History of Friedrich II of Prussia - Frederick the Great Chapter III. - French-English War Breaks Out.
by Thomas Carlyle
The French, in reality a good deal astonished at the Prussian-
Britannic Treaty, affected to take it easy: "Treaty for Neutrality
of Germany?" said they: "Very good indeed. Perhaps there are places
nearer us, where our troops can be employed to more advantage!"
[Their "Declaration" on it (Adelung, vii. 613.]--hinting vocally,
as henceforth their silent procedures, their diligence in the
dockyards, moving of troops coastward and the like, still more
clearly did, That an Invasion of England itself was the thing next
to be expected.
England and France are, by this time, alike fiercely determined on
War; but their states of preparation are very different. The French
have War-ships again, not to mention Armies which they always have;
some skilful Admirals withal,--La Gallisonniere, our old Canada
friend, is one, very busy at present;--and mean to try seriously
the Question of Sea-Supremacy once more. If an Invasion did chance
to land, the state of England would be found handy beyond hope!
How many fighting regiments England has, I need not inquire, nor
with what strategic virtue they would go to work;--enough to
mention the singular fact (recently true, and still, I perceive,
too like the truth), That of all their regiments, "only Three are
in this Country", or have Colonels even nominated. Incredible;
but certain. And the interesting point is, his Grace of Newcastle
dare not have Colonels, still less higher Officers nominated;
because Royal Highness of Cumberland would have the naming of them,
and they would be enemies to his Grace. [Walpole, George
the Second, ii. 19 (date, "March 25th, 1755;" and how
long after, is not said: but see Pitt's Speeches, ib., all through
1756, and farther).] In such posture stands the Envy of surrounding
Nations at this moment.
"Hire Hessians," cry they; "hire Hanoverians; if France land on us,
we are undone!"--and continue their Parliamentary Eloquences in a
most distressful manner. "Apply to the Dutch, at any rate, for
their 6,000 as per Treaty", cries everybody. Which is done. But the
Dutch piteously wring their hands: "Dare not, your Majesty;
how dare we, for France and our neglected Barrier! Oh, generous
Majesty, excuse us!"--and the generous Majesty has to do it;
and leave the Dutch in peace, this time. Hessians, Hanoverians,
after eloquence enough, are at last got sent for, to guard us
against this terrible Invasion: about 10,000 of each kind; and do
land, --the native populations very sulky on them ("We won't billet
you, not we; build huts, and be--!"), with much Parliamentary and
Newspaper Commentary going on, of a distressful nature.
"Saturday, 15th May, 1756, Hessians disembark at Southampton;
obliged to pitch Camp in the neighborhood: Friday, 21st May, the
Hanoverians, at Chatham, who hut themselves Canterbury way;"--and
have (what is the sum-total of their achievements in this Country)
a case of shoplifting, "pocket-handkerchief, across the counter, in
open day;" one case (or what seemed to be one, but was not);
["At Maidstone, 13th Septemher, 1756;" Hanoverian soldier,
purchasing a handkerchief, imagines he has purchased two (not yet
clipt asunder), haberdasher and he having no language in common:
Gentleman's Magazine, for 1756, pp. 259, 448,
&c.; Walpole, SAEPIUS.] "and the fellow not to be tried by us for
it!" which enrages the constitutional heart. Alas, my heavy-laden
constitutional heart; but what can we do? These drilled louts will
guard us, should this terrible Invasion land. And indeed, about
three weeks BEFORE these louts arrived, the terrible Invasion had
declared itself to have been altogether a feint; and had lifted
anchor, quite in the opposite direction, on an errand we shall hear
of soon!
About the same date, I observe, "the first regiment of Footguards
practising the Prussian drill-exercise in Hyde Park;" and hope his
Grace of Newcastle and the Hero of Culloden (immortal Hero, and
aiming high in Politics at this time) will, at least, have fallen
upon some method of getting Colonels nominated. But the wide-
weltering chaos of platitudes, agitated by hysterical imbecilities,
regulating England in this great crisis, fills the constitutional
mind with sorrow; and indeed is definable, once more, as amazing!
