W

1.

HILST other bards, in fiftious lays,

Sing Chloe's or fair Daphne's praife,
And all their charms relate;

Let me employ my real verfe
In flowing numbers, and rehearse
Thofe of my lovely Kate.

A

MIDST the filence of fequefter'd fhades, To Pallas facred, and the Thefpian Maids; For thee, the poet tunes his lyre; Oh liften to the ftrains thy charms infpire! Urg'd by a love to know, in early youth, I trod the folitary maze of Truth; And, rapt in contemplation with the Sage, By the dim taper turn'd the midnight page: Love fmil'd malignant, and his keeneft dart Unerring aim'd; it quiver'd in my heart. Pale Science hence; fhe comes, a nobler gueft, fole miftrefs of my panting breast! Yet, cruel, doft thou fcorn the Mufe's pray'r? The Mufe was ever friendly to the fair.

For what joys then fhall you, fweet maid, retire ?

To reign the idol of a ruftic 'Squire!

Oh!

House of Auftria are thus fet forth:

IS Britannic Majefty, during the one

hath obferved fo irreproachable a conduct towards all his Co-eltates of the Empire without diftinction of religion, that no Prince of the Empire hath received greater proofs of efteem and confidence than he can produce. His Majefty hath, as much as the weakest States, always observed right and juftice. On the death of the Emperor Charles VI, he beheld the time, which will be a memorable era in the hiftory of the Houfe of Auftria, when the Crown of France poured numerous armies into the Empire to extirpate that Houfe, and make itfelf mafter of Germany. His Majefty, in his double capacity of King and Elector, placed himself in the breach; he led in perfon the auxiliary army of her Majesty the Emprefs-queen, the greatest part of which was compofed of his own troops: At the battle of Dettingen he expofed his facred perfon for that Princess; and his Royal Highnefs, the Duke of Cumberland, his fon, ftill bears the fears of wounds there received.

The year 1745, when his prefent Impe. rial Majefty was chofen Emperor, is ftill recent in the memory of all the States of the Empire, as well as the pains which his Britannic Majesty took upon that occafion. He purchased the prefervation of the House of Auftria, which was effected by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, with the blood and treasure of his fubjects, and by means of the most important conquefts of his Crown. He hath endeavoured to maintain the Imperial Crown in that House, by negotiations for the election of a King of the Romans. The treaty of fucceffion concluded with the Duke of Modena, and the aggrandifement refulting from it to the Houfe of Auftria, were owing to his Majesty's friendship.

After fetting forth the ingratitude of the Houfe of Auftria, it proceeds thus:

His Majefty, as Elector, is charged, 1ft, With not conforming to the refolutions taken the 17th of January, and 9th of May, Jaft year; but, on the contrary, refufing his concurrence, and declaring for a neutrality: 2dly, With giving fuccours, aid, and affiftance, to his Majefty the King of Pruffia, entering into an alliance with that Prince, joining his troops to thofe of Pruffia, under the command of a General in the fervice of his Pruffian Majefty, of fending English

troops into Germany, and making them

employing the auxiliary troops of fome other States of the Empire: And, 3dly, It is complained that contributions have been exacted, in his Majesty's name, of divers States of the Empire.

With regard to the first charge, it is very true that, in the deliberations of the Dyet of the Empire, the beginning of last year, it was given as his Majefty's opinion, as well as that of most of his Proteftant Coeftates, that the prefent troubles fhould be amicably terminated. His Majefty, in giving his opinion, had, as ufual, no other view than what equity and the good of the Germanic Empire seemed to him to require. Whatever judgment fhall be formed of the unhappy war that hath broke out, the public will always remember, that by a bare declaration of her Majefty the Emprefs-queen, That he would not attack his Pruffian Majefty, the rupture would have been avoided, and the effufion of much blood, as well as the defolation of Germany, prevented. The States that have suffered by the calamities of the war, may judge whether the way that was taken was the hoteft for the re-establishment of peace, fo much to be defired; and whether it were not to be wished, that, laying afide all private views, his Britannic Majefty's propofal had been followed.

