History of Friedrich II of Prussia V 11 [54]
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Jenkins's Ear will have kindled the Universe, not the Spanish Main
only, and we shall be at a fine pass!" The Britannic Majesty
reflects that if France take to fighting him, the first stab given
will probably be in the accessiblest quarter and the intensely
most sensitive,--our own Electoral Dominions where no Parliament
plagues us, our dear native country, Hanover. Extremely
interesting to know what Friedrich of Prussia will do in
such contingency?
Well, truly it might have been King George's best bargain to close
with Friedrich; to guarantee Julich and Berg, and get Fredrich to
stand between the French and Hanover; while George, with an
England behind him, in such humor, went wholly into that Spanish
Business, the one thing needful to them at present. Truly;
but then again, there are considerations: "What is this Friedrich,
just come out upon the world? What real fighting power has he,
after all that ridiculous drilling and recruiting Friedrich
Wilhelm made? Will he be faithful in bargain; is not, perhaps,
from of old, his bias always toward France rather? And the Kaiser,
what will the Kaiser say to it?" These are questions for a
Britannic Majesty! Seldom was seen such an insoluble imbroglio of
potentialities; dangerous to touch, dangerous to leave lying;--and
his Britannic Majesty's procedures upon it are of a very slow
intricate sort; and will grow still more so, year after year, in
the new intricacies that are coming, and be a weariness to my
readers and me. For observe the simultaneous fact. All this while,
Robinson at Vienna is dunning the Imperial Majesty to remember old
Marlborough days and the Laws of Nature; and declare for us
against France, in case of the worst. What an attempt!
Imperial Majesty has no money; Imperial Majesty remembers recent
days rather, and his own last quarrel with France (on the Polish-
Election score), in which you Sea-Powers cruelly stood neuter!
One comfort, and pretty much one only, is left to a nearly
bankrupt Imperial heart; that France does at any rate ratify
Pragmatic Sanction, and instead of enemy to that inestimable
Document has become friend,--if only she be well let alone.
"Let well alone," says the sad Kaiser, bankrupt of heart as well
as purse: "I have saved the Pragmatic, got Fleury to guarantee it;
I will hunt wild swine and not shadows any more: ask me not!"
And now this Herstal business; the Imperial Dehortatoriums,
perhaps of a high nature, that are like to come? More hopeless
proposition the Britannic Majesty never made than this to the
Kaiser. But he persists in it, orders Robinson to persist;
knocks at the Austrian door with one hand, at the Prussian or
Anti-Austrian with the other; and gazes, with those proud fish-
eyes, into perils and potentialities and a sea of troubles.
Wearisome to think of, were not one bound to it! Here, from a
singular CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, not yet got into
print, are two Excerpts; which I will request the reader to
try if he can take along with him, in view of much that
is Coming:--
1. A JUST WAR.--"This War, which posterity scoffs at as the WAR OF
JENKINS'S EAR, was, if we examine it, a quite indispensable one;
the dim much-bewildered English, driven into it by their deepest
instincts, were, in a chaotic inarticulate way, right and not
wrong in taking it as the Commandment of Heaven. For such, in a
sense, it was; as shall by and by appear. Not perhaps since the
grand Reformation Controversy, under Oliver Cromwell and
Elizabeth, had there, to this poor English People (who are
essentially dumb, inarticulate, from the weight of meaning they
have, notwithstanding the palaver one hears from them in certain
epochs), been a more authentic cause of War. And, what was the
fatal and yet foolish circumstance, their Constitutional Captains,
especially their King, would never and could never regard it as
such; but had to be forced into it by the public rage, there being
no other method left in the case.
"I say, a most necessary War, though of a most stupid appearance;
Jenkins's Ear will have kindled the Universe, not the Spanish Main
only, and we shall be at a fine pass!" The Britannic Majesty
reflects that if France take to fighting him, the first stab given
will probably be in the accessiblest quarter and the intensely
most sensitive,--our own Electoral Dominions where no Parliament
plagues us, our dear native country, Hanover. Extremely
interesting to know what Friedrich of Prussia will do in
such contingency?
Well, truly it might have been King George's best bargain to close
with Friedrich; to guarantee Julich and Berg, and get Fredrich to
stand between the French and Hanover; while George, with an
England behind him, in such humor, went wholly into that Spanish
Business, the one thing needful to them at present. Truly;
but then again, there are considerations: "What is this Friedrich,
just come out upon the world? What real fighting power has he,
after all that ridiculous drilling and recruiting Friedrich
Wilhelm made? Will he be faithful in bargain; is not, perhaps,
from of old, his bias always toward France rather? And the Kaiser,
what will the Kaiser say to it?" These are questions for a
Britannic Majesty! Seldom was seen such an insoluble imbroglio of
potentialities; dangerous to touch, dangerous to leave lying;--and
his Britannic Majesty's procedures upon it are of a very slow
intricate sort; and will grow still more so, year after year, in
the new intricacies that are coming, and be a weariness to my
readers and me. For observe the simultaneous fact. All this while,
Robinson at Vienna is dunning the Imperial Majesty to remember old
Marlborough days and the Laws of Nature; and declare for us
against France, in case of the worst. What an attempt!
Imperial Majesty has no money; Imperial Majesty remembers recent
days rather, and his own last quarrel with France (on the Polish-
Election score), in which you Sea-Powers cruelly stood neuter!
One comfort, and pretty much one only, is left to a nearly
bankrupt Imperial heart; that France does at any rate ratify
Pragmatic Sanction, and instead of enemy to that inestimable
Document has become friend,--if only she be well let alone.
"Let well alone," says the sad Kaiser, bankrupt of heart as well
as purse: "I have saved the Pragmatic, got Fleury to guarantee it;
I will hunt wild swine and not shadows any more: ask me not!"
And now this Herstal business; the Imperial Dehortatoriums,
perhaps of a high nature, that are like to come? More hopeless
proposition the Britannic Majesty never made than this to the
Kaiser. But he persists in it, orders Robinson to persist;
knocks at the Austrian door with one hand, at the Prussian or
Anti-Austrian with the other; and gazes, with those proud fish-
eyes, into perils and potentialities and a sea of troubles.
Wearisome to think of, were not one bound to it! Here, from a
singular CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, not yet got into
print, are two Excerpts; which I will request the reader to
try if he can take along with him, in view of much that
is Coming:--
1. A JUST WAR.--"This War, which posterity scoffs at as the WAR OF
JENKINS'S EAR, was, if we examine it, a quite indispensable one;
the dim much-bewildered English, driven into it by their deepest
instincts, were, in a chaotic inarticulate way, right and not
wrong in taking it as the Commandment of Heaven. For such, in a
sense, it was; as shall by and by appear. Not perhaps since the
grand Reformation Controversy, under Oliver Cromwell and
Elizabeth, had there, to this poor English People (who are
essentially dumb, inarticulate, from the weight of meaning they
have, notwithstanding the palaver one hears from them in certain
epochs), been a more authentic cause of War. And, what was the
fatal and yet foolish circumstance, their Constitutional Captains,
especially their King, would never and could never regard it as
such; but had to be forced into it by the public rage, there being
no other method left in the case.
"I say, a most necessary War, though of a most stupid appearance;