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vernment, fubstitutes a Directory dependent only on his own will and pleasure.

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Such, High and Mighty Lords," continues the Memoria!ist, “ are the first exploits of a Prince who declares, that he "undertakes the war folely to defend the Liberty of the Ger"manic Body, and to protect the Proteftant Religion: to which "he gives a stroke the more dreadful, as he begins with crush"ing the very State to which that religion owes the establishment and prefervation of its most valuable rights; when, at "the fame time, he breaks through the most refpectable laws, "which conftitute the union of the Germanic Body, under the pretext of a defence, of which the Empire, at prefent, ftands "in no need, except against himfelf."

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He then takes notice, That a Treaty of Neutrality, folemnly offered, together with all the fecurities compatible with the fovereignty of Saxony, was not fufficient to ftop the course of a project formed to ruin it: and that the King, in retiring within his camp, had nothing to confult but his own honour, and the zeal of his people, to reject the unheard-of proposals made to him, to abandon to the King of Pruffia, during this war, the adminiftration of his ftate and army.

Drawing then towards a clofe, he obferves, That the cause of Saxony is a common caufe to all Powers, as her fate foretels what they must expect to undergo, when the faith of treaties is no more to be refpected; and that it appeared, as well by the King of Pruffia's Declaration on his entering Saxony, as a friend, as by the Expofition of his Motives, that nothing lefs would fatisfy him, than the entire facrifice of that Electorate: and he concludes with requiring from their High Mightineffes, not only their good offices, but thofe other more efficacious fuccours which, he prefumes to be due from every State, to every State, under the like oppreffions, tho' not expreffed by treaties.

This piece is dated September 29; and on the 15th of October following, the Pruffian Minifter at the Hague prefented his counter-Memorial, to the following effect.

That it ill became the Court of Saxony to reclaim against his Prufian Majefty, the refpectable Law of Nations, which they had been the first to violate towards him: That they had adopted every part of the dangerous defigns which the Court of Vienna had formed against him; which tended to nothing less than the difpoffeffing him of Silefia, and even the deftruction of his whole power: That by the confent of all the parties, it had been referved, that Saxony fhould not appear as one, till the Pruffian forces were fo weakened, that they might pull off the mafk with impunity: Tha: the object of these defigns was, an eventual partition of the Prufian dominions, in which the Saxon Court had gone fo far, as to tipulate for their fhare, the dutchies of Magdeburgh and Groffen, with the circles of Zullichau, Cotthus, and Schwibus: That the faid Court, during this interval,

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played off every engine of unwarrantable policy, at every Court of Europe, to prepare the way for the defired event; and had not fpared even the most atrocious calumnies, to give an odious turn to the King's most innocent actions: That the great preparations made by the Court of Vienna, joined to other appearances, which fhewed the execution of their vaft designs was at hand, obliged the King to prevent them; and his Majefty having been informed of the fecret purpofes of Saxony, all laws, divine and human, authorised him to difable the Saxons first, fince it was the only method to preferve himself from ruin : That the experience of paft times, and the method of thinking peculiar to the Saxon Minifters, would not fuffer him to confide in the offer of a Neutrality, which would have been evaded, as foon as it could have been done with any fecurity; and which was, befides, no more than one of the articles of the dangerous fyftem already fettled by the combined Powers: That all the eafures which his Majefty has fince pursued in Saxony, and which have been fet forth in fuch odious colours, are but the neceffary confequences of the felf-defenfive meafures he was firit obliged to refolve on; and which amount to no more, than the depriving the Court of Saxony of the means of hurting him: That, however, even in doing this, he has obferved all possible moderation: That the country enjoys all the fecurity, and all the tranquillity, it could expect, in the very midst of peace: That the King's troops obferved the most exact discipline: That no more of them were left in Saxony, than were neceffary to obferve his Polish Majefty's camp: That all the due respect to the rank of the Queen of Poland, was fhewn her: That it was only by the moft fuitable reprefentations fhe had been prevailed upon, to fuffer fome papers, neceffary to afcertain the dangerous defigns of the Saxon Minifters, to be taken out of the State-Paper-Office; without the other archieves being touched: That of these the King was already poffeffed of the copies; but as their authenticity might have been difputed, he thought it behoved him to fecure the originals: That he was extremely forry for the neceffity which had obliged him to do things fo difagreeable to the King of Poland: That his perfonal esteem and friendship for him remained the fame: but that he could not facrifice the fafety of his dominions to thefe fentiments: And that it was to the pernicious advices of the ill intentioned perfons, in whom his Polih Majefty had placed fo unreferved a confidence, he was to impute his misfortunes: That in his Majetty's fituation, he could listen to nothing but that effential duty which bound him to the happiness of his people: That every man had a right, not only to prevent the mifchief he was threatned with, but even to retort it upon its author: That neither the conftitutions, nor laws of the Empire, could obftruct the exertion of a right fo fuperior to all others, as that of Self-Prefervation, and Self-Defence; efpecially when the depofitory of thofe laws is fo clofely

