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deserves, by bringing fairly before the proprietors and the public the state of their affairs ; which may now be settled upon a solid foundation, and not proceed any longer under a concealment, which nothing but a desperate state could justify. I have the honour to be, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient and

most humble servant,

THOMAS WALPOLE.

THE RIGHT HON. HANS STANLEY TO THE EARL OF СНАТНАМ.

Gentlemen's Hotel, King Street, St. James's,

MY DEAR LORD,

September 11, 1766.

I HAD the honour of seeing his Majesty yesterday; though the hour was late, on account of a council, and several other audiences which preceded mine, he was pleased to enter into the business of my commission, with his usual goodness and affability. I had an opportunity of observing, what I had before more than once admired, the great accuracy of his Majesty's memory in recollecting the various parts of so involved, so long, and sometimes so contradictory a correspondence, as that which I have lately perused; and I had the satisfaction of finding his better judgment concur with my poor opinion, in all the material inferences and deductions drawn from thence, many of which he was pleased to

suggest to me before I had mentioned them.

He

is convinced not only of the prudence, but the necessity of following one plain, direct, and simple path in the negotiation upon the line of the alliance actually subsisting between Russia and Prussia. I have the honour to be, my dear Lord, Your most obedient

and most humble servant,

H. STANLEY.

THE REV. EDWARD WILSON TO THE COUNTESS OF CHATHAM.

MADAM,

Weymouth, September 13, 1766.

I HAVE the pleasure to inform you, that all my pupils (1) are very well and very good. Lady Hester and Mr. Pitt still continue to surprise and astonish as much as ever; and I see no possibility of diminishing their ardour, either by too much business or too much relaxation. When I am alone reading, Mr. Pitt, if it is any thing he may attend to, constantly places himself by me, where his steady attention and sage remarks are not only entertaining but useful; as they frequently throw a light upon the subject, and strongly impress it on my memory.

(1) Of Lord Chatham's three sons, John, William, and James-Charles, the respective ages at this time were ten, seven, and five. Lady Hester had nearly completed her eleventh, and Lady Harriet her eighth year.

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Mr. Pitt, I think, is considerably grown since we came to Weymouth. I beg my most respectful compliments to the Earl of Chatham, and am,

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THE enclosed is Mr. Stanley's summary recapitulation of the correspondence from our ministers in Russia, since the present Empress's mounting that throne; which he desired me, when I had done with it, to transmit to you. I think it drawn up with great ability; but cannot agree with him in the least as to his last paragraph, where he manifestly leans to yielding the Turkish point to! the desires of the Empress.

If the King of Prussia sincerely wishes to see the proposed grand alliance formed, he will feel the weight of our reasoning, as a commercial nation and highly interested in the Levant trade, against that proposition, and will, I am persuaded, do his utmost to make Russia reasonable on that head.

GEORGE R.

SIR ANDREW MITCHELL TO THE EARL OF CHATHAM.

Berlin, September 17, 1766.

(Private.)

MY LORD,

My letter to Mr. Conway of this date will inform your Lordship of what passed in the conference I had with the King of Prussia at Potsdam, and of the manner in which I have executed the important commission with which I was charged. (1)

(1) Sir Andrew Mitchell's account of his interview with Frederic the Great has fortunately been preserved amongst his papers, and is here given :

"I had the honour of acquainting you in my last of the 14th, that I was the next day to set out for Potsdam, in order to have an audience of his Prussian Majesty, and I am now to give you an account of what passed in that audience. I began by acquainting his Prussian Majesty, that the King had commanded me to lay before him the outlines of a project, which his Majesty thought would lead effectually to secure the continuance of the public general tranquillity, by forming a firm and solid system in the North, to counterbalance the formidable alliance of the House of Bourbon, founded on the Family Compact: that for this purpose his Majesty thought that a triple alliance between the crowns of Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia was the most probable means of obtaining this great and salutary end; and that before he took any steps in that important affair, his Majesty was desirous of knowing the King of Prussia's opinion.

"To this his Prussian Majesty answered, that at present he saw no likelihood of war; that France could not make war; that Spain was less in a condition to do it; that he therefore made no doubt the Spaniards would pay the Manilla ransom; that the troubles in Spain must be of great advantage to us, and could not fail to secure, for some time at least, the public tranquillity, which he was of opinion would soon have been interrupted by an invasion of Portugal, had not tumults happened in

As I found the King of Prussia averse to enter into new and stricter connections with England,

Spain, which had, in some sort, unhinged their government and weakened the authority of the crown; that such an alliance at this time would give jealousy to other powers, and afford a pretence for disturbing the general tranquillity. Besides, he observed, alliances made with a view to distant events are, for the most part, merely matters of ostentation, and rarely produce other effect than that of imposing for a short time upon the adverse party. He then repeated an Italian proverb, ' Chi sta bene non se muove.'

any

"I replied, Chi sta solo non sta bene;' that the forming of a triple alliance as proposed could not justly give alarm to any power in Europe, as it was calculated for the preservation of the public tranquillity, and the object of it was merely defensive, without any view of ambition or conquest of any kind; that the Family Compact was of quite a different nature, big with ambition and vengeance, threatening the liberties of Europe, and that it was an alliance offensive and defensive against mankind, making cause commune almost of every case that could happen, as his Prussian Majesty would find by reading it over; that this made the alliance proposed by the King the more necessary, and that this was the fit time to enter into that alliance, whilst the situation of the other powers in Europe was such as did neither invite nor perhaps permit them to make war; that the King was resolved to act in thorough union and confidence with his Prussian Majesty; and as a proof of his sincerity and attention had directed Mr. Stanley, his ambassador to the court of Russia, to pass by Berlin, in order to open the whole plan to his Prussian Majesty (and that before it had been communicated to the court of Petersburgh), and at the same time to concert with him, King of Prussia, the proper measures to be taken to bring this great project into execution.

"The King of Prussia, after desiring me to make his compliments to the King, and to express how highly sensible he was of this mark of his Majesty's friendship and confidence, added, that the affair in question was of a very important nature, and required much deliberation, especially on his part, as he was afraid the many matters of discussion still subsisting between us

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