[History of Friedrich II. of Prussia Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) by Thomas Carlyle]@TWC D-Link bookHistory of Friedrich II. of Prussia Vol. XXI. (of XXI.) CHAPTER VIII 4/82
As to Joseph, he was busy night and day,--really perilous to Friedrich and the independence of the German Reich.
His young Brother, Maximilian, he contrives, Czarina helping, to get elected Co-adjutor of Koln; Successor of our Lanky Friend there, to be Kur-Koln in due season, and make the Electorate of Koln a bit of Austria henceforth.
[Lengthy and minute account of that Transaction, in all the steps of it, in DOHM, i. 295-39.] Then there came "PANIS-BRIEFE," [PANIS (Bread) BRIEF is a Letter with which, in ancient centuries, the Kaiser used to furnish an old worn-out Servant, addressed to some Monastery, some Abbot or Prior in easy circumstances: "Be so good as provide this old Gentleman with Panis (Bread, or Board and Lodging) while he lives." Very pretty in Barbarossa's time;--but now--!]--who knows what ?--usurpations, graspings and pretensions without end:--finally, an open pretension to incorporate Bavaria, after all.
Bavaria, not in part now, but in whole: "You, Karl Theodor, injured man, cannot we give you Territory in the Netherlands; a King there you shall be, and have your vote as Kur-Pfalz still; only think! In return for which, Bavaria ours in fee-simple, and so finish that ?" Karl Theodor is perfectly willing,--only perhaps some others are not.
Then and there, these threatening complexities, now gone like a dream of the night, were really life-perils for the Kingdom of Prussia; never to be lost sight of by a veteran Shepherd of the People.
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