England is a stubborn Country; but it was not by procedures of the
Cumberland-Newcastle kind that England, and her Colonies, and Sea-
and-Land Kingdoms, was built together; nor by these, except miracle
intervene, that she can stand long against stress! Looking at the
dismal matter from this distance, there is visible to me in the
foggy heart of it one lucent element, and pretty much one only;
the individual named William Pitt, as I have read him: if by
miracle that royal soul could, even for a time, get to something of
Kingship there? Courage; miracles do happen, let us hope!--This is
whitherward the grand Invasion had gone:--
TOULON, 10th APRIL, 1756. La Gallisonniere, our old Canadian
friend, a crooked little man of great faculty, who has been busy in
the dockyards lately, weighs anchor from Toulon; "12 sail of the
line, 5 frigates and above 100 transport-ships;" with the grand
Invasion-of-England Armament on board: 16,000 picked troops,
complete in all points, Marechal Duc de Richelieu commanding.
[Adelung, viii. 70.] Weighs anchor; and, singular to see, steers,
not for England, and the Hessian-Hanover Defenders (who would have
been in such excellent time); but direct for Minorca, as the surer
thing! Will seize Minorca; a so-called inexpugnable Possession of
the English,--Key of their Mediterranean Supremacies;--really
inexpugnable enough; but which lies in the usual dilapidated state,
though by chance with a courageous old Governor in it, who will not
surrender quite at once.
APRIL 18th, La Gallisonniere disembarks his Richelieu with a
Sixteen Thousand, unopposed at Port-Mahon, or Fort St. Philip, in
Minorca; who instantly commences Siege there. To the astonishment
of England and his Grace of Newcastle who, except old Governor
Blakeney, much in dilapidation ("wooden platforms rotten,"
"batteries out of repair," and so on), have nothing ready for
Richelieu in that quarter. The story of Minorca; and the furious
humors and tragic consummations that arose on it, being still well
known, we will give the dates only.
FORT ST. PHILIP, APRIL 18th-MAY 20th. For a month, Richelieu,
skilful in tickling the French troops, has been besieging, in a
high and grandiose way; La Gallisonniere vigilantly cruising;
old Blakeney, in spite of the rotten platforms, vigorously holding
out; when--May 19th, La Gallisonniere descries an English fleet in
the distance; indisputably an English fleet; and clears his decks
for a serious Affair just coming. THURSDAY, 20th MAY, Admiral Byng
accordingly (for it is he, son of that old seaworthy Byng, who once
"blew out" a minatory Spanish Fleet and "an absurd Flame of War" in
the Straits of Messina, and was made Lord Torrington in
consequence,--happily now dead)--Admiral Byng does come on;
and gains himself a name badly memorable ever since. Attacks La
Gallisonniere, in a wide-lying, languid, hovering, uncertain
manner:--"Far too weak" he says; "much disprovided, destitute, by
blame of Ministry and of everybody" (though about the strength of
La Gallisonniere, after all);--is almost rather beaten by La
Gallisonniere; does not in the least, beat him to the right
degree:--and sheers off: in the night-time, straight for Gibraltar
again. To La Gallisonniere's surprise, it is said; no doubt to old
Blakeney and his poor Garrison's, left so, to their rotten
platforms and their own shifts.
Blakeney and Garrison stood to their guns in a manful manner, for
above a month longer; day after day, week after week, looking over
the horizon for some Byng or some relief appearing, to no purpose!
JUNE 14th, there are three available breaches; the walls, however,
are very sheer (a Fortress hewn in the rock): Richelieu scanning
them dubiously, and battering his best, for about a fortnight more,
is ineffectual on Blakeney.
JUNE 27th, Richelieu, taking his measures well, tickling French
honor well, has determined on storm. Richelieu, giving order of the
day, "Whosoever of you is found drunk shall NOT be of the storm-
party" (which produced such a teetotalism as nothing else had
done),--storms, that night, with extreme audacity. The Place has to
capitulate: glorious victory; honorable defence: and Minorca gone.
