^{page 2 note 1} When Frederick learned that the Dutch had seized some Prussian ships and refused compensation, he instructed his minister, Mardefeld, to warn the Dutch, through their envoy at Berlin, that the proximity of the two states would enable him with the greatest ease to exact reparation from the Republic (Pol. Cory., vi, p. 83). On a famous later occasion, in 1788, a Prussian army did invade the Dutch provinces and rapidly suppressed all resistance.

^{page 4 note 1} For a full account of these Anglo-Russian agreements see an article on Lord Hyndford's Embassy to Russia in the English Historical Review for July, 1931.

^{page 6 note 1} With characteristic egotism and insincerity Newcastle claimed the credit of having urged the reconciliation with Prussia. See his letter to Pitt of 19 January, 1748, in Chatham Corr., I, p. 27.

^{page 7 note 1} Walpole, Horace, Letters (ed. Toynbee, ), II, p. 300Google Scholar. Lady Mary was the illegitimate daughter of Sir Robert Walpole by Maria Skerrett, whom he secretly married in 1738. On his retirement from office in 1742, when he took the title of Earl of Orford, Walpole obtained from the King a patent conferring upon this daughter the rank of an Earl's daughter. She subsequently married Colonel Charles Churchill.

^{page 8 note 1} Bedford was converted by Charles Bentinck's mission. See his letter to Henry Pelham of 27 February (o.s.), 1748, in Coxe, , Pelham Administration, I, p. 402Google Scholar.

^{page 10 note 1} Legge to Newcastle from Hanover, 13/24 April, 1748, in Add. MSS. 32812, fo. 38.

^{page 10 note 2} Frederick to Podewils (at Vienna) 7 March. ‘Je serais bien aise que lecomte d'Ulfeld pitt quelque inquiétude sur l'arrivée du sieur Legge à Berlin et sur la mission de mon conseiller privé Klinggräffen, en Angleterre’ (Pol. Corr., vi, p. 51).

^{page 11 note 1} Frederick ordered Chambrier to transmit this intelligence in confidence to Puyzieulx. See his letters of 22 January and 27 February, 1748, in Pol. Corr., vi, pp. 15 and 46. Fear of Russia was his excuse to France for receiving Legge (ibid., p. 69).

^{page 11 note 2} Frederick to Finckenstein (at St. Petersburg) 24 May, 1748: “ tant que je m'entendrai et serai d'accord avec l'Angleterre, je n'aurai rien a appréhender de la Russie’ (Pol. Corr., vi, p. 123).

^{page 11 note 3} There is a draft of these instructions in Pol. Corr., vi, pp. 56–9.

^{page 11 note 4} As late as 27 April, the day of Legge's arrival at Berlin, Frederick wrote to Michell, his agent in London, that the propositions made by Sandwich to St. Severin “indiquent assez que le ministère britannique s'est proposé de tenter encore fortune pendant le courant de cette campagne, sans vouloir sincérement la paix pendant ce temps-là” (Pol. Corr., vi, p. 88). The Preliminaries were signed on 30 April.

^{page 12 note 1} These letters are in Pol. Corr., vi, pp. 108–9.

^{page 13 note 1} Legge's account of his interviews at Potsdam is in his dispatch to Newcastle of 12 May (S.P. For., Prussia, 64), supplemented by his private letter of the same date in Add. MSS. 32812, fo. 131. It is interesting to compare this account with Frederick's report of what passed, which he sent to his minister, Mardefeld, at Berlin (Pol. Corr., vi, pp. 100–2).

^{page 13 note 2} I have told the whole story of St. Severin's double negotiation with Sandwich and Kaunitz, and of his ultimate decision to come to terms with the former, in my Studies in Eighteenth-Century Diplomacy, Chap. VIII. On Frederick's knowledge of the Franco-Austrian negotiation, see Pol. Corr., vi, pp. 106, 118, 125. England had at the time no such clues to the riddle of Aix-la-Chapelle.

^{page 14 note 1} Legge's letter to Newcastle is in Add. MSS. 32812, fo. 131, and a copy of his letter to the King, ibid., fo. 133.

^{page 15 note 1} See Legge's letter to Bedford from Hanover of 25 April in Bedford Corr., I, p. 351.

^{page 16 note 1} Münchhausen's letters and Legge's replies are in Add. MSS. 32812, fos. 279, 281, 336, 338.

^{page 16 note 2} Münchhausen asserted to Newcastle that, when Andrie raised the questionof Osnabriick in 1746, Frederick demanded George II's withdrawal of his claim to East Friesland. See Add. MSS. 32813, fo. 87.

^{page 16 note 3} Legge to Newcastle, 22 June, in S.P. For., Prussia, 64.

^{page 18 note 1} Legge to Newcastle, 12 July, 1748, in S.P. For., Prussia, 64.

^{page 19 note 1} Henry Pelham to Newcastle, 14/25 July, 1748, “I say Maritime Powers for fashion's sake, for, as to Holland I look upon them, as yet, to be no power at all” (Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 353). The letter is printed in Coxe, , Pelham Administration, I, p. 442Google Scholar.

