Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1813-07-08

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| and Liverpool to shouting.
In the midst of these immense losses. tn
broken columns OF France took up stron,
positions on the Vistula, and fortified them
selves behind the Oder and the Elbe. Th,
enemy, elatcd with success, spread himsel
through the Prussian states, invited the i'm
habitants TO join their standard, aud assis
in driving tue French beyond the Rhine
Such moments as these are always fata
to weak minds. The King of Prussia, smar
ung ae his degradation ever since the trea
ty OF Iilsit, dreamed that the power o
France was at an end in German At :
critical moment he connived at the defect.
on OF his troops under general York. He
connived at that act OF treachery most GER
tainly, because the convention in virtue o.
which York united himself to the Russians
was expressly subject to the sanction or nc
lection OF his sovereign. The king OF Prus
STA never rejected it.. But he afterwards
perceived his error. When he found that
Napoleon had sufficient influence on his le-
turn to Paris to animate every part Of his
vast empire with a spirit sufficiently ardent
speedily to repair his misfortunes, The weak
incumbent of ihe Prussian monarchy began
to crouch. But he would not be listened to.
He had proved traitor to Bonaparte AT a
perilous moment, and it would not do To
trust him agnin. The moment Which he
chose for detection was one which marked
the character ofthe man. He had not, Ike
the true friend OF German liberty, come
forth and taken an open, manly, inticpen
dent stand, bur had silly watched the peri
od when he thought the great ally whom
he had supported in his march to Moscow,
had been chased and hunted down. When,
therefore, the king of Prussia discerned the
failacy OF his calculations, it was TOO late
to retrieve himself ; and, making merit
OF necessity, he threw himself entirely into
the hands of the English and the Russians
The British prints i'll Europe and America
cried up this junction OF Prussia with G.. Il.
and her ally as an even tlat would seal tho
ruin OF Napoleon; ami man toisterous poiiti-
clans who constantly glide upon the surface
of things, really thought that, in losing Prus
,ia, France had lost vital connection -
In fact, after the detection Of Gen. York,
ticnaparte would have acted unwi-ely if he
had again accepted her as member of his
confederacy. He could not rely upon her
hdelity, aad thebetter policy was that which
he has pursued, to wit the devoting Prussi-
to dSmembermcnt, and the dividing her
among his more faithful friends, SaxOny
Austria, &c. These observations will place
the conduct o. Prussia IN new light before
our readers. 1t was France that abticated
Prussia, and not Prussia that relncuished
France. On the 9th OF March last, che
baron &c krusemark, the minister of the
King OF Prussia, addressing himself u The
French minister of foreign affairs, IS very
clear upon this p int His Majesty tn,
emperor of the French (says he) hersRs
" ia rehcLfmg an ally. who has sacrificed
- himself Tor his cause, aud even dsdains
" all explanation as to the mouves of his 81
5" lence." With such contemptit was that
the Chief of France treated the last success
sor of Frederick the Great In replying
TO the baroh de Krusemark, on the first of
April, the duke OF Bassano SAYS, ellis ma
I" jesty prefers declared enemy to a friend
ready TO abandon him. A power whose
" treaties are only conditional caunot be an
useful mediator she guarantees nothing;
p" she is nothing but subject Of discussion;
" sheis not eVen q barrier. The finger of
=" Providence has shewn Itself in the events
g of this winter it has produced them to
unmask false friends, and mark the faith
" ful ones lit has given his majesty power
+" sufficient to insure the triumph OF the one
" and the chastisement Of the others" -
These expressions are not to be mistaken.
Prussia is not to be left, even as a barrier !;
and, in year or two, in all probability, she
will no longer be found upon the New
maps.
But, who pities Prussial Those who are
acquainted with her history know that =
bout century ago her royal house enjoyed
nothing more than the electoral dignity in
the Germanic empire; that her Princes rose
to the kingly title by the operations Of the
worst passions under the Fredericks that
avarice, usurpations Of the rights Of neigbor-
ing states, and the most abomiaable militia
ny despotism, distinguished the policy Of her
sovereigns for more than an age until their
views we're partially conSum mated by the
articles and abilities of Frederick the Great.
BY forcing himself into a superior influence
to what was appropriate for him under the
Germanic constitution he destroyed the bal
lance which had been previously well adj
justcd by treaties and other public laws ;
and opened the road to those innovations
which unsettled the system of that great
Empire, and which have produced the hu>
initiation of so many great states at the feet
Of France. He accomplished in Germany,
what some Of the states of the American
Union are striving to effect here, namely,
the assumption of a controlling power over
the confederation Of which it was mem
ber From Austria Frederick tue Great
arrested Siiesia he pillaged Saxony, and
without a declaration of war entered the
capital Of that electorate, insulting the cleo
tors family in the palace at Dresden he
planned, through the agency of his Brother
prince Henry of Prussia, who went to ST
Petersburgh to confer with the empress Ca
Uterine on the subject, the division Of Poland
The military means by which that i'll fated
country was dismembered are well known
In addition to these ambitious and outrage.
Gus acts, Frederick compelled great mum
Ders of persons to transplant themselve,
from their native homes AID early associate