Generated for (University of
Chicago)
on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl.
Thomas Carlyle
' the Kaiser had always
"said: 'I am Head of the Reich, and have nothing to live
"upon! ' On one preliminary, Carteret had always been in-
exorable: 'Have done with your French auxiliaries; send
"every soul of them home; the German soil once cleared of
"them, much will be possible; till then nothing. ' Kaiser:
"Well, give me back my Bavaria; my Bavaria, and some-
"thing suitable to live upon, as Head of the Reich: some
"decent Annual Pension, till Bavaria come into paying con-
dition, -- cannot you, who are so wealthy? And Bavaria
"might be made aKingdom, if you wished to do the handsome
"thing. 1 will renounce my Austrian Pretensions, quit utter-
"ly my French Alliances; consent to have her Hungarian
"Majesty's august Consort made King of the Romans' (which
"means Kaiser after me), 'and in fact be very safe to the
"House of Austria and the Cause of Liberty. ' To all this the
"thrice unfortunate gentleman, titular Emperor of the World,
"and unable now to pay his milk-scores, is eager to consent.
"To continue crossing the Abysses on bridges of French rain-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 302 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
7th July--1st Aug. 1743.
"bow? Nothing but French subsidies to subsist on; and
"these how paid, -- Noailles's private pocket knows how! ' I
"consent,' said the Kaiser; 'will forgive and forget, and by-
"gones shall be bygones all round! ' 'Fair on his Imperial
"Majesty's part,' admits Carteret; 'we will try to be persuasive
"at Vienna. Difficult, but we will try. ' In a week matters
"had come to this point; and the morrow, July 15th, was ap-
pointed for signing. Most important of Protocols, founda-
"tion-stone of Peace to Teutschland; King Friedrich and the
"impartial Powers approving, with Britannic George and
"drawn sword presiding.
"King Friedrich approves heartily; and hopes it will do.
"Landgraf Wilhelm is proud to have saved his Kaiser, --
"who so glad as the Landgraf and his Kaiser? Carteret, too,
"is very glad; exulting, as he well may, to have composed
"these world-deliriums, or concentrated them upon peccant
"France, he with his single head, and to have got a value out
"of that absurd Pragmatic Army, after all. A man of magni-
"ficent ideas; who hopes 'to bring Friedrich over to his
"mind;' to unite poor Teutschland against such Oriflamme
"Invasions and intolerable interferences, and to settle the ac-
"count of France for a long while. He is the only English
"Minister who speaks German, knows German situations,
"interests, ways; or has the least real understanding of this
"huge German Imbroglio in which England is voluntarily
"weltering. And truly, had Carteret been King of England,
"which he was not, -- nay, had King Friedrich ever got to
"understand, instead of misunderstand, what Carteret was, --
"here might have been a considerable affair!
"But it now, at the eleventh hour, came upon magnificent
"Carteret, now seemingly for the first time in its full force,
"That he Carteret was not the master; that there was a be-
"wildered Parliament at home, a poor peddling Duke of New-
"castle leader of the same, with his Lords of the Regency,
"who could fatally put a negative on all this, unless they were
"first gained over. On the morrow, July 15th, Carteret, in-
"stead of signing, as expected, has to -- propose a fortnight's
"delay till he consult in England! Absolutely would not and
"could not sign, till a Courier to England went and returned.
"To Landgraf Wilhelm's, to Klinggraf's and the Kaiser's
"very great surprise, disappointment and suspicion. But
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 303
7th July--1st Aug. 1743.
"Carteret was inflexible: 'will only take a fortnight,' said he;
"'and I can hope all will yet be well! '
"The Courier came back punctually in a fortnight. His
"Message was presented at Hanau, August 1st, -- and ran
"conclusively to the effect: 'No! We, Noodle of Newcastle,
"and my other Lords of Regency, do not consent; much less,
"will undertake to carry the thing through Parliament: By
"no manner of means! So that Carteret's lately towering
"Affair had to collapse ignominiously, in that manner; poor
"Carteret protesting his sorrow, his unalterable individual
"wishes and future endeavours, not to speak of his Britannic
"Majesty's, -- and politely pressing on the poor Kaiser a gift
"of 15,000/. (first weekly instalment of the 'Annual Pension'
"that had, in theory, been set apart for him); which the
"Kaiser, though indigent, declined. *
"The disgust of Landgraf Wilhelm was infinite; who,
"honest man, saw in all this merely an artifice of Carteret's,
"To undo the Kaiser with his French Allies, to quirk him out
"of his poor help from the French, and have him at their
"mercy. 'Shame on it! ' cried Landgraf Wilhelm aloud, and
"many others less aloud, Klinggraf and King Friedrich
"among them: 'What a Carteret! ' The Landgraf turned
"away with indignation from perfidious England; and began
"forming quite opposite connexions. 'You shall not even
"have my hired 6,000, you perfidious! Thing done with such
"dexterity of art too! ' thought the -Landgraf, -- and con-
tinued to think, till evidence turned up, after many months. **
"This was Friedrich's opinion too, -- permanently, I be-
"lieve; -- and that of nearly all the world, till the thing and
"the Doer of the thing were contemptuously forgotten. A
"piece of Macchiavellism on the part of Carteret and perfi-
"dious Albion, -- equal in refined cunning to that of the Ships
"with foul bottom, which vanished from Cadiz two years ago,
"and were admired with a shudder by Continental mankind
"who could see into millstones!
"This is the second stroke of Macchiavellian Art by those
* Adelung, iii. 6. 206, 209-212; see Coxe, Memoirs of Pelham (London,
1829), i. 75, 469.
** Carteret Papers (in British Museum), Additional Mss. No. 22,529
(Hay 1743--January 1745); in No. 22,527 (January--September 1742) are
other Landgraf-Wilhelm pieces of Correspondence.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 304 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
7th July--1st Aug. 1743.
