tion of all this, the Landgrave shall take no toll for warlike stores and provisions, and other effects of that nature, which may pass through his country.

VII. The King shall guaranty all the estates which his most Serene Highness possessed before the French seized them, and all the rights of the house of Hesse-Cassel.

VIII. His Majesty shall guaranty to that Prince the act of assurance given him by his son, the hereditary Prince, with regard to religion; and shall not suffer it to be violated by any person, or under any pretext.

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IX.The most Christian King shall use his interest with the Emperor and the Empress-Queen, that, in consideration of the immense losses and damages his most Serene Highness hath suffered since the French entered his country, and of the great he loses with England, in arrears and subsidies, by this accommodation with his mostChristianMajesty, he may be excused from furnishing his contingent to the army of the empire, and from paying the Roman months granted by the dyet of the empire.

X. If, in resentment of this con. vention, the estates of his most Serene Highness shall be attacked, the King shall give the most speedy and efficacious succours.

Translation of a memorial presented in November to the dyet of the empire, by Baron Gimmengen, electoral minister of Brunswick Lunenbourg.

"His Imperial Majesty hath been pleased to communicate to the dyet of the empire, by a pretended most gracious decree of the Aulic council, dated the 28th of August last, mandates issued the 21st of the same

month, on pain of the ban of the empire, and with avocatory letters thereto annexed, against His Majesty the King of Great Britain, my most gracious master, and also against some others of the most respectable princes of the Germanic empire.

"There is not an example of this kind in the history of the empire. His Britannic Majesty, during the one and thirty years of his glorious reign, hath observed so unimpeachable a conduct towards all his coestates of the empire, without distinction of religion, that no prince of the empire hath received greater proofs of esteem and confidence than he can produce. His Majesty hath, as much as the weakest states, always observed right and justice.

"On the death of the Emperor Charles VI. he beheld the time, which will be a famous æra in the history of the house of Austria, when the crown of France poured numerous armies into the empire to exterminate that house, and make itself master of Germany. His Majesty, in his double capacity of King and Elector, put himself in the breach; he led in person the auxiliary army of Her Majesty the Empress-Queen, the greatest part of which was composed of his own troops; at the battle of Dettingen he exposed his sacred person for that Princess, and his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, his son, still bears the scars of wounds there' received.

"The year 1745, when his present Imperial Majesty was chosen Emperor, is still recent in the memory of all the states of the empire, as well as the pains which His Britan nic Majesty took upon that occasion. He purchased the preserva

tion of the house of Austria, which was effected by the peace of Aix. la-Chapelle, with the blood of his subjects, and by means of the most important conquests of his crown, He hath endeavoured to maintain the Imperial crown in that house, by negotiations for the election of a king of the Romans. The treaty of succession concluded with the Duke of Modena, and the aggrand'zement resulting from it to the house of Austria, was owing to His Majesty's friendship for it.

"Instead of a recompense, instead of performing the tender protestations of regard and gratitude, which His Majesty then received from Her Majesty the Empress-Queen, and which his magnanimity hinders him from making public; instead of the observation due to the most solemn treaties, Her Majesty the EmpressQueen refuses him the assistance which she ought to give him against an invasion, proceeding wholly from the hatred of France, which His Britannic Majesty has drawn upon himself by his friendship to that Princess; and his Imperial Majesty even denies him the dehortatorial letters he solicited. The court of Vienna signs a treaty with the crown of France, in March 1757, at a time when His Majesty's troops were quiet in his own dominions, by which the French troops were to pass the Weser the 10th of July, and enter the electorate of Hanover. She joins her troops to those of that crown, and ravages the King's dominions worse than the French troops had done. The same Duke of Cum. berland who was wounded at Det. tingen in defending Her Imperial Majesty, is obliged to fight at Hastenbeck, against the troops of that

Princess which attacked the King's dominions.

