to hasten its conclusion. These promises were the more to be depended on, as France had all along pretended in her writings, that her sole motive in not acceding to these propofals, was because she was not willing to do it without the concurrence of her allies. The final reconciliation of the two sovereigns, namely, the king as elector, and the king of France, had certainly no relation to a general peace. The proposals made to France of an accommodation, and known both to Marshal Richelieu and Count Lynar, could leave no difficulty as to the true sense of the term of a final reconciliation. She may exaggerate, as much as she will, the dangerous situation, and the extremity to which the king's army was reduced, when the suspenfion of arms was concluded; but the event could not have been more fatal than that which France wanted to bring about, as the intention of the two contracting parties; for by her principles the states of the king would have remained in the hands of the enemy, as long as the court of Versailles should have thought proper to keep them; the auxiliary troops would have been disarmed, and those of the king exposed to total destruction. It is plain that the preamble to the convention speaks only of the reasons which induced his Danish majelty to interpose in that affair. The king gives them that justice which they deserve, and looks upon the care of the King of Denmark as a proof of his inestimable friendship, and at the same time, as an effect of his humanity, and of the generous concern which his Danish majelly took to prevent the effusion of blood, and to stop the scourge of war; but by this also the king is persuaded, that the court of Copenhagen never intended to become an instrument to France, to make the king submit to the severe terms which the latter wanted to impose upon him, under pretence of the convention, and by means of pretended necessary explanations.
The disarming of the Hessians is properly the rock on which the convention split, fo the French spare no pains to give a colour to this pretence. 'The duke of Brunswick, say they, ratified, without any alteration, the convention signed at Vienna, relating to the disarming of his troops. The landgrave had formerly demanded to be treated as that prince. It was not natural to trust to a considerable body of troops, which submitted only through fear, and it was a silly precaution to take away the means of offence, without being sure of taking away the inclination. It follows evidently from the terms of the convention, that these troops being disbanded, they were disengaged from all connections with the King of England, Elector of Hanover, who consequently had no right to retain them, and to steal away the son of the Duke of Brunswick. The only condition which the Hanoverian general had a right to demand for the auxiliary troops, was, that they should not be regarded as prisoners of war; and he could not pretend but that they had been disarmed. The condition of disarmed troops isby
