only alliance that remained open to him, — while England, on her own part being already embroiled with France and deserted by Russia, was glad of such support. The personal antipathy of the two Sovereigns towards each other gave way to the political exigencies of the times. In January 1756 the Kings of England and Prussia concluded a convention, by which they reciprocally bound themselves during the troubles in America, not to suffer foreign troops of any nation whatever, to enter or pass through Germany. The progress of hostilities would soon, Frederick foresaw, lead to further support from England. Meanwhile he surveyed his own situation with a keen and steadfast eye. Fraught with peril as it was, — hopeless as it might seem to others, that great genius did not despair. There was something, he well knew, to expect from the slowness, the jealousy, the want of concert to which all coalitions are prone. His army, though far inferior in numbers to the combined armies arraying against him, was at this time the best in Europe, and strong out of all proportion to the extent of his dominions. While his enemies were, for the most part, involved in debts, he had been laying up in the vaults of Magdeburg a treasure for the evil day. Above all, the Prussian resources, however slender, would be wielded against inferior and jarring leaders by one master-mind.

There was this further advantage on the side of Frederick, his enemies were still unprepared, and he was ready. Finding that the storm was wholly inevitable, and must burst on him next year, he, with bold sagacity, determined to forestall it. First, then, in August, 1756, his ambassador at Vienna had orders to demand of the Empress Queen a statement of her intentions, to announce war as the alternative, and to declare that he would accept no answer "in the style of an oracle." The answer, as he expected, was evasive. Without further delay an army of sixty thousand Prussians, headed by Frederick in person, poured into Saxony. The Queen of Poland was taken in Dresden: the King of Poland and his troops were blockaded in Pirna. Thus did Frederick commence that mighty struggle which is known to Germans by the name of the Seven Years' War.

The first object of the Prussian monarch at Dresden was to obtain possession of the original documents of the coalition against him, whose existence he knew by means of the traitor Menzel. The Queen of Poland, no less aware than Frederick of the importance of these papers, had carried them to her own bed-chamber. She sat down on the trunk which contained the most material ones, and declared to the Prussian officer sent to seize them that nothing but force should move her from the spot. This officer was of Scottish blood, General Keith, the Earl Marischal's brother. "All Europe," said the Queen, "would exclaim against this outrage; and then, sir, you will be the victim; depend upon it, your King "is a man to sacrifice you to his own honour!" Keith, who knew Frederick's character, was startled, and sent for further orders; but on receiving a reiteration of the first he did his duty. The papers were then made public, appended to a manifesto in vindication of Frederick's conduct; and they convinced the world that, although the apparent aggressor in his invasion of Saxony, he had only acted on the principles of self-defence.

66

Meanwhile, the Prussian army closely blockaded the Saxon in Pirna, but the Austrian, under Marshal Brown, an officer of British extraction, was advancing to its relief through the mountain passes of Bohemia. Frederick left a sufficient force to maintain the blockade, marched against Brown with the remainder, and gave him battle, at Lowositz on the 1st of October. It proved a hardfought day; the King no longer found, as he says in one of his letters, the old Austrians he remembered *; and his loss in killed and wounded was greater than theirs +; but victory declared on his side. Then retracing his steps towards Pirna he compelled, by the pressure of famine, the whole Saxon army, 17,000 strong, to an unconditional surrender. The officers were sent home on parole, but the soldiers were induced, partly by force and partly by persuasion, to enlist in the Prussian ranks, and swear

*To Marshal Schwerin, October 2. 1756. Orig. in German.

The Prussians lost at Lowositz 3,308 men and 1,274 horses; the Austrians only 2,984 men and 475 horses. (Geschichte des siebenjährigen Krieges vom Generalstab, s. 108. citirt von Preuss.)

fidelity to Frederick. Their former sovereign, King Augustus, remained securely perched on his castle-rock of Königstein, but becoming weary of confinement, solicited, and was most readily granted, passports to Warsaw. During the whole winter Frederick fixed his head-quarters at Dresden, treating Saxony in all respects as a conquered province, or as one of his own. Troops and taxes were levied throughout that rich and populous land with unsparing rigour, and were directed against the very cause which the sovereign of that land had embraced.

