HISTORY 1778 continued. [7.]
GERMANY continued. [7.]

To pave the way for the fuccefs of thefe propofitions, the court of Vienna laid down the following general principles, to govern the conduct of both courts in their mutual transactions, as tending to conciliation, and to equitable conclufions, viz. That each court fhould put itfelf in the other's place; that neither fhould demand any thing contrary to the dignity of the other; nor any thing, if the fituation was reverfed, which it would not think right to be infifted on. The immediate application of thefe principles was, that if his Pruffian Majefty, on a principle of political convenience, would not oppofe the aggrandizement of the Houfe of Auftria in Bavaria, the latter, on the fame principle, fhould not oppofe the aggrandizement of that of Brandenburg, when a fit opportunity offered, for re-uniting the countries of Bareuth and Anfpach in her line; and to give a permanency to this compact, and to render the motives clear and indifputable, it was propofed, that thofe reafons, and coalitions of interefts, fhould be laid down as the bafis of the prefent convention.

This propofition feemed to breathe the fpirit which produced the partition of Poland. But the cafes and times did not refemble each other. The King of Pruffia evidently derived more benefit from the character of the protector of the rights of the princes of the Empire, than from any thing to be acquired in virtue of this offer. He therefore rejected thofe propofitions, which evidently tended to the establishment of fuch an union between thofe great powers, founded upon political convenience, and mutual aggran dizement, as might have been extended in its effects, to the difmemberment of all the states in Germany, without any fecurity, after all, for peace or final good intelligence between the powers who had facrificed their neighbours to a prefent and precarious agreement. Unfortunately, however, though the fcheme has failed for the prefent, the defign is too ftrongly sketched to be worn out of memory, and may be too foon adopted in future practice.

The King answered, that he oppofed the dismemberment of Bavaria, only because he looked upon it as totally unjuft, and as deftructive of all liberty and fafeVOL. XLII.

ty in Germany; that he was not a verfe to the aggrandizement of the House of Auftria in just acquifitions; that it was wrong to blend the present dismemberment, which the House of Austria had no right to do, with a diftant, but inconteftable acquifition belonging to the House of Brandenburg; and that he could not accept of a treaty, which would overthrow the very butt of his oppofition and which ftated nothing upon the juft re-establishment of the Palatine House in Bavaria, nor towards the fatisfaction of the Elector of Saxony.

Though the court of Vienna abfolutely refused to propofe any conditions that feemed to the King of Pruffia more precife or fatisfactory than thofe already laid down, the King, ftill perfevering in his endeavours to prevent à rupture, remitted to that court, May 26. a plan of accommodation. By this it was propofed, That, for the fake of peace, the Elector Palatine fhould be engaged to cede to the court of Vienna two great districts belonging to Bavaria, which were fituated contiguous to Bohemia and Austria, upon the Danube and Inn; that the Emprefs fhould reftore all thofe territories which her troops occupied in Bavaria; and that, in return for the ceffion made by the Elector, the Emprefs-Queen and the Emperor fhould grant fome res nunciations and inveftitures with respect to difputable fiefs and claims in his fayour.

It was contended, That thefe propo→ fals exhibited proofs of the greatest equity and moderation, at the fame time that they were highly advantageous to the court of Vienna. That court, it was faid, had no claim on the Elector, as a matter of right, for any thing. The le gal and tranquil ceffion of two extenfive diftricts, which interfered to much with the dominions of the House of Auftria as to have been the caule of frequent divifions and feuds, and which would have rounded their poffeffions, and defined their limits, by great rivers and other dif tinguished boundaries, in fuch a manner as to prevent all future controversy on that subject, was a matter of great and permanent advantage to that Houfe. On the other fide, nothing was demanded in return, but some small and inadequate parcels of territories which lay detached from the body of the Auftrian dominions, and fome feudal clairns and rights. which, instead of affording any real ad

vantage, ferved only as a fource of continual altercation with the neighbouring princes.

The court of Vienna not only refufed to liften to thefe propofitions, but to offer any on her fide, which could in any degree clearly or exprefsly define her prefent or limit her future claims. Some preliminaries were, however, dispatched to Berlin by Prince Kaunitz, to ferve as the bafis of a new plan of conciliation, and in which the fame undefined prin. ciples of reciprocal equity were ftill held out, or talked of. By one article the court of Berlin was to make no oppofition to any acquifition the court of Vienna might make, or was then actually poffeffed of in Bavaria. By another, the Palatine Houfe fhould be fatisfied by a voluntary exchange, upon agreeable and convenient conditions.

The court of Berlin, after expofing, and complaining much of what the called the vague, obfcure, and unfatisfactory nature of these overtures, demanded a precife anfwer, and a clear explanation, on certain points, which it stated; particulary, What the court of Vienna would keep, and what reftore, belonging to Bavaria? What equivalents and advantages it would give to the Palatine, and to the Elector of Saxony? and, Whether it would enter into an arrangement of all the Bavarian fucceffion, relative to the rights of the feveral claimants, with the King, as the friend and ally of thofe princes, as a member of the Empire, and as having, by his other titles, a great right and material intereft in taking part in the just regulation of that fucceffion?

This memorial, though accompanied with every verbal reprefentation which apparently could conduce to a friendly arrangement, was but ill received at Vi ́enna, and produced an answer, June 24. which, after a total cenfure of the Pruffian propofitions, concluded with a declaration, That if the Vienna propofitions were not adopted as preliminaries, all friendly arrangements would become impoffible, and all further eclairciffement fuperfluous.

