t on the Reich: but if it go ill, what are they, against Austria
with its force of steady pressure? All turns on the issue of Prag
Siege:--a fact extremely evident to Friedrich too! But these are what
in the interim can be done. One neglects no opportunity, tries by every
method.

OF THE SINGULAR QUASI-BEWITCHED CONDITION OF ENGLAND; AND WHAT IS TO BE
HOPED FROM IT FOR THE COMMON CAUSE, IF PRAG GO AMISS.

On the Britannic side, too, the outlooks are not good;--much need
Friedrich were through his Prag affair, and "hastening with forty
thousand to help his Allies,"--that is, Royal Highness of Cumberland and
Britannic Purse, his only allies at this moment. Royal Highness and
Army of Observation (should have been 67,000, are 50 to 60,000, hired
Germans; troops good enough, were they tolerably led) finds the Hanover
Program as bad as Schmettau and Friedrich ever represented it; and,
already,--unless Prag go well,--wears, to the understanding eye, a
very contingent aspect. D'Estrees outnumbers him; D'Estrees, too, is
something of a soldier,--a very considerable advantage in affairs of
war.

D'Estrees, since April, is in Wesel; gathering in the revenues,
changing the Officialities: much out of discipline, they say;--"hanging"
gradually "1,000 marauders;" in round numbers 1,000 this Year. [Stenzel,
v. 65; Retzow, i. 173.] D'Estrees does not yet push forward, owing to
Prag. If he do--It is well known how Royal Highness fared when he did,
and what a Campaign Royal Highness made of it this Year 1757! How the
Weser did prove wadable, as Schmettau had said to no purpose; wadable,
bridgable; and Royal Highness had to wriggle back, ever back; no stand
to be made, or far worse than none: back, ever back, till he got into
the Sea, for that matter, and to the END of more than one thing! Poor
man, friends say he has an incurable Hanover Ministry, a Program that is
inexecutable. As yet he has not lost head, any head he ever had: but he
is wonderful, he;--and his England is! We shall have to look at him once
again; and happily once only. Here, from my Constitutional Historian,
are some Passages which we may as well read in the present interim of
expectation. I label, and try to arrange:--

1. ENGLAND IN CRISIS. "England is indignant with its Hero of Culloden
and his Campaign 1757; but really has no business to complain. Royal
Highness of Cumberland, wriggling helplessly in that manner, is a fair
representative of the England that