During this campaign, as during every other of Frederick, it is remarkable to what slight details that great genius could descend. Even at the outset, while negotiations were still pending.-while the question of peace or war yet hung in the balance,-down came a peremptory order from Potsdam, guarding against any. officer carrying with him into the field any plate, even a single silver spoon. The same vigilant care runs through every other contingency. Vinegar, for example, never received so much attention from any other general,—not at least since the days of Hannibal! There are most minute directions how each Captain is to take under his charge one barrel of vinegar,—not for his own use,—not for any purpose of luxury,-but that the infusion of a few drops of it may correct the brackish water which soldiers are sometimes reduced to drink in their encampments. Many minds can aspire to high designs. Many others can deal admirably well with any point of detail, though they are not large enough, as it were, to take in the whole of a subject. But it is this rare power of combining extensive schemes, with attention to the least trifle that may conduce to them, which, as it appears to me, forms the chief element of mental greatness and of

*

human success.

The proceedings in America during this campaign seem trifling when compared to those in Germany. A detachment of the enemy was defeated by Colonel Bradstreet on the river Onondaga; on the other hand,

* Sce Peuss, Lebens-Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 7.

1756.

CAEALS AT HOME.

81

the small forts of Ontario and Oswego were reduced by the French.

During this summer Leicester House was not free from cabals, nor the Ministry from divisions. In June the Prince of Wales attained the age of eighteen,―that is, his majority under the Act of Regency. On this occasion the King made an effort to withdraw him from the Princess Dowager's control. He wrote him a gracious letter, stating his Royal intentions that the Prince should be allowed 40,000l. a-year,—that a suitable establishment for him should be appointed,—and that he should henceforth occupy the apartments of the late Prince at Kensington and of the late Queen at St. James's. His Royal Highness, however, full of filial duty, returned for answer that he would accept with the greatest gratitude the Royal bounty,-but that he entreated His Majesty not to separate him from his mother, which would be a trying affliction to both. Thus the King apprehended that he might have to give the money, and yet not obtain compliance with the intended condition. Another difference immediately arose as to the choice of the principal person in the new Household. The Princess, and after her the Prince, had set their hearts on Lord Bute for Groom of the Stole,-an appointment to which the King entertained a strong repugnance,-the stronger perhaps as it was not explicitly avowed. A private Council, or, rather, meeting of friends, was summoned by His Majesty upon these family questions, and of their conference Lord Waldegrave, who was present, has left us a curious account.* Nothing, however, was decided at this meeting, or at several others. At last, towards the beginning of October, Newcastle, not daring to meet the Parliament while Leicester House was dissatisfied, obtained the King's consent to both points at issue,—that the Prince of Wales should continue with his mother, and that the Earl of Bute should be Groom of the Stole. His Majesty could not, however, be persuaded to admit Bute into the Closet, and deliver to him the badge of his office in the customary form; so he gave the Gold Key to the Duke of Grafton, who slipped it into Bute's pocket,

saying, he wished it could have been given in a more proper manner, but advised him to take no notice.

In the Ministry, Fox's heart had long been swelling at the falsehood, the perfidy, and the childishness of Newcastle. Though Secretary of State, he found all substantial power withheld, all intimate confidence denied. He saw himself involved in the ill success of measures upon which he had not been consulted,-upon which he had scarce been suffered to give an opinion. He saw the country in a flame at the loss of Minorca, and discerned the drift of the old intriguer at the Treasury, to cast, if possible, the burden from his own shoulders to the shoulders of his colleague. In October, therefore, as the meeting of Parliament approached, Fox asked an audience of the King, entered into a short statement of his grievances, and obtained His Majesty's permission to resign the Seals.

Sir

At this very period the Duke of Newcastle lost the only other speaker in Parliament who could cope with Pitt;- or who, according to Lord Waldegrave's expression, "had courage even to look him in the face.”* Dudley Ryder, the Lord Chief Justice, had died this summer, after a short illness, and the very day before he was to have kissed hands for a peerage. Murray, both as Attorney General and as the best lawyer in Westminster Hall, had an undenied and undeniable claim to the vacant office. But Newcastle, eager to retain him in the House of Commons, plied him with various proposals, -a Tellership of the Exchequer, or the Duchy of Lancaster for life,-or the Attorney Generalship, with a pension of 2,000l. a year. Nay in the beginning of October Newcastle had bid up to 6,000l. a year of pension! All was in vain. Newcastle then conceding the main point, began to haggle as to the time,-entreating Murray to remain in the House of Commons at least another Session,-at least one month, - at least one day, the day of the Address, and to speak for it. Murray steadily refused. At length he was obliged to tell his friends in plain terms that if they did not think proper to make him Lord Chief Justice he was determined not to

*Memoirs, p. 82.