Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/246

 2^2 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

credit and influence at Vienna, precifelyin thefe circumllances, to bring about the moll unjuft and illegal proceedings againfl his Bri- tannic majelly in the affair of the pofts.

The king eafily perceived to what the threatenings of his ene- mies tended. They wanted to throw an indelible ftain upon his .arms, by difarming the auxiliary troops, who had no other refource left but either to difband or enter 3nto the French armies. The Ha- noverian troops were confined in fo narrow a fpace, that it would have been impolTible for them to fcibhlt Jong, but muft have periflicd in jnifery. Befides, the king, by fub- fcribing to the new terms which they vvanted to impofe upon him, pould not afterwards have claimed the affillancf of the Britifti nation for that eleftorate. The revenues of his German dominions would have been feized, and the country exhauiled in fuch a manner, that nothing could have been expediled from it in a long courfe of years. The king would then have feen }iimfelf unable to maintain either Jiis own or fublidiary troops, which by a natural confequcnce he had been forced to dilband. Then would his maje Ay's enemies have ac- compliflied the dangerous fchemes which Count Fleming foretold, ■might one day beco7ne fatal to the houfe of Hanonjer.

Let any one but examine this pifture, whofe natural colours are much ftronger than here reprefcnt- cd ; let him but Ullen to the voice ofreafon, jullice, and equity; let Jjjm, in fhort, but put himfclf in the king's place, it will be iinpof- fible for him to hefitate a moment, jvhat part the king had to take in

thefe circumftances. The court of France itfclf acknowledged, that the laft conditions propofed did not exiil in the treaty of Clofter-feven, as it vvanted them, to be granted by new conventions. The king had therefore an undoubted right to rtjcftthem. France ?.lfo maintain- ed that the convention, before it could become obligatory, wanted the ratification of his moft Chriftian m:jeRy. The king, therefore, had an equal power to grant his, or to refufe it. Was he to renounce this power, and abandon his coi^ntry and people to the difcretion of an eiiemy, who fought their total ruin and deftruclion ?

The king, then, took the moft juft mcafurcs, and the moft agree- able for his own dignity and prefer- vation ; the only meafures which the arrogance of his enemies had permitted him to take; meafures, in (hort, which, however dangerous and uncertain they then appeared, could not poflibly prove more fatal, than the equally heavy and ftiame- ful yoke which France wanted to impofe upon the king, by the new convention. He refolved to try, what was poffible, to deliver his eftates, and thofe of his allies, from tyranny and oppreffion, and for this purpofe, and todefend him- felf, to join in quality of ele£lor, v.'ith his Prufllan majefty. He or- dered a perfon of confidence to be fent to that monarch, to defire him to permit Prince Ferdinand of Brunfwick, a prince of the blood- royal, to take the command of his army. This was the Hrft of No- vember, and confequently five days before the battle of Rofbach, when Major General Count de Schulem- bourg departed from Srade, to go to the Kingof Pruffia. [n the meai;

time.