And England is risen to a mere smoky whirlwind, of rage, sorrow and
darkness, against Byng and others. Smoky darkness, getting streaked
with dangerous fire. "Tried?" said his Grace of Newcastle to the
City Deputation: "Oh indeed he shall be tried immediately; he shall
be hanged directly!"--assure yourselves of that. [Walpole, ii. 231:
Details of the Siege, ib. 218-225; in Gentleman's
Magazine, xxvi. 256, 312-313, 358; in Adelung, vii.; &c. &c.]
And Byng's effigy was burnt all over England. And mobs attempt to
burn his Seat and Park; and satires and caricatures and firebrands
are coming out: and the poor Constitutional Country is bent on
applying surgery, if it but know how. Surgery to such indisputable
abominations was certainly desirable. The new Relief Squadron,
which had been despatched by Majesty's Ministry, was too late for
Blakeney, but did bring home a superseded Byng.
SPITHEAD, TUESDAY, 27th JULY, The superseded Byng arrives; is
punctually arrested, on arriving: "Him we will hang directly:--
is there anything else we can try [except, perhaps, it were hanging
of ourselves, and our fine methods of procedure], by way of
remedying you?"--War against France, now a pretty plain thing, had
been "declared," 17th May (French counter-declaring, 9th June):
and, under a Duke of Newcastle and a Hero of Culloden, not even
pulling one way, but two ways; and a Talking-Apparatus full of
discords at this time, and pulling who shall say how many ways,--
the prospects of carrying on said War are none of the best.
Lord Loudon, a General without skill, and commanding, as Pitt
declares, "a scroll of Paper hitherto" (a good few thousands marked
on it, and perhaps their Colonels even named), is about going for
America; by no means yet gone, a long way from gone: and, if the
Laws of Nature be suspended--Enough of all that!
KING PRIEDRICH'S ENIGMA GETS MORE AND MORE STRINGENT.
Friedrich's situation, in those fatefully questionable months and
for many past (especially from January 16th to July),--readers must
imagine it, for there is no description possible. In many
intricacies Friedrich has been; but never, I reckon, in any equal
to this. Himself certain what the Two Imperial Women have vowed
against him; self and Winterfeld certain of that sad truth; and all
other mortals ready to deny it, and fly delirious on hint of it,
should he venture to act in consequence! Friedrich's situation is
not unimaginable, when (as can now be done by candid inquirers who
will take trouble enough) the one or two internal facts of it are
disengaged from the roaring ocean of clamorous delusions which then
enveloped them to everybody, and are held steadily in view, said
ocean being well run off to the home of it very deep underground.
Lies do fall silent; truth waits to be recognized, not always in
vain. No reader ever will conceive the strangling perplexity of
that situation, now so remote and extinct to us. All I can do is,
to set down what features of it have become indisputable; and leave
them as detached traceries, as fractions of an outline, to coalesce
into something of image where they can.
Winterfeld's opinion was, for some time past, distinct:
"Attack them; since it is certain they only wait to attack us!"
But Friedrich would by no means listen to that. "We must not be the
aggressor, my friend; that would spoil all. Perhaps the English
will pacify the Russian CATIN for me; tie her, with packthreads,
bribes and intrigues, from stirring? Wait, watch!" Fiery
Winterfeld, who hates the French, who despises the Austrians, and
thinks the Prussian Army a considerable Fact in Politics, has great
schemes: far too great for a practical Friedrich. "Plunge into the
Austrians with a will: Prussian Soldiery,--can Austrians resist it?
Ruin them, since they are bent on ruining us. Stir up the Hungarian
Protestants; try all things. Home upon our implacable enemies,
sword drawn, scabbard flung away! And the French,--what are the
French? Our King should be Kaiser of Teutschland; and he can, and
he may:--the French would then be quieter!" These things Winterfeld
carried in his head; and comrades have heard them from him over
wine. [Retzow, i. 43, &c.] To all which Friedrich, if any whisper
of them ever got to Friedrich, would answer one can guess how.
