Nor was Frederic's own opinion very different.He anticipated nothing short of his own ruin, and of the ruin of his family.Yet there was still a chance, a slender chance, of escape.His states had at least the advantage of a central position; his enemies were widely separated from each other, and could not conveniently unite their overwhelming forces on one point.They inhabited different climates, and it was probable that the season of the year which would be best suited to the military operations of one portion of the League, would be unfavourable to those of another portion.The Prussian monarchy, too, was free from some infirmities which were found in empires far more extensive and magnificent.Its effective strength for a desperate struggle was not to be measured merely by the number of square miles or the number of people.In that spare but well-knit and well-exercised body, there was nothing but sinew, and muscle and bone.No public creditors looked for dividends.No distant colonies required defence.No Court, filled with flatterers and mistresses, devoured the pay of fifty battalions.The Prussian army, though far inferior in number to the troops which were about to be opposed to it, was yet strong out of all proportion to the extent of the Prussian dominions.It was also admirably trained and admirably officered, accustomed to obey and accustomed to conquer.The revenue was not only unincumbered by debt, but exceeded the ordinary outlay in time of peace.Alone of all the European princes, Frederic had a treasure laid up for a day of difficulty.Above all, he was one, and his enemies were many.In their camps would certainly be found the jealousy, the dissension, the slackness inseparable from coalitions; on his side was the energy, the unity, the secrecy of a strong dictatorship.To a certain extent the deficiency of military means might be supplied by the resources of military art.Small as the King's army was, when compared with the six hundred thousand men whom the confederates could bring into the field, celerity of movement might in some degree compensate for deficiency of bulk.It was thus just possible that genius, judgment, resolution, and good luck united, might protract the struggle during a campaign or two; and to gain even a month was of importance.It could not be long before the vices which are found in all extensive confederacies would begin to show themselves.Every member of the League would think his own share of the war too large, and his own share of the spoils too small.
Complaints and recriminations would abound.The Turk might stir on the Danube; the statesmen of France might discover the error which they had committed in abandoning the fundamental principles of their national policy.Above all, death might rid Prussia of its most formidable enemies.The war was the effect of the personal aversion with which three or four sovereigns regarded Frederic; and the decease of any one of those sovereigns might produce a complete revolution in the state of Europe.
In the midst of a horizon generally dark and stormy, Frederic could discern one bright spot.The peace which had been concluded between England and France in 1748, had been in Europe no more than an armistice; and had not even been an armistice in the other quarters of the globe.In India the sovereignty of the Carnatic was disputed between two great Mussulman houses; Fort Saint George had taken one side, Pondicherry the other; and in a series of battles and sieges the troops of Lawrence and Clive had been opposed to those of Dupleix.A struggle less important in its consequences, but not less likely to produce irritation, was carried on between those French and English adventurers, who kidnapped negroes and collected gold dust on the coast of Guinea.
But it was in North America that the emulation and mutual aversion of the two nations were most conspicuous.The French attempted to hem in the English colonists by a chain of military posts, extending from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi.The English took arms.The wild aboriginal tribes appeared on each side mingled with the Pale-Faces.Battles were fought; forts were stormed; and hideous stories about stakes, scalpings, and death-songs reached Europe, and inflamed that national animosity which the rivalry of ages had produced.The disputes between France and England came to a crisis at the very time when the tempest which had been gathering was about to burst on Prussia.The tastes and interests of Frederic would have led him, if he had been allowed an option, to side with the House of Bourbon.But the folly of the Court of Versailles left him no choice.France became the tool of Austria; and Frederic was forced to become the ally of England.He could not, indeed, expect that a power which covered the sea with its fleets, and which had to make war at once on the Ohio and the Ganges, would be able to spare a large number of troops for operations in Germany.But England, though poor compared with the England of our time, was far richer than any country on the Continent.The amount of her revenue, and the resources which she found in her credit, though they may be thought small by a generation which has seen her raise a hundred and thirty millions in a single year, appeared miraculous to the politicians of that age.A very moderate portion of her wealth, expended by an able and economical prince, in a country where prices were low, would be sufficient to equip and maintain a formidable army.