History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 13 | Page 5

Thomas Carlyle
quite languid about Pragmatic Sanction,
these Dutch; they answer his Britannic Majesty's enthusiasm with an
obese torpidity; and hope always they will drift through, in some way;
buoyant in their own fat, well ballasted astern; and not need such
swimming for life. "What a laggard notion," thinks his Majesty; "notion
in ten pair of breeches, so to speak!" This stirring up of the Dutch,
which lasts year on year, and almost beats Lord Stair, Lord Carteret,
and our chief Artists, is itself a thing like few! One of his Britannic
Majesty's great difficulties;--insuperable he never could admit it to be.
"Surely you are a Sea-Power, ye valiant Dutch; the OTHER Sea-Power?
Bound by Barrier Treaty, Treaty of Vienna, and Law of Nature itself, to
rise with us against the fatal designs of France; fatal to your Dutch
Barrier, first of all; if the Liberties of Mankind were indifferent to you!
How is it that you will not?" The Dutch cannot say how. France rocks
them in security, by oily- mouthed Diplomatists, Fenelon and others:
"Would not touch a stone of your Barrier, for the world, ye admirable
Dutch neighbors: on our honor, thrice and four times, No!" They have
an eloquent Van Hoey of their own at Paris; renowned in Newspapers:
"Nothing but friendship here!" reports Van Hoey always; and the Dutch

answer his Britannic Majesty: "Hm, rise? Well then, if we must!"--but
sit always still.
Nowhere in Political Mechanics have I seen such a Problem as this of
hoisting to their feet the heavy-bottomed Dutch. The cunningest
leverage, every sort of Diplomatic block-and-tackle, Carteret and Stair
themselves running over to help in critical seasons, is applied; to almost
no purpose. Pull long, pull strong, pull all together,--see, the heavy
Dutch do stir; some four inches of daylight fairly visible below them:
bear a hand, oh, bear a hand!-- Pooh, the Dutch flap down again, as low
as ever. As low,--unless (by Diplomatic art) you have WEDGED them
at the four inches higher; which, after the first time or two, is generally
done. At the long last, partially in 1743 (upon which his Britannic
Majesty drew sword), completely in 1747, the Dutch were got to their
feet;-- unfortunately good for nothing when they were! Without them
his Britannic Majesty durst not venture. Hidden in those dust-bins,
there is nothing so absurd, or which would be so wearisome, did it not
at last become slightly ludicrous, as this of hoisting the Dutch.
Difficulty SECOND, which in enormity of magnitude might be
reckoned first, as in order of time it ranks both first and last, is: The
case of dear Hanover; case involved in mere insolubilities. Our own
dear Hanover, which (were there nothing more in it) is liable, from that
Camp at Gottin, to be slit in pieces at a moment's warning! No drawing
sword against a nefarious Prussia, on those terms. The Camp at Gottin
holds George in checkmate. And then finally, in this same Autumn,
1741, when a Maillebois with his 40 or 50,000 French (the Leftward or
western of those Two Belleisle Armies), threatening our Hanover from
another side, crossed the Lower Rhine--But let us not anticipate. The
case of Hanover, which everybody saw to be his Majesty's vulnerable
point, was the constant open door of France and her machinations, and
a never- ending theme of angry eloquences in the English Parliament as
well.
So that the case of Hanover proved insoluble throughout, and was like
a perpetual running sore. Oh the pamphleteerings, the denouncings, the
complainings, satirical and elegiac, which grounded themselves on

Hanover, the CASE OF THE HANOVER FORCES, and innumerable
other Hanoverian cases, griefs and difficulties! So pungently vital to
somnambulant mankind at that epoch; to us fallen dead as carrion, and
unendurable to think of. My friends, if you send for Gentlemen from
Hanover, you must take them with Hanover adhering more or less; and
ought not to quarrel with your bargain, which you reckoned so divine!
No doubt, it is singular to see a Britannic Majesty neglecting his own
Spanish War, the one real business he has at present; and running about
over all the world; busy, soul, body and breeches-pocket, in other
people's wars; egging on other fighting, whispering every likely fellow
he can meet, "Won't you perhaps fight? Here is for you, if so!"--hand to
breeches-pocket accompanying the word. But it must be said, and
ought to be better known than in our day it is, His Majesty's Ministers,
and the English State-Doctors generally, were precisely of the same
mind. TO them too the Austrian Quarrel was everything, their own
poor Spanish Quarrel nothing; and the complaint they make of his
Majesty is rather that he does not rush rapidly enough, with brandished
sword, as well as with guineas raining from him, into
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 78
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.