George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

‘England will make the sacrifice of thirty-six million crowns for one campaign.’² ‘True, her ministry can find thirty-six millions more easily than I a single florin.’³ ‘But the largest sums will not be sufficient to procure the sailors and recruits she needs; the storm which is forming between the courts of England and France will burst forth’⁴ ‘not later than the next spring.’⁵ ‘And a glance at the situation shows that, if she continues to employ the same generals, four campaigns will hardly be enough to subjugate her colonies.’⁶ ‘All good judges agree with me that, if the colonies remain united, the mother country will never subjugate them.’⁷

In the interim, Frederic wished the ministry to know that he had refused to the American emissaries the use of Embden as a base for troubling British navigation. ‘You have only to declare to the British government,’ so he instructed his envoy in London, ‘that my marine is nothing but a mercantile marine, of which I know the limits too well to go beyond them.’⁸ ‘If the colonies shall sustain their independence, a direct commerce with them will follow, of course.’⁹

Having taken his position towards England, he proceeded to gain the aid of France as well as of Russia against the annexation of Bavaria to the Austrian