History of Friedrich II of Prussia V Vol 16
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Chapter XIII.
ROMISH-KING QUESTION; ENGLISH-PRIVATEER QUESTION.
The public Events so called, which have been occupying mankind
during this Voltaire Visit, require now mainly to be forgotten;--
and may, for our purposes, be conveniently riddled down to Three.
FIRST, King-of-the-Romans Question; SECOND, English-Privateer
Question; and then, hanging curiously related to these Two, a
THIRD, or "English-French Canada Question." Of some importance all
of them; extremely important to Friedrich, especially that Third
and least expected of them.
Witty Hanbury Williams, the English Excellency at Berlin, busy
intriguing little creature, became distasteful there, long since;
and they had to take him away: "recalled," say the Documents, "22d
January, 1751." Upon which, no doubt, he made a noise in Downing
Street; and got, it appears, "re-credentials to Berlin, 4th March,
1751;" [Manuscript LIST in State-Paper Office.] but I think did not
much reside, nor intend to reside; having all manner of wandering
Continental duties to do; and a world of petty businesses and
widespread intrigues, Russian, German and other, on hand.
Robinson, too, is now home; returned, 1748 (Treaty of Aix in his
pocket); and an Excellency Keith, more and more famous henceforth,
has succeeded him in that Austrian post. Busy people, these and
others; now legationing in Foreign parts: able in their way;
but whose work proved to be that of spinning ropes from sand, and
must not detain us at this time.
The errand of all these Britannic Excellencies is upon a notable
scheme, which Royal George and his Newcastle have devised, Of
getting all made tight, and the Peace of Aix double-riveted, so to
speak, and rendered secure against every contingency,--by having
Archduke Joseph at once elected "King of the Romans." King of the
Romans straightway; whereby he follows at once as Kaiser, should
his Father die; and is liable to no French or other intriguing;
and we have taken a bond of Fate that the Balance cannot be canted
again. Excellent scheme, think both these heads; and are stirring
Germany with all their might, purse in hand, to co-operate, and do
it. Inconceivable what trouble these prescient minds are at, on
this uncertain matter. It was Britannic Majesty's and Newcastle's
main problem in this world, for perhaps four years (1749-1753):--
"My own child," as a fond Noodle of Newcastle used to call it;
though I rather think it was the other that begot the wretched
object, but had tired sooner of nursing it under difficulties.
Unhappily there needs unanimity of all the Nine Electors.
The poorer you can buy; "Bavarian Subsidy," or annual pension, is
only 45,000 pounds, for this invaluable object; Koln is only--a
mere trifle: [Debate on "Bavarian Subsidy" (in Walpole,
George the Second, i. 49): endless Correspondence
between Newcastle and his Brother (curious to read, though of the
most long-eared description on the Duke's part), in Coxe's
Pelham, ii, 338-465 ("31st May, 1750-3d November,
1752"): precise Account (if anybody now wanted it), in
Adelung, vii. 146, 149, 154, et seq.] trifles all, in
comparison of the sacred Balance, and dear Hanover kept scathless.
But unfortunately Friedrich, whom we must not think of buying, is
not enthusiastic in the cause! Far from it. The now Kaiser has
never yet got him, according to bargain, a Reichs-Guarantee for the
Peace of Dresden; and needs endless flagitating to do it. [Does it,
at length, by way of furtherance to this Romish-King Business, "23d
January-14th May, 1751" ( Adelung, vii. 217).]
The chase of security and aggrandizement to the House of Austria is
by no means Friedrich's chief aim! This of King of the Romans never
could be managed by Britannic Majesty and his Newcastle.
It was very triumphant, and I think at its hopefulest, in 1750,
soon after starting,--when Excellency Hanbury first appeared at
Berlin on behalf of it. That was Excellency Hanbury's first journey
on this errand; and he made a great many more, no man readier;
a stirring, intriguing creature (and always with such moneys to
distribute); had victorious hopes now and then,--which one and all
proved fatuous. ["June, 1750," Hanbury for Berlin (Britannic
Majesty much anxious Hanbury were there): Hanbury to Warsaw next
(hiring Polish Majesty there); at Dresden, does make victorious
Treaty, September, 1751; at Vienna, 1753 (still on the aawe quest).
