praise for consummate skill; he claims for him political judgement almost unique. Frederick began the war on his own account against Austria, and without the help of France. Soon he was in active alliance with the French, but as early as 1742 he came to terms with Austria, and left France fighting. Two years later he resumed the struggle, was again allied to France, and again, after only sixteen months, abandoned her; and his Christmas letter of 1745 to Louis we have already produced. The interests of Frederick did not coincide with those of France; he was not a champion, accredited and self-sacrificing, of the interests of France, of the Westphalian rôle and historic mission of France. He had no desire to witness the aggrandizement of France at the cost of the annihilation of the monarchy of Austria. Therefore, it is contended, to understand him is to admire him. 'The art, till then unknown in Europe, of concluding alliances without committing one's self, of remaining unfettered while apparently bound, of seceding when the proper moment is arrived, can be learnt from him and only from him.' Intrepidity in conduct, freedom characterizing every movement, a straightforwardness which was not, however, unaccompanied by cunning—in a word, superiority over his contemporaries: these are claimed for Frederick, and deduced from his conduct as an ally. 'The immutable truth, that independence of character is of more value in negotiation than brilliant talents, and rises in importance proportionately to the eminence of the station in which the possessor is placed, no one has more strikingly attested by his own example than Frederic at that period,'[1]
The apologist of Frederick well knew the fortitude displayed, in the course of the Seven Years' War, by Prussians and preeminently by the Prussian King—a 'truly great King', his
- ↑ Heeren, op. cit., 316–17.