It is evident, Friedrich had not given up his hope (indeed, for
above a year more, he never did) that England might, by profuse
bribery,--"such the power of bribery in that mad court!"--assuage,
overnet with backstairs packthreads, or in some way compesce the
Russian delirium for him. And England, his sole Ally in the world,
still tender of Austria, and unable to believe what the full
intentions of Austria are; England demands much wariness in his
procedures towards Austria; reiterating always, "Wait, your
Majesty! Oh, beware!"--
His own Army, we need not say, is in perfect preparation. The Army
--let us guess, 150,000 regular, or near 200,000 of all arms and
kinds [Archenholtz (i, 8) counts vaguely "160,000" at this date.]--
never was so perfect before or since. Old Captains in it, whom we
used to know, are grayer and wiser; young, whom we heard less of,
are grown veterans of trust. Schwerin, much a Cincinnatus since we
last saw him, has laid down his plough again, a fervid "little
Marlborough" of seventy-two;--and will never see that beautiful
Schwerinsburg, and its thriving woods and farm-fields, any more.
Ugly Walrave is not now chief Engineer; one Balbi, a much prettier
man, is. Ugly Walrave (Winterfeld suspecting and watching him) was
found out; convicted of "falsified accounts," of "sending plans to
the Enemy," of who knows all what;--and sits in Magdeburg (in a
thrice-safe prison-cell of his own contriving), prisoner for life.
["Arrested at Potsdam 12th February, 1748, and after trial put into
the STERN at Magdeburg; sat there till he died, 16th January, 1773"
( Militalr-Lexikon, iv. 150-151).] The Old
Dessauer is away, long since; and not the Old alone. Dietrich of
Dessau is now "Guardian to his Nephew," who is a Child left Heir
there. Death has been busy with the Dessauers:--but here is Prince
Moritz, "the youngest, more like his Father than any of them."
Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick, Moritz of Dessau, Keith, Duke of
Brunswick-Bevern: no one of these people has been idle, in the ten
years past. Least of all, has the Chief Captain of them,--whose
diligence and vigilance in that sphere, latterly, were not likely
to decline!
Friedrich's Army is in the perfection of order. Ready at the hour,
for many months back; but the least motion he makes with it is a
subject of jealousy. Last year, on those Russian advancings and
alacrities, he had marched some Regiments into Pommern, within
reach of Preussen, should the Russians actually try a stroke there:
"See!" cried all the world: "See!" cried the enlightened Russian
Public. This year 1756, from June onwards and earlier, there are
still more fatal symptoms, on the Austrian side: great and evident
War-preparations; Magazines forming; Camps in Bohemia, Moravia;
Camp at Konigsgratz, Camp at Prag,--handy for the Silesian Border.
Friedrich knows they have deliberated on their Pretext for a War,
and have fixed on what will do,--some new small Prussian-
Mecklenburg brabble, which there has lately been; paltry enough
recruiting-quarrel, such as often are (and has been settled
mutually some time ago, this one, but is capable of being ripped up
again);--and that, on this cobweb of a pretext, they mean to draw
sword when they like. Russia too has its Pretext ready. And if
Friedrich hint of stirring, England whispers hoarse, England and
other friends, "Wait, your Majesty! Oh, beware!" To keep one's
sword at its sharpest, and, with an easy patient air, one's eyes
vigilantly open: this is nearly all that Friedrich can do, in
neighborhood of such portentous imminencies. He has many critics,
near and far;--for instance:--
BERLIN, 31st JULY, 1756, Excellency Valori writes to Versailles:
... "to give you account of a Conversation I have had, a day or two
ago, with the Prince of Prussia [August Wilhelm, Heir-Apparent],
who honors me with a particular confidence,"--and who appears to
be, privately, like some others, very strong in the Opposition
view. "He talked to me of the present condition of the King his
Brother, of his Brother's apprehensions, of his military
arrangements, of the little trust placed in him by neighbors, of
their hostile humor towards him, and of many other things which
this good Prince [little understanding them, as would appear, or
the dangerous secret that lay under them] did not approve of.