Coxe's Pelham, ii. 339, 196, 469.] In 1751
and 1752, the darling Project met cross tides, foul winds,
political whirlpools ("Such a set are those German Princes!")--and
swam, indomitable, though near desperate, as Project seldom did;
till happily, in 1753, it sank drowned:--and left his Grace of
Newcastle asking, "Well-a-day! And is not England drowned too?"
We hope not.
"Owing mainly to Friedrich's opposition!" exclaimed Noodle and the
Political Circles. Which--(though it was not the fact; Friedrich's
opposition, once that Reichs-Guarantee of his own was got, being
mostly passive, "Push it through the stolid element, then, YOU
stolid fellows, if you can!")--awoke considerable outcry in
England. Lively suspicion there, of treasonous intentions to the
Cause of Liberty, on his Prussian Majesty's part; and--coupled with
other causes that had risen--a great deal of ill-nature, in very
dark condition, against his Prussian Majesty. And it was not
Friedrich's blame, chiefly or at all. If indeed Friedrich would
have forwarded the Enterprise:--but he merely did not; and the
element was viscous, stolid. Austria itself had wished the thing;
but with nothing like such enthusiasm as King George;--to whom the
refusal, by Friedrich and Fate, was a bitter disappointment.
Poor Britannic Majesty: Archduke Joseph came to be King of the
Romans, in due course; right enough. And long before that event
(almost before George had ended his vain effort to hasten it),
Austria turned on its pivot; and had clasped, not England to its
bosom, but France (thanks to that exquisite Kaunitz); and was in
arms AGAINST England, dear Hanover, and the Cause of Liberty!
Vain to look too far ahead,--especially with those fish-eyes.
Smelfungus has a Note on Kaunitz; readable, though far too
irreverent of that superlative Diplomatist, and unjust to the real
human merits he had.
"The struggles of Britannic George to get a King of the Romans
elected were many. Friedrich never would bite at this salutary
scheme for strengthening the House of Austria: 'A bad man, is not
he?' And all the while, the Court of Austria seemed indifferent, in
comparison;--and Graf von Kaunitz-Rietberg, Ambassador at Paris,
was secretly busy, wheeling Austria round on its axis, France round
on its; and bringing them to embrace in political wedlock!
Feat accomplished by his Excellency Kaunitz (Paris, 1752-1753);--
accomplished, not consummated; left ready for consummating when he,
Kaunitz, now home as Prime Minister, or helmsman on the new tack,
should give signal. Thought to be one of the cleverest feats ever
done by Diplomatic art.
"Admirable feat, for the Diplomatic art which it needed; not, that
I can see, for any other property it had. Feat which brought, as it
was intended to do, a Third Silesian War; death of about a million
fighting men, and endless woes to France and Austria in particular.
An exquisite Diplomatist this Kaunitz; came to be Prince, almost to
be God-Brahma in Austria, and to rule the Heavens and Earth (having
skill with his Sovereign Lady, too), in an exquisite and truly
surprising manner. Sits there sublime, like a gilt crockery Idol,
supreme over the populations, for near forty years.
"One reads all Biographies and Histories of Kaunitz: [Hormayr's (in
OEsterreichischer Plutarch, iv. 3tes,
231-283); &c. &c.] one catches evidence of his well knowing his
Diplomatic element, and how to rule it and impose on it.
