696 
to become the instrument rather than 
the object of the vengeance of my 
enemies, 
Such an Synaral does not become 
a great power. All Kurope knows 
that it depended on Prussia, before 
the battle of Austerlitz, to give re- 
pose to Kurope, if she had taken the 
part which -her real interests, and 
the outraged honour of her monar- 
chy dictated to her. She can no 
longer be excused, after having 
missed such an opportunity; and 
even since the event of the 2nd of 
December, did she not command an 
army ‘of 250,000 men, who still re- 
member the victories it obtained un- 
der the great Frederick, which was 
in the best dispositions, and support- 
ed by the whole Russian army, two 
corps of which were actually under 
the command of the King of Prussia ? 
She would, without doubt, have 
been subject to certain risks; but 
she found herself ina situation, when 
every danger must be encountered, 
to save the honour of the state. The 
prince who hesitates in making a 
choice, destroys the priciple which 
serves as the basis of a military mo- 
narchy ; and Prussia ought already 
to begin to feel the sacrifice she has 
made of her independence. 
The note of April 4 aflirms, ** that 
France had considered the electorate 
as its conquest, and that its troops 
had been on the point of re-entering 
it, to make a definitive disposal of 
ite?” 
The electorate of Hanover, as an 
integra! part of the Germanic empire, 
is not concerned in the war between 
Great Britain and France ; neverthe- 
less, it has been unjustly invaded by 
that power, which has, notwithstand- 
ing, frequently indicated the object 
for which she was disposed to restore 
it. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1806. 
France was at length compelled 
to.abandon the country, and forty 
thousand of my troops, and those of 
my allics, were established there, 
when the Count de Haugwitz signed 
the treaty which disposes of my 
states. It is true that the Russian 
corps was then at the disposal of his 
Prussian Majesty ; but its chief, with 
the genuine spirit of an honourable 
man, was not the less determined to 
fight, if the allies of his master were 
attacked : we shall not speak of the 
French garrison which remained at 
Hameln, insufficient in point of num- 
ber, deprived of the means of de- 
fence, and on the point of being be- 
sieged, when the promises of Prussia 
caused the plan to be abandoned. 
The intention of France to dispose 
definitively of the electorate, would 
have been contrary to the assertions 
she has so often made. It would, 
moreover, have been contrary to the 
usage of war, since even a conquest 
is not definitively disposed of before 
a peace; and particularly at a mo- 
ment when a wish might exist to ma- 
nifest a pacific disposition. 
Prussia had no right to judge if 
Great Britain had the means of op- 
_ posing the return of my enemies to 
the electorate. Her power furnishes 
her with the means of bringing the 
war to an honourable end, for the 
interests she defends; but it is diffi. 
cult to conceive in what light Prus- 
sia pretends that her measures re« 
moved troops that are sérangers to 
the electorate, and ensure the repose 
of the north. Her troops, in con- 
sequence of the treacherous conduct 
of her cabinet, will remain as much 
strangers to the clectorate as thie 
French troops. 
Prussia should not speak of her 
sacrifices at the moment when her 
only aim is to aggrandise herself, uR- 
Jess 