"Islanders, in their truly vulpine method. Stroke of Art im-
"portant for this History; and worth the attention of English
"readers, -- being almost of pathetic nature, when one comes
"to understand it! Carteret, for this Hanau business, had clan-
"gour enough to undergo, poor man, from Germans and from
"English; which was wholly unjust. 'His trade', say theEnglish
"--(or used to say, till they forgot their considerable Carteret
"altogether), --' was that of rising in the world by feeding the
"mad German humours of little George; a miserable trade. '
"Yes, my friends; -- but it was not quite Carteret's, if you
"will please to examine! And none say, Carteret did not do
"his trade, whatever it was, with a certain greatness, -- at
"least till habits of drinking rather took him. Poor man: im-
"patient, probably, of such fortune long continued! For he
"was thrown out, next Session of Parliament, by Noodle of
"Newcastle, on those strange terms; and never could get in
"again, and is now forgotten; and there succeeded him still
"more mournful phenomena, -- said Noodle or the poor Pel-
"hams, namely, --of whom, as of strange minus quantities
"set to manage our affairs, there is still some dreary remem-
"brance in England. Well! " --
Carteret, though there had been no Duke of New-
castle to run athwart this fine scheme, would have had
his difficulties in making her Hungarian Majesty com-
ply. Her Majesty's great heart, incurably grieved
about Silesia, is bent on having, if not restoration one
day, which is a hope she never quits, at any rate some
ample (cannot be too ample) equivalent elsewhere. On
the Hanau Scheme, united Teutschland, with England
for soul to it, would have fallen vigorously on the
throat of France, and made France disgorge: Lorraine,
Elsass, the Three Bishoprics, -- not to think of Bur-
gundy, and earlier plunders from the Reich, -- here
would have been "cut and come again" for her Hun-
garian Majesty and everybody! -- But Diana, in the
shape of his Grace of Newcastle, intervenes; and all
this has become chimerical and worse.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 305
? 26th-28th July 1743.
It was while Carteret's courier was gone to Eng-
land and not come back, that King Louis made the
above-mentioned mild, almost penitent, Declaration to
the Reich, "Good people, let us have Peace; and all
be as we were! I, for my share, wish to be out of it;
I am for home! " And, in effect, was already home;
every Frenchman in arms being, by this time, on
his own side of the Ehine, as we shall presently ob-
serve.
For, the same day, July 26th, while that was
going on at Frankfurt, and Carteret's return-courier
was due in five days, his Britannic Majesty at Hanau
had a splendid visit, -- tending not towards Peace
with France, but quite the opposite way. Visit from
Prince Karl, with Khevenhuller and other dignitaries;
doing us that honour "till the evening of the 28th. "
Quitting their Army, -- which is now in these neigh-
bourhoods (Broglio well gone to air ahead of it; Noailles
too, at the first sure sniff of it, having rushed double-
quick across the Ehine), -- these high Gentlemen have
run over to us, for a couple of days, to "congratulate
on Dettingen;" or better still, to consult, face to face,
about ulterior movements. "Follow Noailles; transfer
the seat of war to France itself? These are my orders,
your Majesty. Combined Invasion of Elsass: what a
slash may be made into France" (right handselling of
your Carteret Scheme) "this very year! " "Proper, in
every case! " answers the Britannic Majesty; and en-
gages to cooperate. Upon which Prince Karl, -- after
the due reviewing, dinnering, ceremonial blaring, which
was splendid to witness,* -- hastens back to his Army
* Anonymous, Duke of Cumberland, pp. 85, 86.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VII. 20
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 306 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [bOOKHT.
16th Aug. 1713.
(now lying about Baden Durlach, 70,000 strong); and
ought to be swift, while the chance lasts.
Hungarian Majesty answers, in the Diet, that French
Declaration, ''''Make Peace, good People; I wish to
be out of it! " -- in an ominous Manner.
These are fine prospects, in the French quarter, of
an equivalent for Schlesien; -- very fine, unless Diana
intervene! Diana or not, French prospects or not, her
Hungarian Majesty fastens on Bavaria with uncommon
tightness of fist, now that Bavaria is swept clear; well
resolved to keep Bavaria for equivalent, till better come.
Exacts by her deputy, Homage from the Population
there; strict Oath of Fealty to her; poor Kaiser pro-
testing his uttermost, to no purpose; Kaiser's poor
Printer (at Regensburg, which is in Bavaria) getting
"tried and hanged" for printing such Protest! "She
draughts forcibly the Bavarian militias into her Italian
Army;" is high and merciless on all hands; -- in a
word, throttles poor Bavaria, as if to the choking of it
outright. So that the very Gazetteers in foreign places
gave voice, though Bavaria itself, such a grasp on the
throat of it, was voiceless. Seckendorfs poor Bargain
for Neutrality as a Bavarian Reichs-Army, her Hun-
garian Majesty disdains to confirm; to confirm, or even
to reject; treats Seckendorf and his Bavarian Army
little otherwise than as a stray dog which she has not
yet shot. And truly the old Feldmarschall lies at
Wembdingen, in most disconsolate moulting condition;
little or nothing to live upon; the English, generous
creatures, had at one time flung him something, fancy-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 307
16th Aug. 1743.
ing the Armistice might be useful; but now it must be
the French that do it, if anybody! *
Hanau Conferences having failed, these things do
not fail. Kaiser Karl is become tragical to think of.
A spectacle of pity to Landgraf Wilhelm, to King
Friedrich, and serious onlookers; -- and perhaps not
of pity only, but of "pity and fear" to some of them!
-- sullen Austria taking its sweet revenges, in this
fashion. Readers who will look through these small
chinks, may guess what a world-welter this was; and
how Friedrich, gazing into phase on phase of it, as
into Oracles of Fate, which to him they were, had
a History, in these months, that will now never be
known.
August 16th, came out her Hungarian Majesty's
Response to that mild quasi-penitent Declaration of King
Louis to the Reich; and much astonished King Louis
and others, and the very Reich itself. "Out of it? "
says her Hungarian Majesty (whom we with regret, for
brevity's sake, translate from Official into vulgate):
"His Most Christian Majesty wishes to be out of it: --
Does not he, the (what shall I call him) Crowned
Housebreaker taken in the fact? You shall get out of
it, please Heaven, when you have made compensation
for the damage done; and till then not, if it please
Heaven! " And in this strain (lengthily Official, though
indignant to a degree) enumerates the wanton unspeak-
able mischiefs and outrages which Austria, a kind of
sacred entity guaranteed by Law of Nature and Eleven
Signatures of Potentates, has suffered from the Most
* Adelung, iii. 6. 204 ("22d August"), 206, &c.
20*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 308 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [BOOKHV.
16th Aug. 1743.
Christian Majesty, -- and will have compensation for,
Heaven now pointing the way! *
A most portentous Document; full of sombre em-
phasis, in sonorous snuffling tone of voice: enunciating,
with inflexible purpose, a number of unexpected things:
very portentous to his Prussian Majesty among others.
Forms a turning-point or crisis both in the French War,
and in his Prussian Majesty's History; and ought to be
particularly noted and dated by the careful reader. It
is here that we first publicly hear tell of Compensation,
the necessity Austria will have of Compensation, --
Austria does not say expressly for Silesia, but she
says and means for loss of territory, and for all other
losses whatsoever: "Compensation for the past, and
security for the future; that is my full intention,"
snuffles she, in that slow metallic tone of hers, irre-
vocable except by the gods.
