Geo. I. blood and confufion: And that it was aftonishing to find, 1716-17. that any, who called themselves Proteftants, could be fo inflexible his majefty has been graciously We Charles, by the grace of On the 13th of January, N. S, 1717, baron Gortz wrote from Paris the following letter to count Gyllenburg: I am to acquaint you, that our friends here are charmed with my fcheme. They have caufed one hundred thoufand livres to be paid me down, and have promifed to get the reft paid to me in Holland, to the fum of one million of guilders. I will go therefore, and give orders for working with all poffible difpatch on the men of war, and for providing and bringing together all neceflaries. I fhall alfo go back with all expedition to Holland; whence you will have further advice from me. I fhall wait there with impatience the coming of your exprefs, and of the perfon who is to speak to the phyfician.' At the fame time M. Guftavus Gyllenburg wrote to the count his brother the following note : After the baron had figned his letter to you, he ordered me, flexible and reftlefs in their endeavours to impofe upon us a Geo. I. Popish pretender, and rather venture to subject the kingdom 1716-17. me to tell you in his name, that it is abfolutely neceffary our friends fhould determine fpeedily, and caufe the money to be remitted, and paid to us, without any delay; for otherwife we cannot have the men of war from this country time enough.' Upon the receipt of baron Gortz's letter of the 8th of January, with the king of Sweden's full power, count Gyllenburg wrote an answer to the baron at Paris, dated at London, January 15, 1717, wherein he begs leave to know, Whether his excellency would have him, for the future, add the title of Plenipotentiary to the direction of his letters. As to our affair (continues he) I went immediately to the houfe of one of the principal of my friends, and, without taking notice of any coldness of the gentlemen in France, I told him, in order to engage him to fpeak, that I had juft received your excellency's orders to give fuch an acquittance, as had been demanded of me. He feemed very well pleased, and told me in anfwer, that he, who had the direction of the whole affair, being gone again into the country, and being not to return before Saturday next, nothing could be done till Monday; but that then he queftioned not but I fhould be fatisfied. We fhall fee what that gentleman will fay at his return; and unless the gentlemen in France have made my friends here alter their opinions (which I do not yet find they to have) I hope all will go as we would have it; and, in cafe that should not happen fo, I am very much of your excellency's opinion, that we shall leave all thofe gentlemen to their ill deftiny, and go another way to work. My Whig friend was charmed with your excellency's letter, which he read over and over. Many others of the fame party begin to change their language in our favour. I fend my brother a little piece, which is juft published at my charge, and writ in a pretty moderate ftile. There is fomething in it of my own. What is faid in the poftfcript, in praife of the prince, is in order to gain the prince's party, which is already well inclined towards us. If your excellency thinks it proper to order me to Holland, I fhould be of opinion, that you fhould fend the like orders to monfieur Petkum, on pretence, that you would receive information from us both together, concerning the pofture of affairs here with regard to our common interests. That would not give any umbrage, and one might eafily find out ways of amufing M. Petkum.' Before this letter reached baron Gortz, he writ_another_to count Gyllenburg, dated at Paris, January 16, 1717, N. S. as follows: I have just now received here, your letters of the 1ft, 2d, 4th, and 7th. You maydepend upon it, Sir, and affure your Geo. I. to a foreign yoke, than depart from their darling and avowed 1716-17. design of altering and fubverting the prefent happy establish your friends, that the expedition to England does at prefent take up all our thoughts and attention. It will depend but upon two things; one is the procuring four or five fhips of war; and the other is money. I know where to get the former, but I can do nothing without the other. I cannot fign the contracts that are offered me. Your friends must take care to remove that obftacle, and to provide for the other fquadron. There is not a moment to lofe: The time is very fhort: Our friends on this fide have affured me, that the money fhould be ready forthwith, By your letters I am to believe, there are 20,000l. ready. I herewith fend you the acquittance, which I have given here, that you may draw yours conformably to it, which you will exchange hereafter for mine, which I will fend you, after you have let me know the names of the creditors, and that you have received the money. We are here agreed upon the plan of our enterprise; and I am promised a man to be fent to Holland, who will bring me what farther informations may be wanting. You may likewise affure your friends, that our prince will certainly be of the party, but I conjure you to give nothing in writing about this negotiation, except what relates to the acquittance upon the foot abovementioned. I do not expect to hear from you any more here, but in Holland; and, if your man fhould ment have been got thither in my abfence, he would have found Stambke fully instructed. I herewith send you back the contracts figned according to your defire. The pofitive promife of letting them have iron puts me under fome difficulty, because I had no thoughts of preparing for fo great a quantity. As to your money, you may keep an account of what you fhall receive, four thousand crowns. I have not yet propofed to the king that augmen tation; but I am in hopes of obtaining it for you. In the mean time, employ all your skill, in order to give the court all the trouble that is poffible, in the next feffion, in relation to their conduct in the affairs of the north; and tell me from whence proceeds the good difpofition wherein Walpole feems