222 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
- thelefs (fays ht) it is but too
- remarkable, that it wants to get
- rid of all thefe difficulties, and is
- bent on giving a difFeretit face to
- the affairs of religion in the em-
- pire, and to conquer Silelia.* In
a difpatch of the 16th of the fame month, he fays, • I am more and
- mere perfn ided, t!iat the refiec-
- tions which I have made in my
- firmer letter-, and cfpecially in
- that cf the gvfi inflant, are not
« without foundation, and I can
- no lont;rf ;doubt that the court
- w-here 1 am has formed a fcheme,
« the prvncipifl objedts of which
- are religionj and the recdvery
« of Silelya.'
Laltly, he tells us t!"^ manner In which this fchemc w.s to have been executed, in a itttcr w(-il worthy of attention, dated July S, 1756.
• They know very well (fays
- the count) that it is neccii'^ry
- to purfue, without interrnption,
- the meafures already begun, 'h.n
- they may be able to play a dou;>!e
- game, and put themfplves in fo
« good a condition, that the King
- of Pruflia Hrall be thereby ob'i--
- ed by fupporting his armaments,
« and the augrrientations made or
- to be made, either to walle away
- by little and little, or, to pre-
- vent that inconvencience, fulfer
- himfelf to run into fonie preci-
« pitate rtfolurion, which to mc
- feems to be the very thing they
- expect.'
It is in confcqnence of thefe dc- figns,and by thefe means, that Ger- many is become the unhappv thea- tre of war. Does Europe -at prc- fent fay that this i? to be laid to the king's account, or to whom dees joliice afcribe it ?
Tne conduct cf the king, after
thb war broke oat was the fame; always juft and irreproachable. The hal-mony between him and his Poliflj majellv fubfiited upon its former footing ; he dcfired peace ; and though he neither could nor would engage the King of Pruffia to n'^glecl the r.eceffary means of defence, he did not fail to remon- ftrate to that monarch, not to ufe th/'m but in ttic utmoft necefiity. The king was at peace with the emprefs queen; he had no hand in the war between Pruflia, A ultria, and Saxony, nor had he ever been -folicited by the King of Pruflia to take part in it. This has been c'eclared, on different occalions, as well to the court of Vienna and the dyet of the empire, as to the principal courts of Germa- ny, by minillers fent exprefsly for that purpofe.
At a comitial deliberation of the loth of January, 1757, the king, as eled^or, gave it as his opinion, that the empire fhould interpofe its mediation to appcafe, in an amicable manner, the troubles in which it was involved. AH thefe j things are publicly known, nor j can any one have the face to alledge | the Icart rtep. the leaft meafure, from which the contrary can be in- I ferred.
The winter which followed, hindered France from fending her troops in 1756 againft the domi- nions o^his iiri.annic mi.itily : but at the fame t.m; jr opened a new fcene by the neuTa'ity offered the king tor thefe i^ominians. After fhewiiig what parted upon thi' oc- cafion, .v fhsll draw from them _», the c&nfequences which natur »Hy hj follow. On the foartli of January, * 1757, C>yo.nt KAuniiz declared to Baron St-.mbc;^', Ihe Hanoverian miniiler
