1719.

Elector of Hanover, and the King of Poland, took it fo very ill of the laft of thofe Princes, that he wrote him the following Letter, to ex- poftulates with poftulate with him about it,

A Letter from the CZAR to the King of

WE

POLAND.

The Czar ex

King Auguftus, for entering into a Treaty

with the Em

peror and the King of GreatBritain.

E have been informed, that General Field-Marshal Flemming, by your Majesty's Orders, has been negotiating at the Imperial Court, on the Part of the Republick, an Alliance against us, to which that General was to induce not only the Emperor, but other Powers, by making ufe of divers falfe Reports and forged Suppofitions, charging us with a Design to tear from the Kingdom of Poland, not only the Dutchy of Courland, but other Provinces alfo, and to rend the whole Kingdom, as likewise to excite War and Commotion in the Empire; infinuating, that the keeping our Forces in Poland, fhewed we had fuch deep Designs as were contrary to the Intereft of the Emperor and other Powers, with other Matters of the like Nature. In the fame Manner your Majefty's Conful at the Ottoman Porte fpreads the like Reports of us there, and prompts the Porte to a War against us. We are likewise informed, that fuch Propofitions have been made at Warsaw to the Tartarian Envoy by your Majefty's Ministers, in order to incite the Cham of Crim Tartary to invade our Dominions.

The Advices we have received of all this are fo ftrong, that we cannot help believing

LA

fuch

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fuch hoftile Behaviour against us must be occafioned by your Majesty's Order, tho' we never gave the leaft Occafion for it, nor deferved fuch Usage at your Hand; for the good Offices we have done to your Majefty from the Time of your Election to the Crown of Poland, and fince your re-affuming it, (of which the late Pacification, after the General Confederacy in Poland, is a fresh and plain Inftance) are too well known not only to your Majefty, but to all Europe.

And as we are entirely ignorant of what has given Birth to fuch invidious Reflections against us, which are a mere Imposture, contrived by the faid General to impofe upon your Majefty; we proteft before Almighty God, and all the World, that we are innocent of them, forafmuch as we never intended to withdraw the Dutchy of Courland from the former Protection of the Republick, but rather, by Treaty with the King of Pruffia, engaged to maintain a Country fituated between the Dominions of us both, under the Sovereignty of its own Prince, and the Protection of the Kingdom of Poland, nor permit it to become fubject to any other Power.

As for what relates to the pretended difmembring of other Provinces from Poland, and dividing that Kingdom, fuch a Design certainly never enter'd into our Thoughts; and your Majefty knows how many and advantageous Offers were made to us upon that Head, ever fince the Beginning of our Reign, which we always rejected, declaring and protesting, that neither we ourselves pretended to any Part of the Kingdom, nor would fuffer another to take any Part of it..

So

So much the lefs therefore are we willing to fuffer that it be divided, fubdued, or that an Hereditary Succeffion be fet up in it against the Will of the State, ; a Thing we can never permit, both by Reafon of the Friendship, and the antient and late Alliances we have with that neighbouring Kingdom, and in Confideration of our own Intereft. Yet, for all this fincere, friendly, and well-meaning Conduct, we have met with no other Return than thofe invidious Reflections. Whoever is but a little verfed in Politicks and Affairs of State, may easily discern, that there was no fairer Opportunity of executing any Design we might have had upon Poland, than when, upon the Victory we obtained near Pultowa, all was left to our Power and Difpofition; and had we had a Mind at that Time, when your Majesty had abdicated the Crown, to place another in. ftead of the expelled Stanislaus Lefcinsky, on the Throne of Poland, (for doing which great Application was made to us) it had been eafy for us to do as we pleased, and confult our own Profit: But with what Zeal and Magnanimity we espoused the Intereft of your Majefty's Perfon, fo injuriously treated, and affifted you in the mounting the Throne of Poland again, is plain to all the World; nor can we believe that it has already efcaped your Majesty's Memory.

What relates to our Forces continuing in or returning to Poland, the Reafon why the Body of our Troops, marching from Mecklenbourg to our Dominions, had Orders on the Frontiers of the Republick to return back, was because we heard that the Agreement we had made

1719.

with the City of Dantzick, pursuant to which that City was to fit out, in your Majesty's Name, certain Privateers for the common Intereft of the Allies, and against their common Enemy, the King of Sweden, had been difapproved, which is a great Injury to us, and Neglect of us, though it was concluded with your Majefty's Confent and Approbation, and that your Majefty had engaged to us to give Leave to thofe of Dantzick to perform that Agreement. Yet they were forbid to fit out those Privateers, notwithstanding, by vertue of our Alliances. with your Majefty and the Republick, all Manner of Damage ought to be done to the Enemy where-ever Occafion offers; instead of which, by permitting those of Dantzick to carry to the Enemy's Dominions Money, Provifion, and Ammunition, the Enemy is actually fupplied with warlike Stores and Neceffaries for Life, which we cannot conftrue otherwise than to be defigned to our Prejudice and Damage. Another Reason why our Forces were to continue in Poland was, because we had Reports, fupported by weighty Arguments, that the States of the Republick were to be compelled, in the Diet of Grodno, to name a Succeffor and Heir to the Crown; an Affair to which we never will confent. And as we have made it our Care to maintain the Liberties and Rights of the Republick on many Occasions, with the Hazard of our own Person, and the Lives of our Subjects, we declare hereby, that we will do the fame for the future. Yet, when your Majesty and the Republick desired us, by. Letters fent from the Diet at Grodno, to caufe our Forces to evacuate their Territories, we

conde

Condefcended, without any Delay, by returning fatisfactory Answers to every Particular alledg'd in thofe Letters relating to this Affair, and fending Orders to our Forces to march out of the Kingdom, which they are actually doing.

Concerning the falfe Afperfion and Imputation, as if we had manifefted our ill Intentions against the Emperor and the Empire, we affure your Majefty alfo in this Point, that we never had fuch Thoughts; but rather have always been studious how to cultivate Friendfhip and good Correfpondence with his Imperial Majefty, and to tie thofe Bands still fafter by all poffible Methods, being ftill willing to continue in the fame Difpofition. Of which our good Intention, and that we never aimed at any Thing in the Empire, we can alledge as an evident Proof, that when, upon your Majefty's Requifition, we marched our Army into the Territories of the Empire, and took the Fortress of Stetin and other Places; yet we kept none of them in our Poffeffion, to do which we had a favourable Opportunity in that Juncture, but delivered them up into the Hands of our Confederates, as being Part of the Empire; nor did our Army remain any longer in the faid Territories, than till Satisfaction was made to us for the Expences of that Expedition. Confequently, confidering the prefent Posture of the Emperor's Affairs, by which both his Hands are left free, there is much less Room now than there was at that Time to fufpect a Design of any Hoftilities against his Imperial Majefty, the Empire, or any other

Power

1719.