Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/216

 202 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

the omiffion of another ; that is, b)' their affedation of not infer ting into the treaty of Wellminller, the neutrality of the Low Countries, in favour of the emprefs quoen, at the fame time as that of Ger- many. The public foou favv into this artifice. The King of Eng- land having, to no purpole, ufed all his endeavours with that prin- cefs, for drawing ner into the fcheme of the general war which he was concerned and refolved to bring on the continent ; their Bri- tannic and PrizfTian majefties con- trived the expedient of leaving expofed the Low Countries, then very thin of troops, and by this bait to incline France to attack ihem. The drift of thefe two princes in the fuppofition of fuch an event was to reap a double ad- vantage from it, to alienate the Dutch from the neutrality, and to join the emprefs queen to their meafures by the necellicy of defend- ing herlelf.

The good faith of the king and the emprefs queen fruftrated this deceptive projeft ; the king did not think it juft to fall on the Low Countries, becaufe the Englifh made war on him; the empire held it unworthy of her to join in the defign of kindling a general war to ferve the ex- ceffiv^ ambition of England, at the expence of France, againft whom (he had no caufe of com- plaint, and to the prejudice of the quiet and fafety of the em- pire.

In thefe circumllances, the king and the emprefs, abandoned at the fame time by their principal allies, could no longer rer.iain un- der an uncertainty of their refpec- tive defjgns : the emprefs's ter- ritory lay open towards France,

as likewife towards the King of Pruflia, and the King of England, Elector of Hanover; his majefty, on his fide, might fear that this critical conjundure would at length oblige the emprefs to yield to the folicitations and menaces of the King of England. The Cmi- jarity of their moll Chrillian and imperial majeilies fituaiion, that of their zeal for the general tran- quillity, the mutual fentimencs of efteem with which they had long before infpired each other, made them open their eyes. They at ' length perceived, that the private ambition of princes continually in- lligating one again.1 the othtr. vyas the main caufe of their va- riances, and of the wars which had fo long dt folated Europe ; and efpecially Germany ; and in order to dellroy the very root of the evil, their majeilies united to- gether in a treaty of friendlhip, purely defenfive, and in a con- vention of neutrality for the Low Countries, and their refpedive do- minions.

Thus had the kings of Eng- land and Pruflia the art of bring- ing about by their condud what, for feveral centuries pad, all the efforts of policy had in vain been labouring at, and what for the tranquillity of the empire, the bed inclined part of Germany had al- ways defired. Thus their ambi- j tion and infidelity proved both the \ natural and necefiary caufe of the union of the courts of France and Vienna; there, and there only, it I is to be fought for. !

All the illufory fufpicions, all the imaginary fears, which the kings of Pruflia and England have endeavoured to infufe into the public againft the union of thofe two pcwers, as comprehejid-

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