sincere; and those who
value the free and just constitution of this country and its greatness,
have cause to bless Providence that so faithful a sovereign occupied the
throne during a period of anarchy which threatened to revolutionize the
world, to uproot the Christian faith, and to engulf Europe, perhaps
irrevocably, in the horrors of a Reign of Terror. How clear and king-like
is the following language! "A few clear words are better, perhaps, than
long instructions. I believe that the king of Prussia is an honest man at
the bottom, although a weak one. You must first represent to him, that if
he allows his moral character the same latitude in his explanation of the
force of treaties, as he has allowed it in other still more sacred ties,"
(referring to his marriage,) "all good faith is at an end, and no
engagement can be binding. You must then state to him how much his honour
is engaged in joining in this business, in not giving up a cause in which
he had begun so nobly. Then you should apply to his interest, that the
event of the war must either fail or succeed; that if he withdrew himself
from the number of coalesced powers, in either case he would suffer from
leaving them. In the first case, (the fate of the war,) he perhaps would
be the first to feel the consequences of suffering this _Tartarian horde_
to overrun Europe. In the second, if we succeed, he certainly might be
sure, that not having contributed his share to the success would put him,
in respect to the other powers, in a situation of consideration and want
of consequence, and that he would not be consulted or referred to in the
general system of Europe, when that became a matter of discussion. That if
you fail in referring him to these three great points, his _integrity_,
his _honour_, and his _interest_, it will be certain nothing can be done;
and although I have the greatest confidence in your skill and abilities,
yet I shall rest assured in that case that _no_ skill nor any ability
would be equal to success."

Thus instructed and accredited, Lord Malmesbury set off for Berlin by way
of Holland. He found the Dutch in considerable anxiety at the state of the
campaign, and ready to co-operate with England in any measure for
maintaining the alliance intact. At Frankfort, the monetary market of
Germany, he ascertained that the amount of treasure still left in the
Prussian treasury was estimated at forty-one or forty-two millions of
dollars; so that the plea