ce with a foreign power,
which, for upwards of two centuries, had ravaged the principal provinces
of the empire, maintained repeated wars against the archducal house
of Austria, and always endeavoured, as it suited her views, to excite
distrust and dissension among the princes and states that compose the
Germanic body.

The court of Vienna formed two considerable armies in Bohemia
and Moravia; yet pretended that they had nothing in view but
self-preservation, and solemnly disclaimed both the secret article,
and the design which had been laid to their charge. His most christain
majesty declared, by his minister at Berlin, that he had no other
intention but to maintain the public tranquillity of Europe; and, this
being the sole end of all his measures, he beheld with surprise the
preparations and armaments of certain potentates; that, whatever might
be the view with which they were made, he was dis posed to make use of
the power which God had put into his hands, not only to maintain the
public peace of Europe against all who should attempt to disturb it,
but also to employ all his forces, agreeably to his engagements, for
the assistance of his ally, in case her dominions should be attacked;
finally, that he would act in the same manner in behalf of all the other
powers with whom he was in alliance. This intimation made very little
impression upon the king of Prussia, who had already formed his plan,
and was determined to execute his purpose. What his original plan
might have been, we shall not pretend to disclose; nor do we believe he
imparted it to any confidant or ally. It must be confessed, however,
that the intrigues of the court of Vienna furnished him with a specious
pretence for drawing the sword, and commencing hostilities. The
empress-queen had some reason to be jealous of such a formidable
neighbour. She remembered his irruption into Bohemia, in the year one
thousand seven hundred and forty-four, at a time when she thought that
country, and all her other dominions, secure from his invasion by the
treaty of Breslau, which she had in no particular contravened. She
caballed against him in different courts of Europe; she concluded a
treaty with the czarina, which, though seemingly defensive, implied
an intention of making conquests upon this monarch; she endeavoured to
engage the king of Poland, elector of Saxony, as a contracting power in
this confederacy; and, if he had not been afraid of a sudden visit from
his