/ith the greateft dangers, it is from thofe who have attacked it, and who in contempt of the Ger- manic conftitutions, and of what- ever among fovereigns is moft fa- cred, labour to opprefs it, and not from thofe who defend it, purfuant to their engagements, in confor- mity to the refol'jtions of the em- pire, and at the hazard of their own fafety.

It is manifefl that on the firfl: hoftilities in North America of the King of England againll: the French, the king formed the de- flgn of confining himfelf to his own defence againft the Englilh, in order, were it pofiible, to pre- ferve to Europe in general, and the Empire in particular, the ad- vantages of peace, of v.hich he

found himfelf deprived bjr the in* juftice and ambition of his ene- mies.

Bat very different were the thoughts of other powers ; the King of Pruflia, dazzled, as he himfelf owns, by the King of Eng- land's glittering promifes, quitted, the alliance of France j and fud- denly came to light a particular treaty betwixt the courts of Lon- don and Berlin, containing the moft dangerous views, and which, among other objefts, impofed law» on the princes of Germany, in- terdifling them the liberty of foreign fuccours, which is referved to them by the Germanic conftitu- tions, in cafe of their being at- tacked.

Thefe two courts indeed gave oat that this treaty tended onljr to the fupport of the tranquillity of Germany, and that it was the motive for the claufe expreffing, that they would fuffer no foreiga troops to enter it under any pre- tence whatever ; but as the Em- pire had in no wife commiilioned them with this care, and the King of Pruflia, in concert with the King of England, was making immenfe preparations of war, at a time when he had no enemies to fight, it was eafy to judge, that the real fcope of a claufe fo contrary to the Germanic confti- tutions, was to hinder any oppo- fition coming from without Ger- many to the war which thofe two princes had determined to kindle within, if they ftiould not find the court of Vienna favourable to the projetfl of exciting a general war, in which France might be impli- cated.

if the expreffion of this claufe drew a fufpicion on their views, they were entirely laid open by

the

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