united to the enemy, as manifeftly to abuse the power lodged in him, for his fake: That the Germanic Body can have nothing to fear from a Prince fo deeply interested in its preservation as himself: That all thofe equally concerned for the liberties of Germany, and the Proteftant caufe, muft wifh fuccefs to his arms; feeing it was certain, that the oppreffion of one of the moft powerful Princes of the Empire, and of the Proteftant Communion, would neceffarily be followed with the total destruction, both of the one and the other: Whereas that country, which boasts of having given birth to the Proteftant Religion, would prove but a weak bulwark for its fecurity; which it already feels but too fenfibly, from the ftate of its concerns in the diet of the Empire, under the direction of a Prince of another Communion.

And, laftly, That this being the true ftate of the prefent crifis, his Majefty promised himself, from the friendship and fuperior wisdom of their High Mightineffes, that they would acknowlege the juftice of the measures he had been forced to take; and that, instead of liftening to the malicious infinuations of his enemies, they would use their good offices towards infpiring moderation into thofe Powers who feem to have fworn ruin to a country, whofe fate ought not to be indifferent to their Republic. Thus far the firit of thefe four important pieces.

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The fecond Paper is the King of Pruffia's Answer to the Imperial Decree of Commiffion at the Diet of Ratisbon, and to that of the Aulic Council of the Empire; from which no more need be extracted, than ferves to explain the conduct of the Imperial Court towards him, fince his entrance into Saxony, and his refentments of it: fuch of the intervening parts, as relate to the motives and provocations which induced him to take that bold, but neceffary, measure, having been either fufficiently expatiated upon already, or being more fully exhibited in the deduction of facts to be found in the other two papers that follow.

The first expreffions then, of his Majefty the King of Pruffia, in this fecond Paper, are of furprize and indignation, that the Imperial Commiffaries at the Diet, fhould prefent to the Dictature, on the 20th of September laff, a Commifforial Decree of the Emperor, founded on the refolutions of the Aulic Council, conceived in the harsheft terms, and having for its object, to incite all the other members of the Empire, to make a common cause against him: the Emperor, moreover, affuming to himself therein, a right to recall all the King of Pruffia's forces, to dif charge them from their oath of allegiance, to pafs fentence upon him as a Prince guilty of the greatest crimes, and even to declare him, in a manner, an enemy to the Empire.

To fhew how hard, and how unheard of, fuch a proceeding is, he recapitulates, in the next place, all the particulars above recited. After which, returning to the juft caufe of refentment given him by the faid Decree, he adds; One fingle inftance, in the most ancient annals, is scarce to be found, where a Crowned 5