"Compensation for the past, Security for the future:"
Compensation? what does her Hungarian Majesty mean?
asked all the world; asked Friedrich, the now Pro-
prietor of Silesia, with peculiar curiosity! It is the
first time her Hungarian Majesty steps articulately for-
ward with such extraordinary Claim of Damages, as if
she alone had suffered damage; -- but it is a fixed
point at Vienna, and is an agitating topic to mankind
in the coming months and years. Lorraine and the
Three Bishoprics; there would be a fine compensation.
Then again, what say you to Bavaria, in lieu of the
Silesia lost? You have Bavaria by the throat; keep
Bavaria, you. Give "Kur-Baiern, Kaiser as they call
him," something in the Netherlands to live upon? Will
be better out of Germany altogether, with his French
* in cxlenso, in Adelung, iii. 6. 201 et sqq.
? ?
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 309
16th Aug. 1743.
leanings. Or, give him the Kingdom of Naples, -- if
once we had conquered it again? These were actual
schemes, successive, simultaneous, much occupying
Carteret and the high Heads at Vienna now and after-
wards; which came all to nothing; but should, were
it not impossible, be held in some remembrance by
readers.
Another still more unexpected point comes out here,
in this singular Document, publicly for the first time:
Austria's feelings in regard to the Imperial Election
itself. Namely, That Austria considers, and has all
along considered, the said Election to be fatally vitiated
by that Exclusion of the Bohemian Vote; to be in fact
nullified thereby; and that, to her clear view, the pre-
sent so-called Kaiser is an imaginary quantity, and a
mere Kaiser of French shreds and patches! uDer seyn-
sollende Kaiser" snuffles Austria in one passage, "Your
Kaiser as you call him;" and in another passage, in-
stead of "Kaiser," puts flatly "Kur-Baiern. " This is
a most extraordinary doctrine to an Electoral Romish
Keich! Is the Holy Romish Reich to declare itself an
"Enchanted Wiggery," then, and do suicide, for behoof
of Austria? --
"August 16th, this extraordinary Document was
"delivered to the Chancery of Mainz; and September
"23d, it was, contrary to expectation, brought to Dic-
"tatur by said Chancery," -- of which latter phrase,
and phenomenon, here is the explanation to English
readers.
Had the late Kur-Mainz (general Arch-Chairman,
Speaker of the Diet) been still in office and existence,
certainly so shocking a Document had never been al-
lowed "to come to Dictatur" -- to be dictated to the
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 310 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
16th Aug. 1743.
Reich's Clerks; to have a first reading, as we should
call it; or even to lie on the table, with a theoretic
chance that way. But Austria, thanks to our little
George and his Pragmatic Armament, had got a new
Kur-Mainz; -- by whom, in open contempt of impar-
tiality, and in open leaning for Austria with all his
weight, it was duly forwarded to Dictature; brought
before an astonished Diet (Reichstag), and endlessly
argued of in Reichstag and Reich, -- with small bene-
fit to Austria, or the new Kur-Mainz. Wise kindness
to Austria had been suppression of this Piece, not
bringing of it to Dictature at all: but the new Kur-
Mainz, called upon, and conscious of face sufficient,
had not scrupled. "Shame on you, partial Arch-Chan-
cellor! " exclaims all the world. -- "Revoke such shame-
fully partial Dictature? " this was the next question
brought before the Reich. In which, Kur-Hanover
(Britannic George) was the one Elector that opined,
No. Majority conclusive; though, as usual, no settle-
ment attainable. This is the famous "Dictatur-Sache
(Dictature Question)," which rages on us, for about
eleven months to come, in those distracted old Books;
and seems as if it would never end. Nor is there any
saying when it would have ended; -- had not, in
August 1744, something else ended, the King of Prus-
sia's patience, namely; which enabled it to end, on the
Kaiser's then order! *
It must be owned, in general, the conduct of Maria
Theresa to the Reich, ever since the Reich had ven-
tured to reject her Husband as Kaiser, and prefer an-
other, was all along of a high nature; till now it has
grown into absolute contumacy, and a treating of the
* Adelung, lit. b. 201, iv. 198, &c.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 311
16th Aug. 1743.
Reich's elected Kaiser as a merely chimerical personage.
No law of the Reich had been violated against her
Hungarian Majesty or Husband: "What law? " asked
all judges. Vicarius Kur-Sachsen sat in committee,
hatching for many months that Question of the Kur-
Bohmen Vote; and by the prescribed methods, brought
it out in the negative, -- every formality and regularity
observed, and nobody but your Austrian Deputy pro-
testing upon it, when requested to go home. But the
high Maria had a notion that the Reich belonged to
her august Family and her; and that all Elections to
the contrary were an inconclusive thing, fundamentally
void every one of them.
Thus too, long before this, in regard to the Beichs-
Archiv Question. The Archives and indispensablest
Official Records and Papers of the Reich, -- these had
lain so long at Vienna, the high Maria could not think
of giving them up. "So difficult to extricate what
Papers are Austrian specially, from what are Austrian-
Imperial; --. must have time! " answered she always.
And neither the Kaiser's more and more pressing de-
mands, nor those of the late Kur-Mainz, backed by
the Reich, and reiterated month after month and year
after year, could avail in the matter. Mere angry cor-
respondence, growing ever angrier; -- the Archives of
the Reich lay irrecoverable at Vienna, detained on this
pretext and on that: nor were they ever given up; but
lay there till the Reich itself had ended, much more
the Kaiser Karl VII. ! These are high procedures.
As if the Reich had been one's own chattel; as if
a Non-Austrian Kaiser were impossible, and the Reich
and its . laws had, even Officially, become phantasmal!
That, in fact, was Maria Theresa's inarticulate inborn
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 312 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
16th Aug. 1743.
notion; and gradually, as her successes on the field
rose higher, it became ever more articulate; till this of
"the seyn-sollende Kaiser" put a crown on it. Justi-
fiable, if the Reich with its Laws were a chattel, or
rebellious vassal, of Austria; not justifiable otherwise.
"Hear ye? " answered almost all the Reich (eight Kur-
fursts, with the one exception of Kur-Hanover, as we
observed): "Our solemnly elected Kaiser, Karl VII. , is
a thing of quirks and quiddities, of French shreds and
patches; at present, it seems, the Reich has no Kaiser
at all; and will go ever deeper into anarchies and un-
nameabilities, till it proceed anew to get one, -- of the
right Austrian type! " -- The Reich is a talking entity:
King Friedrich is bound rather to silence, so long as
possible. His thoughts on these matters are not given;
but sure enough they were continual, too intense they
could hardly be. "Compensation;" "The Eeich as
good as mine:" Whither is all this tending! Walrave
and those Silesian Fortifyings, --let Walrave mind his
work, and get it perfected!
Britannic Majesty goes home.
