The Virginia Gazette

The reasons which induced the King of Prussia to take the Jesuits under his protection seem to have taken their rise from a principle of gratitude; for we are told that the measure of the Empress of Germany signing the treaty for the partition of Poland was entirely owing to the Jesuits. The Empress, it seems, had her doubts about the justice and equity of such an act. She had more than once positively and solemnly declared that she would never consent to it. His Prussian Majesty knowing her weak side, and the influence her confessor had over her, applied to the Jesuits, and promised them his protection, and the protection of the Emperor, if they would conquer her scruples. The good fathers, desirous of securing themselves an asylum from the impending storm, accepted the offer, and succeeded in their mission.