that, on this head, nothing feems neceffary to be added to the voice of public fame. And, if fome will ftill afcribe his beft actions to the worst of motives, they must be put in remembrance, that charity thinketh no evil.

The only plaufible objections against his character feem to be thefe:

1. His fuppofed injuftice to the Queen of Hungary, by invading Silefia in the year 1740, though the hereditary dominions of the houfe of Austria were fecured to her by the Pragmatic Sanction, of which the king his father had been a guarantee. And,

2. His

to be burnt by the hangman at Berlin. For my part, I cannot think, that fuch a low and groveling principle, as the belief of the materiality, and confequent mortality of the foul, could have fupported him during the last war, amidit fuch unprecedented dangers and difficulties. For I do not find, that any of the profeffed Athefts ever underwent fuch a feries of trials, or that they bore their trials with fuch patience and magnanimity. And, verily think, that we ought highly to regard thofe inftruments whom God hath raised up for the defence of the Reformation, especially when they are poffeffed of many fhining qualities, and are not chargeable with any grofs acts of vice; and that, it is a piece of juftice which we ove to every man, not to believe an evil report concerning him, but upon the clearest and most unexceptionable proof; nay, even when the matter lies in dubio, charity fhould incline us to lean to the favourable side.

With respect to the Saxons, I don't fee that the king of Pruffia, in his behaviour towards them, has either tranfgrefled the laws of war or humanity; but, on the other hand, when I reflect upon the provocations which he received by the cruel butcheries of his fubjects, I am obliged to admire his generofity, in not proceeding to very fevere retaliations,

But, even tho' I fhould be mistaken with respect to his true character, yet this cannot deftroy the probability of my general argument;-fince even Henry the Eight was made the instrument of providence, in bringing about the reformation of England; and yet, I dare fay, that every candid reader would from his heart defpife the man, who fhould class with fuch a monster of luft and brutality, a prince, who has hither to diftinguished himself by the conftant exercise of the most heroical virtues.

2. His invasion of Bohemia. in the year 1744, notwithstanding the peace of Breslau, whereby he had perfonally engaged not only to defift from all hoftilities against the Queen of Hungary, but also not to affift any of her enemies.

But, if his behaviour, in these two inftances, fhall be confidered with impartiality, it is hoped that neither of them will fix the charge of injuftice upon him. For it appears from the declaration which he published when he entered Silefia, that he claimed the greatest part of that dutchy, as belonging to him by a juft and legal right, arifing from ancient conventions of family, and confraternity, between the house of Brandenburgh and the princes of Silefia; and confequently, if this claim was juft, Silefia could not be properly confidered as any part of the hereditary dominions of the house of Auftria.

As this affair is placed in a clear point of light, by the judicious author of the Prefent State of Europe, the following account of it fhall be given in his own words, He tells us *, That, " in the year 1686, the elector of Brandenburgh came to an amicable conclufion with the emperor, in relation to a dispute which had long fubfifted, concerning the principality of Jagerndorf, which the emperor had reunited to the kingdom of Bohemia, notwithstanding the claim made always to it by the elector; in compenfation for which, he had the territory of Schweibufin, or the northern part of Silefia, yielded up to him, which the emperor afterwards found means to obtain back from his fon, and fucceffor, as we fhall hereafter more largely explain." And again †;

"We have already fhewn that the house of Brandenburgh

Edit. 5th, p. 122.

† P. 135, &c.

Brandenburgh had a very fair title to the principality of Jagerndorf, and other territories in that country, which the emperor, notwithstanding, united to the kingdom of Bohemia; but, as the elector ftill kept up his claim, and the house of Auftria had great need of his affiftance, it was found neceffary to give him fome fatisfaction: And accordingly a treaty was fet on foot at Berlin, in 1686, whereby it was ftipulated, that the elector fhould renounce all the pretenfions of his houfe to the principalities of Jagerndorf, Lignitz, Brieg, and Wolan, upon condition that the emperor fhould yield to the elector the territory of Schwibus. The Baron de Frytag, who managed this negotiation for the court of Vienna with the elector Frederick II. fet on foot at the fame time another clandeftine treaty with the electoral prince Frederick, who was afterwards Frederick III. elector of Brandenburgh, though he is generally called Frederick I. because he was the firft king of Pruffia.

