INTIMATION GIVEN TO THE STATES OF WESTPHALIA BY THE KING OF PRUSSIA.

The animosity which inflamed the contending parties was not confined to the operations in war, but broke out, as usual, in printed declarations, which the belligerent powers diffused all over Europe. In the beginning of the season, the states of the circle of Westphalia had been required, by the Imperial court, to finish their contingent of troops against the king of Prussia, or to commute for this contingent with a sum of money. In consequence of this demand, some of the Westphalian estates had sent deputies to confer with the assembly of the circle of Cologn; and to these the king signified, by a declaration dated at Munster, that as this demand of money, instead of troops, was no less extraordinary than contrary to the constitutions of the empire, should they comply with it, or even continue to assist his enemies either with troops or money, he would consider them as having actually taken part in the war against him and his allies, and treat them accordingly on all occasions. This intimation produced little effect in his favour. The duke of Mecklenburgh adhered to the opposite cause; and the elector of Cologn co-operated with the French in their designs against Hanover. By way of retaliation for this partiality, the Prussians ravaged the country of Mecklenburgh, and the Hanoverians levied contributions in the territories of Cologn. The parties thus aggrieved had recourse to complaints and remonstrances. The duke’s envoy at Ratisbon communicated a rescript to the Imperial ministers, representing that the Prussian troops under general Werner and colonel de Belling had distressed his country in the autumn by grievous extortions; that afterwards prince Eugene of Wirtemberg, in the service of Prussia, had demanded an exorbitant quantity of provisions, with some millions of money, and a great number of recruits; or, in lieu of these, that the duke’s forces should act under the Prussian banner. He therefore declared that, as the country of Mecklenburgh was impoverished, and almost depopulated, by these oppressions, the duke would find himself obliged to take measures for the future security of his subjects, if not immediately favoured with such assistance from the court of Vienna as would put a stop to these violent proceedings. This declaration was by some considered as the prelude of his renouncing his engagements with the house of Austria. As the Imperial court had threatened to put the elector of Hanover under the ban of the empire, in consequence of the hostilities which his troops had committed in the electorate of Cologn, his resident at Ratisbon delivered to the ministers who assisted at the diet a memorial, remonstrating that the emperor hath no power, singly, to subject any prince to the ban, or declare him a rebel; and that, by arrogating such a power, he exposed his authority to the same contempt into which the pope’s bulls of excommunication were so justly fallen. With respect to the elector of Cologn, he observed that this prince was the first who commenced hostilities, by allowing his troops to co-operate with the French in their invasion of Hanover, and by celebrating with rejoicings the advantages which they had gained in that electorate; he therefore gave the estates of the empire to understand, that the best way of screening their subjects from hostile treatment would be a strict observance of neutrality in the present disputes of the empire.