Head,

Head, and one of the most eminent Electors, has been spoken of in fo unfriendly and flighting a manner, and where the refpect due to him has been, to fuch a degree, forgot. But whatever is molt facred among nations, ceafes to be fo with the Aulic Council, provided it can but vent its wrath, and gratify the fpirit of animofity, and revenge, it is filled with, against those who do not fubmit implicitly to its decifions. It carries the rage with which it is animated fo far, as to fend avocatorial Letters to all the King's fubjects, and dares, by its own authority, to discharge them from the oath of fidelity which they have taken to their Sovereign, The King poffeffes, in that quality, a kingdom, and feveral other provinces, which do not, in any manner, depend upon the Empire. In confounding thefe countries with those which are really held from the Empire, the Aulic Council gives a fresh, and very flagrant, proof of the tyrannical spirit it is poffeffed with, and of the dangerous views it entertains. It acts contrary to the most folemn and fundamental laws of the Empire, and particularly to the Capitulation which the Emperor has worn to, at the time of his election, to fecure the liberty and privileges of the States. It exprefsly fays, that such rigorous extremities fhall not be proceeded to, without the knowlege, and unanimous confent, of all the Electors, Princes, and other States of the Empire. If fuch defpotic proceedings of the Aulic Council were to be connived at, what would then become of the liberties and prerogatives of the States of the Empire, purchafed at the expence of their blood and treafures? It is the Aulic Council itself, that endeavours to kindle the flame of fedition in the Empire, by attempting to raise up against the King, the Electors his colleagues, together with all the other members of the Germanic Body. The King, however, is very easy upon this head, becaufe he can equally depend upon the affection and fidelity of his fubjects. As a King, he certainly will not fuffer any body to prescribe laws to him; and as Elector, he never will depart from thofe obligations which bind him, as well to the Head of the Empire, as to the other Members of that respectable Body: But he will demand, in his turn, that his juft rights be refpected; and that he be not treated, (as he has been of late, affectedly, and almoft in every inftance) in a manner which carries with it the most bare-faced partiality, and the molt crying injuftice. The King, in his prefent circumstances, has not the fmalleft difpute, either with the Head of the Empire, or with the Empire in general; if any of the principal members of this body have confpired against his Majesty, no reasonable man, who has his own safety at heart, can blame the King, for having employed thofe forces for his defence and fecurity, which God has entrusted him with. The EmprefsQueen of Hungary and Bohemia did not, in the least, fcruple to make her troops act against the Emperor Charles VII. of glorious memory, in his quality of Head of the Empire.

At that

time, the Court of Vienna even complained bitterly of the dif pofition which the Emperor made to refift her, and was extremely offended therewith. Inftead of that, the point in queftion at prefent, is, only a difpute between two very eminent members of the Empire; fo that what appeared juft to the Empress dur ing the late war, and in the difference which the had with the Bavarian and Palatine Courts, and other States of the Empire, is, and will be, juft, with much more reason, as affairs are now circumstanced, and in the King's prefent fituation: unless the Aulic Council means to banish juftice from the face of the earth.

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His Majesty then refers to his Treaty of Neutrality with the King of Great Britain, concluded in the beginning of the prefent year, as a proof of his ardent defire to preferve the peace of Germany Obferves, this measure had met with almost a general applaufe, from the Members of the Germanic Body, as it was hardly poffible it could be otherwife; notwithstanding which, he infinuates, this very treaty, fo innocent in every refpect, as having nothing in view but the common-good of Germany, gave rife to that vehement and implacable animofity which had induced the Court of Vienna to attempt every thing for his Majefty's ruin.

He then protefts, in the most folemn manner, That if the Emprefs Queen had, in two words, afforded him the affurances he required, it would have given him the higheft fatisfaction: Reckons her non-compliance with this important article, a proof of her ill intentions: Inforces from thence, the neceffity, fo often pleaded, which obliged him to take the most effectual means in his power for his own prefervation: Declares, that his great, his only view, was to obtain a full and abfolute fecurity to his dominions for the future: That he would gladly confent to a fpeedy peace, provided it was like to be firm and lafting; and that, in fuch cafe, he would, without a moment's delay, restore every thing in Saxony to its ancient footing, and punctually perform what he had promifed in his declaration, fet forth on the entrance of his troops into that country.

His Majefty, after this, expreffes his firm perfuafion, that his intentions being fuch as had been reprefented, the Electors, and other Princes of the Empire, would not fuffer themfelves to be impofed upon, either by that ocious Decree of Commiffion, or by the reprefentations of the Saxon Minifter, to the Diet, on the 23d of September laft:-Afferts, both thofe pieces were alike filled with exaggerations, and fuppofititious facts: fuch as, exceffes committed by the Pruffians, violences offered to the Saxons, and restrictions on their commerce; and that his troops, on the contrary, obferved the most exact difcipline: Makes no doubt, but that the States of the Empire will easily discover the concealed view of all thefe practices, which was neither more or less than to weaken the King, and even to opprefs

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