The "Combined Invasion of Elsass," -- let us say
briefly, overstepping the order of date, and still for a
moment leaving Friedrich, -- came to nothing, this
year. Prince Karl was 70,000; Britannic George (when
once those Dutch, crawling-on all summer, bad actually
come up) was 66,000, -- nay 70,000; Karl having lent
him that beautiful cannibal gentleman, "Colonel Mentzel
and 4,000 Tolpatches," by way of edge-trimming. Karl
was to cross in Upper Elsass, in the Strasburg parts;
Karl once across, Britannic Majesty was to cross about
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 313
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
Mainz, and cooperate from Lower Elsass. And they
should have been swift about it; and were not! All
the world expected a severe slash to France; andFrance
itself had the due apprehension of it: but France and
all the world were mistaken, this time.
Prince Karl was slow with his preparations; Noailles
and Coigny (Broglio's successor) were not slow; "raising
batteries everywhere," raising lines, "10,000 Elsass
Peasants," and what-not; -- so that, by the time
Prince Karl was ready (middle of August), they lay
entrenched and minatory at all passable points; and
Karl could nowhere, in that Upper-Rhine Country, by
any method, get across. Nothing got across; except,
once or twice for perhaps a day, Butcher Trenck and
his loose kennel of Pandours; who went about, plunder-
ing and rioting, with loud rhodomontade, to th& ad-
miration of the Gazetteers, if of no one else.
Nor was George's seconding of important nature;
most dubitative, wholly passive, you would rather say,
though the River, in his quarter, lay undefended. He
did, at last, cross the Rhine about Mainz; went lan-
guidly to Worms, -- did an ever-memorable Treaty of
Worms there, if no fighting there or elsewhere. Went
to Speyer, where the Dutch joined him (sadly short of
number stipulated, had it been the least matter); --
was at Germersheim, at what other places I forget;
manceuvering about in a languid and as if in an aim-
less manner, at least it was in a perfectly ineffectual
one. Mentzel rode gloriously to Trarbach, into Lor-
raine; stuck up Proclamation, "Hungarian Majesty
come, by God's help, for her own again," and the
like; -- of which Document, now fallen rare, we give
textually the last line: "And if any of you don't" (don't
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 314 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
sit quiet at least), "I will," to be brief, "first cut off
"your ears and noses, and then hang you out of hand. "
The singular Champion of Christendom, famous to the
then Gazetteers! * Nothing farther could George, with
his Dutch now adjoined, do in those parts, but wriggle
slightly to and fro without aim; or stand absolutely
still, and eat provision (great uncertainty and discre-
pancy among the Generals, and Stair gone in a huff),**
-- till at length the "Combined Pragmatic Troops"
returned to Mainz (October 11th); and thence, dread-
fully in ill humour with each other, separated into their
winter-quarters in the Netherlands and adjacent re-
gions.
Prince Karl tried hard in several places; hardest at
Alt-Breisach, far up the River, with Swabian Freiburg
for his place of arms; -- an Austrian Country all that,
"Hither Austria," Swabian Austria. There, at Alt-
Breisach, lay Prince Karl (24th August--3d September),
his left leaning on that venerable sugar-loaf Hill, with
the towers and ramparts on the top of it; looking wist-
fully into Alsace, if there were no way of getting at it.
He did get once half-way across the Eiver, lodging
himself in an Island called Rheinmark; but could get
no farther, owing to the Noailles-Coigny preparations
for him. Called a Council of War; decided that he
had not magazines, that it was too late in the season;
and marched home again (October 12th) through the
Schwabenland; leaving, besides the strong Garrison of
Freiburg, only Trenck with 12,000 Pandours to keep
* In Adelung (iii. 6. 193) the Proclamation at large. I have, or once
had, a Life of Mentzel (Dublin, I think, 1744), "price two-pence,"-- dear at
the money.
** Went, "August 27th, by Worms" (Henderson, Life of Cumberland,
p. 48), just while his Majesty was beginning to cross.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 315
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
the Country open for us, against next year. Britannic
Majesty, as we observed, did then, almost simultane-
ously, in like manner march home; * -- one goal is
always clear, when the day sinks: Make for your quar-
ters, for your bed.
Prince Karl was gloriously wedded, this Winter, to
her Hungarian Majesty's young Sister; -- glorious meed
of War; and, they say, a union of hearts withal; --
Wife and he to have Brussels for residence, and be
"Joint-Governors of the Netherlands" henceforth. Stout
Khevenhiiller, almost during the rejoicings, took fever,
and suddenly died; to the great sorrow of her Majesty,
for loss of such a soldier and man. ** Britannic Majesty
has not been successful with his Pragmatic Army. He
did get his new Kur-Mainz, who has brought the Aus-
trian Exorbitancy to a first reading, and into general
view. He did get out of the Dettingen mousetrap;
and, to the admiration of the Gazetteer mind, and (we
hope) envy of Most Christian Majesty, he has, regard-
less of expense, played Supreme Jove on the German
boards for above three months running. But as to
Settlement of the German Quarrel, he has done nothing
at all, and even a good deal less! Let me commend
to readers this little scrap of Note; headed, "Methods
of Pacificating Germany:
"1o. There is one ready method of pacificating Germany:
"That hisBritannicMajestyshould firmly button his breeches-
"pocket, 'Not one sixpence more, Madam! ' -- and go home
"to his bed, if he find no business waiting him at home. Has
"not he always the Ear-of-Jenkins Question, and the Cause of
"Liberty in that succinct form! But, in Germany, sinews of
* Adelung, iii. b. 192, 215; Anonymous, Cumberland, p. 121.
** Maria Theresiens Leben, pp. 94, 45.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 316 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
"war being cut, law of gravitation would at once act; and ex-
orbitant Hungarian Majesty, tired France, and all else,
"would in a brief space of time lapse into equilibrium, pro-
"bably of the more stable kind.
"20. Or, if you want to save the Cause of Liberty on a
"grand scale, there are those Hanau Conferences. -- Carteret's
"magnificent scheme: A united Teutschland (England in-
"spiring it), to rush on the throat of France, for 'Compensa-
tion,' for universal salving of sores. This second method,
"Diana having intervened, is gone to water, and even to
'' poisoned water. So that,
"3o. There was nothing left for poor Carteret but a Treaty
"of Worms" (concerning which, something more explicit by
and by): "A Teutschland (the English, doubly and trebly in-
spiring it, as surely they will now need! )to rush as aforesaid,
"in the disunited and indeed nearly internecine state. Which
"third method, -- unless Carteret can conquer Naples for the
"Kaiser, stuff the Kaiser into some satisfactory 'Netherlands'
"or the like, and miraculously do the unfeasible ?
