was now greatly enraged, and inveighed bitterly against
England as guilty of the grossest perfidy. He declared that England had
been as deeply interested as he was in excluding Stanislaus from the
throne of Poland; that it was more important for England than for
Austria to curb the exorbitant power of France; that in every step he
had taken against Stanislaus, he had consulted England, and had acted in
accordance with her counsel; that England was reaping the benefit of
having the father-in-law of the French king expelled from the Polish
throne; that England had solemnly promised to support him in these
measures, and now having derived all the advantage, basely abandoned
him. There were bitter charges, and it has never been denied that they
were mainly true. The emperor, in his indignation, threatened to tell
the whole story to the _people_ of England. It is strange that the
emperor had found out that there were _people_ in England. In no other
part of Europe was there any thing but _nobles_ and _peasants_.

In this extraordinary letter, addressed to Count Kinsky, the imperial
ambassador in London, the emperor wrote:

"On the death of Augustus II., King of Poland, my first care was to
communicate to the King of England the principles on which I acted. I
followed, in every instance, his advice.... England has never failed to
give me promises, both before and since the commencement of the war, but
instead of fulfilling those promises, she has even favored my
enemies.... Let the king know that I never will consent to the plan of
pacification now in agitation; that I had rather suffer the worst of
extremities than accede to such disadvantageous proposals, and that even
if I should not be able to prevent them, I will justify my honor and my
dignity, by publishing a circumstantial account of all the transaction,
together with all the documents which I have now in possession.... If
these representations fail, means must be taken to publish and circulate
throughout England our answer to the proposal of good offices which was
not made till after the expiration of nine months. Should the court of
London proceed so far as to make such propositions of peace as are
supposed to be in agitation, you will not delay a moment to circulate
throughout England a memorial, containing a recapitulation of all
negotiations which have taken place since 1710, together with the
authentic documents, detailing my just complaints, and reclaiming, in