The Virginia Gazette

SPECULATIONS upon the new State of COURT POLITICKS in EUROPE.

A total Change in the present political System, upon the Death of the French Monarch, is now most likely to take Place. Lewis XV. esteemed himself to have run through his Career of Glory and Disgrace; and if at least he was not satisfied, he was resolved to pass the Remainder of his Days without more Indulgence to the restless Spirit of Ambition. Of late, he has had no Passion but for Women. Business was ever unpleasant to him, he abandoned all Concerns, foreign and domestick, to his intriguing Courtiers; and they took Care, in Return, to pander to his Debaucheries. To the late pacifick Disposition of this Monarch, more than to the Firmness of our own, we were obliged for the desisting Measures of the Court of Spain; if, after the Insults which we received, such Desistance can be called an Obligation. Lewis's Ministers hung together, and supported themselves only by the personal Countenance of their Master. They have always been odious to the Nation. The Violence which the Chancellor has done to their Parliamentary Constitution will never be forgot, nor be forgiven. The Duke D'Aiguillon, first responsible Minister, has more than one Account to render up. The Condemnation which he received for his cruel Oppressions, during his Command and sham Campaigns in Brittany, and which were never at an End but by an Act of Violence, will not now fail to be revived. The whole Peerage of the Kingdom, the whole Blood of the Crown, which in France is branched out into many Families of great Importance, will seize the Moment that is offered them to raise their fallen Consequence; nor will they fail, through the Persons of the Chancellor and this Minister, to avenge themselves of their Betrayers and Insulters. A Monarch, who at least hath Youth to inspire him, now rises to the Succession. His Understanding is said to be moderate, but his Ambition need not be the more so. His Queen will supply him with Vivacity, and the Courts of France are ever apt to take their Tone from a female Leader. The Emperor of Germany will not the less pay his intended Visit to Versailles, because his Sister is in the reigning Confort. No Sacrifices will be necessary to obtain the Concurrence of the new French Monarch with the German's ambitious Project. France will, by female Arts, be soothed into a Contentment with its present Frontiers; but the Emperor will never be contented till he has recovered for his Mother and himself the ancient hereditary Dominions of his Family, wrested from them by the philosophick Tyrant of the North. That Wound lies cankering in his Breast. His real Character is but little known. At first, he passed for a Youth of no mean Parts, generous, truly manly Dispositions; he seemed indeed to be deeply wrapped within the Veil of Superstition, which was indulged to him, as a Family Ruling. On this Side all is Hypocrisy, and some few have been able to penetrate the Disguise. The Empress Mother gives a Necessity to his sanctified Appearance, but in the End the youthful Caesar will be found a Prussian Monarch all over. A Similarity of Genius produced the Intimacy which subsisted between them, not that any Friendship was capable of subsisting there. The elder of the two knew the Extent of his own Cunning; he inspected, but he feared not to be over-reached. The younger flattered himself a Scholar in the Frederician School; his Prudence and his Modesty were certain, for a While, to restrain him within the Bounds of a submissive Discretion. If Death has loosed the Bands, what now will keep idle all those innumerable and highly disciplined Forces of the Empire? Prussia will be left to stand alone, without a Friend or an Ally. Its own Subjects knew no other Measure of their Obedience than a personal Awe of a Sovereign, who now is thought only to be tremendous among the Dead. The Forces that it maintains will be the infallible Source of present Tumults. Commotions are therefore certain in the North, nor will the Flower of France be left embodied only amid their idle Towns. All Monarchs are fond, one Day or other, trying their Fortune in the Field. Spain is too indignant, for what is past, not to rise upon every Opportunity that will be offered them. Strange indeed must be the Upshot of Things, if George III. can still enjoy his favoured Tranquillity, and still be able to support, even in the boastful Idea of his own Opinion, the imagined Dignity of his Crown.