“I have received your very agreeable letter, and I rejoice at your good establishment, in which, I assure you, I am deeply interested. I beg of you to assure the Duke of Zell and the Elector that I shall continue all my lifetime in the same sentiments of respect and attachment for their family. I am too old to change, and too deeply impressed with the sentiments of the late King, my master, ever to deviate from them. Besides, I love my religion and hate slavery. I hope my son, who is on his return from Italy, will have the honour of making his court at Hanover, and of being received as the son of a faithful servant to the family. But he must not stay long, for in order to be serviceable I must avoid to be suspected of being too much attached to the family; and for this reason I must desire you to write me under Mr. Schutz’s cover, and to make use of his cypher.”
Sir George Murray correctly says that Robcthon “was busily employed in keeping up a friendly correspondence with the leading English statesmen, with the view of making the Hanoverian succession more sure.” Macpherson says — “Robethon wrote all the letters which the two Georges and the Princess Caroline, consort of the second, sent to England from the time he entered into their service until the family became our royal family. The first rough drafts of them are still extant in his handwriting, and all the originals that may be in the possession of persons in this and other countries are but copies made from what Robethon wrote for them.”
The following important letter was sent from Whitehall, April 5, 1706.
“To Monsieur Robethon.
“Although it is a long time since you heard from me, you must not believe that it proceeds from a forgetfulness of what I owe to my old friends. With regard to what concerns the service of the family I am sure the Elector does me justice. . . . Yesterday the Queen summoned a chapter of the knights of the order [of the Garter], in which the Electoral Prince was chosen. I entreat you to believe that I am always very truly, &c.,
“Portland.”
This proceeding led to Robethon’s introduction to the great Addison, who, with Monsieur Falaiseau, accompanied Lord Halifax to invest the Elector with the insignia of the order. Halifax wrote from the Hague, May 7, “I am overjoyed that I shall have again the honour to renew our acquaintance; you needed no recommendation; I put an entire confidence in Monsieur Robethon.” After this visit, there were letters regarding the Elector’s enrolment in the English peerage as Duke of Cambridge. Lord Halifax writes —
“I think now we may be all allowed to boast that nothing was ever better pushed than the establishment of our succession here, since we had a Parliament to promote it. And if you can but take care to hinder your northern hero from breaking our measures, we will make France own both the Electorate and the succession of the House of Hanover.”
In the autumn of 1707, Robethon replied to a letter he had received from the Earl of Manchester.
“Hanover, Aug. 15. — My Lord, I have received the letter of the 18th Jul)-, which your Excellency has honoured me with. I should have had great pleasure to correspond with your Excellency if I had followed the Elector to the army, whence I might have sent you things worth your curiosity. But as I am not named to go there, I have asked leave to take a journey during that time about my domestic affairs, so that it would be useless to write to me. His Electoral Highness will set out in fifteen days to command the army on the Upper Rhine. The success at Naples has been as quick as complete; and I find the affairs of the allies in a good condition, except the umbrage which the King of Sweden continues to give. He remains in Saxony, whence he has caused four regiments of horse to enter into Silesia, and by the manner in which they negotiate with Count Wratislaw at Leipsig, we cannot be sure of an accommodation. — I am, &c.,
“De Robethon.”
The two following extracts from letters to Robethon are selected from a mass:—
“Whitehall, Sept. 30, 1707. — Sir, I have been long in the country this summer for my health, which hindered me from thanking you sooner for the honour of your letter which I received some time ago; but I could not prevail with myself not to take this opportunity of congratulating you on his Electoral Highness’s successful beginning on the Rhine. . . . If you will honour me from time to time with your correspondence, you will do me a very great pleasure. I hope you do me the justice to believe that I am with great esteem, &c,
“Sunderland.”
"April 26, 1709. — Sir, I am very glad I can congratulate you on a new mark of favour which His Electoral Highness has paid to your great merit. . . . I shall be highly obliged to you to recommend my services to his Electoral Highness, and to let me hear sometimes from you. — I am, &c,
““Halifax.”
The honour which Robethon received was the post of Privy Councillor of
