Prussia's bargain with France marks a reversion to her traditional policy, which viewed that Power as the friend and Austria as the enemy. It undid the life-work of Prince Kaunitz, now nearing his end at Vienna, and left the Hapsburg States enfeebled. True, they had a profitable share in the third and last Partition of Poland, which soon ensued; but this scarcely made good the loss in prestige due to the undisputed hegemony of Prussia in the greater part of Germany. The House of Hohenzollern, impelled by men like Lucchesini, Haugwitz, and Hardenberg, took the easy and profitable course and plumed itself on over-reaching its secular rival at Vienna. In reality it sealed the doom not only of the truly conservative policy of Pitt, but of the European fabric. Prussia it was which enabled the Jacobins to triumph and to extend their sway over neighbouring lands. The example of Berlin tempted Spain three months later to sign degrading terms of peace with France, and thus to rob England of her gains in Hayti and Corsica. Thanks to Prussia and Spain, France could enter upon that career of conquest in Italy which assured the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte and the temporary ruin of Austria. The mistakes of Pitt were great; but, after all, they might have been retrieved were it not for the torpor of the Viennese Court and the treachery of Prussia. FOOTNOTES: [335] "Troilus and Cressida," act i, sc. 3. [336] "Dropmore P.," ii, 452. [337] Thugut in the autumn of 1793 sketched a scheme for annexing the north of France from the Somme to Sedan. [338] "Dropmore P.," ii, 628. So, too, Morton Eden wrote to Grenville on 1st January 1793: "The steadfastness of the Emperor does not equal his moral rectitude" ("F. O.," Austria, 32). [339] "Dropmore P.," ii, 491; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 17-19, 69. [340] "Dropmore P.," ii, 494; "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 31, _et seq._ [341] "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 50; Sorel, iv, 17. [342] Seeley, "Stein," i, 65. [343] "F. O.," Austria, 36. Eden to Grenville, 15th and 27th February. [344] "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 81, 82. [345] Sorel, iv, 13. [346] Vivenot, iii, 89-96; "Dropmore P.," ii, 505-7. [347] "F. O.," Austria, 36, Eden to Grenville, 31st March, 9th April. See, too, Vivenot, iii, 172, for proofs that Kosciusko sought to delay the rising, and looked to Vienna for help against Russia and Prussia. [348] "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 85, 89. [349] "Dropmore P.," ii, 516. [350] "F. O.," Prussia, 33. Grenville to Malmesbury, 21st April. [351] _Ibid._, Same to same, 23rd May. [352] "Malmesbury Diaries," iii, 96. [353] "W. O.," I, 169. See an admirable article in the "United Service Mag." (Aug. 1897), by Colonel E. M. Lloyd, founded on the papers of General Sir James Craig, Adjutant-General of the Duke of York. [354] "Parl. Hist.," xxxii, 1132. [355] "Dropmore P.," ii, 599. [356] "F. O.," Austria, 38. Despatch of 19th July. [357] Pitt MSS., 180. See, too, "Dropmore P.," ii, 617-20, 626.