History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21Carlyle, Thomas
History
History of Friedrich II of Prussia — Volume 21
Carlyle, Thomas
Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786; Prussia (Germany) -- History -- Frederick II, 1740-1786; Social problems
Weeks before Friedrich heard of this remarkable Memorial, and ten
days before it was brought to paper, there came to Friedrich another
unexpected remarkable Document: a LETTER from Kaiser Joseph himself, who
is personally running about in these parts, over in Bohemia, endeavoring
to bring Army matters to a footing; and is no doubt shocked to find
them still in such backwardness, with a Friedrich at hand. The Kaiser's
Letter, we perceive, is pilot-balloon to the Kaunitz episcopal Document,
and to an actual meeting of Prussian and Austrian Ministers on the
Bavarian point; and had been seen to be a salutary measure by an Austria
in alarm. It asks, as the Kaunitz Memorial will, though in another
style, "Must there be war, then? Is there no possibility left in
negotiation and mutual concession? I am your Majesty's friend and
admirer; let us try." This was an unexpected and doubtless a welcome
thing to Friedrich; who answers eagerly, and in a noble style both of
courtesy and of business sense: upon which there followed two other
Imperial Letters with their two Royal answers; [In _OEuvres de
Frederic,_ (vi. 183-193), Three successive Letters from the Kaiser (of
dates, "Olmutz," "Litau," "Konigsgratz," 13th-19th April, 1778),
with King's Answers ("Schonwalde," all of them, and 14th-20th
April),--totally without interest to the general reader.] and directly
afterwards the small Austrian-Prussian Congress we spoke of, Finkenstein
and Hertzberg on the Prussian part, Cobenzl on the Austrian (Congress
sitting at Berlin), which tried to agree, but could not; and to which
Kaunitz's Memorial of April 24th was meant as some helpful sprinkling of
presidential quasi-episcopal oil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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