Chapter 3:
The relations of the two New powers.1778.
The negotiations of Great Britain with the pettyChap. III.} |
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princes, who transferred the service of their subjects for money, have been fully related.
Duke Ernest of Saxony, cultivated by travel in Holland, England, and France, ruled his principality of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg with wisdom and justice.
By frugality and simplicity in his court, he restored the disordered finances of his duchy, and provided for great public works and for science.
Though the king of England was his near relation, he put aside the offers of enormous subsidies for troops to be employed in America.1 When, ten years later, he was ready to risk his life and independence in the defence of the unity and the liberties of Germany, these are the words in which he cheered on his dearest friend to aid in curbing the ambition of Austria: ‘All hope for our freedom and the preservation of the constitution is ’
1 Hans von Thummel, Historische, statistische, geographische, und topographische Beitrage zur Kenntnissdes HerzogthumsAltenburg, 1818, 4to. Manuscript letter of Freiherr von Seebach.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1874.
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