History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 13 | Page 4

except it be paying money, he becomes again a miracle of
cunctations; and staggers about for years to come, like the-- Shall we
say, like the White Hanover Horse amid half a dozen sieves of beans?
Alas, no, like the Hanover Horse with the shadows of half a dozen
Damocles'-swords dangling into the eyes of it;--enough to drive any
Horse to its wit's end!--
"To do, to dare," thinks the Britannic Majesty;--yes, and of daring there
is a plenty: but, "In which direction? What, How?" these are questions
for a fussy little gentleman called to take the world on his shoulders.
We suppose it was by Walpole's advice that he gave her Hungarian
Majesty that 200,000 pounds of Secret-Service Money; --advice
sufficiently Walpolean: "Russian Partition-Treaties; horrible to think
of;--beware of these again! Give her Majesty that cash; can be done; it
will keep matters afloat, and spoil nothing!" That, till the late Subsidy
payable within year and day hence, was all of tangible his Majesty had
yet done;--truly that is all her Hungarian Majesty has yet got by
hawking the world, Pragmatic Sanction in hand. And if that were the

bit of generosity which enabled Neipperg to climb the Mountains and
be beaten at Mollwitz, that has helped little! Very big generosities, to a
frightful cipher of Millions Sterling through the coming years, will go
the same road; and amount also to zero, even for the receiving party,
not to speak of the giving! For men and kings are wise creatures.
But wise or unwise, how great are his Britannic Majesty's activities in
this Pragmatic Business! We may say, they are prodigious, incessant,
ubiquitous. They are forgotten now, fallen wholly to the spiders and the
dust-bins;--though Friedrich himself was not a busier King in those
days, if perhaps a better directed. It is a thing wonderful to us, but
sorrowful and undeniable. We perceive the Britannic Majesty's own
little mind pulsing with this Pragmatic Matter, as the biggest volcano
would do;--shooting forth dust and smoke (subsidies, diplomatic
emissaries, treaties, offers of treaty, plans, foolish futile exertions), at
an immense rate. When the Celestial Balances are canting, a man ought
to exert himself. But as to this of saving the House of Austria from
France,--surely, your Britannic Majesty, the shortest way to that, if that
is so indispensable, were: That the House of Austria should consent to
give up its stolen goods, better late than never; and to make this King
of Prussia its friend, as he offers to be! Joined with this King, it would
manage to give account of France and its balloon projects, by and by.
Could your Britannic Majesty but take Mr. Viner's hint; and, in the
interim, mind your OWN business!-- His Britannic Majesty intends
immediate fighting; and, both in England and Hanover, is making
preparation loud and great. Nay, he will in his own person fight, if
necessary, and rather likes the thought of it: he saw Oudenarde in his
young days; and, I am told, traces in himself a talent for Generalship.
Were the Britannic Majesty to draw his own puissant sword!-His own
puissant purse he has already drawn; and is subsidizing to right and left;
knocking at all doors with money in hand, and the question, "Any
fighting done here?" In England itself there goes on much drilling,
enlisting; camping, proposing to camp; which is noisy enough in the
British Newspapers, much more in the Foreign. One actual Camp there
was "on Lexden Heath near Colchester," from May till October of this
1741, [Manifold but insignificant details about it, in the old
Newspapers of those Months.]--Camp waiting always to be shipped

across to the scene of action, but never was:--this actual Camp, and
several imaginary ones here, which were alarming to the Continental
Gazetteer. In England his Majesty is busy that way; still more among
his Hanoverians, now under his own royal eye; and among his Danes
and Hessians, whom he has now brought over into Hanover, to
combine with the others. Danes and Hessians, 6,000 of each kind, he
for some time keeps back in stall, upon subsidy, ready for such an
occasion. Their "Camp at Hameln," "Camp at Nienburg" (will, with the
Hanoverians, be 30,000 odd); their swashing and blaring about,
intending to encamp at Hameln, at Nienburg, and other places, but
never doing it, or doing it with any result: this, with the alarming
English Camps at Lexden and in Dreamland, which also were void of
practical issue, filled Europe with rumor this Summer.--Eager enough
to fight; a noble martial ardor in our little Hercules-Atlas! But there lie
such enormous difficulties on the threshold; especially these Two,
which are insuperable or nearly so.
Difficulty FIRST, is that of the laggard Dutch; a People apt to be heavy
in the stern-works. They are