The New Hampshire Gazette

Some new Considerations on the War in GERMANY.

In a Nation, where almost every Man is a Politician, where even Coblers and Barbers settle the Balance between the contending Powers in Europe, with as much Facility, and in as little Time as the one repairs a broken Stitch in your Shoes, or the other takes off your Beard; permit me to give you my Sentiments on this most important Affair.

Without any farther Preface, therefore, I cannot help thinking, but that the present WAR in Germany bears great Resemblance to what the Sportsmen and Gameters term in their Language, a Battle Royal: the Nature of which is to set down a dozen or more Cocks in the Pit, where they maintain a promiscuous Random Fight, with the utmost Fury, amongst each other, 'till they are all killed but one, who wins the prize; thus Prussians, Russians, Austrians, Imperialists, Saxons, Swedes, French, English, &c. have for some years past, been cutting each others throats, with the greatest adroitness, on the grand Cockpit, or Theatre of Germany. And notwithstanding so many lives have been lost, so much blood spilt, and so much treasure expended, things seem in that part of the world, to be in the same situation as when the broils first began. In ancient times a single battle frequently determined the fate of an empire; the victory at Pharsalia made Cæsar master of the world; and the battle of Hastings fixed the crown of England on the Head of William Duke of Normandy. The case is now quite the reverse; battles innumerable are fought with various success, cannons fired, Te Deums sung, but yet these prodigious decisive Affairs have been attended with little or no consequence, scarce a single inch of ground has been won or lost, but the respective claims and disputes of the combatants are as far from being settled as ever; their rage seems insatiate; their fury unabated; and their revenge immortal; and nothing but downright inability, or absolute conquest, will induce them to lay aside their animosity, and put a stop to the bloody work of death and destruction; besides, WAR is become a mere trade; a General loses several thousand men in a campaign, pockets his pay with all the coolness imaginable, and then is ready the ensuing spring, for another contest with the enemy. In my opinion, had their neighbours remained still and neuter, the Germans would have been quiet long ago: supplying them with men and money was only adding fuel to fire; these meddlers had better have minded their own affairs, than busily to have interfered in unnecessary wars, which must end, in the long run, in the destruction of all; at least it will be the work of an age to repair the devastations ambition has made in the dominions of the contending parties. I conclude with the words of the poet:

Thus when a Barber and a Collier fight,
The Barber beats the luckless Collier white;
The lusty Collier heaves his pond'rous sack,
And, big with vengeance, beats the Barber black:
In comes the Brickdust man, with grime o'er spread,
And beats the Barber and the Collier red:
Black, red, and white, in various clouds were tost,
Till, in the dust they rais'd, the combatants were lost.