"said: 'I am Head of the Reich, and have nothing to live
"upon! ' On one preliminary, Carteret had always been in-
exorable: 'Have done with your French auxiliaries; send
"every soul of them home; the German soil once cleared of
"them, much will be possible; till then nothing. ' Kaiser:
"Well, give me back my Bavaria; my Bavaria, and some-
"thing suitable to live upon, as Head of the Reich: some
"decent Annual Pension, till Bavaria come into paying con-
dition, -- cannot you, who are so wealthy? And Bavaria
"might be made aKingdom, if you wished to do the handsome
"thing. 1 will renounce my Austrian Pretensions, quit utter-
"ly my French Alliances; consent to have her Hungarian
"Majesty's august Consort made King of the Romans' (which
"means Kaiser after me), 'and in fact be very safe to the
"House of Austria and the Cause of Liberty. ' To all this the
"thrice unfortunate gentleman, titular Emperor of the World,
"and unable now to pay his milk-scores, is eager to consent.
"To continue crossing the Abysses on bridges of French rain-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 302 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
7th July--1st Aug. 1743.
"bow? Nothing but French subsidies to subsist on; and
"these how paid, -- Noailles's private pocket knows how! ' I
"consent,' said the Kaiser; 'will forgive and forget, and by-
"gones shall be bygones all round! ' 'Fair on his Imperial
"Majesty's part,' admits Carteret; 'we will try to be persuasive
"at Vienna. Difficult, but we will try. ' In a week matters
"had come to this point; and the morrow, July 15th, was ap-
pointed for signing. Most important of Protocols, founda-
"tion-stone of Peace to Teutschland; King Friedrich and the
"impartial Powers approving, with Britannic George and
"drawn sword presiding.
"King Friedrich approves heartily; and hopes it will do.
"Landgraf Wilhelm is proud to have saved his Kaiser, --
"who so glad as the Landgraf and his Kaiser? Carteret, too,
"is very glad; exulting, as he well may, to have composed
"these world-deliriums, or concentrated them upon peccant
"France, he with his single head, and to have got a value out
"of that absurd Pragmatic Army, after all. A man of magni-
"ficent ideas; who hopes 'to bring Friedrich over to his
"mind;' to unite poor Teutschland against such Oriflamme
"Invasions and intolerable interferences, and to settle the ac-
"count of France for a long while. He is the only English
"Minister who speaks German, knows German situations,
"interests, ways; or has the least real understanding of this
"huge German Imbroglio in which England is voluntarily
"weltering. And truly, had Carteret been King of England,
"which he was not, -- nay, had King Friedrich ever got to
"understand, instead of misunderstand, what Carteret was, --
"here might have been a considerable affair!
"But it now, at the eleventh hour, came upon magnificent
"Carteret, now seemingly for the first time in its full force,
"That he Carteret was not the master; that there was a be-
"wildered Parliament at home, a poor peddling Duke of New-
"castle leader of the same, with his Lords of the Regency,
"who could fatally put a negative on all this, unless they were
"first gained over. On the morrow, July 15th, Carteret, in-
"stead of signing, as expected, has to -- propose a fortnight's
"delay till he consult in England! Absolutely would not and
"could not sign, till a Courier to England went and returned.
"To Landgraf Wilhelm's, to Klinggraf's and the Kaiser's
"very great surprise, disappointment and suspicion. But
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 303
7th July--1st Aug. 1743.
"Carteret was inflexible: 'will only take a fortnight,' said he;
"'and I can hope all will yet be well! '
"The Courier came back punctually in a fortnight. His
"Message was presented at Hanau, August 1st, -- and ran
"conclusively to the effect: 'No! We, Noodle of Newcastle,
"and my other Lords of Regency, do not consent; much less,
"will undertake to carry the thing through Parliament: By
"no manner of means! So that Carteret's lately towering
"Affair had to collapse ignominiously, in that manner; poor
"Carteret protesting his sorrow, his unalterable individual
"wishes and future endeavours, not to speak of his Britannic
"Majesty's, -- and politely pressing on the poor Kaiser a gift
"of 15,000/. (first weekly instalment of the 'Annual Pension'
"that had, in theory, been set apart for him); which the
"Kaiser, though indigent, declined. *
"The disgust of Landgraf Wilhelm was infinite; who,
"honest man, saw in all this merely an artifice of Carteret's,
"To undo the Kaiser with his French Allies, to quirk him out
"of his poor help from the French, and have him at their
"mercy. 'Shame on it! ' cried Landgraf Wilhelm aloud, and
"many others less aloud, Klinggraf and King Friedrich
"among them: 'What a Carteret! ' The Landgraf turned
"away with indignation from perfidious England; and began
"forming quite opposite connexions. 'You shall not even
"have my hired 6,000, you perfidious! Thing done with such
"dexterity of art too! ' thought the -Landgraf, -- and con-
tinued to think, till evidence turned up, after many months. **
"This was Friedrich's opinion too, -- permanently, I be-
"lieve; -- and that of nearly all the world, till the thing and
"the Doer of the thing were contemptuously forgotten. A
"piece of Macchiavellism on the part of Carteret and perfi-
"dious Albion, -- equal in refined cunning to that of the Ships
"with foul bottom, which vanished from Cadiz two years ago,
"and were admired with a shudder by Continental mankind
"who could see into millstones!
"This is the second stroke of Macchiavellian Art by those
* Adelung, iii. 6. 206, 209-212; see Coxe, Memoirs of Pelham (London,
1829), i. 75, 469.
** Carteret Papers (in British Museum), Additional Mss. No. 22,529
(Hay 1743--January 1745); in No. 22,527 (January--September 1742) are
other Landgraf-Wilhelm pieces of Correspondence.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 304 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
7th July--1st Aug. 1743.
"Islanders, in their truly vulpine method. Stroke of Art im-
"portant for this History; and worth the attention of English
"readers, -- being almost of pathetic nature, when one comes
"to understand it! Carteret, for this Hanau business, had clan-
"gour enough to undergo, poor man, from Germans and from
"English; which was wholly unjust. 'His trade', say theEnglish
"--(or used to say, till they forgot their considerable Carteret
"altogether), --' was that of rising in the world by feeding the
"mad German humours of little George; a miserable trade. '
"Yes, my friends; -- but it was not quite Carteret's, if you
"will please to examine! And none say, Carteret did not do
"his trade, whatever it was, with a certain greatness, -- at
"least till habits of drinking rather took him. Poor man: im-
"patient, probably, of such fortune long continued! For he
"was thrown out, next Session of Parliament, by Noodle of
"Newcastle, on those strange terms; and never could get in
"again, and is now forgotten; and there succeeded him still
"more mournful phenomena, -- said Noodle or the poor Pel-
"hams, namely, --of whom, as of strange minus quantities
"set to manage our affairs, there is still some dreary remem-
"brance in England. Well! " --
Carteret, though there had been no Duke of New-
castle to run athwart this fine scheme, would have had
his difficulties in making her Hungarian Majesty com-
ply. Her Majesty's great heart, incurably grieved
about Silesia, is bent on having, if not restoration one
day, which is a hope she never quits, at any rate some
ample (cannot be too ample) equivalent elsewhere. On
the Hanau Scheme, united Teutschland, with England
for soul to it, would have fallen vigorously on the
throat of France, and made France disgorge: Lorraine,
Elsass, the Three Bishoprics, -- not to think of Bur-
gundy, and earlier plunders from the Reich, -- here
would have been "cut and come again" for her Hun-
garian Majesty and everybody! -- But Diana, in the
shape of his Grace of Newcastle, intervenes; and all
this has become chimerical and worse.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 305
? 26th-28th July 1743.
