as well on account of the usage he met with towards the end of the late war, as of the unsettled

and France would, one time or other, be the occasion of a new war, in which the natural interests of his country might not lead him to take any part; that he had of late been much taken up with domestic affairs, but that he would now think and reflect seriously on what was proposed. He then hinted to me the treatment he had met with from us when the late peace was made, and talked of the instability of our measures and sudden changes in our administrations, which made it almost impossible to transact business with us with any sort of security. To both which objections I answered as well as I could, allowing, at the same time, that he had some reason to complain; but that now a plan was formed, and government had acquired a consistency, it was probable there would be an end of unsteadiness of measures, and of changes in our administration.

"He then asked me, if I knew any thing farther concerning the particular stipulations that might enter into the triple alliance proposed? I answered, I did not; only that I believed it was intended to invite the States General, the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, and such German princes as had not acceded to the Family Compact; but that a plan of this treaty would be fully communicated and explained by Mr. Stanley, who was to have a credential to him, King of Prussia, for that purpose.

"The last question his Prussian Majesty put to me was, if I knew that the Empress Queen had acceded to the Family Compact? I said, I had heard such a report, but did not know if it was founded; that if she had acceded, it seemed to be entirely against the letter of that treaty, as appears by the twenty-first article, which expressly says, that none are to be admitted but those of the Bourbon family.

"Thus, Sir, I have laid before you a full and fair account of the conference I have had with the King of Prussia upon the subjectmatter of your important despatch; by which it plainly appears, that his Prussian Majesty is not yet convinced of the necessity nor of the expediency of such an alliance; that he is diffident and backward to enter into engagements with us, and afraid of being drawn into new wars; and that he seems to think himself secure on his own bottom. But on this last I cannot help widely

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,

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) 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

and fluctuating state our government has been in since the conclusion of the peace, I made a proper use of your Lordship's secret letter of the 8th of August, and urged his Prussian Majesty upon this point; that now, by your Lordship's taking a share in government, the cause of his distrust was taken away, and therefore his diffidence friend ought to cease, &c. He answered, “I fear my has hurt himself by accepting of a peerage at this time."

I replied, that though I really did not know your motives, I was persuaded you could give a good reason for what you had done; that I was not at all alarmed with the clamour and abuse thrown out against you on that account, as it was the effect of the arts and malice of your enemies, on purpose to discredit you with the people, who were easily misled by first impressions and misrepresentations, but were as easily brought back

differing from him; as, according to the best of my knowledge, he has no treaty of alliance but with the court of Russia, which, as I am informed (for I never saw the treaty), does not go a great way. Besides, I have learnt that he does not show the proper attention and management due to that court; the being well with which is to him of the utmost importance. I therefore, upon the whole, cannot help concluding, that of the contracting parties in this triple alliance the King of Prussia will reap the greatest advantage and security, though he does not at present see it in that light. I should not have failed telling him so, had a fit opportunity offered; but I did not judge it proper to make one, as he might with justice have deemed it presumption in me to judge or give an opinion upon what was most for his real interest."

again to their senses, by right actions and a steady conduct; that I was convinced this would be the case with your Lordship, and to confirm what I said, I mentioned to him what I had been a witness to, when, by your speech in parliament('), you saved the American colonies, and were abused most scurrilously as a traitor to your country for so doing; that in a very short space of time the people saw they had been deceived, acknowledged their error, and expressed their esteem and gratitude to you, in a stronger manner than ever they had done before; that this, I hoped, would be the case now, which brought to my mind what I had observed in the field, where certain great officers never appeared in their full lustre but by recovering what was deemed desperate. The King smiled, and said "I understand your allusion, and hope it will be so."(2)

I have the honour to be, with great and sincere respect, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient

and most obliged humble servant, ANDREW MITCHELL.

(1) Sir Andrew was member for the burghs of Elgin, &c., and was present in the House of Commons on the 21st of February of this year, when Mr. Pitt made his memorable speech on the state of the American colonies.

(2) For the conversation which passed between Frederick the Great and Sir Andrew, on the field of battle, immediately after the signal defeat of the Austrians near Leignitz, on the 15th of August 1760, see Vol. II. p. 56.