It is true, his Majesty took no part in the refolutions which were contrary to his fentiments. But the laws of the Empire have not thereby received the leaft infringement. The question, whether, in materia colle&tarum, the majority be fufficient, has been referred ad Comitia Imperii, by the inftrumentum P. W. Art. v. § 52, and is yet undecided. It is not by the plurality of voices, that it can be there determined, but only by means of an amicable accommodation; fince otherwife that reference would have been a very ufelefs course; and it was well known, at the negotiations for the peace of Weftphalia, what was the tendency of the opinion of the Catholic States, which formed the majority; thofe very States, and all the other Members of the Empire, ought however to confider well, whether it be their effential interest to acknowledge, in the prefent cafe, that every State of the Empire is obliged to fubmit to the majority of votes, in matters of consent, as in the prefent cafe; which the principal

F

Catholic

Catholic Electors have in other cafes denied; and which will certainly be retorted upon them in proper time.

But whatever principles fhall be affumed, with regard to this question, nothing is more evident, than that, confidering cir cumftances and the fituation of the affair then and now in question, his Majesty could never be required to give his troops to comply with thofe refolutions of the Empire. All Germany knows, though the decree of the Aulic Imperial Council fays not a word about it, that, at the very time when thofe refolutions were taken, his Majefty's electoral dominions were most unjustly threaten-. ed with an invafion by France. In the month of March, that year, the Court of Vienna figned a convention with France, by virtue of which the enemy was to pass the Wefer in the month of July, and enter the King's territories. This invafion was made accordingly. The Emprefs-queen joined her own troops to thofe of France; and, in return, ftipulated, by folemn treaties figned before-hand, to have half of the contributions that fhould be exacted. The damage which the King's subjects fuffered by this first invafion, exclufive of the fums which the provinces were to furnish (and which have been paid out of the royal demeines) amounted to feveral millions. And till the unjust rage of his Majefty's enemies was not exhaufted. The French army, which entered on another fide, under the command of the Prince de Soubife, in company with the troops of Wirtemberg, which the reigning Duke, a thing of which there is no example, led himfelf, under a French General, against a Co-eltate, hath again invaded, for the fecond time, his Majesty's dominions and thofe of his allies; exacted infupportable contributions; carried off the King's Officers, intirely foraged the country, and plundered feveral places, and committed the greatest diforders, whit the Court of Vienna boats of having ordered this invafion (the fole end of which was to ravage the King's dominions and thofe of Heffe) as an effect of its magnanimity, and as a merit with the Germanic body.

If in fuch circumftances his Majefty fhould be required to fufpend the preparations he has begun, and join the troops that he wants for his own defence to thofe, which, from the arbitrary views of the Court of Vienna, are led againft his Pruffian Majey, by a Prince who doth not belong to the generality of the Empire, and on whom the command hath been conferred, with out a previous conclufum of the Germanic body; the right of the States of the Em

I

pire to defend themselves, when fuch defence fquares not with the views of the Imperial Court, ought at the fame time to be fettled. It is hoped that things are not yet come to this pafs in Germany. Self-defence is the most urgent duty. The refolutions of the Empire cannot deprive the meaneft man, much lefs a free State, and an Elector of the Empire, of his right; nor require him to join the troops he wants for that end, to thofe, which, jointly with the troops of France, have invaded his country, and shared in the contributions these extorted.

In the fecond place, his Majesty dath not deny that he hath entered into an alliance with the King of Pruffia, which is intirely conformable to the rules of right; but, as he is accountable to God alone for what he doth as King, on the other hand, in the report made of what he has done as Elector, the times which preceded have been confounded with thofe that followed the French invafion. From the beginning of laft year, his Majesty took every method to fhew, that the only thing he aimed at, without taking part ctherwife in the war, was to oppofe the French foreign troops, knowing that they were fent only to invade his electorate; as indeed they have employed themfelves almoft wholly in ruining eftates comprehended under the guaranty of the Empire, as well thofe of the Duke of Saxony of the Erneftine line, of the Duke of Brunfwic-Wolfenbuttle, the Landgrave of HeffeCaffel, and the Count of Lippe-Schaumburg, as thofe of his Majefty. This just intention, founded on the laws, from which his Majefty hath been fo far from derogating in the fmalleft matter, that no inftance thereof hath been or can be brought, did: not, nevertheless, hinder the French troops, who were furnished with the Emperor's letters requifitorial, from entering Germany in the avowed quality of auxiliary troops to the Emprefs-queen, in company with. thofe of the houfe of Auftria and the Elector Palatine. The Empire hath already been informed, on the 3d of December last year, of the firft propofals made, both to the Imperial Court and the Court of France, for an amicable determination of differences; propofals which could not have been. rejected, had not an hoftile attack been refolved on. Thefe offers, which, from the manner in which they were received, his Majefty hath reafon to regret that he ever made, leave no fhadow of plausibility to the reproaches that may be made on account of the engagement that enfued, in whatever light the King of Pruffia's caufe may be: confidered. His Majefty is, indeed, fully perfuaded

