<118> hint of it. This he promised in a very gracious manner, and I have this morning received a paper entitled:
« Moyens dont la Grande-Bretagne pourrait se servir pour ruiner les projets de ses ennemis ou rendre la guerre plus difficile. »1
. . . [The King] said he did not expect that every thing he had suggested, would be adopted.
The « Mémoire concernant les principales opérations projetées par la cour de France pour la prochaine campagne. »2 is the substance of Monsieur de Knyphausen's last dispatch from Paris.3“
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Dresden 9. December (private): „. . . This day when His Prussian Majesty talked to me of the paper he had sent in the morning, he said he wondered the King did not immediately declare his resolution about the German army, the command of which he wished was conferred on Prince Lewis of Brunswick;4 that, for his part, if measures were not taken very soon, he would withdraw his troops from that country and send his artillery to Holland, resolved as he was that it should not be made use of by the French against Hanover. The King, your master, said he, does not run the same risk as I do, for: « outre la crise générale de l'Europe, il s'agit de l'existence de ma maison, j'ai raison d'être un peu inquiet de n'avoir point de réponse de l'Angleterre, j'ai la maison d'Autriche, la France et peut-être la Russie contre moi et Angleterre ne se remue point. » . . .
One reason that occasioned this animated conversation, was that the King of Prussia had just received intelligence that the Russian army were marching into Lithuania ...“5
Mitchell schreibt, Dresden 9. December, an den brittischen Gesandten Reith in Wien: „,... I give you this trouble at the King of Prussia's desire to know in what condition the finances at Vienna are, and if they do not find difficulty for funds to carry on the war. I am likewise desired to ask if you know anything of the plan of operations for the next year; the hearty and friendly part the King of Prussia has taken in the King's affairs, makes me Willing to comply with every request . . .“
Die Berichte an Holdernesse nach den Ausfertigungen im Public Record Office, das Schreiben an Keith nach dem Concept im British Museum zu London.
1 Nr. 8416.
2 Nr. 8415.
3 Diese Bemerkung Mitchell's ist nicht zutreffend. Beide Denkschriften sind allerdings von Knyphausen verfasst, aber erst nach seiner Rückkehr aufgesetzt, in den letzten Berichten aus Paris finden sich höchstens vereinzelte Anklänge an die zweitgenannte Denkschrift. [Zimmermann (Aus dem militärischen Briefwechsel Friedrich's des Grossen. Beihefte zum Milit.-Wochenblatt 1882. S. 1 ff.) verwechselt die Schriftzüge Knyphausen's mit denen des Königs, druckt beide Denkschriften ab als „ganz eigenhändig vom Könige entworfen“ und benutzt sie auch demgemäss. Der Text ist sehr mangelhaft, Einordnung und Datirung ganz verfehlt.]
4 Vergl. S. 34.
5 Vergl. S. 126.