An end being thus put to all hopes of accommodation, and the vast armies on both fides only waiting the fignal for action, the King of Pruflia, early in July, publifhed a manifefto, and other documents, ftating the unwarrantable, violent, and unjust conduct of the court of Vienna, and feverely cenfuring that of the Emperor, who was bound by his

high office to have acted that very part which the King had been under a neceffity of undertaking, by preventing, or applying a remedy to all fuch tranfac tions within that empire over which he was chofen to prefide. In these pieces, after accurately ftating all the points of conteft, and the tranfactions on both fides, he fhews the neceffity of his taking up arms, and calls upon the ftates of the Empire to fecond his efforts, to support and defend the natural and much-injured rights of fo many eminent and illuftrious princes, and in oppofing the all-afpiring power and ambition of the House of Auftria, which, if fuffered to proceed uncontrouled, would foon fet up claims to other dominions, and proceed to the total overthrow of the whole fyftem of the German empire. [40. 338.]

Whilft a verbal and literary warfare was thus carried on at Vienna, Berlin, and Ratisbon, wherein the subject of debate, whether hid in the confufion and darkness of violent and ignorant ages, involved in the labyrinths of German jurisprudence, or perplexed by illdefined rights, doubtful records, and fufpicious documents, would have afforded room for endless litigation, the two great powers who had engaged as principals on the oppofite fides of the queftion, were more feriously employed in their preparations for that final refort, which only can generally determine fuch controverfies between fuch parties. For though it would feem that their fituation and habits in peace approached fo nearly to a state of war, that there could be but little difficulty in the tranfition; yet fo wafteful, as well as deftructive is that infatiate monfter, and fo immenfe is the provision of every kind neceffary to be made for the support of those vast armies which it is now the fashion to bring into the field, that the greatest treasures, joined to the products of the moft fertile countries and abundant feafons, cannot preclude fome delay and extraordinary preparation at the point of approach to that awful crifis.

The court of Vienna had feemed to expect or intend hoftility from almoft the moment that declared the Elector of Bavaria's death. The language of war was every where held in the Auftrian dominions, and its expectation thewn, before the controverfy had risen on either fide to fuch a height, as could feem to war. rant thofe ftrong indications. Among other immediate preparations, agents

were

lent in one quarter for what she obtained in another.

were very early fent to Tartary and the Ukrane, to purchase 7000 horfes for the ufe of the cavalry; a number which was foon procured in those wide Sarmatic and Scythian regions, whofe graffy unbounded plains feem in all ages to have been confidered as the native inheritance of that generous animal. The demand, however, increasing with the supply, the fame officers were immediately fent back to procure a still greater number. In the mean time, the troops from the moft diftant parts were in motion on their way to Bohemia, whilft clouds of Croats, and other irregular forces, who are only of, use in actual service, were pushed on in conftant fucceffion towards that kingdom; the hereditary ftates were ordered to furnish 40,000 recruits; Auftria to fupply 300,000 facks of oats; and by the end of February, public prayers were put up in the churches of Vienna, for fuccefs to the Auftrian arms against all the enemies of that houfe.

It appears, however, that this point has been controverted; and that the charge of original preparation, and indication of hoftility, has been laid at the King of Pruffia's door. It is indeed a queftion of little confequence; each fide took every measure in its power to be prepared for every possible event, whilst it watched with the moft jealous attention all the motions of the other; nor will it be eafily fuppofed, that if any negligence afforded a prompt opportunity of advantage, the occafion would have been overlooked by either. Upon the whole, it does not feem, from his conduct, that the King was by any means defirous of entering into a war, if it could be avoided without giving up the points in conteft; nor does it feem very probable, that the House of Auftria, in the prefent fituation of affairs, carried her immediate views any farther, than to fome undefined extenfion of her dominion on the fide of Bavaria, the limits of which were only to be determined by future circumftances and events. If the Pruffian monarch was determined to thwart her views in this purfuit, fhe was willing to abide the confequences, and was exceedingly well prepared for a war; but if his ambition fhould coincide with her own, the feemed much more difpofed to enter into such an amicable arrangement and partition of territory with him, as fhould, at the expence of fome of the weaker princes, afford him fome equiva

It was generally fuppofed, that fome of the neighbouring great powers would have taken a part in this conteft, and from thence apprehended that the war might by degrees become general. The court of Ruffia is faid to have engaged with the King of Pruffia by treaty, to afflift him with a strong body of auxiliary forces; and it is certain, that her minifter at Vienna exprefled the strongest difapprobation of the conduct and pretenfions of that court. It is probable, that the expected Ruffian auxiliaries were in part retarded by the expectation of a Turkish war, and in part by the uncertainty of the event in Germany, from the negociations which we have seen had been opened, under the immediate aufpices, and through the direct corre fpondence, of the great contending powers.

On the other fide, the court of Vienna is faid to have opened a negociation with that of Versailles, for the march of a French army into Weftphalia. Whatever motives might have otherwife operated upon the conduct of the latter, it could fcarcely avoid being affected in the present inftance by that extraordinary alliance which France entered into in the beginning of the year, with the, once English, American colonies. It may, however, be a matter of doubt, what part France, in any flate of her affairs, would have taken in this business; a formal declaration, which her minifter has fince prefented to the diet of the Empire being by no means favourable to the opinion, that he was any wife dif pofed to fupport the pretenfions, or even approved of the conduct, of the court of Vienna; but, on the contrary, held out the firm refolution of his Mo Chriftian Majefty, to adhere religiouly to his treaties with the Germanic body, and punctually to fulfil his guarantee of the treaty of Weftphalia; giving at the fame time an affurance, that his alliance with that court was founded merely upon thofe principles.

Upon the whole, it does not appear, that the pretenfions and conduct of the court of Vienna have been much more approved of without than within the Empire.

The King of Pruffia, after a review of that part of his army which lay in the neighbourhood of Berlin, April 5. and which