The Prince then said,"--listen to what the Prince of Prussia said
to Valori, one of the last days of July, 1756,--
"'There is an Anecdote which continually recurs to me, in the
passes we are got to at present. Putting the case we might be
attacked by Russia, and perhaps by Austria, the late Rothenburg was
sent [as readers know], on the King's part, to Milord Tyrconnel, to
know of him what, in such case, were the helps he might reckon on
from France. Milord enumerated the various helps; and then added
[being a blusterous Irishman, sent hither for his ill tongue]:
"Helps enough, you observe, Monsieur; but, MORBLEU, if you deceive
us, you will be squelched (VOUS SEREZ ECRASES)!" The King my
'Brother was angry enough at hearing such a speech: but, my dear
Marquis,' and the Prince turned full upon me with a face of
inquiry, 'Can the thing actually come true? And do you think it can
be the interest of your Master [and his Scarlet Woman] to abandon
us to the fury of our enemies? Ah, that cursed Convention
[Neutrality-Convention with England]! I would give a finger from my
hand that it had never been concluded. I never approved of it;
ask the Duc de Nivernois, he knows what we said of it together.
But how return on our steps? Who would now trust us?'" This Prince
appeared "to be much affected by the King his Brother's situation
[of which he understood as good as nothing], and agreed that he,"
the King his Brother, "had well deserved it." [Valori, ii,
129-131.]
This is not the first example, nor the last, of August Wilhelm's
owning a heedless, good-natured tongue; considerably prone to take
the Opposition side, on light grounds. For which if he found a kind
of solacement and fame in some circles, it was surely at a dear
rate! To his Brother, that bad habit would, most likely, be known;
and his Brother, I suppose, did not speak of it at all; such his
Brother's custom in cases of the kind.--Judicious Valori, by way of
answer, dilated on the peculiar esteem of his Majesty Louis XV. for
the Prussian Majesty,--"so as my Instructions direct me to do;" and
we hear no more of the Prince of Prussia's talk, at this time;
but shall in future; and may conjecture a great deal about the
atmosphere Friedrich had now to live in. A Friedrich undergoing,
privately, a great deal of criticism: "Mad tendency to war; lust of
conquest; contempt for his neighbors, for the opinion of the
world;--no end of irrational tendencies:" [Ib. ii. 124-151 ("July
27th-August 21st").] from persons to whom the secret of his Problem
is deeply unknown.
One wise thing the English have done: sent an Excellency Mitchell,
a man of loyalty, of sense and honesty, to be their Resident at
Berlin. This is the noteworthy, not yet much noted, Sir Andrew
Mitchell; by far the best Excellency England ever had in that
Court. An Aberdeen Scotchman, creditable to his Country:
hard-headed, sagacious; sceptical of shows; but capable of
recognizing substances withal, and of standing loyal to them,
stubbornly if needful; who grew to a great mutual regard with
Friedrich, and well deserved to do so; constantly about him, during
the next seven years; and whose Letters are among the perennially
valuable Documents on Friedrich's History. [Happily secured in the
British Museum; and now in the most perfect order for consulting
(thanks to Sir F. Madden "and three years' labor" well invested);--
should certainly, and will one day, be read to the bottom, and
cleared of their darknesses, extrinsic and intrinsic (which are
considerable) by somebody competent.]
Mitchell is in Berlin since June 10th. Mitchell, who is on the
scene itself, and looking into Friedrich with his own eyes, finds
the reiterating of that "Beware, your Majesty!" which had been his
chief task hitherto, a more and more questionable thing;
and suggests to him at last: "Plainly ask her Hungarian Majesty,
What is your meaning by those Bohemian Campings?" "Pshaw," answers
Friedrich: "Nothing but some ambiguous answer, perhaps with insult
in it!"--nevertheless thinks better; and determines to do so.
[Mitchell Papers.]