"The Empress-Queen sends com→ missaries to Hanover, who are to share, and actually did share, with the crown of France in the contri. butions. She rejects all proposals of peace; she dismisses the King's ministers from her court; and after the Divine Providence, according to its righteous ways, had, by a victory granted to the King's army, delivered the electorate from its enemies, when we were endea. vouring to hinder the French troops from entering it a second time, as they threatened, and as all the world knows, His Imperial Majesty, who, by virtue of the capitulation which he has sworn, ought to protect the empire, and " at all times consider the electors as its internal members and main pillars, and oppose the entrance of foreign troops destined to oppress the states of the empire, finds it his duty, without making the least mention of this invasion by the French troops, to require His Majesty to withdraw his troops from the countries where they then were, to put a stop to all his warlike preparations, and by that means again open a passage for the French army to enter his German dominions. His Imperial Majesty thinks proper to recall the King's troops, to reduce them from their allegiance and duty to His Majesty; to enjoin them never more to obey his orders, but to abandon their colours, their service, and their post; threatening the said troops with punishment, in body, honours, and estates; and the King himself with being put under the ban of the empire, which is not in the power of the Emperor; and

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employing in the proceedings on this occasion, a style proper only to be used to a Tuscan or an Austrian subject.

"The public has already judged of these proceedings, and history will transmit them to posterity, without disguise, but with indelible colours.

"His Britannic Majesty still retains the same veneration for the Germanic body: that respect peculiar to the house of Brunswick Lunenbourg, which will always hold it inviolable, is become habitual to His Majesty in particular: accord. ingly he again hath recourse, in quality of Elector, to the dyet of the empire, by means of this memorial, though previously reserving to himself a power to do it hereafter in a more ample manner. The records of the empire shew what he has done for Germany in such a manner, that at least it cannot yet be forgotten in that country. He hopes that upon this occasion it will have some weight, the rather, as his high co-estates will easily consider, that what is now endea voured to be done to His Majesty, may one day, and perhaps sooner than they think, be done to themselves.

"His Majesty, as Elector, is charged, 1st, With not conforming to the resolutions taken the 17th of January, and the 9th of May, last year; but on the contrary, refusing his concurrence, and declaring for a neutrality. 2dly, With giving succours, aid, and assistance, to His Majesty the King of Prussia, entering into an alliance with that prince, joining his troops to those of Prussia, under the command of a general in the service of His Prus. sian Majesty, of sending English

troops into Germany, and making them take possession of the city of, Embden, and employing the auxiliary troops of some other states of the empire: and, 3dly, it is complained that contributions had been exacted in His Majesty's name, of divers states of the em pire.

"With regard to the first charge, it is very true, in the delibera tions held at the dyet of the em pire the beginning of last year, it was given as His Majesty's opi. nion, as well as that of most of his protestant co-estates, that the present troubles should be amicably terminated. His Majesty in giv ing this opinion, had, as usual, no other view than what equity and the good of the Germanic empire seemed to him to require. Whatever judgment shall be formed of the unhappy war that hath broke out, the public will always. remember, that by a bare declaration of Her Majesty the EmpressQueen, that she would not attack His Prussian Majesty,' the rupture would have been avoided, and the effusion of much blood, as well as the desolation of Germany, prevented. The states that have suffered by the calamities of the war, may judge whether the way that was taken was the shortest for the re-establishment of peace, so much to be desired; and whether it were not to be wished that laying aside all private views, His Eritannic Majesty's proposal had been followed.

"It is true, His Majesty took no part in the resolutions, which were contrary to his sentiments. But the laws of the empire have not thereby received the least infringe. ment. The question, whe.her in

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materia colle&tarum, the majority be sufficient, has been referred ad comitia imperii, by the instrumentum, P. W. Art. v. §. 52. and is yet undecided. It is not by the plurality of voices that it can be there determined, but only by means of an amicable accommodation; since otherwise that reference would have been a very useless course ; and it is well known, at the negotiations for the peace of Westphalia, what was the tendency of the opinion of the catholic states, which formed the majority. Those very states, and all other members of the empire, ought however to consider well, whether it be their essential interest to acknowledge, in the pre. sent case, that every state in the empire is obliged to submit to the majority of votes, in matters of consent, as in the present casewhich the principal catholic elec. tors have in other cases denied; and which will certainly be retorted upon them in proper time.

