bishop. The king then wrote a letter to the bishop, in which he complained of the violation of his right, and the contempt of his authority, charged the prelate with countenancing the late act of difobedience, and required an answer in two days.

In three days the answer was fent, in which the bishop founds his claim to the two lordships upon a grant of Charles the Fifth, guarantied by France and Spain; alledges that his predeceffors had enjoyed this grant above a century, and that he never intended to infringe the rights of Pruffia; but, as the house of Brandenburg had always made some pretenfions to that territory, he was willing to do what other bishops had offered, to purchase that claim for an hundred thousand

crowns.

To every man that knows the ftate of the feudal countries, the intricacy of their pedigrees, the confufion of their alliances, and the different rules of inheritance that prevail in different places, it will appear evident, that of reviving antiquated claims there can be no end, and that the poffeffion of a century is a better title than can commonly be produced. So long a prescription fuppofes an acquiefcence in the other claimants; and that acquiefcence fuppofes alfo fome reason, perhaps now unknown, for which the claim was forborn. Whether this rule could be confidered as valid in the controverfy between these sovereigns may however be doubted, for the bishop's answer seems to imply, that the title of the house of Brandenburg had been kept alive by repeated claims, though the seizure of the territory had been hitherto forborn.

The king did not fuffer his claim to be subjected to any altercations, but, having published a declaration in

which

which he charged the bishop with violence and injuf tice, and remarked that the feudal laws allowed every man, whofe poffeffion was withheld from him, to enter it with an armed force, he immediately dispatched two thousand foldiers into the controverted countries, where they lived without controul, exercising every kind of military tyranny, till the cries of the inhabitants forced the bishop to relinquish them to the quiet government of Pruffia.

This was but a petty acquifition; the time was now come when the king of Pruffia was to form and execute greater designs. On the 9th of October 1740, half Europe was thrown into confufion by the death of Charles the Sixth, emperor of Germany, by whose death all the hereditary dominions of the house of Auftria defcended, according to the pragmatic fanction, to his eldest daughter, who was married to the duke of Lorrain, at the time of the emperor's death, duke of Tuscany.

By how many fecurities the pragmatic sanction was fortified, and how little it was regarded when those fecurities became neceffary: how many claimants started up at once to the feveral dominions of the house of Auftria: how vehemently their pretenfions were enforced, and how many invasions were threatened or attempted: the diftreffes of the emperor's daughter, known for several years by the title only of the Queen of Hungary, because Hungary was the only country to which her claim had not been difputed: the firmness with which she struggled with her difficulties, and the good fortune by which the furmounted them: the nar row plan of this effay will not fuffer me to relate. Lez

them

them be told by fome other writer of more leifure and wider intelligence.

Upon the emperor's death, many of the German princes fell upon the Auftrian territories as upon a dead carcafe, to be difmembered among them without refiftance. Among thefe, with whatever juftice, certainly with very little generofity, was the king of Pruffia, who, having affembled his troops, as was imagined to fupport the pragmatic fanction, on a fudden entered Silefia with thirty thousand men, publishing a declaration, in which he difelaims any defign of injuring the rights of the house of Auftria, but urges his claim to Silefia, as arifing from antient conventions of family and confraternity between the boufe of Brandenburg and the princes of Silefia, and other honourable titles. He fays, the fear of being defeated by other pretenders to the Auftrian dominions, obliged him to enter Silefia without any previous expoftulation with the queen, and that he fhall ftrenuously efpoufe the interests of the house of Auftria.

Such a declaration was, I believe, in the opinion of all Europe, nothing lefs than the aggravation of hoftility by infult, and was received by the Auftrians with fuitable indignation. The king purfued his purpose, marched forward, and in the frontiers of Silefia made a fpeech to his followers, in which he told them, that he confidered them rather "as friends than fubjects, "that the troops of Brandenburg had been always "eminent for their bravery, that they would always "fight in his prefence, and that he would recompenfe "those who fhould diftinguish themselves in his fer"vice, rather as a father than as a king."

The

The civilities of the great are never thrown away. The foldiers would naturally follow fuch a leader with alacrity; especially because they expected no oppofition: but human expectations are frequently deceived.

Entering thus fuddenly into a country which he was fuppofed rather likely to protect than to invade, he acted for fome time with abfolute authority; but fuppofing that this fubmiffion would not always last, he endeavoured to perfuade the queen to a ceffion of Silefia, imagining that fhe would eafily be perfuaded to yield what was already loft. He therefore ordered his minifters to declare at Vienna, "that he was ready to

guaranty all the German dominions of the houfe "of Auftria: that he would conclude a treaty with « Austria, Ruffia, and the Maritime powers: that he "would endeavour that the duke of Lorrain fhould be "elected emperor, and believed that he could accomplith it that he would immediately advance to "the queen two millions of florins: that, in recom. pence for all this, he required Silefia to be yielded to "him."

Thefe feem not to be the offers of a prince very much convinced of his own right. He afterwards moderated his claim, and ordered his minifter to hint at Vienna, that half of Silefia would content him.

The queen anfwered, that though the king alledged, as his reafon for entering Silefia, the danger of the Auftrian territories from other pretenders, and endea voured to perfuade her to give up part of her poffions for the prefervation of the reft, it was evident that he was the first and only invader, and that, till he entered in a hoftile manner, all her eftates were unmolefted.

VOL. IV.

N n

To

To his promifes of affiftance the replied, “ that she "fet an high value on the king of Pruffia's friendship; "but that he was already obliged to affift her against "invaders, both by the golden bull, and the pragmatic "fanction, of which he was a guarantee; and that, if "these ties were of no force, the knew not what to hope from other engagements." Of his offers of alliances with Ruffia and the Maritime powers, fhe obferved, that it could be never fit to alienate her dominions for the consolidation of an alliance formed only to keep them intire.

With regard to his intereft in the election of an emperor, fhe expreffed her gratitude in ftrong terms; but added, that the election ought to be free, and that it must be neceffarily embarraffed by contentions thus raised in the heart of the empire. Of the pecuniary affiftance propofed fhe remarks, that no prince ever made war to oblige another to take money, and that the contributions already levied in Silefia exceed the two millions offered as its purchase.

She concluded, that as the values the king's friendfhip, fhe was willing to purchase it by any compliance but the diminution of her dominions, and exhorted him to perform his part in fupport of the pragmatic fanction.

The king, finding negociation thus ineffectual, pushed forward his inroads, and now began to fhow how fecretly he could take his meafures. When he called a council of war, he propofed the question in a few words all his generals wrote their opinions in his prefence upon feparate papers, which he carried away, and, examining them in private, formed his refolution

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