<190> Grand-Vizier may be improved — without giving jealousy to Russia — to prepare the Porte to be ready to act, in case a rupture should ensue.“
Bezüglich der Meldung Knyphausen's, dass der Hof von Versailles Spaniens sicher zu sein glaube,1 hat der König geäussert: „He will not believe [it], till the abbe Bernis sets out for Madrid2 … he hopes the Spanish ministers have been acquainted, by the English ambassador, that at Vienna it had been openly avowed that Monsieur de Rosenberg's errand to Spain was to overturn the ministry.3
The King of Prussia has good intelligence that some late motions of the King of Sardinia had given uneasiness to the courts of Vienna and France;4 this disposition, he says, of the King of Sardinia should be encouraged, for purposes that are equally obvions and useful.
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Berlin 12. August (secret): „, …When I delivered to the King of Prussia the written answer to the Mémoire Raisonné, he said he had no doubt of our good intentions, but wished that we were a little more active, and did not lose time. I represented to him the multiplicity of objects that divided the attention of the King's ministers at this time, and took the liberty to add that, as his ideas had been so much approved of by His Majesty and his ministers, I hoped he would continue to suggest his thoughts in the same free manner he had hitherto done. He was so good to promise he would, and accordingly, last Tuesday, the 10th, I received the paper marked B. from Count Podewils5 …
As to the Dutch, he wishes that nothing was done to sour or disgust them, and he fears that our claiming at this time the stipulations of the treaty of 16786 will do harm. He thinks the great and only point to be pushed at present, is the augmentation of their troops, which once gained, alliances may then be formed.
He has several times said he wished we would take care of ourselves, by making such alliances as may be really useful, pour moi je ne vous serai point à charge, and lately he added, that he perceived there was still in England a hankering after the old System, though it existed no more, and that Kaunitz had been insolent enough to say, if England succeeded to debauch Russia from the court of Vienna, the family upon the throne might surfer for it.7
With regard to an invasion of his Majesty's kingdoms, he looks upon it as a wild and romantic scheine, which can never succeed, un-
1 Vergl. Nr. 7S11.
2 Vergl. Bd. XII, 515.
3 Vergl. S. 182.
4 Vergl. S. 193; Bd. XII, 2S5.
5 Nr. 7821.
6 Vertrag zwischen England und den vereinigten Niederlanden, Westminster 3. März 1678, nach welchem diese auf Requisition Englands 20 Linienschiffe und 6000 Mann stellen sollen, England auf Requisition Hollands 20 Linienschiffe und 10,000 Mann zu stellen hat. Vergl. Martens, Guide diplomatique (Berlin-Paris 1801 tom. I. 542; Collection of treaties (London, Debrett 1785) tom. I, 213.
7 Vergl. S. 144.