But whatever principles shall be assumed with regard to this question, nothing is more evident than that, considering circumstances and the situation of the affair then and now in question, His Majesty could never be required to give his troops to comply with those resolutions of the empire. All Germany knows, though the decree of the Aulic imperial council says not a word about it, that at the very time when those resolutions were taken, His Majesty's electoral dominions were most unjustly threat. ened with an invasion by France. In the month of March that year, the court of Vienna signed a convention with France, by vir.

tue of which the enemy was to pass the Weser in the month of July, and enter the King's territories. This invasion was made accordingly. The Empress-Queen joined her own troops to those of France; and in return stipulated by solemn treaties, signed beforehand, to have half of the contributions that should be exacted. The damage which the King's subjects suffered by the first invasion, exclusive of the sums which the provinces were to furnish (and which have been paid out of the royal demesnes) amounted to several millions. And still the un. just rage of His Majesty's enemies was not exhausted. The French army, which entered on the other side, under the command of the Prince de Soubise, in company with the troops of Wirtemberg, which the reigning Duke, a thing of which there is of which there is no example, led himself, under a French ge. neral, against a co-estate, hath again invaded, for the second time, His Majesty's dominions and those of his allies; exacted insupportable contributions; carried off the King's officers, entirely foraged the country, and plundered several places, and committed the greatest disorders, whilst the court of Vien na boasts of having ordered this invasion (the sole end of which was to ravage the King's dominions and those of Hesse) as an effect of its magnanimity, and as a merit with the Germanic body.

"If in such circumstances His Ma. jesty should be required to suspend the preparations he has begun, and join the troops that he wants for his own defence to those which, from the arbitrary views of the court of Vienna, are led against

His Prussian Majesty by a Prince who doth not belong to the generality of the empire, and on whom the command hath been conferred without a previous conclusum of the Germanic body; the right of the states of the em. pire to defend themselves when such defence squares not with the views of the Imperial court, ought, at the same time, to be settled. It is hoped that things are not yet come to this pass in Germany. Self-defence is the most urgent du. ty. The resolutions of the empire cannot deprive the meanest man, much less a free state, and an elector of the empire, of his right; nor require him to join the troops he wants for that end, to those which, jointly with the troops of France, have invaded his country, and shared in the contributions there extorted.

"In the second place, His Majesty doth not deny that he hath entered into an alliance with the King of Prussia, which is entirely conformable to the rules of right: but as he is accountable to God alone for what he doth as King, on the other hand, in the report made of what he has done as Elector, the times which preceded have been confounded with those that followed the French invasion. From the beginning of the last year His Majesty took every method to shew, that the only thing he aimed at, without taking part, otherwise, in the war, was to oppose the French foreign troops, know. ing they were sent only to in. vade his electorate, as indeed they have employed themselves almost wholly in ruining estates compre. hended unler the guaranty of he empire, as well those of the Duke of Saxony of the Ernestine line,

of the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel, the Landgrave of HesseCassel, and the Count of Lippe Schaumbourg, as those of His Ma jesty. This just intention, founded on the laws, from which His Majesty hath been so far from dero. gating in the smallest matter, that no instance thereof hath been, or can be brought, did not, nevertheless, hinder the French troops, who were furnished with the Emperor's letters requisitorial, from entering Germany in the avowed quality of auxiliary troops to the Empress-Queen, in company with those of the house of Austria and the Elector Palatine. The empire hath already been informed, on the third of December last year, of the first. proposals made, both to the Imperial court, and the court of France, for an amicable determination of differences; proposals which could not have been rejected, had not an hostile attack been resolved on. These offers, which from the manner in which they were received, His Majesty hath reason to regret that he ever made, leave no shadow of plausi. bility to the reproaches that may be made on account of the engage. ment that ensued, in whatever light the King of Prussia's cause may be considered. His Majesty is, indeed, fully persuaded, that he might, at any time, have entered into an alliance with that Prince for their common defence; but no one can doubt, that in this urgent necessity, when he was left alone, he had a right to seek assistance where it could be got. No fault can possibly be found with that which the King of Prussia gave him to deliver the electoral states of Prunswick, and those of Wolfenbuttel, Hesse, and

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