Traits there are of human cunning, shrewdness of eye;--of the
loftiest silent human pride, stoicism, perseverance of
determination,--but not, to my remembrance, of any conspicuous
human wisdom whatever, One asks, Where is his wisdom? Enumerate,
then, do me the pleasure of enumerating, What he contrived that the
Heavens answered Yes to, and not No to? All silent! A man to give
one thoughts. Sits like a God-Brahma, human idol of gilt crockery,
with nothing in the belly of it (but a portion of boiled chicken
daily, very ill-digested); and such a prostrate worship, from those
around him, as was hardly seen elsewhere. Grave, inwardly unhappy-
looking; but impenetrable, uncomplaining. Seems to have passed
privately an Act of Parliament: 'Kaunitz-Rietberg here, as you see
him, is the greatest now alive; he, I privately assure you!'--and,
by continued private determination, to have got all men about him
to ratify the same, and accept it as valid. Much can be done in
that way with stupidish populations; nor is Beau Brummel the only
instance of it, among ourselves, in the later epochs.
"Kaunitz is a man of long hollow face, nose naturally rather turned
into the air, till artificially it got altogether turned thither.
Rode beautifully; but always under cover; day by day, under glass
roof in the riding-school, so many hours or minutes, watch in hand.
Hated, or dreaded, fresh air above everything: so that the
Kaiserinn, a noble lover of it, would always good-humoredly hasten
to shut her windows when he made her a visit. Sumptuous suppers,
soirees, he had; the pink of Nature assembling in his house;
galaxy, domestic and foreign, of all the Vienna Stars. Through
which he would walk one turn; glancing stoically, over his nose, at
the circumambient whirlpool of nothings,--happy the nothing to whom
he would deign a word, and make him something. O my friends!--In
short, it was he who turned Austria on its axis, and France on its,
and brought them to the kissing pitch. Pompadour and Maria Theresa
kissing mutually, like Righteousness and--not PEACE, at any rate!
'MA CHERE COUSINE,' could I have believed it, at one time?"
A SECOND Prussian-English cause of offence had arisen, years ago,
and was not yet settled; nay is now (Spring, 1753) at its height or
crisis: Offence in regard to English Privateering.
Friedrich, ever since Ost-Friesland was his, has a considerable
Foreign Trade,--not as formerly from Stettin alone, into the Baltic
Russian ports; but from Embden now, which looks out into the
Atlantic and the general waters of Europe and the World.
About which he is abundantly careful, as we have seen. Anxious to
go on good grounds in this matter, and be accurately neutral, and
observant of the Maritime Laws, he had, in 1744, directly after
coming to possession of Ost-Friesland, instructed Excellency
Andrie, his Minister in London, to apply at the fountain-head, and
expressly ask of my Lord Carteret: "Are hemp, flax, timber
contraband?" "No," answered Carteret; Andrie reported, No. And on
this basis they acted, satisfactorily, for above a year. But, in
October, 1745, the English began violently to take PLANKS for
contraband; and went on so, and ever worse, till the end of the
War. [Adelung, vii. 334.] Excellency Andrie has gone home; and a
Secretary of Legation, Herr Michel, is now here in his stead:--a
good few dreary old Pamphlets of Michel's publishing (official
Declaration, official Arguments, Documents, in French and English,
4to and 8vo, on this extinct subject), if you go deep into the
dust-bins, can be disinterred here to this day. Tread lightly,
touching only the chief summits. The Haggle stretches through five
years, 1748-1753,--and then at last ceases HAGGLING:--
"JANUARY 8th, 1748 [War still on foot, but near ending], Michel
applies about injuries, about various troubles and unjust seizures
of ships; Secretary Chesterfield answers, 'We have an Admiralty
Court; beyond question, right shall be done.' 'Would it were soon,
then!' hints Michel. Chesterfield, who is otherwise politeness
itself, confidently hopes so; but cannot push Judicial people.
"FEBRUARY, 1748. Admiralty being still silent, Michel applies by
Memorial, in a specific case: 'Two Stettin Ships, laden with wine
from Bordeaux, and a third vessel,' of some other Prussian port,
laden with corn; taken in Ramsgate Roads, whither they had been
driven by storm: 'Give me these Ships back!' Memorial to his
Grace of Newcastle, this. Upon which the Admiralty sits;
with deliberation, decides (June, 1748), 'Yes!' And 'there is hope
that a Treaty of Commerce will follow;' [ Gentleman's
Magazine, xviii. (for 1748), pp. 64, 141.] which was
far from being the issue just yet!
