STATE PAPERS.
229
arifvver, when his royal highnefs the Duke of Cumberland, by the meciation of Count de Lynar, con- cluded the truce of Sept. S, 1757. We only know, that the court of Vienna had alTured Baron de Stein- berg;, envoy from the king, as elector, to that court, that when the firft overtures were made of a peace, it had given orders to Count deStahremberg to fuppcrt them at Verfailles. That convention bore, that hoftilities (hould ceafe on both iides ; and that the auxiliary troops ihould return into their own ccun^ tries : tha<; the Hanoverians fhould be placed in the part of his majef- ty's dominions which fhould be af- fjgned them, and that ihe French (hould pofi'cfs the reft till a final reconciliation. The moft remark- able of thefe feparate articles is that wherein it is declared, that the 2.\\\ts JfjcuU not be lode d upon as pr if oners of^var.
It needs but little attention to difcover the nature and end of this convention : it is a fufpenfion of arms, a military regulation, which the French minifier hi mfelf drew up: it was to continue till the ilTue of a negotiation, begun by his Britannic majefty in the quality of Eleflor of Hanover, and upon the declaration of the courts of Vienna and Ver- failles which was expeded. This was the reafon why it was not thought neceflary to fix the time the fufpenfion of arms was to laft. It was drawn up by the generals of the two armies, who mutually agreed that it might be concluded without the ratification of the two courts : and, indeed, they might well agree to a truce, which was to laft only for a Ihort time ; but it is impoflible to fuppofe that they had power to make a treaty by which, without tte ratification of the fovereigns.
the king's dominions Ihould be de- livered up into the hands of for reigners, till a general peace, of- which there was not the leaft ap- pearance. It is a thing unheard of to give the general of an army fo extenfive an authority.
The condudl of Hanover, im- mediately after it was figned, (hews ftill more clearly the meaning and end of the convention : not only the inftrudions given to the king's envoys, but the original letters which remain in the hands of the moft refpetlable minifters who were employed in this affair, teftify to the whole world the truth oi" what we have here advanced. His royal highnefs the Duke cf Cumberland, in the firft memorial, delivered to Count de Lynar, informs him,
- that he had a view to procure,
- by means of the convention, a
- fufpenfion of arms on both fides,
- as the firft means of a reconcilia-
- tion.* Baron de Schwegeld, his
Britannic majefty's minifter, writes the 10th of September, the fame day the convention was figned, to Baron de BernftorfF, his Danifh majefty's minifter of ftate, as fol- lows ; * I need not enter into 3
- detail of a negotiation of which
- your excellency will be already
- fully informed by Count de Ly»
- nar. You will fee. Sir, by the
- account which he will give you,
- that nothing but the hopes that
- this firft ftep would ferve as 3
- foundation and introduftion to
- other meafures, made us over-
- Icok numberlefs confiderations,
- which otherwife would have me-
' rited the moft ferious confidera- ' tion in many refpects.' Baron dc Steinberg, minifter of ftate, wrote in the following terms to the Count de Lynar, who had fent the fcheme of explanation. This letter is dated
0.3 Sep-