^{page 19 note 2} Add. MSS. 32993, fo. 430.

^{page 20 note 1} See especially a long letter of 3/14 July (most secret) in Add. MSS. 32715, fos. 277–93.

^{page 21 note 1} This letter is one of those which Coxe, has printed in The Administration of Henry Pelham (I, p. 443)Google Scholar.

^{page 21 note 2} See Studies in Eighteenth-Century Diplomacy, pp. 373–4.

^{page 21 note 3} Newcastle to Henry Pelham (most secret), 17/28 July, in Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 378.

^{page 22 note 1} This reply is in S.P. For., Prussia, 64. There is a copy of it in Add. MSS. 32813, fo. 58. Newcastle had previously written to Cumberland on 14 July: “The King will take the King ofPrussia as an additional strength to the old alliance; but we must not have him and lose all the rest of our allies. I am afraid my friend Legge is not sufficiently aware of the consequences of that. He has not gained much reputation as a foreign minister, either in Holland or at the army” (ibid., 32715, fo. 273).

^{page 22 note 2} See Studies in Eighteenth-Century Diplomacy, p. 368.

^{paage 23 note 1} The letter is in Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 316. It is printed in Yorke, Life of Hardwicke, I, p. 658. Much the same views were enunciated by Henry Pelham in a letter of 7/18 July (Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 306).

^{page 23 note 2} Newcastle to Henry Pelham (most secret), 28 July, 1748, in Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 361.

^{page 23 note 3} Ibid., fo. 249.

^{page 24 note 1} Legge's letter to Newcastle of 20 July, expressing his disappointment at the preference given to Robinson, in spite of the assurances given to himself before his departure and of his own conviction that Sandwich wanted him as a colleague, is in Add. MSS. 32812, fo. 306. It has been faultily endorsed “20 June,” and is therefore a month out of place in the Newcastle Papers. It ought properly tobe in 32813. Legge wrote on the same topic to Bedford on 17 August (Bedford Corr., I, p. 461), so the grievance continued to rankle.

^{page24 note 2} Frederick reported to Klinggräffen on 12 August that Legge used the samelanguage to Andrié after his return to Berlin: “que le ministère d'Hanovre avait pris un ascendant absolu sur le due de Newcastle,” and “que lui, Legge, souhaiterait que le roi d'Angleterre ne fût venu aussjtôt â Hanovre” (Pol. Corr., vi, p. 201).

^{page 25 note 1} Newcastle to Henry Pelham, 27 July/7 August, in Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 467.

^{page 25 note 2} There are only three private letters from Legge to Bedford after his return from Hanover.

^{page 26 note 1} Extract from Minutes of the Lords Justices. Present the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lord Privy Seal, Duke of Richmond, Duke of Bedford, Mr. Pelham. “His Majesty's ministers at Berlin and at Aix should be directed to declare to the Prussian ministers at both these places, that His Majesty's guaranty of Silesia given to the King of Prussia entirely depends upon His Prussian Majesty's fulfilling the engagements he is under to His Majesty with regard to the Silesian Loan, and must be so understood after the renewal of it in the definitive treaty” (S.P. For., Prussia, 64).

^{page 26 note2} His first request for leave to return was on 6 September (ibid.).

^{page 26 note 3} Both Pelham and Hardwicke, who disapproved of Newcastle's excessive complacency to Austria, wished this threat to be employed in order to force the Court of Vienna into acceptance of the proposed terms at Aix. George II went so far as to send Miinchhausen and Steinberg, ostensibly without Newcastle's knowledge, to warn Wasner that, if Austria continued obstinate, he would be forced into an alliance with Prussia and possibly into a change of ministry. See Newcastle to Henry Pelham, 28 August and 1 September, in Add. MSS. 32716, fos. 69 and 99; also Newcastle to Bentinck, 30 August, in Bedford Corr., I, p. 484.

^{page 26 note 4} Newcastle wrote to Cumberland on 23 July, “I have seen a letter where the King of Prussia says that he will dissemble his real sentiments till the pacification, lest we should take ahandle to weaken the guaranty given by the Preliminaries” (Add. MSS. 32715, fo. 339).

^{page 27 note 1} George III to Sir J. Yorke, 9 January, 1771: “I confess my political creed is formed on the system of King William. England in conjunction with the House of Austria and the Republic seems the most secure barrier against the Family Compact, and it Russia could be added to this, I think the Court of Versailles would not be in a burry to commence hostilies.” Correspondense of George III (ed. Fortescue, ), II, P. 204Google Scholar. Newcastle would have subscribed to this creed.

^{page 28 note 1} Harris, to Ewart, , 8 08, 1786 (Diaries and Correspondence of Malmesbury, II, p. 218)Google Scholar. Compare the sentiments of Lord Carmarthen, then Foreign Secretary (ibid., p. 211), and his preference for the eagle with two heads to the eagle with one (ibid., p. 258).