"On the contrary, his Prussian Majesty's Merchants, perhaps
encouraged by this piece of British justice, came forward with more
and ever more complaints and instances. To winnow the strictly true
out of which, from the half-true or not provable, his Prussian
Majesty has appointed a 'Commission,'" fit people, and under strict
charges, I can believe, "Commission takes (to Friedrich's own
knowledge) a great deal of pains;--and it does not want for clean
corn, after all its winnowing. Plenty of facts, which can be
insisted on as indisputable. 'Such and such Merchant Ships
[Schedules of them given in, with every particular, time, name,
cargo, value] have been laid hold of on the Ocean Highway, and
carried into English Ports;--OUT of which his Prussian Majesty has,
in all Friendliness, to beg that they be now re-delivered, and
justice done.' 'Contraband of War,' answer the English; 'sorry to
have given your Majesty the least uneasiness; but they were
carrying'--'No, pardon me; nothing contraband discoverable in
them;' and hands in his verified Schedules, with perfectly polite,
but more and more serious request, That the said ships be restored,
and damages accounted for. 'Our Prize Courts have sat on every ship
of them,' eagerly shrieks Newcastle all along: 'what can we do!'
'Nay a Special Commission shall now [1751, date not worth seeking
farther]--special Commission shall now sit, till his Prussian
Majesty get every satisfaction in the world!'
"English Special Commission, counterpart of that Prussian one
(which is in vacation by this time), sits accordingly: but is very
slow; reports for a long while nothing, except, 'Oh, give us time!'
and reports, in the end, nothing in the least satisfactory.
["Have entirely omitted the essential points on which the matter
turns; and given such confused account, in consequence, that it is
not well possible to gather from their Report any clear and just
idea of it at all." (Verdict of the PRUSSIAN Commission: which had
been re-assembled by Friedrich, on this Report from the English
one, and adjured to speak only "what they could answer to God, to
the King and to the whole world," concerning it: Seyfarth,
ii. 183.)] 'Prize Courts? Special Commission?' thinks
Friedrich: 'I must have my ships back!' And, after a great many
months, and a great many haggles, Friedrich, weary of giving time,
instructs Michel to signify, in proper form ('23d November, 1752'),
'That the Law's delay seemed to be considerable in England; that
till the fulness of time did come, and right were done his poor
people, he, Friedrich himself, would hopefully wait; but now at
last must, provisionally, pay his poor people their damages;--would
accordingly, from the 23d day of April next, cease the usual
payment to English Bondholders on their Silesian Bonds; and would
henceforth pay no portion farther of that Debt, principal or
interest [about 250,000 pounds now owing], but proceed to indemnify
his own people from it, to the just length,--and deposit the
remainder in Bank, till Britannic Majesty and Prussian could UNITE
in ordering payment of it; which one trusts may be soon!'"
[Walpole, i. 295; Seyfarth, ii. 183, 157; Adelung, vii. 331-338;
Gentleman's Magazine; &c.]
"November 23d, 1752, resolved on by Friedrich;" "consummated April
23d, 1753:" these are the dates of this decisive passage (Michel's
biggest Pamphlet, French and English, issuing on the occasion).
February 8th, 1753, no redress obtainable, poor Newcastle shrieks,
"Can't, must n't; astonishing!" and "the people are in great wrath
about it. April 12th, Friedrich replies, in the kindest terms;
but sticking to his point." [Adelung, vii. 336-338.] And punctually
continued so, and did as he had said. With what rumor in the City,
commentaries in the Newspapers and flutter to his Grace of
Newcastle, may be imagined. "What a Nephew have I!" thinks
Britannic Majesty: "Hah, and Embden, Ost-Friesland, is not his.
