VII.

1716.

CHAP. disgust, we find him, in a letter to Pensionary Slingeland, strongly urging his opinion that without any reference to the wishes of the King, and for the sake of England only, it was most desirable that Bremen and Verden should be wrested from Sweden and annexed to the Electorate.* He might plausibly show the ill use which Sweden had often made of these territories — her usual connection with France - the consequent influence of both these States on the politics of the Empire -and the importance of the Elbe and Weser being open to British commerce. On these grounds it is certain that England had an interest in the cession. But it is no less certain that this interest was small, contingent, and remote; and that if any other Prince than the Elector of Hanover had been King of England, the latter power would never have concluded such treaties, nor run such hazards for the aggrandisement of the former, with so slight a prospect of advantage to itself.

But the territories of Bremen and Verden were not the only points at issue: another storm seemed to be gathering in the north. The genius of Peter the Great had already begun to make his people, so lately unknown or despised, an object of jealousy to other European powers; and one of his chief and most dangerous designs was to obtain a footing in the Empire. For this purpose he was disposed to avail himself of his alliance with the Duke of

* See Coxe's Walpole, vol. i. p. 87.

*

VII.

1716.

Mecklenburg to whom he had given his niece in CHAP. marriage, and of some differences which had sprung up in that country between the Duke and his subjects. He unexpectedly poured a large body of troops into the Duchy, and, on some remonstrances from Denmark, publicly threatened that he would quarter a part of them in the Danish territories. Such daring schemes of aggrandisement could not fail to be warmly resented both by the Emperor and by the smaller German sovereigns; and George the First, being then at Hanover, was not among those least offended or alarmed. There was, moreover, great personal animosity between him and the Czar, though with scarcely any ground for it;† but differences which have once arisen from trifling causes are generally found to be the stronger in proportion to the slightness of their origin. George sent his favourite counsellor, Bernsdorf, to Stanhope with a project "to crush the Czar immediately; to "secure his ships, and even to seize his person, to "be kept till his troops shall have evacuated Den"mark and Germany." Stanhope went directly to the King, whom he found very anxious that such

* I glide lightly over the obscure domestic affairs of Mecklenburg. Those who wish for further details may consult Lamberty, vol. v. p. 47.; and, for the subsequent negotiations, vol. x. p. 107. &c., and the Hardwicke State Papers, vol. ii. p. 558. + See St. Simon, vol. xv. p. 75. ed. 1829. "Cette haine," he adds, 66 a duré toute leur vie et dans la plus vive aigreur.". "The Czar hates King George mortally," writes Mr. G. Gyllenborg to Count Gyllenborg, Nov. 1716. (Parl. Hist. vol. vii. p. 402.)

VII.

1716.

CHAP. orders should be sent to Sir John Norris. But Stanhope would consent to no further instructions than that Sir John should join his remonstrances with those of the King of Denmark, thus very properly avoiding any decisive steps until the matter could be referred to the other ministers in England. To Lord Townshend he himself wrote thus :-" I shall "check my own nature, which was ever inclined "to bold strokes, till I can hear from you. But you "will easily imagine how I shall daily be pressed "to send orders to Sir John Norris. The truth "is, I see no daylight through these affairs. We

may easily master the Czar if we go briskly to "work, and that this be thought a right measure. "But how far Sweden may be thereby enabled to "disturb us in Britain, you must judge. If the "Czar be let alone, he will not only be master of "Denmark, but, with the body of troops which he "has still behind on the frontiers of Poland, may "take quarters where he pleases in Germany. "How far the King of Prussia is concerned with "him we do not know, nor will that Prince explain " himself. The King now wishes, and so does "your humble servant, very heartily, that we had "secured France. The Abbé (Dubois) talks to "me as one would wish, and showed me part of a despatch from Marshal d'Huxelles this morning, "whereby they promise that the minute our treaty "is signed they will frankly tell us every thing

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they know touching the Jacobite projects from "the beginning. I was, you know, very averse

VII.

“ at first to this treaty; but I think truly, as CHAP. "matters now stand, we ought not to lose a mi"nute in finishing it."*

The contents of this letter gave no small uneasiness to the cabinet in England. Lord Townshend, in an "absolutely secret" answer to Stanhope, expresses his fear that the prosecution of the northern war would be their ruin, and his opinion that peace ought immediately, even at some sacrifice, to be made with Sweden. In his public despatch, and speaking in the name not only of the other ministers, but of the Prince of Wales, he represents the ill effects of a rupture with the Czar, more especially the seizing of the British merchants and ships in Russia, and the prohibiting the supply of naval stores from thence to England. That Norris's squadron should winter in the Baltic is also strongly objected to, above all at a time when England was threatened with an invasion from Sweden and a rising from the Jacobites. "How"ever," Townshend proceeds, "his Royal High

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ness, on the other hand, is no less deeply af"fected with a just sense of the imminent danger "which these kingdoms, as well as the Empire, are "exposed to from the behaviour of the Czar, who, "it is plain, intends to make himself master of "the whole coast of the Baltic.... On the

Letter to Lord Townshend, dated September 25. 1716, N. S., and printed in Coxe's Walpole.

1716.

VII.

1716.

66

CHAP." his Majesty, if he thinks the King of Denmark "able to go through with the project in question, may insinuate privately, and under the greatest secrecy, that he will not only acquiesce in his "Danish Majesty's making this attempt, but that "he will also support and assist him in the sequel "of this affair when once this blow is given.”

This modified proposal was by no means satisfactory to the King. He was chiefly intent on the continuance of his squadron in the Baltic; and Lord Townshend, knowing this to be his Majesty's wish, should at least have taken care to speak of it with temper. Yet, the following are the words of Poyntz, his private secretary, to Stanhope:-" My Lord perceives, by a letter from "M. Robethon, that the King is likely to insist "on Sir John Norris's squadron being left to "winter in the Baltic; and he commands me to "acquaint you, that it makes him lose all patience "to see what ridiculous expedients they propose "to his Majesty for extricating themselves out of "their present difficulties, as if the leaving you "eight men of war to be frozen up for six months "would signify five grains towards giving a new "turn to the affairs of the north." *

Meanwhile, at Hanover the designs of Russia continued to be watched with great anxiety.

• Despatch, dated Sept. 25. 1716, O. S. This despatch is not marked private, and was therefore (see Coxe's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 56.) to be laid before the King. No wonder he complained of Lord Townshend's disrespectful tone.