Je connais trop votre façon de penser juste et raisonnable, pour ne pas m'attendre que vous n'emploieriez pas tous vos soins et peines auprès de votre cour, pour ne pas permettre qu'une chose si préjudiciable à sa dignité et à ses intérêts puisse prendre lieu, et que le ministère d'Hanovre, par les illusions d'une neutralité momentanée, ne perde pas les moments précieux pour se mettre en un bon état de défense, ni ne néglige plus les moyens de se préserver contre le malheur de se livrer eux-mêmes, mains et pieds liés, à la discrétion d'un ennemi irréconciliable. Et, sur ce, je prie Dieu etc.
Federic.
Nach der Ausfertigung im British Museum zu London.
8794. UNTERREDUNG DES KÖNIGS MIT DEM GROSSBRITANNISCHEN MINISTER MITCHELL.
[Lockwitz, 30. März 1757.]
Mitchell berichtet an Holdernesse, Dresden 31. März (secret): „,...I confess, my Lord, I never in my life was more uneasy than lipon reading this letter [of the King of Prussia]1 and the report it contained.2 I thought it my duty immediately to wait on the King of Prussia, and after assuring him that I had no communication whatever of Baron Münchhausen's proposai and was as much suprised with it as I could be, His Prussian Majesty told me that, out of regard to the King, he had ordered his ministers at Berlin to answer the Baron's letter with temper, and to tell him: qu'il se tenait au traité qui subsistait entre le Roi et Lui.3
I could however perceive this proposai had made a deep impression on the mind of His Prussian Majesty, as he combines the Baron's letter with the precedent conduct of His Majesty's ministers at Hannover,4 and he told me freely it was impossible to have any confidence in them, after what had passed, and that the army of observation would be good for nothing, unless His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland5 had the command of it. I could only answer I hoped it would be so, but that I had yet no knowledge of His Majesty's intention upon that important affair.
By way of conversation, His Prussian Majesty afterwards complained, but with great moderation, of the little attention that England seemed to have to the affairs of the continent, and this he candidly imputed to the great occupation that our internai divisions6 must necessarily give to His Majesty's ministers, and concluded with saying that he thought himself secure in the King's honour and good faith...“
Nach der Ausfertigung im Public Record Office zu London.
1 Das Schreiben vom 29. März Nr. 8793.
2 Bericht der Cabinetsminister an den König vom 26. März. Vergl. Nr. 8792.
3 Vergl. S. 361. 434.
4 Vergl. S. 358—361.
5 Vergl. S. 397. 403.
6 Vergl. S. 32. 81.