It was while Carteret's courier was gone to Eng-
land and not come back, that King Louis made the
above-mentioned mild, almost penitent, Declaration to
the Reich, "Good people, let us have Peace; and all
be as we were! I, for my share, wish to be out of it;
I am for home! " And, in effect, was already home;
every Frenchman in arms being, by this time, on
his own side of the Ehine, as we shall presently ob-
serve.
For, the same day, July 26th, while that was
going on at Frankfurt, and Carteret's return-courier
was due in five days, his Britannic Majesty at Hanau
had a splendid visit, -- tending not towards Peace
with France, but quite the opposite way. Visit from
Prince Karl, with Khevenhuller and other dignitaries;
doing us that honour "till the evening of the 28th. "
Quitting their Army, -- which is now in these neigh-
bourhoods (Broglio well gone to air ahead of it; Noailles
too, at the first sure sniff of it, having rushed double-
quick across the Ehine), -- these high Gentlemen have
run over to us, for a couple of days, to "congratulate
on Dettingen;" or better still, to consult, face to face,
about ulterior movements. "Follow Noailles; transfer
the seat of war to France itself? These are my orders,
your Majesty. Combined Invasion of Elsass: what a
slash may be made into France" (right handselling of
your Carteret Scheme) "this very year! " "Proper, in
every case! " answers the Britannic Majesty; and en-
gages to cooperate. Upon which Prince Karl, -- after
the due reviewing, dinnering, ceremonial blaring, which
was splendid to witness,* -- hastens back to his Army
* Anonymous, Duke of Cumberland, pp. 85, 86.
Carlyle, Frederick the Great. VII. 20
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 306 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [bOOKHT.
16th Aug. 1713.
(now lying about Baden Durlach, 70,000 strong); and
ought to be swift, while the chance lasts.
Hungarian Majesty answers, in the Diet, that French
Declaration, ''''Make Peace, good People; I wish to
be out of it! " -- in an ominous Manner.
These are fine prospects, in the French quarter, of
an equivalent for Schlesien; -- very fine, unless Diana
intervene! Diana or not, French prospects or not, her
Hungarian Majesty fastens on Bavaria with uncommon
tightness of fist, now that Bavaria is swept clear; well
resolved to keep Bavaria for equivalent, till better come.
Exacts by her deputy, Homage from the Population
there; strict Oath of Fealty to her; poor Kaiser pro-
testing his uttermost, to no purpose; Kaiser's poor
Printer (at Regensburg, which is in Bavaria) getting
"tried and hanged" for printing such Protest! "She
draughts forcibly the Bavarian militias into her Italian
Army;" is high and merciless on all hands; -- in a
word, throttles poor Bavaria, as if to the choking of it
outright. So that the very Gazetteers in foreign places
gave voice, though Bavaria itself, such a grasp on the
throat of it, was voiceless. Seckendorfs poor Bargain
for Neutrality as a Bavarian Reichs-Army, her Hun-
garian Majesty disdains to confirm; to confirm, or even
to reject; treats Seckendorf and his Bavarian Army
little otherwise than as a stray dog which she has not
yet shot. And truly the old Feldmarschall lies at
Wembdingen, in most disconsolate moulting condition;
little or nothing to live upon; the English, generous
creatures, had at one time flung him something, fancy-
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 307
16th Aug. 1743.
ing the Armistice might be useful; but now it must be
the French that do it, if anybody! *
Hanau Conferences having failed, these things do
not fail. Kaiser Karl is become tragical to think of.
A spectacle of pity to Landgraf Wilhelm, to King
Friedrich, and serious onlookers; -- and perhaps not
of pity only, but of "pity and fear" to some of them!
-- sullen Austria taking its sweet revenges, in this
fashion. Readers who will look through these small
chinks, may guess what a world-welter this was; and
how Friedrich, gazing into phase on phase of it, as
into Oracles of Fate, which to him they were, had
a History, in these months, that will now never be
known.
August 16th, came out her Hungarian Majesty's
Response to that mild quasi-penitent Declaration of King
Louis to the Reich; and much astonished King Louis
and others, and the very Reich itself. "Out of it? "
says her Hungarian Majesty (whom we with regret, for
brevity's sake, translate from Official into vulgate):
"His Most Christian Majesty wishes to be out of it: --
Does not he, the (what shall I call him) Crowned
Housebreaker taken in the fact? You shall get out of
it, please Heaven, when you have made compensation
for the damage done; and till then not, if it please
Heaven! " And in this strain (lengthily Official, though
indignant to a degree) enumerates the wanton unspeak-
able mischiefs and outrages which Austria, a kind of
sacred entity guaranteed by Law of Nature and Eleven
Signatures of Potentates, has suffered from the Most
* Adelung, iii. 6. 204 ("22d August"), 206, &c.
20*
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 308 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [BOOKHV.
16th Aug. 1743.
Christian Majesty, -- and will have compensation for,
Heaven now pointing the way! *
A most portentous Document; full of sombre em-
phasis, in sonorous snuffling tone of voice: enunciating,
with inflexible purpose, a number of unexpected things:
very portentous to his Prussian Majesty among others.
Forms a turning-point or crisis both in the French War,
and in his Prussian Majesty's History; and ought to be
particularly noted and dated by the careful reader. It
is here that we first publicly hear tell of Compensation,
the necessity Austria will have of Compensation, --
Austria does not say expressly for Silesia, but she
says and means for loss of territory, and for all other
losses whatsoever: "Compensation for the past, and
security for the future; that is my full intention,"
snuffles she, in that slow metallic tone of hers, irre-
vocable except by the gods.
"Compensation for the past, Security for the future:"
Compensation? what does her Hungarian Majesty mean?
asked all the world; asked Friedrich, the now Pro-
prietor of Silesia, with peculiar curiosity! It is the
first time her Hungarian Majesty steps articulately for-
ward with such extraordinary Claim of Damages, as if
she alone had suffered damage; -- but it is a fixed
point at Vienna, and is an agitating topic to mankind
in the coming months and years. Lorraine and the
Three Bishoprics; there would be a fine compensation.