Embden itself is mine!" A great deal of ill-nature was generated,
in England, by this one affair of the Privateers, had there been no
other: and in dark cellars of men's minds (empty and dark on this
matter), there arose strange caricature Portraitures of Friedrich:
and very mad notions--of Friedrich's perversity, astucity,
injustice, malign and dangerous intentions--are more or less vocal
in the Old Newspapers and Distinguished Correspondences of those
days. Of which, this one sample:
To what height the humor of the English ran against Friedrich is
still curiously noticeable, in a small Transaction of tragic
Ex-Jacobite nature, which then happened, and in the commentaries it
awoke in their imagination. Cameron of Lochiel, who forced his way
through the Nether-Bow in Edinburgh, had been a notable rebel;
but got away to France, and was safe in some military post there.
Dr. Archibald Cameron, Lochiel's Brother, a studious contemplative
gentleman, bred to Physic, but not practising except for charity,
had quitted his books, and attended the Rebel March in a medical
capacity,--"not from choice," as he alleged, "but from compulsion
of kindred;"--and had been of help to various Loyalists as well;
a foe of Human Pain, and not of anything else whatever: in fact, as
appears, a very mild form of Jacobite Rebel. He too got, to France;
but had left his Wife, Children and frugal Patrimonies behind him,
--and had to return in proper concealment, more than once, to look
after them. Two Visits, I think two, had been successfully
transacted, at intervals; but the third, in 1753, proved otherwise.
March 12th, 1753, wind of him being had, and the slot-hounds
uncoupled and put on his trail, poor Cameron was unearthed "at the
Laird of Glenbucket's," and there laid hold of; locked in Edinburgh
Castle,--thence to the Tower, and to Trial for High Treason.
Which went against him; in spite of his fine pleadings, and manful
conciliatory appearances and manners. Executed 7th June, 1753.
His poor Wife had twice squeezed her way into the Royal Levee at
Kensington, with Petition for mercy;--fainted, the first time,
owing to the press and the agitation; but did, the second time,
fall on her knees before Royal George, and supplicate,--who had to
turn a deaf ear, royal gentleman; I hope, not without pain.
The truth is, poor Cameron---though, I believe, he had some vague
Jacobite errands withal--never would have harmed anybody in the
rebel way; and might with all safety have been let live. But his
Grace of Newcastle, and the English generally, had got the
strangest notion into their head. Those appointments of Earl
Marischal to Paris, of Tyrconnel to Berlin; Friedrich's nefarious
spoiling of that salutary Romish-King Project; and now simultaneous
with that, his nefarious oonduct in our Privateer Business:
all this, does it not prove him--as the Hanburys, Demon Newswriters
and well-informed persons have taught us--to be one of the worst
men living, and a King bent upon our ruin? What is certain, though
now well-nigh inconceivable, it was then, in the upper Classes and
Political Circles, universally believed, That this Dr. Cameron was
properly an "Emissary of the King of Prussia's;" that Cameron's
errand here was to rally the Jacobite embers into new flame;--and
that, at the first clear sputter, Friedrich had 15,000 men, of his
best Prussian-Spartan troops, ready to ferry over, and help
Jacobitism to do the matter this time! [Walpole, George
the Second, i. 333, 353; and Letters to
Horace Mann (Summer, 1753), for the belief held.
Adelung, vii. 338-341, for the poor Cameron tragedy itself.]
About as likely as that the Cham of Tartary had interfered in the
"Bangorian Controversy" (raging, I believe, some time since,--in
Cremorne Gardens fist of all, which was Bishop Hoadly's Place,--to
the terror of mitres and wigs); or that, the Emperor of China was
concerned in Meux's Porter-Brewery, with an eye to sale of NUX
VOMICA. Among all the Kings that then were, or that ever were, King
Friedrich distinguished himself by the grand human virtue (one of
the most important for Kings and for men) of keeping well at home,
--of always minding his own affairs. These were, in fact, the one
thing he minded; and he did that well. He was vigilant, observant
all round, for weather-symptoms; thoroughly well informed of what
his neighbors had on hand; ready to interfere, generally in some
judicious soft way, at any moment, if his own Countries or their
interests came to be concerned; certain, till then, to continue a
speculative observer merely. He had knowledge, to an extent of
accuracy which often surprised his neighbors: but there is no
instance in which he meddled where he had no business;--and few,
I believe, in which he did not meddle, and to the purpose, when
he had.
