and the Hanoverians levied contributions in the
territories of Cologn. The parties thus aggrieved had recourse to
complaints and remonstrances. The duke's envoy at Ratisbon communicated
a rescript to the Imperial ministers, representing that the Prussian
troops under general Werner and colonel de Belling had distressed his
country in the autumn by grievous extortions; that afterwards prince
Eugene of Wirtemberg, in the service of Prussia, had demanded an
exorbitant quantity of provisions, with some millions of money, and a
great number of recruits; or, in lieu of these, that the duke's forces
should act under the Prussian banner. He therefore declared that, as
the country of Mecklenburgh was impoverished, and almost depopulated, by
these oppressions, the duke would find himself obliged to take measures
for the future security of his subjects, if not immediately favoured
with such assistance from the court of Vienna as would put a stop to
these violent proceedings. This declaration was by some considered as
the prelude of his renouncing his engagements with the house of Austria.
As the Imperial court had threatened to put the elector of Hanover
under the ban of the empire, in consequence of the hostilities which
his troops had committed in the electorate of Cologn, his resident at
Ratisbon delivered to the ministers who assisted at the diet a memorial,
remonstrating that the emperor hath no power, singly, to subject any
prince to the ban, or declare him a rebel; and that, by arrogating such
a power, he exposed his authority to the same contempt into which the
pope's bulls of excommunication were so justly fallen. With respect to
the elector of Cologn, he observed that this prince was the first who
commenced hostilities, by allowing his troops to co-operate with the
French in their invasion of Hanover, and by celebrating with rejoicings
the advantages which they had gained in that electorate; he therefore
gave the estates of the empire to understand, that the best way of
screening their subjects from hostile treatment would be a strict
observance of neutrality in the present disputes of the empire.

THE KING OF POLAND'S REMONSTRANCE.

This was a strain much more effectual among princes and powers who are
generally actuated by interested motives, than was the repetition of
complaints, equally pathetic and unavailing, uttered by the unfortunate
king of Poland, elector of Saxony. The damage done to his capital by the