Then again, what say you to Bavaria, in lieu of the
Silesia lost? You have Bavaria by the throat; keep
Bavaria, you. Give "Kur-Baiern, Kaiser as they call
him," something in the Netherlands to live upon? Will
be better out of Germany altogether, with his French
* in cxlenso, in Adelung, iii. 6. 201 et sqq.
? ?
Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 309
16th Aug. 1743.
leanings. Or, give him the Kingdom of Naples, -- if
once we had conquered it again? These were actual
schemes, successive, simultaneous, much occupying
Carteret and the high Heads at Vienna now and after-
wards; which came all to nothing; but should, were
it not impossible, be held in some remembrance by
readers.
Another still more unexpected point comes out here,
in this singular Document, publicly for the first time:
Austria's feelings in regard to the Imperial Election
itself. Namely, That Austria considers, and has all
along considered, the said Election to be fatally vitiated
by that Exclusion of the Bohemian Vote; to be in fact
nullified thereby; and that, to her clear view, the pre-
sent so-called Kaiser is an imaginary quantity, and a
mere Kaiser of French shreds and patches! uDer seyn-
sollende Kaiser" snuffles Austria in one passage, "Your
Kaiser as you call him;" and in another passage, in-
stead of "Kaiser," puts flatly "Kur-Baiern. " This is
a most extraordinary doctrine to an Electoral Romish
Keich! Is the Holy Romish Reich to declare itself an
"Enchanted Wiggery," then, and do suicide, for behoof
of Austria? --
"August 16th, this extraordinary Document was
"delivered to the Chancery of Mainz; and September
"23d, it was, contrary to expectation, brought to Dic-
"tatur by said Chancery," -- of which latter phrase,
and phenomenon, here is the explanation to English
readers.
Had the late Kur-Mainz (general Arch-Chairman,
Speaker of the Diet) been still in office and existence,
certainly so shocking a Document had never been al-
lowed "to come to Dictatur" -- to be dictated to the
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 310 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
16th Aug. 1743.
Reich's Clerks; to have a first reading, as we should
call it; or even to lie on the table, with a theoretic
chance that way. But Austria, thanks to our little
George and his Pragmatic Armament, had got a new
Kur-Mainz; -- by whom, in open contempt of impar-
tiality, and in open leaning for Austria with all his
weight, it was duly forwarded to Dictature; brought
before an astonished Diet (Reichstag), and endlessly
argued of in Reichstag and Reich, -- with small bene-
fit to Austria, or the new Kur-Mainz. Wise kindness
to Austria had been suppression of this Piece, not
bringing of it to Dictature at all: but the new Kur-
Mainz, called upon, and conscious of face sufficient,
had not scrupled. "Shame on you, partial Arch-Chan-
cellor! " exclaims all the world. -- "Revoke such shame-
fully partial Dictature? " this was the next question
brought before the Reich. In which, Kur-Hanover
(Britannic George) was the one Elector that opined,
No. Majority conclusive; though, as usual, no settle-
ment attainable. This is the famous "Dictatur-Sache
(Dictature Question)," which rages on us, for about
eleven months to come, in those distracted old Books;
and seems as if it would never end. Nor is there any
saying when it would have ended; -- had not, in
August 1744, something else ended, the King of Prus-
sia's patience, namely; which enabled it to end, on the
Kaiser's then order! *
It must be owned, in general, the conduct of Maria
Theresa to the Reich, ever since the Reich had ven-
tured to reject her Husband as Kaiser, and prefer an-
other, was all along of a high nature; till now it has
grown into absolute contumacy, and a treating of the
* Adelung, lit. b. 201, iv. 198, &c.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 311
16th Aug. 1743.
Reich's elected Kaiser as a merely chimerical personage.
No law of the Reich had been violated against her
Hungarian Majesty or Husband: "What law? " asked
all judges. Vicarius Kur-Sachsen sat in committee,
hatching for many months that Question of the Kur-
Bohmen Vote; and by the prescribed methods, brought
it out in the negative, -- every formality and regularity
observed, and nobody but your Austrian Deputy pro-
testing upon it, when requested to go home. But the
high Maria had a notion that the Reich belonged to
her august Family and her; and that all Elections to
the contrary were an inconclusive thing, fundamentally
void every one of them.
Thus too, long before this, in regard to the Beichs-
Archiv Question. The Archives and indispensablest
Official Records and Papers of the Reich, -- these had
lain so long at Vienna, the high Maria could not think
of giving them up. "So difficult to extricate what
Papers are Austrian specially, from what are Austrian-
Imperial; --. must have time! " answered she always.
And neither the Kaiser's more and more pressing de-
mands, nor those of the late Kur-Mainz, backed by
the Reich, and reiterated month after month and year
after year, could avail in the matter. Mere angry cor-
respondence, growing ever angrier; -- the Archives of
the Reich lay irrecoverable at Vienna, detained on this
pretext and on that: nor were they ever given up; but
lay there till the Reich itself had ended, much more
the Kaiser Karl VII. ! These are high procedures.
As if the Reich had been one's own chattel; as if
a Non-Austrian Kaiser were impossible, and the Reich
and its . laws had, even Officially, become phantasmal!
That, in fact, was Maria Theresa's inarticulate inborn
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 312 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
16th Aug. 1743.
notion; and gradually, as her successes on the field
rose higher, it became ever more articulate; till this of
"the seyn-sollende Kaiser" put a crown on it. Justi-
fiable, if the Reich with its Laws were a chattel, or
rebellious vassal, of Austria; not justifiable otherwise.
"Hear ye? " answered almost all the Reich (eight Kur-
fursts, with the one exception of Kur-Hanover, as we
observed): "Our solemnly elected Kaiser, Karl VII. , is
a thing of quirks and quiddities, of French shreds and
patches; at present, it seems, the Reich has no Kaiser
at all; and will go ever deeper into anarchies and un-
nameabilities, till it proceed anew to get one, -- of the
right Austrian type! " -- The Reich is a talking entity:
King Friedrich is bound rather to silence, so long as
possible. His thoughts on these matters are not given;
but sure enough they were continual, too intense they
could hardly be. "Compensation;" "The Eeich as
good as mine:" Whither is all this tending! Walrave
and those Silesian Fortifyings, --let Walrave mind his
work, and get it perfected!
Britannic Majesty goes home.