perfuaded, that he might, at any time, have entered into an alliance with that Prince for their common defence; but no one can doubt, that in this urgent neceffity, when he was left alone, he had a right to feek affitance where it could be got. No fault can poffibly be found with that which the King of Pruflia gave him to deliver the electoral States of Brunfwic, and thofe of Wolfenbuttle, Heffe, and Buckeburg. The ve y nature of this deliverance, and the prudence and bravery with which it hath been effected, have acquired immortal glory to his moft Serene Highnels Duke Ferdinand of Brunfwic-Luneburg (who doth not command the King's army as a Pruffan General); a glory, which is the greater, the more laudable it is for that Prince to have delivered, from fuch heavy and unjuft oppreffion, the dominions of a King from whole family he is defcended, and principalities in which he drew his first breath; where his ancestors have reigned, and where the Duke, his brother, ftill reigns. It is with an equally just right, that this Duke, with the Duke of Saxe Gotha, the Landgrave of Heffe-Caffel, and the Count of Schaumburg-Lippe, put their troops into his Majesty's pay. Pofterity will hardly believe, that, at a time when Auftrian, Palatine, and Wirtemberg auxiliaries were employed to invade the countries belonging to States of the Empire, other Members of the Germanic body, who employed auxiliaries in their defence, were threatened with the ban. His Majesty ordered the English troops to be fent over, and poffeffion to be taken of Embden, in his quality of King, and hath no occafion to give account thereof to any. Mean while, the laws of the Empire permit the States thereof to make ufe of foreign troops in their own defence; they forbid only the introduction of them into the Empire to invade the dominions of

another, as the Emprefs-queen hath done.

In the third and laft place, his Majefty the King of Great Britain, Elector of Brunfwic-Luneburg, fent Minifters particularly to the Palatine Court, and that of Cologne, to divert them from joining in the defigns of France against his dominions. It cannot therefore be doubted, that it would have been highly agreeable to him, if thofe Courts had taken measures that would have freed him from the burden of the war. But none can expect, that his Majefty fhould, with indifference, fee himfelf treated as an enemy by his Co-eftates. The Elector of Cologne, and the Bishop of Liege, had no troops that were wanted in the French army; but, in confideration of fubfidies, opened to it the gates of their towns, and gave it all the affidance in their power; without which, that army could not, at that time, have proceeded to far as the electoral eftates, where the Auftrian and Palatine troops behaved much worfe than the French themfelves. How can it be expected, that his Majelly, after God hath bleffed his arms with fuccefs, fhould not refent this treatment? The laws of the Empire forbid the attacking of the States of the Empire; but they permit defence against, and the purfuit of thefe, who, by their invafion, have violated the public peace.

If the Crown of France be free to ravage the dominions of the Duke of Brunfwic and the Landgrave of Helle-Caflel, because they have given the King auxiliary troops; if the Emprefs-queen may, for the affistance he hath lent the French King to attack the King's dominions, appropriate to herself half of the contributions raised there; his Majefty ought to be equally permitted to make thofe States, who have favoured the unjuft enterprifes of his enemies, feel the burden of the war.'

I

Had the honour to acquaint you, at the conference I obtained of your High Mightineffes, on the 7th inftant, that the King my Mafter had authorifed and inftructed me to enter into negotiation with fach perfons as your High Mightineffes fhould think proper to nominate for that end; but that, as the affair required a minute difcuffion, it would be impoffible to terminate it without fome farther explanations. It is with the highest pleasure that 1 this day open our conferences on this Important fubject; and I flatter myself that

if your High Mightineffes are as defirous of a reconciliation, as his Majefty is, it will foon be happily concluded.

By the two refolutions of Sept. 12 and Sept. 25, which were delivered to me the day following, your High Mightineffes thought proper to make fome difficulty of receiving the declaration which I had the honour to prefent you, in the King's name, against the trade carried on by your subjects to the French colonies in America, for the account of thofe very colonies. If his Majefty, on being informed thereof, commanded me to declare that he could

F 2

not