Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century

I. — Preface“... ’Tis (the present pamphlet) not fit for lawyers’ clerks, but it is highly convenient to be read by those who are proper students in the laws of nations; ‘twill be but lost time for any stock-jobbing, trifling dealer in Exchange-alley to look beyond the preface on’t, but every merchant in England (more especially those who trade to the Baltic) will find his account in it. The Dutch (as the courants and postboys have more than once told us) are about to mend their hands, if they can, in several articles of trade with the Czar, and they have been a long time about it to little purpose. In as much as they are such a frugal people, they are good examples for the imitation of our traders; but if we can outdo them for once, in the means of projecting a better and more expeditions footing to go upon, for the emolument of its both, let us, for once, be wise enough to set the example, ,-and let them, for once, be our imitators. This little treatise will show a pretty plain way how we may do it, as to our trade in the Baltic, at this juncture. I desire no little coffee-house politician to meddle with it; but to give him even a disrelish for my company. I must let him know that he is not fit for mine. Those who are even proficients in state science, will find in it matter highly fit to employ all their powers of speculation, which they ever before past negligently by, and thought (too cursorily) were not worth the regarding. No outrageous party-man will find it all for his purpose; but every honest Whig and every honest Tory may each of them read it, not only without either of their disgust, but with the satisfaction of them both .... ‘Tis not fit, in fine, for a mad, hectoring, Presbyterian Whig, or a raving, fretful, dissatisfied, Jacobite Tory.”

2. — The Reasons handed about by Mynheer Von Stocken for Delaying the Descent upon Schonen.