The "Combined Invasion of Elsass," -- let us say
briefly, overstepping the order of date, and still for a
moment leaving Friedrich, -- came to nothing, this
year. Prince Karl was 70,000; Britannic George (when
once those Dutch, crawling-on all summer, bad actually
come up) was 66,000, -- nay 70,000; Karl having lent
him that beautiful cannibal gentleman, "Colonel Mentzel
and 4,000 Tolpatches," by way of edge-trimming. Karl
was to cross in Upper Elsass, in the Strasburg parts;
Karl once across, Britannic Majesty was to cross about
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 313
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
Mainz, and cooperate from Lower Elsass. And they
should have been swift about it; and were not! All
the world expected a severe slash to France; andFrance
itself had the due apprehension of it: but France and
all the world were mistaken, this time.
Prince Karl was slow with his preparations; Noailles
and Coigny (Broglio's successor) were not slow; "raising
batteries everywhere," raising lines, "10,000 Elsass
Peasants," and what-not; -- so that, by the time
Prince Karl was ready (middle of August), they lay
entrenched and minatory at all passable points; and
Karl could nowhere, in that Upper-Rhine Country, by
any method, get across. Nothing got across; except,
once or twice for perhaps a day, Butcher Trenck and
his loose kennel of Pandours; who went about, plunder-
ing and rioting, with loud rhodomontade, to th& ad-
miration of the Gazetteers, if of no one else.
Nor was George's seconding of important nature;
most dubitative, wholly passive, you would rather say,
though the River, in his quarter, lay undefended. He
did, at last, cross the Rhine about Mainz; went lan-
guidly to Worms, -- did an ever-memorable Treaty of
Worms there, if no fighting there or elsewhere. Went
to Speyer, where the Dutch joined him (sadly short of
number stipulated, had it been the least matter); --
was at Germersheim, at what other places I forget;
manceuvering about in a languid and as if in an aim-
less manner, at least it was in a perfectly ineffectual
one. Mentzel rode gloriously to Trarbach, into Lor-
raine; stuck up Proclamation, "Hungarian Majesty
come, by God's help, for her own again," and the
like; -- of which Document, now fallen rare, we give
textually the last line: "And if any of you don't" (don't
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 314 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
sit quiet at least), "I will," to be brief, "first cut off
"your ears and noses, and then hang you out of hand. "
The singular Champion of Christendom, famous to the
then Gazetteers! * Nothing farther could George, with
his Dutch now adjoined, do in those parts, but wriggle
slightly to and fro without aim; or stand absolutely
still, and eat provision (great uncertainty and discre-
pancy among the Generals, and Stair gone in a huff),**
-- till at length the "Combined Pragmatic Troops"
returned to Mainz (October 11th); and thence, dread-
fully in ill humour with each other, separated into their
winter-quarters in the Netherlands and adjacent re-
gions.
Prince Karl tried hard in several places; hardest at
Alt-Breisach, far up the River, with Swabian Freiburg
for his place of arms; -- an Austrian Country all that,
"Hither Austria," Swabian Austria. There, at Alt-
Breisach, lay Prince Karl (24th August--3d September),
his left leaning on that venerable sugar-loaf Hill, with
the towers and ramparts on the top of it; looking wist-
fully into Alsace, if there were no way of getting at it.
He did get once half-way across the Eiver, lodging
himself in an Island called Rheinmark; but could get
no farther, owing to the Noailles-Coigny preparations
for him. Called a Council of War; decided that he
had not magazines, that it was too late in the season;
and marched home again (October 12th) through the
Schwabenland; leaving, besides the strong Garrison of
Freiburg, only Trenck with 12,000 Pandours to keep
* In Adelung (iii. 6. 193) the Proclamation at large. I have, or once
had, a Life of Mentzel (Dublin, I think, 1744), "price two-pence,"-- dear at
the money.
** Went, "August 27th, by Worms" (Henderson, Life of Cumberland,
p. 48), just while his Majesty was beginning to cross.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? CHAP. v. ] BATTLE OF DETTINGEN. 315
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
the Country open for us, against next year. Britannic
Majesty, as we observed, did then, almost simultane-
ously, in like manner march home; * -- one goal is
always clear, when the day sinks: Make for your quar-
ters, for your bed.
Prince Karl was gloriously wedded, this Winter, to
her Hungarian Majesty's young Sister; -- glorious meed
of War; and, they say, a union of hearts withal; --
Wife and he to have Brussels for residence, and be
"Joint-Governors of the Netherlands" henceforth. Stout
Khevenhiiller, almost during the rejoicings, took fever,
and suddenly died; to the great sorrow of her Majesty,
for loss of such a soldier and man. ** Britannic Majesty
has not been successful with his Pragmatic Army. He
did get his new Kur-Mainz, who has brought the Aus-
trian Exorbitancy to a first reading, and into general
view. He did get out of the Dettingen mousetrap;
and, to the admiration of the Gazetteer mind, and (we
hope) envy of Most Christian Majesty, he has, regard-
less of expense, played Supreme Jove on the German
boards for above three months running. But as to
Settlement of the German Quarrel, he has done nothing
at all, and even a good deal less! Let me commend
to readers this little scrap of Note; headed, "Methods
of Pacificating Germany:
"1o. There is one ready method of pacificating Germany:
"That hisBritannicMajestyshould firmly button his breeches-
"pocket, 'Not one sixpence more, Madam! ' -- and go home
"to his bed, if he find no business waiting him at home. Has
"not he always the Ear-of-Jenkins Question, and the Cause of
"Liberty in that succinct form! But, in Germany, sinews of
* Adelung, iii. b. 192, 215; Anonymous, Cumberland, p. 121.
** Maria Theresiens Leben, pp. 94, 45.
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-11-14 09:29 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. hwiijj Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? 316 EUROPEAN WAR NOT ENDING. [book XIV.
Aug. --Oct. 1743.
"war being cut, law of gravitation would at once act; and ex-
orbitant Hungarian Majesty, tired France, and all else,
"would in a brief space of time lapse into equilibrium, pro-
"bably of the more stable kind.
"20. Or, if you want to save the Cause of Liberty on a
"grand scale, there are those Hanau Conferences. -- Carteret's
"magnificent scheme: A united Teutschland (England in-
"spiring it), to rush on the throat of France, for 'Compensa-
tion,' for universal salving of sores. This second method,
"Diana having intervened, is gone to water, and even to
'' poisoned water. So that,
"3o. There was nothing left for poor Carteret but a Treaty
"of Worms" (concerning which, something more explicit by
and by): "A Teutschland (the English, doubly and trebly in-
spiring it, as surely they will now need! )to rush as aforesaid,
"in the disunited and indeed nearly internecine state. Which
"third method, -- unless Carteret can conquer Naples for the
"Kaiser, stuff the Kaiser into some satisfactory 'Netherlands'
"or the like, and miraculously do the unfeasible ?