Later in his Reign, in the time of the American War (1777), there
is, on the English part, in regard to Friedrich, an equally
distracted notion of the same kind brought to light. Again, a
conviction, namely, or moral-certainty, that Friedrich is about
assisting the American Insurgents against us;--and a very strange
and indubitable step is ordered to be taken in consequence.
[ OEuvres de Frederic, xxvi. 394 (Friedrich to
Prince Henri, 29th June, 1777.)] As shall be noticed, if we have
time. No enlightened Public, gazing for forty or fifty years into
an important Neighbor Gentleman, with intent for practical
knowledge of him, could well, though assisted by the cleverest
Hanburys, and Demon and Angel Newswriters, have achieved less!--
Question THIRD is-- But Question Third, so extremely important was
it in the sequel, will deserve a Chapter to itself.
Chapter XIV.
THERE IS LIKE TO BE ANOTHER WAR AHEAD.
Question Third, French-English Canada Question, is no other than,
under a new form, our old friend the inexorable JENKINS'S-EAR
QUESTION; soul of all these Controversies, and--except Silesia and
Friedrich's Question--the one meaning they have! Huddled together
it had been, at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and left for closed
under "New Spanish Assiento Treaty," or I know not what:--you
thought to close it by Diplomatic putty and varnish in that manner:
and here, by law of Nature, it comes welling up on you anew. For IT
springs from the Centre, as we often say, and is the fountain and
determining element of very large Sections of Human History, still
hidden in the unseen Time.
"Ocean Highway to be free; for the English and others who have
business on it?" The English have a real and weighty errand there.
"English to trade and navigate, as the Law of Nature orders, on
those Seas; and to ponderate or preponderate there, according to
the real amount of weight they and their errand have? OR, English
to have their ears torn off; and imperious French-Spanish Bourbons,
grounding on extinct Pope's-meridians, GLOIRE and other imaginary
bases, to take command?" The incalculable Yankee Nations, shall
they be in effect YANGKEE ("English" with a difference), or
FRANGCEE ("French" with a difference)? A Question not to be closed
by Diplomatic putty, try as you will!
By Treaty of Utrecht (1713), "all Nova Scotia [ACADIE as then
called], with Newfoundland and the adjacent Islands," was ceded to
the English, and has ever since been possessed by them accordingly.
Unluckily that Treaty omitted to settle a Line of Boundary to
landward, or westward, for their "NOVA SCOTIA;" or generally, a
Boundary from NORTH TO SOUTH between the British Colonies and the
French in those parts.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, eager to conclude itself,
stipulated, with great distinctness, that Cape Breton, all its guns
and furnishings entire, should be restored at once (France
extremely anxious on that point); but for the rest had, being in
such haste, flung itself altogether into the principle of STATUS-
QUO-ANTE, as the short way for getting through. The boundary in
America was vaguely defined, as "now to be what it had been before
the War." It had, for many years before the War, been a subject of
constant altercation. ACADIE, for instance, the NOVA SCOTIA of the
English since Utrecht time, the French maintained to mean only "the
Peninsula", or Nook included between the Ocean Waters and the Bay
of Fundy. And, more emphatic still, on the "Isthmus" (or narrow
space, at northwest, between said Bay and the Ocean or the Gulf of
St. Lawrence) they had built "Forts:" "Stockades," or I know not
what, "on the Missaquish" (HODIE Missiquash), a winding difficult
river, northmost of the Bay of Fundy's rivers, which the French
affirm to be the real limit in that quarter. The sparse French
Colonists of the interior, subjects of England, are not to be
conciliated by perfect toleration of religion and the like;
but have an invincible proclivity to join their Countrymen outside,
and wish well to those Stockades on the Missiquash. It must be
owned, too, the French Official People are far from scrupulous or
squeamish; show energy of management; and are very skilful with the
Indians, who are an important item. Canada is all French; has its
Quebecs, Montreals, a St. Lawrence River occupied at all the good
military points, and serving at once as bulwark and highway.
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