"The nature of this fecret negotiation was very dark; for there were fome family-difputes, in which the emperor threatened to take part against the prince, if, at the fame time, his father fubfcribed the treaty before mentioned, he did not subfcribe an obligation to give up, as foon as it should be in his power, the territory of Schwibus for a fmall fum of money. Accordingly, when he became elector of Brandenburgh, the money was offered, and the territory demanded; but all the counsellors of the new elector advised him not to part with it, as he had been compelled to make this agreement, which in its own nature was therefore void: But the emperor Leopold infifting upon it, and threatening to ufe force, he yielded up the territory, but refused to confirm the renunciation made by his father of his rights. Upon this oc

cafion,

cafion, he expreffed himself to his minifters in these words: I fhall yield the territory of Schwibus; it becomes me to be as good as my word; I must, and I will do what I promised. As to my profecuting my rights to Silefia, I leave that to the care of my pofterity, whofe hands I cannot, I will not bind, under my prefent circumftances, when it is neceffary for me to fubmit to this injuftice. If providence and time do not fuffer the thing to take another turn, the only way is to be quiet; but, if God orders it otherwise, my defcendants will know what to do.'

"Thus the reader has, in a few words, the nature of the King of Pruffia's claim. He reprefented both Frederick II. and Frederick III. confequently the rights of both were in him; and as the house of Austria had taken away the equivalent, he conceived that he had a juft title to the territories formerly in poffeffion of his family, viz. the principality of Jagerndorf, and other countries, of which he refolved immediately to take poffeffion. He had two reafons for acting in this manner, without any previous declarations made to the court of Vienna: The firft was, that the male-line of the house of Austria being extinct, and the power of that family thereby weakened, he thought this a favourable opportunity of doing himself juftice; and that he should be wanting to himself, and his pofterity or fucceffors, if he neglected it: His fecond, that the elector of Bavaria, and the king of Spain, forming pretenfions upon the emperor's fucceffion, he was defirous of reconciling his view of doing himself juftice to the inclination he had of affiting Maria Therefia, Queen of Hungary, in maintaining her rights to her father's dominions, agreeable to the Pragmatic Sanction.

"At the fame time, therefore, that he ordered his troops to march into Silefia, which was in December

cember 1740, he declared to the court of Vienna, that, notwithstanding this ftep, he was difpofed to promote the election of the duke of Lorrain to the imperial dignity; and that he was willing to advance the Queen of Hungary two millions of florins; and that he was ready to employ all his forces in defending her dominions against all her competitors. But thefe propofitions were abfolutely rejected; upon which a war enfued."

The author concludes thus: "It is to be ob served, that in this article I am stating the claims, pretenfions, and measures of his Pruffian majefty, as matters of fact; and I am very far from taking upon me to decide, whether the former were well or ill founded, and confequently whether the latter were right or wrong."

Thus, from the above, it is evident, that the King of Pruffia and his predeceffors claimed Silefia as belonging to them by the jufteft title; and therefore it muft follow, that his invafion of that dutchy cannot properly be deemed an act of injuftice, until it fhall be fully fhewn that his title was a bad one; which hath not been attempted by any writer of character in this country, not even by the writer of the Memoirs of the King of Pruffia, which were inferted in the Literary Magazine about the end of the year 1756. Though, from the strain of that performance, it doth not appear that the author had the smallest intention to leffen, or to conceal, either the real or imaginary faults of his Pruffian Majefty; yet he doth not fay, that the invafion of Silefia was unjuft, but only that it was ungenerous. For, having obferved, that, upon the emperor's death, many of the German princes fell upon the Auftrian territories, he adds:" Among thefe, with whatever juftice, certainly with very little generofity, was the king of Pruffia." But, if this invafion was not unjust, which he does not

pretend