to be.' The form of the acquittance mentioned and inclofed in this letter of barón Gortz to count Gyllenburg, is as follows: I, the underwritten plenipotentiary of his majesty the king of Sweden, acknowledge to have received of for the fervice of his Swedish majefty, the fum of which the faid has found means of lending to his said majefty; which fum of I pro mife, on the part of his majefty, in virtue of the full power, which I have from his faid majefty, and which I have produced in due form, to cause to be repaid to the faid or his or der, ment in the Proteftant fucceffion.' They conclude, We Geo. I. are all but too fenfible of the infupportable weight of the 1716-17. der, in the space of two years, to commence from the date of this acquittance: fo that every four months there fhall be paid a fixth part of the principal, together with intereft at the rate of one half per cent. by the month, and fo on, to the full payment of the total fum. In virtue and token whereof, I have figned these presents, the eleventh of January, 1717. The next letter is from count Gyllenburg to baron Gortz, dated at London, January 18, 1717, N. S. as follows: na vice of all this, and that he has acquainted your excellency with it; which, however, I beg you would forthwith let me know, that I may quiet the minds of my friends here, who imagine, that the faid baron doth not act in concert with your excellency in an affair, wherein the leaft mifunderstanding might do a great deal of mifchief. I have told them, that your excellency defigned, that I should come to The baron de Gortz.' you in Holland, to concert every thing with you; with which they were very well fatisfied. But I have told them, that I will not go thither with empty hands, and that they ought at least to get 10000 I. ready for me to carry with me. I have alfo defired them to get me a letter from the brother of the czar's phyfician, which might ferve to introduce me to him, if your excellency thinks fit to employ me to speak to him. I cannot exprefs to your excellency my concern, that the affair above-mentioned fhould have taken a turn, which I did not expect; and which, for aught I know, may not be pleafing to your excellency. Even my friends are diffatisfied at it, every thing being done unknown to them. But, as they are obliged to have great. regard for the director of the affair, who is a perfon of very great confequence, they muft feem to be fatisfied. If your excellency, after this, thinks it neceffary for me to come to Holland, I beg your orders My friend, that directs the whole affair, came back from the country laft Saturday night, as I had the honour to acquaint your excellency that he would, in my laft. He hath this day let me know, that upon a letter, which he received from my lord Mar, to remit forthwith 20,000l. into France, to the queen dowager of England, who was to pay it to us, he had actually remitted that money, which he hoped was already paid to your excellency. He asked my pardon for not having communicated this to me fooner, having been obliged to go into the country the moment the affair was dispatched. He added, that he had defired further orders from my lord Mar, with refpect to the place, where the reft of the money fhould be paid. I doubt not but that baron Sparre has already had ad therein 1 Geo. I. national debts, and therefore will not neglect to apply our1716-17. felves, with all poffible diligence and attention, to the great therein as foon as poffible, that I may take my measures. After I had written these lines, I received the favour of your excellency's of the 13th, from whence I perceive, with a great deal of pleasure, that our affair is begun. I read it to one of my friends, who told me, that that was the fum, of which he had spoken to me fome days ago, and which I mentioned in one of my former; that he then believed it to be 8,000l. but that it was but 6,500l which exactly answers that, which has been paid to your excellency, and which makes part of the 20,000l. that has been remitted. He has promised me to haften the reft, but I should think, that it would be neceffary, that our friends in France, from whom they expect the orders, fhould pray them to dispatch it with all hafte. He has given me hopes, that I fhall have a good fun with me, when I go to Holland.' The next letter is of count Gyllenburg to baron Gortz, dated at London, January 23, 1717, in which he writes thus: The day before yesterday, I received the favour of your excellency's of the 16th. The inclofed triplicate of that which I had the honour to write your excellency by the laft poft, will fhew you the train, that our affairs are in. In the mean time, I have told our friends, that your excellency thought my voyage to Holland abfolutely neceflary, in order to concert and with me the neceflary measures for the enterprize; but, that your excellency would by no means have me ftir from hence, without carrying with me what money fhould be neceffary. That it therefore lay upon them now to make the best use of the time, which was fo precious to us, and to put me in a condition of going with the first optunity. They promifed me to do their beft that my voyage might not be deferred longer than the end of the next week. In cafe I can by that means bring them to haften their disbursement, it will afterwards depend upon your excellency's pleafure, whether I fhall go to pay my respects to you or not. Your excellency may be affured, that I do all in my power to traverse the ill defigns of our enemies. The printed piece inclofed, wherein I have spoken intirely as as Englishman, is a fmall fpecimen of what is to follow. I do not know whether Mr. Walpole's expreffions were the effect of his first rage, on account of his brother-in-law my lord Townfhend's being removed, or whether they came from his heart. We shall be better able to judge of those gentlemen after the king's arrival, when it'fhall appear, if they have reason to be satisfied; for it is from thence, that they will form their scheme of politics. It is ftrongly reported here, that your excellency has made a de |