Nachtrag.
13188. UNTERREDUNGEN DES KÖNIGS MIT DEM GROSSBRITANNISCHEN GESANDTEN MITCHELL.
[Leipzig, Januar 1761.]
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Leipzig 3. Januar 1761 (secret): „. . . I now proceed to relate to Your Lordship what passed with the King of Prussia in the different conversations I have had with that monarch upon the contents of Your Lordship's dispatch of the 12th of December, and as Your Lordship refers me for my instruction and future guidance to a paper entitled Précis de la dépêche etc.,1 I shall answer to the three articles contained in it, in the same order they are stated in that paper.
As to the first, the King of Prussia does not think that the renewing of the declaration made at the Hague in November 17592 is the proper way to begin this negotiation. His reasons are that the experience of last year has shewn that this method is dilatory and uncertain, nor can it be expected that, where so many parties and so many different interests are concerned, they can instantly agree upon any general plan of pacification, without Consulting with each other; which, alone, requires time, even if their views and interests were the same, but as they are certainly very different, he thinks, this declaration by giving the alarm may serve to unite and confirm the present warlike system, as those powers who are for continuing the war would not fail to move heaven and earth to fix such of their allies as may be wavering or inclined to hearken to terms of accommodation.
Besides this general argument, His Prussian Majesty mentioned another which is certainly of great weight in the present moment, viz. the party in opposition to the Senate of Sweden have already carried some questions in the general Diet. What lengths they may be able to go, is uncertain; but the King of Prussia has remitted money, as the most effectual means to strengthen that party. Now it is to be feared that, if at this juncture any such declaration was made, the party for the Senate might avail themselves of it, by representing peace as very near at hand, which affords a specious and national pretence for continuing with their old connections, at least for one year more, in hopes of being considered and indemnified at the general pacification.
Upon the whole, His Prussian Majesty is of opinion that a secret insinuation on the part of England made to the French court by some person of confidence3 — he named Prince Lewis of Brunswick — is
1 Vergl. S. 175. Anm. 4.
2 Vergl. Bd. XVIII, 759. 760. 762.
3 So nach dem Concept im British Museum; in der Vorlage: „consequence“ .