The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
contemplated for reducing Prussia was to erect a new but hereditary kingdom of
Poland, with a constitution as free and energetic as the moral state of the people may
admit; such kingdom to consist of the country ceded by the last partition to Austria,
and the whole of the Prussian acquisitions, together with Prussian Silesia, a corner of
Lower Lusatia, the New Marche, and that part of Pomerania lying east of the Oder. I
have no question but that two hundred thousand Austrian and Russian troops would
speedily have effected this, with the aid of Kosciusko and his Poles. With this, as with
every other arrangement for permanent peace, I couple the possession of Bavaria by
Austria. But, under such hypothesis, there would result a solecism in British politics.
While, as Englishmen, you must seek and seize the means of reducing French power
and influence, you must, as Germans, wish for their increase in order to secure your
Hanover against the imperial pretensions. Hence an oscillation of measures dependent
on personal character. It is sufficient to present this idea, improper to pursue it.
Indifferent to the fate of the German Empire, you might choose your allies according
to your immediate interest. The aggrandizement of the two empires on the side of
Italy and Constantinople would be useful to you, by forming two naval powers in the
Mediterranean to balance your constant enemies, France and Spain; for Spain seems
irrecoverably attached to her neighbor by the relation of weakness to force. Whether
your population could resist, through a long struggle, the weight of a people spread
out from the Alps and the Rhine to the Pillars of Hercules is a question I will not
presume to decide. Experience has taught me a sincere faith in the fallacy of human
opinions, and more especially of my own. I am, my lord, your obedient servant.”
“Call after dinner [August 7th] on the Russian Minister, M. Kalitchoff. We have a
long conversation on the means of restoring peace to Europe, and the influence which
the Empress may have over this Cabinet to that effect. I explain to him how an
exchange of Hanover for the Low Countries will tend to secure to Russia the
unvarying friendship of England, and he is struck with the force of the observation.
He tells me that the want of a proper minister here has greatly weakened the influence
of his Court; that they were in the habit, before his time, of presenting an office, and,
instead of discussing the subject of it, to hear the reasons against it and transmit them
to Petersburg, which had the double mischief of creating delay and exciting the
indignation of this Court by the air of superiority which resulted from it. He says that
Catherine sent an agent to Brunswick as soon as the King of Prussia opened a treaty
with France, to oppose the effect of it; that a Hanoverian who was here as a simple
chargé d’affaires prevailed on Bischofswerder to obtain from the King a refusal to
ratify, and consequent recommencement of hostilities, provided the arrears of the
English subsidy be placed ready at his order in Hamburg. At that time Great Britain
had no minister here. He complains that the English and Russian ministers at Vienna
are not equal to their business, for that otherwise they might have prevented the
Austrian Cabinet from committing many follies. He urges me to stay here a little
longer to see what may be the state of affairs in Saxony and Bohemia, if not to learn
the decisions of this Cabinet after the King’s arrival.
“I go from his house to visit Madame de Nadaillac. She tells me that the Chevalier de
Borghese has told her the freedom of my conversation here on political subjects has
given offence. She could not get out of him his informant, but from what he said, and
which she repeats, I collect that if my ideas be not pushed by the powers which be, the
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