many futile reasons which he alleged for the invasion of the
possessions of Maria Theresa, the heiress of the Austrian dominions,
young, beautiful, and unoffending, but inexperienced and unprotected.

The common robber has sometimes the excuse of want; banditti, in a
disorderly country, may pillage, and, when resisted, murder; but the
crimes of men, even atrocious as these, are confined at least to a
contracted space, and their consequences extend not beyond a limited
period. It was not so with Frederick. The outrages of his ambition were
to be followed up by an immediate war. He could never suppose that, even
if he succeeded in getting possession of Silesia, the house of Austria
could ever forget the insult and the injury that had thus been received;
he could never suppose, though Maria Theresa might have no protection
from his cruelty and injustice, that this illustrious house would never
again have the power, in some way or other, to avenge their wrongs. One
war, therefore, even if successful, was not to be the only consequence;
succeeding wars were to be expected; long and inveterate jealousy and
hatred were to follow; and he and his subjects were, for a long
succession of years, to be put to the necessity of defending, by
unnatural exertions, what had been acquired--if acquired--by his own
unprincipled ferocity. Such were the consequences that were fairly to be
expected. What, in fact, took place?

The seizure of this province of Silesia was first supported by a war,
then by a revival of it, then by the dreadful Seven Years' War. Near a
million of men perished on the one side and on the other. Every measure
and movement of the King's administration flowed as a direct consequence
from this original aggression: his military system, the necessity of
rendering his kingdom one of the first-rate powers of Europe, and, in
short, all the long train of his faults, his tyrannies, and his crimes.
We will cast a momentary glance on the opening scenes of this contest
between the two houses.

As a preparatory step to his invasion of Silesia, the King sent a
message to the Austrian court. "I am come," said the Prussian envoy to
the husband of Maria Theresa, "with safety for the house of Austria in
one hand, and the imperial crown for your royal highness in the other.
The troops and money of my master are at the service of the Queen, and
cannot fail of being acceptable at a time when she is in want of both,
and can only depend